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.
BBC Coverage
The BBC has begun the roll out of new transmitters designed to lift its DAB national coverage to 85% of the population by mid 2004.
New transmitters now online include:
- Naish Hill broadcasting to the Chippenham area allowing 135,000 people to recieve the BBC DAB multiplex and improving the signal for another 200,000 listeners.
- Manningtree in Suffolk enabling a further 540,000 people to receive the BBC DAB multiplex.
- Rowridge enabling 760,000 people in the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton area to receive BBC DAB, and improving the signal for a further 180,000.
- Dover, where 230,000 listeners can now receive BBC DAB.
- Bromsgrove, serving 160,000 new listeners and improving the existing signal for another 50,000.
- Salisbury, where 65,000 listeners can now tune in to BBC DAB.
- Bath, improving the existing signal for 170,000 listeners and bringing BBC DAB to 50,000 people for the first time.
Product News
New on the market since the last newsletter are:
- Intempo PG-01, a dual band kitchen radio offering DAB and FM in stereo sound, is now available from Dixons, Currys, House of Fraser, Direct2Homes and independent hi-fi retailers priced around £119.99.
- TEAC’s T-H300DAB mid-sized hi-fi tuner complements TEAC’s series 300 separates combination and delivers AM, FM and DAB Band III, and is now available for around £199.99.
Technology News
Sonarics Labs unveiled its CSM1 DAB ready reference design at IFA 2003 Consumer Electronics show. CSM1 breaks the DAB module cost barrier of $25, enabling digital radio manufacturers to advance towards high-performance, cost-effective products.
This achievement was made possible by Sonarics’ unique technology for implementing the radio in software on a low-cost general-purpose DSP. The chip used in CSM1 is from the Analog Devices Blackfin™ DSP family and sells for less than US $5. Sonarics software enables key radio features required by modern electronic device consumers, including DAB Band III and L-Band reception, MP3 playback from MMC and digital sound recording.
Sonarics’ new reference design is aimed at manufacturers of the next generation of low-cost, high-performance digital radios. It enables swift engineering and production cycle.
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Microsoft, Capital Radio, NTL Broadast, RadioScape and Imagination Technologies are bringing 5.1 channel surround sound over DAB to London in a trial scheduled to last approximately six months.
In October, Capital Radio will provide surround-sound content encoded in Windows Media Audio Pro. WMA Pro will be streamed from Windows Server 2003 and then broadcast using IP datacasting via the DAB tansport stream. The trial will be broadcast over L-Band in London using NTL Broadcast’s special test multiplex.
A Modular Technology L-Band DAB PCI card or a Gyro-1112 DAB receiver module - both of which utilise a RadioScape design - or an Imagination Technologies DRX-702ES hi-fi tuner, can interface with a PC for the final stage of the 5.1 audio decoding.
Marketing News
MXR/Intempo Promotion
Regional digital radio consortium, MXR, has brokered a 3-way integrated marketing partnership with DAB digital radio manufacturer, Intempo, electrical retailers Currys and Dixons, and a variety of MXR service provider analogue stations including - Heart, Saga and Century.
Commencing in September, the four-month campaign, which runs until Christmas, will focus on promoting the new Intempo Digital stereo DAB radio with alarm clock.
Radio station activity will take place on analogue station 100.7 Heart FM in the West Midland, and on the area’s newest analogue station, Saga 105.7 FM. The promotion continues across the entire Century FM network through to Christmas, and spans four analogue stations, Sky digital, and digital radio multiplexes in both London and South Wales & the West. The promotion will see over 50 digital radios given away.
Live reads on some stations will encourage consumers to visit Currys and Dixons where MXR’s promotional teams will hand out £10-off vouchers featuring the Intempo DAB radio and MXR services.
MXR’s website www.getDABdigitalradio.com will also feature the exclusive £10 discount voucher that visitors will be able to claim by purchasing the Intempo PG-01 from Dixons/Currys on-line.
WorldDAB Forum and DRM
The World DAB Forum and the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium announced their co-operation during a press conference at the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin, Germany.
The two organisations, which have many members in common, have agreed to co-operate in fostering conditions that are favourable for both digital systems. It is anticipated that this close collaboration will pave the way for a new genre of future digital radios on the market, enabling listeners to receive any digital radio service without having to worry about the underlying transmission system.
DAB in Germany
The most exciting message to come out of this year’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin was a renewed commitment to DAB Digital Radio from Germany itself. With the success story well underway in the UK, it has long been accepted that Germany, Europe’s second biggest consumer electronics market, is key to international manufacturers’ roll out plans for DAB.
This year’s IFA was, by all accounts, the biggest ever with 1,000 exhibitors attracting more than 150,000 visitors over the first three days. Chief among the success stories was Digital Radio’s 200 metre squared stand, jointly hosted by Germany’s DAB marketing body, the IMDR, and international DAB forum, WorldDAB.
The most significant developments for DAB in Germany took place away from the activity on the stand itself.
At a symposium hosted by the ARD, Germany’s public broadcaster, speakers representing different areas of the industry issued a strong call to work together for the success of DAB.
WDR’s Programme Director, Monika Piel called for new thinking, with public and commercial radio “pulling together”. She added that more money must be spent on new content for DAB stations and that coordination was needed.
Thomas Hirschle, President of the Baden-Wuerttemburg Communications Authority, was critical of German broadcasters’ track record on promoting DAB and called for a realistic and comprehensive strategy for introducing new services.
Simon Nelson, Controller of BBC Radio and Music Interactive, explained the dominant role the BBC sees for DAB in its digital future.
All the speakers insisted that Germany must make the most of a technology to which German engineers had contributed so much, be more positive about DAB, stop talking about FM switch off and “just get on with it!”
Sharp criticism also came from German Minister of Economics, Wolfgang Clement, who warned that lack of commitment to DAB meant the country was forced to import more and more, rather than export their own innovations. “We are well known specialists in missing technologies that have been developed in Germany,” he said, adding that DAB was taking too long to come to market and urging manufacturers and broadcasters alike to move with more speed.
DAB in Canada
An announcement from DRRI in Canada says that retailer RadioShack Canada will offer the PersTel DR101 DAB/FM personal portable radio for sale at $99.99 Cdn. This is a dramatic price breakthrough and eliminates the cost barrier for consumers.
DRRI is supporting this breakthrough with a radio campaign in both French and English language driving consumers to the DAB web site www.digitalradio.ca which offers more information on DAB.
Canada currently has more than 70 DAB stations serving a potential 11 million listeners in Vancouver, Toronto, Windsor, and Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax.
Sony lends support to digital radio in Europe
In a clear sign of its commitment to help expand the markets for digital radio in Europe, Sony has lent its support to both the World DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) forum and the DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) consortium by recently joining the commercial arms of both organisations. Sony has been a member in both organisations for many years in creating the digital standards that underpin digital radio and now that these are agreed, is determined to play a full role in its commercialisation and promotion in Europe.
“We are actively supporting the spread of digital radio broadcasting in Europe and through our partnership with members of DAB and DRM we believe we can expand the usage of digital radio in Europe,” explains Fenno de Boer, Group Marketing Manager Business Developments, Sony Personal Audio Europe. “Sony launched the world’s first transistor radio for the mass market in 1955 and Sony’s success in the radio receiver market was the corner stone on which the company was built. We continue to be technological innovators in radio and are actively supporting the spread of digital radio broadcasting.”
Annika Nyberg, President of the World DAB Forum says "Sony’s involvement in digital radio in the commercial field brings the final ingredient for success in a mass market worldwide. Sony is a global player and their greater commitment to digital radio, both DAB and DRM, is fantastic news. The WorldDAB Forum looks forward to seeing the products that will come to market in the near future."
The success of DAB in the UK, the first market in which digital radio has achieved critical mass, has encouraged content providers (chiefly radio stations), broadcasters and manufacturers to step up their efforts to prepare other European markets to go digital. These efforts are being led by the World DAB forum and the DRM consortium.
Sony Europe, which has supported the development of Digital Radio since the early 1990’s, is preparing to bring high quality portable receivers based on a new generation of technology to the European market in early 2004.
DAB in Italy
The Eurodab consortium in Italy has received authorisation from the Ministry of Communication to switch on more than 30 DAB transmitters in Italy, bringing the country’s coverage to 60% of the population.
When the transmitters are turned on in October 2003, listeners with a DAB radio will be able to tune in to six channels.
ENDS
September 18, 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
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Mandy Green
Press and Publicity Manager
DRDB
The Radiocentre
77 Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1D 5DU
020 7306 2636
07973 184995