Radio Sector > DRB

Digital Radio Broadcasting


Digital radio is a revolutionary audio broadcasting technology, which dramatically improves sound quality, and signal reliability and will enable listeners to receive a host of new services through their radios, including text, images and other multimedia material.

Digital radio transmits music and voice using computer-like data bits that permit sound quality almost identical to compact discs. DRB services are provided using over-the-air transmitters, similar to those used by AM and FM broadcasting stations.  However, to receive these new digital signals, each listener must acquire a new receiver designed specifically for the type of DRB and frequency band(s) being employed.

Three basic types of DRB have been implemented by radio broadcasters around the world.

• "New-band" DRB operates in frequency bands that have been specifically allocated by governments solely for digital broadcasting. Examples include the 40 MHz of "L-Band" spectrum (1452-1492 MHz), which was made available in a large part of the world via an international agreement signed in 1992. Some countries, notably a number of European and Asian nations as well as Australia, also provide a limited number of "Band III" DRB frequencies in very high frequency (VHF) spectrum located immediately adjacent to their TV bands. Band III spectrum is not generally available for DRB use in the Americas since it is already being used by other radiocommunication services. Other than Japan, most countries implementing new-band DRB technologies employ the open-source Eureka-147 family of digital transmission standards.
  
  
• "In-band" DRB superimposes low-level digital signals within the same channels currently used by radio broadcasters for AM (525-1705 kHz) and FM (88-108 MHz) broadcasting services. Power levels are kept low to ensure that interference does not occur to and from the existing AM/FM services. This method of DRB is primarily used in the USA and employs a proprietary transmission standard known as HD Radio^TM.
  
  
• DRB is also supplanting traditional amplitude modulation (AM) radio broadcasting facilities in the short-wave bands (3-30 MHz). Most short-wave stations switching to DRB employ an open-source transmission standard known as Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

Click here to learn more about digital radio and how it is being implemented in Canada.