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All posts by Jordy

Below are all of Jordy's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

J
Digital radio section | Digital radio
Monday 7 February 2011 2:19PM

Some interesting developments on the Digital Radio front - Launching on a four month technical trial from Craigkelly.

DRM+ Trial in the UK

For the first time, the technical capability of the DRM+ digital radio system in FM band II is going to be tested in the UK. This four month long trial, organised by the DRM Consortium and its partners, will take place in the Edinburgh area of Scotland from February 2011.

The DRM+ transmission will operate into an existing antenna that is shared with two FM services via a combiner. Those services cover more than 500,000 people in urban, suburban and rural terrain. This will be a closed technical trial with no direct involvement from the public.

DRM provides many features to allow user-friendly, high quality radio to be broadcast, including use of station names rather than frequencies, consistent digital audio, additional text and visualisation, an EPG, alternate service signalling, and automatic service following to DRM, DAB,
FM and AM services. More details can be found at www.drm.org.

The purpose of the trial is to measure the coverage of DRM+ operating in various transmission modes (lower capacity, higher ruggedness; higher capacity, lower ruggedness). There will also be a comparison of the coverage of FM and DRM+ in terms of transmitter power. Other objectives include being able to assess the impact of DRM+ on FM and vice-versa; demonstrate the performance of DRM+ in a range of environments, for example, urban, suburban, rural, etc., and therefore provide an analysis of performance against the challenges of these environments. The pattern of the antenna will also be measured, in order to correlate performance in different directions with the expected performance. This trial should also provide
suitable measurement data to international regulatory bodies, such as CEPT and ITU.

The trial transmissions will carry audio material consisting of both programme and test sequences. At least two modes will be tested to allow planning parameters to be determined for different scenarios.

I'am looking forward to seeing the results of this technical trial and the ability to use existing aperture is a development.







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Brian - Are you saying the concept of 'spot-beaming' programming into a specific market is illegal? Curious to me is how the Irish are launching Saorsat on the principal of spot-beaming to maintain their rights problems. All future birds will have that capability and along with that will come DVB-S2 dual transponders so yes it will drive up the cost of receiving equipment...

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Richard Jones - Long Mountain may be line fed and an 'island' site with dependents but for all organisational purposes it is still a relay of Blaenplwyf much the same as Torosay is organisationally speaking a dependant of Blackhill...

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J
Digital radio section | Digital radio
Monday 7 February 2011 6:27PM

What would be more interesting if anyone in the service area had the Digital Radio Mondiale rx equipment and the decoding software... Shame it's a closed technical trial participation by members of public might make the technology more user friendly...

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J
Digital radio section | Digital radio
Monday 7 February 2011 7:49PM

Brian - No it's my understanding that DRM+ refers to the upper end of VHF band 2 of newly released spectrum. They're both using the MPEG4 codec and from what i've read limited to 174mHz. Which means could sit rather nicely within band 3 DAB aperture. A considerable financial saving...

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Mark - Football will suffer long term harm if these clubs don't put a stop to these stupid investments in players and display a bit of austerity... £35 million spent by Liverpool FC, they may as well have stuck two fingers up to the fans.

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J
Digital radio section | Digital radio
Monday 7 February 2011 8:26PM

Try - Digital Radio Mondiale - Summary Craigkelly's test will use the old Talk Sport frequency of 107.0 i'm told...

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Mark A - That isn't entirely correct some high power relays use HP, Cambret Hill being a good example...

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J
Digital radio section | Digital radio
Monday 7 February 2011 8:33PM

"This is a significant consideration for broadcasters and even more for the listeners who will need to invest in new DRM-capable receivers"

Do any exist in the market place?

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Bill and Ben the Aerialmen - Newtownards, NI?

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