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Jacqueline Bierhorst has been elected as President of WorldDAB, the global industry forum for DAB+ digital radio. Bierhorst was previously the Vice President and has represented Digital Radio Netherlands on the organisation’s Steering Board since 2015. She takes over from Patrick Hannon, who is stepping down after ten years in the role. The handover took place at the annual WorldDAB Summit, held this year in Munich, Germany. Speaking at the Summit, Bierhorst paid tribute to Hannon’s work as President. “His leadership, enthusiasm, and vision helped shape the course of WorldDAB for the past ten years. We have witnessed an exponential growth of DAB+ across the globe and how DAB+ is now included as standard in every new car in Europe and beyond. It has set the bar high!”

DAB+ may be best known for its widespread adoption in Europe, but this digital radio standard is also taking hold in other parts of the world. The progress of DAB+ implementations in Ghana, Indonesia and Bahrain as covered at the WorldDAB Summit 2023 this week. The session “Global growth of DAB+ led by emerging territories” was part of the one-day in-person/online event, hosted at the Design Offices München Atlas in Munich, Germany. DAB+ in Ghana was described by Christiana L. Attrams, assistant manager of the National Communications Authority’s Engineering Division. The NCA is conducting DAB+ trial broadcasts in the cities of Accra (11 FM stations being simulcast) and Kamasi (seven FM stations being simulcast), using VHF Band III.

Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs at the Ministry of Information, Engineer Abdullah Ahmed Al Balushi, participated on 8 November as a keynote speaker in the WorldDAB Summit 2023 held in Munich, where he reviewed the experience of the Kingdom of Bahrain in launching digital radio broadcasting. Participation came via video recording and at the invitation of the international organisation WorldDAB, where the Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs conveyed the initiative of the Ministry of Information in the Kingdom of Bahrain in activating digital radio broadcasting DAB+ and future plans with manufacturers of mobile devices and receivers, noting the necessity of adding text in Arabic.

The Public Broadcasting Corporation of Radio Republik Indonesia (LPP RRI) is preparing terrestrial digital broadcasts in Indonesia. This is RRI's way of adapting to current technological developments. "We want to immediately adopt digital technology in radio broadcasting, following the steps taken by other countries. Including our neighbours, such as Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand," said LPP RRI President Director Hendrasmo at the World DAB Summit 2023 forum, which took place in Munich, Germany, on 8 November.

Albania participated in the WorldDAB 2023 Summit, held in Munich on November 7-8. Our country is considering the possibilities to, after coordination with neighbouring countries, give the opportunity to all interested radio operators to extend their programmes to DAB+ digital technology. "Very fruitful meetings with two important figures of the radio world, such as Jacqueline Bierhorst, who just took the mandate as President of WorldDAB, and Patrick Hannon, who has held the presidency of this forum for 10 years, world leader in audio technology", said the President of AMA, Armela Krasniqi.

WorldDAB is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion, development and implementation of DAB+ radio technology. On 8 November, the General Assembly elected Karel Zýka, Director of Technology and Administration of Czech Radio, as its Vice President for a two-year term. Zýka has been a member of the WorldDAB Steering Committee for eight years. "I appreciate the trust of this important world organisation and the representatives of the countries that elected me. I see this as a recognition of my long-standing work in the field of DAB+ and as a sign of respect for the results the Czech Radio team has achieved in the implementation of DAB+. I am glad to be able to put my experience to good use in this new, very responsible position," said Zýka.

Among today's speeches, one concerned the use, for the first time in Italy, of DAB+ for a social emergency. Ettore Vantaggiato, vice-president of the board of directors of the Media DAB consortium, and Fabio Placidi of ITEL (a company that supplies DAB equipment, in the opening photo on the right, alongside Ettore Vantaggiato), a consultant to the consortium, explained how the network operator intervened "in Florence, Tuscany, in June, on the occasion of the disappearance of a young girl."

The Ministry for Enterprise and Industry has launched the procedure for the submission of the application and the related expression of interest for the assignment of the right to use the frequencies in band VHF-III planned for national networks no. 1 and no. 3 for the DAB digital radio broadcasting service.

Javier Sánchez of RTVE has been elected a member of the Steering Board of WorldDAB, the international body that oversees the development of DAB, to promote DAB+ over the next two years, including Spain. How should we interpret this move by RTVE and your new responsibility? Sánchez laughs. "As a "it's about time". This is something that should have happened more than a decade ago. There are plenty of reasons. But suffice it to point out that RTVE was the only EBU Big Five that was not a member of WorldDAB."

The new specialised channel of the Croatian Radio (HRA) HR Klasik, launched at the beginning of this year on HRTi, is now also available on the DAB+ platform. Croatian radio thus joined the world's most famous radio stations that have implemented this service. "Croatian radio and television always strive to provide its users with the highest quality service possible, and the launch of Radio Klasik on DAB was a significant step forward. I am very proud of our teams, who have shown innovation in the technological direction and promotion of digital radio, as well as programming creativity, providing citizens with top musical pleasure 24 hours a day," said Robert Šveb, director general of HRT.