| Passion Radio launches on DAB27th June 2006 Passion Radio, which is an independent local station that broadcasts classic dance on FM in Brighton, has launched on the local Sussex DAB multiplex. Although it should be applauded that new small independent local stations are launching on DAB, the example of Passion Radio launching on DAB highlights one of the main drawbacks of the DAB system. The thing is, Passion Radio is transmitting in mono, despite the fact that it plays music. The reason Passion Radio is transmitting in mono is because of the very high transmission costs on DAB, which is caused by DAB being very inefficient - few radio stations can be carried on a DAB multiplex, and the overall multiplex transmission costs have to be covered by these stations, i.e. the higher the number of stations that can be carried on a DAB multiplex the lower the costs. Passion Radio is being transmitted at 80 kbps mono on DAB, whereas
if DAB+ were used (DAB+ is the extended DAB specification which uses
the AAC/AAC+ audio codec), for the same transmission cost it could be
transmitted at far higher audio quality and in stereo.
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