Reminds me of the term "dark fiber" - from the telecommunications industry.
When long-haul fiber optic cable was first laid into the ground, expectations were that its transmission capacity would be sufficient for a reasonable number of years, allowing for a reasonable period of cost amortization. However, the manufacturers of fiber optic components soon discovered ways to squeeze more throughput out of a given circuit, which significantly increased the transmission capacity of a given cable - far beyond demand. As a result, parts of the cable weren't "lit up" with optical transmitters (or receivers), hence the name "dark fiber". Digital audio broadcasting, too, significantly increases the transmission capacity of a given frequency (or given frequency band), but there isn't sufficient demand for stations to invest in any sort of "useful" format for these additional channels, as John suggests.. Perhaps what we need is some sort of "use it or lose it" requirement: If stations do nothing other put these "placeholder" formats on the subchannels, they lose their access to the channels, which are then offered up at auction. Sure, the existing station could bid for the spectrum space and thus close out others, However that would overall increase the cost for the stations to "defend" their turf. Unfortunately I don't see the NAB or other lobbyist organizations willing to support such a rule; their interest is to protect their current members. RC On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 9:19 AM, John A. Figliozzi <[email protected]> wrote: > A personal take on the "drive for digital"... (Catchy, eh?) > > Ibiquity arguably has the best technology solution here because it alone > addresses the blackout problem that occurs when the digital signal degrades > below threshold. However, like its digital brethren (DAB, DAB+ and DRM, > there's really minimal interest and demand for it. _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
