All posts by Mark
Below are all of Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
steve tames:
The World Service is used as a sustaining service when Radio 4 LW closes down overnight (between 1-5.30am).
There is a very small number of people listening to these broadcasts.
For the times when most people listen to the radio (in the daytime) you need digital for the World Service.
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Trevor Harris:
"Ofcom had to give permission for lowering the bitrate to 64k."
That relates to commercial DAB multiplexes only.
Ofcom have never regulated audio quality or bit rates on the BBC's national multiplex. This is the responsibility of the BBC Trust.
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Trevor Dobie:
Most of the full Freeview line up of channels is available to 98% of the population via Freesat.
You don't need to pay a subscription to Sky, you can just buy a box and get the dish installed.
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michael
All standard-fit in-car DAB radios sold in the UK will receive DAB+, as they comply with the WorldDMB Profiles.
Some of the retrofit devices (such as the Pure Highway) will not receive DAB+ if purchased in the UK so you need to be careful when you buy these if you intend to drive abroad.
Ofcom has not committed the UK to DAB, in a recent report they noted that their multiplex planning is suitable for DAB+ transmissions. A test DAB+ multiplex has recently been on-air in the Brighton area.
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Trevor Harris:
"Better quality sound is not the only reason for using DAB+ it is the far superior error correction which gives more consistant coverage."
Reed-Solomon gives slightly more robust error correction but it isn't that big. In tests the indoor coverage difference was found to be around 2%.
It's worth pointing out that 64k AAC+ can sound a bit metallic (with a swishy top end) when played through hi-fi equipment. Most countries using DAB+ are typically using this bit rate. Arguably 128k MP2 using the latest encoders sounds better.
"Although DAB+ is much better it is still only suitable for national networks."
Apart from the local multiplexes (which are the same size as the BBC local stations) Ofcom have carried out a successful trial of small-scale DAB+ in Brighton which is suitable for RSL & community stations broadcasting from one transmitter.
The DAB radios are already out there on the shelves of John Lewis and Currys PC World so why use another technology for which there are no radios commercially available? It's much better for a community station to find a spare frequency in Band III and transmit on DAB (or DAB+).
MikeB is right - analogue isn't looking particularly healthy. The FM share of total listening has fallen from 67% in Q4 2010 to 58% in Q2 2013 (the RAJAR methodology hasn't altered since 2007). That's a big fall in just two and a half years - in some areas digital listening is already over 50% of the total.
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Trevor Harris:
"Ever since the public have been voting with thier wallets and not buying grotty DAB radios."
That isn't true actually - the listening figures for Absolute 80s, Planet Rock & Jazz all increased AFTER they lowered the bit rate. About two thirds of listening to these stations is via DAB, according to RAJAR.
Around 46% of homes now have access to at least one DAB radio, and DAB homes and listening are increasing every quarter.
Analogue radio sales are falling.
People are buying DAB because they like the extra stations, The Absolute 80s, Jazz and BBC 6 Music listening figures are soaring. You cannot get these stations on an FM radio.
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Trevor Harris:
The BBC carried out one DRM+ trial in Edinburgh in 2011 but we are now two years on, nothing has happened with it and they have no plans to launch any of their stations on DRM+.
There are no DRM+ radios available in the shops and no car manufacturers are fitting them (DAB is standard-fit in 39% of new cars -it should be over 50% by the end of 2013).
Small-scale stations can use "budget DAB" multiplexes which were recently demonstrated in Brighton.
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Trevor Harris:
France officially adopted DAB+ as a digital radio standard on 28th August 2013, following a request from the French regulator CSA.
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@ Trevor Harris:
"A single 64kb/s national station costs about £1 million a year to run."
That isn't right - Digital One were charging £1 million per year for a 128k stereo slot a few years ago. I think it's lower than that now as Ofcom forced them to reduce their prices as a condition of the Arqiva merger with NGW.
"Some has estimated that the advertising campaigns have run into a value of a billion pounds."
That might be what the slots would have cost to book if the ads had been aired on ITV (at ITV's peak time market rates), although at £250,000 per slot it still seems unlikely to be a billion pounds. The BBC doesn't take advertising and used its own channels so it has only cost them the price of making the promos, which is probably a few million at most.
3G and 4G can never replace FM because they are not free. This quote is from a director of Deutschlandradio:
"Digital radio via DAB+ is the future, the future of radio is not on the Internet alone and broadcast radio must be available to all.â€Â
Germany seeks FM shut-down 2020-2025 | Advanced Television
"FM and DRM can share band 2. It all means that DRM could be implemeted fairly quickly."
Ofcom are proposing to use Band II for white space devices after the national FM stations are switched off. They published a paper on this in 2011.
Ofcom | Ofcom considers future of FM radio band
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Sunday 8 September 2013 6:06PM
Trevor Harris:
The reduction in the bitrates on the BBC multiplex in November 2001 was nothing to do with the Radio Authority (Ofcom's predecessors).
This decision was taken by BBC Management (approved by the BBC Board of Governors) to add the new digital stations.
The bitrates on the BBC's national multiplex have not altered since November 2001.