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MuxCo’s Surrey Multiplex Launch

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The MuxCo team and the switch-on button.

The MuxCo team and the switch-on button.

This morning at Epsom Downs Racecourse we turned on our fifth DAB Digital Radio multiplex of the year, bringing local DAB to 800,000 people across the county.

Gallery:

Press Coverage:

Video:

An update on BBC1’s London lunchtime news:

An update from BBC1’s London Evening bulletin:

 

Here’s the release:

On Thursday 12 December at the iconic Epsom Downs Racecourse Sir Paul Beresford MP for Mole Valley will officially switch on three new DAB digital radio transmitters, giving nearly 800,000 listeners new local stations on DAB in the Surrey area. The switch-on means listeners will be ready to receive four local radio stations – BBC Surrey and 96.4 Eagle Radio, alongside new stations eagle3 and Redstone FM for the first time on DAB digital radio.

To receive the new services, listeners with digital radios may have to re-tune their sets. Find out more at getdigitalradio.com/retune.

The three new transmitters at Guildford, Reigate and Crystal Palace take local digital radio coverage for these stations from zero to almost 800,000 listeners in the area, and add over 660km of roads into DAB coverage for the first time.

Sir Paul Beresford MP said: “Surrey is way ahead on digital radio, with over half of us having a digital radio at home. I welcome these new DAB transmitters which mean that our excellent local radio stations can now be received on digital radio at home and in-car.”

Gregory Watson, Managing Director of MuxCo said: “Muxco Surrey is a joint venture with UKRD Group. We are extremely excited to be working with UKRD to launch this multiplex, which will deliver a mix of existing and new digital-only radio services, such as Redstone FM and Eagle 3, in digital quality to 800,000 listeners in Surrey. We are in discussion with a number of operators that will enable further new services to launch during 2014.”

William Rogers from UKRD and Ford Ennals from Digital Radio UK

William Rogers from UKRD and Ford Ennals from Digital Radio UK

William Rogers, Chief Executive of UKRD said: “It’s a further exciting step for our operation based in Guildford that they are launching digital only service eagle3 on the Surrey DAB multiplex and it represents a further step forward in broadening the offering we are providing for listeners and advertisers alike”.

Des Shepherd, Chief Executive of Redstone FM said: “It’s great that Redstone FM will be available to listeners on DAB for the first time, bringing local news and music to our listeners, with the digital benefits of easy tuning and scrolling information.”
Sara David, Editor of BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey said: “We are delighted that BBC Surrey will be available on DAB for the first time. It brings improved reception to many parts of the county and gives us the opportunity to offer our full range of programmes in digital quality. As well as our radio programmes, the latest news, sport weather and travel information will also scroll across listeners DAB radio sets.”

Jane Ostler, Director of Digital Radio UK, said: “This is great news for almost 800,000 people in Surrey as until now they have not been able to receive their favourite local stations on DAB. Boosting coverage for this area means listeners can tune into their favourite local stations as well as national BBC and commercial stations.”
In the last 18 months, local DAB coverage has been improved for over 8 million people in the UK, increasing local DAB population coverage from 66% to 72%. By the end of this year, local DAB will have been made available to an additional 6.5 million listeners across the UK.

In Surrey, 55% of homes have a DAB digital radio – ahead of the UK as a whole, and in Q3 2013, 35.6% of radio listening was digital. A cumulative total of 18 million digital radio sets has been sold to date in the UK, including DAB radios and internet radios. 41.6% of new cars now come fitted with digital radio as standard (CAP/SMMT Oct 2013).

 

Herefordshire & Worcestershire Launch

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A busy morning for the MuxCo and Digital Radio UK teams as we officially launched the Herefordshire & Worcestershire multiplex. We had two events one at the Sixways Stadium and a second in Hereford town centre.

Pics, links and press release below!

Links

Video

A piece from BBC Midlands Today:

Press Release

Harriett Baldwin MP for West Worcestershire, and Worcester Warrior rugby player Craig Gillies officially switched on 3 new DAB digital radio transmitters today, bringing local DAB digital radio to over 530,000 people in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Three stations – BBC Hereford & Worcester, Free Radio and Sunshine Radio, are now available in the area on DAB digital radio for the first time.

To receive the new services, you may need to re-tune your sets. Click here to find out how.

The big switch-on took place at the Sixways Stadium, the home ground of the Worcester Warriors Rugby Club. The three new transmitters at Ridge Hill, Malvern and Bromsgrove will take digital radio coverage for these stations from zero to over 530,000 listeners in the area, and add over 750 km of roads into DAB coverage for the first time.

The last 10 months’ build-out of DAB digital radio (including Herefordshire & Worcestershire and Gloucester) has brought local DAB coverage to over 5 million people for the first time, taking local DAB population coverage from 66% to 72%. By the end of this year we will have brought local DAB to around 6.5 million people.

This switch-on comes as the Government is expected to make a decision on radio switchover at the Go Digital conference at the BBC Radio Theatre in December. In Hereford and Worcester, 51.4% of homes have a DAB digital radio and in Q3 2013, 32.2% of radio listening was digital. A cumulative total of 18 million digital radio sets have been sold to date in the UK, including DAB radios and internet radios. 40.6% of new cars now come fitted with digital radio as standard (CAP/SMMT, October 2013).

Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire, commented: “This marks an important new era for local radio, offering listeners better quality both at home and in the car. Local radio plays an important role in our community and often it is the best way to keep in touch with breaking news in the region.”

Gregory Watson, Managing Director of MuxCo said: “We are committed to extending digital coverage through local transmitters across the UK and this switch-on, which gives more than 500,000 listeners access to our stations on DAB, is another important step for our industry.”

Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, said: “This is great news for half a million people in Herefordshire and Worcestershire as until now they have not been able to receive their favourite local stations on DAB. Boosting coverage for this area means listeners can tune into their favourite local stations as well as national BBC and commercial ones.

Jeremy Pollock, managing editor of BBC Hereford & Worcester, said: “We are delighted that BBC Hereford & Worcester is now available on DAB and our listeners can receive our programmes, news and sport in digital quality. It’s an important step for this area and an exciting day for local radio.”

Phil Riley, Chief Executive of Free Radio, said: “We’re excited to be able to bring Free Radio to digital radio in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Research has shown how much people value their local radio stations, so we hope this will make a big difference to the digital radio listening experience in the area.”

Ginny Murfin from Sunshine Radio said: “It’s great that Sunshine Radio will be available to listeners on DAB in Herefordshire and Worcestershire for the first time, bringing local news and music to our listeners with the digital benefits of easy tuning and scrolling information.”

Multiplex Update – 3rd December 2013

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Greg and Nicky after this week's catch-up with Arqiva.

Greg and Nicky after this week’s catch-up with Arqiva.

Here are a few updates:

Surrey

The last of the transmitter work will take place tonight (3rd/4th December).  Following this the telemetry will be commissioned and once we have updated Ofcom, the barker audio should be going out by  the weekend.  We are hopeful that live audio will be running from Monday.

Herefordshire & Worcestershire

Bromsgrove should be ready to join the network on the official launch – 6th December 2013.

Gloucestershire

Our additional transmitter at Cirencester is now live.  Icomb Hill should be ready to join the network by the 6th December 2013.

November Planning Meeting

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Planning Meeting

A blurry camera phone picture of Gregory from MuxCo (left) and David Peters from Arqiva (right) at today’s planning meeting.

We have these catch-ups every month to review current projects and to plan further multiplexes. In the picture, Gregory is looking at one of many potential options for the North West Wales multiplex.

This month the big topics were the progress on Gloucester’s next two transmitters, our Bromsgrove transmitter for Herefordshire & Worcestershire and installations for Surrey. Surrey is looking good at the moment and we’re in the process of rolling out contingencies in Gloucestershire and H&W as we continue to be let down by BT. All should hopefully be on this year, before Arqiva’s network freeze at Christmas.

Looking to future multiplexes we spent some time exploring the various options for North Wales and the cost-implications of decisions in Somerset.

Planned Work Updates

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We’ve tidied up the MuxCo website a little bit today and added a new feature – Planned Work updates Service Updates.

Across our networks we sometimes need to do technical work and maintenance. Additionally as we share masts with other people, sometimes they need to do some work that affects us. This work is usually flagged up to us in advance for us to confirm or ask to be changed (if say a station is doing something important at that time). This work can result in a transmitter power being turned down or even a transmitter being off-air for a while.

We share these notices with our service providers, but we felt it would make sense to do this for our listeners too.

We’ve therefore added a ‘Service Updates‘ section to the right hand side of the website and link to multiplex-specific Planned Work sections from each of the multiplex sections. On those pages you can also subscribe to email updates about the latest Planned Work or follow our relevant Twitter accounts where we’ll be tweeting links too.

If you have any feedback, please leave it below.

Adding Gaydio to Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool

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We’re adding Gaydio to the Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex for the Summer.

It’s on-air to coincide with Gaydio being media partners with Liverpool Pride, a festival which celebrates Liverpool’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) culture. This year’s festival is on August 3rd will see a mix of emerging artists, established artists as well as a super hero theme.

The station will be on-air from the 29th July for 6 weeks.

Adding Gaydio is hopefully one of many new services (full time and temporary) that we’ll add to this and out other multiplexes. We think one of the benefits of digital radio is the ability to be fleet of foot and reflect what’s happening locally. We’re always keen to hear from other operators who want to broadcast either short term or long term. You can find out more here.

New Multiplex Updates

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IMG_20130709_165736I’m posting this just after attending a Parliamentary Reception for digital radio. The BBC, commercial radio and Government spoke about digital radio’s successes which included:

  • 50% of listeners tuning to digital radio every week
  • 40% of all new cars have digital radio as standard
  • Growing local and national DAB coverage

On the last point, you might have seen that Nicky’s just posted status updates for the Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and Mid and West Wales multiplexes in the blog. We’re pleased with the progress that we’re making with these, even if we have to jump through some new hoops that BT have put in our way.

Geting multiplexes on-air involves many different people and organisations including Ofcom, service providers and transmitters contractors but also site owners and the people that own all the different fibre and copper between stations and transmitters.  And if you’ve had trouble changing broadband providers, you know what dealing with different telecoms companies is like. A multiplex launch is a bit like doing 20 of those simultaneously.

We are excited about taking our multiplex network from 1 to 4 by September – it’s a busy time, but we’re looking forward to bringing more digital radio to people across the country. We should have some Surrey news in the coming weeks and then later on further information about our other areas. The launch of four networks this year puts us ahead of what Ofcom asked us to launch as part of the MoU discussions and we continue to work on ways to develop sustainable businesses for all of our licence areas.

WCL Update

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Apologies for the radio silence, the status of the multiplex build has been changing quite frequently over the past few weeks and we haven’t wanted to put up lots of conflicting messages.

We’re very close to launch but have a very basic technical problem to overcome before we do that. Sadly it’s not very exicting, it’s very dull. What we need to do is install a microwave link between two sites to get the ETI feed (that’s all the radio stations) to the transmitters.

The sites that we’re broadcasting from have lots of other users on them and there’s special agreements needed to send our guys up them. The team we’re using for this are specialist riggers who, as they’re great, are very busy (oddly doing lots of 4G installations at the moment).

We’ve had a couple of bumps with getting everyone’s timings to work together – ours, our riggers, our transmission contractors, the site owners and the site’s users – which means we haven’t been confident to talk about launch dates.

I know this is incredibly frustrating for you and it is to us and our service providers as well. When we’ve got some firmer information – and dates – we’ll share them here.

Muxco WCL: Update 28th November 2012

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Here’s another update on the progress for our Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex.

We’re pleased to announce that we now have transmitters installed and powered at two of our three sites – Wrexham Rhos and Moel-y-Parc.  In addition, the steel work for the mast to support the antenna has been delivered to St John’s Beacon and is awaiting fitting. We’re pushing to get as much done as possible on masts before the seasonal “freeze” on planned work around the Christmas period.

This week also sees multiplexer bay and equipment delivered to our transmission HQ in London and we’re finalising the configuration details. This includes kbit/s, labels, links to FM (where needed) and several other variables to ensure stations present in the way they and their listeners would like.

We’ve also started hooking up service providers to the network, with three down and three more to go.