# should dab plus be introduced now?

Category: Broadcaster's Lounge

## Post 1 by laced-unlaced (Account disabled) on Tuesday, 19-Jan-2010 8:42:04

A debate in the House of Commons this week centred around one MP suggesting
the Government should introduce DAB+, and that all future digital radio sets
should be able to receive FM to make sure no stations are left behind.
Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael said there was widespread concern
from small independent stations that the advancement of the digital era will
leave many stations facing an uneven playing field.
He said: "Over 100 local stations still do not have a clear digital
migration path and are likely to be consigned to an uncertain future on the
analogue spectrum once digital switchover has occurred. It is important the
government addresses this matter before committing to analogue switch off. I
plan to question the government on what action they plan to take to ensure
local communities continue to receive the important services offered by
local radio stations."
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Mr.
Siôn Simon, re-assured members that the future platform of radio
broadcasting was a very important matter.
When asked about multi-platform, Mr Simon said: "We are committed to
ensuring the implementation of a combined station guide, which is similar to
an electronic programme guide, that will allow listeners to access all sets
will simply have a list of station names. The listener will not distinguish
between FM and digital stations, but will simply select the station by
name."
Questions and answers from some members are printed in Grant Goddard's
digital radio blog at http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/
http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.5529
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## Post 2 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 20-Jan-2010 18:23:12

FM must be preserved for local community radio stations that cover a small area. The idea that they should have a DAB multiplex to themselves is daft, and the radio industry realises it.
DAB+ needs to be introduced as a replacement for DAB. I believe the longer we leave it, the more expensive it will be.
DAB needs to be restructured. There should be about 18 regional multiplexes, each covering a different area of England and Wales. These could be based on the current BBC regions with slight variations. Any station licensed for a smaller area should broadcast on FM. There should be two commercial stations per county, with community stations covering the areas currently covered by the smaller stations.

## Post 3 by nikos (English words from a Greek thinking brain) on Thursday, 21-Jan-2010 18:28:33

dab interests me a lot but i am wondering what is the situation with other countries. As far as i know only in the UK dab was advertised a lot so people went out and bought it. And the fact that some stations are only available on dab and not on fm such as 6 music and bbc7 made it a good reason to buy.
But what happens in other countries? In the states they seam to use satelite radios more and in europ i think they use fm most of the time. In my country Cyprus and in Greece nothing happened about it as far as i know.
So what is the future of dab i wonder?
Also they make it sound so amasing even it is not at the moment. All the adverts say that you never get interferance with dab but you actually get it if you are not in a well covered area. And in parts of the UK dab is not covered at all.
I was studying between 2004 and 2007 in Scarborough and dab wasn't available so i think now more areas are covered.
In Swansea now where i live dab coverage is pritty good.

## Post 4 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Friday, 22-Jan-2010 20:25:03

You get interference with DAB. Try putting the radio near a computer. My fridge door interfeers with the DAB.
In Ireland they are trialing DAB. Some countries, including the UK, Germany and Poland are trialing DRM with is digital AM broadcasting on longwave, mediumwave and shortwave.
Domestically, formats vary considerably. If you go to another country with a DAB, it is very likely that it won't work. Australia uses DAB+. I'm not sure of the standard in Sweden. I think it may be DAB If you go abroad with a DAB and it isn't DAB+ compatable, it won't pick up DAB+ stations.
At least we didn't have all this inconvenience with analogue.

## Post 5 by nikos (English words from a Greek thinking brain) on Saturday, 23-Jan-2010 13:29:03

I agree. Countries which use dab should agree on a common platform so when people travel abroad and take their dab radios should be able to pick up all the stations available for dab. Atleast with analogue radio we could travel anywhere and we could listen to the radio.
I think dab has got some good things to offer but at the moment it needs some improovements.

## Post 6 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Saturday, 23-Jan-2010 15:23:48

DAB is a very costly platform, because of the amount of transmitters involved to transmit a national signal. I don't think it uses any high-powered transmitters. Consequently, companies say it's it too expensive to get their stations on air. But religious organisations and some stations that appeal to minorities are able to get on air with some listener support.

## Post 7 by Joe (Newborn Zoner) on Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 16:33:32

it would be nice to see more choice on dab, but can't see that happening any time soon. Now i mostly use my dab for 5live and the net for everything els.

## Post 8 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 18:45:13

You're right. Some of the recently added stations (NME, Panjab Radio) are trialing. UCB and Premier rely on donations but the money never seems to dry up.

## Post 9 by Joe (Newborn Zoner) on Wednesday, 10-Feb-2010 9:46:38

wel if the money keeps coming in i guess there'll keep going, people givingg money to radio stations is not something we've seen in the uk up until now and paying the bbc doesn't count

## Post 10 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 10-Feb-2010 15:44:17

The only thing that could stop them is if the multiplexes close because they don't have the funds to maintain their huge transmitter networks. The people who listen to or believe in those stations are obviously more passionate than people who listen to music stations.

## Post 11 by matt02392 (Veteran Zoner) on Sunday, 14-Feb-2010 4:07:50

Also, it would be quite easy for the religen or minority based stations to get on air these days because, well, if they didn't, someone, somewhere, would more than likely play the race or religen discrimination card. Music stations are watered down trash these days, especially things like galaxy and heart that seam to play the same songs every hour on a constant loop. Things like planete rock and nme radio, although they are good stations, just simply don't get the listeners because they can't advertise themselves enough. Dab plus in this country will just make things worse. We'll get more choice, sure, and for the first couple of years it'll be great. We'll actually get high quolity radio for once as far as things like bit rates are concerned. But how long will it be before we have the same saturation problems as we are having at the moment. We simply have too many stations on dab for it to sound good and content wise, those stations aint all that great. The usa have the right idea with satellite radio, but over here, that system just isn't pheesable. We are too small of a cuntry. So it looks more and more like if you want to hear any form of decent radio, you're gonna have to go online for it. All i seam to listen to on the radio is sports coverage on various stations and maybe chris moyles on radio one in the morning. That's about it.

## Post 12 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Monday, 15-Feb-2010 10:53:54

The religious stations would only claim to be discriminated against if they couldn't get on air, in slots nobody else wants to occupy. The reason they are on air is because they have paid for the slots that big companies won't pay for.
NME shouldn't have a problem advertising itself. It has the support of a magazine, giving the station an advantage over all the other digital-only stations on the multiplex. The reason it won't get enough listeners, is that it has too many songs on the playlist, many of which are not current. If it played more current indie songs more often, the songs would be more familiar with new listeners, so they'd listen more.
There must be approximately a hundred stations on Sky Digital, but does the amount of choice increase the quality of what's on offer? Listening figures for Sky indicate that it doesn't. Some stations have given up broadcasting on Sky because the amount of listeners they get doesn't justify the cost.
I know internet radio offers even more choice, and is loved by anoraks. but I think the average radio listener would rather hear their favourite radio station on the radio, without having to type in long URLs.

## Post 13 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Thursday, 18-Feb-2010 13:39:38

Still internet radio has many benifits. Long URLS are the last thing to worry about.

## Post 14 by Professor Seemore Balls (Newborn Zoner) on Friday, 10-Sep-2010 11:52:53

hi all out here in aus wre using Dab plus and let me say the quality is a lot better then standard Dab. out here where using the AAC plus incoder and the lowest bit rate is 48kbps for a mono sports staions talk stations music stations are between 96 and 128 and if you listen to a FM station that is on dab you can bearly here a difference. plus dab is in every cap city and is beeing trialed in regional markets such as north rld regional Nsw etc and as as for drop outs I can travel in to the city on a train travelling around 80Mk/h with my dab plus set sitting on the windo sill with the aerial down and it only drops out when i go under road bridges. or pass very solid structures .