Frontier Silicon will introduce a unified digital radio receiver module to work with all existing Band 3 and L-Band digital radio standards for Europe and Asia. The new receiver addresses the market need for a solution that supports all Eureka-147 based standards, including DAB and DAB+ and DMB-Audio.
With more countries announcing frameworks for digital radio by the month, the new module reaches the market in time for manufacturers to realise significant economies of scale, enhanced functionality and rationalised international distribution for new and existing audio products.
Speaking at the Broadcast Asia conference in Singapore this week in the ‘Radio Renaissance’ session on 17 June, Frontier Silicon’s CEO, Anthony Sethill, will outline in his paper the reasons for bringing such a solution to market.
He comments, ‘Globally, the market has now entered a phase where flexibility is required to address the diverse standards requirements of each country ‘ for example, the UK is driven by enhanced audio content delivered through DAB, whereas rich media content based on DMB is a priority for France, and Australia requires bandwidth optimisation using DAB+. With a unified receiver solution available to enable these Eureka-147 implementations in their products, manufacturers will be strongly placed to address broadcasters’ needs in each country, regardless of any variant chosen, with a single low-cost module from Frontier Silicon.’
Commenting on interoperability, Quentin Howard, President of WorldDMB, said, ‘WorldDMB is working with the EBU, EICTA, and with the industry in Germany, France and the UK to create a consensus for standardised receivers. Frontier Silicon’s announcement of a receiver module supporting all the audio standards within Eureka 147 DAB, DAB+ and DMB is a positive step towards enabling a pan-European digital radio market.”
Frontier Silicon’s unified digital radio module will be based on the Venice 5.1 receiver unveiled earlier this year in Australia. The new module is a low cost receiver for DMB-Audio, DAB, DAB+ and FM-RDS, and is a drop-in replacement, both electrically and mechanically, for existing products designed using the company’s successful Venice 5 module range, which already provides a basis for the vast majority of digital radio products shipped in 2007 and 2008.
As with all Frontier Silicon audio modules, the unified digital radio module will include all interfaces necessary for a fully-functional product, needing only power supply, display, keypad, audio amplifier and speakers to complete a radio. It will start sampling in Q3 2008, and be available for volume production by the end of 2008.
(Source: Frontier Silicon)
on Jun 16th, 2008 at 13:53
Will it be foreal this time?
How many times have we read news like this with the promise of a superb all in one radio receiver?.
on Jun 16th, 2008 at 14:29
Same situation happened with the new multiband DRM/DAB/MW/FM/LW/SW universal receivers promised by Roberts/Morphy Richards/Technisat/Visteon/Panasonic etc, these manufacturers promised in 2005 that they would be released and even showed them at IFA2005 Berlin and they never STILL showed up in shops!
on Jun 16th, 2008 at 15:32
Why shouldn’t it be for real, all they’ve done is added DMB-audio, which is a DAB variant, for the French market to what they have available already.
Nick Piggott’s just posted an explanation of DAB, DAB+ and DMB in his blog:
http://nick.piggott.name/blog/2008/06/06/unbiased-advice-on-dmb-dab-and-dab/
on Jun 17th, 2008 at 11:41
The only DAB, FM, and AM radios on the market are car radios and certain
Hi Fi receivers. Some car radios also work with CD-R, WMA and MP3.
Which makes me wonder why a car radio can have all three (DAB, FM, AM)
transmission methods, plus CD-R, WMA, and MP3. But yet no portable
radio has these functions.
on Jun 19th, 2008 at 14:41
My guess would be that they eat up a huge amount of power that would instantly drain batteries. And why is North American digital left out?