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When ever there are conferences which talk about streaming, smart speakers etc, these systems provide incomes for the telcos and search companies. I am yet to see the itemised capital and operational costs to broadcasters to provide the path between the station and the listener's ears. I am talking of the cost to the broadcaster and the individual cost to the listener particularly if mobile broadband is accessed to obtain the signal.
Broadcasters particularly country broadcasters need to be aware that transmitters produce a wide area coverage area without holes in it, where as using mobile broadband the base stations have a typical coverage radius of just 10 km so holes in coverage are common particularly when the listener is in vehicles.
Some community broadcasters have provided invaluable coverage during bushfire emergencies, which will not be heard when the fires cause blackouts not only for mobile phone base stations which can also be burnt down but also to smart speakers when fibre to the node and wireless NBN is deprived of mains electricity.
Lastly Podcasting can be like going to a library and selecting a book or program. How do you know what is popular at the library? You hear about it on the radio which is also the case for podcasts. Isn't live streaming just like broadcast except that in streaming each listener must have their own individual signal to and from the station? Those who can remember the radio cassette, know that live radio can be recorded for later replay. Computer memory is very cheap and needs to be included in digital radios to perform the same function.
When the article said that community radio will expand to digital, I was disappointed that the term 'digital' was limited to IP radio.
I was expecting the article to be about community radio's expansion via DAB+.
By consuming radio whether community, ABC, SBS and commerical via IP radio means an increase in data consumption.
Why pay for additional data consumption via IP when that does not apply to listening to broadcast media via AM/FM and DAB+. Maybe that explains why Telstra's logo appears in this article.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield
The industry continues to push internet listening and continues to ignore DAB+. I really don't get it. Pushing your listeners online is going to backfire big time. Once you start streaming radio you realise there are literally thousands of other stations out there. You're basically asking your audience to go out and find something better. The only radio I stream are overseas stations because they are for the most part better than commercial radio in this country at least. The choice on FM in this country is so limited that DAB+ is the only way to provide the listener with the choice of formats they want, without pushing them onto the internet where they will go elsewhere. The other drawback of course is the data usage, dropouts and fiddly experience changing stations while driving. All issues that DAB+ addresses in some way. It seems both commercial and now community radio in this country are ignoring DAB+ and pushing internet listening platforms - I suspect they will live to regret it.
Thanks for the comments on this report.
Just to clarify, all the speakers in this session did acknowledge DAB+ as an important platform with ongoing commitment to it, but this particular initiative was the new thing that supplements DAB+ and analog broadcasting.
Sorry that this point was not clear in the report.