January 2012 started with confirmation from ComReg of our trial licence for DAB transmissions. The licence covers transmitters located at Irelands four main cities; Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. The three key areas on which we shall be reporting back to Comreg and the BAI are; transmission, data and content. Find more details about our trial goals here.

With the licence confirmed we officially invited approximately forty broadcasters to provide radio stations to the trial. Despite the recession we had a higher than expected response, and surprisingly, some responses from outside of Ireland also.

For Irish broadcasters we have avoided general simulcasting of FM services. We believe that DAB needs to offer listeners something new or different. To make this a reality a number of new stations are going though a content licencing process with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland which should be complete by June.

Running in conjunction with this was sourcing suppliers for the actual multiplex and transmission equipment.

For the mux we sought a supplier who was equally keen to expand the data functionality of DAB and use our trial to experiment with brand new world leading features. Our supplier of choice is the Swedish based Factum Electronics. Their mux is capable of encoding sixteen different stations in DAB or DAB+ as well as supplying DLS, DL+, EPG, Slideshow, TPEG and more right out of the box. We are excited to be working with Factum and others over the coming months on other data features yet to be announced.

On the transmission side we have engaged German company Plish, who also supply RTÉ, for our transmitters. The supplier chain is rounded off with Delta Mechanics cavity filters and Aldena for custom antenna manufacture.

Now the base elements are decided we are working through Q2 on putting everything in place.

We shall be rolling out the trial in three phases;

• Phase 1 Dublin July 1st 2012
• Phase 2 Cork & Limerick Q1 2013 (Subj to site upgrade works)
• Phase 3 Galway TBC

Q1 has been a very successful and exciting three months for the project. The momentum is increasing as we proceed through Q2. Keep up-to-date automatically with updates by email or RSS feed on our Join In page.

What is interesting is who we wrote to.

We have not sent a blanket letter to every radio station in Ireland and the UK. We’re looking for someone special. We’re specifically looking for stations/content providers who can add something new to digital. Stations that are forward thinking and can see the benefits like broadcasting to new markets or being able to put on a sub-brand service or who want to play with new content to display on the screen of every DAB radio.

A tall order you might think?

Well we’ve come up with forty who we believe fit the bill. Unfortunately there are only ten spaces on the mux.

Interesting days ahead!

My name is Dusty and, together with my business partner Joe, we hope to bring more opportunity to Irish radio stations, more choice to listeners and dramatically modernise the whole radio experience for everyone.

I see that opportunity through DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting). It delivers more stations at a lower cost and it can broadcast web-like data!

This summer we’re going to launch a new trial DAB service with some new stations, some existing ones and lots of new stuff displaying on the screen of your DAB receiver.

Most exciting is that I’d love you … yes you reading this right now … to be part of the whole trial!

How?

Firstly I’m going to update this blog regularly with a kind of backstage view so you are kept up-to-date with what’s going on and what is coming up. If you add yourself to the email list or subscribe to the RSS feed you’ll get these updates automatically.

Secondly I would love to hear your feedback, thoughts and opinions. Constructive feedback, positive or otherwise, is always welcome. Just add your comments to posts here or email me directly anytime.

So that’s Day One. Day Two, when we officially announce the trial is coming soon, so sign up and get ready for an interesting 2012.