Re: AussieDAB+



DAB is the luddites' choice wrote:

There's pretty much no interest in digital radio in Australia,


It hasn't launched yet, has it? There won't be any interest until it's been heavily promoted, because virtually no-one is aware of its existence before it's promoted.

It hasn't "officially" launched yet, but yes it's on air now, heavy promotion won't help it either, it's been reasonably heavily promoted in the Capital cities for a month before it was first switched on.
There's little interest by the wider community in digital TV in Aus. too, the only reason sales are picking up now is, it's being forced onto us, Analogue switch off starts from January next year (2010) definite locked in dates, (it's all ready been put back before, & won't be put back again). Digital radio will be the same or worse. A lot of broadcasters aren't even interested, some are & the industry body Commercial Radio Australia are pushing for some sort of digital radio & for the Government to reserve spectrum for it. (There are suggestions going around though, that they're more pushing to get free handout spectrum rather than actual digital radio). Our National broadcasters (ABC & SBS) are semi-interested, but the government made the choice of DAB+ & locked in use it or lose it (licence & spectrum),start up dates so the broadcasters have been forced into it, (not necessarily want it).


but those
with some interest & technical knowledge (other than the supposed
commercial radio industry body), are pushing for DRM/DRM+ use in the
rest of the country (outside the state capitals that have DAB+).


Do you have a vested interest in DRM+ being used though? I remember from posting on the Australian radio Usenet group a few years ago that some of the people who were pushing for DRM+ operated or worked for a radio station that would have benefited from DRM+ being used (can't remember the exact details).

No not at this stage. The reason we want DRM & DRM+ used, is because unlike the UK, we still have a lot of AM radio stations, also unlike parts of Europe, our FM band isn't jam packed, we still have plenty of useful space.
The main factor is our fast/large coverage areas & hilly/mountainous topography. Outside the capital cities we have some areas where the ABC licence/coverage areas are larger than the entire UK, & DAB+ band 3 VHF just won't cut it for coverage. Even in the capital cities with our high power (50kW) DAB+ transmissions, Adelaide has the best DAB+ coverage of around 90% population, Sydney our largest city, has somewhere around 70-80% population coverage, that means 20-30% of Sydney's population won't have any digital DAB+ radio reception, AM & FM radio currently covers 120%+ population coverage in all capital cities.

We believe DAB+ was the wrong choice, to start it doesn't have the
equivalent coverage of analogue radio AM or FM, & while it has better
encode rates & better error correction,


DAB/DAB+ multiplexes have a far higher capacity than DRM/DRM+ multiplexes, if that's what you mean, but that's because the bandwidth is far wider - 1.71 MHz versus 50 or 100 kHz. DRM+ is actually far more spectrally efficient and the error correction is quite a lot better than on DAB+, actually, so in terms of technology DRM+ is better.

I meant as above, DAB+ doesn't have the coverage (area, square kilometres)that AM/FM & DRM/DRM+ does, & I meant DAB+ has better encode rate & error correction than DAB.

But would it be commercially viable for Australia to go it alone with DRM+? I don't think it would be, actually. The rest of Europe looks likely to adopt DAB+, along with the odd country using DMB. No country that I'm aware of is planning on adopting DRM+ as its main digital radio system, so how would you persuade the consumer electronics giants to manufacture DRM+ radios just for the Australian market?

Actually a few European countries are interested in DRM, Russia & India have gone the DRM route, China looks very close to going DRM, New Zealand (our neighbours) have gone DRM, Africa as a whole, is leaning towards DRM, a few of the South American countries are seriously looking at DRM, the USA, Canada & even the UK are now testing DRM for future use. Those countries that already have DAB/DAB+ will most likely have dual digital formats DAB & DRM (like AM & FM now), some of those I've mentioned who have gone DRM, have no plans for DAB use.
I'll probably get shot down by someone here saying this but, looking at the globe as a whole it's starting to look like more countries (larger areas & populations) will be using DRM over DAB.

Outside of Europe, most countries have large-very large land mass, with vast population spread, & without huge expense & many transmitters, DAB can't & won't match the coverage of DRM in the SW, LW, AM, & to a point, Band 1 VHF & FM radio bands.
That's why outside of Europe most countries are interested more in DRM than DAB. I don't think Australia will in anyway be going it alone with DRM/DRM+.


DAB+ still has the same problem
as in the UK of cramming stations into the multiplex, (we currently have
9 or 10 stations per multiplex) & as costs to the multiplex provider go
up, cramming more into the multiplex will get them more money, but the
sound quality, (already borderline) will have to go down.


DRM+ is a multiplex-based technology as well, so what's stopping broadcasters cramming too many stations onto DRM+ multiplexes? Nothing, is I'm afraid the answer to that. A DRM trial in the UK where double-bandwidth channels were used consisted of the twats broadcasting 2 statinos on the DRM multiplex instead of one, so there was no improvement in quality whatsoever.



Yes, but with DRM each broadcaster has & controls it's own multiplex, if 1 or 2 decide to go with quantity over quality, people can/will listen to other stations, with DAB if the multiplex operator wants to cram many stations in, everyone's audio quality has to go down, & people just won't bother listening at all, they'll listen to some alternative (internet, ipod, etc.). Just what the broadcasters are worried about & what digital radio is supposedly fighting against.
.

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