Do any features of Car "Radio Data System" work in NZ?

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#847928 1-Jul-2013 21:48

Would I be right in assuming that the main advantage of RDS TA is that it is the first to warn of road accidents, traffic holdups and the like?

While you have to wait for a scheduled traffic update or, at the very least till the end of a song, to hear of traffic issues on normal radio, with RDS you hear of issues almost immediately interrupting a song, so you can avoid getting onto the blocked Motorway because the information reached you sooner than it otherwise would.

Perhaps I am expecting more of RDS than it delivers, however if it warns motorists sooner it is worth it. Perhaps police and other emergency services can use it too or is it up to each station to decide when and what it puts on air?

kiwirock

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#847943 1-Jul-2013 22:10

For receivers set to jump to a frequency with the TA flag on it's RDS set, it's suppose to take you to the station with a traffic announcement. If it is on the last station or current station you're listening to, it is meant to stop the CD/TAPE etc... and jump back to FM.

However that station obviously needs to be broadcasting the message to hear it in their regular programme. RDS is just a tiny FM sub-carrier that carries a tiny data channel. It doesn't carry extra programme audio as such.

kiwirock

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#847950 1-Jul-2013 22:17

geek4me: Would I be right in assuming that the main advantage of RDS TA is that it is the first to warn of road accidents, traffic holdups and the like?

While you have to wait for a scheduled traffic update or, at the very least till the end of a song, to hear of traffic issues on normal radio, with RDS you hear of issues almost immediately interrupting a song, so you can avoid getting onto the blocked Motorway because the information reached you sooner than it otherwise would.

Perhaps I am expecting more of RDS than it delivers, however if it warns motorists sooner it is worth it. Perhaps police and other emergency services can use it too or is it up to each station to decide when and what it puts on air?

It is up to the station in New Zealand.

In the states, they have the EAS system, which is required by law that the station stop all programming and broadcast a remote emergency feed sent by the officials. This is entirely automated.

Over here though, quite often you'll hear most of the music stations just carry on being automated in the middle of the night. Any emergencies are best listened to on National Radio or any live talkback station.

We should have a mandatory EAS system here, but we're not that well developed a country in that area yet.

ZollyMonsta

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#847959 1-Jul-2013 22:31

kiwirock: Down here (Invercargill) Radioworks only replaced dieing Wizard for Windows machines some running Windows for Workgroups a year or two back tops. I was there to help take away some old gear while Craig was doing a refresh on the place. RDS is way to fancy for some markets is all I can say.

In some places it's just not worth the time to get it setup, assuming the automation system has been setup for it from the years ago when the majority of it was dubbed in, and the STL (studio to transmitter) link systems can pass it (it's still common on some sites to use two mono STL's to carry stereo baseband rather than single composite with RDS so RDS can't get across it up to a processor on top of a hill). It's still possible to insert it with a static station name and encoder in to the audio processor.

For gareth41, almost all audio pre-emphasis and filtering is done on the FM audio processor now. RDS is inserted in to these at the locations that have it. Since most networked brands have programme provided from a local breakfast show, the rest remote, RDS is cumbersome to implement everywhere.

The refresh down here saw the audio processing all done at the studio now but I don't think they bothered with RDS while they were hear. If they did, it'll only be a static station name entry. The station's sound and income is more important than RDS toys. It also robs that little bit extra of spectrum/deviation away from being the loudest on the dial :o)

I remember helping set up Wizard For Windows at Foveaux FM back in 1996(ish).. :). Rockin' it on Windows 3.1!

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

kiwirock

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#847967 1-Jul-2013 22:47

ZollyMonsta: I remember helping set up Wizard For Windows at Foveaux FM back in 1996(ish).. :). Rockin' it on Windows 3.1!

You get around Mr T.

We'll you did a good job, they lasted in to the new millennium. Nothing around my place PC related has lasted that long.

Can you recall how many MB those massive hard drives must have been. How many more digits the price tag for them would have been back then.

alasta

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#847968 1-Jul-2013 22:47

Peppery: RDS is fairly mature now and is in quite a few cars & home receivers. My car's factory radio from 2006 supports it (admittedly, it's Euro, I'd imagine Japanese are a bit different?).

I have a Korean car and both the audio fascia and the brochure I was given prior to buying the car have RDS logos on them. However apparently the firmware on units sold in NZ does not support RDS.

I'm guessing there is some regional difference that isn't considered to be worth catering to.

Peppery

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#847969 1-Jul-2013 22:49

Seems odd that they'd disable a feature even if NZ stations didn't support it!

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#848020 2-Jul-2013 06:26

ZM trialled TA announcements in Auckland a number of years ago. The ressponse was people (and the NZ Herald from memory) writing trashy articles on them "stealing listeners" because car radios were automatically switching to ZM. As a result everybody is too scared to use the technology.

It pretty much sucks to be an Aucklander with the NZ Herald as your newspaper. First they stopped you getting TelstraClear cable, then then stopped your RDS TA service.

ubernoob

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#848044 2-Jul-2013 08:25

geek4me: Would I be right in assuming that the main advantage of RDS TA is that it is the first to warn of road accidents, traffic holdups and the like?

While you have to wait for a scheduled traffic update or, at the very least till the end of a song, to hear of traffic issues on normal radio, with RDS you hear of issues almost immediately interrupting a song, so you can avoid getting onto the blocked Motorway because the information reached you sooner than it otherwise would.

Perhaps I am expecting more of RDS than it delivers, however if it warns motorists sooner it is worth it. Perhaps police and other emergency services can use it too or is it up to each station to decide when and what it puts on air?

I have a TomTom Go Live 2050 https://www.tomtom.com/en_nz/products/car-navigation/go-live-series/go-live-2050/index.jsp It frequently diverts me off the motorway on my regular to and from work trip (Auckland) due to accidents or jams of other causes. It even lets me know how long the hold up will be and if it's only a few minutes I can sit it out if I want to

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#848056 2-Jul-2013 08:51

Here is the link to the NZ Herald story

Pretty much a case of a tool who didn't know how to use his car radio writing a blog post that was then picked up by a newspaper that ran with the FUD rather than correcting the misinformation.

geek4me

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#848109 2-Jul-2013 09:44

sbiddle: ZM trialled TA announcements in Auckland a number of years ago. The ressponse was people (and the NZ Herald from memory) writing trashy articles on them "stealing listeners" because car radios were automatically switching to ZM. As a result everybody is too scared to use the technology.

It pretty much sucks to be an Aucklander with the NZ Herald as your newspaper. First they stopped you getting TelstraClear cable, then then stopped your RDS TA service.

If in 2013 all stations supported RDS TA then "stealing listeners" would not be a problem as your current station could give the TA without the need to switch to ZM. Nearly 10 years have passed since The Herald's article so all radio stations should be on board by now given the cost is not high. If they're not perhaps they should be switched away from. Users can always switch TA off.

sbiddle

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#848313 2-Jul-2013 16:13

geek4me:
sbiddle: ZM trialled TA announcements in Auckland a number of years ago. The ressponse was people (and the NZ Herald from memory) writing trashy articles on them "stealing listeners" because car radios were automatically switching to ZM. As a result everybody is too scared to use the technology.

It pretty much sucks to be an Aucklander with the NZ Herald as your newspaper. First they stopped you getting TelstraClear cable, then then stopped your RDS TA service.

If in 2013 all stations supported RDS TA then "stealing listeners" would not be a problem as your current station could give the TA without the need to switch to ZM. Nearly 10 years have passed since The Herald's article so all radio stations should be on board by now given the cost is not high. If they're not perhaps they should be switched away from. Users can always switch TA off.

Pushing the TA button will still "steal" a listener if enabled, your radio will jump to any station that transmits the required TA signal and will jump back once the TA signal to end traffic is transmitted.

I'd still love even a single radio to use TA, it's annoying when you can't get a traffic report! I do know however after speaking to something at TRN about 6 months ago that they have no plans to launch TA on any stations and the issues that happened last time are still fresh in their mind.

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#848474 3-Jul-2013 02:36

whats this jiggery pokery we'll have none of that here in the hawkes bay...... No really there is nothing in hawkes bay

knoydart

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#848478 3-Jul-2013 04:35

In a related note, I hear that Civil Defence have been trailing Tsunami alerts using the RDS system and looking at utilising some of the signalling features of RDS for coastal communities

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#864178 23-Jul-2013 11:39

Yesterday on my way home I listened to Classic Hits 90.1 FM Wellington.

It seems they are also now using Radio Text. All track info is displayed.

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