Replacements for DAB?

[Pete]

I'm wondering, what exactly is the long term future for DAB? As a technology its pretty rubbish and taking into account its audio quality is mostly inferior to the analogue reception I can't see the govt being able to justify turning it off in the same way they're doing with TV.

Is there perhaps an MPEG4 version that could be launched, or could the current system work if they simply had more mutliplexes?

[Nick Harvey]

This could turn out to be a long story!

I was sitting with Quentin, drinking some coffee, in the private lounge of the BT stand at the Telecommunications Managers' Association show in Brighton, one cold November day, many years ago.

I was looking into the differences between the various digital coding techniques for telephony, to replace the full, 64kb PCM.

He was doodling with ideas for digitally coding broadcast sound, starting from the NICAM platform which television was using.

To cut a long story short, the eventual result was DAB, for which he still gets a few pence in royalties for every set sold.

He is still a staunch supporter of the system, as any designer would be, so he's unlikely to admit that it will be replaced.

However, it's bound to be replaced with something better in due course. Something which works better in the narrow bandwidths which will be normal in the future.

Current DAB, in my personal opinion, is fairly good if a wide bandwidth's available, but as has been said, can easily dip below good FM reception quality in a narrow bandwidth environment.

Yes, it will be replaced eventually, but I'd hate to be asked to guess how quickly.

[all new Phil]

How quickly, Nick?

I reckon DAB is a big pile of wank. I've not used one yet that had a decent reception. I don't see much wrong with the current analogue system - well FM anyways. AM is something I've never understood the point of.

[stu]

DAB could work if the sound quality between stations was improved (some sound worse than others at the same bitrate) and if the bitrates themselves were made higher. And the recent announcement to close some stations was just idiotic.

[huddsguy]

One of the big issues on DAB for commercial radio is that currently the smaller local radio stations (which you may or may not think serve a purpose!) can not exist on DAB - the multiplexes cover areas far larger than small stations do and there just isn't the room for them all to exist.

Does that mean we'll see a reduction in the number of commercial stations, and is that a good or a bad thing? I suppose it does mean the localness of commercial radio would disappear (although it'd being eroded all the time anyway) or will DRM emerge as a replacement technology - that would allow smaller commercial stations a place in the digital world.

[Nick Harvey]

One of the big issues on DAB for commercial radio is that currently the smaller local radio stations (which you may or may not think serve a purpose!) can not exist on DAB.

You've hit the nail on the head.

I'm a great believer in true local radio, rather like ILR was in its formative years. If I had that magic wand today, I'd get rid of all the regional stations and all the so-called local, but now networked, stations, because they all sound the same and don't serve any purpose that I can, personally, identify.

I'd leave fairly specialist national stations, some of which might be the networked stations of today, but without the requirement to pretend to be local; and then the bottom tier of true local and community stations.

Having wandered slightly off the topic already, yes the nationals and the slightly larger locals would be on DAB or a "super-DAB" replacement, while DRM might well be the platform for the small ones.

[huddsguy]

One of the big issues on DAB for commercial radio is that currently the smaller local radio stations (which you may or may not think serve a purpose!) can not exist on DAB.

You've hit the nail on the head.

I'm a great believer in true local radio, rather like ILR was in its formative years. If I had that magic wand today, I'd get rid of all the regional stations and all the so-called local, but now networked, stations, because they all sound the same and don't serve any purpose that I can, personally, identify.

I'd leave fairly specialist national stations, some of which might be the networked stations of today, but without the requirement to pretend to be local; and then the bottom tier of true local and community stations.

Having wandered slightly off the topic already, yes the nationals and the slightly larger locals would be on DAB or a "super-DAB" replacement, while DRM might well be the platform for the small ones.

I'm a great believer in true local radio as well - but true local radio has been so much taken apart in recent years given that virtually all (if not all?) local radio stations are now owned by bigger groups. But having worked at all levels of a local radio station, I know how much local radio is valued my listeners when it's done well. But it's a constant battle against directors/shareholders who have not the feintest idea about radio but just about bottomlines (and don't realise how making great radio will make for a great bottomline!).

But yes, sorry, I've taken us off topic already...! 70 minutes into this new forum, apologies!

Am not an expert in the technology, but how easy would it be to produce a combined DAB/DRM set? And will it ever happen? Also, when exactly will FM be turned off? There doesn't seem to be a date on the table at the moment and I just can't see it happening anytime soon.

[timgraham]

Is DAB+ any different? From what I can gather it's just a modified version of DAB.

I ask because Australia's meant to be getting it sometime in the next century (things are moving at a glacial pace).

[Inspector Sands]

The fact is that all analogue transmissions will at some point transfer to digital - analogue will end up being just too un-economic. The problem is that DAB is digital radio, if it is abandoned then there will be even fewer listeners who will be willing to buy into whatever new digital radio system is chosen to replace it.

[Inspector Sands]

DAB could work if the sound quality between stations was improved (some sound worse than others at the same bitrate) and if the bitrates themselves were made higher. And the recent announcement to close some stations was just idiotic.

DAB has left the world of the early adopters and enthuiasts and is now a mass market product. For the vast majority of people content is the main draw to DAB (in fact it appears to be BBC7 which is the biggest lure!), they don't care about/won't notice any increase in bit-rate. That is not the answer to saving DAB

[Pete]

Surely though the majority of DAB radios in circulation are crappy little clock radios with a mono speaker, therefore the terrible quality is noticed less. Once you start getting dab on the big hifis then perhaps people will notice more.