All posts by Mark
Below are all of Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Clacton-on-Sea is in Essex, not Suffolk.
There is a proposed relay transmitter for the Now Essex multiplex for Clacton, due in the next few years.
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@ alan mapp
When did you last try DAB in Yeovil?
The BBC opened a new transmitter at Coker Hill on 16 December 2011 (and another at Shaftesbury on 4th May 2012).
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@ Nedbod
"an OfCom spokesperson told me last week that if the BBC need extra capacity on DAB, they only have to ask for it (and presumably pay for it)."
The BBC is entitled to bid for the second national commercial multiplex (Block 11A - which is about to readvertised) through one of its commercial companies (BBC Enterprise or BBC Worldwide). Alternatively they are permitted to lease capacity on this national multiplex (or on Digital One).
The Ofcom spokesman was factually correct but it isn't going to happen because the BBC don't have any spare funding for it. The only available BBC DAB funds have been ringfenced for rollout of their existing national mux (to 97% coverage) and part-paying for the local DAB rollout (as agreed in the recently signed MoU). If they had more funds they would try and increase the coverage of their existing mux, not spend it on further mux capacity.
In summary the audio quality of the BBC DAB services isn't going to improve unless they switch their existing national mux to DAB+.
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@ michael
Some BBC stations are removed from Freeview in Scotland between 5pm and midnight to accommodate the BBC Alba service. It's down to a lack of available capacity on the BBC's DTT multiplex. It only affects the stations that are available on FM/AM and doesn't affect the digital-only stations.
The MoU is an agreement signed by the BBC, commercial radio and the DCMS whereby each will pay one third of the local DAB rollout costs. It becomes legally binding on the parties in the event of a DCMS decision to go ahead with switchover (the decision will be taken in October 2013).
I'm not sure which budget constraints you are referring to but the BBC has already put aside the funding for its share of the costs.
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@ Mike Dimmick
"No-one has yet figured out who is to pay for increasing the DAB coverage to the same level as FM. The commercial stations don't want to do it..."
This is no longer true, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in July 2012 outlines the funding for the rollout of local DAB multiplexes by committing each party (DCMS, BBC & commercial radio) to one third each of the cost of the work. All parties have signed up to this. The BBC have ringfenced licence fee funds fro the current settlement for their share of this cost.
"for national radio the current licence fee settlement requires them to get to 97% population coverage, still short of the 99% FM is estimated to reach"
The 99% FM coverage figure includes those with mono or hissy FM reception and those requiring a roof aerial to get any sort of signal. The figure for robust good quality FM reception is 94.9%. The BBC's national DAB coverage is very close to this now and will surpass it in 2015 when it reaches 97.4%.
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@michael^
DAB & DAB+ services can exist together on the same multiplex, and Ofcom's current regulations allow up to 30% of DAB multiplexes to be filled with DAB+ services (70% of the mux must be MP2 audio services).
There are no regular DAB+ services in the UK because there are not enough DAB+ sets to justify them, but this should change in a few years' time, especially as all of the in-car DAB sets are DAB+ compatible.
Many elderly people have spent money on DAB receivers in the UK and because of this I think it will be several years before the BBC switches its services to DAB+.
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@ Roger Martlew
These DAB allocations have now been dropped. It was decided not to proceed with DAB in the L-Band because it performed poorly indoors.
The L-Band frequencies were sold to Qualcomm, a wireless technology developer, in May 2008.
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@ michael
My understanding of the position is as follows:
To launch this year:
28 March BBC Northampton
late March/early April BBC Wales (NE Wales & W Cheshire)
June BBC Gloucestershire
August BBC Wales (Mid & West Wales)
September BBC Hereford & Worcester
Also in 2013 (no firm dates): BBC Derby, BBC Surrey
No dates yet for BBC Lincolnshire, BBC Cumbria, BBC Suffolk, BBC York, BBC Somerset.
The funding for further rollout of transmitters is provisionally agreed and will become legally binding on all of the parties that signed the MoU if the Government agrees to proceed with a switchover (decision due October 2013, the switchover would probably happen around 2019 or 2020).
Subject to a positive switchover decision local multiplexes will be rolled out to 90% coverage by December 2015, and to "FM equivalent" levels by March 2017.
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The 2015 election is irrelevant because all of the major parties are in favour of a digital switchover, provided the 50% threshold is met. There is no difference between Labour and the Conservatives on this and radio won't be a major election issue anyway, the economy will dominate matters.
At the Radiodays conference the Dutch spokesman said that they expect to switch off FM in 2023.
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Wednesday 3 October 2012 1:28PM
@ Ian
I think you misunderstood my post.
The West Midlands regional mux is closing down which means there is a spare frequency (12C) which is available for use somewhere in the Midlands.
It makes sense to use 12C for the Leicestershire mux from Waltham (and other sites). The mux would still have all the current Leicester stations, but the frequency switch would enable an increase in coverage across the county.