DAB Eureka-147: The European Vision for Digital Radio

The digitalisation of radio broadcasting has a long history and as a project has been under active consideration for at least 25 years. A number of different technical approaches to digital radio exist, the longest established of which is the so-called Eureka-147 or DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) system. This paper explores the ‘technological imaginary’ of DAB and its distinctly ‘European’ vision for new media and the future of broadcasting. It examines its origins in European R&D policy of the 1980s, and its affinity with European broadcasting practice, particularly within a public service tradition. Ironically, it was DAB’s failure to capitalise on its ‘Europeanness’ that contributed to the fragmentary support it subsequently received at a political level, compromising its subsequent implementation. From a contemporary perspective, DAB’s original mission to provide enhanced, interactive information and entertainment services through audio, text and visual content, while visionary, appears to have misread trends towards convergence and appears out of step with contemporary consumption patterns

Back to the Future: The Emergence of Contrasting European and US Approaches to Digital Radio

Digital radio has been in development for over 25 years and yet is no nearer a point of successful adoption. This paper explores the emergence of contrasting European and American approaches to digital radio. The most established of these, Eureka-147 or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), which originated in Europe, is contrasted with the so-called IBOC or /HD Radio approach, as alternative collective conceptualizations of how technology can bridge contemporary broadcasting practice to an ̳imagined‘ digital future. Drawing on the concept of ̳symptomatic technology‘ (Williams 1974), DAB‘s origins in European R&D policy of the 1980s and its affinity with established European broadcasting practice is characterised as a distinct technological vision for how the frontiers for radio broadcasting could be expanded within the European political and cultural landscape of the time. DAB‘s attempt to map a global solution for digital radio, combining satellite and terrestrial broadcast strategies, met with significant US opposition which subsequently supported the development of the alternative ̳in-band, on-channel‘ approach. While neither solution is guaranteed long term success, their importance lies in the mobilization of the relevant national and international policy frameworks for the construction of radio‘s future. Paying close attention to the discourses of technology inherent in these approaches and drawing on relevant contemporary engineering and technical descriptions, this analysis seeks to complement social shaping of technology studies (Mackay and Gillespie 1992) by focussing on the promotional efforts designed to support a particular technology‘s adoption

Developing Digital Radio for Ireland: Emerging Approaches and Strategies

Ireland’s experience of the transition from public service broadcasting to public service media has gathered pace within the last year with new legislative arrangements for media regulation, the awarding of digital terrestrial television licences and renewed attempts to introduce digital radio broadcasting on the DAB platform. The national public broadcaster, RTE, has played a central role in these developments as it attempts to manage a range of technology platforms and to provide media services for an increasingly diverse and complex market. This paper addresses the case of digital radio in Ireland and the prospects for a successful launch of DAB in 2008. Following previously stalled efforts, digital radio in Ireland is clearly entering a new phase of development: a trial digital service has been established as of 2007, a new licensing policy is in development, and a partnership of public and private broadcasters, Digital Radio Ireland, has brought together RTE and a range of leading commercial, independent radio stations, to raise the public profile of digital radio as a new service. Public awareness campaigns, buoyant sales in the consumer electronics retail sector for digital receivers, and the shutdown of the national Medium Wave broadcasting service have all served to call attention to the fact that radio is changing. But is Ireland’s digital radio initiative a case of ‘too little, too late’? The paper argues that the context for launching digital radio is very different to that of earlier attempted deployments. A diversity of digital services is now well established and is likely to have a strong bearing on adoption of DAB technologies. Unlike the early 1990s when DAB as a platform was first developed, public expectations for new digital audio services have already been extensively formed through the use of interactive websites, online radio and personalised audio services, podcasting, file sharing and portable mp3 player use. Consequently, the paper will ask if public service media provision for digital radio broadcasting can meet audience expectations and if strategies can be evolved to avoid some of the pitfalls of previous failed implementations

Baseband Transceiver Design of a High Definition Radio FM System Using Joint Theoretical Analysis and FPGA Implementation

Advances in wireless communications have enabled various technologies for wireless digital communication. In the field of digital radio broadcasting, several specifications have been proposed, such as Eureka-147 and digital radio mondiale (DRM). These systems require a new spectrum assignment, which incurs heavy cost due to the depletion of the available spectrum. Therefore, the in-band on-channel (IBOC) system has been developed to work in the same band with the conventional analog radio and to provide digital broadcasting services. This paper discusses the function and algorithm of the high definition (HD) radio frequency modulation (FM) digital radio broadcasting system. Content includes data format allocation, constellation mapping, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation of the transmitter, timing synchronization, OFDM demodulation, integer and fraction carrier frequency (integer carrier frequency offset (ICFO) and fractional CFO (FCFO)) estimation, and channel estimation of the receiver. When we implement this system to the field programmable gate array (FPGA) based on a hardware platform, both theoretical and practical aspects have been considered to accommodate the available hardware resources

The Quiet Revolution: DAB and the Switchover to Digital Radio in the United Kingdom

If the development of digital radio is a revolution in audiences¿ consumption of the medium led by relatively recent advances in distribution technology, it is a limited one. Yet, in the United Kingdom the impact of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) has far outstripped that elsewhere in the developed world. Behind dramatic recent growth in receiver sales and listening hours lie concerted public and private sector investment, massive falls in unit pricing and a broadening of choice through the provision of additional, as opposed to simulcast, services. DAB is not having an easy ride, though, and competition from other digital media as well as doubts about the technology mean the revolution could still falter, as the commercial sector in particular struggles to maintain its investment and new services close. A brief flirtation with mobile television, once promising instant returns on that investment, ended abruptly this year, but television may again come to the rescue.The coming year will be decisive in determining whether in the UK radio does indeed have its own digital switchover.; El desarrollo de la radio digital es una revolución en el consumo del medio por parte de su audiencia de resultas de avances en la tecnología distributiva, pero es muy limitada. Sin embargo en el Reino Unido el impacto del sistema DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) es el más avanzado en el mundo desarrollado. Crecimientos grandes en las ventas de receptores y en las horas de escucha, han venido de las manos de una inversión concertada de los sectores públicos y privados, reducciones en los precios de las unidades y una gran expansión en la diversidad de canales, en lugar de retransmitir simultáneamente servicios analógicos existentes. Aunque el sistema DAB tiene un futuro incierto, y la concurrencia de los otros medios digitales, con dudas sobre la tecnología, amenazan la revolución numérica, mientras el sector privado se esfuerza en mantener su inversión y se cierren nuevos canales. Un flirteo breve con la televisión móvil, que a la vez parecía ofrecer rendimientos inmediatos de esta inversión, se ha paralizado repentinamente este año, pero con todo la televisión puede ir al socorro de la radio.El año que viene será decisivo si de verdad la radio tendrá su propio revolución digital.; Irrati digitalaren garapena entzulegoak egiten duen hedabidearen kontsumoan iraultza bat da. Teknologia distributiboan egin diren aurrerapenak oso garrantzitsua izan dira, baina haien zabalkundea oso mugatua izan da, Erresuma Batuan izan ezik, non DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) sistemaren eragina munduko handiena izan den. Saldutako hargailuen kopurua eta entzuleen ordu kopuruen gorakada sektore publiko eta pribatuek adostutako inbertsioen eskutik etorri da, baina baita ere unitateen merketzeari eta kanalen ugaritzeari esker. DAB sistemak etorkizun zalantzagarri bat izan eta gainerako hedabide digitalen etorrerak iraultza numerikoa ezbaian jartzen duen arren, sektore pribatua egin dituen inbertsioak babesten saiatzen ari da. Telebista mugikorarrekin izan zen elkarlan laburra, berehalako etekinak emango zituela zirudiena, aurten bat-batean amaitu da. Datorren urtea erabakiorra izango da irratiak bere iraultza digitala edukiko duen jakiteko

Diskreta ljud: om DAB som radio

Er DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) den revolution af radiomediet som det ofte er blevet påstået? I sin analyse af DAB forholder Carin Åberg sig kritisk til den måde DAB og det europæiske forskningsprojekt i di- gital distributionsteknik EUREKA-147 har været markedsført på, bl.a. med mulighed for at selv at sammensætte sit program, forme den lyd- profil man ønsker, modtage hi-fi lyd på højde med bedste cd-kvalitet uden interferens, kombinere lyd, tekst og billeder, og at få en række nye tjenester og et nærmest ubegrænset antal kanaler. I artiklen for- søger Carin Åberg at bestemme nærmere hvori det nye ved DAB egentlig består og hun diskuterer især, hvorvidt teknologien eller de potentielle brugsværdier er drivkraften i udviklingen og hvorvidt ind- førelsen af DAB i den sidste ende kan få fatale konsekvenser for radiomediet som vi kender det i dag

Sounding the Future: Digital Radio and CD-Quality Audio

Central to the early effort to win acceptance for DAB in the early 1990s was an extensive process of promotion of the many claimed advantages of the new broadcasting technology. Digital radio broadcasting under the Eureka 147 DAB project offered many technical enhancements – more efficient use of the spectrum, improved transmission methods, and lower running costs – features that were attractive to industry professionals, broadcasting organisations, regulators and spectrum planners. But digital radio was also designed as a consumer proposition offering audiences a new and improved listening experience with ease of tuning, reliable reception, text and data services, interactive features, and significantly, ‘CD-quality’ audio. The promise of digital radio was to be ‘the sound of future’