Switzerland to end 2024 with an analog FM broadcast-killing bang
- Reference: 1719940931
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/02/switzerland_to_end_2024_with/
- Source link:
The move has been a long time coming in Switzerland, which has largely already transitioned to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB+, an evolution of standard DAB that was designed to address early issues). More than 99 percent of the country have access to a DAB+-compatible receiver and fewer than 10 percent of radio signals in the country still being broadcasted in analog FM, [1]according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
FM receivers in automobiles are nearly completely gone in Switzerland, with [2]99 percent [PDF] of vehicles sold in the country shipping with DAB+ radios as of 2019. That put Switzerland second to Norway in DAB+ penetration prior to enforcement of the EU's Electronic Communications [3]Code , which mandated digital radio receivers be included in all new vehicles as of 2020.
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Norway became the [5]first country in the world to phase out analog FM radio signals when it began the process in 2017, and other countries in the EU have followed suit as well, with Denmark, Italy, Poland, Belgium and others all planning to switch their analog FM broadcasts off in coming years.
[6]
[7]
Swiss officials tout DAB+ as not only an improvement for listeners, but also an environmentally friendly switch. The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation claimed elimination of dual-signal FM/DAB+ distribution will save "several gigawatt hours of electricity … each year," and will also eliminate maintenance costs of aging FM infrastructure.
DAB+ also cuts down on "electrosmog," a term for the EM fields and radiation admitted by pretty much every bit of electrified technology we use, SBC said, because it emits far less waste energy, and antennas would be located in more remote, high-elevation areas outside of population areas.
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But not everyone's crazy about DAB+
While some countries in the EU and beyond have readily embraced DAB and the phaseout of analog radio, not everyone is as excited as the Swiss or Norwegians about the transition.
Critics of DAB+ have expressed concerns over signal interference, poor audio quality due to broadcasters squeezing more channels into a single signal ensemble, signal delay between antennas and other issues.
[9]Digital radio may replace FM altogether - even though nobody wants it
[10]Car radios crashed by station broadcasting images with no file extension
[11]Ofcom waves DAB radio licences under local broadcasters' noses as FM switchoff debate smoulders again
[12]Analogue radio given 10-year stay of execution as the UK U-turns on DAB digital future
DAB+ deployments have failed in several countries, Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Canada and Hong Kong among them. Several of those rollouts were abandoned due to lack of interest, low availability of DAB+ receivers and the rise in satellite and internet-based radio broadcasts.
Germany was even due to shut off all of its analog FM radio stations in 2015, but in 2011 German MPs voted to abandon the effort. DAB+ rollouts in Germany have continued in various forms across Germany's various states, but even those efforts aren't going entirely well - Bavarian officials decided late last year to push their FM shutdown back to 2035, saying they weren't sure the technology was economically viable yet.
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German leadership may have cause for concern that phasing out FM radio would be disastrous for public safety after the 2021 floods in Europe that killed 184 people in Germany and [14]called into question the effectiveness of flood warning systems.
Emergency FM broadcasting is one of the major reasons officials in India have asked mobile phone manufacturers to [15]include FM radio receivers in mobile phones . Basic feature phones that lack internet access are common in India, which relies on emergency radio broadcasts more heavily than nations with broader mobile data network coverage.
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation didn't respond to questions for this story. ®
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[1] https://www.srgssr.ch/en/news-media/dossiers/abloesung-ukw
[2] https://www.worlddab.org/system/news/documents/000/012/060/original/WorldDAB_press_release_DABPLUS_RADIO_AS_STANDARD_IN_NEW_EUROPEAN_CARS_23.6.21.pdf
[3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/european-electronic-communications-code.html
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZoR4g2amLBgOCwUHScbw8AAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/11/norway-begins-switching-off-analogue-radio
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZoR4g2amLBgOCwUHScbw8AAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZoR4g2amLBgOCwUHScbw8AAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZoR4g2amLBgOCwUHScbw8AAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/29/radio_switchover_crunch_arrives_with_everyone_in_the_garden/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/10/mazda_radios_images/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/08/ofcom_offers_dab_digital_local_radio_licences/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/03/analogue_commercial_radio_licences_extended_10_years/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZoR4g2amLBgOCwUHScbw8AAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/23/973/2023/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/11/india_mobile_phone_fm_radio/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The fundamental issue with DAB
Indeed, DAB for site radios or fixed locations is fine, if meh quality* ; for stuff on the move, FM
* this isn't a fundamental issue with DAB, but the way they try to cram so many channels into one multiplex
Not sure whether to report this as an error?
But 'broadcasted'? Isn't the verb broadcast, or is this an Americanism?
Re: Not sure whether to report this as an error?
"Analog" is definitely a yankism.
" an improvement for listeners"
Not on this bit of the planet. I've given up with DAB. Bubbling Soup sound, signal drops, signal drops followed by a second or so of repeat, are the main gripes.
ClassicFM made a lot of steam and frothy water about launching themselves on DAB+, touting "better quality sound". It'd have been better if they'd just concentrated on getting DAB pure and simple to - you know - actually work properly.
What would be the point? Almost nobody who listens to Classic FM cares about audio quality. Or music for that matter. I doubt the Classic FM audience would be able to tell the difference between the sound quality of a decent FM or DAB broadcast and something coming out of an Edison-era phonograph.
USA leading the way
The way the US does digital radio is great.
HD Radio - sits alongside the FM band for extra channels
SiriusXM offering a plethora of channels and seems to be mostly ultra reliable.
DAB in the UK by comparison is pretty awful.
Also: “also eliminate maintenance costs of aging FM infrastructure”. Really? FM transmission is far easier than digital. Power argument; yes. Maintenance? I’m not buying it.
Funny in its ways.
Out kitchen stereo died a few years back so we replaced it with a nice JVC one with fancy DAB, thinking it would be nice not having the FM occasional static.
We get home set it up and start to try to find stations... Nothing not a scratch, we though maybe it needed an Ariel moving or something, tried quite a lot more than reasonable before looking it up online.
Turns out, DAB had a short life in Ireland and was shut down for some reason I can't remember.
Back to FM, and everything is great.
Not sure about DAB+ but it would seem we just gave up in general, no body bothered to set it up and stations didn't see the use, by the time it was reasonably available in home systems online streaming was already way ahead and no one on the street is likely to even know what DAB is at all, probably laugh thinking you are talking about drugs.
Re: Funny in its ways.
RTE shut that down to save a few 'pingin' in a previous cost cutting exercise. I would think we'll be the great international hold out on shutting down FM. It'll be "the death knell of rural Ireland" if we do!!
Resilience
You'll prise my home-brew crystal set from my cold dead hand.
DAB, now totally obsolete
When DAB was first conceived it was back in the days when 'broadcasting' meant 'central site transmitting a unidirectional stream of data to numerous receive only stations'. This type of broadcast still has a place but not the kind of digital based multichannel service that DAB provides. That's now more than adequately covered by streaming, streaming being available in one form or another for 25 years or more and is now practical to use while mobile. This has left DAB as a technology that's obsolete before it became fully developed, enduring because of institutional inertia by the broadcasters and vested interest by the equipment manufacturers.
Broadcasting still has a place, though. Not DAB but old school broadcast technology. FM and even AM. Its not very sexy but its cheap, simple and easy to set up and maintain, the sort of technology that's going to be available after the infrastructure fails due to a natural (or man-made) disaster. This is at the core of an ongoing argument here in the US about the AM (medium wave) band in cars. Manufacturers of modern cars, especially EVs, would like to dump AM radio because the electronic packages make isolating the receiver from spurious emissions from the vehicle electronics difficult. The argument for keeping it is that this is a vital lifeline in case of a disaster, anything from a bridge out due to local flooding to a major earthquake. Building your entire communications infrastructure on complex components that are not easy to service (they have to be replaced) and, worst case, are susceptible to EMP is asking for trouble.
FM? Bah, humbug! DAB? bah, humbug²
Still listening to R4 LW*. Just hoping its valves don't blow.
* at a range of ~700km.
Re: FM? Bah, humbug! DAB? bah, humbug²
I thought the BBC only kept Long Wave and The Archers going to fallstall a premature ejaculation by our Trident subs.
AFAIK DAB+ is still a bit flaky under the South Atlantic.
The fundamental issue with DAB
or indeed any digital broadcast system, is that it doesn't know how to fail gracefully.
When the signal level is low, FM is still audible, if noisy, but digital systems either stop completely once the error correction can't get enough bits, or turn into bubbling soup, like DAB.
Which is a shame, because DAB was never built out and funded as originally designed, which would have hidden most of the signal strength issues. It didn't help that it was sold as permanently positioned domestic receivers, when it was designed as and often relies on a receiver moving between varying signal strength transmitters - lots of them, short range. Oh well.