They also own some MF-NAS licences, including a few that expired recently. I presume these were never activated.
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I know the ACMA list isnât reliable, but thatâs quite the miss rate for how many of their services actually exist. But then their advertising page is also broken so gaining listeners, or telling people what frequencies they broadcast on arenât priorities either.
Strange operation.
https://www.flowfm.com.au/blog-1 - their website has a semi-hidden blog section where someone seemed to editorialise into the wind, so that helps me to assume a bit of a slant. I can see it suiting the audience in very rural areas, but how many people would know to listen?
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This discussion has almost certainly yielded many more words dedicated to Flow FM than any other on teh Internets. Well done MediaSpy!
(It also underscores the general consensus regarding the clout of 8SAT in the saturated media environment).
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I find it disappointing more than anything - the 8SAT licence could arguably be similarly potent and useful to the community as the 4RBL/4BRZ licences are, yet it seems to fail to be. Some of that is admittedly due to impediments beyond its control, but a lot is not.
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8SAT signal used to be good into Murray Bridge but last visit in 2021 I could barely receive it. I did get Maitland into Adelaide CBD via tropo tbough
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8SAT on 97.7MHz (Coorong) used to be quite easy to pick up as far away as Mount Barker. I wonder if theyâve turned their power down since 5MU converted to FM?
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I got that clearly at Victor Harbour in 2019.
And 99.1 Flow from Keith too.
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I was reading that NBN are offering free fibre upgrades in both Lithgow and Wentworth Falls.
This could be the perfect opportunity for Midwest Radio to make improvements to 2LT and Move fm at Wentworth falls.
I would think 2 x 100/100 mbps business Grade fibre connections to create the link would probably be over kill. Instead something like 2x 100/40 would be work for the link to Wentworth Falls to accommodate 2LT and Move fm. If this a dedicated connection for these services surely they could increase the bit rate significantly to get both services sounding decent like 2OOO Fm.
My understanding is 2OOO FM has a similar setup, a fibre link to the transmitter, similar codec setup and is looked after by the same tech that handles CADA / Move fm / 2LT.
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Why 2? Is one as a back up, as you could easily fit 2 x WAV streams (1 for each station) within 100 Mbps with heaps to spare.
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My understanding two connections to create the STL pipe,. One NBN connection at Lithgow uploading, and the second at Wentworth Falls downloading to fed the link to the transmitter.
From my understanding of how @RFBurns was explaining it everything was being shared over the one NBN connection, internet, telephones, and the streams for 2LT / Move so they have to use low bitrates with the codecs for the Wentworth Falls links.
On fibre you can have multiple NBN connections on different ports, one NBN connection can be for phones and internet, and a seperate NBN connection for the STL for 2LT / Move fm.
40 Mbps upload from the studio on a 100/40 NBN connection would be plenty, even at high bit rates. The two streams would not need the full 40 mbps. A dedicated NBN connection for 2LT / Move fm would allow them to up the bit rates, and get them up to the same quality as 2000FM which uses a similar setup.
Does anyone know the specs of the fibre connection that 2OOO Fm uses for their STL?
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Iâll answer the last 3 posts without quoting anything to make it shorter.
The NBN connections to 2LT Lithgow studios & Wentworth Falls transmitter site are just standard NBN connections & they probably already are 100/40 connections. At Lithgow itâs currently a Fibre To the Curb connection & yes they can upgrade to Fibre to the Premises, but because they are FTTC, theyâd have to go a 250/25 connection or higher, they do have the option of going a NBN Enterprise Ethernet connection as well, but those are expensive, & maybe they donât want to spend much more than they already do?
The transmitter site at Wentworth Falls is currently a Fibre to the Node connection & while they can upgrade to an NBN Enterprise Ethernet connection, theyâre not yet able to upgrade to a Fibre to the Premises connection, so they can pay through the nose or be stuck with a 100/40 max connection at the transmitter site, & thatâs assuming the Node is actually pretty close & they can max out the FTTN connection at 100/40, maybe the Node is 600m or more down the street & the best they can get out of the connection is a 50/20 speed, maybe theyâre stuck with a 25/5 speed at the transmitter site?
As said, yes my understanding of the 2LT studio end is yes, all data/phone communications share the one connection, so studio phones, general use internet, streaming both into & out of the studios & links to the transmitter sites, so they are restricted there as to how much bandwidth each can use.
Yes, youâd need 2 connections to make the STL, but donât forget, even if youâve got a 100/40 connection at the transmitter site giving you the ability to download at 100M, youâve only still got a 40M upload at the studio end, so youâre limited to that bandwidth speed, youâll have 60M at the transmitter end spare, doing nothing.
The 2OOO FM link at the Artarmon transmitter site was a TPG Fibre 400 (symmetrical) connection, but has since been downgraded to a Fibre 200 connection (I think), the Fibre 400 was costing too much & not being fully used, with an Optus 4G mobile broadband backup, the studio end has 2 NBN connections main/alternate but Iâm not sure of the speed, & yes the 2OOO FM Tech is the same one who looks after CADA/2LT/MoveFM.
Thereâs no NBN connections available at the Artarmon transmitter site, so everyone there has Non-NBN Fibre connections through TPG/Pipe Networks, Vocus or Telstra.
Optus have a fibre for their mobile base station on site, but no broadcasters currently use Optus fibre for links, some used to use Optus ADSL & still use Optus 4G mobile broadband for backup links.
At the Artarmon transmitter site 2MFM have just put in a Telstra Wholesale Fibre connection but Iâm not sure what speed & use a 4G backup (Telstra I think) for their STL.
Hope have a TPG Fibre 400 connection for their main STL & they use most of or all of it, they run a data server on site as well off it, HOPE backup STL is a microwave link.
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A 250/25 Fibre connection is not that expensive, around $110 per month depending on which provider they go with. Use this for phone and internet at the studio.
When the Fibre upgrade is available at the Wentworth Falls site upgrade to 100/40, and then on the second port at Lithgow install a second 100/40 for the STL link for Move / 2LT.
Monthly pricing for the three services would cost them around $300 per month so affordable.
With the 40mbps of data to play with for the two streams and the codecs they use, could they get the broadcast streams approaching the quality of CADA?
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Iâve just looked at more data, the max. estimated speeds available at the Wentworth Falls transmitter site is 62-67Mbps FTTN, so they wonât even get close to max out of a 100/40 NBN connection currently, they probably only have a 50/20 connection there?
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They get faster available speeds than me, my max available speed is 54mbps on my FTTN. I am on a 50/20 until the fibre gets installed to my house in the next few weeks then it is 100/20.
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50/20 is pretty much standard in a lot of regional towns, Bungendore included. You can thank the Turnbull inspired FTTN for that. Go a little out of town here and Elon is your best bet.
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Interesting that Nine (WIN) are not listed as a sponsor on the C91.3FM Road Crew.
Instead, 7NEWSâ logo is featured on their new vehicles.
Check Out Our BRAND NEW Road Crew Cars! | c91.3FM Macarthurâs Radio Station (c913.com.au)
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Technically speaking, Nine/WIN isnât in the C91.3 license area, itâs still covered by the Sydney metro TV area, C91.3 shares it transmitter site with the Sydney metro TV translators.
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True, but for years IIRC there was always some kind of cross-promoting with Nine/10 back in the day.
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I checked in with the audio with 99.5 Move FM, and wow its somehow worseâŚ
The audio dampening affect has returned (And effects Local and Syndicated content) and now it causes the audio once supressed to favour the right audio channel (See Audio Clip).
Sorry for the absolute drivel the hosts talk about.
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Is that recorded up the mountains it sounds very weak reception?
I was up at the Winmalee WSFM/DAB transmission site last Thursday but never thought to listen in to MOVE or 2LT Wentworth Falls.
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