Comments on: The Radio Festival 2008 http://nick.piggott.name/blog/2008/07/03/the-radio-festival-2008/ Nick Piggott's blog about the intersection between new media and radio Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:27:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Nick Piggott http://nick.piggott.name/blog/2008/07/03/the-radio-festival-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-2420 Nick Piggott Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:50:29 +0000 http://nick.piggott.name/blog/?p=93#comment-2420 There are certainly some implementation issues that remain to be addressed. Field strength is one, as our learning about what works and doesn't work improves. The Australians have done some amazingly valuable work in this field, and I believe there is agreement that we need to review coverage and transmission infrastructure in the light of this. There are other things too; for instance, Service Linking is poorly implemented on the current multiplexers, and not widely implemented enough on receiver units. But these are issues of implementation, rather than fundamental questions about whether DAB is the right technology for digitising radio. There are certainly some implementation issues that remain to be addressed. Field strength is one, as our learning about what works and doesn’t work improves. The Australians have done some amazingly valuable work in this field, and I believe there is agreement that we need to review coverage and transmission infrastructure in the light of this. There are other things too; for instance, Service Linking is poorly implemented on the current multiplexers, and not widely implemented enough on receiver units.

But these are issues of implementation, rather than fundamental questions about whether DAB is the right technology for digitising radio.

]]> By: Bev MARKS http://nick.piggott.name/blog/2008/07/03/the-radio-festival-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-2412 Bev MARKS Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:08:39 +0000 http://nick.piggott.name/blog/?p=93#comment-2412 Nick I would expect you to sing the praises of DAB/Eureka 147, but I do not really feel totally happy about your conclusions. I feel there are still two critically important technical issues to solve before next year when the hope is to talk about content only and leave technology issues where they belong in the back room, just delivering... For a start so many services packed into some multiplexes just delivers such poor audio quality such that listening simply becomes a strain and I believe "bad-audio-fatigue" sets in quite quickly. DAB should not provide worse than perceived audio than FM, but I feel it has rather too many services that do. Secondly coverage across much of the UK is at such a low signal strength that DAB reception varies according to weather conditions and "splats" badly some days when "old" FM carries on fine. Car receivers will require much more field strength than is presently available! Nick

I would expect you to sing the praises of DAB/Eureka 147, but I do not really feel totally happy about your conclusions. I feel there are still two critically important technical issues to solve before next year when the hope is to talk about content only and leave technology issues where they belong in the back room, just delivering…

For a start so many services packed into some multiplexes just delivers such poor audio quality such that listening simply becomes a strain and I believe “bad-audio-fatigue” sets in quite quickly. DAB should not provide worse than perceived audio than FM, but I feel it has rather too many services that do.

Secondly coverage across much of the UK is at such a low signal strength that DAB reception varies according to weather conditions and “splats” badly some days when “old” FM carries on fine. Car receivers will require much more field strength than is presently available!

]]> By: Nick Piggott http://nick.piggott.name/blog/2008/07/03/the-radio-festival-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-1623 Nick Piggott Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:43:40 +0000 http://nick.piggott.name/blog/?p=93#comment-1623 Steve. As I've said before, success is brought about by far more things than having the right technology. What I actually say above is: "when you properly consider all the elements that lead to success, there’s no better choice than DAB/Eureka 147" Is DAB an out-of-date technology? Yes, it is *now*. But the decision to embark on Digital Radio was made in 1998, and DAB was the right technology then, and it's still a great technology now. Wasn't it better to take a bold decision then and start doing digital radio, rather than fret endlessly that "something better" might come along? Technologists can always create a new technology. Whatever is start-of-the-art today will be superseded tomorrow. The good technologies are the ones that last and last and last, and are still capable of doing the job they created to do after 20 or 30 years. Great technologies do that, and allow for graceful updating of the standard with time. Steve. As I’ve said before, success is brought about by far more things than having the right technology. What I actually say above is:
“when you properly consider all the elements that lead to success, there’s no better choice than DAB/Eureka 147″
Is DAB an out-of-date technology? Yes, it is *now*. But the decision to embark on Digital Radio was made in 1998, and DAB was the right technology then, and it’s still a great technology now. Wasn’t it better to take a bold decision then and start doing digital radio, rather than fret endlessly that “something better” might come along?
Technologists can always create a new technology. Whatever is start-of-the-art today will be superseded tomorrow. The good technologies are the ones that last and last and last, and are still capable of doing the job they created to do after 20 or 30 years. Great technologies do that, and allow for graceful updating of the standard with time.

]]> By: Steve Green http://nick.piggott.name/blog/2008/07/03/the-radio-festival-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-1616 Steve Green Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:08 +0000 http://nick.piggott.name/blog/?p=93#comment-1616 The question "has the UK picked an out of date digital technology?" was obviously asking whether the UK picked a lemon when we chose to use DAB, and should we have waited to use something like DAB+ instead. You're simply lumping DAB and DAB+ together under the umbrella of Eureka 147, but I doubt anybody else would look at it in this way. As you're well aware, DAB+ is not backwardly compatible with DAB, and you've said on this blog that other countries shouldn't use DAB, because it's out of date. So you've answered the original question posed, but you seem to have changed your answer in this blog. You can't have your cake and eat it too, I'm afraid. The question “has the UK picked an out of date digital technology?” was obviously asking whether the UK picked a lemon when we chose to use DAB, and should we have waited to use something like DAB+ instead. You’re simply lumping DAB and DAB+ together under the umbrella of Eureka 147, but I doubt anybody else would look at it in this way. As you’re well aware, DAB+ is not backwardly compatible with DAB, and you’ve said on this blog that other countries shouldn’t use DAB, because it’s out of date. So you’ve answered the original question posed, but you seem to have changed your answer in this blog.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, I’m afraid.

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