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Watty's picture

FM Radio to Stay. Who ever said it was going away?

Submitted by Watty on 18 July 2010 - 9:53am

RTE has start DAB for new Digital Only Radio in Ireland. DAB stations will all also be be on Saorview and Saorsat. We are having an ASO in 2012 (analogue Switch Off).

But FM-VHF is not going away...
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/fm-set-to-stay-as-radio-execs-co...

Quote:
Britain and parts of Europe are planning to switch off their analogue signal in favour of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), sparking fears that the same would happen here.

Standard radios can't pick up the digital signal, which would make them, and millions of car radios, obsolete.

RTE is already broadcasting DAB in parts of the country: the greater Dublin area; northeast Leinster; Cork city; and Limerick city.

It ran a trial for two years from 2006 to 2008 and now has a licence to broadcast on DAB. It has set up RTE Junior, RTE Choice, RTE Pulse, RTE Gold, RTE Chill and RTE 2XM, all of which are only available on digital.

Although some commercial stations used DAB during the two-year trial, none have since continued with the technology.

RTE head of radio operations JP Coakley is a supporter of DAB and says FM is not good enough for the future.

But campaigners against DAB -- which has already been branded an out-of-date technology -- feared the Government would follow Europe's lead and plan a switchover to it.

However, a spokesman for Communications Minister Eamon Ryan told the Sunday Independent: "Ireland has no plan to cease VHF-FM band II. Ireland never had such a plan.

"If digital radio delivery takes off, then it may be possible to phase out analogue radio, but there are many radios per household, so maybe 5-10 million FM radio receivers nationwide."

Former RTE engineer Enda O'Kane, who oversaw the broadcaster's technology for the northeast and parts of Dublin, has led the campaign against any changeover to DAB.

"This is very welcome news," he said.

"The fear always was that we would follow the digital route, making millions of FM radios redundant.

The ASO (Analogue Switch Off) is only for TV.

Even in UK and rest of Europe the Analogue Switch Off, Digital Changeover, Digital Dividend only applies to TV, not Radio:

Quote:
Britain and parts of Europe are planning to switch off their analogue signal in favour of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), sparking fears that the same would happen here.

It has been discussed but there has been no decision to do it. Even in UK when they discussed turning off FM Radio, it was only the main stations and only if a minority still used them. The idea was to keep smaller local and community stations on FM-VHF.

Canada and many other countries have stated they will not have FM Radio closed.

Even in UK, the best supporter of DAB (which uses obsolete MP2 codec) DAB has still yet to be a success. Other countries are deploying DMB, DAB+  or DRM (Digital Radio Mondail which uses AAC instead of MP2). It's not clear which digital Radio technology, if any, will replace FM-VHF as a world wide standard. AM on LW, MW and SW does look like it might be replaced by DRM. But many Shortwave services are simply getting closed (End of Cold War, Replacement with Satellite and Local FM-VHF services)

Quote:
The British government is considering a U-turn on its DAB policy. It
had set a date of 2015 for switching off FM transmitters, but has now
decided to put the date on hold, and may even abandon it altogether,
after a backlash from millions of radio listeners perfectly happy with
FM.

Today FM chief executive Willie O'Reilly said: "What are the
negatives for the consumer or the country if we do nothing? . . . In my
view, none.

"So technology is in a kind of flux. What we have is a
heritage technology that is performing very well.

"So we should
be slow to change. We should experiment . . . but very slow to damage
something that we have that is so successful and which is so well
regarded by the public. That's the thing."

The problem for DAB is
the huge importance of car radio listeners. If car manufacturers do not
embrace the technology by fitting DAB radios as standard, millions of
motorists face the expense of buying new, compatible radios.

Mr
O'Kane added: "RTE is doing its best to make us aware of their new
services on digital radio, while the commercial stations are no longer
participating. Is DAB too old and likely to become the Betamax of radio
in recessionary times?"

Read also http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/digital-radio-switchov...

Other interesting Article

Quote:
What is radio again?

These stats raise three challenging questions for the FCC. First,
what exactly is "radio" now? Does the category include music downloads
and DJ-less music streams? Are podcasts radio?

Second, what share does terrestrial radio now command of this
category as a whole?

Finally, the Commission is going to have to come up with some kind of
renewed assessment of the extent to which radio, which has become a
hybrid of terrestrial and Web-based services, still serves the "public
interest, convenience, and necessity," especially when it comes to
coverage of local issues.
strong>Clear Channel is particularly sensitive to the localism thing. The
company pushed
back hard against allegations that its stations dropped the ball on
emergency coverage for the town of Minot, North Dakota, following a
2002 toxic spill in that area.

In pursuit of these questions, the FCC is commissioning a series
of studies about radio. These will include an assessment of the
amount of local news that radio stations provide, and a survey that will
"examine the availability and usage of local content on the Internet,"
and how much of this content is provided by sources affiliated with
local radio stations, television stations, or newspapers. Clear Channel
has its own online service: iheartradio.com.

From http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/07/clear-channel-internet-means-w...

Watty's picture

Irish Digital TV

Submitted by Watty on 17 July 2010 - 12:59pm

RTE executives met with the Oireachtas Committee for Communications  14-07-2010.

(see this word doc)

The Irish Terrestrial Digital Television (i.e. via an aerial), called Saorview will launch 31st October 2010. In Spring 2011 the plan is to add Saorsat, a fill-in and backup Satellite service (i.e. via a dish). Our existing Analogue TV will be turned of by (during, starting end of?) 2012.

Why is this happening?

Because world wide TV broadcasters are moving to Digital instead of the Analogue TV we have had. Modern Electronic Analogue TV was first proposed in terms of a complete system in about 1905. Baird's Mechanical system of the 1930s was a refinement of Nipov's 1895 system and was a dead end. By 1930s many countries and teams including EMI in UK had working modern Electronic CRT based TV. Some services started to public before WWII and many stopped due to war till 1946 .. 1949. Though Electronic Colour TV was first demonstrated in in 1924, the  current Analogue US system wasn't perfected till 1951. During the 1950s to 1970s PAL and SECAM colour systems joined the US/Japan NTSC color.

Satellite TV gave the impetus to develop Digital TV as it uses much larger channels than Terrestrial TV (25MHz rather than 6MHz or 8MHz) and Satellites are very costly. Digital TV uses special image compression (MPEG2 or MPEG4) to fit up to 20 TV channels into one Satellite channel. It also allows the broadcaster to use less "space" (lower bitrate) for less important channels, which isn't possible with Analogue. At best quality you might only have 6 channels instead of 20.  Digital also allows Widescreen more easily, High Definition (up to x4 picture quality for larger TV sets up to 60" in a normal room) or even Stereoscopic TV (mis-named 3D TV). Mixed text and photos  instead of text only teletext and surround sound).

Governments and Broadcasters realised that these advantages could also be applied to TV via an aerial (terrestrial TV) and allow more than four channels (Ch Five in UK was never meant to be on Aerials, but Satellite only. Terrestrial TV to avoid interference doesn't easily support more than four channels). Governments also realised that up to half the UHF TV band or more could then be reclaimed and auctioned off to other applications (Mobile Phones, Wireless Internet). This is the so called Digital Dividend.

Netherlands and USA are completely changed to Digital and Analogue TV has been turned off. Most European countries have running Digital TV and are in the process of turning off Analogue TV. The EU decided many years ago (we had lot of warning) that the "Digital Dividend" should be co-ordinated and thus recommended that all EU states should have completed ASO (Analogue Switch Off) by 2012.

1) DTT rollout costs and coverage
Re-reading the RTE presentation to the Committee I'm shocked they only intend 51 DTT sites. I had assumed cutting back from 140+ to 90.
You need 140 to 150 approx for almost full coverage and then Satellite "clone" for the 0.5% to 1% that can't get or have poor signal.

With only 51 sites, you are looking maybe at 5% to 10% needing Satellite!

2) Viewer Costs
It's not a Multichannel Pay TV competitor. It's purely to replace Analogue so the Government can get their money (So called "Digital Dividend"). So Government should be sub-venting extra money for rollout
and paying 100% of cost for satellite dish installs for those with no DTT signal and subsidy equal to basic DTT set-box for all others with DTT reception that have Medical Card.

For those that have pay TV (nearly 80%) none of this is an issue unless you want HD RTE, the DAB stations or what ever other extra Irish DTT is launched as it's possible none of this will go on Sky. Adding it to Cable is more likely, but none will go on MMDS.

If you have FTA or Freesat satellite, the Kasat (if that's what it is) "dish" can be an insignificant box that could be added for under €100.
You'd need an upgrade to Freesat HD, (no HDTV needed) for setbox though.

A basic DIY Saorsat system is likely to be under €60 by ASO (Analogue Switch Off, 2012 to 2013), a basic Saorview box (for existing aerial) or Saorsat set box with out dish and LNB for €25 to €40, assuming no rampant inflation and Euro OK against Dollar and Chinese.

3) Content 

Proposed Digital Free-To-Air Channels
We are still finalising the channel line up that will be available on both the DTT and Satellite systems. 
</p>
<p>A potential service line up could include the following:

Television                  Radio
RTÉ One                      RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Two (HD light)        RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
TV3                          RTÉ 2 FM
TG4                          RTÉ RnaG
RTÉ News Now              RTÉ Lyric FM
RTÉ 1+1/Children/Euronews RTÉ Choice
3e                          RTÉ Gold
RTÉ Digital Teletext      RTÉ Junior/RTÉ Chill
                          RTÉ Pulse/RTÉ 2xm

It is envisaged that the 2nd National Multiplex will facilitate a more extended</p>
<p> roll out of High-Definition television and other services</p>

Check back for more comment and technical analysis of Saorview and Saorsat..

Meanwhile Soarsat Speculation

What we know and why it may be Kasat @9E launching in Dec 2010/Jan 2010

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66930692&postcount=138

Costs and possible one dish for Freesat and 2nd "not dish"?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66932467&postcount=141

Closeups of small boxed 44cm cassegrain dish

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66944993&postcount=200

Small boxed 44cm cassegrain dish

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66945257&postcount=202

Comparing existing services footprints and dish size

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66950421&postcount=206

Distribution

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66955562&postcount=221

Possible Frequency allocations

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66956673&postcount=224

Same Technology in use some years

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66956965&postcount=225

What about UK Irish Viewers? (They won't get the service)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66958500&postcount=236

Analogue?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66960085&postcount=247

Compare MMDS, boxed 44cm Cassegrain dish and Grid Array UHF

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66972068&postcount=275

Sky also can give over 90% of their Sky HD subscribers the full Saorview service

All 9 TV, Soarview Interactive, All 12 Radio including DAB stations and HD content without spending a penny on extra carriage for 28E or giving a cent to RTE.

Quote:

Sky Italia to launch Digital Key for DTT
DTH operator Sky Italia has announced that it will launch a novel
Digital Key in December. The USB key when connected to a Sky HD or a My
Sky HD satellite box will enable viewers to watch Digital Terrestrial
channels on the DTT platform.
Sky Italia say that the key will remove the current need for multiple
decoders that are/will be necessary when the analogue terrestrial
transmissions change to digital by 2012. The Digital Key will integrate
the programming of the DTT channels in Sky’s EPG, allowing viewers to
zap across the entire digital TV offer without changing the remote.
Source: advanced-television.com
Items added: 26th October 2009

From http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/italy/

Other

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rte-to-use-satellite-for-digital...

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/07/15/rte-details-new-dtt-proposals/

Some test cards

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67021324&postcount=35

 

Watty's picture

XP Professional

Submitted by Watty on 13 July 2010 - 9:14am

A Microsoft exec admitted today that about 75% of business computers still run the nine-year-old OS on hardware averaging 4.4 years old, and Computerworld's now reporting Microsoft will extend XP's lifespan through 2020 as a result.

Lots of specialist applications and Niche HW & Drivers don't work on Vista or Windows 7. While Windows 7 fixes most of the issues of Vista, it's still slower to boot, less compatible, no more secure in reality and needs more RAM than XP.

Quote:
"Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize
end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are
ready to use Windows 7," Microsoft Windows communications managerBrandon LeBlanc blogged

Extending the downgrade option on Windows 7 means that Microsoft can still claim the Windows 7 sale and feed the operating system into the customer base, while letting customers continue to use the software they like until they're ready to move (if ever).

Many Corporate Vista and Windows 7 sales are actually XP use. Rather than sell people what they want directly and to make it harder for Retail to force "success" of Windows 7. Various versions of Windows or Office have always had a licence to run older versions, you can copy existing Media from any source for an Install. The Microsoft requirement is to have the Licence, not particular physical media.

[Some content via The Register]

Watty's picture

Stereoscopic TV: Marketed as 3D

Submitted by Watty on 24 June 2010 - 9:19am

Good round up review here

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/06/24/grouptest_3d_tvs_buyers_guide/


Good clear introduction.but misses some points:
1) While implied, the article doesn't explicitly state that it's not 3D at all. Only Stereoscopic. Like Viewmaster or Victorian novelties.

2) Maybe 20% of people who DO see real 3D, don't get ANY depth illusion from Stereoscopic video.

3) The Active shutter glasses may work for some people with one eye slightly weaker where the passive glasses don't..

4) Prolonged Stereoscopic video viewing will cause headache and eye strain. In reality unlike real life or real 3D displays(there are some not holographic), the image distance is actually always on the screen. The eye unconsciously tries to focus on apparently closer or further objects based on the parallax illusion. This is what causes the headaches or even nausea. The definition of "prolonged" is going to vary per person.   

See also http://www.techtir.ie/node/1001459

Watty's picture

Bits and Pieces

Submitted by Watty on 13 June 2010 - 3:24pm

Found this interesting site on RF design

Still working on PIC based CATpad, PIC based Admiral system and a 70MHz / 4m Transverter for 145MHz. The 25MHz Crystal to 75MHz -5dBm L.O. to drive ring diode mixer is simple and uses a single BC547 transistor.

Added two new aerials on my rotating 144MHz yagi mast:

Three Yagi Aerials

******

Don't forget the Forums 

******

Watty's picture

The Fudge of Irish DTT

Submitted by Watty on 1 June 2010 - 6:54pm

After 10years the Official public "launch" of Irish DTT is not happening on 31st October 2010 as planned. Due to failure to find a Commercial PayTV operator the  launch this Autumn will be called a Testing phase (soft launch?) and official Launch as a National Service effectively in 2012

Quote:

The Minister for Communications has told the Dáil that the Digital Terrestrial Television service will be up and running in a testing capacity by October. Eamon Ryan earlier said he had told RTÉ that the full DTT service will be launched on 31 December 2011. Minister Ryan said it would be a tight schedule but that the necessary set-top boxes were ready to go.

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