Just to be clear I’m not making a technical argument in the DRM v DAB war. I actually think DRM is a good technology but alas it’s too late, we are living in an IP world with most regional areas now enjoying 4G mobile coverage and NBN.
An existing contemporary transmitter may indeed be DRM compatible but I’m sure there’d still be a cost attached to enable a licensed feature or firmware upgrade even if it’s trivial.
My argument is on the business case for DRM and for the reasons I’ve listed above the broadcast industry is clearly delusional if they think consumers are going to run out and buy an expensive DRM radio (because the economies of scale won’t be there) to listen to to a station they’re probably already listening to on a small white or black hockey puck or cylinder on the kitchen bench.
I appreciate you work in the terrestrial transmission business but sometimes it’s good to step out of that world and look to see what consumers want and are indeed buying. DAB was a hard enough sell imagine how hard DRM would be!
No chance - my expectation of an end state of a DVB-T2 transition would be to have 5 blocks of 3 DVB-T2 channels - which delivers roughly equivalent amount of data per channel as they have now, while a shift to H.265 would allow higher quality or more channels in that space.
That would mean using 6/7/8 and 10/11/12 in VHF Band III as two blocks, leaving the 9/9A DAB band. That then allows 27-29, 30-32, 33-35 as the other channel blocks, and leave the whole of UHF Band VI free, and can have an appropriate guard band to use the internationally agreed 600MHz band for 5G. Yes this means moving existing UHF only areas to VHF, that would need to be planned carefully
While DAB was able to get ‘free’ spectrum - they would be competing against a plan that would substantially increase the amount of spectrum able to be sold off for mobile use - something that could sell for billions, and again more than offset the costs to broadcasters and consumers of another switch of technology.
The other problem for DAB is that this spectrum wouldn’t become available until the very end of the process - after a full restack is completed - that’s 2030 or so - meanwhile you’re still stuck with 8 blocks to roll out DAB with. You can’t use VHF 10 (DAB 10A-10D) because that’s going to be needed to run the first set of DVB-T2 services to kickstart the second transition.
Both KIIS & Fox play far more unique tracks than Nova. When comparing with Fox, Nova has a very low number of unique tracks played, with only 8.6% of its playlist not heard on Fox, while just over a 1/3 of its playlist is being shared with Fox.
When comparing with Smooth, Gold plays more unique tracks (43%) than the former (35.6%), which is the opposite to that of Sydney, where Smooth (41.7%) plays more unique tracks than WS (35%). The crossover between Gold & Triple M (26.6%) is more than that of between WS & Triple M (22.7%), with the latter playing more unique tracks than either Gold or WS.
Yep, millimetre wave 5G is going to be totally impractical in Australia much beyond the CBD cores - and turning off 2G/3G is only going to recover some spectrum, while more and more services shift to mobile broadband.
I think regional areas as a whole absolutely prioritise reliable mobile communication above all else, the lower band stuff is the way forward to keep serving regional and remote areas.
As for radio, restoring the ABC’s former shortwave services as DRM30 transmissions would be a good start.
Could be, apart from the fact that the old ABC shortwave transmitters in Shepparton are now demolished and the land sold to developers for more housing.
My knowledge isn’t great on this but I don’t understand why ABC is still using AM bands in metro areas like Sydney. Aren’t most regional stations under ABC on FM anyway?
Are they doing it as a ratings or licensing thing?
Not sure about 702 but 549 Orange blasts out to all of NSW west of the Great Dividing Range.
702 has been that powerful here in Brisbane at night it used to cause interference to 4KQ on 693. Since KQ moved off the island this isn’t an issue anymore.
Also much of the programming on Local Radio, RN and NewsRadio is talk-based, not much to be gained by switching them to FM.
Although on that note, a question. Where ABC does have FM transmitters for Local Radio, RN and NewsRadio, for instance, are they in stereo or they still mono?
Probably only 105.7 Darwin has Local Radio with a stereo feed for local shifts at least? … I would imagine that was re-engineered for stereo upon moving from AM … @TV-QLD might be able to answer that?
I would be interested to know how far west the 2CR signal reaches during the day with the aid of my loop. I’d estimate well into South Australia, perhaps even towards the WA/NT borders.
From where I live in Brisbane, I can get ABC Gold Coast on 91.7fm and ABC North Coast (2NNR) on 94.5fm. Depending where I drive though, sometimes 2NNR can be cancelled out by 4PNN’s 94.5 from Gympie.
Also, I find it odd that ABC Gold Coast doesn’t have its own callsign inherited from 4SO, instead opting for the generic 4ABCRR.