Author Archives: Matt

Ofcom’s Mini-Muxes

1 Reply

Ofcom published an interesting report today, based on a technical trial it has carried out, about the opportunity of operating small, single-site, low powered digital radio multiplexes.

An Ofcom associate from its Spectrum Planning Group used off-the-shelf technology and open-source software to assemble and broadcast a multiplex to cover part of Brighton. According to the report the tests went very well and open up the option of mini-muxes, covering similar areas to small ILRs or community stations.

It’s still quite a way away from being deployed in the wild, as there would need to be significant frequency planning into likely availability and discussions about where it fits from a regulatory-basis.

The multiplexes that we broadcast are quite different to the one trialed in Brighton – we cover much larger areas (the size of the local BBC and main ILR stations) – broadcasting from many different transmitter sites at higher signal strengths. We think this works well as it means more people can hear a service if it broadcasts over a larger area and also supports listeners as they drive across an area listening in-car.

However, for some smaller operators who want a digital berth, particularly for fixed in-home listening, but don’t want to (or aren’t able) to be on a county-wide multiplex, we think this concept sounds like a good idea.

We think it’s important that as we approach a digital switchover, that lots of stations have the chance to be on DAB – this seems an interesting route for some to start their journey.

Adding Gaydio to Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool

2 Replies

We’re adding Gaydio to the Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex for the Summer.

It’s on-air to coincide with Gaydio being media partners with Liverpool Pride, a festival which celebrates Liverpool’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) culture. This year’s festival is on August 3rd will see a mix of emerging artists, established artists as well as a super hero theme.

The station will be on-air from the 29th July for 6 weeks.

Adding Gaydio is hopefully one of many new services (full time and temporary) that we’ll add to this and out other multiplexes. We think one of the benefits of digital radio is the ability to be fleet of foot and reflect what’s happening locally. We’re always keen to hear from other operators who want to broadcast either short term or long term. You can find out more here.

New Multiplex Updates

Leave a Reply

IMG_20130709_165736I’m posting this just after attending a Parliamentary Reception for digital radio. The BBC, commercial radio and Government spoke about digital radio’s successes which included:

  • 50% of listeners tuning to digital radio every week
  • 40% of all new cars have digital radio as standard
  • Growing local and national DAB coverage

On the last point, you might have seen that Nicky’s just posted status updates for the Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and Mid and West Wales multiplexes in the blog. We’re pleased with the progress that we’re making with these, even if we have to jump through some new hoops that BT have put in our way.

Geting multiplexes on-air involves many different people and organisations including Ofcom, service providers and transmitters contractors but also site owners and the people that own all the different fibre and copper between stations and transmitters.  And if you’ve had trouble changing broadband providers, you know what dealing with different telecoms companies is like. A multiplex launch is a bit like doing 20 of those simultaneously.

We are excited about taking our multiplex network from 1 to 4 by September – it’s a busy time, but we’re looking forward to bringing more digital radio to people across the country. We should have some Surrey news in the coming weeks and then later on further information about our other areas. The launch of four networks this year puts us ahead of what Ofcom asked us to launch as part of the MoU discussions and we continue to work on ways to develop sustainable businesses for all of our licence areas.

MuxCo Launches Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool Multiplex

1 Reply

We officially launched the multiplex today at events in Wrexham and Liverpool. Here’s the press release that accompanied the launch:

DIGITAL RADIO BOOST FOR WREXHAM, CHESTER AND LIVERPOOL

Today at Wrexham Football Ground, local politicians Ian Lucas MP and Lesley Griffiths AM switched on two new DAB digital radio transmitters for the Wrexham and Chester area, meanwhile in Liverpool, Juice FM’s Ian and Leanne turned on the transmitter at St John’s Beacon. The switch-on means that 2.2 million people in North East Wales, West Cheshire and Liverpool can now listen to BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Real Radio Wales, Nation Radio, Juice FM and Dee on DAB on DAB digital radio for the first time.

Nation Radio, Real Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Wales and Juice FM are currently available on FM and are launching on DAB in the area for the first time, while Dee on DAB is a new service being launched by Chester-based Dee 106.3. To receive the new stations, listeners with digital radios may have to re-tune their sets – find out more at getdigitalradio.com/retune

The switch-on was marked by a unique collaboration between public and commercial broadcasters, with BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Wales, Juice FM, Nation Radio and Dee on DAB, at the home of Wrexham FC and at Juice FMs studios. The switch-on also means that listeners will be able to follow Wrexham FC on DAB in the area for the first time on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru, as they battle to regain their Football League status.

Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, who hosted the event, said: “This is great news for 2 million people across the Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool areas as until now they have not been able receive all their favourite local stations on DAB.”

Ian Lucas MP said: “As the town’s MP I’ve pushed for better radio coverage for Wrexham, so I’m honoured to be switching on the new digital radio transmitters today. This is excellent news for radio and football lovers in the area who will now be able to enjoy coverage of the top local matches in digital quality sound for the first time.”

Assembly Member for Wrexham, Lesley Griffiths said: “Boosting local coverage for Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool means the excellent range of local DAB digital radio stations can be received by even more listeners, at home, at work and in their car.”

The 3 new transmitters at Wrexham Rhos, Moel-y-Parc and St John’s Beacon take local digital radio coverage from zero to 74.3% of households, and bring the local DAB stations and the national BBC services for Wales on DAB digital radio to the area for the first time. Coverage for local and national services in Wales will be further expanded as Muxco will also be launching DAB services this year in Mid and West Wales, with North Wales to follow soon.

Local road coverage is also improved, adding hundreds of miles of roads into local DAB coverage for the first time. Digital radios are increasingly becoming available in cars and according to new industry data 35% of all new cars now have digital radio as standard. A third of all new Toyota vehicles, whose engine manufacturing plant is located at Deeside in North Wales, has digital radio as standard.

Digital radio in NE Wales and West Cheshire is popular with over 35% of homes having a DAB radio but until now listeners have been unable to listen to all their favourite local radio stations and the BBC’s national radio stations for Wales on DAB. The importance of local radio stations to listeners has been shown in research carried out by the radio industry regulator, Ofcom. Listeners can check which stations they can receive by inputting their postcode at getdigitalradio.com

This switch-on comes as Government announce they will make a decision on digital radio switchover later in 2013. Digital listening in the UK represented 33% of all listening in Q4 2012 and in 2012 UK digital radio sales reached the second highest level ever with over 2 million sets sold. A cumulative total of 17 million digital radio sets has been sold to date in the UK.

The radio industry communications campaign featuring digital radio evangelist D Love, who encourages everyone to spread the love for digital radio, is currently on air on BBC TV, BBC radio and commercial radio.

Gregory Watson, Managing Director of MuxCo said: “We’re delighted to be able to bring these services to digital radio in Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool. Research has shown how much people value their local radio stations, so we hope this will make a big difference to the digital radio listening experience in the area. We’ve also got exciting plans for further new radio stations over the coming months.”

Steve Austins, Editor of BBC Radio Wales, said: “We’re always looking to improve the way our listeners are able to receive BBC Radio Wales, so I’m delighted that we’re now available on digital radio in north east Wales. Today is Radio Wales Music Day – a celebration of the best of new Welsh talent – so we’re particularly pleased that listeners in this area will be able to hear this and all our programmes on their DAB radios.”

Lowri Davies, Editor, General Programmes for BBC Radio Cymru, said: “We’re delighted that BBC Radio Cymru is now available on digital radio in Wrexham and across most of north east Wales. We know that our listeners want to be able to listen to Welsh language content across all platforms, so today is a significant step forward.”

Graham Sarath, Station Director Juice FM said: “Boosting local coverage for Liverpool means the excellent range of local DAB digital radio stations can be received by even more listeners, at home, at work and in their car. It gives Juice listeners the opportunity to hear the station on another platform and one which I’m sure they’ll enjoy.”

Final WCL Timetable

1 Reply

St John's Beacon

We’re entering the final furlong with our Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool launch with the final service going on-air and the final transmitter launching.

Juice FM will start testing on the morning of the Monday 15th April on the existing two transmitters – Moel-Y-Parc and Wrexham Rhos.

It, and our other services, should then start testing at St. John’s Beacon late afternoon on Wednesday 17th April.

The multiplex will then officially launch on Friday 19th April with events at Wrexham FC and Juice Liverpool.

A reminder that test transmissions are just that – tests – so timings can be affected by a number of different things. However, these are our current plans.

Pic: Karen_O’D

More Testing

17 Replies

We’ve just made the latest update to our test transmissions, by putting live BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Real Radio Wales and Nation Radio alongside Dee on DAB. Looking at the snow, it’s a good job we can do it remotely!

As these are tests, they are subject to interruption and general strange behaviour as we fiddle with settings and such. This is the first MuxCo multiplex so it is somewhat of a guinea pig for us trying out new ways of doing things.

This should mean, however, that you’ll be able to follow Wrexham FC’s progress against Grimsby Town at Wembley on BBC Radio Wales on DAB this Sunday.

The Nature of Tests.

3 Replies

The Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex is the first launch for MuxCo and we’re using a variety of new systems to bring the stations to your radios. That’s the good thing about test transmissions – they let you try some different things without it interrupting listeners’ enjoyment when the multiplex is properly live. It’s why, in this test phase, you should be aware that services/barkers may stop, be reconfigured and do strange things!

Our current outlined plan is to to test some more services on Monday. I wanted to flag up, though, that this definitely won’t be happening at midnight tonight – so no need to wait up auto-tuning! Whilst we’re still looking to do something on Monday, some of the things we’ve been doing over the weekend may mean that the next bundle of changes may happen a little later – please don’t be too disappointed – this is just what happens with tests!

WCL Tuesday Update

9 Replies

Wrexham Rhos has passed Ofcom’s tests this morning so now joins Moel-y-Parc in becoming passed and on the air.

If you’re in the area, we would love to hear your transmission reports. Please send your postcode/location and the signal level/quality to us at [email protected]. You can also guess who our Test Transmission announcers are too…

If your DAB Digital Radio has, er, a few years on the clock, make sure you do a full scan rather than just a UK scan to pick us up.

WCL Monday Update

1 Reply

I’ve just got back from Chairing a brilliant Radio Academy session on RAJAR. I’m sure it’ll be online soon, definitely well worth having a listen.

Whilst I was there, I got an update from our transmission contractors on how today went and I wanted to share it with you.

So… Moel-y-Parc was tested and approved by Ofcom. We had it on for much of the day, but powered it down early this evening. Ofcom will test Wrexham Rhos tomorrow and, should all be fine, it should be on by late morning. The team will then re-activate MYP, meaning  both should be on by around 2pm.

If I don’t see transmission reports on Digital Spy, before I hear from the engineers, I’ll be disappointed.

WCL Test Transmissions Week

Leave a Reply

Hopefully, it’s going to be a busy week for our Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex.

At the beginning of the week Ofcom will be working with us to do the testing on our initial two transmitters. They should be working on Moel-y-Parc on Monday and Wrexham Rhos on Tuesday. When this has been completed we expect test transmissions to begin from these two sites.

In the test transmissions we’ll be broadcasting six ‘barker’ channels. These are pre-recorded loops that explain that six new channels will be launching soon. These barkers will often be interrupted with gaps and also live feeds of the stations that will replace them.

We’ve got six different presenters to read our announcements – but can you name them all?

If all goes to plan, our tests continue on Friday when we’ll replace one of the barker’s with Dee on DAB and then the following Monday (18th) when we test with live output of Nation Radio, Real Radio, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru.

Juice FM (and the official launch) will be when we add the St. John’s Beacon transmitter in the coming weeks.