All posts by Mark
Below are all of Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
BBC R4 FM is not in 24/7 stereo - many of the programmes are produced and broadcast in mono even though the stereo indicator is lit up all of the time on your radio.
Today, PM and most of the factual and documentary programmes are in mono.
Personally I think they should leave Radio 4 at 128k on DAB and reduce Radio 3 to 160k round the clock whenever 5 Live Sports Extra is on-air.
Unfortunately Radio 3's increasingly small audience has more influence with BBC management than listeners to other networks hence they get to enjoy 192k in the evenings.
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@ michael
The BBC has just signed a new contract with Arqiva to build out its national DAB multiplex to 97.2% of the population by 2015.
This funding was built into the 2010 licence fee settlement so it isn't affected by the economic downturn.
BBC - Press Office - Tim Davie speech
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@ michael
An Ofcom statement on local DAB rollout is due before Christmas.
It will cost £30 million (the BBC, commercial radio and the DCMS will each pay £10 million).
Most of the commercial radio multiplexes are owned by the transmission operator Arqiva so they are not "struggling to survive".
Digital 1 (owned by Arqiva) is now full and there is a queue of stations trying to get on there.
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@ michael
An interim statement has now been published:
Ofcom | An approach to DAB coverage planning interim statement - Summary of responses and update on further work
The final statement is due within the first quarter of 2012.
One interesting point to note:
"Our initial findings from...tests are that DAB coverage may be more extensive than has previously been predicted. In particular, results indicate that the variability of signals is considerably lower than had been assumed. Initial indications are that....the coverage estimated in our consultation may actually be greater than previously envisaged."
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The solution in the medium term is for £30 million to be set aside to pay for the transmitter rollout to 90%+ coverage, but the planned timetable for this work to be done is over the three years from 2013-15 (something to do with digital TV switchover work taking priority).
The BBC, commercial radio and the DCMS will each pay a third share towards this.
One of the main attractions of local radio is sports coverage and none of the BBC local radio commentaries are transmitted on the internet. Joe, why don't you listen to the station on FM if you are anywhere near Lancashire.
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michael:
Now North Devon from Huntshaw Cross is due in early February - delayed due to bad weather.
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@ Dave Lindsay
That's true up to a point, but there will be public funding for local DAB multiplexes (from the DCMS & the BBC) and the North Devon mux will reach well over 90% of the area's population before Radio Devon on FM is switched off.
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DRM+ is not backward compatible with the DAB network, the BBC would have to tear down its DAB transmitters and start again.
However the good news is that DAB+ can be broadcast on the BBC's current DAB transmitter network without any further expense necessary, and of course it's much more efficient than original DAB.
DAB+ is quickly becoming a de facto digital radio standard in Europe, with Germany, Italy & France all intending to use it.
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@ Nedbod
I'm not sure what you're doing to your Pure tuners, maybe you have just been unlucky.
I have had a Pure DRX-701 ES since 2002 and never had anything go wrong with it. It's still working fine after ten years.
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Wednesday 23 November 2011 7:08PM
@ Nedbod
The policy of reducing the Radio 4 bit rate when 5 Live Sports X is on-air after 5pm was introduced in 2001. This is not a permanent reduction and Radio 4 will often be in stereo in the evenings (although not this week due to the tennis).
FM switch-off will not happen in 2015, everyone knows that - it's now generally accepted that it will probably happen around 2020.
The average life cycle of a car is eight years so many people will have DAB fitted as standard by then - Ford, Vauxhall and others will fit DAB as standard in all of their models by the end of 2012.
The BBC's FM transmitters will need replacing shortly after 2020 so at this point they will just not bother with FM and concentrate on DAB instead. It's similar to the policy now in place with long wave.