Re: [Swprograms] Digital Radio--Yes or No?

[Mike Barraclough <softbulletin1@xxxxxxxxx>]

There are some errors in this article:

'Content is what's turning British radio audiences
onto digital, from stations like Passion For The
Planet, which gives listeners a high roughage diet of
health, environmental issues and alternative culture.'

Passion for the Planet has not got a RAJAR rating,
they can't afford to join I would suspect.

"Most of the countries in Europe have said we are
converting to digital radio, there's not a question
about that."

What does she mean by converting? In the UK 85% of
listening is by analogue and the rest by digital
satellite, internet and DAB, and that's by far the
largest market. Many countries are undecided and not
making any great investement.

"The reason that the UK is so far ahead is because we
made a decision right at the beginning that we would
drive digital radio take-up through content"

Untrue, in the UK DAB was sold at the beginning
through better sound quality.

"As for broadcasting standards, Europe's opted for DAB
or Digital Audio Broadcasting,"

No it hasn't. In fact some countries have rejected it.

"The advantage of both is that the sound is better
than FM, though it falls short of CD quality. "

No it isn't if you mean sound in terms of audio
quality. Only one UK station, BBC Radio 3, transmits
DAB at 192 kbp/s which approaches FM quality, and that
is reduced to 160 kbp/s at times when the BBC needs
the space for extra sports services. The programme may
be perpetrating the half truth that better sound means
freedom from interference. DAB suffers from inferior
audio quality at UK bitrates, spectrum inefficiency
and lack of coverage. I don't know about IBOC FM
sound.

"It is technically true that DAB is not as good a
quality as CD, but I defy you to hear the difference,
unless perhaps you are a dog."

A hilarious comment from a DJ on a station that can
only afford to transmit its signals at 96 kbp/s mono,
complete nonsense.

"The hissing and buzzing that you have on your FM
network, which is really irritating in a car, you get
rid of completely."

To be replaced by burbling noises and drop outs due to
DAB's coverage issues, it is rather difficult to get
DAB in a car anyway as there are hardly any radios,
just 0.5% of sales.

"Make a wind up receiver DRM capable and it could
bring digital radio to swathes of the developing
world."

The only wind up digital radio so far gives 3-5
minutes DAB radio for one turn compared with 60
minutes for FM. DRM will have similar issues. And who
will make all this investement in new transmitters to
cover the developing world. DRM receivers for the
developed world, which they are targeting first, have
not arrived yet.

"Digital Radio offers the possibility of targeting
your audiences much more precisely than analogue
radio. In analogue radio you throw out an ad and
you've no idea who it is going to reach, whereas with
digital radio you can go pretty specifically on a
particular audience."

Why? Does digital radio have the power to
automatically give you better audience research than
AM/FM. Utter nonsense.

"So, for example, you've got scrolling text on every
digital radio. That can tell you the name of the song
and those sorts of things, but it can also tell you
the website of the advertiser or give you more
information and so on."

Well thats useful when driving. I tend to listen to a
radio not watch scrolling texts.

The BBC diary I got as a quiz prize at a DX meeting
this weekend says Trust is the foundation of the BBC,
we are independent, impartial and honest. Not when
making programmes about digital radio it seems.  

BBC Research and Development White Paper 118 released
in September stated regarding DAB:

It has been found that cascading different codecs can
result in an overall degradation in sound that many
listeners find objectionable. 

The problems with sound quality have also been
mentioned in the BBC's response to an Ofcom
consultation on digital radio coverage and plans they
submitted only last month.

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that
there is no evidence digital sound quality is any
better than analogue which has affected advertising
claims. The BBC is pushing their digital radio
channels in the period up to Christmas so they decided
to make a one sided progamme about DAB carefully
choosing spokesmen from outside the BBC as experts.

Mike








		
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