As South Africa trialled two potential standards as the digital replacement for current analogue radio broadcasting in the AM and FM/VHF bands, much of Europe and the Asia Pacific had gained traction in the switchover to digital radio through the DAB+ standard.

This emerged during the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association- (Sadiba-) hosted Digital Broadcasting Now conference on Thursday, where global industry forum WorldDMB project director Bernie O’Neill showed that the varying stages of DAB+ digital radio standard studies, trials and adoption were sweeping across Europe, Asia and Australia.

“The train is moving and it is going to move faster,” she told delegates on the second day of the three-day conference.

Following the successful launch of DAB+ in Australia in 2009, with five major cities, covering 65% of the population, now having access to DAB+ services, a “digital radio wave” was under way, as many more countries trial the digital standard, with Norway set to be the first to complete the digital migration in the next two years.

NRK Norway chief adviser for the Director of Distributions Jorn Jenson confirmed that Norway would become the first European country to switch off its FM frequencies, replaced by the digital DAB+ standard, by 2017.

Switzerland, which reported 99% coverage, was expected to switch off its FM transmissions between 2020 and 2024 and Denmark by 2019.

Significant gains were also being made in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Czech Republic and France, besides others, while Sweden’s Parliament would announce its decision on the DAB+ standard in the fourth quarter of this year.

In Asia, Hong Kong and Vietnam had started DAB+ trials in 2011 and 2013 respectively, while Malaysia was currently undertaking DAB+ trials.

Indonesia, which had adopted DAB+ as its official digital standard, and Thailand were both in the planning stages of their respective trials.

South Korea had started investigating the possible adoption of the DAB+ standard for its digital radio transition, while China had already deployed the standard in Beijing and Shanghai.

In the Middle East, Tunisia, Kuwait and Qatar were already using DAB+, while Oman, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain were planning trials.

In line with international trends and to mitigate the limited dependability of existing AM services and the saturated FM sound broadcasting bands, South Africa had also started trialling two digital radio standards.

As it progressed its own migration from analogue to digital radio, the country was reviewing the use of the DAB+ standard, for which trials started in November 2014.

In 2013, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) granted the South African Broadcasting Corporation a licence to trial the high-powered DAB+ trial transmission in Gauteng in partnership with Sadiba and the National Association of Broadcasters.

The trial, which would run until October, allowed the distribution of 40 radio services from the public, commercial and community sectors across a 21 185 km² area, covering 21.5% of South Africa’s population.

Meanwhile, the Digital Radio Mondiale Southern Africa (DRMSA) consortium, in partnership with Christian radio station Radio Pulpit, pioneered the first DRM30 standard trial in South Africa in July 2014.

Following the trial – and after obtaining a licence from Icasa to permanently broadcast on the DRM standard – Radio Pulpit would start the one-year migration of its listeners to the new platform.

Brazil, India and Germany, besides others, had already launched their own local national consortiums to roll out, or strategise, the deployment of DRM.