AFTRS Students are on air with a historic Digital Radio outside broadcast from the SMPTE conference in Sydney this week. Their station is branded ICE, and will also be heard later this month on Sydney frequency 100.7.

The broadcast, which is an initiative of SMPTE, is from Stand A06 in the main exhibition hall. It is the first DRB Outside Broadcast mounted in Australia and has received cooperation from many sections of the radio industry.

The studio to transmission chain is completely digital, with the OB studio using a Logitek console and RCS Master Control playout system. The signal then goes through a DBMax digital compressor to an ISDN link that takes it to the 4th channel on the digital radio multiplexer for broadcast.

SMPTE Chairman John Maizels hailed the broadcast as a “triumph for radio industry co-operation” with broadcast equipment being loaned by three different companies, the ISDN Codecs borrowed from ABC Radio, and the 4th Multiplex channel being vacated by ARN for a week to allow the broadcast to go ahead.

SMPTE has committed the stand space, AFTRS students are providing the on-air staffing and Commercial Radio Australia has provided receivers and supported the venture.

AFTRS Head of Radio Steve Ahern acknowledged the work of his project team in a conference adress saying: “The AFTRS end of the broadcast was project managed by David Archer and Simon Kirby, Kath Brown co-ordinated CRA’s involvement with technical expertise from 2KY’s Max Carter, and Brian Bailey arranged logistics for SMPTE.”

“The whole thing was John Maizel’s initiative to show SMPTE’s support for the progress of Digital Radio testing in Australia… And it all works, come to stand A06 and have a listen or just turn on your digital radio.”