All posts by Mark
Below are all of Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
michael: The Ofcom coverage maps reflect the position a) when 90% rollout has been achieved and b) the DSO position, as outlined in the MoU.
They do not reflect the current position on any of the local multiplexes and nobody is claiming that FM can be switched off with current DAB coverage.
There are one or two exceptions, such as Leeds, where 96% coverage has now been reached, but most local muxes need investment as agreed in the MoU.
There is currently only one local DAB transmitter on-air in North Devon but the Ofcom map shows many more than this for the DSO position.
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Mark: Choice FM has been removed from DAB in the West Midlands.
Capital & Heart have transferred to the local multiplexes: Birmingham 11C, Wolverhampton 11B, Coventry 12D.
Brian: BBC Radio WM hasn't moved at all (it was always on the local muxes) so I'm not sure why it would have disappeared from your radio since Tuesday.
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Trevor Harris:
"I am not sure if everyone has noticed that the BBC does not broadcast in stereo on any of its DAB stations. The BBC uses Joint stereo which encodes the stereo information in a compressed form"
BBC Radio 3 uses 192kbps discrete stereo except when 5 Live Sports Extra is on-air before 5pm.
After 5pm Radio 3 always uses 192k discrete stereo.
"I think it is a mystery to everyone as to why the BBC did not switch to DAB+ in the early days when there were few recievers."
It depends what you mean by the early days. The codec for DAB+ is HE-AAC (or AAC+) and this wasn't standardised until 2006. By then a lot of DAB radios had been sold in the UK. In countries where DAB+ is used the bitrates vary between 48k-80k, so it isn't CD quality by a long way.
"The EBU does not recommend DAB. The EBU does recommend DRM+ where DAB+ is not suitable."
There is no evidence for this assertion. The EBU supports all WorldDMB profile systems (including DAB, DAB+ & DMB) as well as DRM/DRM+, although DRM/DRM+ is not part of their EuroChip standard:
http://www3.ebu.ch/files/….pdf
In my opinion the small-scale DAB solution that Ofcom is looking at for community radio is likely to finish off DRM+, there are no commercial receivers available and,if community and RSL stations can use a cheap form of DAB/DAB+ it isn't worth bothering with a different standard altogether.
"As far as I know the UK is the only country still using DAB. European countries has also experienced the lack of demand that the UK has."
Norway, Denmark, Ireland & Holland are using DAB or a mix of DAB/DAB+. Germany and Italy are rapidly expanding their DAB+ networks due to popular demand. Holland has today launched a national commercial DAB+ multiplex with eighteen new stations, and Italy's national commercial mutliplex will tomorrow be expanded to the Rome area.
"Sweden has abandoned DAB+ altogether ."
This is just not true. Sweden is proposing to roll out DAB+ to the whole of the country in 2014 (to be ratified by the Parliament in October).
Sweden | Country Information
| WorldDMB
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@ Trevor:
"Why should 50% of listeners be deprived of FM national stations just to satisfy the small minority who wish to listen to the DAB only stations."
If fewer than 50% of listening is via FM then digital listening must be more than 50% - some of it will be DAB, some online and some digital TV. It doesn't matter how much of each because the future of radio will be a mix of digital platforms.
In December 2010 FM listening accounted for 67% of listening, In June 2013 it accounted for just 58.5%. That's a fall of 8.5% in just two and half years.
No digital platform is seeing its audience fall. Imagine how low FM listening is going to be in 2020 when most people have access to a phone, tablet or DAB radio (or all three).
BBC Radio 6 Music now has almost as many listeners as BBC Radio 3 (it will shorlty overtake it).so it isn't such a small minority listening to these stations. BBC 1 Xtra is the 7th biggest station in London by reach.
"They could use one of the cheap transmitters Ofcom has been talking about only they could use DAB+ at 320kb/s"
The DAB spec only goes up to 192kbps.
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A correction to my earlier post:
BBC 1 Xtra is the 7th biggest station in London by reach among 15-24 year-olds, not overall.
I think that's still pretty impressive though when you consider the number of stations aimed at young people in London.
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Trevor Harris:
The digital listening share in June 2013 is 36.8%, up from 31.5% in June 2012. If we assume a minimum growth of 5.3 percentage points each year the 50% threshold will be met in late 2015.
http://www.rajar.co.uk/do….pdf
It will be achieved well before any switch off at the end of this decade.
However digital listening has increased by 2.5 percentage points since March 2013, which suggests that it's accelerating and the 50% may be reached sooner than late 2015.
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Doug:
"DAB is not the answer - system is ridiculously power hungry sets eat batteries - less than 8 hours from a new set is just not on! And quality is so poor compared to FM."
Which sets are you referring to here? The early DAB sets were power-hungry but many of the latest portables from Pure & Roberts will run for 100+ hours on a set of batteries.
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Trevor Harris:
"The internet has very high resiliance."
Mobile networks were shut down completely after the Boston marathon bombing. The only way to listen to radio was via broadcast platforms. In times of emergency a broadcast platform is essential.
"My Guess is [the BBC] want to use [DRM+] in band II after the switch off."
Ofcom are proposing to use some of the FM band for community and small-scale stations, the remainder will be auctioned off for white space devices under their draft proposals. The BBC has no proposals to use DRM+ in the UK, as all of their stations will fit on to DAB multiplexes. The World Service is on DAB in the UK, but DRM is useful for reaching remote parts of the globe (including parts of India, Russia & Brazil).
They are not keeping quiet, there is just nothing happening with DRM+ in the UK.
France has just approved DAB+ as an oficial standard, and DAB+ stations will launch there shortly.
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steve tames:
You don't need to turn on the TV to listen to the radio through a Freeview or satellite box.
Online listening doesn't need a computer. Lots of people listen via a mobile or a wi-fi radio.
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Friday 30 August 2013 6:10PM
@ Trevor Harris
Germany has launched a traffic system on DAB:
http://www.worlddab.org/n….pdf