Is T2 Lite becoming the new frontier for digital radio? T2 Lite vs DAB+

Agenda
.........Open Channel | Independent Danish DTT Gatekeeper 3
...........................................................................Introduction 5
...........................................................DAB+ | Digital Radio 13
..................................................................T2 Lite vs DAB+ 21
................................................Case Copenhagen | T2 Lite 28
........................................Case Thailand | DAB+ vs T2 Lite 32

Danish World Premiere of T2 Lite
• As one of the first in Europe, Open Channel went On Air
with DVB-T2 in 2010.
• Open Channel again leads the way, airing the next generation
of digital television and radio standard for mobile device, based
on the new profile T2-Lite at *UHF 39 and *VHF 9D in 2012.

Introduction | DAB/DAB+ Radio Worldwide
• After 20 years only ~20 countries broadcast digital radio with DAB/DAB+ [July 8th 2015]
Source: WorldDAB
• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Ireland
• Italy
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Spain
• Sweden June 23rd 2015
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• New Zeeland
• South Korea
• China + Hong Kong

Introduction | DTT Radio Worldwide 1/2
37 countries thereof 16-19 countries with DVB-T2 | T2 Lite standard [Dec 29 2015]
Asia
• IndiaT2 Lite
4 -> 8 radios
• Vietnam DVB-T-> DVB-T2
2 radios
Africa
• Kenya DVB-T2
7 radios KBC
• Madagascar DVB-T2
6 radios
• Namibia DVB-T2
10 radios NBC
• South Africa DVB-T2
19 radios
• Swaziland DVB-T2
1-2 radios
• Togo DVB-T2
x radios
Middle East
• Emirates DVB-T2
2 radios
• Israel DVB-T
16 radios
South America
• Colombia DVB-T2
5 radios
Oceania
• Australia DVB-T
5 - 9 radios
• New Zeeland DVB-T
3 radios
Caribbean Islands
• Trinidad&Tobago DVB-T->T2
16 radios
• Grenada DVB-T2
on the road

Introduction | DTT Radio Worldwide 2/2
37 countries thereof 21 countries in Europe [Jan 30 2016]
• (Albania DVB-T2
6 radios)
• Armenia DVB-T2
4 radios
• Austria DVB-T2
1 radio
• Belgium DVB-T
6 radios
• CopenhagenT2 Lite
~10+
radios
• Crimea DVB-T2
3 radios
• Czech Republic DVB-T
7 radios
• Finland DVB-T
3 radios
• Greece DVB-T
5 radios
• Greenland DVB-T
1 radio
• Hungary DVB-T
4 radios
• Ireland DVB-T
9 radios
• Italy DVB-T
~34 radios
• Kaliningrad & RussiaDVB-T2
3 radios
• Montenegro DVB-T2
2 radios
• Netherlands (DVB-T2 from ’17)
28 radios
• Northern Cyprus DVB-T
4 radios
• Northern Ireland DVB-T2
1 radio
• Norway DVB-T
5 radios
• Poland DVB-T
12 radios
• Spain DVB-T
24 radios
• United Kingdom DVB-T
24 radios

Introduction | DTT radio in UK
• 24 national radio
• +9 regional radio
• +1 T2-radio in Northern Ireland
• +40

Introduction | UK BBC local radio stations launch on DTT
• A number of BBC local radio stations have officially started on Freeview (DVB-T)
March 2015, occupying four channels between them.
• Ten of the 40 stations are now broadcasting from channel 719 to 722
inclusive, with BBC London and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire getting their own
channels so far.

Introduction | Sound quality MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
• The national commercial DAB mux in the UK, they broadcaster almost only in
mono in order to make space for 14 radios instead of 6 radios à 192 kbit/s.

Introduction | Sound quality DAB radio - mono vs stereo
• Interview “Bandwidth and kilobits per second made interesting. No really!”
BBC Radio's Head of Technology Rupert Brun on DAB mono v stereo.
https://audioboom.com/boos/2779986-the-radio-today-programme-january-7th-2015

Introduction | Sound quality HE-AACv2
With original encoded program material:
• Acceptable quality stereo sound at 24 – 32 kbps.
• Good "FM-like" sound at 64 kbps or higher
(64 kbps sets the lower limit of audio quality on the speech
by HE-AAC).
• Transparent high quality stereo sound at 128 kbps.
• The maximum bit rate of the encoded audio shall not
exceed 192 kbps for a stereo pair.

DAB | Digital Radio
• Since 1995 Denmark has tried to establish digital radio in the DAB format. The
reason for the conversion to digital transmission is to achieve better audio
quality, more stations and better resistance to multipath propagation, noise and
co channel interference than in the analog FM radio technology. Opposite to FM
and AM radio broadcasting with DAB technology you can broadcast more radio
channels on the same frequency (a multiplex).

DAB | Not a success
• The introduction of DAB has not though been a success, because of some of the
DAB channels are using a bit rate below 192 kbps in MPEG 1 Audio Layer 2
(MP2), which gives a poorer sound and specially a poorer stereo sound than the
one available by the FM receiver under normal receiving conditions.
• The second serious criticism against the DAB system is that it is too expensive
to operate a DAB frequency network. Essentially because you have to use to
much electric power (kW) and therefore you need bigger and more expensive
transmitters to broadcast and receive programs with DAB.
• DAB use a modulation form of radio waves that are easy to build receivers to,
but causes that every one bit error caused by radio noise becomes two bit errors
in the receiver. At the same time DAB uses only a single layer of rather weak bit
error correction. To compensate DAB is broadcasted by a notable higher power
than necessary.

DAB+ | Digital Radio
• Since DAB has not been a success, the radio organization WorldDAB has made
a new standard DAB+, who use error correction in two layers. Besides the
original error correction another error correction code called Reed-Solomon has
been added. Unfortunately you lose 8,3 % of capacity when moving bits to this
code, which means that DAB's all ready low use of bit rate is been further
reduced. On the other hand more bit errors are corrected, so a weaker signal
can be received and the coverage is getting better.
• At the same time with DAB+ they introduced the possibility of using the audio
compressing standard HE-AAC, which can be up to three times more effective.
That way it is possible to transmit up to three times the number of radio channels
in the same quality.
• There is a technical problem regarding DAB+. DAB+ is broadcasted as DAB until
the first layer of error correction and all the fundamental weaknesses in these
parts of DAB is also present in DAB+.

DAB+ | Transmission Modes

DAB+ | Parameter
• D-QPSK | GI 1/4 (246 μs) | CR ½
Corresponding max. direct TX distance (SFN): 73.8 km
Urban (TU12)
channel model
Netto
Mbit/s
C/N Rayleigh
(dB)
Audio
kbit/s
Audio codec Number of
radio
DAB+ Mode 1, PL 3A* 1,056 11,8 64 HE AACv2 ~ 16
DAB Mode 1, PL 3 1,152 13,5 ** 192 - 256 mpeg1 Layer II ~ 4-6
Results from simulations and laboratory measurements are given, together with values for the noise figure of DAB receivers.
* Source: EBU BPN 101, May 2012, Report on Frequency and Network Planning Parameters related to DAB+. Pages 6 a Gaussian
type channel was assumed for fixed reception, whereas for mobile and portable reception a Rayleigh channel (profile TU12 at 25
km/h and 178 MHz) was assumed
** Source: EBU Tech3317 July 2007 p13 & 33: Measurements of the required C/N for T-DAB have been made at the IRT (Institut für
Rundfunktechnik) for both mobile and portable reception using a Typical Urban (TU12) channel model. The required C/N for mobile
reception was measured to be 13.5 dB.

DAB+ | Case Copenhagen
• VHF channel 9D (208,064 MHz | 1.7 MHz BW)
• Antenna site BOA:
- TDC radio tower in the center of Copenhagen
- Antenna Height: 100 meter
- Polarization: Vertical
- Transmit power: 520 W ERP; Dipol antenna
• DAB+ Mode 1, PL 3A
- C/N Rayleigh 11,8 dB
- Netto bitrate 1,056 Mbit/s
- Space ~ 16 radioer à 64 kbit/s HE AACv2

T2 Lite | Same propagation model as DAB+
• FFT size = 8K ext | GI 1/16 (277.5 µs) | 16QAM
With T2 Lite you get 3 times more capacity
~ 44 radios à 64+10 kbit/s HE AACv2/PES header
Corresponding receiver's speed limits w/ PP4: 286 km/h
Corresponding max. direct TX distance (SFN): 83.2 km
PP4 Netto bitrate (Mbit/s) C/N Gauss** (db) C/N Rayleigh** (dB)
LDCP 64K 16K 64K 16K 64K 16K
CR 1/3 1,690 NA 7,3
CR 2/5 2,044 NA 8,2
CR ½ 2,697 2,349 8,1 7,6 9,6 9,0
CR 3/5 3,241 3,201 9,7 10,0 11,4 11,7
CR 2/3 3,606 3,566 11,0 11,2 12,9 13,2
CR ¾ 4,057 3,931 12,1 12,4 14,5 14,9
CR 4/5 4,329 4,174 12,9 13,2 15,8 16,1
CR 5/6 4,513 4,417 13,5 13,8 16,7 17,2
Marked with pink = only T2 Lite profile | blue = T2-Base-Lite profile | ** EBU Tech 3348 v4.1

T2 Lite | Same capacity as DAB+
• FFT size = 8K ext | GI 1/16 (277.5 µs) | QPSK
With T2 Lite you get 6 times better broadcasting strength (11,8 - 4,1 ~ 7,7 dB)
with a significantly larger coverage.
Corresponding receiver's speed limits w/ PP4 at 200 MHz: 286 km/h
Corresponding max. direct TX distance (SFN): 83.2 km (DAB: 73.8 km)
LDCP 64K 16K 64K 16K 64K 16K
CR 1/3 0,840 NA 2,2
CR 2/5 1,016 NA 3,1
CR ½ 1,336 1,167 3,1 2,8 4,1 4,1
CR 3/5 1,606 1,590 4,4 4,6 5,7 6,2
CR 2/3 1,787 1,772 5,2 5,5 7,0 7,4
CR ¾ 2,010 1,953 6,2 6,4 8,3 8,7
CR 4/5 2,145 2,074 6,8 7,0 9,2 9,5
CR 5/6 2,236 2,195 7,3 7,6 10,0 10,4

C) T2 Lite | Other options eg.
• FFT size = 16K ext | GI 1/32 (277.5 µs) | 16QAM
With T2 Lite you get double capacity ~ 34 radios and 2 times better
broadcasting strength (11,8 - 8,5 ~ 3,3dB) compare with DAB+ with an
equivalent reduction of the transmission costs.
Corresponding receiver's speed limits w/ PP6 at 200 MHz: 147 km/h
Corresponding max. direct TX distance (SFN): 83.2 km (DAB: 73.8 km)
LDCP 64K 16K 64K 16K 64K 16K
CR 1/3 1.824 NA 6,8
CR 2/5 2.207 NA 7,7
CR ½ 2,861 2,484 7,6 7,1 9,1 8,5
CR 3/5 3,438 3,384 9,2 9,5 10,9 11,2
CR 2/3 3,826 3,770 10,5 10,7 12,4 12,7
CR ¾ 4,304 4,156 11,6 11,9 14,0 14,4
CR 4/5 4,592 4,413 12,4 12,7 15,3 15,6
CR 5/6 4,788 4,670 13,0 13,3 16,2 16,7

T2 Lite vs DAB+ | Comparison
A) T2 Lite | Same propagation model as DAB+
• You can get 3 times more capacity
~ 44 radios or better sound quality
B) T2 Lite | Same capacity as DAB+ ~ 16 radios
• You can get 6 times better broadcasting strength
with a significantly larger coverage
C) T2 Lite | Other options e.g.
• Double capacity ~ 34 radios and 2 times better broadcasting strength
compare with DAB+ with an
equivalent reduction of the
transmission costs.

ProTelevision Technologies, market leader in design and manufacture of best in
class DTT modulators, has announce a new DAB/DAB+/T-DMB modulator
dedicated to Digital Radio Networks and upgradable to T2 Lite Radio.

DVB-T2 | B&O BeoVision Avant TV
• Support now 1,7 MHz BW in VHF band III

Thailand | Public Hearing
Thailand’s National Broadcast and Telecom
regulator (NBTC) once again has decided to
open the door for their radio frequency plan,
it is time to revisit reality: FM, DAB+ and/or
T2 Lite.
Public hearing from May 20th
to June 19th
2015 regarding the subject.
The problem, which Thailand is struggling
with today, is the huge amount of radio
stations available in the country with
thousands of small local radio stations. There
are no precise counts of community radio
stations. However, in 2009 more than 6,000
local community stations registered with NTC
to notify their intent to be on the air.

Thailand | DAB+
Plan A Plan B
Standard DAB+ DAB+
C/N Rayleigh 11,8 dB 11,8 dB
Capacity kbit/s 1.056 1.056
# radio pr mux 16 16
Schedule postponed
Population
coverage
10+1 city 95%
# national mux 3 4
# national radio 48 64
# local mux (39) None 4
# radio pr areas None 64
# local radio None 2.496
The digital radio roadmap comprises Plan A
for the short term and Plan B for the long
term. Plan A is scheduled to launch trial
services by end 2014, but is postponed ∞.

Thailand | DAB+ vs T2 Lite
Plan A Plan B DVB-T2
Standard DAB+ DAB+ T2 Lite
C/N Rayleigh 11,8 dB 11,8 dB 11,7 dB
Capacity kbit/s 1.056 1.056 3.201
# radio pr mux 16 16 48
Schedule postponed
Population
coverage
10+1 city 95% 95%
# national mux 3 4 4
# national radio 48 64 192
# local mux (39) None 4 4
# radio pr areas None 64 192
# local radio None 2.496 7.488
Therefore, Thailand's DVB-T2 Set Top Box
Standard Committee suggests 1.7 MHz BW
in VHF band III mandatory for Thai DVB-T2
receiver.

Thailand | DAB+ vs T2 Lite
• The 80's called, they want their DAB technology back
http://www.yozzo.com/news-and-information/media-broadcasting/the-80s-
called,-they-want-their-dab-technology-back
• Is DAB the future or already part of the past for Thai Radio Broadcasting?
http://www.yozzo.com/news-and-information/media-broadcasting/is-dab-the-
future-or-already-part-of-the-past-for-thai-radio-broadcasting

Conclusion | DVB Worldwide
• DVB-T2 has been deployed in 68 countries and adopted in 28. More than 150
countries have today chosen DVB-T/-T2 standard.
• It would make a lot of sense for countries in especially Africa and Asia to
broadcast digital radio, using the same transmission standard “DVB-T2” as
TV, since digital radio would then become compatible with smartphone, TV
and STB’s, so end-users can receive both radio and TV on the same devices.

About | Kenneth Wenzel
CEO and Founder, U-Media ApS, Denmark, since 1997.
Director of the U-Media subsidiary, Open Channel based in Copenhagen, since 2006 where he
and his team started DTT trials, followed by the DVB-T2 standard in 2010 as one of the first in
Europe.
In 2012, as the first in the world - Kenneth Wenzel and team, launched tests airing the next
generation of mobile TV on UHF and digital radio on a so-called T-DAB frequency, based on the
new standard DVB-T2 Lite profile.
Kenneth Wenzel holds a M. Sc. from The Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
He is a member of The Danish Business Authority Spectrum Forum, as well as editor/manager
of the DVB-T2 group at LinkedIn.
He is an innovator and entrepreneur in the digital TV & radio space, working with new
technologies, testing developing and at the forefront of DVB-T, DVB-T2, T2 Lite developments
and other new media technical platforms.

Is T2 Lite becoming the new frontier for digital radio? T2 Lite vs DAB+

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