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	DRDB Newsletter #24 - February/March 29, 2005 Details of all these stories are available on the DRDB website at www.drdb.org or the consumer site at www.digitalradionow.com New Product News At the Bristol Hi Fi Show in February, Imagination Technologies demonstrated the first handheld DAB radio with pause, rewind, record and MP3 support. Pure Digital ships 500,000th DAB radio PURE Digital has shipped its 500,000th digital radio, marking the event with a hand delivered Sonus 1XT to the John Lewis store on London’s Oxford Street. The store is the biggest seller of DAB radios in the world. DAB Digital Radio teams up with DSG and Vauxhall The DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) has launched its first on-air promotional campaign for 2005. The DRDB has linked commercial radio broadcasters with two of the UK’s leading retailers - Vauxhall and Dixons Group - in an eight week promotion designed to increase sales of DAB digital radios during the traditionally slow sales months of February, March and early April. Listeners are encouraged to buy any DAB digital radio from a local Dixons or Currys store, complete an entry form and enter a competition to win a Vauxhall New Astra Breeze Digital car worth more than £14,000. The car will have a DAB digital radio installed. International News France set for digital radio Dominique Baudis, President of the French regulatory authority, CSA, told delegates at a conference in Paris: “Digital radio is an inevitable and desirable evolution of radio. There is no reason to remain in analogue and no reason not to benefit from digital technologies and their advantages to the listener.” Earlier, during a summit on January 27, Minister of Industry, Patrick Devedjian, signalled government support when he said that digital radio was his first priority. The legislative framework for digital radio in France is now in place. M. Baudis told the conference: “The CSA will soon launch a consultation for digital radio and this will be the starting point to find a way forward.” The consultation will determine how the radio industry wishes to move into the digital age, and will be followed by a call to tender before the end of 2005. Norway 70% of Norwegians now have access to DAB stations. By August 2006, coverage will grow to 80% There are now some DAB only channels in Norway More DAB only channels are planned when coverage and receiver penetration improves Some of the present channels (now transmitting both on FM and DAB) will in a few years only be availabe on DAB 5,000 DAB receivers have been sold in Norway NRK (the Norwegian public service broadcaster) aims at having all FM transmitters closed by 2014 New children’s channel A new children’s digital radio station launches in April on DAB digital multiplexes serving London, Essex, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Bristol, Avon and Dorset. Childrens Radio UK has been formed as a joint venture between Hit Entertainment plc, GWR Group plc and Susan Stranks, founder of children’s channel abracDABra The service will be a safe-haven for children that will provide entertainment, education and fun. It will be contemporary in sound and cater for the needs and interests of parents with children aged under 10, encouraging children to learn through the radio, in particular through music and song, as well as through reading and playtime. EPG Demonstrations Imagination Technologies demonstrated Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) support for DAB digital radios at 3GSM 2005. EPG receiver and front-end software from Ensigma, a division of Imagination Technologies, was on display, and the EPG was demonstrated on the advanced Bug DAB digital radio from PURE Digital. Awareness Consumer awareness of DAB digital radio in the UK stands at 59% of the adult population, or 29 million people. Research conducted by Ipsos RSL Omnibus on behalf of the DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) in January showed a year-on-year increase in awareness of 16 percentage points, up from 43% in January 2004. Says DRDB Chief Executive, Ian Dickens, "Following record sales of DAB digital radios in 2004, it’s not surprising that awareness has also gone up. Our goal is to sell 1.2 million radios in 2005, and an awareness level of nearly 60% is an encouraging starting point for the year." News from Frontier Silicon Frontier Silicon has demonstrated a low power and small footprint RF chip (Apollo) and low power consumption T-DMB baseband chip (Kino) which it says will allow handset manufacturers to rapidly enable mobile operators and broadcasters to offer digital broadcast services to consumers. Apollo is based on the new technology platform announced at ISSCC, the semiconductor industry’s foremost annual conference where engineers reveal details of cutting edge circuit technology. The Kino digital baseband chip is the lowest power and smallest footprint dedicated T-DMB processor currently available, and requires no external memory. Frontier Silicon closes $28 million investment Frontier Silicon has closed a $28 million investment round. The lead new investor is ACT Venture Capital and the round was supported by existing investors including funds advised by Apax Partners, Alta Berkeley and BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), and new investor Quilvest. Frontier Silicon has successfully pioneered and helped to grow the DAB digital radio market since its inception in 2002 and recorded impressive growth. This latest funding round will enable the company to establish a leading position in the mobile digital television market, and further develop its DAB digital radio products. BBC extends coverage in Northern Ireland BBC digital radio coverage in the north and north-west of Northern Ireland is to be doubled. Three new transmitters will be sited at Brougher in west Tyrone, Limavady and Sheriff’s Mountain in Londonderry. The first two transmitters are scheduled to go on line this spring, with the third following in the summer. By the end of the year Northern Ireland will be the first UK region to have almost 100% digital radio coverage. DAB digital radio listeners will be able to tune in to the BBC’s portfolio of new digital stations. News from RadioScape RadioScape demonstrated real-time Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) at the 3GSM Congress, using its new DMB Research and Test System. This unit integrates RadioScape’s previous Research and Test System, which consisted of several PCs, into a complete DMB multiplex in a single compact unit. The System provides a cost effective means of generating DMB feeds from both pre-recorded and real time sources for the development and evaluation of DMB technology. RadioScape’s unique, Software Defined Digital Radio architecture enables it to work with a variety of third party DMB encoders over both UDP/IP and ASI. The System can also be upgraded to include DAB audio and data transmission capability where mixed DAB/DMB network compatibility is required. The company has already sold well over 20 Systems into the Asia Pacific region, which is spearheading the development and deployment of DMB. Dixons reports DAB sales of two to one. Leading UK retailer, Dixons, reports that DAB digital radio sales closed the gap on analogue sales, accounting for one in 10 portable audio products sold by Dixons in 2004, until it finally overtook during January 2005. It is currently outselling analogue [in certain form factors] by two to one, making the format one of the fastest ever technologies to reach mass-market status. Year-on-year sales have doubled and Dixons expects demand for the format to continue throughout 2005, predicting growth of more than 50% in the market. “This is one of the greatest technology comebacks of all time,” said Nick Wood, managing director of Dixons. “A century after Marconi’s invention, the loud and clear message is that radio is still a massively popular format. It’s thanks to the new generation of digital radios, currently one of our best selling products.” News from Sonarics Sonarics Labs, provider of a single, general-purpose low cost DSP, has a new ClearSignal version, offering the industry’s first DAB integrated software capable of displaying a photo album and DAB MOT slide shows on a colour TFT (Active-Matrix) LCD. This new functionality benefits both radio listeners (and now viewers), as well as broadcasters. Consumers can use it to display jpg photographs they have already recorded to a memory card, while broadcasters can enrich the audio content of programmes, advertisements and sponsorship messages with visual images. New Products Take a look at the new products launched in the UK since mid-December: Sony XDR M1 A handheld walkman style DAB/FM radio from Sony. Priced around £149. Two from Hitachi The Hitachi AXM32DAB is a DAB/FM/CD micro system priced around £129. The Hitachi TRK100 is a DAB/FM/AM portable radio priced around £79.99 (pictured below). Two from Arcam Two new DAB hi-fi tuners from high end manufacturer Arcam, the DT91 (pictured) is priced around £449 and the Arcam Solo, a lifestyle system including CD player, 50 watt channel amp, DAB and FM tuner, is priced around £999. PURE Sonus 1XT The PURE Sonus 1XT is the first DAB digital radio that speaks to you. In a real, human voice it can tell you station names, the time and alarm settings, or talk you through its menu. Priced arond £119.99. ENDS March 29, 2005 The Digital Radio Development Bureau is funded and supported by BBC, Digital One, Emap Digital Radio, CE Digital, MXR (Chrysalis, GMG, Capital and UBC), Capital Digital and GWR’s 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
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