All posts by JayGee
Below are all of JayGee's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.J
Ofcom DAB switchover coverage planning proposals | Digital radiThursday 30 June 2011 3:20PM
Braintree
I really hope that they never get DAB coverage to match existing FM coverage. For me that would mean going from interference free reception of a full set of BBC and commercial channels to a handful of station in hissy mono with frequent interruption by passing taxi drivers and aircraft...
| link to this comment |
Briantist: "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".
Well, quite. And it's working very nicely for me which is why I have no desire to see my excellent DAB coverage "improved" to the match the appalling standards which the National FM network provides in my not-especially-rural corner of Essex... :-)
Lots of people (Trevor Harris in this thread for example) like to bang on about the poor quality of DAB relative to what a decent FM tuner with a clean aerial feed is capable but (trust me on this 128 Kbit/s of MPEG layer 2 wipes the floor in comparison with anything FM can deliver without the aid of a bigger aerial than I'm inclined to pay out.
There may well be arguments that the money spent on DAB might have been better spent on upgrading holes in FM coverage (both in terms of signal quality and program choice) or that we'd have been better off waiting for a better standard for digital radio to come along but DAB is what we got and (faults and all) it's given me several years of vastly enhanced listening pleasure over what FM was actually delivering to my home.
Internet radio is I feel something of a dead end in terms of broadcasting. I'm really not seeing anything remotely resembling universal mobile data coverage (3G or 4G) capable of delivering enough bandwidth to support a decent range of broadcast channels in the near future and I'm even more not seeing the network operators cutting the cost of mobile data to a level where it's a realistic alternative for the average user.
WiFi is fine assuming you've already got the infrastructure in place but I can't imagine (for instance) my 80-something year old mother paying out for a broadband internet connection, wireless router, and audio streaming device just to listen to the wireless for a couple of hours a day...
| link to this comment |
Trevor Harris:
"I don't agree that 128k mp2 is better than FM. Infact the BBC's own research indicated that FM quality was about the same as MP2 at 225kb/s. Originally the BBC used 256kb/s."
I'm not attempting to suggest that 128Kbit/S mp2 isn't better than FM *can* deliver but, where I live at least it's far, far better than FM *does* deliver under local conditions.
I don't doubt that FM is lovely for those who live in areas with good reception of a decent range of stations but here at least (and I'm not way out in the sticks, I'm in a not-particularly-rural bit of Essex) the arrival of DAB (flaws and all) totally transformed the listening experience - sure the same thing could have been achieved by re-engineering the local FM infrastructure (and somehow shoehorning BBC 6 Music and Planet Rock in) but that's not what they chose to do...
| link to this comment |
J
Ofcom DAB switchover coverage planning proposals | Digital radiWednesday 13 July 2011 3:02PM
Braintree
Steve P.: "And as Digital Radio is already broadcast on DTB, what point is there in having a second digital broadcast network?"
This comes up time and time again in discussions of digital radio...
I've never seen a standalone "audio only" DVT-B receiver, I don't have a TV in the bedroom, kitchen, or garage, I don't want a TV in the bedroom, kitchen, or garage and I'm pretty confident I'm far from alone in that view.
This idea makes about as much sense as the other old chestnut, which is the suggestion that (for instance) my 80-something-year-old mum (who's delighted by the simplicity of the Pure Evoke DAB set I bought her for Christmas a few years back) should sign up for a broadband connection, install a router with WiFi, and replace the Evoke with an internet streaming box...
| link to this comment |
J
Ofcom DAB switchover coverage planning proposals | Digital radiThursday 14 July 2011 2:49PM
Braintree
Steve p: "For those of us who just want to listen to the wireless, we do not have a problem with what we now have."
Actually we do. Either through poor implementation, poor management, the laws of physics, or some combination of all three we don't seem to have enough broadcast FM spectrum available to support an adequate choice of National broadcasters.
Or is there some other reason why, for example, BBC 6 Music, 4 Extra, 5 Live, Kerrang, and Planet Rock aren't available nationally on FM...?
| link to this comment |
Well, that all went remarkably well :-)
I live in Braintree (postcode CM7) and pre-switchover a self installed loft aerial delivered solid reception of everything except the stuff on Mux 2, which was usualy OK on the Toshiba TVs built-in receiver but unreliable (often unwatchable) on both the BT vision box and the Humax F2-Fox plugged into the TiVo. Post switchover we've now got rock-solid reception of a full set of channels on all the receivers with good signal (both strength and quality) across the board.
My decision to try sticking with the loft aerial in the face of widespread scepticism and prophecies of doom from a couple of installers we've had canvassing door to door seems to have been vindicated so far. Now lets see what sort of a deal I can get on a Freeview HD box :-)
| link to this comment |
Alan Matthews: "I am 75 and usually ride there for it on my Honda VFR750 or Vincent Comet..."
My apologies to all for wandering miles of topic, but you didn't by any chance use to work at Marconi Radar Systems in Chelmsford did you Alan...?
| link to this comment |
jb38: "numerous people located at about your distance from the station (9 mls) and up to about 15 mls are having problems trying to receive it, basically due to their tuners being slightly desensitized by the massive differential in power between the main BBC mux on 100kw compared to the 2.2Kw used by ArqB(film 4 etc). "
That's interesting - I'm in CM7 (Braintree) and spent much of Sunday sulking because in the absence of ITV4 I was reduced to hacking a connection from my laptop PC to the TV in order to watch a poor quality streamed version of the BTCC coverage from Brands Hatch, Is it worth my trying an attenuator to stop the other muxes swamping MuxB or is that likely to push the signal I *do* want down too far to pick up?
I've got a selection of "in-line" attenuators ranging from something like -3dB to -20dB around the place somewhere, I can't for the life of me remember why I got 'em but I'm sure they're still around somewhere...
| link to this comment |
We have liftoff!
ITV4 and Film4 (and doubtless lots of dross I don't care about) now restored to their former glory...
Yes it was a nuisance having to plug the laptop into the TV for this years BTCC rounds but the world didn't end, I haven't wasted time, money, or energy replacing my cheap'n' cheerful self installed loft mounted aerial (works fine here in CM7land) so all's well.
Many thanks to those who provided a clear explanation of the situation with the temporary low power transmissions, without that I'd probably have ended up spending money needlessly...
| link to this comment |
Page 1
Monday 7 February 2011 3:04PM
Braintree
Michael:
"Listeners whose DAB service is below par DO consider the benefits it brings. They are just waiting for them to arrive."
Which funnily enough is exactly how I feel about FM. In my particular corner of not-particularly-rural Essex I get a fine selection of DAB stations upstairs and down without the aid of an external aerial. FM on the other hand gives me a very sparse choice of (non BBC) National broadcasters, is frequently interrupted by passing aircraft, and doesn't give a strong enough signal for stereo listening without the aid of an external aerial. It could (quite reasonably) be argued that if as much money had been put into improving FM coverage as went into rolling out DAB then I'd have been just as happy with FM services as I now am with DAB, but it didn't, and in the current financial climate absence of a solid commitment if DAB went away without a firm commitment to coverage targets I'd be deeply sceptical of either FM or any successor digital technology providing me with a satisfactory replacement...