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Absolute 80's going mono on DAB
digiwigi
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http://onegoldensquare.com/2013/04/changes-to-absolute-80s/
"Due to high demand for national digital radio bandwidth Absolute 80s will broadcast at a reduced bitrate of 64k from midnight on Wednesday 1st May 2013."
What's the betting that Kiss is going stereo across the UK.
"Due to high demand for national digital radio bandwidth Absolute 80s will broadcast at a reduced bitrate of 64k from midnight on Wednesday 1st May 2013."
What's the betting that Kiss is going stereo across the UK.
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http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1153225/ But means a new competitor.
Looks like Absolute are hoping not many will notice the drop to 64k on DAB using the latest encoders.
I'll qualify my statement - I think that 112k for a flagship station, being promoted as a quality product, is really poor. 64k for the subsidiary service is ultimately no better really than a promo for the internet streams and suitable for use on a rubbish mono radio. The main Absolute station should be better.
The adverts running on radio stations at the moment are annoying because they casually tell you that you can listen to "digital radio" anywhere. They give examples such as on your mobile phone, laptop at work or DAB radio, without mentioning that DAB bit rates make the stations you can't already hear on FM sound awful and mono! Mono in 2013!
They don't mention that regularly listening to the radio on your mobile phone can end up costing you a fortune, or that if you listen on a laptop at work, your employer may not be at all happy with employees consuming their business connection with such frivolities, and end up banning people from doing it. Plus, how many laptops have speakers that sound anywhere hear as good as a £50 FM radio? How many people hearing those adverts work in a position where they can be connected to a laptop all day by headphones?
And what about the implications of your employer needing a PRS licence if you openly listen to the radio on your laptop? I've never heard an advert for any other kind of radio that openly promotes people listening at work. I think there's good grounds for those adverts being banned just like all the misleading cable/satellite TV, ISP, telecoms and supermarket adverts that have been banned by Ofcom in recent years. But as Ofcom are part of the drive to promote DAB, it'll never happen, or they'll drag their feet and 'uphold' a complaint about them only after they've stopped being played anyway.
Those adverts really do remind me of 1950s adverts for jet age kitchens that make everything so simple and automatic. The reality was anything but.
When I listen to Absolute 80s, it's online to get decent sound quality. But that tethers me to a computer and headphones, so I tend to listen to Radio 2 more than anything else. If the whole country listened to radio stations online, they'd all go bust because they couldn't afford the cost of streaming. So in reality, when they promote "digital radio", what they really mean is DAB, hoping that only a tiny number of people dabble with online streams.
I doubt many have much more than a kitchen radio in their workplace so it's unlikely high quality is required there. At home I use my iPhone and a good quality Bluetooth speaker to listen to high quality streams - DAB does the job for my bedside alarm and kitchen radio.
DAB provides me with Absolute in much better quality than analogue; we seem to forget that analogue doesn't provide Absolute80s at all!
It's still MP2
Oh dear.
The problem is its not commercially viable to run more then a 64k - 80k mono stream on national dab, so even if space was there I doubt it would be used as you think, more likely just more mono stations, even if there was demand.. All these problems could be solved by a move into DAB+ without the need of a second national multiplex
Then when Absolute is profitable, and more DAB+ sets are sold move towards gettting DAB+ stereo for the decades stations, or help pay for D2?
Also soon 3g/4g HD sound radio streaming will be more practical outside major cities, which might be the way to go?
It could be some of the current Abs 80's listeners might move to Gold or Magic which are stereo on local muxes, but doubt it?
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/in_your_car.html But they are not pushing too hard (maybe after DAB is in NI?) and their link to £50 radios does not work.
But £50 adaptors do exist (but may need a roof mount aerial in some areas)
http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Beat_400_DAB_car_radio.html
along with some £70 in dash sets!
To be fair, Free is a local station for the West Midlands, disregarding that you can listen online.
Absolute is marketed as a national brand.
Fair point though.
Yes, this has been bugging me for ages too! The fact that Free 80s is a local station is irrevelevant; it's an 80s radio station and it's in the UK. Therefore Absolute 80s' claim to be the UK's only 80s radio station is simply not true.
I don't think either of these things is going to happen. Absolute 80s and Planet Rock will go to 64k and the new station TeamRock will take the remaining 80k. I suppose if TeamRock also joined at 64k, Absolute could go back up to 128k, but that strikes me as rather unlikely. DAB bitrates only go one way!
You've never heard the "Your at Work Station", "The Home of the No Repeat Work Day" and all the other variants on the same theme stations have been plugging for years - getting people to phone in who are listening in the work place for their local station to come round with cakes or even do a show from there?
Rock FM, Century 105 and 106, Virgin, and Absolute are all stations which have promoted this sort of listening for years.
Yeah I guess Absolute may get away with it as they are available nationality on dab, whereas free radio you have to tune in online outside of there fm and dab transmission area ?
If I was able to fit it myself the entire upgrade would be about £130, would probably make sure the speakers were 100% and maybe upgrade them too.
Then again the car was £900, maybe not a job for this car