[BC] It's Eureka over IBOC down under

[Robert Orban]

At 11:18 AM 10/20/2005, you wrote:
>From: "Ernie Belanger" <armtx at mhcable.com>
>Subject: [BC] It's Eureka over IBOC down under
>To: "Broadcast Radio Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <000c01c5d55d$17602960$6501a8c0 at ernesty180u5go>
>Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> >From RBR
>Australia picks Eureka-147 over IBOC
>The Australian Federal Minister for Communications Helen Coonan announced 
>that country will use the Eureka-147 system for its DAB system. DAB will 
>be introduced in phases, beginning with large metro. New commercial 
>license allocations will be frozen for six years once the digital 
>broadcasts begin. Coonan's said the digital radio policy was 
>supplementary, not replacement.
>
>This means no switch-off of analog stations is contemplated and digital 
>radio will become another consumer choice. This is a whole new mind-set, 
>brought about by the Government's dissatisfaction with the rate of uptake 
>of digital television. The analogue TV switch-off date, presently the end 
>of 2008, will soon be pushed out, at least to 2012, in recognition of the 
>fact consumers have been slow to embrace the new technology.
>
>Said The Australian: "The Government, quite understandably, does not want 
>to be saddled with a similar dilemma on radio. So the supplementary, not 
>replacement, policy firmly puts the future of digital radio into the hands 
>of the radio industry. The message is: 'Take it or leave it. You asked for 
>it, here it is; now, you make it work.' So we can now look forward to a 
>three-tier radio system where, at a touch of a button, we will be able to 
>choose AM, FM or digital signals." Australia proposes to use two different 
>parts of the broadcast spectrum for digital - VHF Band III and L Band for 
>fill-in or overcrowded locations - and entertains the idea that Digital 
>Radio Mondiale may be used in remote locations because of its wider coverage

I think that it's really weird that any government would choose Eureka 147 
in the year 2005. Technically, DRM is substantially better in terms of RF 
modulation coding efficiency and  dramatically better in terms of the 
efficiency of its audio codec. I have also heard it said that the DVB-T 
standard could easily be adapted to radio broadcasting and is claimed to be 
slightly better than even DRM from a coding efficiency point of view.

At this point in time, Eureka 147 is a 15-year-old, dated technology.

Bob Orban