This may be of interest to LPFMers.
I've heard that BCL (Kordia) have been trialling DAB (digital radio) in Auckland and Wellington on VHF Band III using spare TV channels between 4 and 11. This is what is proposed for NZ. The word is each TV channel will be divided into 4 separate licences and probably tendered separately.
Each of the 4 licences will provide around 10 radio stations each. The audio format will be AAC+, although I believe they are currently using MP3. The number of stations will depend on the bitrate used. Most common bitrates will be 64-80 for low quality and 96-128 for high quality.
Most areas should have at least 2 or more TV channels that can be used, so that's at least 80 radio stations! With any luck, it may not be too expensive to sub-licence one of the 10 available slots for your own station!
If Jochen is still subscribed to this list, perhaps he can add additional comments and/or results of the tests.
Chris Mackerell, who I believe is subscribed to this list, has provided some information here http://www.digitalradio.co.nz. As well as snapping up a domain name which could be valuable in a few years :-)
Ross.
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