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DAB digital radio PCI card
- EPG Information and Interface
- Where to buy a Modular Technology DAB PCI card
 
- Automatic service and programme seeking
- High quality distortion free reception
- Text displayed with programmes
- Recording at the click of a mouse
DAB digital radio is broadcast on terrestrial networks and received by DAB radio sets using a small non-directional stub aerial. Eliminating interference and signal distortion, it provides excellent reception.
The Modular Technology DAB digital radio card fits into a PCI slot in a PC's mother board, the supplied driver works with Windows-98, Me, 2000 & XP
The user interface provides full programme information on screen, displays text associated with programmes, allows recording at the click of a mouse, and gives users the ability to schedule recordings ahead of time from programme lists. Recordings can be stored as MPEG-2 files, or in MP3 format for high quality sound downloads to MP3 players.
Apart from just listening to the radio, here are some things you can do with the Modular Technology DAB PCI card…
- Look at the schedule for every BBC station for the week ahead and select any programmes to be recorded.
- E-mail a programme presenter at the click of a mouse.
- Download recorded programmes to most portable MP3 players for 'listening on the move'.
- Easily link to the web site of the station you're listening to.
- Show all radio stations broadcasting a particular genre e.g. Sport, News etc.
- Playback high quality recordings made on the PC.
- Listen to Radio 5 and Virgin Radio (amongst others) in near CD-quality stereo.
- Gain access to at least 18 radio stations, many of them exclusive to Digital. Inside the M25, there are currently 39 stations to choose from.
- Set your PC's clock from the accurate signal broadcast as part of the DAB transmission.
An Introduction to Digital Radio
Traditional Radio (AM or FM) uses a method of encoding (or modulating) the broadcast signal on an analogue carrier signal. When you tune an AM/FM radio to the ‘carrier’ for the required station, then the analogue carrier is de-modulated and you can hear the music or speech that was originally broadcast.
This analogue technique served listeners well through most of the 20th century and the technology to decode the signals was available at low cost.
However with the advent of new digital encoding methods in recent years, a path has opened up to improve the listening quality and the quantity of radio broadcasts.
The rationale goes something like this...
With computer-type technology, a broadcast can be made much more ‘compact’ so that many more channels can be carried in the same ‘radio space’ compared with traditional AM/FM broadcasts. This reduction in the ‘size’ of the broadcast is achieved by using a computer technique to ‘compress’ the audio signal after it has been converted to digital form, this compression is done by removing ‘spare’ or ‘surplus’ codes in the digital signal.
What's more, the quality of the compressed signal will be better and less prone to interference than even FM broadcasts.
This technique is similar that used in Digital Television (both satellite and terrestrial) and is an ‘MPEG’ derivative
The technology for decoding Digital radio has been reducing in price recently, this reduction has come about because many of the decoding functions can now be handled by a small number of Integrated Circuits (chips). To the user, this is now resulting in lower costs of receivers .
Digital Radio (often referred to as DAB or Digital Audio Broadcast) has been broadcast since about 1998.
DAB stations are broadcast in groups of up to 10 stations, this group is known as a multiplex. A multiplex can either be broadcast nationally from several transmitters, or can be broadcast only in one region for local stations.
Take the UK for example, there are two ‘multiplexes’ which are broadcast nationally – one is from the BBC and the other is a group called Digital-One. The BBC multiplex carries the familiar Radio 1,2..etc as well as the World Service and 6Music. Digital-One includes Classic FM, Virgin radio, Talk Sport and many others. In addition to the two national multiplexes, many regions have one or more local multiplexes. In London for example, there are a total of four multiplexes offering just under 40 stations to choose from. As an example in Canada, five multiplexes are broadcast in Toronto, offering a total of 24 stations.
DAB often carries stations which are otherwise only available on AM – in these cases the improvement in sound quality is astounding. In other cases, DAB carries stations which only available on DAB.
DAB is received through an antenna, it needs no connection to the internet.
DAB is FREE just like AM/FM radio– there are no subscriptions or sign-ups
DAB content (music speech etc) is usually augmented by the broadcaster to include text information. This allows a receiver for example to display the current track and artists’ name, or the presenter’s e-mail address etc.
Minimum PC specification
Pentium-200MMX, 64Mb RAM, Spare PCI slot, antenna connection
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