Plans for a five-station HD Radio project to launch next month in Switzerland have been called off, reports radioworld.com. It reports that Markus Ruoss, owner of Sunshine Radio and head of the HD Radio project, speaking today at the SwissRadioDay, said that due to a lack of a partner in Zürich (the largest media market in the country) the project would not go ahead.
on Aug 31st, 2010 at 07:37
The many attempts to introduce terrestrial digital transmissions across the world are plagued by the lack of a common industry standard and, most importantly a lack of interest, from the listener. This is another unfortunate example.
on Aug 31st, 2010 at 18:26
I think this is more a case of DAB/DAB+ being at an advanced stage in Switzerland, so radio broadcasters there are not really interested in experimenting with a different digital radio standard.
DAB/DAB+ transmitters cover most of the country - no mean feat given the terrain - and two medium wave transmitters have been switched off. DAB/DAB+ sales are now up to 500,000 in the country.
on Aug 31st, 2010 at 19:29
Digital radio is a failure, worldwide. HD Radio is a farce!
on Sep 1st, 2010 at 13:42
DRM is great on SW in Schwitzerland, covers all mountains, valleys, everywere.
on Sep 1st, 2010 at 19:20
Why would anyone want to introduce a proprietary system in Europe, where DRM is available up to 120 MHz and the DAB+ multiplex system is available too?
These two systems are not exactly a raging success and introducing another one, with attached licensing costs, does not sound very practical to me.
on Sep 1st, 2010 at 20:01
DRM is 150 kHz - 30 MHz, wich 11-m band is the best to local radio.
DRM+ is 47-68 MHz and FM band ll = 87-5 - 108 MHz. DRM+ can be in service to band lll, too, better than dab+ in audio quality. L-band = dab/dab+/dmb.
Band IV/V = radio in the TV-net.
This is standard in EU to radio broadcasting.
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 16:00
That’s a shame HD radio is very big now on the US. The UK should test it on FM IMO
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 16:01
Plus AM of course…but it will never happen
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 18:00
HD radio on mw in the UK is a bit of a no-brainer. It’s great for daytime broadcasting but after sunset and during the hours of darkness it is extremely prone to problems because of skywave interference from higher power european and continental stations on the same mw frequencies(local bbc/ilr stations use very low transmitting power,and their coverage areas are much smaller at night than during daytime hours hence the greater chance of night-time interference). The “skywave interference by night on the same mw frequencies” problem is exactly why am broadcasters using HD radio via mediumwave frequencies in the good old us of a closedown their HD broadcasts at night. On FM this wouldnt be such a problem as it isnt prone to such foibles being considerably more stable than am bands. DRM MW coverage using several mw transmitters on the same frequency to cover a specific area ie at least 3 would improve the night-time coverage/reception greatly and reduce the chances of breakup and interference,and is infinately more practical than increasing power.
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 22:29
In the latest issue of Radio Wold US ed, say that HD is going negative now.