Hi Alex,<div><br></div><div>For me I think the biggest issue of switching to DAB+ is the listeners, as I dont think we have their full support to move to DAB anyway (Does the 'Man on the Street' even really know what its all about). If we dont have full audience support now with DAB, how are they going to feel if we change direction and move to DAB+.. How many sets are there out there that are DAB only and would never support DAB+ (and I would guess cost a fortune in the first place as its an early model)..</div>
<div><br></div><div>The only way we could do it in my honest opinion is with a full scale move by the BBC and Government and a huge investment by both.. </div><div><br></div><div>M<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 4:59 PM, Two Lochs Radio <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tlr@gairloch.co.uk">tlr@gairloch.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><u></u>
<div bgcolor="#ffffff"><div class="im">
<div><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<blockquote style="border-left:#000000 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px" dir="ltr">
<div style="font:10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;background:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="martin@martinsteers.co.uk" href="mailto:martin@martinsteers.co.uk" target="_blank">Martin Steers</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 04, 2011 1:58
PM</div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [cma-l] Germany switches to
DAB+</div>
<div><br></div>Long term DAB+ might be the future of DAB based radio (cant
really use digital as includes DTV and Internet)..
<div><br></div>
<div>However as I have said a few times to anyone will listen, we are stuck
with DAB for the long haul, and whilst government and the radio
sector* in general are pushing for it then thats all that can happen, and we
must all work together to grow the audience, because if it fails it fails for
all.</div>
<div><font face="Calibri"></font> </div></blockquote>
</div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">Yes, we are where we are with DAB, but I
don't accept at all that it need be for the long term or that it is for the best
to continue ploughing what is become an increasingly dead end furrow.
Ironically, the thing that could really ensure the future success of the
floundering DAB is acknowledging that DAB was strategically a dead end and
making the most rapid practicable transition to DAB+ as we can.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">We are not talking hindsight here - there is a
continuing opportunity, and an imperative to move to DAB+ which has been
apparent for several years now. A really good point to have made the break
would have been a couple of years back as roll-out started to the north/west
coast of Scotland. Here we have no installed base of DAB receivers to be
upset (and all new car radios can receive DAB+ anyway). It's also
been apparent to numerous other countries who were only a year or so behind us
in implementing DAB.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">As it is, we now have the farcical situation of
the BBC spending a fortune rolling out a DAB network that doesn't even have the
capacity in this region to carry two of the national BBC channels (BBC
Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan Gaidheal) let alone any local channels or
regional opt-outs. The only parts of Scotland where all the national networks
are available on DAB are in the most highly populated areas where the
BBC can rent spare capacity on commercial multiplexes (at further ongoing
expense).</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">It does also beg the question of what exactly
the government means when it talks about one of the prequisites
for FM switch-off being that DAB has equivalent or better coverage. Are they
going to factor in that DAB in large swathes of the country only provides 4 of
the 6 national channels currently available on FM? By that measure it will never
achieve equal coverage on the current plans.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">Looking only at the question of technical signal
coverage rather than programme service to the population, I note that Ofcom is
currently consulting on the possibility of reducing the standards for what
signal level/availability is regarded as providing satisfactory DAB coverage.
This will of course have the coincidental effect of increasing the reported DAB
coverage at a stroke - how handy!</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"><br>And as if all that weren't enough, of course
for a given bandwidth DAB+ produces markedly better audio quality that DAB, and
can allow for local stations or opt-outs to be 'windowed' into the
multiplexes at a local level. A no-brainer as they say!</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">It's not just Germany that has seen the writing
on the wall. Spain too is weathering<font face="Calibri"> the transient
embarrassment of implicitly acknowledging a mistake and has taken the plunge to
migrate asap to DAB+, via a mixed economy so as not to waste all of the existing
DAB investment. Italy gives it's broadvasters free choice of DAB, DAB+ or DRM.
After some years of trying DAB it looks like they are also moving over to
DAB+, with I think Rome already fully switched. Switzerland and the Netherlands
look like following suite with moratoriums on DAB and anticpated switches to
DAB+. Canada abandoned DAB last year, and Portugal has just done so.
</font></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">I honestly feel that this has been a massive
failure of policy by Ofcom, the BBC and DCMS, and they have badly let
down UK radio listeners (and the industry as a whole) by a lack of nerve and an
unwillingness to put a necessary hand on the tiller in the last couple of
years.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"><br>This is sad to contemplate at a time when UK
radio audiences are at an 8-year high, depsite decades of prediction of its
demise in the face first of TV and then the Internet.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">Alex</font></div><div class="im">
<blockquote style="border-left:#000000 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px" dir="ltr">
<div><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div> (*OK not all commercial are for it, some are against, and
a lot are neutral or worse behind closed doors).</div>
<div><font face="Calibri"></font> </div></blockquote>
</div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri">Actually quite a lot of commercial stations
are not behind it, including two significant groups, and I suspect some of those
that are neutral or publicly supportive support it only because they feel
they have no choice in the face of policy from Ofcom, BBC, government and
RadioCentre. </font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>