[cma-l] [***SPAM***]

gary.jackson at my-generation.org.uk gary.jackson at my-generation.org.uk
Sun Sep 6 16:04:51 BST 2015


I live in Southampton, I have a Roberts 83i stream DAB radio and I STILL 
can't get a decent DAB signal for radio 2

Gary

On 06/09/2015 13:08, Canalside's The Thread wrote:
>
> Chaps
>
> All this technical Radio jargon is very interesting indeed and very 
> educational …. I have to confess I don’t understand all of it but I’m 
> getting to learn about 40% of it with a couple of our tecky chaps 
> hovering around 70% ….you guys are clearly experts   (re :- James / 
> Ian / Alex / Glynn et al)      however chaps, we never seem to manage 
> to get to the nitty gritty, and I would imagine at least half of the 
> folk on the message board are slightly more interested in how much 
> money does each Community Radio Station need to save in its Piggy Bank 
> to get itself on small scale DAB & FM, as opposed to learning about 
> algorithms  ….. (this is a tongue in-cheek joke chaps merely asking 
> what I feel the more important question, so don’t shoot the messenger)
>
> I have already asked the question and I would imagine that the likes 
> of Ian being in his field of work (for example) would be able to come 
> up with a ball-park figure)     I know DAB trials are taking place but 
> surely whether successful or not the end result is can it be afforded 
> ?     if it can’t be afforded then the whole exercise is pointless 
> anyway    isn’t it ???
>
> I am merely picking up on James’s observations and Glynn (I think)   
> who pointed out that possibly this DAB malarkey is one of those 
> situations whereby we some of us may end being dragged kicking and 
> screaming as failure to hook into it would mean the big boys clear up 
> completely.
>
> We all understand what Community Radio is about, but regardless of the 
> whys, whats and wherefores we still have to compete at some kind of 
> level or we wither and die    (unless of course we win the lottery or 
> receive grants that don’t exist)(re my post earlier this week)
>
> Would you gentlemen of great Community Radio loveliness please flop a 
> ball park figure on this message board for all to see re the cost of 
> medium priced equipment, set up and running for DAB …… on top of what 
> I have roughly worked out to be and ongoing cost of around = £5000 
> quid for those already broadcasting  (new additions of course would 
> have their initial set up – transmitters / aerials / installation etc)
>
> This five grand figure allows for maintainance and includes 
> PPL/PRS/Canstream/other licences/Internet/Ofcom licence ….. I have 
> kept it top side as opposed to lower end.
>
> Assuming that PPL/PRS will be hovering, circling and then charging 
> additionally for something that technically is already covered, would 
> the figure be roughly the same? as I have to admit reading all the 
> posts we seem to have gone from DAB being really expensive to it not 
> being quite as expensive as we first thought, to it being rather cheap 
> and then back to reasonably expensive again and for us to do it we 
> would be doing it because we simply ‘had to’ ’or else’  as opposed to 
> wanting to do it     in otherwords the ‘getting left behind discussion.
>
> I hope you have followed my thread and got the gist of it, apologies 
> if it is in laymans terms.
>
> Let’s us call the discussion not ‘’’versus’’’ but DAB & FM
>
> Thank you
>
> Regards
>
> Nick
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:*cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk 
> [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] *On Behalf Of *James 
> Cridland
> *Sent:* 05 September 2015 20:47
> *To:* Two Lochs Radio; cma-l
> *Subject:* Re: [cma-l] Eddie on DAB v FM
>
> I use TuneIn's app too.
>
> Radioplayer provides:
>
> 1. A web player that actually works, and that lets people find your 
> station from BBC Radio 2!
>
> 2. A capable app that surfaces your station - first - for people in 
> your transmission area on iOS and Android, Amazon and Windows.
>
> 3. Logos, schedules and broadcast details for your station for a 
> variety of uses including Radioplayer Car, RadioDNS-enabled tuners, 
> and other things
>
> 4. A Chrome app (which I wrote <- disclosure) that puts your station 
> onto everyone's desktop
>
> 5. An app that puts your station onto Ford Sync, Apple CarPlay and 
> Android Auto (and lets you control it from Apple Watch and Android Wear)
>
> 6. Liason on behalf of the entire radio industry to set-top box 
> manufacturers, car manufacturers and other organisations that you 
> don't talk to nor have the clout to
>
> 7. Usage data
>
> ...and is run on behalf of the radio industry with your goals in mind.
>
> Even for #1 on that list, it's worth the £99. I appreciate it isn't 
> free; but then, it isn't slotting ads in front of your streams or 
> making you compete with 100,000 other stations, either.
>
> //j
>
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 8:32 PM Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk 
> <mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk>> wrote:
>
>     //Your fee for Radioplayer is £99. “A more proportionate fee”?!//
>
>     Just so, but Michael originally asked £300, which we negotiated
>     down to £90 (that was at launch, it has increased 10% since).
>
>     TuneIn's app provides more advanced facilities than Radioplayer
>     and the service is entirely free to originating stations. They
>     also provide a schedule and 'On now' without us having to lift a
>     finger - they scrape our own published schedule periodically (I
>     must ask them to update it as it seems to be slightly out of date).
>
>     Alex
>
>>     On 05 September 2015 at 20:03 James Cridland <james at cridland.net
>>     <mailto:james at cridland.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     Your fee for Radioplayer is £99. "A more proportionate fee"?!
>>
>>     On Sat, 5 Sep 2015 19:47 Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk
>>     <mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk>> wrote:
>>
>>         Yes, of course I'm aware of the other variants of FM, my
>>         point was that there seems ot be alarge enough market for RDS
>>         for set makers, even portables and some phones, such as HTC,
>>         to judge it worthwhile supporting RDS.
>>
>>         //And you need to be continuously scanning the FM and DAB
>>         bands to populate this station list name, otherwise when
>>         travelling you'll never find local radio.//
>>
>>         The radio does that for itself unbidden. I routinely use the
>>         radio's station list to see what stations are in range.
>>
>>         //Incidentally, I cannot comprehend why anyone wouldn't be on
>>         Radioplayer, I must say: its the R&D department for the whole
>>         of UK radio.//
>>
>>         The main reason for not being on RadioPlayer would be the
>>         cost and the fact that ithey won't allow you to be on mobiles
>>         if you don't provide a low-rate bitstream. We joined it when
>>         the BBC was on it and didn't have its own radioplayer which
>>         rather undermined  UK Radioplayer's proposition. But we did
>>         first have to negotiate a more proportionate fee!
>>
>>         As a user, I still prefer to use TuneIn. It has far more
>>         facilities.
>>
>>         Alex
>>
>>>         On 05 September 2015 at 18:45 James Cridland
>>>         <james at cridland.net <mailto:james at cridland.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>>         Hi, Alex,
>>>
>>>         The UK market is a tiny and inconsequential one to most
>>>         manufacturers. The Digital Radio tickmark thing is actually
>>>         deliberately set to mirror similar accreditation systems in
>>>         Europe and Australia. Further, the radio industry is
>>>         uninterested in how radio sets operate, and not big or
>>>         united enough to talk to most manufacturers in a coherent
>>>         manner.
>>>
>>>         Really, we have a "North America vs rest-of-world" thing
>>>         going on in radio receivers. You are correct that AM is
>>>         different - so is FM, in fact, with different deemphasis
>>>         values used as well as different frequency spacing. Pedants:
>>>         Japan's different still, with FM from 76 to 108MHz. And
>>>         parts of ex Soviet countries use something different again.
>>>
>>>         "Animated and dynamic RDS names do not break tuning by name"
>>>         - I bow to your obvious knowledge. I'd only observe that
>>>         scrolling now-playing info, in place in many parts of the
>>>         world, means that you end up with station names like "TY
>>>         PERRY" or even "LE NOW O" which really isn't the sort of
>>>         user experience any one wants to give, and certainly isn't
>>>         recognisable.
>>>
>>>         Tuning by station name doesn't work on AM - but I'd argue
>>>         that AM isn't part of radio's future anyway. (Pedants: it
>>>         does, if you use AMSS, a kind of RDS for AM. Nobody does).
>>>
>>>         Further, the ideal is tuning by station name irrespective of
>>>         waveband - so you'd get "BBC 6 Music" in the same list as
>>>         "TwoLochs". (You want that, right?) The issue here is that
>>>         de-duping the list isn't simple; "BBC R Scot" on FM in your
>>>         part of the world could be different to "BBC Radio Scotland"
>>>         on an available local multiplex, because of local optouts.
>>>         The BBC have deliberately broken service-following between
>>>         FM and DAB, which has the side effect of also breaking any
>>>         way that your radio can de-dupe Radio 4 FM from Radio 4 DAB.
>>>         And so on.
>>>
>>>         And you need to be continuously scanning the FM and DAB
>>>         bands to populate this station list name, otherwise when
>>>         travelling you'll never find local radio.
>>>
>>>         The "Radioplayer Car" unit, currently in test, does all you
>>>         have asked for and more - linking to IP as well (and more
>>>         importantly linking back), and letting you tune by station
>>>         name and logo.
>>>         https://media.info/radio/stations/two-lochs-radio tells me
>>>         that you are on Radioplayer, so you'll benefit when that is
>>>         available for sale later this year.
>>>
>>>         Incidentally, I cannot comprehend why anyone wouldn't be on
>>>         Radioplayer, I must say: its the R&D department for the
>>>         whole of UK radio.
>>>
>>>         James
>>>
>>>         On Sat, 5 Sep 2015 18:17 Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk
>>>         <mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk>> wrote:
>>>
>>>             //The reason RDS names aren't used as a method of tuning
>>>             is that RDS isn't ubiquitous in the US, and in Europe
>>>             many stations use animated and dynamic RDS names, which
>>>             breaks this stuff.//
>>>
>>>             I can't see any great force in that as a reason for not
>>>             using station name tuning by default. The RDS radio
>>>             market is clearly big enough to support it as an option
>>>             perfectly economically in the rest of world without
>>>             needing to work in the US. More to the point, I don't
>>>             think DAB is exactly ubiquitous in the US either is it?
>>>             And yet we have a market full of DAB sets!
>>>
>>>             Same sort of thing applies to push button tuning on AM -
>>>             the US uses 10kHz channel spacing and we use 9kHz, so
>>>             radio circuits/chipsets in portables have to support
>>>             both. Anyway, a radio that can tune by station list can
>>>             still be operated by frequency if it finds itself in a
>>>             non-RDS region, so it can only be a gain or neutral, not
>>>             negative.
>>>
>>>             Animated and dynamic RDS names do not break tuning by
>>>             name - as I said, my car can tune by station list, and
>>>             it works perfectly well in continental countries that
>>>             use more advanced techniques - the station list shows a
>>>             static shot of the 8 character name which is usually
>>>             perfectly recognizable. And again, if not, you can fall
>>>             back to frequency tuning. Tuning by station name doesn't
>>>             have to be the only mode available, but it should (IMO)
>>>             be available and the default option for a radio to get
>>>             the tick mark.
>>>
>>>             The IP stuff is a further argument, and perfectly fine,
>>>             but no bearing on my suggestion that for DAB/FM radios
>>>             sold for the UK market should have been required to
>>>             offer tuning by station name across FM & DAB.
>>>
>>>             Alex
>>>
>>>>             On 05 September 2015 at 15:59 James Cridland
>>>>             <james at cridland.net <mailto:james at cridland.net>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>             The reason RDS names aren't used as a method of tuning
>>>>             is that RDS isn't ubiquitous in the US, and in Europe
>>>>             many stations use animated and dynamic RDS names, which
>>>>             breaks this stuff.
>>>>
>>>>             Neither RDS nor DAB offer handoff to IP, nor direct
>>>>             links to other IP-based resources either, so they're
>>>>             not, by themselves, future-proof.
>>>>
>>>>             RadioDNS provides that mapping, which makes radio
>>>>             receivers significantly more user friendly.
>>>>
>>>>             IP is four times smaller than DAB use here in the UK,
>>>>             and is growing slower as well. (Indeed, growth appears
>>>>             to have stagnated for most.)
>>>>
>>>>             The future is multi-platform, and better sets. Sadly,
>>>>             existing broadcasters aren't entirely on-board.
>>>>
>>>>             James
>>>>
>>>             _______________________________________________
>>>
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>>>
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>>>         -- 
>>>
>>>         http://james.cridland.net - get my weekly newsletter
>>>         https://media.info - the media information website
>>>
>>>         Tel: +44 7941 251474 | @jamescridland
>>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>
>>     http://james.cridland.net - get my weekly newsletter
>>     https://media.info - the media information website
>>
>>     Tel: +44 7941 251474 | @jamescridland
>>
>
> -- 
>
> http://james.cridland.net - get my weekly newsletter
> https://media.info - the media information website
>
> Tel: +44 7941 251474 | @jamescridland
>
>
>
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