[cma-l] Ofcom publishes applications for small scale DAB trials

Alan Coote alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk
Thu Apr 16 15:41:38 BST 2015 

I agree it would be nuts not to operate a MUX for profit. There¹s a clear
case for separating out the MUX operations from the occupying services.

Firstly the MUX business could be owned by a separate entity and sell the
spare capacity to generate real income for the Not for Profit station(s).
Secondly the carriage on the MUX could be a benefit in kind thereby opening
the opportunity for more on air income.

The above assumes that the ridiculous community rules are carried forward to
Small Scale DAB.  However, I think this would be more difficult to make
stick as commercially Ofcom require different entities to own MUX Wireless
and Service Provider licenses.

How much one charges for carriage is another matter.
 
Alan
 

From:  Associated Consultants <info at a-bc.co.uk>
Date:  Thursday, 16 April 2015 15:07
To:  "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
Cc:  "martin at martinsteers.co.uk" <martin at martinsteers.co.uk>, Apple
<alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk>
Subject:  Re: [cma-l] Ofcom publishes applications for small scale DAB
trials

Ian,

I don't see anything particularly wrong with a commercial approach per se.
Indeed many community stations may not want the hassle, or not be the best
type of organisation to run a reliable, sustainable mux.  So why not have a
company that delivers that service?

Where I would have a problem would be if incumbent Mux operators were
allowed to bid for them.  This would present a real risk that they repeat
the pricing model they have for existing DAB - undermining the whole point
of the project!

My working assumption here is that any DAB mux would contain a number of
services.  In theory I guess a mux could just be one service, and in that
circumstance it would most sensibly be operated by that community station.
But surely Ofcom would not encourage such inefficient use of spectrum (a DAB
mux uses an identical amount of spectrum whether it contains one station or
20)

Glyn

-- 
Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant
Associated Broadcast Consultants <http://www.a-bc.co.uk/>





On 16 April 2015 at 13:08, Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com> wrote:
> As the trial was originated to allow access to DAB for Community Radio
> Licensees, I for one will be highly disappointed and probably quite verbal if
> this is seen to be taken over by the commercial interests.
> Having been directly involved with 14 of the applicants and provided the
> technical input to their submissions, I have seen in the ones we have
> supported alone enough variety to cover the 10 available trial formats.
> But unreserved compliments to Martin James and Rashid Mustapha and their
> colleagues at Ofcom both for persevering with the initiative - and clearly
> generating an excellent response.
> 
> 
> From: martin at martinsteers.co.uk
> Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2015 12:20:32 +0100
> To: alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk
> CC: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [cma-l] Fwd: Ofcom publishes applications for small scale DAB
> trials
> 
> 
> I imagine that Ofcom might want a variety of people community / commercial to
> test the water.
> 
> What has been slightly frustrating is that so many applications have ticked
> the confidentiality box for details of their application.
> 
> Celador application is for a single transmitter to cover Bristol.
> 
> UKRD one seems to be just to cover Start Cambridge, although they have
> selected type 3 "An SFN carrying multiple services based on at least two
> transmitter sites with one of them an on-channel repeater (OCR)."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 16 April 2015 at 12:13, Alan Coote <alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk> wrote:
>> 
>> I see that UKRD and Celador have made applications, the former not a member
>> of Radio Centre (publicly they fell out over Radio Centre¹s push to DAB) and
>> Celador presumably looking at the feasibility of Small Scale DAB for their
>> Breeze brand which is on FM only.
>> 
>> This raises interesting questions regarding the commercial verses community
>> license policy which DCMS may apply to Small Scale DAB.
>> 
>> Kind Regards
>> Alan
>> 
>> Alan Coote
>> Executive Producer Let¹s Talk Business
>> 
>> Email - alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk
>> Phone - 0800 949 6655
>> Mobile - 07801 518858
>> Twitter - @TheAlanCoote <http://www.twitter.com/TheAlanCoote>
>> Web - http://www.5digital.co.uk <http://www.5digital.co.uk/>
>> 
>> From:  "martin at martinsteers.co.uk" <martin at martinsteers.co.uk>
>> Reply-To:  "martin at martinsteers.co.uk" <martin at martinsteers.co.uk>,
>> "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
>> Date:  Thursday, 16 April 2015 11:13
>> To:  "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
>> Subject:  [cma-l] Fwd: Ofcom publishes applications for small scale DAB
>> trials
>> 
>> Very interesting and fantastic to see 51 applications for the trial, I do
>> wonder if Ofcom will increase / extend the trail.
>> 
>> on a side note I have plotted all the applications onto map to see areas.
>> This can be found here: http://goo.gl/7kZ15B (Please feel free to share.
>> 
>> NOTE the map is based on application address on the website and might not
>> mean actual coverage or station address (Example there are 3 applications at
>> BFBS).
>> 
>> 
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Ofcom Updates <Updates at maillist.ofcom.org.uk>
>> Date: 16 April 2015 at 10:30
>> Subject: Ofcom publishes applications for small scale DAB trials
>> To: "martin at martinsteers.co.uk" <martin at martinsteers.co.uk>
>> 
>> 
>>  
>>   
>>  
>>  
>> Web Version <http://ofcom.cmail2.com/t/i-e-yhujtjy-ptyukklu-r/>  | Update
>> preferences <http://ofcom.updatemyprofile.com/i-yhujtjy-701C9B68-ptyukklu-y>
>> <http://ofcom.cmail2.com/t/i-fb-yhujtjy-ptyukklu-j/>
>> <http://ofcom.cmail2.com/t/i-tw-yhujtjy-ptyukklu-t/>
>> <http://ofcom.forwardtomyfriend.com/i-ptyukklu-701C9B68-yhujtjy-l-i>
>>   
>>       
>>  Ofcom has published 51 applications
>> <http://ofcom.cmail2.com/t/i-l-yhujtjy-ptyukklu-h/>  received for trials of a
>> new approach that could provide small radio stations across the UK with an
>> affordable way to broadcast on DAB digital radio. Known as Œsmall scale DAB¹,
>> the new approach is best suited for broadcasting to a small geographic area,
>> ideal for community and local radio stations. Ofcom intends to license up to
>> ten trials of small scale DAB to help inform Ofcom¹s work on identifying
>> suitable frequencies for broadcasting smaller digital stations and how these
>> services could be licensed. Small scale DAB is cheaper than current systems
>> because it is uses software freely available from opendigitalradio.org
>> <http://opendigitalradio.org>  rather than relying on often expensive
>> hardware equipment. If the trials are successful, UK radio listeners could
>> benefit from more local and community radio stations on DAB. A press release
>> announcing the trials is available on Ofcom¹s website
>> <http://ofcom.cmail2.com/t/i-l-yhujtjy-ptyukklu-k/> .
>>  
>>  
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