Archives by Tag 'Digital Audio Broadcasting'

The Truth About DAB Digital Radio

The most annoying aspect of analogue radio is poor reception and hissing. There’s nothing worse than having to continually adjust the tuning knob to get the reception just right. So does digital really solve this problem? Well, in a word, yes, digital sound quality is generally much better than analogue, but just how good is it. A lot has been made of DAB digital radio having CD quality sound, but is this really true. Potentially yes, but this is a choice of the broadcasting station. The station can choose the quality at which it wishes to broadcast its signal. Talk shows for example are generally broadcast at a lower bandwidth than music stations.

With digital radio, there is no need to remember awkward frequencies of your favourite station. DAB radios search for and make a list of all available stations and almost all systems will store this list to memory. Station selection then becomes nothing more than a simple flick of a switch. The old hassle of searching for a station and finding nothing more than an annoying hissing sound is truly a thing of the past. A good radio will organize your stations by category making them easy to find and access.

Since their introduction some years ago, DAB digital radios have matured a great deal and competition between manufacturers has led to more feature rich systems. New models come with programme guides that allow you to record your favourite programmes and listen when it suites you. Digital displays even display live programme information such as current track, station name, programme host etc. The possibilities really are endless.

A feature you could only dream off with analogue radio; some DAB devices even allow you to pause and rewind live radio so you won’t miss a thing. Yet all this is just the beginning, DAB digital radio is the future and it will be with us for a very long time to come. We can only imagine what the future holds for DAB digital radio but there is one thing for sure, its future is bright and exciting.