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DAB+/Wi-Fi radios due by the end of the year


4th September 2007

Frontier-Silicon has issued a press release saying that:

 

"Solutions incorporating Frontier Silicon’s multi-standard digital radio SoC Chorus 2 with Fraunhofer’s audio decoder IP are being designed into products from specialist brands including Bush, Grundig, Magicbox, Ministry of Sound, Pure, Revo, Tivoli and others, which will be available in shops by the end of this year."

 

The Chorus 2 is Frontier-Silicon's chip that can receive DAB+/Wi-Fi/DAB/FM, so it's good news to see that there's a few manufacturers planning to bring out such radios by Christmas.

If you read the full press release, ignore this bit: "While DAB+ is not required for established markets such as the UK", because it's the obligatory spin that you always seem to see in UK DAB industry press releases that's intended to encourage UK consumers to continue buying to-be-obsolete DAB radios (such sentences in press releases will undoubtedly magically disappear as soon as the majority of receivers in the shops support DAB+), when in reality the UK will definitely switch to using DAB+, and the only issue is when DAB+ broadcasts will launch -- I've estimated that we will see the first DAB+ stations launch within the next three years, and there will be a podcast service using the DAB+ format launching next year on the new Channel 4 national DAB multiplex.