I knew one of their chaps had been experimenting with a small (100W ERP) DAB+ multiplex in Brighton (as much to ensure if didn’t cut across existing muxes) but wasn’t expecting them to move this fast!

I will be keeping close watch on this; as my employers have a number of buildings in a high up part of Mid Suffolk; to which I can legitimately add radio transmitter masts (we are investigating some fixed wireless links for data networking; and a decent mast can share more than one antenna). I’d be perfectly willing to provide signals for DAB VFR Europe; ICR FM and a local music station aimed at the middle years and seniors (age 60-100) with a similar format to a Dutch pirate with a 128K AAC-LC stream each (these should be better than Band II FM). I’d need to double check the techie stuff but although muxes operate with as low as 48k stream; if you send 128K ACC to them it uses LC rather than HC encoding which is tolerable for EDM (been experimenting with it myself recently).

The catch is that only newer receivers may pick up DAB+ content (rather than the rubbishy MP2 compression that gives DAB a bad name; but that means Bauer/Global etc are ignoreing DAB+ in Blifghty as they think their listener base won’t bother with new RX equipment.

Small-scale DAB is to get a boost as Ofcom prepares to licence a number of smaller multiplexes.

The regulator will launch a consultation next week inviting stations to be part of the test, which will give existing stations a chance to go on DAB for a nine month period.

Peter Davies, Director of Content Policy at Ofcom, speaking at the Tech Con event in Salford today, said: “There are around 150 small scale radio and 200 or more community radio stations and for them the existing multiplex structure just doesn’t work.

“We want to give those stations a chance to go digital, and we’d like to see community and commercial stations working together,” he said.

Peter started off his session by admitting that DAB has not been a good platform for small scale radio so far and this new consultation will take a look at the licence conditions and awards process.

Trials will be for nine months and ofcom will provide equipment but not operating and installation costs. Once a station has been awarded a trial, they will be expected to be on-air within 12 months.

More details will be released by Ofcom next week, when we’ll update this story.

RadioToday with RCS | Ofcom to invite small scale DAB testers