All posts by Roger Martlew
Below are all of Roger Martlew's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Reported By Wohnort.org
Ofcom has published a consultation on proposed changes to its Digital Radio Technical Code and accompanying Guidance Notes.
The proposals would allow for the use of DAB+ on the future "D2" second national commercial multiplex, though this would not be mandatory. The use of DAB+ would initially be limited to 30% of the available capacity.
Ofcom believes competition between services and with other media provides effective self-regulation in matters of sound quality and therefore proposes to remove the minimum bitrate requirement. According to the consultation document, "there is no evidence to suggest dissatisfaction from consumers with the technical quality of content from platforms that are not subject to explicit technical quality standards requirements". Ofcom extrapolates this to mean that there is no need for minimum standards on DAB either.
Ofcom proposes that all DAB/DAB+ broadcasts should use UEP3 or EEP3 as appropriate. Broadcasters may use greater error protection if they wish, but any subsequent reduction in error protection may be subject to consultation. Under Ofcom's proposals, broadcasters would not be permitted to reduce error protection to UEP 4 or 5, but doesn't mention whether services already using those protection levels would be permitted to continue doing so.
Ofcom proposes to dissolve the Memorandum of Understanding that was agreed with broadcasters relating to the introduction of new transmitters. The MoU was designed to ensure that new transmissions did not cause interference to neighbouring ensembles using the same frequency, nor punch unacceptable holes in the coverage of other ensembles in the same area. As the roll-out of DAB continues, more sites will be required and Ofcom proposes a more streamlined approach to the approvals process, details of which are included in an Annex.
Ofcom proposes to advertise the second national commercial multiplex in the second quarter of 2014.
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Reported By Wohnort.org
The BBC is reported to have announced that it will conduct a DAB+ trial later this year.
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The first DAB+ stations have started on the NE Wales and Liverpool mux. Fun Kids and Wirral Radio. 64kbits/s
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Come on statistics for one station that has only been on air a week. I don't think so.
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R
Been missing the Digital Switchover? Good news! There is goinMonday 1 December 2014 1:55PM
Ormskirk
5G has already been announced and is expected to be operational, at least in Japan, for the next Olympics. A much higher frequency than the 800MHz band will be used for it. In which case it won't be too long before 4G becomes a legacy system.
What then for Freeview being able to return to channels 60-69 in due course?
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Page 2
Saturday 8 March 2014 11:16PM
It had been my understanding that the point of the BBC stopping BBC Three would be to avoid the transmission cost. Surely the transmission of a BBC1 +1 service would defeat that objective, leaving only a small saving from not having the scheduling cost of BBC3.
If there will no longer be a broadcast BBC3 channel, apart from continuing popular online programme conyent, few people will know what they can expect from new programme titles and therefore it can be expected that online viewing figures will decline after a while.
Surely if any channel were to be dropped,, it should be by amalgamating CBBC and CBeebies. After all, during school terms CBBC's potential viewers cannot be watching during the school day. So CBeebies, for pre-school children until 4pm and CBBC after. Or is that too simplistic?