[cma-l] DAB Switchover

[Clive Glover]

Grant has absolutely hit the nail into the coffin (to mix metaphors a bit!).

DAB is a "dead man walking" and it would perhaps be one of the better "cuts" to come out of the spending reviews. If the BBC were "reluctantly" to give it up as a contribution to "cuts" then the commercial sector would follow in days. The "digital platforms" of choice are online streaming plus satellite, cable and FreeView FTA TV. WiFi to vehicles is already being trialled and will be widespread within a few years (it is aimed at improved traffic information but once you have it you can listen to radio online, check your emails - hands free of course! and so on...)

But there is  a lesson here for us all. Adopting a new technology before it has widespread public acceptance is not a good idea. I can remember not just BetaMax, but X400 email (developed by the BT's and other telecoms companies), D-MAC digital television (developed by ITV) and so on. DRM and DRM+ may look to be the future now but could equally be dead ends.

Clive Glover


On 14 Sep 2010, at 01:40, Alan Coote wrote:

> An excellent blog by Grant. 
> 
> As I have said before on this forum and others, after so many years of
> flocking this Betamax of a radio systems, please will someone with enough
> courage kill it off.
> 
> It's ridiculous that this  country, a leader in broadcasting and technology,
> can't swallow it's pride and commit to the evidently technically superior
> DRM & DRM+.
> 
> With such a ubiquitous platform there will not be a broadcaster in the
> country without a route to digital and therefore, broadcasters, manufactures
> and consumers will all benefit.
> 
> Alan
> 
> Alan Coote
> Managing Director 
> The Bay Radio
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
> [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Richard Hilton
> Sent: 13 September 2010 5:44 PM
> To: CMA-L
> Subject: [cma-l] DAB Switchover
> 
> At times Paul Goddard can come across like a lone Don Quixote figure tilting
> at the DAB windmill (and I mean that in the nicest way possible!).  The DAB
> lobby tend not to engage with him, perhaps hoping that by ignoring him
> everyone else will as well. However, it is worth noting that his writing is
> nearly always backed up with detailed technical analysis.
> 
> His latest blog, guaranteed to irritate the DAB lobby, starts as follows:-
> 
> 'I am often asked why I believe that digital radio switchover will never
> happen in the UK. My answer is always this - the available statistics and
> data on consumer take-up of DAB radio fail to demonstrate that it will grow
> sufficiently to become the mass medium for radio broadcasting. I can see
> nothing in more than a decade of figures to offer an inkling that DAB radio
> will ever become anything more than a minority interest, compared to FM/AM'
> 
> I'll leave you to read the rest at :-
> 
> http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/
> 
> Regards
> 
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
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