<html><head><base href="x-msg://24/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Ian<div><br></div><div>At the Digital Radio meetings which I have attended (along with Jaqui and others) we have tried to get the Government and industry people to make clear in their publicity etc what exactly they mean by "digital" but they have always insisted on deliberately conflating all forms of digital radio (by satellite, by cable, by FreeView as well as DAB) as "digital". However when I very specifically asked the marketing people about their plans to create a digital "tick" campaign to show which radios in the shops were "digital" they first told me that these would only be DAB ones, thus specifically excluding those (increasingly common) which also include "Internet radio" (i.e. streaming). The next meeting they contradicted that but I suspect the plan is still to try to sell obsolete DAB sets as "digital" in line with the advertising campaigns to promote "digital radios" (which always show Pure sets, even on the BBC!).</div><div><br></div><div>The RadioPlayer people have made little secret of their plans to create a RP app for iPhones and Android, plus probably a version for FreeView, Sky & FreeSat and - perhaps - a version for portable radios. Internet streaming is already well on its way to becoming the main "digital radio" format in practice even though purists will of course point out it is not a broadcasting technology, but a communications technology (just like Sky TV in the early days and look what has happened to that!).</div><div><br></div><div>One day - perhaps - someone in Whitehall will realise they are heading down a cul de sac with a large brick wall at the end.....</div><div><br></div><div>Clive Glover<br><div><div>On 21 Oct 2011, at 18:00, Ian Hickling wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div class="hmmessage" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; "><div dir="ltr"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">I didn't see the original announcement.<br>So - does this mean that the BBC and presumably H M Government still pushing the ancient Eureka 147 format - which is effectively extinct except for the UK?<br>Or is the term "DAB" used here meant to be a synonym for "Digital Radio"?<br>I think we need to have this clarified.<br><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>------------------------------------</span></div><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); ">Ian Hickling<br></span></b><b><span>Partner</span></b></p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b><span>transplan UK</span></b><br> </p><br><div><hr id="stopSpelling">From:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:tlr@gairloch.co.uk">tlr@gairloch.co.uk</a><br>To:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:clive.glover@lineone.net">clive.glover@lineone.net</a><br>Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:23:11 +0100<br>CC:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><br>Subject: Re: [cma-l] The BBC will fund taking DAB up to 97% coverage<br><br><div><font size="2" face="Tahoma">Exactly Clive.</font></div><blockquote dir="ltr" style="border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px; "><div style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal arial; ">I note that the no doubt very carefully worded BBC statement says "national DAB coverage". This almost certainly deliberately excludes rolling out the "local" DAB coverage which the commercial companies are also refusing to fund.</div><div><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font><br></div><div>So there is another subtle shift in policy here - the "switchover" (as they still insist on calling it down in Whitehall) will now be triggered when digital listening on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>national</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>services reaches the appropriate limit. </div><div><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma">What's more, here in Scotland not having a commercial multiplex means also not having all the BBC National services.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma">In areas with no commercial multiplex we get no BBC Radio Scotland on DAB (really!) nor BBC Radio nan Gaidheal (the national Gaelic service). This is because the single BBC DAB multiplex is already stretched to the max capacity/min quality limits to carry the England-based services.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma">In highly populous areas, such as Edinburgh and Glasgow, the BBC gets round the problem by renting extra capacity for these services on commercial multiplexes, but of course it can't do that anywhere in the north/northwes of the UK where there are no commercial multiplexes.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma">It also means we don't get the regional news opt-outs from the national Radio Scotland service that we currently get at peak times on FM.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma">They could have sorted all this by using the northwest as a pilot area for DAB+.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><br>Alex</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"></font> </div><br>_______________________________________________ Reply -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community Media Association -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk">http://www.commedia.org.uk</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/community_media">http://twitter.com/community_media</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation">http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Canstream Internet Radio & Video:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk/">http://www.canstream.co.uk/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>_______________________________________________ Mailing list guidelines:<a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/">http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/</a>_______________________________________________ To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l">http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l</a></div></div></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>