News

The assets and ongoing business of Factum Electronics AB (Sweden) and Broadcast UK Limited trading as Radioscape (UK) have been acquired from the administrator of VDL S.A. (France) by Digital Broadcast Technologies Limited (UK). Digital Broadcasting Technologies has been established to drive forward the growth and development of the business and is led by the company’s existing management team.

Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association is hosting an extensive conference on Digital Radio (and TV) broadcasting, next week on April 15, 16, and 17 in Johannesburg. At this conference, WorldDMB will give an international update on progress in Europe, Asia Pacific and Arab States on DAB/DAB+.

The latest figures for cars with DAB as standard is up from 50% to 61% in the last 12 months. Ed Vaizey, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy, says: “Over 61% of new cars with digital radio demonstrates the welcome commitment of the car industry to providing drivers with the full range of radio available today.”

On April 1st, childrens radion station PiGy radio will transmit on digital radio in Prague with a network expansion planned. PiGy radio is part of the Czech Radio Group.

Three groups who were all turned down for an FM licence have come together to apply for a small-scale DAB multiplex. Black Country Community Radio, Kanshi Radio and Community Radio Link have put in an application for a nine-month trial being offered by Ofcom to run later this year.

Frontier Silicon announces the launch of its new UNDOK connected audio system. UNDOK is a set of hardware modules, firmware, APIs and mobile apps which enable a flexible and powerful multi-room experience for connected audio products. UNDOK is the only system which provides multi-room functionality for broadcast radio. Prem Rajalingham, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Frontier Silicon, said: “UNDOK is one of the most exciting developments yet in connected audio. It heralds a major change in the audio market with consumer brands and content providers combining to create a unified audio ecosystem.”

Digital Radio UK said on Friday 450,000 new cars were registered in Q1 2015 with digital radio (DAB) as standard, an increase of 100,000 over Q1 2104 and 130,000 over Q4 2014.

The viewing public across Southern Africa has been promised new and compelling digital broadcast services for more than ten years. Too much time has been wasted talking about the technology, the transition to digital, release of digital divided spectrum, benefits to the consumer and the ITU deadlines. The time for action has come. The time for Digital Broadcasting is Now. Be in Johannesburg 15-17 April 2015 and drive the transition to digital broadcasting.

WorldDMB provides a global forum promoting the switch from analog to digital radio, and in Brussels will bring together broadcasters, car manufacturers and European Union executives to discuss digital radio in the car. There will also be an exhibition area with demonstrations and products from both the radio and automotive industries.

On 21 and 22 April 2015 the 3rd BEST & IRT workshop held in Munich will take place. The workshop is aimed at experts in the transport telematics industry and broadcast representatives from programme and technology backgrounds from the German-speaking countries.