[cma-l] Community & Local Radio - the Digital Issue

[James Cridland]

Not sure you've understood what I was saying, but thanks for lots of
anti-DAB technology rhetoric.

By "market-led", I'm talking about the international market, including
receiver availability and market conditions as well as technology - things
that this paper ignores. I love DRM+ as a technology - though there's not
much wrong with FM, either. The bald facts are that there are no DRM+
receivers available anywhere in the world at any volume; and as for DVB-T
Lite, that's fanciful nonsense, requiring an entirely new transmitter
network. Meanwhile, DAB+ has wide take up across Europe and Australia, and
is now in (so they say) 70% of all new cars as standard bought in the UK.
It is nonsense to expect community radio to willingly accept DRM+ as a
future standard if there are no receivers out there.

I remain against any government-mandated switchover, and point to the
future of radio as being multiplatform. Community radio would do well to
pressure receiver manufacturers to be platform agnostic and embrace the
benefits of hybrid radio, which would then enable a level playing-field for
all broadcasters, irrespective of chosen platform.

http://www.mediauk.com/article/34394/radioplayer-on-a-radio-a-user-experience-triumph
shows just one example of a platform-agnostic radio. Now, why can't we have
more of them?

james.cridland.net

On Sun, 16 Nov 2014 15:17 tlr at gairloch.co.uk <tlr at gairloch.co.uk> wrote:

>  And apologies for "swatches"; please read "swathes"!
>
> Alex
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> From: "Two Lochs Radio" <tlr at gairloch.co.uk>
> To: "The Community Media Association Discussion List" <
> cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
> Subject: [cma-l] Community &amp; Local Radio - the Digital Issue
> Date: Sun, Nov 16, 2014 13:59
>
> Really James? If digital radio had been led by the market I doubt very
> much we would be talking about DAB at all (unless you regard the
> broadcasters rather than the listeners as the market!)
>
> And if it had been technology-led, or even commonsense-led, DCMS would
> have mandated a rapid migration to DAB+ between 2008 and 2013, before even
> considering FM switch-offs, rather than letting Ofcom and the BBC plough on
> into the DAB dead-end.
>
> I think also you have quite a different experience of DAB in an urban area
> with multiple multiplexes commercially viable. In the vast more remote and
> rual swatches of the UK, such as here in the north-west, the coverage
> footpriunt of the BBC's DAB transmitters is significantly less than their
> FM counterparts in many cases. Although DAB can take advantage of multipath
> reception, in practice this seems to be outweighed by the poorer overall
> propagation in Band III. Here in Gairloch, with a powerful main transmitter
> just a few miles away DAB in too weak to be received except in some
> favourable patches, not in the main population centres.
>
> On top of that, being DAB rather than DAB+, the BBC multiplex does not
> have the capacity to carry its own national channels (Radio Scotland and
> Radio nan Gaidheal), so it can never achieve FM equivalence on its own, and
> areas of low population such as this are not attractive to any commercial
> operators.
>
> The only answer on the horizon at the moment seems to be for the BBC to
> pay for carriage on local DAB multiplexes operated by the not-for profit
> micro-commercials/community stations that are spread across the region. Our
> local population would then be able to get the local station, and the BBC
> Scottish services, but not the UK-wide BBC digital services - maybe good
> for us, but not so good for listener choice!
>
> Alex
> Two Lochs Radio
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* James Cridland <james at cridland.net>
> *To:* The Community Media Association Discussion List
> <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk> ; cma-l <cma-l at commedia.org.uk>
> *Sent:* Sunday, November 16, 2014 9:46 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [cma-l] Community & Local Radio - the Digital Issue
>
> When reading this document, remember that the future of digital radio is
> led by the market, not just by the technology. To blindly recommend systems
> based on technology-only isn't credible.
>
> I don't disagree with his technological conclusions. However, there's a
> lot of market conditions that he's ignored, which makes this paper
> worthless.
>
> Its an interesting read, though. Thanks for sharing it.
>
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