[HN Gopher] Swiss Broadcasting Corporation to pull plug on FM radio
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Swiss Broadcasting Corporation to pull plug on FM radio
Author : austinallegro
Score : 54 points
Date : 2024-06-29 23:27 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.swissinfo.ch)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.swissinfo.ch)
| bad_username wrote:
| Does DAB really offer better quality? From what I know, stations
| opt for puny 64kbps streams which sound nowhere near as good as
| FM can.
| zinekeller wrote:
| In theory, yes, it really can, but as you stated, in practice,
| no. This is basically the equivalent thing on digital TV
| between the US and Canada: most US broadcasters tried to pack
| as much channels as possible (that sometimes digital broadcasts
| are objectively worse than analog ones because of bitrate
| starvation) while Canada usually only have a 1:1 correspondence
| between virtual and physical channels (sometimes 2:1 but there
| isn't really much more than that).
|
| This is not Switzerland, but the BBC apparently uses 192 kbps
| only at Radio 3 (their classical music station), while other
| BBC stations are either 128 kbps or 64 kbps only.
| kuriho wrote:
| Switzerland uses mostly 64-96kbps as per this outdated(?)
| list https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_DAB-
| Sender_in_der_Sc...
| corint wrote:
| Switzerland uses mostly 64kbit DAB+, by the look of the
| latest observations on
| https://www.wohnort.org/dab/switzerland.html?PageSpeed=off
| coretx wrote:
| That's done on purpose so that they can roll out conditional
| access / DRM. In order to make people pay for that, they need
| to be invested in hardware first ( DAB radios ) and suffer from
| poor quality channels.... DAB is optimized to make money, not
| to serve the general public.
| gpvos wrote:
| Source?
| coretx wrote:
| https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/102300_102399/102367/0
| 1...
| xysg wrote:
| The reverse scenario happened here in Singapore. It was the first
| in Asia to introduce DAB in 1999. The national broadcaster
| MediaCorp then decided to cease DAB transmission in 2011, forcing
| those who've invested in new DAB equipment to throw them out the
| window (while many are dual-FM/DAB sets, some more affordable
| ones are exclusively DAB-only). Interesting that the decision was
| made to go backwards in technology, likely motivated by
| economics.
| hulitu wrote:
| > the decision was made to go backwards in technology
|
| What is so forward about DAB ?
|
| In theory it sounds excelent. In practice it sounds like crap
| due to using the lowest bitrate possible.
| coretx wrote:
| DAB is optimized for "rights holders". Not for radio
| stations, not for end users, not for the state. It's designed
| against everyone but the rights holder / copyrights industry
| interests.
| gpvos wrote:
| How so? It's not encrypted or anything similar.
| coretx wrote:
| https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/102300_102399/102367
| /01...
| jeffrallen wrote:
| DAB has worse behavior with marginal signal quality. When a FM
| signal may be slightly degraded with static, DAB just gives up
| entirely.
|
| I really hate that engineers, regulators, and businesspeople
| managed to work together to make something simple and reliable
| less reliable but more "modern".
| coretx wrote:
| It's worse on purpose. They did not even try to be "modern".
| Here you can read what it's about:
| https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/102300_102399/102367/01...
| gadders wrote:
| Agreed. DAB reception is very poor in comparison.
| sschueller wrote:
| Nobody wants this especially since there are still quite a lot of
| cars that have old radios.
|
| I thought there was an agreement that we would wait a little
| longer but for what ever reason the SRG thinks they know better.
| xnyan wrote:
| Something similar happened with TV broadcasts in the US ~15
| years ago. The solution was just to provide an adaptor for free
| for anyone who wanted one.
| pintxo wrote:
| Adapters are not much use on a car, are they?
| FreezingKeeper wrote:
| They are available https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product-
| group-tests/88304/best...
| whoopdedo wrote:
| They weren't free. They were subsidized and consequently what
| used to be a $20 converter jumped to $35 overnight because
| that was how much retailers knew they could milk out of the
| rebate.
| ur-whale wrote:
| Does it mean the 88Mhz -> 108Mhz frequency band will go to back
| the auction block ?
| digitalsankhara wrote:
| Maybe, when most regions follow suit. Hate the idea of FM
| broadcasting turning off. Still, would love some ham radio
| wideband spectrum. Then people driving to work can listen to
| the likes of me droning on about <insert favourite ham radio
| topic here>.
|
| Personally I think they should expand community radio wholesale
| if national broadcasters cannot be arsed.
| sitkack wrote:
| FM is so simple and robust. It should never be turned off.
| mikemitchelldev wrote:
| Digital audio is also relatively expensive for some people.
| There are people who in my community who ride around on their
| bikes listening to fm radio. A monthly data fee could be hard
| for some.
| dark-star wrote:
| I have never heard of DAB or DAB+ requiring monthly
| subscription fees? At least I don't pay any, and I have a
| DAB+ receiver in my car
| mozman wrote:
| I wouldn't mind if those people blasting FM radio used
| headphones. I don't believe it's because they can't afford
| them.
| gpvos wrote:
| AM is even simpler and even more robust. I think we never
| should have switched it off.
| HeatrayEnjoyer wrote:
| But AM isn't switched off.
| ale42 wrote:
| Depends where. In Switzerland it is.
| a_paddy wrote:
| LW is simpler still and incredibly robust. It's a pity it has
| been turned off.
| jcfrei wrote:
| Swiss here: Pretty certain this is part of a pressure campaign by
| the SRF ("Swiss Radio and Television"). They are facing budget
| cuts nationally through an initiative that will be voted on
| probably later this year (https://srg-initiative.ch/). By
| preemptively cutting services on their own (that they are not
| forced to under the text of the initiative) they probably hope to
| sway voter's opinion.
| chinathrow wrote:
| Cutting service costs on their own while burdening the cost to
| their listeners is so backwards. My car radio can't do DAB and
| it would cost me quite a bit of money to install a replacement
| radio if I want a proper setup (i.e. as before in terms of
| usability/integration).
| michaelt wrote:
| Some politicians in my country have worked out that when
| someone tries to force them to spend less, they can cut
| funding to something popular like libraries, immediately get
| a bunch of complaints and protests, then declare "Well we
| tried, it seems voters don't want us to spend less after all"
| Youden wrote:
| Technically, if you don't have a device capable of receiving
| their broadcasts, you can get an exemption from the fee.
| Unfortunately a single computer or TV is enough to incur the
| obligation.
| red_admiral wrote:
| Switzerland has a national siren network, tested annually, and
| regularly reminds its citizens "if the sirens sound, turn on the
| radio to DRS/SRF 1". They've added the swissalert mobile app more
| recently, but I guess everyone is going to have to buy new radio
| sets who doesn't have a DAB+ one already.
| CodeBeater wrote:
| I have a genuine question, what's to gain from this? I could
| half-understand it if they were going to re-allocate the 88-108
| MHz block, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
|
| I could also understand why such an action would be taken if that
| meant that they could pack more stations in the same spectrum,
| but considering that Switzerland is a relatively small country,
| so is there really a market? Even if considering multiple
| languages per niche.
|
| I guess a case could be made for power savings by virtue of
| (assuming local topography allows) lower power transmitters or by
| multiplexing various stations on the same transmitter.
|
| On a personal level, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about all
| forms of analog broadcasting being slowly phased out. The
| tinkerer in me likes the idea of being capable of constructing an
| information receiving device in an almost "survivalist" manner,
| but if this trend continues and analog FM really goes the way of
| the dodo, then I surmise that DAB (or whichever local flavor is
| chosen) will become easily and cheaply available, which makes my
| gut feeling a moot point anyway.
|
| I don't know, I just don't like the idea of needing a processor
| to receive broadcast audio, and I can't quite put my finger on
| why.
| dark-star wrote:
| It probably lets them scrap large amounts of FM transmitters,
| relays, broadcasting hardware and maintenance. I assume in a
| mountainous country such as Switzerland this adds up to quite a
| lot
| brnt wrote:
| Considering DAB has less range, the amount of antennas would
| need to go up.
| ale42 wrote:
| But DAB is already deployed, removing the FM part will
| probably allow them to spare money. I think the
| transmitters are managed by someone else than SRF (maybe
| Swisscom broadcast), as any service it can be pretty
| expensive. This said, I'm not happy about the removal of
| FM. Now I want to find out what's the cheapest way to
| broadcast the whole FM band at once using an SDR (inside my
| house).
| kasabali wrote:
| DAB works worse in that kind of terrain, so good luck with
| that.
| JohnKemeny wrote:
| Norway phased out FM in 2017, and went from 5 national channels
| to over 30.
|
| There's an article from back then here:
| https://radio.no/2017/01/norway-makes-radio-history/
| globalise83 wrote:
| Interesting. I live near Switzerland and the only time I listen
| to radio is using FM in my car. I hope this same idea doesn't
| make it to the country where I live.
| generic92034 wrote:
| I guess this will start to happen everywhere in the EU, now. In
| Germany it has also already started:
|
| https://www.heise.de/news/UKW-Radio-Schleswig-Holstein-schal...
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