News

On Tuesday, the Swedish Audit Office presented its report on digital switchover. The report reviewed the technical and economic profitability of the digitisation of radio in Sweden and concluded that radio should remain on FM. The report ignores the significance of broadcasting radio believes Ole Jørgen Torvmark, CEO of Digital Radio Norway.

The Organisation of Local Broadcasters in the Netherlands (OLON) is studying the possibility of its own pilot DAB+ test. OLON wants to use Band III, as do the national and regional DAB+ networks. However, before any pilot test programs start, local broadcasters must decide whether or not the addition of these new networks is financially feasible.

There were 450,000 new cars registered in Q1 2015 with digital radio as standard, an increase of 100,000 on Q1 2014, according to CAP/SMMT. In the past year, nearly 1.5 million new cars registered in the UK have had digital radio fitted as standard.

After a revision in March, Danish radio channels will now all be DAB+. Danish Radio has worked for several years for the digitisation of radio and called the transition to DAB+ an important step towards the digitisation of radio in Denmark.

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.”