Digital Radio

Radio, Print, and Online General Radio and Digital
172

I did a factory reset on my Sangean DPR-67 to get rid of those stations that no longer existed which still had a ? mark still in front of it.

That did the trick, but also meant having to redo my presets again, on both FM and DAB+ (which was mostly expected).

As for my 5 DAB+ presets I have

(1) 702 ABC Sydney
(2) Classic Rock (Triple M)
(3) The 80s
(4) Triple M
(5) WSFM

Part of the reason for the choice of presets is have stations somewhat evenly spread across the list eg. to get from Triple M to say CW Remix, I just hit Preset 2 and go up or down a station rather than scrolling through the whole list to get there.

173

Isn’t VHF-9 (DAB blocks 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D) as well as DAB block 9D on VHF-9A still available?

174

I was under the impression that VHF 9 was going to be used in adjacent areas, like Newcastle or the Gold Coast, though i’m pretty certain that no decision has been made on this yet.

I didn’t know there was a 9D? If so, they should utilise it to fix up those horrible bitrates on the 32-48 Kbps music stations, it’s almost like listening to AM radio, it’s that bad!

175

Initially, 9D overlapped with the old analogue VHF-10, but VHF-10 was moved up 1 MHz so 9D no longer overlaps VHF-10. This shows the DAB blocks vs the Australian VHF channel numbers:
http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib100059/geninfo.pdf (Page 7 in the PDF)

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176

So when do we think the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast will get DAB?
I had to drive to Hervey Bay last weekend and listened to DAB in the car perfectly and without any drop outs at all until just before the Calounrda exit then BAM(!) disappeared :). It was quite defined. But I was impressed that I had no problem with DAB for almost 80km or so north of the CBD.

177

The problem is there just seem to be no signs that anyone is moving towards actually doing something - the government got a report mid last year and haven’t done anything, with the industry reaction seemingly just to ask for money to pay for the rollout.

They would have to do a channel plan for pretty much all of SEQ and NSW to be able to launch services in any area there.

One of the big problems for regional DAB is the ABC/SBS - there’s not enough space to give them their own block like in metro areas, and there’s too many channels to squeeze it down significantly.

I think we’d be looking at a designation that regional DAB would operate in EEP-4A mode, which increases capacity per block from 1.152Mbps to 1.728Mbps at the risk of overall coverage - this can be done per channel (community radio is already doing this), but I suspect the goal would be to allocate on the basis of kbps to the broadcasters - so maintaining the 128kbps per analogue commercial licence, but increasing the overall available space.

1728kbps would make 13.5 lots of 128kbps. The currently possible licence gives 5 lots of 128kbps to commercial broadcasting, 2 lots to community broadcasting and 1 each to ABC and SBS.

That takes you to 9 lots, leaving 4.5, which can go 3 to the ABC and 1.5 to SBS. Giving the ABC 512kbps and SBS 320.

So to more helpfully put that into numbers, take the Gold Coast, based on including only those stations licensed to Gold Coast RA1 (which is how I would expect it to work), this is what you could fit onto one block with reduced error correction levels -

SeaFM - 56kbps
GoldFM - 56kbps
TripleM Classic Rock - 48kbps
More Digital - 48kbps
Kinderling Kids or Buddha - 48kbps

Hot Tomato - 128kbps (or divided into whatever they would add)

Radio Metro - 64kbps
Jazz Radio - 64kbps
Juice107.3 - 64kbps
4CRB - 64kbps

ABC Gold Coast - 56kbps
ABC Classic FM - 64kbps
ABC Country - 48kbps
ABC Grandstand - 32kbps
ABC jazz - 48kbps
ABC NewsRadio - 32kbps
ABC Radio National - 56kbps
Double J - 56kbps
triple j - 64kbps
triple j unearthed - 56kbps
SBS Radio 1 - 48kbps
SBS Radio 2 - 48kbps
SBS Radio 3 - 48kbps
SBS Arabic24 - 48kbps
SBS PopAsia - 64kbps
SBS PopDesi - 64kbps

For the commercials - as there’s only 3 licensed broadcasters in GC RA1, there would be 256kbps to auction - so likely SCA could complete their extra services, and maybe even Hot Tomato could get more space.
From the ABC: Lots of reduced bitrates, but ABC Extra the only service dropped.
From SBS: Dropped Chill and Radio 4. SBS Chill is often simulcast on Radio 3, and Radio 4 is mostly a BBC World Service replay.

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178

Of all the stations on the ABC/SBS mux, only one station is localised. So to alleviate the limited spectrum issues, can’t the ABC/SBS mux run as a state-wide SFN and have the ABC Local Radio service on the commercial/community mux instead?

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179

I was thinking about DAB on the Gold and Sunshine Coast today. If you take GC there are 12 high power stations serving the area ALL on FM. I was wondering what is the point of reproducing all those stations on DAB+. Most will end up sounding worse than their FM counterpart. I thought that the idea of DAB was to improve the quality of reception particularly for AM stations and to add more diversity for listeners.

Even if you just take the ABC - the area is served by a full suite of stations all with FM quality sound. Why not just put the digital-only ABC services on DAB.

The Sunshine Coast is in a similar situation with all the licences for Nambour on FM. The difference is that there is no Radio National broadcast there.

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180

Yes - that would be another solution, though it would probably have to be national rather than state wide - as they would otherwise need two frequencies for it near the borders - which there’s no space for in SEQ.

I’ve not seen it floated anywhere as a suggestion - the options seem to be centred around just squeezing them all in one multiplex - hence the Canberra trial including FEC testing, to see if the above strategy of using the higher bandwidth mode was practical.

To feed the fantasy that DAB+ is a replacement technology and not a supplemental one?

I’ve also not seen a radio that is good at switching - I’d ideally like something where I could put Triple M FM on one preset button, and Triple M Classic Rock from DAB on another one, and just switch between them with one button press - but I instead end up listening occasionally to the worse sounding DAB version of Triple M just because it’s easier.

181

It’s obviously not ideal but shouldn’t be any different in theory than switching between AM and FM and listeners seem to manage that.

182

It could be argued that simulcasting stations on DAB+ which are available on FM is a total waste of bandwidth even in the capital cities and that the band should probably be reserved for AM, digital-only stations and new entrants, but that’s another matter altogether.

I’m not sure about everyone else, but I personally think that it’s perhaps a bit pointless (although really no less pointless than TV stations broadcasting in SD and HD) for radio networks who have stations on FM to simulcast them on DAB+. Don’t virtually all radios which can get DAB+ also have an FM tuner?

183

The reason I said state-wide instead of national was specifically because of the SEQ area. Given that Queensland doesn’t adhere to daylight saving, they would have to have a separate mux - unless they’re happy to just transmit it live with NSW time.

With metro areas taking up 9A, 9B and 9C, there’s still 5 other frequencies left (8A, 8B, 8C, 8D and 9D). It will be interesting to see how ACMA allocates those 5 different frequencies when they plan the regional rollout.

184

Absolutely. The ABC could broadcast JJ on the Gold Coast with a high bitrate. In my humble opinion, the bitrate is unsatisfactory on the Brisbane mux compared to the on-line stream. I can’t even remember the last time I listened to JJ via DAB+ because of this!

Consider that 91.7 Coast FM has always provided different programming on a Saturday night (e.g. DiG from 10pm - 2am) compared to (for example) 612 ABC Brisbane & 90.3/95.3 ABC Coast FM, which both seem to carry Saturday Night Country. Offering a digital/online only station on the Gold Coast such as JJ or ABC Country at a higher or equivalent bitrate to the Coast FM simulcast would be ideal.

185

Precisely. And if one receives a DAB+ signal doesn’t one generally receive an RDS-level FM signal from the same site which will sound superior to the DAB+ simulcast? There are of course the odd exceptions, such as AM community stations like Switch 1197 in Brisbane.

It’s probably even more pointless than SD simulcasts of HD channels because of course not all televisions or set top boxes can decode the new MP4 HD services. Conversely, all DAB+ radios can receive FM as far as I know due to the design of the chipsets used in the receivers. So unless a simulcast of the FM broadcast is enshrined in Commonwealth legislation (mandatory) why should it be necessary? Does the audience want it? Need it? In most instances, I would prefer say a 32kbps simulcast of the main FM broadcast. In my ideal world, Modern Rock or Classic Rock should be available on DAB+ at a higher bitrate (ideally, the highest available) than the FM simulcast of Triple M in every city.

On the bright side, in the Gold Coast market the community stations such as 105.7 Radio Metro (dance: young demo), 107.3 Juice FM (christian demo) & 94.1 FM (gold & country: older demo) I think provide poorer coverage than the rest (exacerbated by the fact these broadcasts also suffer co-channel interference from inland just outside the license area). There may be a potential opportunity to improve the coverage of these ones if DAB+ commenced, although even that potential benefit may open to debate.

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186

I am probably in the minority here by stating that I think the main analogue FM programming of the metro wide stations SHOULD be on DAB+

There are problematic FM reception areas in inner metros which suffer from multipathing and DAB+ in those locations makes it easier to get a clear signal (even though sound quality isn’t as good, which won’t really be an issue for 95% of listeners). I know that from my experiences in staying in hotels in the CBDs.

It is much easier to use DAB+ to fix outer metro blackspots too since it can operate on an SFN, and this has been done in Sydney in the northern beaches and Campbelltown as far as I know. I think digital radio will replace FM eventually, though we are looking at probably 20 years, maybe more when that happens.

it’s also kind of like telling TV viewers that you have to go back to analogue to watch 7, 9 and 10 but you can still watch 7two, 9Go or One on digital.
People won’t update to DAB+ without the main stations being on there too, they won’t update just for the extra stations, that is one selling point of DAB+, you get all of the stations you have now PLUS the new digital ones.

Digital radio is the way of the future, but yes, spectrum issues do need to be addressed.

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187

My 2 cents, digital tv is better picture than analog tv. Dab sound quality is often average. I would rather if each just had one a well thought out extra channel to ensure it has decent quality.

On the question if they should relay fm radio. I am on the fence. Though, the extra stations should have min of 64 k or more. For me I have a dab radio in my car, mostly listen to am stations on dab. When I listen to the extra dab music stations I always find myself moving back to the ipod due to sound quality. So quality is better than quantity.

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188

Off the top of my head, in Brisbane there are 2 community stations on digital that is a simulcast of their analogue service - 4AAA Country and RPH. ZZZ, Family, EBI, Switch and even MBS are all different programs on Digital.

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189

In Melbourne, 3CR, 3RRR, PBS and 3ZZZ all simulcast. RPH, as stated by @Moe, has two channels, while SYN and Light run different streams on DAB+: SYN Nation and LightDigital respectively

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190

Here in Sydney, 2MFM, 2OOO, 2RPH, 2SER, Fine Music and Koori Radio have all simulcasted for years, certainly since at least Christmas 2011 when I got my first DAB+ receiver.

As we’ve covered before, FBi Radio previously simulcasted it’s main station on DAB+ but has since axed that in favour of providing an alternative station in FBi Click. Hope Media has run digital-only station Inspire Digital and seasonal pop-up Christmas Hope for years, but has only recently started to trial a simulcast of Hope 103.2.

191

Dickies at Macquarie Centre has a large number of Bush Personal DAB units on clearout at $44.99 -

Does anyone have any experience with one of these units? At that price it is very tempting as a throw around unit…

A.