RTÉ Announces Expansion of Digital Radio Network

rabbitinlights

This is great news;

http://www.rte.ie/digitalradio/faq_availability.html

RTÉ Announces Expansion of Digital Radio Network

RTÉ Radio is expanding its digital radio network, making its four nationwide FM services and an additional seven exclusive digital radio services available to over half of the population in nine counties via the digital platform.

By Christmas radio fans in counties Kildare, Laois, Louth, Meath, Offaly and Westmeath can enjoy an enhanced radio listening experience using new digital radio sets. The announcement comes as RTÉ celebrates the first anniversary of its launch of digital radio on 1 December 2008.

By re-using equipment used in previous digital trials, RTÉ has been able to deliver this expansion without incurring any capital costs. RTÉ's development of its digital radio infrastructure will allow it to continue to give Irish radio listeners the best possible services in the digital age.

RTÉ Radio Director of Operations JP Coakley says: "I'm delighted that digital radio is now available to over half the population, meaning more people can experience the benefits of digital radio. With this latest expansion of the network RTÉ Radio is contributing to the development of Ireland's digital infrastructure and bringing a new free-to-air method of radio listening to audiences in a very cost-efficient manner."

Expansion
Digital radio has been available to listeners in the Greater Dublin area, Cork and Limerick city since last year's launch which followed a twenty-month period of extensive trials. This latest expansion is the second phase in RTÉ Radio's digital radio network rollout with 52% of the population now able to access the service.

According to a recent radio listenership survey* 198,000 or 6% of adults aged 15+ live in a digital radio household. This figure is set to rise over the coming years as availability and awareness of digital radio grows and commercial broadcasters join RTÉ on the digital network.

New Experience
Digital radios provide listeners with a whole new radio listening experience. The new radio sets are easy to tune, include information on programmes, songs and artists in the radio display, broadcast a clearer sound that is free of hiss and provide owners with new radio services in addition to their favourite FM services.

The Future
RTÉ intends to roll out digital radio to 56% of the population over the coming two years. However any further roll out will require a regulatory framework that will allow commercial broadcasters to move to digital radio. This is to ensure that the whole industry moves together for the benefit of the listener. The BCI commissioned a report on digital radio in Ireland and published the findings in September this year. The report makes a series of recommendations including the establishment of a digital radio forum and the development of a policy white paper. RTÉ looks forward to the opportunity to contribute to the development of this policy.

The European Context
RTÉ's development of digital radio reflects progress in other European countries. More than 170 different radio brands already broadcast digitally in Northern Ireland and the UK. Digital radio is available throughout Northern Ireland. The UK Government is aiming to secure digital radio as the primary radio broadcast platform in the UK and is proposing that all national radio stations will be transmitted via digital technology only by 2015, signalling the end of national FM services in the UK. The UK Government has also put forward a five point plan for digital radio to be in all new cars by 2013. At present the UK market is the key supply point for electrical goods in the Republic and this migration is likely to have a significant effect on the products offered for sale in Ireland.

RTÉ Services
RTÉ's four well known services: RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and RTÉ's seven exclusively digital services are all available to listen to in digital quality sound on new digital radio sets that retail from approximately €50.

RTÉ's exclusive digital radio services are Ireland's only children's radio service, RTÉ Junior; speech services: RTÉ Choice and RTÉ Radio 1 Extra; and music services: RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Pulse, RTÉ Gold and RTÉ Chill.

Glad to see a bit of expansion happening.

Antenna

Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1 were also giving away a DAB radio every day this week.

Heard the result of Tuesday's competition - the winner was in Bandon Co. Cork, a locality with no hope of DAB reception, and that's not likely to change anytime soon !

White Horse

Pity it sounds rubbish.

I stick to FM.

Real FM

Are you serious? DAB has a way cleaner sound than FM.

Skid

I'm surprised RTE haven't scaled back on their DAB ambitions, given their current financial position.

Do we really need all these extra stations?, their listener figures must be miniscule.

mike65

Its not much good to anyone south of Kildare or east of Cork.

rabbitinlights

mike65 wrote: »

Its not much good to anyone south of Kildare or east of Cork.

Baby steps.....;)

I think it's a step in the right direction anyway, it's obviously easier/cheaper to hit the commuter belt areas than comparatively sparsely populated areas.

S.

White Horse

Real FM wrote: »

Are you serious? DAB has a way cleaner sound than FM.

If "cleaner" means hearing the grating effect of digital compression, then it is as clean as a whistle.

L1011

White Horse wrote: »

If "cleaner" means hearing the grating effect of digital compression, then it is as clean as a whistle.

RTE's stations do not suffer from this, unless you're equipped with the kind of super-hearing required to think a Monster cable is better than any other well built one.

People need to stop with the "DAB sounds terrible!" stuff when, for the most part, they've never listened to it properly implemented. Or at all. DAB in the UK generally sounds like muck, DAB in Ireland, Holland and Belgium all sounds absolutely fine - and I've heard them all personally, on the same unit (a Pure Highway).

In fact, RTE's normal services seem to have a better audio feed on DAB than many of the FM sites do. They would be better served by dropping one of RTE Choice and RnaG to mono and using the spared bits to put the other to a proper stereo rate (they're at 112k) but they're the only ones running below standard. Choice gets dropped to 80k Mono when they're bandwidth scavenging to carry the RTE1 LW feed anyway.

White Horse

MYOB wrote: »

RTE's stations do not suffer from this, unless you're equipped with the kind of super-hearing required to think a Monster cable is better than any other well built one.

People need to stop with the "DAB sounds terrible!" stuff when, for the most part, they've never listened to it properly implemented. Or at all. DAB in the UK generally sounds like muck, DAB in Ireland, Holland and Belgium all sounds absolutely fine - and I've heard them all personally, on the same unit (a Pure Highway).

I make no claims about having super ears. I have two high end DAB tuners, an Arcam DT 81 and a Sony ST D777ES.

In both cases RTE on FM is vastly superior than that on DAB.

L1011

White Horse wrote: »

I make no claims about having super ears. I have two high end DAB tuners, an Arcam DT 81 and a Sony ST D777ES.

In both cases RTE on FM is vastly superior than that on DAB.

Whereas I, and most of the population, cannot hear any difference at all. Except for the fact that FM is prone to interference, whereas DAB is either there, or not.

The ST D777ES is 9 years old and the DT81 is also similarly old. They may have poor DACs, which isn't that unlikely. You're also presumably comparing them to FM tuners that cost as much (600-800 euros). The average consumer is listening on a much newer DAB receiver, and quite likely listens to FM on it or on a conventionally priced system.

Digital anything is not for the hifi connoisseur - digital SD TV delivers an inferior picture to perfect analogue SD TV for instance - but 99.9% of the public are not hifi connoisseurs! They don't have the receivers, or the antennae, or indeed the interest to notice any sound difference.

Indeed, most of them are going to find the booming effect of companding on FM signals far, far more annoying than any hard to perceive compression artefacting.