DAB in Ireland: RTE multiplex closed

Trick of the Tail

Total Broadcast are funding the tests themselves, as its their development project.

A.

Elmo

alinton wrote: »

Total Broadcast are funding the tests themselves, as its their development project.

A.

Thanks, hopefully it will pay off for them. Any reason for the South East? or are they testing in other places?

bkehoe

Elmo wrote: »

Thanks, hopefully it will pay off for them. Any reason for the South East? or are they testing in other places?

Might have something to do with the fact that the company is based in Waterford

L1011

Elmo wrote: »

So in other words the are consultants for the company who will ultimately get the licence. In this case I assume that they are working for WLR FM and Tipp FM.

I also assume that they may work for Communicorp or UTV when they start to look for digital licence or even digital tests.

Its entirely possible that Total could apply for a mux licence themselves, should they want to.

bkehoe

Bump! The gossip on another radio forum is that the mux has moved to a higher location

Fort mountain?

glimmerman123

bkehoe wrote: »

Bump! The gossip on another radio forum is that the mux has moved to a higher location

If it has moved to a higher location i wonder how far the signal is getting out?

galtee boy

glimmerman123 wrote: »

If it has moved to a higher location i wonder how far the signal is getting out?

In answer to your question, I swung my band III Vhf aerial ( in the loft, connected to a Dab tuner ) around to an Easterly direction from here, North East Co.Cork and I am picking up Total Dab perfectly ! However, it has made the RTE Mux from Woodcock Hill deteriate very much as a result, as Woodcock is due North from here.

glimmerman123

I tried my dab kitchen radio today no joy. I am in North Tipperary and i was hoping once the mux was moved to a higher location i might be able to pick up a signal. Anyway good to see some dab activity happening outside of the RTE dab service even if they are just tests.

bkehoe

North Cork - wow, what town are you near (pm if you prefer)?
BB, lot higher than forth, you might even be in with a chance of getting it with an external antenna

If you're in North Tipp, a kitchen radio certainly won't work though it might be worth a try with an external band 3 yagi. Or go for a walk around your local area to see if there's even a glimmer of signal.

I can get it perfectly around the New Ross area and driving down the N25 it only gets weak in Waterford city, though based on the in car reception (i only have a silly little window mount aerial), people in Waterford should still be able to get it from a suitable location in their houses (e.g. maybe near a window).

galtee boy

bkehoe wrote: »

North Cork - wow, what town are you near (pm if you prefer)?
BB, lot higher than forth, you might even be in with a chance of getting it with an external antenna

If you're in North Tipp, a kitchen radio certainly won't work though it might be worth a try with an external band 3 yagi. Or go for a walk around your local area to see if there's even a glimmer of signal.

I can get it perfectly around the New Ross area and driving down the N25 it only gets weak in Waterford city, though based on the in car reception (i only have a silly little window mount aerial), people in Waterford should still be able to get it from a suitable location in their houses (e.g. maybe near a window).

Mitchelstown. Can't get it on portable Dab though. I can get intermittent reception of RTE mux from Woodcock Hill in Limerick, around the house on portable radio. We're very near the Limerick border here, hence reception from Woodcock. Only for the aerial in the loft, I wouldn't have good Dab reception at all and it's that aerial that's pulling in Total. I would have reasonable line of sight to Mount Leinster, is that new high site for Total Dab, anywhere near Mount Leinster ?

watty

These people have had nationwide DAB for some years:
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2010/05/20/dab_lobby_radio_amnesty/

We have coverage that makes DAB useless for a car.

Some 2 Eur radios on headphones, while mono can find a station quicker and give better quality than many DAB stations in UK.

MP3, AAC, DRM or DAB+ etc instead of DAB isn't necessarily the answer. The problem is too little bandwidth allocated and too many stations coupled with inadequate TX power.

Given our track record will we do it better?

L1011

watty wrote: »

We have coverage that makes DAB useless for a car.

Works perfectly in-car in the extensive north-eastern coverage are. No use for you, plenty for me.

byrnefm

Is the Total Mux still running, btw? Haven't heard any mention of it for a few weeks. Just wondering also - where can you pick it up? I know I'm out of its coverage in Donegal but if I have to take a trip southwards, I'd like to have a search for it!

Trick of the Tail

Yes still on air, its a year-long trial licence.

9 stations on the mux at present.

Reception is across counties Wexford, east Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny.

A.

byrnefm

Hi Alinton, thanks for the info. A friend of mine tried to pick it up from Waterford city without success but it's probably just wherever she was in the city.

bkehoe

I still get it quite well in-car in most of Waterford city though it is weak in areas like the quay/mall/etc that have a restricted view to the North-East. Even in those areas though I'd expect it to be receivable indoors but probably upstairs.

10 services now

What are the 10 services?

bkehoe

4fm
Beat 102103
Country Mix
KCLR96FM
Phantom
South East Radio
Tipp FM
Total
Total+ (currently the only DAB+ service)
WLR FM

So 4fm is now available to waterford

Is the signal being taken off air from the tx site or how are ye sourcing that?
Where are ye sourcing phantom?

I'm interested in it from a quality perspective.

Also whats the advantage of dab+ and what are on those 2 stations?

STB

Deleted User wrote: »

So 4fm is now available to waterford

Is the signal being taken off air from the tx site or how are ye sourcing that?
Where are ye sourcing phantom?

I'm interested in it from a quality perspective.

Also whats the advantage of dab+ and what are on those 2 stations?

In both cases it is probably a web feed.

L1011

Bird song on the Total stations I believe.

Trick of the Tail

The sources are dedicated IP connections, not the stations' webstreams.

A.

bkehoe

Looks like KCLR is the first live DAB + service on the multiplex as well as in the country! Using 48kbit/s Stereo at the moment and sounding as good if not better than a 128kbit/s stereo MP2/DAB service.
Now I might have to get a Pure Highway for my car as my Revo isn't upgradable to DAB+

Edit; TippFM is in AAC now too, 64K stereo.

Hissing Sideban

Deleted User wrote: »

So 4fm is now available to waterford

Is the signal being taken off air from the tx site or how are ye sourcing that?
Where are ye sourcing phantom?

I'm interested in it from a quality perspective.

Also whats the advantage of dab+ and what are on those 2 stations?

Sometimes a signal is received off air for comparison purposes, but normally as Alinton says, a dedicated private IP feed is used. Quality is influenced by the feed quality, as any issues with the inherent quality will be magnified by the two pass coding (feed, say, MP3 and then Mpeg 1 layer II for DAB or HEAAC for DAB+)

The advantage of DAB+ is that you can get better quality for a given bandwidth, thus allowing more stations on the MUX. Hopefully this should result in better perceived quality for music stations than the 128kbps usually used on DAB allows.
The downside is there are less DAB+ radios around, and many of the UK retailers like Tescos and Currys/Dixons import UK stock, even though they are supposed to have DAB+ enabled radios in Ireland. There is a small price penalty due to the licence fee payable to Coding Technologies / Dolby (who own the rights to AAC) for each radio. The number of radios with DAB+ should increase due in part to Australia's adoption of this standard.

Macy0161

Black Briar, or anyone - did you try DAB from Kippure? I see from earlier in the thread that a Kippure Transmitter was enabled, but that Wicklow wasn't on list of counties served? So is anyone getting it in Wicklow?

thetonynator

alinton wrote: »

Yes still on air, its a year-long trial licence.

9 stations on the mux at present.

Reception is across counties Wexford, east Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny.

A.

I cant get anything on my DAB raidio in Kilkenny.When did yhey start broadcasting this??? ( haven't tried in a good few weeks)

Elmo

How many DAB local and national stations can broadcast in any one area?

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

How many DAB local and national stations can broadcast in any one area?

Depends on the number of multiplexes available and the standard used.

See this list of multiplexes I posted previously.

Elmo

The Cush wrote: »

Depends on the number of multiplexes available and the standard used.

See this list of multiplexes I posted previously.

Thanks

Where does the BAI lie in all of this?