Future Digital Norfolk

– Future Digital Norfolk –

DAB Digital Radio for the Greater Norwich area.

 

FR_107_LogoBig_DigitalNorfolk[RedBackground] CITY-WIDE DAB FOR THE GREATER NORWICH AREA
DAB broadcasts serving the Norwich area on frequency block 9A (centred on a frequency of 202.928 MHz) and identified as “TrialNorwich” are provided by Future Digital Norfolk Limited.
BROADCAST ON DAB TO GREATER NORWICH WITH FDN:
If your organisation is interested in broadcasting to the Greater Norwich area of Norfolk, we are now operating a reserve list for commercial and / or not-for-profit DAB+ services to join our city-wide multiplex. (Please note that we no longer offer capacity for any further original standard DAB services). For more information and to discuss your individual requirements, please contact us, in the first instance using the contact form on this web-site, which is available here.   We look forward to working with you!
DAB DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE GREATER NORWICH AREA
Over recent months, changes made to the FDN Greater Norwich DAB multiplex have resulted in the availability of further capacity for additional services. Existing services including Totally Radio, Solar Radio and Radio Caroline have moved from standard DAB delivery to delivery via the updated and more efficient DAB+ standard. As a result of these changes, in 2017 we were able to add a number of additional DAB+ services operating at between 32 kbps (mono) or 40 / 48 kbps (stereo). These included ‘Chris Country’, ‘Classic Hits’, ‘Classical 1’, ‘Cyber Hot Hits’ and ‘Cyber Rock’. In 2018, we added yet further services, including ‘NME 1’ & ‘NME 2’, ‘Zack FM’ and, (after moving ‘Jazz FM’ to DAB+), ’45 Radio’. Early this year (2020) we completed technical work which will permit us to exceed our previous regulatory maximum limit of 20 stations per multiplex and we expect to be adding further services over the coming months.
SERVICES CURRENTLY ON AIR:
[01] Future Radio (from Monday 14th September 2015)
[02] Radio Norwich (from Monday 14th September 2015)
[03] TotallyRadio (added Thursday 17th September 2015) (DAB+ since Fri. 22/09/17)
[04] Solar Radio (added Tuesday 13th October 2015) (DAB+ since Sat. 18/06/16)
[05] Radio Caroline (added Sunday 15th November 2015) (DAB+ since Thu. 21/12/17)
[06] Angel Vintage DAB+ service (added Wednesday 15th June 2016)
(Service previously broadcast as ‘Angel Digital’, until Sunday 05th February 2017)
[07] Cambridge 105 DAB+ service (added Monday 02nd January 2017)
[08] Weather 24/7 Radio DAB+ service (added Sunday 02nd July 2017)
[09] Classical 1 DAB+ service (added Friday 04th August 2017)
[10] Chris Country DAB+ service (added Friday 04th August 2017)
[11] NME 1 DAB+ service (added Sunday 11th March 2018)
[12] NME 2 DAB+ service (added Sunday 11th March 2018)
[13] Zack FM DAB+ service (added Saturday 24th March 2018)
[14] 45 Radio DAB+ service (added Wednesday 14th June 2018)
[15] Resonance Extra DAB+ service (added Monday 09th July 2018)
[16] Atlantis DAB+ service (added Tuesday 09th October 2018)
(Service previously broadcast as ‘Cyber Gold’, until Sunday 18th August 2019)
[17] Skylab Radio DAB+ service (added Saturday 26th January 2019)
[18] United DJs DAB+ service (added Monday 04th March 2019)
[19] Auraltime DAB+ service (added Monday 19th August 2019)
[20] Cosoro Radio DAB+ service (added Saturday 01st February 2020)
FuturePopUp (Occasional services provided for special events etc.)
FutureData (Capacity reserved for ancillary / non-broadcast data service(s))
SERVICES PREVIOUSLY CARRIED:
   CDNX (added Wednesday 16th September 2015).(Closed 12:34, Monday 03rd April 2017 – Removed from all DAB multiplexes by that date)..
   Future Plus+ (added Wednesday 16th September 2015).
(Suspended 23:30, Tuesday 04th July 2017 – Replaced by About Norwich – under test).
   Classic Hits [DAB+ service] (added Friday 06th October 2017)
(Closed 19:24 Thursday 22nd March 2018 – Station Closed)
   Antenna Radio [DAB+ service] (added Saturday 26th August 2017)
(Closed 00:34 Saturday 24th March 2018 – Contract Ended)
   About Norwich [DAB+ service] (added Wednesday 05th July 2017. This service has previously replaced standard DAB service ‘Future Plus+’. Used for “loop-tape” engineering and technical equipment tests / test transmissions only.)
(Closed 00:25 Monday 09th July 2018 – Capacity Required for another service)
   The BEAT (from MKFM) [DAB+ service] (added Saturday 22nd July 2017)
(Closed 24:00 Monday 08th October 2018 – Capacity Required for another service)
   Jazz FM [DAB+ since Thu. 14/06/18)]
(added Wednesday 14th October 2015)
(Closed 24:00 Saturday 10th November 2018 – Jazz FM now available locally via SDL National DAB Multiplex following start of its transmissions for Norfolk).
   Cyber Radio [DAB+ service] (added Thursday 21st December 2017)
(Service previously broadcast as ‘Cyber Hot Hits’, until Saturday 01st December 2018)
(Closed 21:00 Saturday 26th January 2019 – Contract Ended).
   Cyber Rock [DAB+ service] (added Thursday 21st December 2017)
(Closed 24:00 Sunday 03rd March 2019)
   Panda Radio [DAB+ service] (added Monday 04th June 2018)
(Closed Sunday 03rd March 2019 – Station Closed)
   Crackers Radio [DAB+ service] (added Sunday 11th November 2018)
(Closed 23:00 Saturday 25th January 2020 – Service Operators suspending all DAB+ operations).
ABOUT DAB+ Radio Services
Some of our services (such as Angel Digital, Solar Radio and Cambridge 105) are broadcast using DAB+ technology. To listen to these services requires the use of a DAB+ capable receiver. If you are using a fairly old DAB radio (typically manufactured pre-2010 / 2011) you will need to buy a new DAB+ capable receiver to listen to these services. Look for the DAB+ logo or the green ‘Digital Radio Tick Mark’ on the radio’s packaging. More information
about the ‘tick mark’ can be found here and also here. Almost all DAB radio receivers currently on sale can receive DAB+ radio stations.
ABOUT FDN
Future Digital Norfolk Limited is a not-for-profit company which has been awarded an experimental DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) licence from Ofcom, to provide broadcast radio services for Norwich and the surrounding areas.On Friday the 12th of June 2015, Ofcom announced that Future Digital Norfolk Limited had been successful in its bid to operate experimental DAB services for Norwich and the surrounding areas.  The company has now completed the work on installing the initial technical infrastructure required to deliver DAB transmissions across the City of Norwich and the first of the new services launched on the Monday the 14th of September 2015.Over the weekend of Saturday the 15th and Sunday the 16th of August 2015, working with our transmission engineer (Martin Spencer of Brighton based, Audessence Limited), we installed a new DAB transmission antenna at our Norwich transmitter site.  We also installed the DAB transmission rack along with the required band-pass filtering to ensure that our signals cannot interfere with other broadcasters or other radio spectrum users.

On Wednesday the 02nd of September 2015, Ofcom engineers visited our site to complete the required commissioning tests.  With these tests passed, we began initial test transmissions later that day.  Test transmissions were completed on Sunday the 13th of September 2015 with the multiplex transmission licence taking effect at midnight / 00:01 on Monday the 14th of September.

We originally expected our trial broadcasts to operate for an initial period of nine months, into mid-June 2016. On Wednesday the 24th of February 2016, it was announced by Ofcom that our trial licence would be extended for a further two years, allowing us to continue our initial operations until mid June 2018. More recently, early in 2018 our trail licence was extended again, this time until early 2020. However, we had hoped to be able to apply for and secure a permanent licence at some point during mid to late 2019. However, we now expect licences to be offered at some point during 2020.

[First Published on Thursday the 30th April 2015. Updated on Friday 04th / Monday 14th September  & Sunday 11th / Tuesday 13th / Wednesday 14th / Sunday 25th October, plus Sunday 15th November & Saturday 05th / Thursday 10th / Friday 11th December 2015. Further updated on Wednesday 06th January & Tuesday 24th March 2016; Thursday the 05th of May / Friday 27th May & Wednesday 15th June 2016 / Saturday 18th June 2016. Further updated on Monday 02nd January 2017, Sunday 05th February, 07th April, Friday 07th & Saturday 22nd July 2017 plus Friday 04th August 2017, Saturday 26th of August 2017, Friday 06th October 2017, Thursday 21st December 2017 & Friday 16th February 2018 & Sunday 11th March 2018 & Sunday 24th March 2018 & Monday 04th June & Thursday 14th June & Tuesday 19th June 2018 & Monday 09th July 2018 & Monday 15th October 2018 & Friday 07th December 2018. Also updated: Saturday 26th January 2019 and Tuesday 04th February 2020].