DAB Thread

John the anorak wrote: »

A lot of Irish people seem to have the misconception that DAB is the equivalent of sky/cable for radio

But surely even if it were it would have to plugged into a satellite dish or cable, not freestanding on the kitchen worktop?

Before I invest in one, would TalkSport be available over here on DAB?

Getting used to its soccer coverage (unlike BBCs it's not geoblocked) and set up smartphone purely to listen to it about a month ago but would rather an actual radio.

AM/MW's no good to me unless anyone recommends a specific radio but if it's on DAB I'd rather go that way.

pirateradiohed wrote: »

Is the FreeDAB mux covering all of Cork City yet? In what other areas of the country is it on?

Yes pretty much. Sligo and Dundalk, and more counties to come I believe.

Is this freedab legal or illegal? Apart from anoraks who is going to listen. I have DAB in the car but that’s 182 and I find RTE very patchy in parts of Dublin and that’s from Three rock.

DAB is a very efficient way to broadcast several stations from a single transmitter/mast, so the cost to air should be significantly lower therefore lowering the barriers to niche prospective stations/communities/cultures/artists/formats.

This, of course, doesn't suit the current mainstream FM station owners who have gained expensive licences in the past (although these costs should have been already amortised).
The consolidation of radio groups, increased automation/voicetracking and the tendency to mainstream their formats (remember the so-called Rock and Country licences?) serves the bean counters rather than the discerning listeners who deserve more than the current diet of so-called pop (playlist of 100 songs), 'classics' (same playlist with a smattering of mainstream 80s,90s, 00s) and endless chat shows.

Back to DAB.... the cost and spectrum efficiencies can and should enable niche/community/event operations to flourish, the bitrate flexibility and DAB+ means a range of services from speech to high quality music can be simultaneously broadcast from a single multiplex. This is clearly demonstrated in Northern Ireland and the UK as well as many countries throughout Europe. The legislation already exists to facilitate a regulated DAB sector which could be thriving as is the case in many European jurisdictions.
BAI simply needs to transpose existing regulations where necessary into Irish law, not a big issue if the political will exists to enforce their stated committment: 'We are committed to being an effective regulator, trusted by the public, broadcasters and legislators to serve the viewing and listening needs of the people of Ireland, now and in the future'.

Official Ireland of course manages to block the democratisation of the airwaves with excessive regulation, huge up-front 'administrative' charges without justification and 5-month processing time of paperwork.

The final nail in the coffin is the farcical situation where the representative body for aspirant broadcasters; the body which should be fearlessly campaigning for DAB and general improvements to the community sector is actually FUNDED by the regulator. This is an incredible situation for a regulated sector, crippling the very body which should be engaged in robust dialogue for the benefit of broadcasters and listeners alike.

Does this situation exist in any other regulated industry? No disrespect to community radio stations but the way they're regulated/controlled financially I doubt any of them pay a living wage to anyone, never mind having funds to innovate technologically.

This is the same BAI which now wants to regulate the online sector..... look at how few consultations they engage in and how poor their research compared to other regulators and judge them on present performance....

Rant over

I noticed the DAB mux at Montrose is off air the past while. Has it finished it's trial?

castle2012 wrote: »

I think rte are broke according to the news today , it may have switched off

This was costing them very little if anything at all (free as proof of concept from supplier maybe?).

Anyways, as usual there was resistance and little interest from the commercial stations, so many of the relays were blank.

overseer wrote: »

Any update on the Dublin FreeDAB launch?

Genuinely excited to hear a range of services with high quality on a new platform in Dublin

They are working on it today

ITV2 wrote: »

Here in West Dublin we have -

Spectrum
Trance Plus
Trax
Zenith
Country
Easy
NRG Radio
Phever
RetroNow

and the usual RTE services.

Woohoo!! I'm getting it too. Still testing I'd say as it's on and off.

StreetLight wrote: »

Any idea of the block number, please?

5D 180.064 MHz