DAB Report

[DracoM]

I meant no-one on the BBC Programme, not on this thread!!

[Nick_G]

A shortish debate on BBC Radio 4's The Media Show this afternoon between Ford Ennals and Gillian Reyolds. Ennals was slippery as a fish but it was clear that there isn't going to be a switch-off campaign with a date as there was for television, at least not for many a year. In contrast Reynolds was incisive about why she feels that DAB is a rum deal. Hewlett did his best to be impartial

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03brqlh

I have highlighted the above because we were led to believe that that was the entire point of the forthcoming Government announcement, to set a target date. Reading between the lines this suggests backtracking to me and makes me wonder what the point of the announcement is if it isn't telling us anything new.

It's like something straight out of 'Yes Minister'!

[Dave2002]

On the other hand, the current Tory led government is trying to set dates for other things which go beyond the next election - or have I got that wrong?

[An_Inspector_Calls]

There's a useful set of maps on broadband coverage of the UK here:

http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/

Looks like all the major conurbations have high-speed broadband now.

[DracoM]

Cumbria 8% superfast broadband
Hertfordshire: 87% superfast broadband

Ahem.

[Dave2002]

Cumbria 8% superfast broadband
Hertfordshire: 87% superfast broadband

Ahem.

Quite! On the other hand AIC did write

Looks like all the major conurbations have high-speed broadband now.

so if that's true I suppose we can infer that Cumbria is not a major conurbation.

London/SE centric view strikes again.

Who believes all these figures anyway? What does "superfast" mean - is there a specification?

[Nick_G]

Looks like zilch DAB coverage along the west coast of and northern most parts of Scotland then. Also interesting that more than half the people who haven't already got DAB still don't want it - as least as indicated by willingness to buy kit in the next 12 months.

I was just looking at that report and it seems that the number of people who are likely to buy a DAB set have fallen since the last annual report, the proportion of people who don't intend to buy a set has increased from 48% to 59% in the last year, and two thirds of all new sets sold in the last year did not include DAB. I hope these figures are taken into account by whoever is doing the latest Cost Benefit Analysis of a switchover because I don't see any benefits for a large proportion of the public, just an awful lot of costs.

Maybe that is why Ford Ennals is so reluctant to give us a switchover date.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Who believes all these figures anyway? What does "superfast" mean - is there a specification?

The link I gave shows maps of various broadband parameters, one of which is average speed.
And as DracoM well knows, there is a project to upgrade Cumbria progressing right now (target coverage 93 %):

http://www.connectingcumbria.org.uk/home

From what I can see most regions of the UK (apart from Scotland?) have similar schemes.

[OldTechie]

162 New Transmitters

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/Making-Waves-extending-the-BBCs-digital-radio-coverage-to-a-further-two-million-people

[mangerton]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/abouttheb...million-people

I see the BBC places Montrose in Perthshire.

It must have moved overnight.

[Dave2002]

I see the BBC places Montrose in Perthshire.

It must have moved overnight.

Could there be a bracketed number missing on that line - e.g Montrose(1)?

What's DAB coverage like in Scotland anyway?
I'm guessing that the far north islands won't get coverage - but I could be wrong. Maybe they have DAB already.

[mangerton]

Could there be a bracketed number missing on that line - e.g Montrose(1)?

What's DAB coverage like in Scotland anyway?
I'm guessing that the far north islands won't get coverage - but I could be wrong. Maybe they have DAB already.

At the moment I have no need for, nor interest in, DAB. I suspect that because of local topography reception at mangerton towers will be nothing to write home about anyway. Looking at the map here you will see that Montrose is roughly equidistant from the main DAB (and TV) transmitters at Angus (Tealing, just north of Dundee) and Durris, which is the main transmitter for the Aberdeen area. That I imagine is why they're going to put a relay there. You will also see just how far Montrose is from Perthshire. But then the BBC's ignorance of Scotland has always been deplorable.

There are transmitters which cover the northern islands and the Hebrides, but coverage is very limited. FM radio is almost non existent on the west coast and in much of the highlands. Digital TV is less patchy, and of course when digital TV started the multiplexes carried BBC national radio which was a great advance. That was shortlived, however, as the BBC in its infinite wisdom now broadcasts a Gaelic TV channel from 17.00 on weekdays, and 16.00 at weekends. To get the bandwidth for this they stop broadcasting the main national radio stations.

[Dave2002]

That was shortlived, however, as the BBC in its infinite wisdom now broadcasts a Gaelic TV channel from 17.00 on weekdays, and 16.00 at weekends. To get the bandwidth for this they stop broadcasting the main national radio stations.

I was amazed to discover that. Maybe they think that radio listeners who use TV to listen will probably use digital cable services, such as Virgin, or alternatively satellite services.

Have they taken mountains into account?

[mangerton]

I was amazed to discover that. Maybe they think that radio listeners who use TV to listen will probably use digital cable services, such as Virgin, or alternatively satellite services.

Have they taken mountains into account?

Mountains? In the Highlands? I doubt it. There's no Virgin cable north of Dundee. Sky of course is available.

[kernelbogey]

A report in the Guardian today of a number of stations urging abandonment of the DAB switchover.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/11/abandon-digital-radio-switchover-stations