Recently Jack has written a series of articles which criticise DAB, and where digital radio is going in the UK (I also did a story on the problems people have with the sound quality - and we've been taken to task for some of those pieces by defenders of the way DAB has been handled, including Virgin's ever-honourable James Cridland). [Link updated]
But here's a development - the Guardian's media editor, Matt Wells, just pointed me in the direction of this press release from the BBC, which says the corporation is going to start very limited trials of Digital Radio Mondiale, a digital successor to non-FM radio.
BBC Radio and National Grid Wireless have announced a trial of a new transmission technology which will allow the two organisations to assess the practicality of digital radio services in the medium-wave bands.
The trial, which will last for a year, will be centred on Plymouth.
From the end of April, the BBC and National Grid Wireless will re-use a current medium-wave frequency in the Plymouth area to broadcast a trial digital service using the digital radio mondiale (DRM) standard. DRM is an emerging technology which has been designed to facilitate digital radio at frequencies below 30 MHz.
Admittedly, it's a tiny trial and it's a long way from becoming reality. But could it be the first sign of change?
Jack Schofield adds: The BBC has been doing test broadcasts for a while and launched a DRM service broadcasting the BBC World Service to Europe in 2005 (press release here). If you have been listening to DRM 1296 from Orfordness, it's in Wikipedia. I was mainly amused by the resistance to using AAC+ compression for DAB when the BBC and others are already using AAC for DRM.
