Club DAB Italia announced plans to begin broadcasts in DAB+.

Five MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2-encoded DAB+ services will run on Club DAB Italia’s DAB “multiplex” alongside existing traditional MPEG Layer II DAB broadcasts.

According to the consortium, the experimental transmissions will allow broadcasters to appraise the transmission chain, receiver functionality and audio quality of the standards.

“DAB+ gives our ‘bouquet’ great flexibility and allows us to place new technologies like T-DMB and Visual Radio alongside traditional wireless services,” said Club DAB Italia President Fabrizio Guidi.

Guidi also called upon the government to make frequency resources available to those who wished to take advantage of digital radio.

Swedish manufacturer Factum Electronics supplied DAB+ encoders for the broadcasts, and Taiwanese company FutureWaves supplied receivers.

Also recently, transmission services provider RAIWay announced agreement with a local broadcasters association to cooperate in development of a plan of transition to DMB. The groups will cooperate with experimental DMB transmissions in VHF band III and the L band in Bologna and Venice, transmitting some 17 programs with audio, video and data.

The Vatican also recently announced plans to proceed with test operations of T-DMB services. It received a DMB video encoder from Korea in July. In February, Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun presented a DMB handset to Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to the Vatican.