DAB Thread

Oscarziggy

Interesting read --
https://radiotoday.ie/2019/11/rte-to-close-its-dab-digital-radio-stations-in-major-plan/

Nokia6230i

Oscarziggy wrote: »

Interesting read --
https://radiotoday.ie/2019/11/rte-to-close-its-dab-digital-radio-stations-in-major-plan/

Yikes; poor Rick O'Shea (new RTE Book Club Presenter now though), Aidan Leonard, Will Leahy (what's he got now......reading out Rose of Tralee tweets?) and......Larry Gogan!

Zird

Nokia6230i wrote: »

Yikes; poor Rick O'Shea (new RTE Book Club Presenter now though), Aidan Leonard, Will Leahy (what's he got now......reading out Rose of Tralee tweets?) and......Larry Gogan!

These djs should have faced mandatory redundancy years ago when they were no longer wanted at 2fm. The independent stations don't have the luxury of keeping on unwanted djs on tiny obscure digital stations

Oscarziggy

and now this --
https://radiotoday.ie/2019/11/radio-nova-wants-to-take-over-rtes-national-dab-frequencies/

Franko87

As RTE announces its closure of its multiplexes Freedab is pushing forward with the announcement of new sfn (single frequency network) to be launched in cork and Dublin within the coming weeks . We intend to push digital radio as the eu has done !!

Oscarziggy

Franko87 wrote: »

As RTE announces its closure of its multiplexes Freedab is pushing forward with the announcement of new sfn (single frequency network) to be launched in cork and Dublin within the coming weeks . We intend to push digital radio as the eu has done !!

An aerial on Mt Leinster would be nice for this side of the water !!
With a bit of power of course .. good luck .

end of the road

Zird wrote: »

These djs should have faced mandatory redundancy years ago when they were no longer wanted at 2fm. The independent stations don't have the luxury of keeping on unwanted djs on tiny obscure digital stations

what the independents have or don't have isn't relevant. rte being the public service broadcaster is expected to provide a more diverse offering then the commercial independents.
so, djs of the caliber of larry gogan were absolutely rightly not made redundant.

Franko87

Franko87 wrote: »

As RTE announces its closure of its multiplexes Freedab is pushing forward with the announcement of new sfn (single frequency network) to be launched in cork and Dublin within the coming weeks . We intend to push digital radio as the eu has done !!

Any news of FREEDAB for Sligo?

Gerry Wicklow

Franko87 wrote: »

As RTE announces its closure of its multiplexes Freedab is pushing forward with the announcement of new sfn (single frequency network) to be launched in cork and Dublin within the coming weeks . We intend to push digital radio as the eu has done !!

I can't get any usable DAB service here in the north midlands but fully support anyone willing to rattle the cage. Fair play to Kevin for hoisting a flag. No doubt his plans would be strangled by bureaucracy. Can't have a government that starts giving the public what they actually want.

radioguru02

It’s as I thought, Ireland will bypass DAB and move online

pirateradiohed

pirateradiohed wrote: »

It’s as I thought, Ireland will bypass DAB and move online

They could have kept the digital stations for that then!

Ursus Horribilis

It probably costs a lot of money to keep the stations online. Presenters don't work for free.

Zird

zorro2566 wrote: »

They could have kept the digital stations for that then!

Wages costs for RTE gold is easily 500k

Mortelaro

Zird wrote: »

Wages costs for RTE gold is easily 500k

Some of the best RTE gold output has been sans dj
A playlist on a loop,no talk
I guess it's back to spotify I go

Ursus Horribilis

I wonder how much does it cost for Today FM to run those online stations? Today XM/90s etc.

radioguru02

Anyone here Mary Wilson taking on the minister

Lord Nelson

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I can't get any usable DAB service here in the north midlands but fully support anyone willing to rattle the cage. Fair play to Kevin for hoisting a flag. No doubt his plans would be strangled by bureaucracy. Can't have a government that starts giving the public what they actually want.

This is just Brannigan flapping his mouth in an effort to get free publicity for Nova. Every dog in the street including Nova knows that a DAB licence is a non starter. If people care to search through various threads and forums, you will find Brannigan has been extremely negative in his comments about DAB branding it a waste of time and money. Perhaps he's had an epiphany?

end of the road

pirateradiohed wrote: »

It’s as I thought, Ireland will bypass DAB and move online

it's not as you thought.
rte is simply closing their digital stations, very unfortunate yes, but as we are seeing it does not equate to an end to dab, at least yet.
even if you do turn out to be correct, and it is a very long time before we will know, online is way way off being a replacement for terrestrial radio.

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

It probably costs a lot of money to keep the stations online. Presenters don't work for free.

presenters aren't vital though.
actually a couple of the digital stations remaining online could be brilliant training grounds for new talent if rte were to take advantage of the possibility, which
they won't.

Zird wrote: »

Wages costs for RTE gold is easily 500k

is it? can you show where you got that figure from and exactly what brings us to that figure?

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

I wonder how much does it cost for Today FM to run those online stations? Today XM/90s etc.

absolute buttons i think.
music licensing and streaming costs, i would say are their only costs.
yes they use electricity but a pc wouldn't use very much and it would just go as part of their whole bill i would imagine.

Pete Best

Oscarziggy wrote: »

An aerial on Mt Leinster would be nice for this side of the water !!
With a bit of power of course .. good luck .

Or Clermont Cairn.

Despite perfect FM and Saorview reception here in South Antrim, I’ve never been able to receive the RTÉ DAB transmissions from there, except on the very odd occasion before they disappear again.

Like DTT from there prior to ASO, I gather the transmitter aerial is highly directional and shielded in this direction.

I listen to RTÉ Gold occasionally, both on Saorview and on the Irish Radioplayer and it’s a good wee station.

It’ll be a shame to see it go.

Zird

John the anorak wrote: »

I'd wager that it's more likely for RTE to announce the closure of their dab network rather than expand it.

BINGO

Dan Jaman

Oscarziggy wrote: »

and now this --
https://radiotoday.ie/2019/11/radio-nova-wants-to-take-over-rtes-national-dab-frequencies/

It's a sick joke, RTE describing them as its National Frequencies, when 90% of the country are outwith the reach of the paltry service on them.
If they're taken over by somebody with a bit of a committment to the service, I might actually be able to get some DAB or DAB+, whatever it happens to be.
Of course, the inevitable reduction in bit-rate will happen.

Grab All Association

I’ve a Sony iPhone docking station here (feck of with yer Bluetooth speakers) that I purchased when the iPhone 5 came out. It has DAB/+ built in. Up until mid 2016 I could receive DAB stations here just outside Thurles. I complained to Rte at the time and they claimed it wasn’t even in the area. Yet from the time I bought it I listened to Rté Gold on it. I have cheap DAB radio in the kitchen that used to receive these stations too. I knew it’s days were numbered when they couldn’t be bothered to investigate why I could no longer receive these stations.

Former Former

end of the road wrote: »

it's not as you thought.
rte is simply closing their digital stations, very unfortunate yes, but as we are seeing it does not equate to an end to dab, at least yet.
even if you do turn out to be correct, and it is a very long time before we will know, online is way way off being a replacement for terrestrial radio.

It's very hard to see this as anything other than the end of DAB. No transmission network, no stations, low takeup of hardware and negligible public awareness. Nothing except massive investment is going to rescue it, and neither the radio industry nor government want to do that.

I don't think online is a replacement for terrestrial but that's not the issue here. The issue is whether DAB could replace or coexist with FM and we have our answer.

rogue-entity

Dan Jaman wrote: »

It's a sick joke, RTE describing them as its National Frequencies, when 90% of the country are outwith the reach of the paltry service on them.

RTEs service operates on a single frequency (Slot 12A) on all three sites. The original plan did call for one or more national multiplexes and several local and regional ones on the lower channels.

Dan Jaman wrote: »

If they're taken over by somebody with a bit of a committment to the service, I might actually be able to get some DAB or DAB+, whatever it happens to be.
Of course, the inevitable reduction in bit-rate will happen.

RTE is using a mixture of DAB and DAB+ on their multiplex.

Reduction in Bitrate, as regularly experienced in the UK was purely a failure of their licencing model, I would hope we would learn from their mistakes but I wouldn't be shocked at the contrary.

castle2012

Freedab sounding great in Dublin, is there any plans to up the power for the North East County s? When you hit North Dublin / meath we loose it

david23

rogue-entity wrote: »

RTEs service operates on a single frequency (Slot 12A) on all three sites. The original plan did call for one or more national multiplexes and several local and regional ones on the lower channels.

The RTÉ national multiplex is using Block 12C.

The Band III allocations for Europe were agreed in 2006. Ireland was awarded three national DAB blocks, on 10A, 12A & 12C. If DAB+ is used that could potentially make 75 national stations available (or fewer with higher quality audio).

There were also allocations for local and regional multiplexes for every part of the country.

rogue-entity

david23 wrote: »

The RTÉ national multiplex is using Block 12C.

The Band III allocations for Europe were agreed in 2006. Ireland was awarded three national DAB blocks, on 10A, 12A & 12C. If DAB+ is used that could potentially make 75 national stations available (or fewer with higher quality audio).

There were also allocations for local and regional multiplexes for every part of the country.

Seems I was mistaken on the frequency, it is 12C, I appreciate the correction.

We can agree though, that there was and is ample space for several services to operate.

radioguru02

castle2012 wrote: »

Freedab sounding great in Dublin, is there any plans to up the power for the North East County s? When you hit North Dublin / meath we loose it

In my opinion FreeDAB are rushing too quickly into things, they’ve already built 3 muxes even though the first one doesn’t cover the whole of Cork City by any means

end of the road

pirateradiohed wrote: »

In my opinion FreeDAB are rushing too quickly into things, they’ve already built 3 muxes even though the first one doesn’t cover the whole of Cork City by any means

not necessarily, they have probably found that it's best for them to get the muxes up first and as many as they can while the money is available, and then test and improve and gain feedback in terms of reception as they go on.
i am sure they know what they are doing and have gone through all the possible options.

Franko87

pirateradiohed wrote: »

In my opinion FreeDAB are rushing too quickly into things, they’ve already built 3 muxes even though the first one doesn’t cover the whole of Cork City by any means

The cork mux is not yet finished .it is runing on a reasonab amount of power to keep an clean signal and yes it has black spots this dos not mean were moveing 2 fast this just means were runing consistently by February 2020 cork will have a sfn network installed in cork for robust coverage .But for now. We remain consistent. As for Dublin. Well the results clearly speak for themselves !