The BBC has been
quoted as saying digital
switchover would only
cost £50m - £100m in
total, but according to
previous BBC figures it
is going to cost £40m
per annum, not in total.
Whether it was
intentional or
accidental, the BBC's
Director of Radio Tim
Davie misled listeners
about what causes DAB's
audio quality problems,
and the DRDB's chief
exec simply lied
repeatedly when he
appeared to discuss DAB
on Radio 4.
The dishonest DAB
industry and the
Government are simply
lying about FM stations
being switched off in
2015. There really is no
doubt about this
whatsoever: it is a
bare-faced lie that this
is even remotely
possible.
The BBC has finally
begun testing AAC/AAC+
live streams, and it has
launched AAC/AAC+ on-demand
Internet radio streams,
both of which provide higher quality than
DAB.
The Telegraph has done a short video review of Pure Digital's new
Evoke Flow Wi-Fi radio, which in my opinion is the best Internet
radio available at the moment.
The only thing the
BBC said was stopping
them from providing the
live streams at higher
bit artes has been
solved, but they're
refusing to use 128 kbps
AAC anyway.
The BBC has started delivering some of its stations'
listen again streams from the new
'Coyopa' servers, which means that the quality is higher than it has
been up to now.
Channel 4 has decided
to close down its radio
division, so it won't
now be launching three
national DAB stations,
and the second national
commercial DAB multiplex
almost certainly won't
launch at all.
Channel 4 is
reportedly hoping that
mobile TV could make the forthcoming
Digital Two multiplex
profitable. I think
on-demand TV streams
will make live mobile TV
channels almost
redundant.
Malta should have become the first country to only use DAB+ today
when its digital radio service is commercially launched, and DAB+ transmissions are
now taking place in numerous other countries.
Research published by
the Radio Advertising
Bureau (RAB) shows that
15-24 year olds prefer
listening to radio via
the Internet than via
the other platforms.
Although there are
already quite a few Blu
Ray music releases that
have both video and
audio, what's thought to
be the first ever
audio-only Blu Ray disc
has been released.
The DCMS has set up a Digital Radio Working Group that is
supposed to e planning for the future of digital radio, but in
reality it looks like they're planning for a DAB/DAB+ future and
they're making excuses not to use other technologies.
GCap's chief exec,
Fru Hazlitt, told the
Radio Reborn conference
this week that the radio
industry should embrace
Internet radio, and not
be scared of it.
This
article puts the record
straight about a few
things that Nick Piggott
told the editor of The
Register website and
which were subsequently
published in an article
defending DAB.
Frontier-Silicon has
launched a DAB+ version
of its Venice 5 module,
although the only reason
why a DAB-only version
was made was due to the
receiver manufacturers
profiteering at the
expense of consumers.
The BBC has said it
will start using new
audio formats for its
Internet streams in the
next few months, which
is very likely to be AAC
or AAC+, but I can
reveal that the BBC
could have done this
four years ago.
France has adopted
the DMB system for
digital radio, which has
got to be one of the
most ridiculous
decisions imaginable
considering that DAB+
has just been designed.
The world's first ever DRM+ broadcastes have gone on-air in the
FM band in Germany, and it is reported that the DRM+ system will be
standardised next year.
We should have been seeing a steady stream of new
DAB+-upgradeable receivers being launched by now, but
unfortunately the receiver manufacturers are delaying
the switch to DAB+ in order to sell as many
non-upgradeable receivers as possible -- it's a new take
on the "buy one get one free" offer: "buy two when you
only need one".
Ofcom has sent a document to the French authorities
criticising them for mandating that T-DMB must be used
-- Ofcom also basically admits that DAB+ will be used.
Annual DAB sales in 2008 are forecast by the DRDB
(Digital Radio Development Bureau) to be 50% below their
previous forecasts, and cumulative sales will also be
30% below previous forecasts.
Heat Radio is now being broadcast at 112 kbps in
joint stereo on a number of local DAB multiplexes, and
this is the first station to use 112 kbps in the UK.
Ofcom has launched a public consultation to garner
views on what it calls 'next generation access
networks', or 'superfast broadband', as it is becoming
known.
'[DAB
uses the MPEG Layer II audio codec]. This
offers a variety of options, in which bit-rate can be traded for
quality. For high quality stereo signals, a bit-rate between 192 and
256
kbit/s is needed.'
