Digital Audio Broadcasting - DAB and FM/AM Compared

DAB and FM/AM Compared

Traditionally radio programmes were broadcast on different frequencies via FM and AM, and the radio had to be tuned into each frequency, as needed. This used up a comparatively large amount of spectrum for a relatively small number of stations, limiting listening choice. DAB is a digital radio broadcasting system that through the application of multiplexing and compression combines multiple audio streams onto a relatively narrow band centred on a single broadcast frequency called a DAB ensemble.

Within an overall target bit rate for the DAB ensemble, individual stations can be allocated different bit rates. The number of channels within a DAB ensemble can be increased by lowering average bit rates, but at the expense of the quality of streams. Error correction under the DAB standard makes the signal more robust but reduces the total bit rate available for streams.

Read more about this topic:  Digital Audio Broadcasting

Famous quotes containing the words dab and/or compared:

    Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.
    Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)

    What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses?
    John Ruskin (1819–1900)