This is the press release issued for this new website’s launch:
September 11th, 2022
NEW WEBSITE ‘LocalDAB.org’ LAUNCHED
Quality information for small scale DAB projects
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 11, 2022 — Today, at the occasion of the WorldDAB information session at this years International Broadcast Convention, a new website was launched to aid organizations aiming to go on air with small scale DAB transmissions. The site, called LocalDAB.org, was created by DAB enthusiasts from Flanders and the Netherlands, to share practical information based on experience gained in creating local DAB ensembles and extensive tests with hard- and software used for digital transmissions.
The last couple of years the interest of local and community broadcasters to join national and regional stations in providing digital radio transmissions over Digital Audio Broadcasting has grown steadily. In several countries, like the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, the telecommunications agency has issued licenses for what are called ‘small scale DAB’ projects. Typically these licenses enable broadcasters with a local or semi-regional audience to make their programs available on the many DAB+ receivers already in use.
The people behind the new website have been involved in setting up and managing small scale DAB ensembles or experiments with the hard- and software involved for stations in the Netherlands and Flanders. They now make their knowledge gained available to others who would like to do the same.
“I have been experimenting with DAB since end of 2016, after having been involved in some of the early standardization meetings for DAB in 1989/1990”, said Gerard Lokhoff, project manager for the local DAB ensemble in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. “When I was invited by WorldDAB to tell about the current small scale DAB transmissions in our country, I thought about sharing knowledge to promote such projects, and made a suggestion to Steven and Marc.”
“When Gerard approached us to jointly make an international version of our website for the local DAB projects in Flanders we were immediately enthusiastic”, said Steven Vandenput, one of the creators of lokaaldigitaal.vlaanderen. “We started the site to assist local stations with their adoption of DAB technology, as we knew many of them would be new to the technology. We expect the same applies to local and community stations elsewhere”.
‘I have a personal drive to dive into technology and try to explain it to others”, said Marc Van Laethem, as technical guru author of many of the articles on the new website. “Therefore I’m happy that with the new website our know how will be accessible not only to local stations in Flanders, but to all such stations worldwide looking for information on how to be available on the growing number of DAB+ receivers.”
The site provides information on DAB(+) in simple words, but also in more detail, depending on the level of understanding a visitor might want to acquire. While populated with articles translated from the Flemish site already, it is set to grow over time with new information based on feedback received. The creators invite such feedback to be sent to info@localdab.org , and also welcome contributions by others with the same intention.