when will digtial be mandated?

[JGrandt]

does anyone know if there is talk to mandate a switch to digital radio like there is digital TV?
I imagine this would be much harder to pull off for radio given all the in-car sets. But, it is the future.

 

[JGrandt]

I should aslo note, I am assuming they are going to hold off for a while until there is a clear winner in the IBOC wars between all the verious standards (primarally DRM and HD Radio in the US)

 

[700WLW]

I should aslo note, I am assuming they are going to hold off for a while until there is a clear winner in the IBOC wars between all the verious standards (primarally DRM and HD Radio in the US)

If you take a look at the thread on digital radio in Canada, you will see that digital radio is failing there, and up-take has been slow in the UK, also. I don't see, how analog could be shut off, if ever, for many decades - the Bridge Ratiings have analog going out into the middle of the century. Since sales of HD radios have been very anemic, as in Canada, the general public doesn't seem one bit interested in this farse, or maybe, the future of terrestrial radio. There are too many other exciting technologies to draw consumers' attention, as you know, especially portable Internet Radio, due out soon - the HD Radio killer app !

 

[SUPERCASTER]

does anyone know if there is talk to mandate a switch to digital radio like there is digital TV?
I imagine this would be much harder to pull off for radio given all the in-car sets. But, it is the future.

The public has no interest in iBiquity's HD Radio, and even less interest in replacing the estimated 1 billion analog AM & FM broadcast recievers in North America. HD digital radio sales are abysmal, and are projected to stay that way in the future.
Without listeners, discontinuing analog AM and FM for digital HD Radio would mean AM & FM broadcasters would no longer have listeners, and therefore zero finances, or reason for their existance. Turning off analog AM and FM would make the audience instantly dissappear, in favor of all the other new media such as satillite, iPods, MP3's, audio CD's, internet radio, WI-FI/WI-MAX, podcasts, etc.
The over the air AM and FM broadcast industry would instantly vanish.
But you would be giving Sirius, XM, internet radio, and other competing new media the best holiday gift imaginable, if you could turn off analog by Christmas. I'm sure they would say "the sooner the better" to your idea about completely cutting off analog AM and FM broadcasting.
How do you propose to accomplish this extermination of broadcast radio?
Do you think the broadcast interests might mind you killing their golden goose?
Just the mere mention of such a thing as switching all AM and FM broadcasting to HD Radio must have executives salivating at Sirius and XM.
See "DIGITAL RADIO IN TROUBLE AROUND THE WORLD":
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,57338.msg400521.html#msg400521
And:
www.digitalradiotech.co.uk
Also "DIGITAL RADIO IN CANADA":
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,57502.msg401790.html#msg401790

 

[Black_Shire]

does anyone know if there is talk to mandate a switch to digital radio like there is digital TV?
I imagine this would be much harder to pull off for radio given all the in-car sets. But, it is the future.

"Digital is the future (of radio)." According to whom? The listening public? No, because survey after survey has shown that listeners are interested in *what* is available to listen to on the air, not *how* they receive it.

There is no contingent of millions of frustrated radio listeners complaining to the FCC and their Congress-critters about "how horrible analog AM and FM sound." Their frustration is over mediocre, un-imaginative, and duplicative programming content, and neither IBOC nor DRM nor CAM-D nor FMeXtra nor DAB can solve that very human and entirely non-technological problem.

No, the claim that "Digital is the future of radio" is nothing more than a Joseph Goebbels-esque Big Lie that IBOC's proponents hope the public will swallow if they repeat it often enough. Don't fall for it.


-- Black Shire

 

[radioskeptic]

Amen, Black Shire!

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

does anyone know if there is talk to mandate a switch to digital radio like there is digital TV?
I imagine this would be much harder to pull off for radio given all the in-car sets. But, it is the future.

No, there is none...probably because 1) there's essentially no interest in it, and 2) even if the manufacture of analog radios ceased today, it would still take decades to replace the estimated 800 million analog radios already in the hands of US consumers.

 

[Black_Shire]

Amen, Black Shire!

Thank you, radioskeptic. Now, I'm not opposed to digital radio in principle, but the new transmission system has to be better to the ears than analog, not interfere with existing analog signals, and have coverage comparabe to analog before this old Shire will jump on its bandwagon (or volunteer to pull it).

Chuck's thread "A different approach to digital radio" that makes reference to a recent "Radio World" article about using existing HDTV transmitters to distribute digital radio using the unused HDTV bandwidth is most interesting. *That* would be an inexpensive, non-interfering, and downright intriguing way to do it.

It would be great for "narrowcasting" within cities or smaller communities on the VHF and/or UHF TV channels, given sufficiently tall buildings, towers, or mountains for the transmitting antennas. It can be done right now over existing HDTV sets, and simpler "HDTV-audio radios" would be considerably cheaper than HDTV sets.

Possible FCC considerations aside, the only question is...can broadcasters come up with enough unique programming content to make it worthwhile to implement?


-- Black Shire

 

[SUPERCASTER]

Black_Shire said:

There is no contingent of millions of frustrated radio listeners complaining to the FCC and their Congress-critters about "how horrible analog AM and FM sound." Their frustration is over mediocre, un-imaginative, and duplicative programming content, and neither IBOC nor DRM nor CAM-D nor FMeXtra nor DAB can solve that very human and entirely non-technological problem.

And:

Possible FCC considerations aside, the only question is...can broadcasters come up with enough unique programming content to make it worthwhile to implement?

If they broadcasters can't produce quality, interesting, satisfying, programming for their profitable full fidelity main analog channels, how or why would they produce wonderful, audience gripping new content for lower fidelity, experimentally licensed iBiquity digital HD2, 3, and 4 channels?
There is zero revenue, advertising, or subscriptions allowed on these experimentally licensed HD2, 3, and 4 streams.

 

[MotoMuzak]

Black Shire~

".....simpler "HDTV-audio radios" would be considerably cheaper than HDTV sets......"

That would essentially be an HDTV set without a TV screen and video processor, right?

Must be more or less the audio processor section of an HD set instead, as many analogue radios that receive TV audio are little more than the audio settion of a TV set with a tuning dial instead of a screen (and are readily available even at the local Supermarket)........

I think it would work!! *grin*

 

[Black_Shire]

Black Shire~

".....simpler "HDTV-audio radios" would be considerably cheaper than HDTV sets......"

That would essentially be an HDTV set without a TV screen and video processor, right?

Must be more or less the audio processor section of an HD set instead, as many analogue radios that receive TV audio are little more than the audio settion of a TV set with a tuning dial instead of a screen (and are readily available even at the local Supermarket)........

I think it would work!! *grin*

Exactly. There are even hand-held HDTV receivers like this Toshiba unit www.i4u.com/article2231.html currently available. Something like this either with or without a screen and its associated circuitry would be perfect. (A deluxe model could have an LCD screen you could turn off to extend the battery life when operating it in audio-only "radio mode.")


-- Black Shire

 

[MotoMuzak]

Do they have these in the US yet? Seems the one in the page you linked is a Japanese model.

And re: power consumption~ that's why I swear by AC plug-ins when I am at home or cigarette-lighter plugins in the truck!

 

[Black_Shire]

Do they have these in the US yet? Seems the one in the page you linked is a Japanese model.

And re: power consumption~ that's why I swear by AC plug-ins when I am at home or cigarette-lighter plugins in the truck!

I noticed that too (that it can only pick up the Japanese-coded version of HDTV), but a similar receiver with a different chipset could pick up US-coded HDTV.

I only use AC-powered radios, except for the pocket radio I listen to in my 1981 pickup truck. Its radio died long ago.



-- Jason

 

[PhilJSmith67]

... but the new transmission system has to be better to the ears than analog ...

Very true. With 12 billion ears having been manufactured with analog technology, analog tends to be the most pleasant to listen to, unless high enough bitrates are used to make digital pass for clean analog.

 

[MotoMuzak]

Hey Philip~

Have ya ever heard the sound of a stereo 44100/320kbps CBR MPEG3 playing over a big stereo system off a high-end Sound Blaster (or in my case, a card by Voyetra Turtle Beach?) or a fancy DVD player?

Blows Ibiquity away, I can say that for certain right now...........

Although that seems to be a perfect format especially for headphone listening on a portable (I can cram about five hours of music on a stinkin' CD ROM this way) I highly prefer vinyl and to a somewhat lesser extent, tape for stereo-system listening. (Akai 1720, ya know.......)

 

[Black_Shire]

Hey Philip~

Have ya ever heard the sound of a stereo 44100/320kbps CBR MPEG3 playing over a big stereo system off a high-end Sound Blaster (or in my case, a card by Voyetra Turtle Beach?) or a fancy DVD player?

Blows Ibiquity away, I can say that for certain right now...........

Although that seems to be a perfect format especially for headphone listening on a portable (I can cram about five hours of music on a stinkin' CD ROM this way) I highly prefer vinyl and to a somewhat lesser extent, tape for stereo-system listening. (Akai 1720, ya know.......)

My friend who conducted the A/B/C comparison between the Sony CD player, Empire turntable, and Revox reel-to-reel tape deck for me carried Akai tape machines in his home electronics store, and he spoke highly of them.

(He literally sold electronic gear out of his home [Quasar TV sets, Akai tape decks, Bomar "Brain" calculators, etc.], and the only reason he didn't keep an Akai for himself is that his house was already full with 4 or 5 Hammond organs and their tone cabinets, plus his personal Sony and Revox tape decks, U-matic VCRs, hundreds of Edison cylinder and diamond-disc phonographs, and crates of thousands of cylinder and disc records.)


-- Black Shire

 

[radiorob2.0]

Radio will never have a digital mandate. Ibiquity will not share its "secrets", so the FCC has only approved it for use without the benefit of a mandate. Translation, HD receiver will only exist it a manufacturer wants to build them. So until a demand exists analog radios will continue to be manufactured.

Television has a mandate for digital conversion as part of fifty years of spectrum adjustment. In the end, the TV channels will be reduced from the original 82 (when UHF was added) to about 50 channels for the entire country. But don't worry, as long as you have a cable box or something with an analog RF modulator your old TV will still work.

The last time radio was screwed due to lack of mandate was NRSC-2. About fifteen years ago AM broadcasters were told to install a filter and a pre-emphasis to its signal. The requirement for receivers to include the de-emphasis didn't exist. So very few NRSC-2 receivers were built and the rest was history.