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Digital Audio Broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital radio standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services in many countries around the world, defined, supported, marketed and promoted by the WorldDAB organization. The standard is dominant in Europe and is also used in Australia, and in parts of Africa and as of 2025, 55 countries are actively running DAB broadcasts as an alternative platform to analogue FM.
DAB was the result of a European research project and first publicly rolled out in 1995, with consumer-grade DAB receivers appearing at the start of this millennium. Initially it was expected in many countries that existing FM services would switch over to DAB, although the take-up of DAB has been much slower than expected. In 2023, Norway became the first country to have implemented a national FM radio switch-off, with Switzerland to follow in 2026 and others territories in the process of planning a switch-off. Terrestrial digital radio has become a requirement for all new cars (not buses and trucks) sold in the EU since 2021.
The original version of DAB used the MP2 audio codec; an upgraded version of the system was later developed and released named DAB+ which uses the HE-AAC v2 (AAC+) audio codec and is more robust and efficient. DAB is not forward compatible with DAB+. Today the majority of DAB broadcasts around the world are using the upgraded DAB+ standard, with only the UK still using a significant number of legacy DAB broadcasts.
DAB is generally more efficient in its use of spectrum than analogue FM radio, and thus can offer more radio services for the same given bandwidth. The broadcaster can select any desired sound quality, from high-fidelity signals for music to low-fidelity signals for talk radio, in which case the sound quality can be noticeably inferior to analog FM. High-fidelity equates to a high bit rate and higher transmission cost. DAB is more robust with regard to noise and multipath fading for mobile listening, although DAB reception quality degrades rapidly when the signal strength falls below a critical threshold (as is normal for digital broadcasts), whereas FM reception quality degrades slowly with the decreasing signal, providing more effective coverage over a larger area.[citation needed] DAB+ is a "green" platform and can bring up to 85 percent energy consumption savings compared to FM broadcasting (but analog tuners are more efficient than digital ones, and DRM+ has been recommended for small scale transmissions).
Similar terrestrial digital radio standards are HD Radio, ISDB-Tb, DRM, and the related DMB. Also 5G Broadcast is developing globally for radio and television broadcasting. This system will for the first time enable digital terrestrial radio reception also in smartphones.
The DAB standard was initiated as a European research project. It began in the 1980s with the collaboration of the West German Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) in and the French Centre commun d'études de télévision et télécommunications (CCETT). The consortium formed in 1986 and numerous other European broadcasting organisations such as the BBC had also joined. It eventually became a project of Eureka and was named the Eureka-147 DAB Project in 1987, with the stated goal of developing a system that “would produce improved reception compared to FM…and with the potential to offer additional services such as text and other data, conditional access, enhanced traffic services, and picture transmission”. Efficient bandwidth, low transmitting power, good reception in cars and audio quality comparable to CD, were some of the other goals.
The first DAB demonstrations were held in 1988 in Geneva during WARC-88 conference, after which numerous other trials took place throughout several other countries in Europe. There was also a demonstration at the 1991 NAB Show in the USA. The MPEG-1 Audio Layer II ("MP2") codec was created as part of this project. DAB was the first standard based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technique, which since then has become one of the most popular transmission schemes for modern wideband digital communication systems.
A choice of audio codec, modulation and error-correction coding schemes and first trial broadcasts were made in 1990. A significant decision was the assigning of frequencies on the radio spectrum, as it was decided to operate the system on different bands (Band I, Band III and L Band) compared to those used on FM and AM. The protocol specification was finalized in 1992 or 1993 and adopted by the ITU-R standardization body in 1994, the European community in 1995 and by ETSI in 1997. The European DAB Forum (now WorldDAB) was formed in 1995, and the Eureka-147 project itself had "ended" and merged into WorldDAB in 1999.
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Digital Audio Broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital radio standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services in many countries around the world, defined, supported, marketed and promoted by the WorldDAB organization. The standard is dominant in Europe and is also used in Australia, and in parts of Africa and as of 2025, 55 countries are actively running DAB broadcasts as an alternative platform to analogue FM.
DAB was the result of a European research project and first publicly rolled out in 1995, with consumer-grade DAB receivers appearing at the start of this millennium. Initially it was expected in many countries that existing FM services would switch over to DAB, although the take-up of DAB has been much slower than expected. In 2023, Norway became the first country to have implemented a national FM radio switch-off, with Switzerland to follow in 2026 and others territories in the process of planning a switch-off. Terrestrial digital radio has become a requirement for all new cars (not buses and trucks) sold in the EU since 2021.
The original version of DAB used the MP2 audio codec; an upgraded version of the system was later developed and released named DAB+ which uses the HE-AAC v2 (AAC+) audio codec and is more robust and efficient. DAB is not forward compatible with DAB+. Today the majority of DAB broadcasts around the world are using the upgraded DAB+ standard, with only the UK still using a significant number of legacy DAB broadcasts.
DAB is generally more efficient in its use of spectrum than analogue FM radio, and thus can offer more radio services for the same given bandwidth. The broadcaster can select any desired sound quality, from high-fidelity signals for music to low-fidelity signals for talk radio, in which case the sound quality can be noticeably inferior to analog FM. High-fidelity equates to a high bit rate and higher transmission cost. DAB is more robust with regard to noise and multipath fading for mobile listening, although DAB reception quality degrades rapidly when the signal strength falls below a critical threshold (as is normal for digital broadcasts), whereas FM reception quality degrades slowly with the decreasing signal, providing more effective coverage over a larger area.[citation needed] DAB+ is a "green" platform and can bring up to 85 percent energy consumption savings compared to FM broadcasting (but analog tuners are more efficient than digital ones, and DRM+ has been recommended for small scale transmissions).
Similar terrestrial digital radio standards are HD Radio, ISDB-Tb, DRM, and the related DMB. Also 5G Broadcast is developing globally for radio and television broadcasting. This system will for the first time enable digital terrestrial radio reception also in smartphones.
The DAB standard was initiated as a European research project. It began in the 1980s with the collaboration of the West German Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) in and the French Centre commun d'études de télévision et télécommunications (CCETT). The consortium formed in 1986 and numerous other European broadcasting organisations such as the BBC had also joined. It eventually became a project of Eureka and was named the Eureka-147 DAB Project in 1987, with the stated goal of developing a system that “would produce improved reception compared to FM…and with the potential to offer additional services such as text and other data, conditional access, enhanced traffic services, and picture transmission”. Efficient bandwidth, low transmitting power, good reception in cars and audio quality comparable to CD, were some of the other goals.
The first DAB demonstrations were held in 1988 in Geneva during WARC-88 conference, after which numerous other trials took place throughout several other countries in Europe. There was also a demonstration at the 1991 NAB Show in the USA. The MPEG-1 Audio Layer II ("MP2") codec was created as part of this project. DAB was the first standard based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technique, which since then has become one of the most popular transmission schemes for modern wideband digital communication systems.
A choice of audio codec, modulation and error-correction coding schemes and first trial broadcasts were made in 1990. A significant decision was the assigning of frequencies on the radio spectrum, as it was decided to operate the system on different bands (Band I, Band III and L Band) compared to those used on FM and AM. The protocol specification was finalized in 1992 or 1993 and adopted by the ITU-R standardization body in 1994, the European community in 1995 and by ETSI in 1997. The European DAB Forum (now WorldDAB) was formed in 1995, and the Eureka-147 project itself had "ended" and merged into WorldDAB in 1999.