Digital Radio

Do you think ARN owns and operates Zed?

If ARN owned and operated “Zed”, wouldn’t it be available in other cities?

You could say the same thing about SCA and Nova as well. Someone must own and operate it…

Possibly, I don’t know… but as you say, someone is doing it.

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Joy FM is now on DAB+ in Melbourne.

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Joy should be on DAB+ and FM full time in Sydney.

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So here’s an old post of mine from March last year, which noted that they aren’t using the full amount allocated to community stations,

Joy is on 9B and running at 48kbps in EEP 4-A mode or 24CU - which has meant there’s no other changes needed to the other stations on the multiplex. It also means this is certainly coming out of the community radio allocation.

About time, I hope it’s permanent, or at the very least rotated between other sub-metro community stations.

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Zed appears to be using the ARN spectrum on 9B in Sydney. The current usage on 9B, based on an earlier post by @tvcl is:

MRN own 128 kbps using 128 kbps
2CH own 128 kbps using 128 kbps
SCA own 64 kbps using 48 kbps
ARN own 320 kbps using 320 kbps including Zed
Nova own 256 kbps using 256 kbps
Community radio own 256 kbps using 272 kbps

So Hope 103.2 is using 16 kbps from their own allocation and 16 kbps from each of SCA and 2MFM to get Inspire’s 48 kbps, it seems.

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The community stations get their “extra” bandwidth by running different error checking, NOT by using the spare commercial allocation.

2MFM, 2SER, Hope and inspire are all using EEP 4-A, which takes up 2/3 of the capacity of EEP 3-A which most stations use. This means that the community stations (excluding Zed) are using only 152 of their 192 allocated capacity units. Therefore Zed could fit into the community allocation, or ARN’s.

Someone posted a full scan of the stations that showed exactly which capacity units were used by each station - this scan would answer the question as the stations of each broadcasters are grouped together on the multiplex.

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Thank God :blush::blush::blush:
It’s on 9B, 48kpbs mono tho :neutral_face::neutral_face:

Also having some weird audio issues too.

The issue is that JOY has a coverage footprint extending to Geelong CBD. Should have been done ages ago.

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Only by fortuitous reception though.
It’s only licenced to Melbourne City, which extends to approximately Altona and Sunshine to the West, Coburg and Heidelberg to the North, Burwood to the East and Brighton to the South.

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Pictures not words best for this:

‘error correction’ is the term.

Many have asked this question. Simply ring the CBAA to ask or the multiplex operator.

Moe gets it. You need to look at the CU rather than the bitrate as the error protection used influences this.

If all on a multiplex use the same error correction, it isn’t a problem.

Even ACMA don’t interpret this correctly referring to bandwidth in kbps rather than CU:
https://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Broadcast/Spectrum-for-broadcasting/Spectrum-digital-radio/digital-radio-licensing

The Act refers to ‘multiplex capacity’, a more general term.

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Agree.

East/west coverage is not good. The radiation pattern is severely limited in each direction due to the legacy of pre restack DTV allocations. 23kW is the max ERP currently in use for Brisbane.

There are a number lines of hills that most drivers wouldn’t blink an eyelid to. Unfortunately, the digital signal does. First is between Carina and Carindale, then Belmont, then Ormiston/Cleveland. The final line extends south to Mt Cotton so areas such as Redland Bay, Victoria Point suffer too.

Reception isn’t too good on North Stradbroke. In building coverage difficult at Point Lookout even in elevated locations.

West is interesting. In car reception neatly rolls off just beyond the boundary at the Brisbane Valley Highway interchange:

Gone by the Haigslea - Amberley Road.

Much of Ipswich’s population is just within the boundary.

Due to protecting beyond the boundary for the remainder of the Ipswich licence area, signal isn’t great within Ipswich suburbs, however not as bad as Cleveland etc.

Why the licence area is protected is strange, because River will want fortuitous digital coverage to match their analogue coverage that was hard fought for in developing the LAP review 98 - 00.

View the last page of the ABC submission:
https://www.acma.gov.au/-/media/Broadcast-Carriage-Policy/Issue-for-comment/IFC-38-2016/ABC-submission.PDF?la=en

It shows that even with 50kW OD towards Ipswich, DAB+ coverage is still less than FM 12kW OD coverage. This of course is -9db (one eighth) down on the 96kW ERP that national broadcasters enjoy in Brisbane.

Both the ABC and SBS submissions ask ACMA to manage ERP themselves as they’re not limited to licence areas:

https://www.acma.gov.au/-/media/Broadcast-Carriage-Policy/Issue-for-comment/IFC-38-2016/SBS-submission.pdf?la=en

SBS submits that it, jointly with the ABC, should be permitted to optimise its coverage and take
responsibility for mutual interference > caused to other national broadcaster services.

I agree with this.

I don’t believe the commercials are on the 10B block yet. Still using the old clunker TX and the trial allocation.

National broadcasters in Canberra have moved to their final allocation and did so early January (switched on air late 2017 and vacated the trial allocation Jan 18).

Of course, no word from ACMA on increasing ERP in Canberra to the 20kW sought and in Bris/GC, metro licencees are still in negotiation, preventing GC services to be finalised.

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Strange that JOY Digital is mono sound as much of its programming is music (mostly dance and pop music favoured by the gay community) and it should be in stereo because mono sound does not do this music any justice. It is one of three digital radio channels transmitting in mono in Melbourne (the others are 3CR and NTS). It is in stereo on 94.9fm and on the web stream.

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For what it’s worth, the (probably) temporary Sydney DAB+ broadcast of Joy 94.9 through “Zed” is in stereo.

As well as NTS (which I suspect is in mono in Brisbane and Perth too), 2SM also broadcasts in mono and low audio quality overall on Sydney DAB+.

If it counts as a separate station at all, “SkySportsRadio2” to the list. Being a fulltime simulcast of Sky Sports Radio, that’s an even worse use of DAB+ spectrum than NTS!

Although technically a “stereo” broadcast, I’d also count 2RPH because that station seems to be upconverting a mono programing stream to stereo on DAB+. Not that I can imagine the print handicapped community of Sydney really caring about whether or not 2RPH is transmitted in mono or stereo anyway.

I just read Mazda are now including DAB+ into even the base model Mazda 3. It was previously reserved for mid- and upper-spec models similar to the Focus. It’s a good move and brings them into line with the i30 which also includes DAB+ in all models. I think Ford and Holden is going to have to include it in their base models too if they want to keep pace.

When is VW and Toyota going to get the message? They really seem to be the laggards, particularly VW, which is supposed to be “high end”.

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The new ZB Holden Commodore still doesn’t appear to have DAB in the base LT model, but I think Toyota has it in their new fully imported Camry base model Ascent.

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I always notice this is the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross TV ad

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I’ve just bought a new i30 SR and looking forward to having digital radio in the car.

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And no AM. No thanks. If you’re not going to have all broadcast bands, not interested.