DAB in Ireland: RTE multiplex closed

L1011

High pressure = ducting. I occasionally get the carriers but not the audio from the BBC National mux here in Maynooth off my roof aerial. You managed to pick up enough wisps of a signal to scan the information table off the muxes - from Wales if there was 39 - but not enough to decode audio.

Up the mountains you might have got audio...

god's toy

Cool, Kinda happy I just got station ID's really.
Going to give it anouther bash this morning just to see.

Thanks for the info.

Is there any news on when other areas in the country will get a DAB service seeing as Cork and Limerick got theirs recently,i live in Sligo near the Truskmore tx!

byrnefm

By the way, for those living near Ballybofey or in Letterkenny, BBC have added a new DAB transmitter for Strabane, meaning that it's now possible to get good DAB reception for the BBC Mux in Letterkenny

No RTÉ Muxes to be found yet, though...

lucernarian

Hopefully there'll be a time soon when the BBC or Score can open a DAB transmitter at NI's most powerful FM relay in Camlough.

Mayo Exile

What is the performance of the above units when outside of DAB coverage? Both have FM RDS capabilities, so do they automatically re-tune when moving around the country while listening to the one station?

Also what is the DAB performance of each?

L1011

RTE making use of the extra capacity for the PlanetLove festival today - last year this was played on 2XM (despite being dance); its on Pulse this year.

L1011

And now as theres bigger acts on they're using 2FM for the main stage and Pulse to play acts from the secondary stages.

byrnefm

In the Letterkenny Post last Thursday:

Planning granted
Donegal County Council have granted planning permission to Eircom Ltd in Ramelton for the erection of a 20 metre support pole to carry radio aerials for use by the emergency services together with associated equipment for a new digital radio service.

I wonder if this means that DAB will be coming to north Donegal soon[ish]?

L1011

I believe 'digital radio service' in this case means TETRA or similar digital trunked radio system; not DAB. RTE would no doubt use the existing RTENL tx's for DAB in Donegal.

jaggiebunnet

zorro2566 wrote: »

Is there any news on when other areas in the country will get a DAB service seeing as Cork and Limerick got theirs recently,i live in Sligo near the Truskmore tx!

Is this true - i don't remember seeing anything about Cork getting DAB and it doesn't say anything about it on the rte website currently?

Antenna

DAB is available in Cork city, but not in most of Cork county.

jaggiebunnet

cool thanks

L1011

Was the RTE MUX off this morning? Radio in my room wasn't locking it and I didn't have the time to check on the other sets.

DMC

Yesterday it was. It came back later in the morning.

Richersounds.ie: John

Guys, John McDonald here from Richer Sounds Ireland and The Philips Shop Dublin - just for your info we are offering all Boardies the Philips AJ5100 DAB/FM desk radio at €29.99 (Reduced from 99.99) for a limited time - if yuo are interested you can Mail sales@richersounds.ie or mail me directly at johnmc@richersounds.ie and we will contact you to sort you out - please note this is just a boardies deal and is not available to 'walk in shoppers' (and its one per customer, sorry 'bout that!)

DMC

Oddness tonight from Three Rock.

Manually reset a Pure Elan DX40 the other day, and Today FM has disappeared of the station list. I can hear Today FM on other DAB radios where it is already tuned, but its not appearing on this Pure. Rescanned, 22 stations, only 21 are displayed on the menu. No Today FM listed.

Anyone else not getting Today FM if not already saved in the radio's memory?

L1011

I can confirm wobbly availability of Today FM on a Pure Highway - it wasn't there, then it was, no rescan done. This would have a similar but newer Imagination chipset.

Its fine on my Radioscape powered Morphy.

galtee boy

Update for anyone in the general North Cork area close to the Limerick border, my brother was home from the UK at the weekend and brought dab radio with him. We did a bit of experimenting, and were able to get portable reception of Dab from Woodcock Hill quite good, even indoors. Admittedly, it varied greatly from room to room around the house, but it is there. This is stretching Woodcock beyond it's reception area, but if anyone wants to have a play around with Dab in this area ( need to be close to the Limerick border ) you should pick up something anyway. Also, coming from Cork Airport, we got reception as far as Watergrasshill from Spur Hill and bear in mind, this was in the car.

L1011

Car receiver or an indoor receiver? Getting much with an indoor receiver in the car is good to begin with (cause of the aerial being inside a tin box)!

galtee boy

MYOB wrote: »

Car receiver or an indoor receiver? Getting much with an indoor receiver in the car is good to begin with (cause of the aerial being inside a tin box)!

It was an own brand Asda portable Dab radio from UK, sitting on my brothers lap in the car at 100km per hour ! The signal did disappear with various dips in the road etc, but it was there a lot of the time, so I would imagine, the signal outside and stationery should be quite good. Once we left Watergrasshill and dropped towards Fermoy, we lost it, but about half way between Fermoy and Mitchelstown, it started to come back again in places ( remember inside a moving car ) , but not sure whether we were starting to pick up Woodcock Hill instead of Spur Hill at that stage.

el dude

So what is the coverage like?

galtee boy

I tried the Philex Indoor Amplified Dab aerial available from Argos and found it very good. Improved indoor reception from Woodcock Hill by about 50%. Does anyone know if and when there are plans to extend Dab beyond Dublin and Cork and Limerick cities ? It seems to be all systems go for DTT, but it would appear Dab is being forgotten about.

More Music

No plans to extend DAB at the moment. Focus is on DTT, as you speculated.

No point in spending money. No formal policy from the BCI, so nobody knows where it's going at the moment.

DMC

Well, the BCI might start getting to grips with it soon enough. They had said in the past that their priority was to get the licensing of DTT done first, and then go to DAB.

Well, Boxer has the DTT licence, so I'd be hoping for some movement from the BCI by the end of the year.

barnicles

Near where I live there is A local channel (LTV 2 Millstreet) Broadcasting on 224Mhz. It comes in perfectly. Will i pick up DAB?

Antenna

You'd have to wait until its on from the nearby Mullaghanish transmitter before DAB will be available in Millstreet area, won't be for some time yet it seems. The existing transmitters intended for Cork city or Limerick city will not get there due to the distance and moreso the hilly terrain.

Antenna

galtee boy wrote: »

but about half way between Fermoy and Mitchelstown, it started to come back again in places ( remember inside a moving car ) , but not sure whether we were starting to pick up Woodcock Hill instead of Spur Hill at that stage.

Southfacing side of that hill would be from Spur Hill, over the top and northfacing, then Woodcock Hill.

DMC

UK News:

Channel 4 abandons its plans for the second national multiplex.

Channel 4 axes radio projects
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/10/channel4-radio
* John Plunkett
* guardian.co.uk,
* Friday October 10 2008 11.12 BST

Channel 4 has abandoned its entire radio project, dealing a huge blow to the future of the digital sector, as it seeks to make £100m in savings.

Today Channel 4 said it would close its radio division with the loss of up to 15 jobs, saving an estimated £10m in 2009.

Casualties could include the Channel 4 director of radio, Bob Shennan, the former head of BBC Radio 5 Live who joined to oversee the new stations last year.

The broadcaster was to launch a series of radio stations, including a competitor to BBC Radio 4, and youth music channel E4 Radio, as part of a second digital radio platform that would carry a host of other new channels.

Channel 4 said today it would inform its fellow shareholders in 4 Digital Group, which would have run the second national commercial digital radio multiplex.

The future of commercial digital radio was already uncertain with the closure of a number of stations including GCap Media's TheJazz.

Commercial radio groups have been reluctant to invest further in the platform because, despite encouraging takeup of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio sets, they have been unable to make it pay.

There is now only one national commercial digital station not already available on analogue, Planet Rock.

The Channel 4 chief executive, Andy Duncan, who was previously a big champion of Channel 4's radio ambitions, said: "We've taken this decision very reluctantly.

"We've pursued our radio plans in good faith and continue to believe DAB has a strong future and that we could make a return from radio in the medium term.

"Frustratingly, our plans have been overtaken by a drastic recent downturn in our revenues and we will have to forgo this future profit stream.

"We can no longer afford the short-term investment necessary given that we are having to cut so deeply across all parts of the organisation."

Channel 4 said it would look to redeploy the 15 people who would lose their jobs as a result of the restructure.

Staff in the radio division were informed of the decision today. Channel 4's first radio station, E4 Radio, was due to launch belatedly next spring.

Channel 4 seeks annual savings of £100m in response to a 5% downturn in TV advertising revenues.

The broadcaster will reduce headcount by around 150 posts, or 15%, and cut its programme spend by more than £50m across 2008 and 2009.

Channel 4 Radio is the majority shareholder in 4 Digital. Its other shareholders are Bauer Radio, BSkyB, the Carphone Warehouse Group, UBC Media and UTV Radio.

Channel 4 had been due to launch three stations - music and entertainment station E4 Radio, speech station Channel 4 Radio, and music station Pure4.

Foggy43

There has been rumors circulating in the City of London on Channel 4's financial well being. This would appear to be the first sign that there maybe something to these rumors.


'There is now only one national commercial digital station not already available on analogue, Planet Rock.'
I think it was last April it looked like Planet Rock was leaving DAB. Thankfully it is still there. Nothing like an Alice Cooper alarm to wake you in the morning.