Mobile Electronics Australia

Digital Radio (DAB+) is enjoying great beginnings in Australia, to date however the uptake in vehicles has been limited to one plug in device and a handful of pocket DAB+ receivers. Our discussions lead us to believe that by October we'll begin to see new vehicles that are DAB+ compatible, but dedicated in-car head units could be as far off as mid 2011 before seeing the market.

One of the great parts of our job here at MEA is the opportunity to experience new products and technologies. For this reason, when DigiB (Malta) contacted us with the opportunity to test their Bluestate RA-557 CD/MP3/DAB+ Tuner from their pilot production we jumped at the chance.

The RA-577 is a traditional DIN sized unit, compatible with DAB/DAB+/DMB-A Band III & L-Band protocols, along with traditional FM (RDS), CD and CD-R, USB and SD Card Reader, MP3/WMA Playback, 45w x 4 output power, along with single set of RCA pre-outs.

Upon opening the box, our first glance at the unit indicated installation would be trouble free and straight forward. Of particular interest to us, was the antenna side of DAB+ for in-car use. Early rumours surrounding DAB+ in Australia for vehicle use suggested that cars would require an additional antenna. This appears not to be the case with the RA-577 with a pig tail from the unit to a standard antenna plug.

Installation into our test vehicle was very simple and took less than 30 minutes (given our vehicle had already had an aftermarket head unit installed).

The anticipation was building as we applied power to the unit. This is new technology with a great future and of great importance to our industry. As the RA-577 came to life we were greeted with a very neat looking unit, with great backlighting clearly showing the features of the unit. We were prompted to 'Press Seek' which automatically scans the current available DAB+ radio stations. Within one minute, all stations had been scanned into the unit and we were ready to explore.

All the major traditional radio stations have a digital equivalent and we were happy to find some familiar stations right away. What was immediately obvious was the increased sound quality of the DAB+ stations. Scrolling through the stations, the sound quality reminded us of MP3 playback quality compared to the heavily compressed, shallow and lifeless traditional FM radio we've all become accustomed to.

There are 6 presets available for storing your favorite station on the RA-577, however we found very quickly that given the nature of DAB+ and the ever increasing amount of stations, many more presets would be required. One way around this is the ability to step through all the stations using the << and >> buttons on the unit with each station name being displayed on the display.

After storing a selection of stations, we decided to hit the road to put the unit through its paces.

Through our experience with in-car digital television what we were expecting was drop-outs of the signal, particularly at high speed. This was not to be the case! Our road test proved remarkable with a strong constant signal and no deterioration in signal quality at all. In our test area there is a substantial valley, and at the very bottom of the valley there was a slight pause in the signal but that resumed almost right away. We can only speculate that there is some form of signal buffering in the unit that prevents drop outs.

With a variety of stations now available on DAB+, far greater than traditional FM radio we've already found DAB+ exciting. There is a station to suit everyone's taste, along with many of the popular AM talkback and radio shows also now broadcasting on DAB+. Visit the Digital Radio Plus Australia website to see what stations are available in your area. New stations are coming online all the time.

CD and USB playback are as would be expected and no different to any other traditional CD Tuner. A handy EQ button allows the user to cycle through their choice of Rock, Pop, Classical etc equaliser settings and of course Flat as is our preference, with a little emphasis on the 'Bass' and 'Treble' settings.

Overall we're really impressed by this early production unit, and certainly excited about the DAB+ technology becoming available for dedicated in-car use. A recent Digital Radio Industry Report (March 2010) cited in-car listening to DAB+ at 9% of all listeners. We can't really expect much more than that when there have been so few options available to the market. The Bluestate RA-577 is one solution that is almost in full production and the parent company is presently considering distribution options in Australia. Distribution enquiries are welcome and MEA can provide relevant details for interested parties.

Start getting excited about DAB+, it offers great listening variety and far superior sound quality when compared to traditional FM radio.

Visit MEA's dedicated Digital Radio + section of the website for the latest news and information relating to DAB+ for vehicles in Australia.