The DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) produces a monthly news bulletin designed to keep all those in the DAB digital radio chain informed and updated on the latest developments in the industry.
New Product
TEAC will offer a DAB tuner for sale in the UK at the end of August. The T-H300DAB will be available as a stand alone unit at £219.95, or as part of its Reference Series 300. The tuner will also be available in Germany and France from September.
Pure Digital will also ship its latest tuner, the DRX-702ES, to Germany and other key European territories.
Morphy Richards has announced it will launch its first range of DAB products into the UK market this year. The product will use RadioScape and Texas Instruments technology.
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Promotions and Marketing
Analogue and DAB radio group Emap is giving away an Evoke-1 DAB radio every week for a year in a £50,000 promotion on its Magic stations across the UK.
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Digital listening figures
Digital radio stations reporting for the first time in RAJAR results released this month, returned strong listening figures across all digital platforms.
The DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) is encouraged by figures which indicate a significant number of listeners are tuning in to radio stations across digital platforms.
Three radio stations which appear on DAB Digital Radio multiplexes around the UK have reported for the first time, and are delivering strong listening figures.
• Kiss FM reports 961,000 digital listeners. An Emap owned London analogue station, Kiss FM also broadcasts on 20 local DAB multiplexes around the UK, as well as on Freeview, Telewest and NTL.
• Smash Hits reports 759,000 digital listeners. An Emap owned digital only stations, Smash Hits broadcasts on 12 local DAB multiplexes around the UK, as well as on Freeview and NTL.
• Oneword reports 50,000 digital listeners. Owned by UBC Media Group plc, GMG plc and Certitech Holdings Limited, Oneword broadcasts nationally on the Digital One multiplex as well as on Freeview and Sky.
The figures show there is a demand for innovative, fresh radio programming across all age groups. The first numbers from RAJAR demonstrate clearly that people are prepared to change their listening habits when they are offered something new.
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Technology
An Israeli company called Sonarics has developed software called ClearSignal which it plans to use with standard digital signal chips from mainstream suppliers to implement DAB Band III and FM. The software has been tested in Israel using test signals from broadcaster Bezeq. Sonarics hopes to make low cost modules available by the end of the year.
Frontier Silicon has demonstrated MPEG4 video playback running on its Chorus DAB multimedia chip at MediaCast in London. Frontier’s chief executive, Anthony Sethill says "The ability of video broadcast over DAB opens up exciting new possibilities for broadcasters, content producers and product manufactuters. As well as video playback, Chorus is capable of DAB, MP3 and surround sound processing.
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Manufacturers
Taiwan based DAB receiver manufacturer, ELANSat Technologies, introduced a series of portable DAB receivers at MediaCast in London this month. ELANSat had three DAB solutions on show, including an FM/DAB kitchen radio, and one described as a "tiny cube DAB receiver". Both these products are dual band (L-Band and Band III) and will be available to most European countries in June. Later this summer, ELANSat will introduce a pocket DAB/FM receiver operating on two AA batteries for up to 10 hours.
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Sony Radio Awards
At this year’s Sony Radio Awards held in London, Saga Radio won the Digital Station of the Year award.
The award for Best Station Sound went to BBC7, a national digital only radio station.
In his opening speech, Miles Flint, managing director of Sony UK Ltd said "We are absolutley convinced that 2003 will be the year of digital radio."
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April 9, 2003
The Digital Radio Development Bureau is funded and supported by BBC, Digital One, Emap Digital Radio, CE Digital, MXR, Capital Digital and Now-Digital. The DRDB's task is to ensure digital radio's wide accessibility and swift adoption in the UK with consistent and effective marketing.
Visit the DRDB's consumer web site www.digitalradionow.com, or our Business to Business site, www.drdb.org.
If you have any news you would like included in the next DRDB news bulletin, please email mandy@drdb.org
If you do not wish to receive future copies of this news bulletin please email mandy@drdb.org
Mandy Green
Press and Publicity Manager
DRDB
The Radiocentre
77 Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1D 5DU
020 7306 2636
07973 184995