Why FM is More Expensive than Digital
Follow @mediaukradioFrom Gunnar Garfors - posted
Will digital radio be more expensive than analogue? It will not, although this is a common misconception....
5 comments
FM may or may not be cheaper …. but my god it’s rubbish on the move in built-up or hilly areas or in deep valleys. DAB on the other hand overcomes those problems almost all the time, especially in places like the Scottish Borders and the Highands. Even when I drive through the streets or along the motorway in Glasgow, FM is a (much) poorer relation to DAB for signal quality ….. and I like good signal quality.
I think for most decent sized ILRs (with areas that match local multiplex areas) you’ll see FM and DAB (at 128k) be similar.
That is, of course, if you have an FM licence.
For Fun Kids, I’m very happy broadcasting to London on DAB, as without it the radio station wouldn’t be able to exist.
ART SAY’S quote, DAB on the other hand overcomes those problems almost all the time, especially in places like the Scottish Borders and the Highlands.
Try living on the south coast DAB coverage is Rubbish.
At those realistic figures? Less than $5k to build a transmitter that will last years? If so, then why are tranmission costs even an issue?
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This article appears rather disingenuous. It’s modelled on a tiny transmission area with one mast.
The reality is that most DAB multiplexes need more transmitters than the corresponding FM transmitter.
The Birmingham multiplex, for example has four transmitters, while radio stations in the area (Planet Rock, Free ex BRMB, Heart) need just one.
London III’s coverage area requires eleven DAB transmitters; this coverage area is roughly similar to that achieved by Capital 95.8 or BBC London 94.9.
It’s also instructive comparing the coverage of BBC Radio Leeds’s four FM transmitters (note 92.4 from Holme Moss) with that of the Leeds multiplex’s three – remembering that BBC Radio Leeds is supposed to cover Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield while the Leeds multiplex is not able to.
For any radio station that wishes to go on DAB, and assuming they want a decent stereo signal, the reality is, as far as I can tell, that DAB costs considerably more.
We shouldn’t, also, forget that many radio stations have relatively simple audio links from studios to FM transmitters (quite often microwave links), while it’s my understanding that multiplexing requires rather more complex links to be put in place, quite often to multiplexing equipment in other areas of the country (and certainly not within line-of-sight).
DAB is a pretty good system, I believe. I don’t believe it’s cheaper than FM for anyone other than national broadcasters or tiny one-transmitter self-contained multiplexes.