[access-uk] Guardian Unlimited Technology: The future of UK radio is now in your hands
- From: jimosu@xxxxxxxxx
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 00:09:15 GMT
Jim O'Sullivan spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited Technology site and
thought you should see it.
-------
Note from Jim O'Sullivan:
I thought this is an important enough issue for many of us to pass on.
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To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited Technology
site, go to http://technology.guardian.co.uk
The future of UK radio is now in your hands
The industry regulator Ofcom is throwing the debate on British radio formats
over to the public
Jack Schofield
Thursday November 23 2006
The Guardian
If you are concerned about the future of radio in the UK, it's time to get
involved. Ofcom has just published a discussion document, The Future of Radio,
and is looking for comments by December 14. There are some dramatic changes up
for consideration, such as replacing AM radio with Digital Radio Mondiale and
replacing FM with DAB. These could render hundreds of millions of radio sets
obsolete, and either make radio sound much better or - as with DAB - worse.
Ofcom stresses that nothing has been decided. The purpose of the discussion
document is merely to establish the area for debate. It will be followed next
year by a full consultation document, which will look at "policy solutions".
Ofcom said: "The discussion document looks at what we believe should be
considered going forward. Are there additional areas that we should look at?"
Anyone who has been following the DAB (digital audio broadcasting) saga will
have no doubt that there are. In particular, Ofcom is simply ignoring the whole
issue of sound quality. This is a disaster in view of the BBC's apparently
diminishing interest in the topic and the commercial stations' continuing lack
of interest. Only Ofcom, the industry's regulator, can set minimum standards to
ensure that listeners can receive high-quality sound.
The problem is that people choose their radio stations for content rather than
sound quality. Those who joined Jimmy Saville's Under The Bedclothes club on
Radio Luxembourg or tuned in to pirate stations such as Radio Caroline listened
in spite of the sound quality because they wanted to hear programmes the BBC
did not provide. This doesn't mean they would not have preferred better sound.
When they have a choice, such as when ripping their own CDs for PC or iPod
playback, users clearly do care.
The current argument is about the World DAB Forum's adoption of the AAC+ codec
to replace the old MP2 used by DAB in the UK. Ofcom says it has no plans to
move to AAC+ - it plans to roll out another DAB multiplex based on obsolete
technology. Steve Green, a Hi-Fi World columnist who runs the
digitalradiotech.co.uk website, says this is "a ridiculous idea, because it
makes the switchover [to AAC+] harder to achieve, and it will prolong the date
before we can switch off the old services".
For comparison, Australia adopted AAC+ before the new standard was announced,
and Bakom, the Swiss regulator, has already changed tack. After inviting bids
for three MP2 radio stations on its new DAB multiplex, Bakom has decided to
offer eight stations in the more efficient AAC+ format instead.
Ironically, Ofcom's discussion document suggests that Digital Radio Mondiale
(DRM) is one option to replace AM radio, as a complement to DAB. DRM already
uses AAC, so dual DRM/DAB radios could soon become a convenient replacement for
AM/FM radios. T-Mobile is already selling a Morphy Richards DAB/DRM radio in
Germany, while Sangean has a triple-format FM-RDS/DAB/DRM model based on a new
chipset from Radioscape in Cambridge.
There are several options for the spectrum now occupied by FM radio stations.
At present there are five blocks for BBC Radios 1 to 4 and Classic FM, plus
five blocks for local radio. Ofcom suggests there could instead be 11 blocks
for DAB or DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, ie including TV), or five
blocks of DVB-H (radio or TV for handhelds) "or something not yet thought of".
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with using FM space for DAB; it's more
efficient. The problem today comes from adding more stations and reducing the
broadcast quality of existing stations - even transmitting stereo music
stations in mono - to fit them all in. Adding TV, which requires far more
bandwidth, could make radio sound even worse.
Green says: "It is totally unacceptable to even consider switching off FM
unless there is regulation in place to ensure that listeners get at the very
least the same audio quality level on digital radio as they receive on FM, and
preferably it should be significantly higher. This is the 21st century, after
all. If they can't beat 1960s FM there is something very wrong."
The way Ofcom is going, Green says he'd put a large bet on the UK getting
digital radio with the worst audio quality in Europe. We already have the worst
average DAB quality in the world.
www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/radio_future
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