Meridian G Series Adds DAB Digital Radio

Meridian Audio has announced a new variant of three G Series products that will include DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) tuners as well as conventional FM reception.

The first model available will be the G91DAB DVD-Audio/video player/controller system, followed by the G51DAB receiver and G01DAB preamplifier.

DAB Digital Radio is popular outside the USA, and is currently available to over 300 million people in almost 40 countries, with over 600 different services. The system, which uses a compressed digital streaming format based on MPEG, is popular in Canada and throughout Western Europe, with Britain and Germany leading the way. In Canada, 35% of the overall population is already covered by DAB which ups to 50% around freeway corridors, while British coverage is estimated at 90% and Germany, 80%. In most places, DAB carries existing stations as well as new broadcasters who are transmitting only on digital radio.

DAB is a robust transmission medium, which helps eliminate problems with multipath, hiss and fading that can disrupt analog broadcasts. It also allows broadcasters to transmit more stations in the same bandwidth as one FM station. As well as music and speech, DAB stations can additionally carry data that can be displayed by the receiver while listening to the station.

DAB has perks to the listener as well. Instead of remembering the frequency, the listener can scroll through the names of the available stations. They display will also tell them more about the station, program or music being played.

The G91DAB will begin shipping during the first quarter of 2005, with the G01DAB and G51DAB available shortly thereafter. Retail prices to be determined.