Originally Posted by
kev:
“Some of the boundaries have shrunk too - see for example Nottingham where the western edges have been moved over to Derby and the southern edges to Leicester
The Pink line shows the original boundary
http://www.localdigitalradio.co.uk/N...erageLarge.jpg
Which was for a much larger area than the proposed
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...port_Jan15.pdf
Coalville and Loughbourgh are the most obvious changes. Some of the "uncovered bits" at the west of the Nottingham multiplex area which lie outside the Derby bounds are covered by Derby,”
I think that they have taken the opportunity to draw up more realistic editorial boundaries. In the case of Nottingham; Coalville and especially Loughborough were always within the reception area of the Nottingham multiplex. The coverage won't change but changing the editorial boundary indicates that the area is considered to actually belong to the Leicester multiplex editorial area.
The original Arqiva DAB build out plans for Nottingham didn't envisage any changes to coverage in this area and had started to use the more realistic editorial boundary.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...m_DAB_V2_0.pdf
Anyone wishing to examine changes to editorial boundaries would probably be better examining the maps at the end of this document:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...nsion_Plan.pdf where old and revised boundaries are shown on the same map.
Reception to the western side of the Nottingham multiplex should be improved with the addition of the Home Farm transmitter which is still proposed in the current build out plans.
Clearly, redrawing the boundaries demonstrates that there will be no attempt to maintain coverage in large overlap areas between multiplexes. As more transmitters are brought online, these overlap areas may physically reduce in size because of co-block interference.
Perhaps some of the more worrying reduced editorial boundaries are where additional coverage was planned in the original multiplex application but these areas will no longer be served. Areas such as Chesterfield, now taken out of the Derbyshire editorial area and Bridlington, taken out of the North Yorkshire editorial area. As far as coverage is concerned, Chesterfield will be adequately covered by the South Yorkshire multiplex and Bridlington will be served from Humberside. Unfortunately, this reduces the likelihood of Peak FM and Yorkshire Coast Radio, Bridlington actually migrating from FM to DAB. With the Bauer local multiplexes about to take on extra services from the Yorkshire mux, there won't be room to accommodate the likes of Peak FM & YCR Bridlington which only serve a small part of the overall mux editorial area. In my opinion, reducing the chances of these smaller FM services migrating to DAB actually weakens the argument for a radio DSO.
Quote:
“These plans look to be taken on a commercial coverage equivalence basis - places like Buxton, Skipton, and Settle would need to be covered for BBC LR to be switched off and presumably would come back onto the table at that point (possible being paid for, partially at least, by the cession of FM simulcasting) - the likely increase adaptation of DAB+ by that point would make it possible to have more channels on each multiplex making them more commercial viable too.”
Well over 300 of the additional transmitters proposed in the Arqiva build out plans haven't made it into the latest plan. The latest plan only lists a fairly limited number of sites to be added post-switchover. Pretty much all of the transmitters proposed to improve coverage in hilly regions haven't made it into the new plans, giving very poor coverage close to the Pennines, Cotswolds and large areas of Scotland and Wales.
Funding will, no doubt, be a problem. It doesn't make commercial sense for the old ILRs to fund such expansion, especially if it ultimately means paying for carriage on a DAB multiplex which far exceeds their primary FM service area. In this respect, the original Arqiva plan to extend Inverness to the whole of the Highlands and the Western Isles don't seem workable. Perhaps the only solution would be for the BBC to fund any expansion outside the core commercial areas to enable BBC Radio Scotland and RnG to migrate to DAB. The limitations of DAB SFNs would, inevitably, mean that the ILRs also end up on the extended network, even if they can't reasonably be expected to fund carriage for the whole area.
Quote:
“There are also some obvious gaps that need addressing - Lancaster, Penrith, Carlisle are the obvious ones.”
Lancaster, along with Pennine regions of Lancashire, was addressed in Arqiva's original DSO document.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin..._DAB_V1_01.pdf - Lancaster and many of the other sites have been omitted from the latest plans.
It appears that areas with difficult terrain, which require many transmitters to reach relatively few people aren't being considered at the moment. So, not only does that still leave major geographical gaps within the editorial areas of the current build out plans. It means that there are several areas with no plans at all: Cumbria, Dumfies & Galloway, the Scottish Borders, the Highlands & Islands, Argyll & Bute etc.