Listening to BBC radio on a DAB radio

Cerocco

I live in Dublin but would like to listen to BBC radio. Bought a DAB radio today and it only picks out local stations. I thought with a DAB it was over the internet so it was possible to listen to stationd from anywhere!! Is this not the case?? :mad:

Bard

DAB isn't over the Internet, no, it's broadcast over the airwaves. You probably should have bought a WiFi radio!

Tricked

I'm literally in the exact same boat, I just set mine up and tried to get BBC but no luck

Minstrel27

Cerocco wrote: »

I live in Dublin but would like to listen to BBC radio. Bought a DAB radio today and it only picks out local stations. I thought with a DAB it was over the internet so it was possible to listen to stationd from anywhere!! Is this not the case?? :mad:

It's a wifi radio that you should have bought.

Kabbary

God no wonder this country is in the mess it is how thick some people are.

Bard

Kabbary wrote: »

God no wonder this country is in the mess it is how thick some people are.

1 week ban for Kabbary for abusing another member

LordSutch

The only way you can receive the BBCs on DAB is if you live very near the NI border, and thats about it!

I bought a DAB radio about five years ago and I have tried everything to get the BBCs on it, which I can receive (but only on FM using the coaxial socket on the back), I'm afraid BBC in DAB is not available to us here in the Republic :mad:

My latest way of receiving BBC Radio is by way of a FTA Satellite dish, with the an audio sockets attached to a cheap €25 woofer/speakers set up, this way you can have the TV turned off, with the Satellite Radio working just fine, I can get all the BBC radio chanels + so much more!

Barname

You could try something like this...

I am tempted to try one myself

http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/Products/Internet_radios/iSTREAM/index.htm

Internet & DAB in one.

Fago!

I wish oh I wish that BBC broadcast over here

Tricked

At the moment I can only pick up RTE affiliated stations. Do others (Today fm, fm104…etc) not have a DAB service? I can only get them on FM

Trick of the Tail

In Dublin, Cork and Limerick only RTE have a DAB multiplex on air, and it only carries their services.

In the south-east, Total Broadcast have a DAB multiplex on which carries some of the independent operators.

A.

exaisle

Wifi radio is the way to go for anybody who wants to listen to BBC Radio in Ireland (and who isnt right next to the border). I suspect that DAB is dead in the water as a technology.

coylemj

A lot of the independent radio stations used to be on DAB but they pulled out a while back and now it's only RTE stations. It meant that you could listen to the likes of Radio Kerry from a radio in Dublin, culchie heaven!

I live on the southside of Dublin at a good altitude and when I do an 'autotune' on the DAB radio I can see the BBC stations listed but it won't play them when I try so they're there but not quite good enough to listen to. My signal is probably coming from Divis near Belfast, on a good day I can get BBC R2 on 90.1 MHz on the car radio.

Unlike AM or FM where you can listen no matter how bad the signal is, DAB will not play the station unless the signal quality is above a certain threshold, otherwise it would sound like the person talking or singing was submerged in water!

Trick of the Tail

exaisle wrote: »

Wifi radio is the way to go for anybody who wants to listen to BBC Radio in Ireland (and who isnt right next to the border). I suspect that DAB is dead in the water as a technology.

Its not, as you can't listen to WiFi radio in the car.

And never will be able to, as there would never be enough bandwidth available from the mobile phone operators to permit more than a few concurrent listeners in any one area.

DAB will flourish as a complimentary medium to FM, once the regulatory body stop dragging their feet and licence it commercially.

A.

mrsdewinter

@Coylemj - are you serious about those stations pulling out of DAB? That's crazy... I've pretty much decided that I'll go for Internet-plus-Dab radio - but honestly thought that today fm, etc, would eventually jump on Dab bandwagon. Jebus tho...

Bard

alinton wrote: »

Its not, as you can't listen to WiFi radio in the car.

And never will be able to, as there would never be enough bandwidth available from the mobile phone operators to permit more than a few concurrent listeners in any one area.

Not disagreeing with you just for the sake of it but fourth generation (4G) mobile and WiMax networks in the far east can manage this so saying that we'll "never be able to" here is a bit over the top in fairness. It's likely just a few short years away at most before this becomes a pretty straightforward option in the car.

That said, I can already (and do regularly) listen to Internet radio in the car via my iPhone - it's fairly reliable and it hasn't caused me to get mental bills yet either

DAB will flourish as a complimentary medium to FM, once the regulatory body stop dragging their feet and licence it commercially.

Have to disagree again I'm afraid. Not enough stations are moving onto the platform, there's not wide enough coverage and not enough people are buying DAB receivers. Unfortunately, I can see "DAB" becoming an acronym for "Dead And Buried" all too soon - especially when the next generation of mobile phone/broadband networks comes along. The future is online, IMHO.

Trick of the Tail

Thats not quite how it was. RTE had a TEST licence, an operated two multiplexes in Dublin. One carried RTE services, the other carried independent stations.

As it was a test licence, RTE were not allowed to charge the independents for carriage. However the independents also did not feel like contributing any money to it,so their audio links to the mux were the cheapest possible and most sounded poor.

RTE had no interest in making their competition sounding good, either.

When the 'test' licence ended, RTE decided to continue with their mux, which they did, and they offered the independents to keep the second mux on air - for a fee of 100 grand a year.

The independents weren't inclined to pay this - after all, hardly anyone at that time was listening to DAB so no extra advertising would be sold because of it, and it would effectively COST the independents that fee.

So - no independent stations on DAB in Dublin. RTENL moved the mux2 equipment to their Kippure site to extend their coverage.

DAB development then stalled, until independent company Total Broadcast Consultants Ltd, based in Waterford, decided to develop their own DAB multiplex system. They obtained a test licence from ComReg and have had the mux on air since last April.

Its a development project, so not 100% reliable as parameters are changed as the research progresses, but lately its been very reliable.

There are (I think) 11 stations on this mux, which is receivable throughout the southeast.

I'm a director of Total Broadcast Consultants Ltd. We hope the regulator (BAI) and ComReg will work towards the implementation of DAB nationally soon - its the way forward as a complimentary medium to FM, an would allow more stations and more listener choice.

A.

Trick of the Tail

Bard: mobile WiFi doesn't work, because of the bandwidth limitations. Every time someone listens to a station, it uses up a finite amount of bandwidth. Even streams that use the minimum decent-quality bandwidth of 32kb/sec can therefore support a finite number of listeners.

Let's use the example of a local FM station. Right now, they might have 30,000 people listening at any one time. Thats fine on FM, as its 'broadcast'.

But 30,000 people listening to a 32k WiFi stream would use nearly a GB of data/sec. The mobile phone operators do not have this capacity; And why would they upgrade their networks to support this when they make no money out of it?

And remember that example only refers to the listeners to one station.

I too listen to internet stations while mobile. Its great! But it drops out, stutters, and is unavailable for significant parts of one's journey.

It really is not viable as a replacement for broadcast radio.

The uptake of DAB is slow because there is nothing worth listening to. Chicken/egg. Place lots of alternative stations on DAB and people will want to listen.

And remember, DAB has not really been launched properly to most of the country.


Andy.

Bard

alinton wrote: »

Bard: mobile WiFi doesn't work, because of the bandwidth limitations. Every time someone listens to a station, it uses up a finite amount of bandwidth. Even streams that use the minimum decent-quality bandwidth of 32kb/sec can therefore support a finite number of listeners.

Well that's where you and I disagree. In my experience, it does work, and the newer technology already being used, as I said, in the far east (Japan) will make it work even better.

I too listen to internet stations while mobile. Its great! But it drops out, stutters, and is unavailable for significant parts of one's journey.

It doesn't do that all too often for me, but - as I said - we're on "3G" now - it will do it all the less when we move to a 4th (or 5th?) generation mobile/internet network. Some parts of the world are miles ahead of us.. with 100 megabit wireless broadband services available in some places!

It really is not viable as a replacement for broadcast radio.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on that if you don't mind. Saying it will "never" work is a bit short sighted.

Btr

Sorry to disappoint coylemj but names of BBC etc appearing on your set is notan indication of them being available. Most DAB radios are preprogrammed for UK so it's just names scrolling by.

On a bigger issue, Rte, BBC and a number of national broadcasters reaffirmed their commitment to DAB in Belfast before Christmas . if radio is to have future it may be DAB led as other formats using wifi etc incur an on going charge.

fabbydabby

Can someone technical explain to me why DAB is even necessary? Surely the signal is decent enough at the moment.

bob50

coylemj wrote: »

A lot of the independent radio stations used to be on DAB but they pulled out a while back and now it's only RTE stations. It meant that you could listen to the likes of Radio Kerry from a radio in Dublin, culchie heaven!

I live on the southside of Dublin at a good altitude and when I do an 'autotune' on the DAB radio I can see the BBC stations listed but it won't play them when I try so they're there but not quite good enough to listen to. My signal is probably coming from Divis near Belfast, on a good day I can get BBC R2 on 90.1 MHz on the car radio.

Unlike AM or FM where you can listen no matter how bad the signal is, DAB will not play the station unless the signal quality is above a certain threshold, otherwise it would sound like the person talking or singing was submerged in water!

Hi ive also been driving around Dublin and always listened to BBC R2 on the car radio on 90.1 MHZ

Now since this new station Spirit 89.9 MHz i can no longer pick up radio 2 which is a pain as Spirit is blocking out the BBC Radio2 signal in Dublin

barryd09

question about wifi/internet radio...

if i get one,can i listen to live commentary on football games on bbc radio 5 live and 5 live xtra & talksport?

as it is i cant on my iphone due to "rights restrictions" (boo!)

The Black Oil

barryd09 wrote: »

question about wifi/internet radio...

if i get one,can i listen to live commentary on football games on bbc radio 5 live and 5 live xtra & talksport?

as it is i cant on my iphone due to "rights restrictions" (boo!)

Sometimes. Sometimes not. This post offers a possible alternative.