Hybrid Radio Staking Its Claim On The Dashboard

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Radio has long been “king of the dashboard.” But that’s been changing for some time with the evolution of streaming services and new technologies competing for drivers’ interest. So it’s noteworthy that carmaker Audi is going in big for hybrid radio. A recent press release from RadioDNS outlined this new development.


Nick Piggott, project director of RadioDNS, said, “Audi have embraced our open standards because it guarantees that every radio station can have a place in their new radio experience. We’re here to help broadcasters take advantage of that, and to help manufacturers create great implementations of hybrid radio. We encourage every radio station to take the first steps today to implement RadioDNS.”

The hybrid has a single intelligent station list which always picks the best way to receive the station, removing the need for the driver to decide between FM, DAB, or streaming. This intelligent decision-making also means that station presets can always recall the radio station, regardless of whether the car is in the broadcast coverage area.

Reception switching between broadcast and IP can be entirely seamless as the car drives in and out of broadcast coverage, and the driver can enable it to happen automatically. The receiver adjusts time delays and audio levels to create the perfect transition without interruption.

The Internet component of the hybrid radio experience can use a SIM card embedded in the car.

Christian Winter, Engineer at AUDI Infotainment Development, and RadioDNS Steering Board member, said, “Internet Services come and go in the consumer world. To build a hybrid radio which will function throughout a car’s lifecycle, we decided to use the ETSI technical standards created by RadioDNS.”