February 2003
You know e.g. from our "industrial DAB" section that there's a lot of things you can do with DAB. No doubt that DAB comes with plenty of useful features.
However, DAB was not primarily designed to be a wireless carrier for industrial applications. It was planned to be a consumer audio system for the mass market. And the mass market is what DAB definitely requires. Otherwise its days are counted.
So let's focus on the (mass market) customer. He is perfectly right, asking: "Why should I buy a DAB receiver?".
Anyone involved in DAB should stop for a while to think this question over. Simply because it's essential for the future of DAB.
From the customer's view the answer is likely to be:
"There's no reason at all to buy DAB receivers! They are much more expensive than FM ones and they aren't providing evident benefits."
To make it perfectly clear: I want to encourage DAB. However, it makes no sense for the DAB-involved industry to lie to ourselves. Currently, "the mass market customers" cannot see any reasons why they should buy a DAB receiver.
The argument of "the better sound"? A valid one, of course. But is it also a sales argument? Well, it's a matter of money. As long as the price gap between DAB and FM is higher than, say, 50 Euros, most people will think: "No, thank you, FM is sufficient for me".
What about Electronic Program Guides (EPG), enabling the listener to pre-select certain broadcasts for automatic recording? Technically, it's a good idea. However, it's not new, as RDS has been proposing it for a long time (where are the appropriate FM receivers?)
Well, in practice, how many DAB listeners will make use of the EPG - and thus are willing to pay a higher price for EPG-enabled receivers? 10%? Is this high enough to drive a DAB mass market by the means of EPG? It may furthermore be doubted how many radio stations finally will support an EPG. What they want is to make people listen continuously - not selectively. The figure of "continuous listeners" directly determines what can be charged for advertising.
And what about the "data services" argument? Well, that's the reason why you find this statement right here, at our "service overview" pages.
I am sure that data services, particularly PAD, can boost DAB towards the mass market.
...BUT...
What we need are attractive services. News, politics, stock information - this is nice to have. But content of that kind will soon be boring because - it is made by the radio station!
People want to express themselves, want to present themselves to others and want a vivid contents. The simple idea is:
- It's my message on the air!
- Many people will see it.
Now imagine an eMail address where anyone can send photos to. They are
broadcast as a DAB slide show. Youngsters can send latest party event news
that will be broadcast on "The Party Channel". Images, texts,
locations - a service from listeners for listeners.
Of course the broadcaster may insert some advertising stuff in
between...
I can imagine what you're going to reply now: "Did you ever
think of the nonsense people are going to make with an open channel like
this? Things like compromising others others or sending racist
trash?"
You are perfectly right, we will need a censor who decides what's
okay for broadcasting and what isn't. It's a job that can not be executed
by a machine. This will increase the costs for such a data service.
However, I would say that the costs should not be an argument against the
whole thing. Unskilled workers aren't this expensive.
Imagine a PAD service like this on a youngster's mobile phone which is
co-equiped with a DAB receiver. Many young people might consider it as
some kind of a "my-gigantic-SMS", sawn by thousands of
people.
Imagine youngsters roaming the city streets, reading the latest party
event news of their neighbourhood on their portable receiver.
Imagine someone sitting at his desk, having a DAB receiver with a
PDA-sized colour display next to him. Won't he keep an eye on the
display to see what the next picture will bring? A pretty lady? His
colleague's face?
Five saucy thesises: "That's what DAB needs"
- Cheap and portable receivers with colour displays.
- PAD services where listeners can join in. People mainly want to read and see themselves.
- Not only politics and business data services, but also boulevard press and gossip!
- Liberal regulations regarding data services.
- Courageous radio stations.