“Soundcards are so very 2005.”

Macquarie Media’s Chief Technology Officer Aaron Alphonso, this week delivered a wide ranging technology presentation in Malaysia at the annual Digital Broadcasting Symposium.

He discussed the most important technological considerations when digitising your studio to transmitter chain. Three key areas to consider are:

• Audio Mixing, Routing and Delegation
• Playout Systems
• Systems Integration

Audio Mixing, Routing and Delegation

Europe has mandated that all new cars sold within the EU will now be required to have digital radios.

Car manufacturers have two years to comply with the new directive, that was ratified just before Christmas.

Meanwhile, in France, digital radio penetration has reached a point where it has triggered a law requiring that by the end of 2019, all new consumer radios to include DAB+.

EU Vehicle Directive

In the latest Sydney digital ratings, ABC Jazz suffered big losses in their 25-39 demo, down 19,000 to drop into second place overall with 96,000 cume, a drop of 12,000 overall.
 
Edge Digital was the only station in Sydney to get over 100,000 cume, up by 8,000 to be back at number 1 with 102,000.

Only three months after FM was switched off in Norway, a listener survey (Digital Radio Survey, Kantar Media) shows the new digital stations have up to one third of all radio listening. 

Most radio listeners still tune into radio, and the new digital stations have shown strong growth. 

These are some of the findings presented by a group of Norwegian stakeholders at Radiodays Europe 2018, the radio industry's annual European assembly. A new report from the year of switchover can be viewed online at www.radiodso.com. 

The latest Audi A8 is on display at RadioDays Europe.

Audi is a thought leading company when it comes to connected cars.

The model on display has a fully connected dashboard entertainment system, which can use the embedded SIM Card in the car or tether to the SIM from the driver's phone.

It can seamlessly switch between the different transmissions of broadcast radio, AM, FM and Digital Radio, saving the driver from incurring data costs, and when the signal goes out of range it can find the station again from its stream to continue listening.

Norway is the only country in the world to have implemented a fully digitised national Digital Audio Broadcasting system and to shut down national broadcasts of its FM network.

What can audiences expect in the future? And are we there yet?

The 2018 Digital Broadcasting Symposium officially kicked off on Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Dr Javad Mottaghi (pictured below), Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), officially opened the conference.

Mottaghi noted in his welcome address that there had been an “overwhelming response from participants with colleagues from 45 countries representing over 250 organisations” in attendance. 

This year the theme of the symposium was Enhancing Multiplatform Content.

SCA CEO Grant Blackley speaks to radioinfo about the highlights of the past six months and the company's radio strategy for 2018.

Comment from Brad Smart