A comment on the Jocks’ Journal page on Facebook:
[quote]Darren McKenzie says: " I’m their broadcast engineer. Eon is remaining on air running talk sport whilst a re-structure is underway. There will be more news to come, and will be revealed as news comes to hand."
[/quote]
###Digital radio expanding to all capital cities
Digital radio services are expanding across Australia with current trial services in Canberra and Darwin to be made permanent. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has also completed regulatory arrangements for digital radio to be made available in Hobart.
The ACMA has now finalised digital radio channel plans for the future development of DAB+ digital radio in all of Australia’s capital cities. This follows the release of a package of planning papers last December.
Details of the timing of the start of permanent digital radio services will be determined once the broadcasters have finalised the arrangements to deploy their new digital radio infrastructure.
‘Finalising digital radio channel plans is an important step in completing the capital city roll-out of digital radio,’ said acting ACMA Chairman, Richard Bean.
‘The plans make frequencies available to broadcasters wishing to provide ongoing digital radio services in Canberra, Darwin and Hobart. The ACMA will now commence discussions with the broadcasters about starting the transmitter licence allocation process.’
The Government has also asked the ACMA to facilitate the rollout of digital radio in regional areas where licensees make the commercial decision that they wish to offer the service. As a result the ACMA is working with industry to identify which regional markets wish to commence services and prioritise planning accordingly.
‘The completion of the capital city roll-out is just the beginning. The commercial radio industry has indicated there are many regional radio broadcasters keen to offer digital radio services, so for Australians living in regional areas, stay tuned,’ Richard Bean added.
now expand to regional cities or dump the idea
Looking at the Canberra document, it doesn’t look like they have thought about a Tuggeranong repeater.
Which is strange as there are currently FM repeaters in Tuggeranong.
Wow. 5kW to serve Canberra. Wonder how that will go.
Also like the idea that licensees in regional areas will have to decide if they want to provide a digital service. Can’t imagine any bothering, outside of Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Maybe Geelong VIC. Brings next to no benefit commercially and costs cash-strapped broadcasters $$$$.
[quote=“Appen, post:987, topic:231”]
Which is strange as there are currently FM repeaters in Tuggeranong.
[/quote]Same with Adelaide. FM repeaters on city buildings to serve the Adelaide Hills. But no DAB+ equivalent.
I think there will be.
The licence for the ABC/SBS multiplex is already listed on the ACMA database and it includes a Tuggeranong repeater.
Having a quick look at the LAPs, none of the repeaters are listed for DAB+ in any of the cities. It would appear than co-channel repeaters covering the same area do not need to be specified in the LAPs.
The Hawkesbury Heights repeater has only been added into the LAP with this variation, and I think that is solely because it needs to be directional with limited power towards Canberra to allow Canberra to use 9C.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t something said about DAB+ possibly coming to the Gold Coast a while back?
I’d probably add Central Coast, Townsville, maybe Cairns to that list. But yes, I can’t see it happening outside of a handful of larger competitive markets.
Yes I understood they were already moving forward with the planning for the Gold Coast and sought submissions.
If they roll out to GC, SC, Newcastle, Central Coast, Wollongong, and Geelong then that’s the vast majority of the Australian population. Also that provides some big areas of continuous coverage, particularly around Sydney and Brisbane.
I think that would be a good result. The other regional areas might have to make do with FM, but I can also see a few of the big regions centres in North Queensland being viable (Cairns, Townsville and Mackay markets in particular where there are two operators in each).
I went over the border to brissy for a night. Notice there are a lot of coles radio on dab.
Reception was not the best in hotel which was in the CBD.
5kw is about the maximum indicated for regional areas except for some special cases where there is plenty of spectrum an little chance of interference.
The trial was operating at only 3kw, so judging by that, it should be okay.
Is a 5kW DAB+ service meant to be equivalent to a 15KW analogue Fm service coverage wise?
I know that Fm is band 2 and Dab+ is band 3 so there will be higher signal losses at the receiving end. Also with Canberra commercial and community Fm broadcasting at 20KW ERP so the coverage will still not be like for like.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Two submissions (ABC and Capital Radio - Kevin Blyton) were received for the Canberra area.
Both requested 20kW to adequately cover the urban area of Canberra and improve fringe coverage close to the boundary at Yass and Braidwood. ABC provided maps in their submission that showed 20kW was not excessive and reduced infrastructure costs.
Both have been ignored unfortunately.
ACMA has not released the Brisbane and Gold Coast details yet as this is still being negotiated.
As I would have thought. ACMA seems to have an obsession with keeping ERPs of stations across the board lower than they should be.
Is ABC extra now just the default cricket channel?
Yeah its interesting considering people can just listen to stations online.
Yeah just for the ICC cricket tournament.
For those who might be interested, FBi Click will finish up at 6pm tonight in favour of the main FBi Radio station returning to Sydney DAB+ after a three year break.