All posts by Trevor Harris
Below are all of Trevor Harris's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Actually the original spec went up to 384kb/s for stereo on DAB. I seem to remember some stations in Europe were using 320kb/s. The DAB+ spec may have reduced the maximum for AAC but I need to check.
The target fixed by "The Plan" is for 50% digital listening. If the plan is happens (which it won't) 50% won't be able to listen on FM especially in their cars. Many people listen to the radio on FM in thier cars on the way to and from work. Can the BBC afford to loose this number of listeners. It would be a public relations disaster.
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Actually I am not an FM fanatic but I am against the BBC trying to force people to go over to DAB which is what they are doing by turning off national BBC FM stations. The BBC has spent hundreds of millions on massive advertising campains with very little efffect. The idea to turn off a service still used by 50% of users is ludicrous.
If people want a separate radio service to replace FM then is should be replaced with a superior technology not the legacy DAB system. FM should only be turned off when only a few people are still using it. The 50% figure is far too high.
I personally believe the the internet is the best way to deliver all broadcasting services but I think it will be some time before it can. Whatever happens it should be consumer driven and DAB is not. It is driven by massive advertising campains and threats to turn off FM.
There has also been the problem of DAB switch offs. Some people have gone out and bought a DAB reciever only to find thier favourite station has been withdrawn. My advice to people is to buy an Internet Radio for indoor use.
It is odd that the BBC has continued to support DAB in the face of such opposition. I think the BBC cannot afford to admit to another major project failure.
As for sound quality not being important in car radios I don't realy agree. It does depend on your car but manufacturers spend quite alot of money on the audio system. Many now have seperate amplifiers with 8 speaker systems.
Another thing is that all the BBC stations are available at 128kb/s AAC on the internet. They have been designed for Itunes to use but it is possibe to use them on internet radios. The BBC seems very coy about these as I can find nothing about them on thier web site.
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@PJH
The internet has very high resiliance. The internet routing protocol automatically find the best route to send packets to its destination. Major fibre links are backed up by satellite links.
As for DAB major transmitters I understand are fed by fibre or microwave links. Fill in stations may be fed from the major transmitters. I think they do have backup links.
There is also Freeview and Satellite for radio backup. DAB is not needed.
By the way DRM and DRM+ are not dead. France has a trial on at the moment. The BBC is heavily involved in DRM development but it is thought that they have kept quiet about it because of DAB. My Guess is that they want to use it in band II after the switch off. The BBC world service already uses it for the world service.
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Wow Brian being critical of the BBC. I never thought I would see the day.
In my view the BBC should be very limited in the commercial operations it is involved with. It seems to me the sale and purchase of programs or the licencing of technology are legitimate operations for the BBC. The running of broadcasting outside the UK is not. I think BBC worldwide should be sold off and the BBC should sell its programing to the new company in the normal way.
You mention the problems at the BBC. In fact it's a bit like Watergate the coverup just keeps climbing up the management structure to the very top. A year ago people were asking if Murdoch was a suitable person to run Sky. Now the table has turned and we need to ask if Lord Patten is a suitable person to run the BBC.
Most quangos have been disolved but the BBC has some how managed to survive. Quangos are famed for bad management and non existant financial controls. Just how much longer can we put up with the BBC who now treat licence payers with contempt.
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I think the BBC world service was paid for by the Governement so did not affect licence payers. The Government has now forced the licence payer to pay which has no justification at all.
Salaries should reflect a persons true value to a company. I know the Bank of America had a pay structure for technical people which matched the most senior management salaries.
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DRM+ can be used in the space between the current FM stations. Ideal for local stations as DRM+ is not multiplexed.
As for Boston marathon there was still broadband, satelitte, and cable. They may even have public wifi.
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The problem is that the BBC trust has clearly failed to represent licence payers. For me it was the way the complaints about BBC HD bitrates were handled. An Ofcom take over would be even worst. They were the ones who reduced the DAB nitrates dispite public opposition.
The BBC should be reduced in size with the rest being sold off.
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@mark
Ofcom had to give permission for lowering the bitrate to 64k. They had a public consultation which showed that the public were against the plan. As this was not what ofcom wanted they did their own "research" which contradicted the public consultation.
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Ho Ho Ho. So analogue is dead is it. Amazon has just reported a masive 745% increase in sale of vinyl records since 2008. Of course playing vinyl can be expensive with the best cartridges selling for several thousand pounds each.
DAB is dead. Long live FM,
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Tuesday 3 September 2013 10:20AM
@Terry
Exactly. The choice argument is very suspect. Have a choice of of 55 stations with such low quality is not realy a choice at all. In any case many of the stations have very similar playlists and many are not distinguishable by content. In fact there are very few specialist stations other than pirate radio stations.
May be we need a few pirate radio stations to show how to do it properly. They could use one of the cheap transmitters Ofcom has been talking about only they could use DAB+ at 320kb/s. Then people would start to ask why the pirates sound so much better. In fact the local stations could use a higher quality too.
Of course all is not lost because we have the internet. Radio Jackie has an unadulterated 320kb/s aac stream.
Of course it is the so called FM switch off which is the big bone of contention. 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.
The other issue is that I am forced by law to pay for all this and all the other financial blunders the BBC has made.