Ofcom DAB switchover coverage planning proposals
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV The proposals cover the most pressing needs for the DAB network:
- provision of local radio DAB for those areas with no current coverage
- coverage of both homes and in-car use
- the addition of a new block (5A) that will allow the local radio blocks to expand to fill the "editorial" coverage areas to match the current FM areas
- the use of 99%/99% DAB prediction for indoor home reception, and normal car use.
Of particular interest are:
- FM current coverage maps and tables which show maps for the current BBC local radio and largest commercial local radio for each "editorial region".
- Local DAB build-out plans that show the expected coverage for each DAB area after various plans have been implemented.
Ofcom is asking for responses using this online form: Responding to the DAB Coverage Planning consultation by 5pm on 14 September 2011.
Help with TV/radio stations?
In this section
Friday, 1 July 2011
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jb389:32 PM
wesley dilworth: I might be misinterpreting what you are meaning, but if you are wanting to record Freeview from your Sony TV using your Panasonic DVD then you "might" be able to do that, as it all depends on the spec of your Sony's scart sockets.
This is where it would have been of assistance if the model number of the TV in question had been mentioned.
Just out of curiosity, is the actual Freeview receiver on the Panasonic no longer operable? (EZ45/49?)
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Saturday, 2 July 2011
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Steve12:42 AM
Wesley - do you clearly understand how the tuning, recording, and display functions of your kit fit and work together?
IIUC, you now have TWO tuners (one in the recorder and one in the TV).
Do you know how to use the TV just as a screen on which to watch whatever comes out of the recorder? If you do that you should still be able to record as before.
You do need to get an aerial connection into BOTH - either split or chained. SCARTS do not transmit RF signals.
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Steve: As I am sure I have said before, that is not the plan. The BBC (and the other broadcasters) do not wish to have the expense of running two networks, FM will be turned off for national services and used only for "community radio".
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michael: The Ofcom documents are an excellent read, and for the first time really do seem to take into account what will actually be required for the "radio switchover", in particular the requirement for 99%/99% DAB coverage of all homes and roads that currently have any sort (even mono) FM coverage.
FM will be used for "community radio" only, and LW/MW will be discontinued.
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Jonathon Green: I have never, ever heard of "hissy" anything on DAB, it is simply impossible. As with all digital reception, it is perfect or nothing. Hiss is an analogue "feature".
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Trevor Harris5:37 PM
@Brianist
You may not have heared anything hissy but I certainly have heared the burbling sound sound many have reported. As we all know DAB only has one level of error correction and if this fails it can cause very odd audio effects. The fundemental error is making here is that coverage will mean interference free reception. Unfortunatly even with a strong signal if the error correction is inadequate you can still get poor reception. It is not a matter solely of signal strength it is the probability of not being able to correct the errors. With DAB this probability is quite high. You also see this with satellite reception. You can have a very strong signal but a very high error rate. I always align my satellite dish to give the minimum error rate.
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Trevor Harris5:49 PM
As for car radios Ofcom believes that cars may be converted to DAB with a simple convertor. If only they would do a bit of research. These devices simply do not work. Infact one manufacturer has abandoned production of these devices because they has a 40% return rate.
Many radios do not have an audio input and so these devices use a "spare" FM radio frequency to transmit to the radio. Unfortunatly in many areas there is no "spare" frequency to use. Certainly this is a problem where I live.
The other problem is that an external aerial is require to get a consistant signal. That will invalidate you warenty.
The plain fact is that most people are perfectly happy with thier FM car radios and do not need to change.
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Trevor Harris: If you read the above, you will see that the DAB coverage will be 99%/99%, which is "error free reception".
There will be plenty of spare frequencies to use for FM radio adaptors, as the FM radio service will be turned off!
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Trevor Harris7:07 PM
This report makes no mention of sound quality. Not only is DAB greatly inferior to FM many DAB stations only transmit in mono. If one looks at other media such as Itunes we see there is a trend to increase sound quality. They have increased their bitrate from 128kb/s to 256kb/s. The same trend applies to Internet Radio and even the BBC is producing higher quality AAC streams free from flash. Radio 3 is available at 320kb/s in AAC. The BBC has also expressed an interest in surround sound radio something which cannot be supported by DAB.
It has always seem to me that the best way to recieve radio in the house is by wifi. There is a choise of hundreds of thousands of stations from around the world some of them are flac streams which are lossless. They also only need a small aerial.
As for car radios there is 3g and 4g with FM remaining until coverage is adequate.
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Trevor Harris7:30 PM
The ofcom report does mention error free reception but as any engineer will tell you there is no such thing. All communication systems have a finite error rate all that error correction does is to reduce the probability of an uncorrectable error. As I have pointed out the DAB error correction is very weak so the probability of uncorrected errors are quite high. This is why DAB+ has added an extra layer of error correction. Ofcom are baseing thier study on signal strength alone but signal strength is only one of the factors that determin error rates.
There has never been any sugestion that FM is to be turned off. It is only the National FM stations that Ofcom wants to turn off so the frequencies can be used by other fm radio stations.
Ofcom is clutching at straws if it believes that people most people will want DAB if the coverage was better. The simple fact is FM is better.
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