DAB+ is now established as the core future platform for radio in Europe and Australia. DAB+ has a huge range of receivers for home and portable use with prices starting around 20 USD and now comes as standard in over 90% of new cars sold in Europe.
DAB+ is now either established or under consideration in virtually all European countries as the expansion of coverage and the number of services continues. For example, national DAB+ in France was launched in October 2021, expansion in eastern Europe in 2022 including Poland and the Czech Republic, and Switzerland is preparing to switch off FM in 2024. We are also seeing a step change in interest in Africa and Middle East with multiple new deployments being undertaken for both permanent services and technical trials and demonstrations.
Within this context the establishment of DAB+ in South East Asia is being led by activities in Thailand. The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NBTC) in conjunction with the Royal Thai Army Radio and Television have been running a high power DAB+ trial in the Thai capital of Bangkok since 2018. A second project has been established to test DAB+ in four major regional areas, Chon Buri south of Bangkok, Chiang Mai in the north, Khon Kaen in the northeast, and Song Khla in the south of Thailand. The regional trails are an extension of the Bangkok trial and focus on determining the suitable technical standard and parameters for the regional areas.
The NBTC commissioner for Radio Broadcast Air-Vice-Marshall Dr. Thanapant said: “The NBTC is now considering how to deliver state-of-the-art DAB digital broadcast radio to all of Thailand to ensure that the public can receive high quality radio with increased services. The results of the regional trial will be useful input into that process”.
The DAB+ system design was completed by the end of 2018 and the transmission sites, regional broadcasters’ input programs and the network implementation are in progress. The new transmissions include high power, 10 kW ERP, sites in Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Song Khla to provide wide area coverage. The current Bangkok ensemble is being updated with six new services from the regional areas and form a prototype example of a national ensemble.
The testing to be conducted includes comprehensive field testing to verify and update coverage field strength predictions, with particular attention being paid to the impact of building types and heights on received signal strength and quality. Indoor tests will also be undertaken in a range of in-building environments to determine the building entry loss for different types of buildings in Thailand.
The Royal Thai Army TV5 is working with a number of suppliers to test new Announcement capabilities in a newly developed home/portable receiver product. The use of the Announcement feature is increasing with the Alarm Announcement (Emergency Warning) now being mandatory for portable receivers as per ETSI Technical Specification 103 461. There is also increasing interest in other announcements e.g. in Norway Announcements are regularly delivered for Traffic and Public Transport and in Germany DAB is being be integrated into a new national warning system. In Thailand the current emphasis is on the Alarm Announcement as well as the potential to use the Announcement system for local alerts such as traffic, news and other warnings such as Air-Quality.
The testing programme will provide important feedback to the NBTC to help assess the cost benefits for DAB+ in Thailand. Currently there is significant congestion in FM broadcasting and little opportunity for new services. DAB+ offers a route to provide a state-of-the-art digital broadcasting solution with additional high quality audio services in defined interference free coverage areas.
The initial testing is expected to be complete by the end of February 2023, however the regional trial is set to run until 2024.