Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

Understood. Thank you as always for the technical info.

I mentioned the DAB+ becasue the ABC are spending all their time and money implementing digital. 1st July is the start. You might glean some info on perceived quality of this format if recorded. For an excellent explanation on DAB+ see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadcasting

To summarise this; DAB+(Digital Audio Broadcasting+) uses the AAC+ audio codec and can provide high quality audio with as low as 64kbit/s. I am currently trying to find out what bit rate Australia will be using. Reception quality will also be more robust on DAB+ than on DAB due to the addition of Reed-Solomon error correction. The technical sescription on how it works is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed-Solomon coding. It is used Bottom line is taht it fills in missing bits(errors). Reed–Solomon codes are used in a wide variety of commercial applications, most prominently in CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, in data transmission technologies such as DSL & WiMAX, in broadcast systems such as DVB and ATSC, and in computer applications such as RAID 6 systems.

Getting back to the recording part of the discussion I am assuming  that all tuners for DAB+ will decode the AAC+ then using an internal DAC send the analogue signal to the amp. There are a few DAB+ tuners on the market which has a coax output so I am assuming this is bypassing the internal DAC of the tuner. I can send this digital signal to a pc card and record. According to a source in the ABC the live broadcasrs will use digital mics. I currently have the name of the manager of digital radio and am waiting for him to reply.

I don't believe that the live broadcast will be digital. Currently only major cities will be able to receive DAB+ and for a while the ABC will have to still issue analogue signals. Australia is a big country and the ABC is a national(govt) organisation which must consider the populace.

3mbs is going digital in 2010. They are interesting because they only have to consider one city and its members. I hope to talk to the technician. 

All this should interest you Romy becasue eventually to record FM radio in Australia, assuming it is worth recording, DAB+ will be the progenitor of the signal. Of course it goes without saying that the original voices and instruments will be analogue. Perhaps there will be a day when we go to a star wars opera and all the singers will be wearing Darth Vader helmets to encode the signal at source and send it to an encoder fitted to our ears. I often wonder if much of todays technology is "technology for technology's sake". I know that the DAB+ will give me a better reception, but will it give me better sound quality. I am sceptical at present because of the use of a specific codec(AAC+). It all gets down to the algorithm and unfortunately no one with educated ears will be making the decision.

regards,

Gordon

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site