WorldDAB member focus - Audio Video Technologies

02.04.2020 - - AVT Audio Video Technologies GmbH WorldDAB Member - Germany

27/03/2020 by Rebecca Keene, Stakeholder Relations Manager, WorldDAB

Q&A with Wolfgang Peters, Sales Director, AVT Audio Video Technologies GmbH

What markets does your company support and what solutions do you provide?

In recent years, AVT has focused on three major product segments in the professional broadcasting sector. We offer various IP and E1 audio codecs for professional audio transmission between two or more locations. Our telephone hybrid systems represent a very important segment where we have gained an excellent reputation worldwide and our solutions cover all conceivable applications from small studios to large call-in shows.

Since the introduction of DAB+ 2011 in Germany, the DAB sector in our company has grown strongly. Already in the 90s we developed the first DAB encoders. We offer complete DAB+ headends - from DAB/DAB+ encoders and DAB Ensemble multiplexers to DAB surveillance and tunnel emergency announcement systems.

Can you tell us about your most recent projects?

In addition to many projects in Germany, which are almost exclusively realised with our systems by our project partners, we have also been able to deliver new DAB headends to the Czech Republic, Spain and Macedonia in recent months. We will deliver two more large DAB projects within Europe in the coming months. These are often completely redundant systems - which in turn emphasises the high importance of the DAB system for the customer.

What do your customers value most from your solutions?

Our comprehensive DAB product portfolio enables us to offer a solution perfectly tailored to the customer's needs.

Our DSP-based entry level system MAGIC DABMUX Go already allows the use of all relevant DAB features.

With the brand new MAGIC DABMUX plus we now offer a very powerful hardware-based platform which, in addition to a variety of interfaces such as the classic ETI interface, also enables all DAB features.

For both hardware multiplexers, we have placed particular emphasis on a user-friendly HTML5 web interface. For customers who prefer a software-based PC solution, the Fraunhofer ContentServer is the right choice.

Especially for the contribution of the audio programs to the multiplexer, many of our customers rely on our proven hardware encoders, which deliver best audio quality thanks to the integrated professional Fraunhofer DAB+ algorithm. The DAB+ encoders are usually installed directly at the program provider. This means that no further audio coding is required for feeding into the multiplexer, which benefits the quality - especially at low data rates.

MAGIC DABMUX plus Ensemble Multiplexer

MAGIC AE4 Quad DAB/DAB+ Encoder

What advice would you give someone considering deploying DAB?

DAB has developed enormously well in recent years. The availability of low-cost DAB receivers in the automotive sector and also for home receivers is now very high. As a result of the EU Parliament's decision, terrestrial digital radio will become mandatory in new cars at the end of December, giving listeners and programme providers further security for DAB.

When it comes to the technical implementation of DAB headends, the target group must be clearly taken into account. For small community or campus radios, a cost-effective DAB broadcasting system can be implemented thanks to the available open source solution.

For professional programme providers who want to earn money with DAB, however, a highly available, reliable and attractively priced solution is certainly the better alternative. After all, a broadcast-relevant system must run 24/7. Competent support and long-term maintainability - our systems are used for 15 years or more on average - are equally important requirements in our view.

As a leading manufacturer of DAB systems, AVT offers complete solutions for a DAB headend in a wide variety of variants. AVT have been developing DAB systems since 1993, at that time as Philips Kommunikations Industrie AG. Their first STI-based DAB Headend with dynamic reconfiguration was a joint development with Deutsche Telekom, Rohde & Schwarz and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.

DAB product information and support: www.avt-nbg.de/en/products

For more information contact: info@avt-nbg.de