Frontier Silicon says the digital radio standard (DAB+) being championed by the Australian radio industry is stimulating new markets for digital radios. The company says it has shipped over 5 million DAB integrated circuits and modules, giving it a market share of over 75% of the key component in digital radios.
Frontier’s growth has been achieved after just five years of operation, and with the new DAB+ standard opening new markets for digital radios around the world, Frontier expects DAB/DAB+ exponential growth over the next five years.
The UK DAB industry, which now boasts a listening base of nearly one in five of the adult population, has accounted for a significant portion of these sales, with Denmark, Norway Germany, Belgium and Switzerland contributing the rest.
With the recent availability of the new DAB+ standard several new countries are expected to fully adopt DAB/DAB+ in the coming years. Australia is launching its digital audio services at the end of next year and many other countries are expected to follow suit soon, including Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Malta, Israel, Hungary, Kuwait, Malaysia, and New Zealand, heralding a worldwide move to digital radio based on the Eureka-147 DAB standard.
Frontier Silicon CEO Anthony Sethill has told radioinfo:
“We are very happy to announce the shipment of our 5 millionth DAB solution and I would like to thank all of our customers and suppliers for helping us reach this important milestone for our company. With the positive reaction in the broadcaster community to the announcement of the DAB+ standard we are very excited about the prospects for DAB/DAB+ radios and we expect to see significant expansion in this industry over the coming years.”
Frontier Silicon has a portfolio of digital audio products which include a multistandard module incorporating DAB+/DAB, Wi-Fi and music streaming (Venice 6), and a low-cost module for mass market DAB radios (Venice 5). All Frontier modules are based on the company’s optimized Chorus 2 and Kino 2 broadcast receiver ICs and othre associated platforms. The latest platforms also feature iPod® docking capability, which is fast becoming a ‘must-have’ in new radio designs.