DAB in Ireland: RTE multiplex closed

DMC

As above, but "Service8" is playing Barney music..... yes.... its Barney's version of "the bog down in the valley".... Moving on... "Service9" is broadcasting news bulletins, in a loop.....

I hope RTÉ realise that they've forgotten AMSimcst....

byrnefm

DMC wrote:

I hope RTÉ realise that they've forgotten AMSimcst....

I think they heard you! The Network has been changed again this morning:

AM Simulcast is back, at 64kbps mono
Service 8 has been reduced from 96kbps to 80kbps.

All other stations as before. Service 9 is silent at the moment, Service 8 is kids and the other two (7 & 5) are broadcasting music.

DMC

byrnefm wrote:

I think they heard you!

lol /me waves in general direction of Montrose

As of this Sunday morning near Kells, finding the "sweet spot" for reception indoors... audio on Services 5, 7 and 8, and AMsimcst is transmitting Mass. Nothing on Service 9.

DMC

Back in Dublin, on service 8 where the kids stuff lies, the DLS banner is displaying the current song title... but not only for that channel. Its also shows the song thats currently playing on Service5 and Service7...

AMsimcst is off air, I wonder will it be like 5 Live Sports Extra, and only appear when actually needed?

byrnefm

And it's back again now (AM Simulcast). This seems to be becoming a regular pattern? It currently has the same programming as the main RTÉ Radio 1 station.

DMC

The scrolling "now playing" DLS banner appears to working fine on Service5 and 7 right now.

AMsimcst is now on the air, it was off earlier in the day. Prehaps only an evening/weekend only service?

Charles Slane

From http://www.radiowaves.fm/news/index.shtml

"UCB Ireland's launch on the DAB service presently testing in Dublin is in doubt. Originally planned for tomorrow, news of the DAB launch was removed from their website a few days ago with no comment. At the moment all they can say is that "...things are a little muddy.""

byrnefm

Charles Slane wrote:

From http://www.radiowaves.fm/news/index.shtml"UCB Ireland's launch on the DAB service presently testing in Dublin is in doubt."

That's interesting - I didn't know there were any (non-RTÉ) radio stations here considering going on air yet. I'd presume they'd have to launch on a second Mux as space is pretty tight at this stage on the first? Maybe either they expected to find space on RTÉ's or there aren't enough interested for there to be a second Mux launched yet? (Which wouldn't be surprising, due to the lack of general knowledge of DAB here yet, apart from this forum, of course ).

waiguoren

From the UCB Ireland Radio website:

"While we were disappointed that we were not short-listed for the MW quasi-national licence, we are grateful to God for the licence we have received. Digital radio, like FM, is a much higher quality than MW and we believe that God is showing us that digital radio is the way forward."

L1011

Charles Slane wrote:

From http://www.radiowaves.fm/news/index.shtml

"UCB Ireland's launch on the DAB service presently testing in Dublin is in doubt. Originally planned for tomorrow, news of the DAB launch was removed from their website a few days ago with no comment. At the moment all they can say is that "...things are a little muddy.""

I don't even think it was in anything other than doubt! It was never mentioned, by anyone, other than themselves; and I seriously doubt they'd get on the RTE mux - and there isn't a commercial one yet.

watty

There may be legal issues with UCB on terrestrial in Ireland, I'm sure RTE wants them as they have a problem getting enough content. The commercial local radio mostly don't want DAB and RTE don't want BBC. That leaves about 2 commercial stations and the likes of UCB to fill the rest of it.

We ought not to suffer from too low a bitrate from too many channels fitted in like UK

david23

Ireland is in an ideal position to learn from the UK's mistakes.

The new DAB+ system (using MPEG4 AAC/AAC+ and RS coding) has now received ETSI approval and the radios should be on sale by July.

RTÉ could go for a full commercial launch of DAB+ across the country as early as September and they could fit between 25-30 stations on their multiplex.

Foggy43

I wonder whose decison it is on what system will be used.

One thing I cannot grasp is the radio that Joe Public will buy. At the moment you lads obviously are using UK DAB radios to listen and monitor the trials. Should the new approved DAB technology be chosen will this make these radios you have useless in Ireland.

I back Watty on saying MP2 is quite sufficent to handle DAB radio in Ireland.

watty

Where would they find 20 to 30 without adding BBC?

DMC

Molly Dawson wrote:

I back Watty on saying MP2 is quite sufficent to handle DAB radio in Ireland.

I'd tend to agree with that too. Not because I have a UK DAB ready wireless contraption already, but because I feel there would only be a need for 2 national and 1 regional muxes, or one national and one regional/national mux, which would locally broadcast the ILR, each containing about 6 channels at 128kbps. I know people will bang on about the quality of sound. We have 6 national FM services, and almost everyone has access to 2 or 3 ILR's, with overspill. Dublin is where you'd fill up a regionally aimed mux.

DMC

No changes today, except that AMSimcast is on the air, but no sound. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons you'd expect that it would be on air, as "Second Helpings" is on 612kHz. Not clever if they are not turning it on at the right times.

watty

128 kbps is a little low for MP2 stereo. I do use 64kbps stereo MP2 over my wifi from satellite receiver to laptop silly built in speakers, but not concerned about quality. I use 256k for my MP3s. The 128k MP3s are noticable distortion. MP2 is not as good as MP3 at lower bit rate. At 256k you can't tell the difference. 192kbps is I suppose a compromise bit rate for Hifi.

However compression is turned up way too much on most FM radio stations.

I don't know why they don't ban it and why car radios don't have variable compressors driven by road & vecihle noise.

Richard

DMC wrote:

Not clever if they are not turning it on at the right times.

It's only a test, though, it isn't meant to be right all the time!

I also think that from a devil's advocate perspective, it might make sense for ROI DAB to launch with a better system than the current UK one. I know it will annoy a few early adopters, but better get it right now rather than have to change it later when it will put more noses out of joint.

I'll now stand back and feel the wrath...:)

DMC

Its a vaild argument, Richard. I did have a rather expensive FM radio up until RTÉ started their tests.

As for tests, the tests are finished. Its a full service of the 5 national stations on DAB, with tests on the possible new services. I know what it might say elsewhere, but I'm going by what was reported in the press and what it says on RTÉ's own webpage on DAB, that DAB is here to stay.

VERYinterested

I just thought I'd share my new DAB experience. I use the Luas (Green Line) every day to get to work and love to listen to Lyric FM to help soothe me in/out of the day! Problem with it is that reception on FM is pretty unreliable, not sure why as all the other stations work fine. Anyway I was given a voucher for Amazon and decided to get a portable DAB/MP3 player. I picked the ATMT MP170. It cost me about a ton when the voucher was taken into consideration and had to have it delivered to a pal that lives in Belfast. Exchange rate was exorbitant, but the voucher took the sting out of the equation. I Googled the product after I had committed to buy it and a few reviews slated it. I thought to myself, give it a try and you can always send it back if not happy.
Went to work with it on Friday and was pleasantly surprised. It performed admirably all the way to the top of Harcourt Street, at the turn at the Odeon, where it had a little wobble, due to tall buildings on either side. It recovered nicely for the walk down the street. Then over the weekend I decided to give it a blast in the car. I have a Ford that allows an Auxillary device such as an ipod or MP3 player to be fed in through the car stereo by means of a headphone jack in the glovebox. Once again it performed admirably driving all over south Dublin with no dropouts or loss of signal, scrolled through all available stations, a pleasure to listen to. Small thing that annoys me when listening to it and scrolling through stations and that is a very high pitched tone that is audible (with headphones on) when listening to RnaG, but I'm sure it will be sorted out. So there you have it, my DAB on the move experience. You are probably all saying "what cabbage leaf has this guy been under, we were all doing that 2 years ago"

DMC

LOL, not at all, good to hear someone elses experiences with DAB As I don't have a portable DAB myself, its interesting to hear what it is like at street level.

Friday night during the summer on Radio 1 MW and LW means Friday Sports Night and Eircom League soccer, alas nothing on AMsimcst on DAB.

david23

WorldDMB have published an interesting article about the new DAB+ standard.

http://www.worlddab.org/pdf/DAB+brochure.pdf

waiguoren

No RTE DAB Signal at 8.50am this morning here in Dublin 2

DMC

First time I've been near a DAB radio this early in the day, and its still off the air, no mux operational.

VERYinterested

Was off air most of yesterday, came back around 6pm. Went off again this morning about 8.30am. It affects my BBC 2 reception through UPC/NTL analogue signal, so I know when it's on/off by looking at my tv and then flicking on the radio just to confirm.

Foggy43

I'm sure I read somewhere that there will be interuptions on DAB from Three Rock this week.

Will look it up!

Foggy43

Well......I found it and it was for yesterday......

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/rte2/530-02.html

Maybe it didn't get finished on time? Any LW listners go to the next sub page.

Propellerhead

Ah, that explains why I'm getting DAB at apparent reduced power in Celbridge, must be pulling a signal in from Claremont Carn.

Any chance of BBC/Score DAB from Camlough at the same power?

waiguoren

Foggy43 wrote:

Any LW listners go to the next sub page.

There will be outage on 252 Long Wave between 26/3/07 and 30/3/07 'for the transmitter replacement project. At the end of this outage the new transmitter will be operational'

Getting ready for DRM broadcasting during the night?

DMC

Major news...

12A 223.936MHz has been fired up on Three Rock, called DAB Ireland Mux2

Place holders for 6 channels have appeared. All are 128kbps, with no audio except where mentioned below...

Today f
Newstalk
Phantom
FM104
98FM
Q102 (Same audio as Service7 on Mux1!)

Interesting times!