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The NICAM Codec replacement project

bbc.co.uk

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Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#11

Post by buro9 »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #10
king_magic wrote: post #8

This is one of the most interesting things I've read on HN in weeks. Awesome to see this kind of success story, and it's super fascinating to get insight into how radio works behind the scenes. I'll be honest, I had no idea all of this goes into radio. I thought there were just, err, towers?, that broadcast... radio waves, and that was kind of it? I mean, I knew on some level it had to be a tad bit more complex than…

Well, I'd assume that the reason for radio silence (ahem) on broadcasting tech would be various NDAs.

On consumer radio, silence does not exist. The emergency system kicks in and plays Oasis.

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#12

Post by Piskvorrr »

comboy wrote: post #5
darkr wrote: post #3

> In addition, the signalling information for switching Economy 7 electricity meters is carried on Radio 4 LW. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch Fascinating stuff.

Indeed to allow electricity suppliers to switch large numbers of electricity meters between different tariffs by broadcasting an embedded signal in broadcast radio signals I kind of heavily doubt these are signed broadcasts that cannot be replayed..

Something akin to this? http://gpsworld.com/wirelessinfrastructuregoing-against-time...

I believe that operating a rogue transmitter in a licensed band would get you located rather quickly - even though the tech itself may not necessarily be secure, there are other enforcement mechanisms.

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#13

Post by Piskvorrr »

buro9 wrote: post #11
Piskvorrr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'd assume that the reason for radio silence (ahem) on broadcasting tech would be various NDAs.

On consumer radio, silence does not exist. The emergency system kicks in and plays Oasis.

Sorry for the pun. What I meant was "I think people usually don't publish broadcasting technology details because it's covered by their NDAs."

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#14

Post by delinka »

king_magic wrote: post #8

This is one of the most interesting things I've read on HN in weeks. Awesome to see this kind of success story, and it's super fascinating to get insight into how radio works behind the scenes. I'll be honest, I had no idea all of this goes into radio. I thought there were just, err, towers?, that broadcast... radio waves, and that was kind of it? I mean, I knew on some level it had to be a tad bit more complex than…

Compared to U.S. radio in my area, this is indeed fairly complex. In my "market" we have mostly local stations and the complexity is minimal: rent office space for offices and DJ booths, send mix to a directional transmitter on the roof pointed at the tower site, tower decodes and blasts a 100K watt signal.

Of course, Clear Channel also has lots of robot stations in many markets in the country, which seems like it might approach similar complexity. However, of the few I've experienced, Clear Channel don't handle the complexity well and there's nowhere near the BBC's level of professionalism: they'll overlap commercials and songs for the entire duration, drop off the air (no signal) or broadcast dead air for 15min at a time ...

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#15

Post by rplnt »

Somewhat related, a few years ago I saw a video of a guy starting up a "live TV studio" from 70s/80s I think at his cottage/cabin. It was quite interesting, unfortunately not in English. I'll try to find it anyway and update this post.

edit: Here's the video I had in mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51F7zNWqlgM I guess it's boring without understanding the audio :)

There's more on his channel

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#16

Post by ajdlinux »

jacquesm wrote: post #4

Very nice work. What is the rationale behind doing a bespoke design rather than sharing the development cost with all the European broadcasters, is NICAM unique to the UK? What do other broadcasters use for similar services?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NICAM seems to indicate that while NICAM is used by a few broadcasters here and there, it was initially developed by the BBC, and it's no longer as widespread in Europe as it once was.

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#17

Post by acheron »

Really interesting article, but terrible clickbaity title. I wouldn't have read it if there weren't so many positive comments on HN already.

It could work if there were a subtitle. "35 million people didn’t notice a thing: BBC Radio's NICAM Codec replacement project". I dunno. But it is (or should be) very important that the title actually informs you as to what the article is about. "35M people didn't notice a thing" doesn't tell you anything at all.

Edit: Upon further consideration I may have been a little harsh. This is really a blog entry more than an "article" per se, and I suppose that's fine for a blog post title. The problem comes when we link to it from somewhere else, e.g. HN; we need the additional context.

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#18

Post by flurpitude »

linker3000 wrote: post #6

That's some decent BBC engineering from a team that works away quietly in the background and just makes things happen, or keep happening. I don't work in that field, but like many people in my profession (Systems and networking), I also tend to be invisible until something breaks, and then I am the fall guy if it's not fixed within a heartbeat. /I was half expecting the article to outline how a box full of 80s techno…

"I was half expecting the article to outline how a box full of 80s technology had been replaced with a Raspberry Pi!"

The Parallella computer, which looks a lot like a Raspberry Pi, has a Xilinx Zynq chip similar to the one in the BBC's new codec. So it's almost true.

Re: The NICAM Codec replacement project

#19

Post by TeMPOraL »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #10
king_magic wrote: post #8

This is one of the most interesting things I've read on HN in weeks. Awesome to see this kind of success story, and it's super fascinating to get insight into how radio works behind the scenes. I'll be honest, I had no idea all of this goes into radio. I thought there were just, err, towers?, that broadcast... radio waves, and that was kind of it? I mean, I knew on some level it had to be a tad bit more complex than…

Well, I'd assume that the reason for radio silence (ahem) on broadcasting tech would be various NDAs.

It has been claimed that a literal radio silence of BBC could cause a nuclear strike.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4 (C-f nuclear)

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