Digital Car Radio – Closer Than We All Realise

For the majority of the UK, Digital media is slowly being implemented in the form of TV. The government are turning off the analogue broadcast in favour of digital services such as Freeview or Sky. The government have now drawn up plans to do exactly the same for radio, favouring DAB over the current FM wavelength.

DAB has been in the public eye for along time now. The first systems were being advertised as far back as the mid 90’s however the technology has progressed massively over the last 5years with more people taking the service up. A lot of homes now have DAB in one form or another, whether its a separate receiver or through a digital TV service. Now things are moving on the mobile front and Digital radio is becoming more and more present in the automotive industry.

I have a lot of people asking me when buying a new stereo whether they should look for DAB solutions. My response was always the same, ‘When manufacturers offer it as standard then we know that the change over will be immanent’. Well the time has come, manufacturers are lining up DAB solutions straight from the factory for release now. So what are the key things that you need to know about DAB?

The time-scale that the government has put in place predicts that the switch-over will happen sometime around 2015. This may seem like along way off right now but that is a rough time frame, if the uptake is better than predicted we may be forced to upgrade sooner. The switch-over will happen when 50% of vehicles in the UK are able to receive the signal and when the signal covers more than 98% of the country. These figures may seem high however they are well on track to being achieved.

DAB offers a huge range of stations which FM cannot cope with. It allows fantastic audio quality when compared to the analogue broadcast as well as a more consistent stream. No longer will you have to listen to the crackling and hissing as the station drops in and out.

There are going to be a range of choices when it comes to getting yourself ready for the digital switch-over. Which of the solutions you choose will depend on your vehicle and your budget. They range from simply swapping your factory head unit for a DAB car stereo to a fully integrated solution with the factory spec unit. Look out for my next blog when I will be running through each of the options.