Strands #248 “Strumming Right...
Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
AM and FM v Didgital
6 Answers
can anyone confirm that when didgital Tv and radio go live in 2012 all am and fm radios will not work.if this is true what about car radios? You know car manufacturers are still fitting am and fm radios in cars.Like a mercedes costing a lot of money.will have to have the radio replaced in 2 years time costing a fortune.most car radios are built into the dash system and will cast us all a small fortune to have them changed.any comments anyone.
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The introduction of digital radio services is completely separate to digital TV. When the last few analogue TV transmitters are switched off in 2012 there will be no changes to existing radio services.
The Digital Radio Working Group (which was set up by the Government to study the future of broadcast radio services within the UK) produced an interim report last year, which suggested a migration to digital radio services between 2015 and 2020. (Somewhat irresponsibly, the Government's own January 2009 document "Digital Britain", which examined everything from radio to online services and mobile phones, only referred to 2015 as a possible migration date. That's resulted in a great deal of alarmist media coverage).
The Digital Radio Working Group's interim report considered the problems of car radios. In addition to those problems referred to in your post, there's an additional complication. The companies which manufacture radios (and cars) won't want to produce models solely for the UK market. While the UK has adopted 'DAB' as its broadcast standard, most other European countries have waited until the newer (and better) 'DAB+' technology has become available. If car radios are only made for DAB+, the UK will have to change its existing digital broadcasting system. That would make all current DAB radios (as well as AM/FM ones) redundant!
In practice you probably don't need to worry for ages yet. The UK Government signed a Europe-wide agreement to fully convert to digital TV (with all analogue transmitters switched off) by 2001 at the very latest. So the TV switchover is actually at least 11 years later than originally planned! It's likely that the radio switchover will suffer similar, if not much longer, delays.
Chris
The Digital Radio Working Group (which was set up by the Government to study the future of broadcast radio services within the UK) produced an interim report last year, which suggested a migration to digital radio services between 2015 and 2020. (Somewhat irresponsibly, the Government's own January 2009 document "Digital Britain", which examined everything from radio to online services and mobile phones, only referred to 2015 as a possible migration date. That's resulted in a great deal of alarmist media coverage).
The Digital Radio Working Group's interim report considered the problems of car radios. In addition to those problems referred to in your post, there's an additional complication. The companies which manufacture radios (and cars) won't want to produce models solely for the UK market. While the UK has adopted 'DAB' as its broadcast standard, most other European countries have waited until the newer (and better) 'DAB+' technology has become available. If car radios are only made for DAB+, the UK will have to change its existing digital broadcasting system. That would make all current DAB radios (as well as AM/FM ones) redundant!
In practice you probably don't need to worry for ages yet. The UK Government signed a Europe-wide agreement to fully convert to digital TV (with all analogue transmitters switched off) by 2001 at the very latest. So the TV switchover is actually at least 11 years later than originally planned! It's likely that the radio switchover will suffer similar, if not much longer, delays.
Chris
PS: If you've got an FM radio in your car, and you want DAB right now, this solution has been widely praised by the technical press:
http://www.pure.com/products/product.asp?Produ ct=VL-60905
(Around �65 in shops, slightly cheaper from some online sources).
Chris
http://www.pure.com/products/product.asp?Produ ct=VL-60905
(Around �65 in shops, slightly cheaper from some online sources).
Chris
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