Work on the rollout of a digital radio network across Australia is underway, with coverage reports on the first 11 commercial radio licence areas now complete, Commercial Radio Australia has announced.
The coverage reports, undertaken by consultants Gibson Quai-AAS, were carried out for the five major capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, as well as the key population centres of Canberra, Hobart, Darwin, Newcastle, Geelong and Wollongong. A study has also commenced for the Gold Coast licence area and will be completed by April.
The reports identify the planning and transmitter requirements for achieving at least 95 percent population coverage for digital radio in these areas and will assist in the development of detailed project costing.
“Since the Government announcement in October 2005 of a framework for digital radio policy, the commercial radio industry has moved to commence the massive and expensive business of planning for the rollout of digital radio across Australia,” said Joan Warner, chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia.
“Our focus over the next 12 to 18 months will be on four key areas – technical and resource planning for the digital network; investigating a more spectrum efficient audio coding for Australia; cooperating with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on spectrum planning; and working with the Federal Government on the development of legislation,” added Warner.
The industry is keen to “future proof” the technology platform and at the request of Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan has taken a lead role in investigating Advanced Audio Coding (AAC/AAC+), a new compression technology for use with Eureka 147 that will allow more efficient use of public spectrum. If adopted, the new standards would enable the industry to broadcast more and better quality services, such as multilayering and images, using less bandwidth. However, digital radio receivers currently in the market will not be compatible with the new standards.
In January, Commercial Radio Australia, Austereo and the ABC joined an international working party investigating the development of AAC+.
“As Australia is a relatively small market, we need international support for the new coding to ensure there is a large enough market to support the development of a wide range of attractively priced receivers,” said Warner. “Getting the technology platform right will impact on spectrum planning and will be crucial to our ability to deliver value added services to listeners.”
Warner said that the CRA remains “extremely optimistic” about the potential of digital radio and on track with the rollout of metropolitan digital radio networks in two to three years time.
“The growing popularity of mp3 players, radio podcasts and digital music downloads to personal computers and mobile phones shows that listeners are ready to embrace change in the way they experience entertainment. We’re at the start of this new era, and digital radio will position radio as a key player in the future media environment,” said Warner.
The industry will continue to work with the ABC, SBS and ACMA as development progresses and will continue its trial broadcasts in Sydney.