News

The Government has today appointed Charlotte Ingvar-Nilsson, lawyer and former Director-General of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, to lead a one-year inquiry into the safe and accessible distribution of radio and television programmes in a new media landscape. The inquiry will have a particular focus on the needs of public service broadcasters. "In an uncertain world, the availability of information is more important than ever. That is why the Government is now commissioning Charlotte Ingvar-Nilsson to investigate the possibilities for media companies to maintain editorial control and distribute programmes safely and easily accessible in a new media landscape, even in times of turbulence," says Minister for Culture Parisa Liljestrand. The first part of the assignment is to map the distribution of radio and television, both in terrestrial networks and over the internet.

Our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2024 continues with Gary Luhrman, Sales & Marketing Manager of Inovonics, Inc., who says they will be showcasing their Off-air DAB+ SiteStreamer products. Inovonics has been a leading manufacturer of innovative radio broadcast products for over 50 years.

In the latest of our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2024, Wolfgang Peters, Managing Director, AVT Audio Video Technologies GmbH says they will be presenting a complete DAB headend, from Audio Encoder, Switch and Converter to Multiplexers, as well as a Tunnel Break-In Rebroadcast System. AVT is a leading manufacturer of professional audio products for radio and television broadcasters.

Antenne Niedersachsen GmbH & Co. KG has received an unlimited, state-wide licence from the Lower Saxony State Media Authority (NLM) to broadcast and distribute its special-interest radio programme ‘Antenne Schlager’. This decision by the Commission for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) marks an important milestone for the programme, which has already been broadcast via DAB+ in Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen since mid-July 2023. ‘The state-wide licence for Antenne Schlager is an important step towards further expanding our brand and strengthening our presence in the digital radio market,’ says Carsten Hoyer, Chairman of the Management Board of Antenne Niedersachsen GmbH & Co. KG. ‘We are already looking forward to making the programme available via additional DAB+ locations and being able to offer our listeners a diverse and high-quality pop music programme.’

ZUN radio, a digital radio station focused on electronic music, will broadcast in the eastern part of the country in the DAB+ multiplex of the operator Teleko digital. Its founder and director Ladislav Antoš confirmed this to the Digital Radio portal. ZUN can already be tuned in on channel 10D from Lysá hora, followed by the Strážník transmitter in Vysočina on Thursday 29 August in the late afternoon. "For us, the strengthening of the D1 motorway coverage is one of the most important events of this year and we are already looking forward to the next one, which will be the expansion of our broadcasting in South Moravia. It is from the east of the country that we have the greatest interest from advertisers so far and it is a great benefit for us that Teleko is the leader in the transition to auctioned final channels," Ladislav Antoš told Digital Radio. In Vysočina, the station will improve its coverage thanks to the Strážník transmitter, which will increase its power from 1 kW to 5 kW after the transition to channel 10D.

Four years after its web debut, Radio Morcote International grows further and lands on DAB+. It can be heard on the Swiss digital airwaves from 1 September on the Digris mux, channel 8A. ‘We have worked hard over the past four years to make Radio Morcote what it is today,’ said station manager Daniela Moroni, ‘a quality radio station born thanks to the commitment and professionalism shown by every single member of the team. In a few months, most of the radio stations in Ticino will switch off FM: what better opportunity to seize than this one?’ she added, enthusiastically announcing the station's new mode of operation.

This season, Nostalgie+, the DAB+ version of Nostalgie in Belgium, promises to leave even more room for its audience with a new programme called ‘Juke-box’ and a brand new immersive event in the world of the Beatles.

I recently presented at the WorldDAB Automotive Event on a subject that I don’t think any station manager or technical manager would ever have considered just five years ago. I started with a familiar opening: the evolution of radio from its first days in vehicles. How easy it was for broadcasters, who just needed to broadcast a single, mono, audio channel on an AM frequency. As technology has evolved, the capabilities of vehicles and broadcast radio have evolved: FM, stereo, RDS. Each step has moved the experience forward, kept up with listener expectations, and demanded more competency and coordination between broadcasters and manufacturers. The arrival of digital radio demands more capability and competency: text information, album art, logos. These are baseline expectations, as fundamental as transmitting (stereo) audio without distortion.

In the first of our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2024, Nilesh Mandalia, VP Sales at DekTec says they will be highlighting their DAB Test tools in Amsterdam. DekTec is well known for providing PC-add on cards and USB devices, complemented with variety of Test & Measurement orientated applications.

Digitalisation by commercial radio stations is finally taking off in the Czech Republic. The operator Teleko digital is preparing the implementation of its next transmitter with final parameters in the next few days. Strážník in Vysočina will switch to the new frequency during Thursday 29 August and with it the power will increase from the current 1 kW to 5 kW. The multiplex of the operator Teleko digital will have the same coverage as the digital broadcasting of Czech Radio in Vysočina. On Thursday 29 August, from 11 am to 5 pm, the Jihlava - Strážník transmitter will undergo a maintenance break to install a new combiner. After this, the TELEKO DAB radio network will be able to increase the radiated power from the current 1 kW to 5 kW. At the same time, the switchover to the new channel 10D will take place and the existing frequency block 8A will be switched off.