“The new Gloucestershire “multiplex” will be on air by early 2009.  The operator’s timetable has changed slightly due to technical refinements that are being made to frequency planning across the UK”.

Now, what exactly does that mean?

Well, actually there are two issues that are causing our multiplex launch dates to move.  The first is our negotiations with our transmitter operator and the second, as alluded to above, are some ongoing industry discussions.

Firstly, transmission. Once a multiplex is awarded a licence, there then begins a process of technical and price negotiation with a transmission provider. There are a number of elements that change from multiplex to multiplex after the award right up until launch:

Has the owner of a particular mast changed their access rules or reached their capacity constraints since we submitted the application?  Are there new international frequency clearance issues?  Could a location/power change overcome these?

To put it simply, are the transmitters that we had planned to use still viable as sites and remain the most effective and efficient solutions, or might alternatives sites be better all round?

We also need to ensure we’re not missing a trick when it comes to getting the best deal for our service providers.  Might there be a new local contribution point for local service providers which could save them money?

All of this makes each contract individual and different and it takes time to sort out these issues and that’s what we’ve been working on since the licence awards.  However, we’ve got an extra element of complexity as our chosen transmission company – NGW, are in the process of being acquired by the other main transmission contractor – Arqiva. This means that whilst we could sign a contract with NGW, the operation of it might be with some of the Arqiva team and use some of the Arqiva infrastructure.

As a simple example, let’s look at BBC Radio Wales. The BBC may decide that it will broadcast the same version of BBC Radio Wales to all of the multiplexes in that nation.  Today that would mean we would start a fresh installation with NGW as BBC Radio Wales isn’t currently on NGW’s DAB network. This would mean that brand shiny new communications lines (probably through a third party like BT), would need to be ordered as well as some equipment for both their end and ours. Some of these costs would be borne by MuxCo and some of these would be passed on to the BBC.

Now when Arqiva take over NGW, all this could change. BBC Radio Wales is already on the Arqiva DAB network so, potentially, we would only have to pay some access costs to get the service on one of our multiplexes, potentially saving everybody a significant amount of money.

The difficulty is that because there are competition issues between NGW and Arqiva, they can’t work together, yet, to discuss how they are going to integrate their networks. This means that there are a significant number of uncertainties about how and for how much our networks are going to operate. We’re not very keen to agree a load of things now to see that there was a better way of doing this – from a coverage and a cost basis – in a couple of weeks time when the two companies can work together properly.

The second thing that’s been happening is some inter-industry discussions about the development of DAB. This includes the discussions happening about 4digital’s national multiplex and their relationship (if any) with Digital One and the work the Digital Radio Working Group is doing. There has also been some discussion about frequencies and coverage levels of the existing local multiplexes. Once again whilst this doesn’t necessarily affect us per se, there’s likely to be some knock-on effect that could mean we would be able to do something extra and improve our service. We therefore don’t want to commit everything to stone to find out in a few weeks something changes and we could have got a better deal for everyone – ourselves, our services and at the end of the day, our listeners.

So, where are we with our launches then? As we haven’t signed our contracts with NGW we don’t have any fixed dates. We have, however, overcome many of the contractual elements and MuxCo specific issues and the next step will be to take this to NGW’s new bosses – Arqiva – and go through our plans. After this we can then sign them and Gregory (who sits opposite me) can look a little less stressed.

We currently hope to be able to launch our first three multiplexes in the first half of 2009.

We’re now getting on and building these things so we can get the services on air.

We’ve also submitted today our application for North Wales, the details of which i’ll try and put up online for tomorrow.

Somerset’s been an interesting one to do, it’s a relatively small multiplex and a quite a few of the stations have small but specific coverage areas. It’s something that’s meant we have to work really hard with from a cost basis to ensure that it’s economic enough to get the stations on board.

In these financially tight times it’s MuxCo structure (with TLRC and UKRD as partners) that allows us to roll out DAB digital radio to this area.

It was a very enjoyable experience although I admit I have never been very good at listening tests. I can’t always distinguish subtle difference in audio as easily as the eagle eared engineers, in part due to the fact that my hearing isn’t very sharp. In any case we have to be very careful when discussing subjective opinions about audio.

Listening to the audio from the different codecs, however, I could tell the difference – just. One was more lean and rangy - more treble, basically.

Now here is why subjective listening tests are to be viewed with caution. If you’re turning out jangly guitar rock you might quite like the sound quite lean and rangy. If however you’re running a talk service or playing a lot of acoustic numbers then that lean and rangy treble might be less welcome.

In addition, whatever we provide in terms of baseline parameters can be totally masked by a station’s processing – or lack of, and the quality of the same. There is excellent and disastrous unprocessed audio and the same goes for various types of processing. How a radio station presents its audio is very much up to them. So for us as multiplex operators, just picking one codec over another alone does not guarantee a subjective improvement for you the listener.

Luckily there is hard data we can refer to - data that demonstrates the actual frequency range that each codec achieves. A greater range gives services a broader platform to stand on. So subjective listening is valuable but is only part of the decision making process.

This is MuxCo’s tenth application – and what a busy year it has been.  However, we remain true to our beliefs of enabling DAB expansion in an efficient and viable manner.  We continue to ensure a wide variety of new choice is carried.  NME Radio will provide a new perspective on the rock scene, whilst Easy Radio’s easy listening mix will now be available to a significantly larger audience across the Home Counties.  Shuffle is a new service for the area comprising music and listener-generated content for teenagers and young adults, whilst Traffic Radio will provide an up to date traffic and travel service.  If successful with our bid, we would hope to make some further announcements of additional services before our proposed launch in July 2009.

Onwards and upwards, and now down the M4 and M5 to Somerset.

Talking about DAB with them was quite fascinating and it was great to hear how Xpress Radio felt about simulcasting their FM RSL on DAB. It sounded like they had been overwhelmed with positive reaction from new local listeners across Cardiff and Newport and that it’s really made them think about the scope of the station. They also felt that being next to XFM on the dial also helped too!

Anyway, hopefully they’ll be more opportunitites for a variety of broadcasters as Ofcom awarded the Mid and West Wales DAB Digital Radio multiplex to MuxCo Wales Ltd yesterday, something which we were obviously pleased about. As I talked about when we submitted the application, this multiplex is still very much work in progress, but we’re looking forward to developing our offer over the coming months.

As a priority I shall be getting to know the service providers on our planned multiplexes and ensuring they are informed and happy about the process to launch. There are some regulatory loose ends being tied up too, to ensure we are making the best use of the available spectrum.

I have overseen lots of DAB multiplex launches but the regulatory and industry landscape changes every year (or every month at the moment), and no two multiplexes are exactly the same. Having said that, if these launches are anything like the ones that have gone before, I am fully expecting the following - speaking generally:

• The first wave of work will be a flurry of requests for maps, contact details and contracts.
• There will be an agonising wait to build a key transmitter, as local councillors argue whether its marginally more pointy tip significantly bespoils the local landscape.
• There will be some sort of wait on International Clearance on a transmitter which mildly oversteps the boundaries of the Reserved Assignment List as our European chums decide to sit on our request in return for the fact they didn’t get as many complimentary pens as the British at RRC06.
• Just as the radio stations are all hooked up there will be a last minute change of address for one of our services meaning a wheelbarrowful of equipment will need to be run around the corner and reinstalled at midnight.
• There will be anxious posts on forums wondering why test transmissions haven’t started. The minute they do, the fact that the services are not in alphabetical order on the ensemble will be noted.
• There will be a typo on the configuration documents which will be spotted before it goes live, saving a Country Music service from having a contracted 8 character name which breaks the broadcasting code and offends my mother.

You are welcome to email me with any queries and I will do my best to respond as we go along.

Obviously we’ve still got transmitters to confirm and such, so don’t take these ones as the final final transmission plans.

At first glance the multiplex does not seem as full as some of our recent applications with a transmission plan that does not cover the entire area. I just wanted to write a blog post that explained some of the reasons why this is the case and highlight the fact that what we have submitted is very much a starting point, with our objective to expand both the coverage and number of services over the licence term. Indeed, we will hopefully have some good news before the licence even goes on air.

Mid Wales, in particular, is not a an easy area to cover. Our estimates showed that to even begin making in-roads into this area, and starting to bring a service to the 150,000 people there, would require more than five transmitter sites. Due to a lack of interest from new services to cover this area, it meant that coverage would be uneconomical to commit to at this time. Indeed, we’re not sure that any traditional funding model would make it possible to bring any services to this area. We are however exploring a number of non-traditional options with our colleagues at the BBC to find a way to fund a roll-out to this area. As these plans have not been firmed up at this time, we put in a transmission plan that we knew we could deliver at launch.

Ideally we would also like to broadcast a number of additional stations in the area, both existing analogue and some new services too.  Whilst we’ve had some good discussions with potential operators, we’re not yet in a place where we can guarantee that we will be bringing them to the area. Though saying that, we hope that we’ll have some announcements about new additions in the next few months.

When we started MuxCo we always new that some areas would take a little longer to sort out than others. Wales has not been in the fast track for development of digital broadcasting and as such has a much lower penetration of receivers - indeed, why buy one if you can’t pick up much! It will therefore take a little longer for new stations to have enough listeners to hit their business plan targets and that affects what we can announce today. What this definitley isn’t, is a result of any recent announcements from other operators, it is more finding the right model for the local players in the market at the right time.

So, please look at our application - transmitters, services and timings - as something we know we can deliver on day one, rather than what we hope we can deliver when the multiplex goes live. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.