DAB in Ireland: RTE multiplex closed

SPDUB

Well that explains why BBC2 analogue reception has taken a major downturn today

watty

waiguoren wrote:

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?

probably

DMC

Today FM on Mux1 is now silent, while its live on Mux2.
Newstalk is now 64kbps mono (still blank)

L1011

Newstalk is mono on FM too, no point wasting bits on joint/real stereo for nothing.

lawhec

Interesting, 12A is allocated to the Republic as a second national multiplex. Until TV services in VHF Band III are switched off in Ireland, that's all that there will be to play with until then and I doubt they'll roll out a Dublin station multiplex across the country.

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Testing on DAB MUX 2 from today. Currently running with audio are: Phantom (of course!), FM104, Q102, Today FM and NewsTalk. Music stations are at 128k Stereo and Newstalk is at 64k Mono.

Not sure if thats all duplicated on Claremont Cairn as of yet?

Cheers,

Simon

DMC

Hi Simon, its wasn't on Saturday when I was on the N1.

Good to hear.

(do you know what the plans are????? )

L1011

FM104 is clearly being caught off-air (FM), and the radio tuner is off - it sounds like its on 104.6 or 104.2 at least...

L1011

Was silent at half 6 this morning.

SimonMaher

DMC wrote:

Hi Simon, its wasn't on Saturday when I was on the N1.

Good to hear.

(do you know what the plans are????? )

Its all just technical tests at the moment (getting digital links to the right place and all that stuff). Thats a complicated enough job for now, should keep everyone going for a while!

More as it happens

Simon

L1011

Was back last night, but silent again at 7am. Just as well I use 2fm for my alarm clock!

DMC

Simon Maher wrote:

Its all just technical tests at the moment (getting digital links to the right place and all that stuff). Thats a complicated enough job for now, should keep everyone going for a while!

More as it happens

Splendid stuff Simon

DMC

A rescan here shows that Today FM's placeholder has disappeared from Mux1

L1011

Was gone last night - as has the AM Simcast it appears.

ILRs back again - morningly yoyo? Will check ~5am when I collapse in from Tripod tonight...

L1011

Still on at 4:44am.

byrnefm

MYOB wrote:

Still on at 4:44am.

Now that's dedication, checking it during the night

L1011

byrnefm wrote:

Now that's dedication, checking it during the night

I was just in from town... not that dedicated

DMC

Try staying awake on New Years Day morning and seeing if DAB had started in this country (near the start of the thread )

Pretty sure its Three Rock I'm getting around these parts. (Kells)

SPDUB

Zaphod wrote:

Broadcaster to start six digital radio channels

RTE is expected to launch up to six new digital radio channels within the next three months.

It is understood that one station, Bubble, will be aimed at two- to 12-year-olds, while another, X, will be focused solely on indie music.

There will also be a channel catering to the tastes of older listeners, one for drama and arts, and another that will play archived material from RTE's vaults.

The national broadcaster yesterday declined to go into detail on the content of any of the channels, or the launch date, which is expected in March or April.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1754224&issue_id=15110

Further to this story according to IER retail March issue magazine the stations are as follows

Rolling News station
Rolling Sports news station
Classic Gold station
Station aimed at young children with story telling and songs
Station aimed at 15 to 30 years old with latest music
Archive station

According to the magazine four of these services should have been on air from end of March after the RTE's and Today FM plus
Newstalk Phantom FM104 98FM Q102 were put on Air .

The remaining 2 services are supposed to be on air by June

Digital Audio Productions are also meant to put on a 80's music station and a R 'n'B station

Mossy Monk

Any idea on when the rest of the country will see DAB?

DMC

I thought you e-mailed RTÉ, Mossy... no? or no responce?

SPDUB

Mossy Monk wrote:

Any idea on when the rest of the country will see DAB?

According to the article after they have established the stations in june they will expand from the present 36% in stages to nearly 70% by 2009.

tonylee

Anyone have experience getting MS media Centre to work with Irish DVB-T? I have a Medion PC0(8822) running Vista and latest version microsoft Media Centre. Media Centre can’t find any of the Irish test DVB stations when it does a scan. Strange thing is, I installed a trail copy of Arcsoft’s TOTAL MEDIA programme and it finds everything! All the RTE channels on DVB + radio channels + locked BBC,SKY etc!

watty

Media Centre SW is rubbish. Also it thinks there is no DTT here (true actually).

Load anyone elses software that is compatible with your drivers. Read the other threads.

Mossy Monk

DMC wrote:

I thought you e-mailed RTÉ, Mossy... no? or no responce?

RTÉ didn't bother to respond :mad:.

slicedpanman

Mossy Monk wrote:

RTÉ didn't bother to respond :mad:.

I was talking to a friend who works in RTE at the weekend. He has been doing some work for the DAB trials.... and he said that there is a delay due to a legal wrangle. Apparently RTE had assumed that their current broadcasting contract/rights also covered broadcasting their existing content over DAB. This has now been disputed legally... so its in the hands of laywers so I wouldn't be expecting any announcement any time soon.

L1011

FM104/98FM silent today. Listening to Phantom loud and clear though - and the rest are OK too.

L1011

Just 98FM quiet today.

On 12C, Lyric is now back to 160k.

waiguoren

The following appeared on digitalspy today:
(http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=498741&page=9&pp=25)

Taken from : http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=7748

Irish religious radio licence awarded to Spirit Radio

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has awarded the first nationwide Christian and religious radio licence to Athlone-based Spirit Radio, a not-for-profit company. Spirit Radio’s submission said it would pioneer a new model of funding in Ireland, raising 70% of its funding from listeners.

The station will begin broadcasting in September 2008. The company has purchased a transmitter site 10km south of Athlone and plans to use a DRM-compatible 100kW transmitter on 612 kHz, with FM relays in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

watty

Pity the RTE Athlone site unavailable.

Seems a expert team they have.


However this should maybe be on a separate DRM thread or New Station Thread.