Oct 22, 2012 - I saw a very interesting blog entry from Dusty of DB Digital, a DAB MUX provider in Ireland. "Our first three months on-air have shown some very interesting insights into digital broadcasting.

"The most interesting results are to do with receivers where we've found high error correction and bit rates are not handled as smoothly as one would hope. On the other hand, low bit-rate DAB+ broadcasts have performed exceptionally well. MOT capable receivers have also shown outstanding performance with Slideshow on color screens making a big impression on test groups.

"Also on receivers, it is evident we have a lot of work to do in establishing the WorldDAB/EBU Profile 1 standard here in Ireland. This was introduced in 2009 to establish a Europe-wide market for manufacturers, broadcasters and consumers. Under the standard all digital radios should receive both DAB and DAB+ broadcasts. With the virtual certainty Ireland will move to DAB+ only this will be a key area of consideration.

"On the transmission side of the trial, after testing a number of transmitters we have settled on regular use of a Harris DAB [transmitter] for the Dublin area. The transmitter is configured differently from the RTE mux to allow direct A/B comparisons of both services. As expected there are differences in distance and building penetration on both. Though the higher power transmissions do increase the service area it is not as great as we had expected. This will help in the planning of our forthcoming SFN, single frequency network, part of the trial.

"Public reaction to new trial services has been very positive. We are constantly surprised by the amount of people who find our trial 'by accident' when playing with a new radio and wondering what the DAB button does!"

Read the entire entry.