> Then you have GCap pulling out of DAB, the two stations closing down
> (including Planet Rock, sniff)
Planet Rock has had a reprive whilst they discuss sale options - and
Global (who are taking over Gcap) are apparently more DAB friendly.
> Plus my Dad prefers Radio 4 on FM because it doesn't drop to a lower
> bitrate at peak time (why?!), call him an old cynic if you like. ;)
It goes low at certain points because the station splits into two - so
that the Long Wave opt outs can be broadcast on DAB. For example,
8:30am, Today on one, Yesterday in Parliament on the other.
I presume they do the same for the Daily Service. LW Sport gets
carried on Five Live Sports Extra, hence it's not a problem.
IIRC, the opt-outs take up about 45 minutes a day, so it's more cost
effective to use this feature than it would be to broadcast a duplicate
station.
> What worries me is that digital radio is almost still in a state
> of flux; in the space of three years, an industry-changing
> redefinition of the DAB standard is released and it causes all sorts
> of headaches and potential problems for manufacturers and
> broadcasters. FM stereo was standardised in the early 60s and it's not
> really changed since, yet I still feel like my DAB receiver (my
> venerable Wavefinder) is nothing more than 'sandbox kit', yet I've had
> it for years. I think half the problem is people just can't trust
> hardware they buy today to work in three/four years' time, whatever
> the assurances given.
I don't think it's /that/ bad but there's absolutely no denial that
standards change quickly because technology moves quickly. Just look at
your PC after all.
And that's the route of the problem, and personally I suspect it's going
to get worse as time goes on. DAB may look positively antique in 10
years time as far as technology is concerned.
However when you have sizable audience bases, it's extremely difficult
just to turn something off because something better has come along
because people don't want to go out and buy new equipment. Such big
switch-offs are rare (last one I can think of was the migration from VHF
to UHF for TV signals which finally ended in the 1980s after UHF first
launched in the 1960s)
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