News

The prime ministers of the various German states approved the start of the distribution process for a second national DAB+ network.

Over one hundred participants took part in the capacity building session in Pattaya on 2 December 2016. They were mainly from government agencies, radio broadcasters, consumer organisations, media associations and other stakeholders from the Digital Radio broadcast technologies sector.

Doing the DAB at Texture Bar heard that in the last year forty new digital stations have launched in Manchester, including many new-to-air local start-up stations, taking the number of digital stations now available in the Manchester area to seventy six, more than double the number available last year.

The allocation of frequencies for the 2nd national DAB+ multiplex has been approved by the President of the German Laender. The tender process will launch next week, and be completed by April 2017. This means new private DAB+ services could be on air by mid 2017.

The Commission for Authorization and Supervision (ZAK) has published the invitation to tender for the second nationwide DAB+ multiplex. Applications must be submitted to the Saxon State Agency for Private Broadcasting and New Media (SLM) by 24 February 2017

Local DAB operator MuxCo is calling on Ofcom to advertise a second city-wide multiplex in Manchester, in addition to current Bauer mux and the small-scale DAB service already operating. Gregory Watson, Managing Director of MuxCo, says: “Manchester is a thriving media market and its current multiplex is full. It is inequitable that whilst London has three local multiplexes offering a fantastic array of stations, Manchester has just the one city-wide multiplex. We already have enough interested operators to comfortably make a second Manchester multiplex viable”.

Popular youth Asian radio station is being revived for a permanent slot on the new DAB+ platform. Previously, Asian FX has been available on standard DAB platforms in various parts of the UK. It is expected to keep a similar sound when it is added on DAB+ next week and will be the only Asian radio station available in stereo format in London.

A special event has been held to mark the completion of local DAB digital radio roll-out in Kent, a process that has doubled the number of listeners able to receive their local stations on DAB. Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe and Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee was on hand at the event at Sandgate Primary School in Folkestone to press Digital Radio UK's green button to officially turn on the last of nine new transmitters designed to boost reception and coverage of local digital radio in the county.

Manchester’s thriving digital radio scene was celebrated at a special event attended by the city’s leading figures from BBC, commercial and community radio, which took place in central Manchester on the evening on Thursday 8 December. The driving force behind the expansion in Manchester has been the success of the Manchester Ofcom small-scale DAB multiplex, operated by Niocast Digital.

IZT contributed test equipment and expertise for the 4th interoperability workshop of WorldDAB. The event took place on November 16th 2016 at the Institut fuer Rundfunktechnik in Munich. Chip manufacturers, automotive suppliers and car manufacturers attended the event among other industry stakeholders to test their implementations and devices.