Distribution technologies and Reception Platforms

Distribution technologies is the way broadcasters get their radio content to the audience. The radio content is the type of things they play for example; the music, talk shows, news etc... There is a variety of ways to re listen to recorded shows, the audience can listen to these on pod casts, iplayer, Internet, on mobile phones and many other places.

 Pod casts are a type of a digital media which can have audio radios, videos, PDF or epub files. They are often listened to on portable media players, especially apple devices. Majority of radio stations would have pod casts online, for example; Absolute Radio has a variety of different pod casts on this website.

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/podcasts/

Some advantages of pod casting are:

• They can be downloaded and accessed easily.
• Prod cast gives the media different ways to communicate.
• The radio is there for entertainment and to listen to, but podcasts give the listeners a better opportunity to get involved.

Some disadvantages of pod casting are:

• Time consuming- It has been estimated that it takes 45 minutes to produce a 8 minute show.
• Some people may not want to download a file from the Internet in order to listen to a pod cast.

 The iplayer is BBC's on demand radio technology. You can re listen to certain peoples shows for free, you can download the BBC Iplayer to certain mobile phones and ipods. You can also listen to live shows on the iplayer, but the recent shows are only on the Internet for 7days. Most radio programmes can be accessed globally, it is mainly sports broadcasts that are affected by the rights issues. Also ipods and iphones can not access the radio's on iplayer but computers can. On listen again you can listen to any radio shows which have been played recently and you have missed, you can listen to these shows at any time.

Independant production companies doesn't work for just one radio station they work for them all. They share their ideas with radio stations, these ideas will be sent via email or internet and they can be jingles, radio shows and more. They have their recording equipment at there home or office and they record and edit there own shows.

Reception platforms refers to how us the audience listen to radio stations.We can listen to the radio on normal radio stations, televisions, computers, tablets and mobile phones.  Traditionally we listen and receive radio stations through a receiver. Terrestrial reception is when the radio station broadcast there shows from there studio and we receive it on stereos, televisions, cars etc... Satellite disks pick up radio stations so you can listen to it on TV and other places from space. Streaming is when you listen to radio shows live on the internet.

Digital technologies

DAB
The government wants digital switchover to take place in 2015, but a variety of people are not pleased with this plan. This is because of the costs of replacing the FM radios, people may not want to buy new radios. Also older cars won't be able to get this.

 DAB is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, which is used in several countries. DAB Digital radio is a better way to listen to the radio, it brings new benefits. These benefits are an explosion in listening choice, Clearly digital sound quality, the end of confusing frequencies, brand new feactures and control of your listening. On DAB digital radio you can listen to national commerical stations, BBC national stations and a variety of local stations. There is a mixture of entertaiment and genre of music on these radio stations such as; classical music, rock, spoken word entertainment, latest chart hits, and a range of other stations which may suit your mood. DAB have less interfernece and a massive sound quality upgrade for AM stations. There will be more information about what you are listening to, the information includes the title and artist of the song, the news headlines, or the latest sports results. Some digital radios include the ability for you to pause and rewind live radios, others let you set a timer to record a specific programme at a specific time. They cover most major towns and hundreds of miles of motorways and major roads. Both Digital one and the BBC currently reach more than 8/10 people in Britain with their national transmitter networks, they're currently working on covering  more. They are only available  with the right equipment, so if you wanted DAB radio you would need to buy a radio that's able to decode digital radio signals.
There are also some disadantages of using DAB radio such as the reception quality on DAB can be poor, even for people who live within the area, this is because the old version of DAB uses weak error correction coding. Sometimes there can be a complete loss of signal. Also in the past broadcasters have been criticized for squeezing in more stations per ensemble than recommended.

DRM
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands which are currently being used for AM broadcasting. DRM can fit more channels than AM.
The benefits of DRM are:

•  higher quality,
•  wider range,
•  audio content
•  cost efficient.

You don't need an internet connection to listen or a Wi-Fi spot to tune in. It is portable and mobile, you can take a DRM radio any where and listen to what you want, when you want, where you want. It's ideally suied to long range broadcastin, you can stay tuned to the same station as you cross regional and national boundaries and move from one country to the next. For example; If you have a job which you have to drive across Europe, you would be able to stay tuned to your favourite radio station from back home.

Some advantages of DRM are;

• Digital dropouts.
• Poor dead air conditions.
• Not many consumer devices available.

Introduction

I am going to create a blog which covers what DAB and DRM radio is, the future of FM and DAB, what's the issues with this and the ownership. I am also going to explain the effects of the new methods of distribution on listening patterns through availability, what pod casts are, where you can re listen to shows and the content distribution from in dependant producers to radio stations via broadband. I'm also going to talk about methods of programme distributions.