New pro-DAB management-speak blog on the BBC

[Guest]

nnnnnnn

[Lateralthinking1]

I have got a few issues with DAB. The signal cuts out sometimes. Sometimes it swaps channel for no reason. Normally to Radio 1. Sometimes the set switches itself on for no apparent reason. The positions of the buttons are counter-intuitive. Those buttons and the volume dial need some pressure to operate. This is annoying and would be difficult for elderly or disabled people. The sound is tinny. Most importantly, the sets are big and heavy and can't be carried round the house to various rooms easily.

[Bryn]

What a strange response. There are certainly many criticisms to be directed at the DAB implementation in the U.K., but there is a wide range of DAB receiver designs available. Some are big, heavy and have poorly designed controls, others are small, light, have relatively low power consumption compared to early models and when Radio 3 is offering 192kbps discrete stereo, can beat FM for dynamic range and even for timbre at the extremes of the frequency range (though not for the middle frequencies so important for the human ear). I have several different DAB receivers found the house and none of them ever change channels randomly, not do they switch on of off for no apparent reason but only because I have sometimes wrongly programmed the timer function. A couple of my DAB radios even have rotary volume and tuning controls. Caveat emptor, eh?

[Serial_Apologist]

Mine, in here, announces the hourly pips 5 seconds late.... or is it the FM radio in the other room announces them 5 seconds early?? Interesting block-canonic effects are obtainable listening to music on both radios simultaneously. I'm sure Charles Ives would have approved. Or maybe Steve Reich would be more... appropriate. Anyway, by the time the BBC transfers us all to the DAB system others say is now outdated technology, my analog hi-fi will only be playing my audio cassettes, DVDs and vinyl, as there won't be anything worthwhile listening to any more on Radio 3.

[Bryn]

Oh the time delay does indeed make an nonsense of the pips, and that delay varies from digital radio to digital radio. If I have two or three on around the place I can get and many as 18 pips in canon.

I was a fairly early adopter of DAB (when my NAD tuner died the death). At that time there were no Radios 5 to 7 etc. and the 4 national channels were all at 192kbps discrete stereo. Then, one Christmas, the Beeb slashed the data rates for all but Radio 3. It's been downhill since then. DAB was, after all, designed to operate with 256kbps mp2.

[Nick Armstrong]

Mine, in here, announces the hourly pips 5 seconds late.... or is it the FM radio in the other room announces them 5 seconds early?? Interesting block-canonic effects are obtainable listening to music on both radios simultaneously. I'm sure Charles Ives would have approved.

I had the same, on getting home yesterday evening: the Leipzig Beethoven 7 on the main HiFi in FM, and on the bedroom DAB. Mind-bending.

[Serial_Apologist]

I had the same, on getting home yesterday evening: the Leipzig Beethoven 7 on the main HiFi in FM, and on the bedroom DAB. Mind-bending.

With the government presently agonizing over what new street drugs to make illegal, what will be the need, eh??

[MrGongGong]

I thought that this was going to be about fish cookery ?

But

Where we live the DAB radio only works upstairs but is a great improvement on FM
i'm not convinced by the whole "this is the future" thing, IF the signal was reliable and stable (like FM is ....... well more or less) then maybe but at the moment its not good enough. You do get what you pay for in equipment !!! Neumann vs Maplins ?


The canonic effects of having pips/music out of time have inspired composers of the past , so there might be some benefit ?
I almost convinced my daughter when she was doing A level music that polyphony was discovered by a monk who overslept and was late into the service so started singing from the back hence the out of time effect that later led to all sorts of nonsense

[french frank]

I wonder if Mr Pepsi will come back with a response to those who have commented on his blog ...

[Frances_iom]

I wonder if Mr Pepsi will come back with a response to those who have commented on his blog ...

Davie made part of his career by selling the 2nd rate junk food - natural to move same 'skill' to radio - still "The car industry indicated that DAB will (or has) become part of the standard spec in all new cars by the end of 2103 at the latest" amused me - so he intends to lock the UK into a second rate + well outmoded system with considerable expense for all (note the weasel words 'digital' also cover an estimated use of internet - remove this and I doubt if 20% are listening via DAB)

[burning dog]

SA
sport coverage in order
1.analouge tv/radio,
2.digital radio
3 Satellite TV

Quite a delay between them

Analouge is the way to go for betting "in play"

[DracoM]

DAB is very, very patchy up here in Ultima Thule, and for drivers on our roads / fells........forget it. So thanks, Mr Pepsi, for making our voices as licence-fee payers that bit less important.

Good to know that the BBC once more stacks up its own interests ahead of the UK's. After all, the BBC is only supported by tax-payers.
I bet if Mr Pepsi were back in his old job, he'd be a sight keener to listen to big backers and financial interests saying no than he is to the national tax-payers of UK.

Hey ho!

I DO hope Steve Hewlett gets him on the Media Show soon.

[Lateralthinking1]

Bryn - I have a Tesco one. The volume dial is very odd because it doesn't turn round. It works on applied pressure or is that how they make things now?

Plus Stand By/On is on the bottom left and Alarm is bottom right below the manual tuners. I find that odd and would prefer it to be the other way round.

Soundwise it is ok - it is all just ok - but it is a biggish box and sometimes I feel that it is just slightly above what we used to get with small transistor radios.

[Bryn]

Lt1, would that be a Technika DAB-106? I have one of those which used to be situated in the kitchen, then in my bedroom. Yet, a bit of a pain, but it does work and offers stereo via headphone socket. Mine is currently on 'standby'. (i.e. tucked away on a cupboard for use if the Alba now in the kitchen, or my bedside Pure Bug Too fails. My first DAB enabled tuner was the Sony ST-D777ES which had a rotary tuning knob which one actually turns round and round to change either FM or DAB channels.

[Lateralthinking1]

It is this one. It doesn't say Technika but it is that under the Tesco name. 109FD. Weirdly, the moving visual display works on electricity but not battery. I'm not too bothered by that though as I find I watch the words going round and it drives me a bit more crackers than I am already! -

http://direct.tesco.com/pi/Product/0/SS11209-3790TPS801884.jpg