Digital Radio

It’s not going to be an easy task - the consideration of a power increase in Canberra would be throwing out a lot of the initial expectations for how low power they could get away with in many other regional areas.

The initial plan was lots of lower power transmitters in SFNs covering the license areas. Seems like that isn’t being proposed in Canberra, but the problem is going to keep coming up, with the supposed next market, the Gold Coast, being very problematic for coverage.

It’s odd to be talking about ‘next mover’ channel plans anyway - the biggest issue is that they need to plan how to deal with everything that’s left over after the ‘next mover’ areas.

That’s the biggest hold up for the Gold Coast - you need to plan basically half of NSW and southern Queensland just to choose an appropriate frequency and power level to run the Gold Coast services on, or you risk getting 5 years down the track and finding that there’s nowhere to put DAB somewhere like Tamworth.

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Generally but not necessarily.

It’s where operators have specifically expressed interest in starting DAB so not necessarily the biggest markets. I’ve seen the list somewhere and for example Bundaberg is one of them (presumably because it’s a competitive market and either or both Grant and SCA have expressed interest), but nearby Maryborough/Hervey Bay isn’t even though it’s slightly bigger (presumably because it’s an SCA duopoly).

I’ll see if I can dig out the list. Mostly the usual suspects and the larger regional markets like Sunshine Coast and Townsville, but if I recall correctly a couple of smaller markets like Goulburn

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According to this article from March, Goulburn is mentioned to be one of the markets to have DAB+ within the next 5 years, along with Newcastle (a ‘usual suspect’ regional market), Dubbo & Albury.

Interesting that Goulburn is one of the 15 DAB+ markets when you consider the fact that AM music station 2GN is set to convert to FM within the next 12 to 18 months (it will be consulted for AM-FM conversion by the end of this year).

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Before they start rolling out DAB+ to more regional markets between the capitals, there really needs to be a restack done. A national multiplex needs to be rolled out to enable a single frequency network (this is supposed to be one of the key benefits of DAB!), with the ABC, SBS and other commercials (if they want) allocated a certain amount of space. The local stations (ABC, SBS, commercials.) can share local multiplexes within their broadcast area.

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There will be SFNs for ABC/SBS, just they are excluding the metro transmitters from that.

The error that seems to be being made right now is that the commercial side of things is being licensed without a view to including ABC local radio on the commercial multiplex - which is legislatively possible and the smartest solution. So far Canberra, Hobart and Darwin have all been planned like that - which could be okay, as they are far enough away that they don’t need to be part of an ABC/SBS SFN - but there’s no sign that the ACMA will change things for the other regional areas.

The theory is that the ABC could use an unproven but possible technology of DAB ‘local windows’ - where essentially the SFN multiplex contains a gap and each transmitter in the SFN would fill the gap with the correct local variation of the ABC local service. If possible in practice it still seems less than ideal.

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I found this article a refreshing change from all the doom and gloom about radio’s future. Seems Murdoch is investing heavily in UK radio in particular banking on the move by Chris Evans from BBC R2 to the relaunched Virgin, which is almost exclusively on DAB.

I think this is an example of what DAB could be in Australia if one of the operators had the foresight to actually promote and utilise it for new national stations.

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Analogue planning in 99/00 planned Gympie to Lismore in one line. Same should happen here, address the most congested, concentrated markets.

Agree, we should not be left guessing or requiring to ring those on the digital tech committee. It should be freely available knowledge not insider knowledge or on request from ACMA, it only increases their workload to correspond.

With the right ERP (higher) from Tamborine, it will do fine. It simply needs to be high enough.

Correct. Camerons have more of interest than SCA.

Besides, SCA engineering is in turmoil due to the stupidity of sacking Steve Adler, now Raoul has walked and many others have too. It’s not just 2DAY they buggered up, this bungling culture exists whether Rhys or Grant have their name on the top job.

ACMA planning docs suggested this. It wasn’t taken forward at that time, it might be now.

And technically, DAB+ is a waste, not as economically viable as DRM+ would be.

They are also capital cities and have their own ABC station feeding content to regionals (bar Canberra which is only Canberra).

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What should happen is that the Gold Coast, Murwillumbah (2MW) and Mount Tamborine (4BRZ/4RBL) stations should be included in the one region, but we all know that’ll get put in the too hard basket

Bill, Cheryl & Aaron both want this. SCA and HT do not. Agreement must be with all parties, it hasn’t happened and likely never will save for the most marginal of markets.

This is what happens when govt doesnt do the regulation for you. Self regulation is and always will be compromised by self interest.

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You need to sit down to read, many laughs within. Especially the compliance testing for the Comm Games.

That’s why I think it’s problematic - the need for high power, while probably needing to reuse the Gold Coast frequency within something like 200km for Gympie or Maryborough.

I’d expect them to be severely limiting power to the north, both to protect Brisbane for commercial reasons, and to manage interference with the next station up.

To the south it would probably be less of a problem, though I’d expect BOG to be up in arms if there’s significant overspill into the 2MW license area, so it’s probably going to be compromised to the south as well.

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Yes, the the ERP should be restricted to an arc of less than 90 degrees to the south east of Mt Tamborine.

They could also have an SFN repeater down around Tweed Heads.

Interesting read indeed.

I noticed two consultations planned for Q3 are “Variations to Analog LAP’s for Brisbane and Regional Queensland”

Could this mean re-stacking FM or perhaps even consideration of new licences or AM/FM conversions?

I have always thought both Brisbane and also Perth could do with another FM station given their size and rates of growth.

Thoughts? It’s been a long time since the last new FM licence was auctioned in a metro area. It would surprise me if it happened but it’s not out of the question surely? UK and Canada are still allocating new FM licences.

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Unlimited streaming (even capped at 1.5mbps) means DAB is already doomed. I stream RN to avoid the AM crackles, and need no DAB radio in my car.

It also states with the one and only label of NEW (new relative to what exactly??) to “Develop and consult on the potential for re planning analog radio services in Perth, following the clearance of Band II TV in Bunbury”.

The Band II TV is what killed off any FM broadcast radio below 92.1 MHz (mind you there is almost not much there beyond 101.7 MHz either) so what re planning is in the pipeline beats me, maybe more narrowcast and community radio stations?

And if ACMA is contemplating another high-powered wide area community or commercial station then Perth will need a third DAB+ multiplex (assuming the same DAB+ allotment applies to new stations).

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The problem is the arc from Mt Coot-tha towards the GC licence area is what Brisbane stations want improved for coverage difficulties within their own area.

That will increase the overspill into the GC.

The GC needs a trade off to balance this.

Already with the below spec output of the Brisbane digital signal, reception is possible on the Gold Coast and especially so in the booming northern suburbs where houses and shopping centres seem to be growing out fo the ground like crops. This is where the Brisbane stations boom in and the Gold Coast signals become weak.

GC stations will need some concession to balance this.

On analogue, the specs have never been kind to the GC for overspill. This is at odds with the booming coverage from Newcastle, Gosford, Sydney, Gong, Katoomba, Geelong, Ballarat, Murray Bridge and Mandurah. Even the Sunshine Coast enjoys useful overspill for those driving to Brisbane, as evidenced by Hot 91 which is much closer to spec towards Brisbane.

It’s time, if on digital only that the GC receives similar concessions.

As is currently the case. Most of the growth within Tweed shire is along the coast, Tweed Heads to Pottsville. All suburbs there enjoy good overspill from Gold Coast radio for in vehicle reception and most homes have aerials pointing to Tamborine and Nardi.

So yes, it will be a big problem and it’s up to Bill & staff to advocate for better planning for Murwillumbah RA1 to be simultaneous.

Again, as done in 99/00 for analogue, plan from Gympie to Lismore together.

I’ll admit not spending much time listening to the local GC stations the last time I was up there - instead jumping between the various Rebel FM transmitters driving to Brisbane - so I don’t have a good sense of the current practical limitations.

I certainly agree on the theory - DAB should try and achieve FM equivalent coverage as much as it can - not try and carve a digital cliff on the edge of a license area, while using infill transmissions not to make up for an intentional lack of coverage, but to allow coverage to actually reach everyone who is supposed to receive them.

No one should miss out on reception inside the license area in order to try and stop someone outside of it from listening.

Yep, they’ve luckily let the Commonwealth Games date slip, so they shouldn’t be in a rush to get something on air.

Especially given the plan to rush it is essentially just put something on air at 5kW max and then deal with power increases later once it turns out to be woefully inadequate like they’ve found in Canberra.

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I really disagree entirely. The convenience of DAB in the car over streaming is a winner for me, without even thinking about the data charges. I also find streaming drop outs way too annoying.

So say you had DAB in the car would you bother streaming RN? I highly doubt it. And your next car will have DAB.

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Yeah with my new car with Android auto, I find that radio stream also don’t sound as good as FM radio too and in most cases not up to par with dab. I do use Google play music quite a lot and almost use Waze everytime.

With tune in radio I find to change radio stations using the driver controls, do not work as well as it should be. Like I can’t properly flick between my favourites. Interested to get feedback from others using car play.

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