On 09/04/2008, Andrew Bowden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > 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.
>From what I recall James Cridland telling me, the 5LSX service is created out of the general bitrate pool and leaches capacity from a number of services. For some reason it is not the least listen to and highest bitrate service though. 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) > > > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial > list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv
