What do you think about the DAB switchover? Your views needed....

[nads]

Where are you reading that?

http://twitter.com/search?q=%23WeFEvents

 

[chebby]

"Don Foster MP: i'm unremittingly excited & optimistic about digital radio; can't wait for a switchover"

"Meanwhile in the Commons, MPs debating killing off BBC local radio..."

Gawd spare us from these idiots*!

*I can't type what I am really thinking here.

[Edit... Don Foster MP, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Commercial Radio Group. That explains his response at least. 'Bunce'.

 

[daveh75]

What is this I read.

there is to be NO FM switch off.

Where are you reading that?

I thought FM was going to continue,and be used for local radio stations...

 

[Clare Newsome]

It is....

BBC and commercial radio go to digital; FM for local/community services. That's been the argument for some time.

This conference is fascinating - lot of tensions!

 

[nads]

ahhh so basically turning anything good on FM off.

 

[chebby]

It is....

BBC and commercial radio go to digital; FM for local/community services. That's been the argument for some time.

This conference is fascinating - lot of tensions!

At least Arqiva don't have any conflict of interest 'tensions'! They own and operate all the BBC transmitters (originally paid for by tax payers and license payers) that they inherited from Crown Castle and probably want to strip all the bandwidth so they can use it for it's other businesses (IT and cellular networks).

DAB needs 25 percent less transmitters! I thought it needed twice as many (and at higher power) even for 'adequate' coverage. (Or were the BBC research papers all wrong?)

Off for a rummage.

 

[nads]

Will have 93% DAB coverage by end 2011; inc. all motorways/A roads.

love this bit. but what percent of cars will be able to use it?

 

[chebby]

From the WHF twitter feed...

"MandyAdden, WHFSV office, just now... http://twitpic.com/4h6w2r"

Haha! That was me 15 minutes ago!

 

[Diamond Joe]

...(originally paid for by tax payers and license payers) that they inherited from Crown Castle ...

With respect Chebby this statement is inaccurate, the terrestrial transmission infrastructure formally owned and operated by the BBC was privatised in 1997 and bought by the American company Crown Castle. They were subsequently bought by National Grid Plc. in 2004 (then changed to National Grid Wireless [NGW] in 2005), NGW were then bought by Arqiva for £2.5Billion in 2007.

 

[Andrew Everard]

From the WHF twitter feed...

"MandyAdden, WHFSV office, just now... http://twitpic.com/4h6w2r"

Haha! That was me 15 minutes ago!

You are Andy Madden? Explains a lot...

So that's Chebby who's really Andy Madden, me that's really gel (or vice versa) – any other WHFSV staffers want to fess up?

 

[plastic penguin]

My God! have you lot been at the strong coffee?

 

[chebby]

You are Andy Madden? Explains a lot...

So that's Chebby who's really Andy Madden, me that's really gel (or vice versa) – any other WHFSV staffers want to fess up?

Confused further by Andy Madden's preference for being known as 'Mandy' on Twitter.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Confused further by Andy Madden's preference for being known as 'Mandy' on Twitter.

It's her out of office persona.

 

[chebby]

Can you 'de-link' my Andy Madden link in the post above? I just realised how sweary his/her twitter is. Sorry.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Can you 'de-link' my Andy Madden link in the post above? I just realised how sweary his/her twitter is. Sorry.

No probs, done. Yes, she may look like a pantomime dame, but she swears like a trooper.

 

[Andy Madden]

Oh no he doesn't!!

P.S Apologies to all my Twitterers - i've been having a particularly stressful day...

 

[hawardn]

I see no value in it for me, only cost - to convert my car radio, to change my FM tuner - and, by all accounts there is at best no improvement in quality. So what's the point !

If there are benefits which I can't see then the government should start selling these !

 

[eggontoast]

It is....

BBC and commercial radio go to digital; FM for local/community services. That's been the argument for some time.

This conference is fascinating - lot of tensions!

I have come a bit late to this post but has it now been finalised and this is what is going to happen ?

I personally cannot see any benefits to switching to DAB. There is no leap forward as there was with digital TV, one can only presume it is driven by the government for financial reasons ie. they can sell more airwaves ching ching.

I am also struggling to see how this can be in line with 'green' targets. A huge amount of radios will land on the scrape heap for no good reason. Radio is different to TV and other technologies it has not progressed and is not about to with DAB. It is still quite feasible to have FM radio's from the 50's which still work just fine, I happen to have a lovely 1954 Bush VHF41 which still works perfectly well. Then there are some of the gorgeous receivers from Pioneer and Marantz to name a few all from the 70's all which will become junk (unless you want to listen to local radio......I would rather stick a fork in my eye), it is definitely an outrageous decision in my eyes.

 

[The_Lhc]

I personally cannot see any benefits to switching to DAB. There is no leap forward as there was with digital TV

What was that then?

 

[eggontoast]

What was that then?

So you don't think there is any improvement for Digital TV over Analogue then?

 

[The_Lhc]

What was that then?

So you don't think there is any improvement for Digital TV over Analogue then?

I think that was the question I was asking you, what do you consider to be an improvement brought about by digital TV? About the only one I can think of is more channels and that applies to digital radio just as well.

 

[Clare Newsome]

If you do a side-by-side comparison with analogue and digital TV tuners in the same set, the digital picture is clearly better. That's not the case wtih radio - unless, of course, you're comparing AM/MW with DAB, in which case the latter (eg Radio 5) typically wins out.

And yes, we are going digital for radio. The analogue spectrums are full; we have to swtich. When/how we'll switch is now the big debate!

 

[eggontoast]

If you do a side-by-side comparison with analogue and digital TV tuners in the same set, the digital picture is clearly better.

Glad to see I was not the only one that noticed

When/how we'll switch is now the big debate!

What about the format are they going to continue pushing the already obsolete DAB format or are they going to start from the ground up and provide the best format they can with the currently available technology ?

 

[The_Lhc]

If you do a side-by-side comparison with analogue and digital TV tuners in the same set, the digital picture is clearly better.

Glad to see I was not the only one that noticed

The only thing I've noticed digital TV bring is consistancy, the picture should look the same wherever you live, whereas Analogue was very much dependant on the signal strength. Personally speaking I had an excellent analogue signal and the switch to digital didn't improve it noticably.

What it did bring was compression artifacts, which was nice...

 

[shooter]

It's already been said but the reception and performance is shockingly bad.