Editing Digital Audio Broadcasting (section)

===Benefits of DAB===
====Improved features for users====
DAB devices perform band-scans over the entire frequency range, presenting all stations from a single list for the user to select from.

DAB is capable of providing metadata alongside the audio stream. Metadata allows visual information, text and graphics - such as the station name and logo, presenter, song title and album artwork - to be displayed while a station is playing. Radio stations can provide the metadata to augment the listening experience, particularly on car receivers which have large display panels.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worlddab.org/system/news/documents/000/012/819/original/WorldDAB_look_your_best.pdf?1666945342 |title=Make sure you look your best in the car, WorldDAB urges radio stations |author=WorldDAB |website=WorldDAB.org |date=29 October 2023 |access-date=1 July 2023 |archive-date=22 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622005350/https://www.worlddab.org/system/news/documents/000/012/819/original/WorldDAB_look_your_best.pdf?1666945342 |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{anchor|DLS}}DAB can carry "radiotext" (in DAB terminology, ''Dynamic Label Segment'', or DLS) from the station giving real-time information such as song titles, music type and news or traffic updates, of up to 128 characters in length. This is similar to a feature of FM called [[Radio Data System|RDS]], which enables a radiotext of up to 64 characters.

The DAB transmission contains a local [[time of day]] and so a device may use this to automatically correct its internal clock when travelling between time zones and when changing to or from [[Daylight Saving]].

====More stations====
DAB is not more bandwidth efficient than analogue measured in programmes per MHz of a specific transmitter (the so-called [[link spectral efficiency]]), but it is less susceptible to co-channel interference (cross talk), which makes it possible to reduce the [[reuse distance]], i.e. use the same radio frequency channel more densely. The [[system spectral efficiency]] (the average number of radio programmes per MHz and transmitter) is a factor three more efficient than analogue FM for local radio stations. For national and regional radio networks, the efficiency is improved by more than an order of magnitude due to the use of [[single-frequency network|SFN]]s. In that case, adjacent transmitters use the same frequency.

In certain areas – particularly rural areas – the introduction of DAB gives radio listeners a greater choice of radio stations. For instance, in [[Southern Norway]], radio listeners experienced an increase in available stations from 6 to 21 when DAB was introduced in November 2006.

====Reception quality====
The DAB standard integrates features to reduce the negative consequences of [[multipath propagation|multipath]] fading and [[signal noise]], which afflict existing [[analog signal|analogue]] systems.

Also, as DAB transmits digital audio, there is no hiss with a weak signal, which can happen on FM. However, radios in the fringe of a DAB signal can experience a "bubbling mud" sound interrupting the audio or the audio cutting out altogether.

Due to sensitivity to [[Doppler shift]] in combination with [[multipath propagation]], DAB reception range (but not audio quality) is reduced when travelling speeds of more than 120 to 200&nbsp;km/h, depending on carrier frequency.<ref name="tech.ebu.ch">{{cite journal |title=Digital Audio Broadcasting – radio now and for the future |journal=EBU Technical Review |issue=265 |publisher=[[European Broadcasting Union]] |date=Autumn 1995 |pages=2–27 |url=https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreview/trev_265-kozamernik.pdf |access-date=14 January 2022 |archive-date=11 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811000748/https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreview/trev_265-kozamernik.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Variable bandwidth====
Mono talk radio, news and weather channels and other non-music programs need significantly less bandwidth than a typical music radio station, which allows DAB to carry these programmes at lower bit rates, leaving more bandwidth to be used for other programs.

However, this led to the situation where some stations are being broadcast in mono; see ''{{Section link|#Audio quality}}'' for more details.

====Transmission costs====
DAB transmitters are inevitably more expensive than their FM counterparts. DAB uses higher frequencies than FM and therefore there may be a need to compensate with more transmitters to achieve the same coverage as a single FM transmitter. DAB is commonly transmitted by a different company from the broadcaster who then sells the capacity to a number of radio stations. This shared cost can work out cheaper than operating an individual FM transmitter.

This efficiency originates from the ability a DAB network has in broadcasting more channels per transmitter/network. One network can broadcast 6–10 channels (with MP2 audio codec) or 10–18 channels (with HE AAC codec). Hence, it is thought that the replacement of FM-radios and FM-transmitters with new DAB-radios and DAB-transmitters will not cost any more compared with new FM facilities. It is also argued that the power consumption will be lower for stations transmitted on a single DAB multiplex compared with individual analog transmitters.<ref>{{cite web |last=Garfors |first=Gunnar |title=DAB 20 Times Greener Than FM |url=http://www.garfors.com/2011/01/dab-vs-fm-on-power-consumption.html |access-date=21 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013221809/http://www.garfors.com/2011/01/dab-vs-fm-on-power-consumption.html |archive-date=13 October 2016}}</ref>

Once applied, one operator has claimed that DAB transmission is as low as one-nineteenth of the cost of FM transmission.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/0003/italys-south-tyrol-begins-fm-switch-off/340879 |title=Italy's South Tyrol Begins FM Switch off |author=Davide Moro |magazine=Radio World |date=12 December 2017 |quote=For us, DAB+ is 19 times more efficient than FM |access-date=18 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216072017/http://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/0003/italys-south-tyrol-begins-fm-switch-off/340879 |archive-date=16 December 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>