Industry News

When The Infinite Dial’s P1 survey respondents were quizzed about which audio brands they listened to the most, their use of YouTube for music, and whether they subscribed to SiriusXM satellite radio, most of the results varied considerably by their chosen radio format, as expected.

When asked which radio format P1s over-index (index higher than the total online population) in using audio brands over the past month, Spotify was named by listeners of sports, alternative rock, hip-hop/rap, top 40, R&B and hard rock/heavy metal. Those who prefer to listen to hip-hop/rap, top 40, alternative rock, R&B, contemporary Christian and news/talk also prefer iTunes.

The research suggests that Pandora has a clear lead in most groups, when respondents were asked to name the audio brand they used most often, although Spotify is number one with listeners of hip-hop/rap, top 40 and sports. iHeartRadio is a strong second for those who prefer classic rock, alternative rock and classic hits. Trailing in most groups are Amazon Music and Google Play, although Amazon Music takes second place among listeners of hard rock/heavy metal.

[Read: Infinite Dial Research Suggests a Variety of Topics Attract Podcast Listeners]

When asked about their weekly use of YouTube for music, the research said R&B listeners are in the lead with 57%. Classic rock adherents hold the middle ground with 43%, while classic hits fans bring up the rear with 25%.

Since its inception, satellite radio, now in the form of SiriusXM, has competed for listeners with AM/FM and online media. It has had varying degrees of success with different formats. The Infinite Dial’s report attempted to track the response of  AM/FM listeners in terms of  the number who subscribe to the service.

The research suggested that hard rock/heavy metal takes first place with 39% of its listeners subscribing. Country music listeners represent the median with 25%. The trailing edge is held by contemporary Christian, where just 14% are signed up for SiriusXM.

The post Survey Says Pandora Popular in Most Listener Groups appeared first on Radio World.

The pandemic has had a sizable impact on AM/FM car radio listening habits, according to a new survey by Strategy Analytics — including finding that the pandemic has led to a decline in AM/FM usage in-car and a steep decline in interest of radio as a must-have feature.

A new report from market researcher Strategy Analytics called “2020 Infotainment Report: COVID-19 Brings Challenges for In-Car Radio,” which surveyed 4,705 car owners across the U.S., China, France, Germany and Italy to investigate usage of in-car infotainment including AM/FM radio, streaming media and other sources.

[Read: Radio Listening Audiences Rebound Despite Pandemic Impact]

According to the report’s author Derek Viita, who is a senior analyst with Strategy Analytics, 2020 is the year that in-car AM/FM radio has hit the proverbial iceberg. Year over year, interest in radio has steadily declined relative to other sources like streaming or brought-in digital media, the survey found.

“While radio still has unique advantages, the pandemic has only worked to increase adoption of other media sources,” Viita said. “Some radio providers in the West are reporting that their ratings have nose-dived because many of those who listened on their commute have not rejoined from home.”

These findings somewhat contradict other surveys conducted earlier this year. Two separate Nielsen surveys found that radio listenership had rebounded after the initial stages of the pandemic and that despite the pandemic, radio listenership remained strong.

But what is clear about car radio listening is that after years of dominance, traditional radio has reached a turning point as streaming media continues its march onto the dashboard, Viita said. In addition, the survey revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns severely curtailed regular commuting journeys, where much of consumers’ radio-listening originates.

This has led to a marked decline in AM/FM usage in-car, and a steep decline in interest of radio as a must-have feature, the survey found. This year’s decrease was surprisingly sharp in certain Western markets, he said, where commuting and other regular shorter-distance trips have been curtailed.

“With these regular trips curtailed, are folks just ‘not missing’ their car radio?” Viita asked. “[It] remains to be seen whether this is a one-year aberration or the start of an accelerated trend.”

[Read: Amidst Stay-at-Home Orders, Radio Listenership Remains Strong]

Diving deeper into an executive summary of the report, the survey found that streaming media has had a steady year-over-year increase both in terms of daily/weekly usage. That surge has happened more quickly in China with streaming ranking number one over AM/FM radio for usage and interest among car owners.

Looking ahead, the post-pandemic future of radio is unchartered territory. As systems like Android Automotive embed media apps as standard, this will put additional pressure on radio, said Kevin Nolan, vice president of the UX Innovation Practice, a segment of Strategy Analytics.

“Provided that these systems allow quick and easy login, [heaving] direct access to streamed content without having to deal with Bluetooth or device cables will result in further adoption and consumption,” he said. “Broadcasters, product planners and UI designers must immediately reconsider how, when and why listeners consume entertainment and information and across which platforms.”

The report suggested that designers and product planners should consider a number of key issues over the coming months. What are some new ways that broadcasters can reach car owners during the pandemic? Are there unmet needs for satellite radio users or integrated screen users — like users of Apple Car Play — that broadcasting should consider? As the next-generation of automated systems come online, which infotainment sources will become more desirable and which will fade away?

What broadcasters need to do, Viita suggested, is to think about new ways to reach viewers during and after this pandemic environment.

“Clearly a large chunk of listeners — commuters who might listen to a certain program going to or from an office — have not rejoined from home,” Viita said. “Broadcasters need to find new ways to reach car owners during the pandemic, to ensure they’ll rejoin after it.”

Viita explained the discrepancy between the findings here and other surveys by clarifying that the Strategy Analytics survey only speaks to car-specific radio usage/interest. “In the car: radio’s not going anywhere,” Viita said. “Despite these year-over-year declines in usage and interest, it’s still number one in the car in the West (and top two in China).”

Radio has power: In a separate consumer survey, Strategy Analytics found that radio remains important for certain activities, such as work commutes. “It’s convenient: no need for a separate device [or] cord to connect a device; no need to spend time to actively choose a specific song or artist; no need to think about whether the commute would be long enough to hear all the content (e.g. an entire podcast),” Viita said. “It’s also utilitarian — it has all the information they need, they feel productive by catching up on news/current affairs, they can learn what’s trending, etc.”

For better or worse, two things are true when it comes to in-car audio trends, Viita said. One, a widening segment is adopting streaming media as their primary source in the car. On the other hand, radio remains tailor-made for the car, especially commutes, he said.

The post 2020 Is the Year That Radio Hits a “Proverbial Iceberg,” Survey Says appeared first on Radio World.

COVID-19 notwithstanding, the show must go on — the 2020 Radio Show, to be precise. In a nod to pandemic realities, this year’s lineup of sessions will be presented over five days online at www.radioshowweb.com starting Oct. 5.

The show is produced by the National Association of Broadcasters and the Radio Advertising Bureau. There will be two online “channels,” with Channel B devoted to technical topics, presented from 3:30 to 4 p.m. ET each day.

Tech topics to be covered on the “B” channel include hybrid radio, all-digital transmission on the AM band, the connected car, and the evolution of broadcasting technology and workflows.

These sessions are programmed by Skip Pizzi, NAB’s vice president of technology education and outreach, and David Layer, NAB’s VP of advanced engineering.

For Pizzi, the challenge of programming online content is compounded by the fact that everyone has been going it the past several months.

“I think of it this way: When you’re the first one in the neighborhood to have a talking dog, everybody thinks it’s amazing that it talks at all,” Pizzi told Radio World. “But once everybody else’s dog starts talking, people start complaining about funny accents and bad grammar.”

What follows is a thematic summary of five Radio Show sessions focused on technology and engineering.

Monday — Hybrid Radio

The first technical session will focus on hybrid radio, a technology that allows a web-connected receiver to enhance broadcast audio with web-delivered graphics or to automatically switch between broadcast and streamed radio feeds as required so listeners never lose the station they’re tuned to. See related story.

All-Digital AM Radio (Tuesday)

Advocates of all-digital transmission on the AM band in the United States believe that the FCC should allow such operation, at broadcasters’ discretion, so AM stations could improve their station sound and take full advantage of the growing number of HD Radio receivers.

To date, only two U.S. AM stations have made the leap, which requires temporary experimental authorization from the FCC.

“This session will be a progress/update report on all-digital AM radio, which the Radio Show has been covering for a while,” said Pizzi. “We’ll hear from WWFD’s Chief Engineer Dave Kolesar [of Hubbard Radio], who’s been a real champion for this technology using Xperi’s HD Radio MA3 broadcast mode, as well as Brian Walsh from WIOE in Ft. Wayne, Ind.”

WIOE subsequently ended its experiment, at least for now, while WWFD continues in all-digital.

Radio and the Connected Car (Wednesday)

Xperi SVP Broadcast Joe D’Angelo is expected to discuss the recent Xperi/TiVo merger and the role radio can play in the web-connected car of today and tomorrow.

Xperi is familiar to Radio World readers as the parent of HD Radio and of the hybrid radio platform DTS Connected Radio. Its brands also include DTS, IMAX Enhanced, Invensas and Perceive.

[Related: “Why the Xperi/TiVo Deal Matters for Radio”]

“In a time when consumers want personalized and seamless access to entertainment anywhere, anytime and on any device, the combined company will offer consumers a digital entertainment platform featuring an end-to-end entertainment experience, from choice to consumption,” the company has said of the merger.

In a June email, an Xperi representative wrote that the merger brings TiVo’s metadata platform to Xperi’s hybrid radio platform.

“The solutions this merger is poised to bring to broadcasters, automakers and their consumers, take radio and the digital dashboard to a completely new level of discovery and engagement, offering drivers a safe, efficient, more personalized way to discover radio content, all presented with the text/image richness they demand in a digital platform,” she wrote.

“Radio broadcasters retain control of content, with increased engagement and analytical insights, and automakers have access to a turnkey global solution that is secure and will be supported around the world.”

Separately, research suggests that finding a place in web-connected vehicles matters more than ever. According to the Spring 2020 Smart Audio Report from Edison Research and NPR, 36% of U.S. adult smart speaker owners have been listening to more music/entertainment content on their streaming devices since the outbreak, with 52% of 18- to 34-year-olds saying the same thing.

When more people resume driving to work, many may continue listening to streaming in their cars rather than returning to broadcast radio.

The Evolution of Radio Broadcasting Technologies (Thursday and Friday)

The final two technical sessions will consider the evolution of radio broadcasting technologies.

Thursday’s will examine radio’s transition from a traditional hardware-based infrastructure to IP technology, software-based production/playout and working in the cloud. On Friday, the focus will be on next-generation HD Radio technology.

At press time, speakers were being finalized; Pizzi expected that the rosters would include manufacturers and broadcasters.

“The very nature of radio broadcasting is changing,” he said. “With so much going into the cloud and the virtual world, the day may soon come when most of radio’s technical investment is spent on op-ex [operating expenses on services] rather than cap-ex [capital expenses on hardware and equipment], and these sessions will discuss that transition.”

Channel “A” sessions of the Radio Show include a “CEO Townhall” with Bob Pittman of iHeartMedia, Mary Berner of Cumulus Media and David Field of Entercom Communications; the Radio Mercury Awards on Tuesday evening; and a “One-on-One With Byron Allen the founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group LLC/Entertainment Studios.

Honors for Perry

Russell M. Perry will receive the NAB National Radio Award on Monday Oct. 5.

He is described by the National Association of Broadcasters as “a trailblazing media entrepreneur, a champion of journalism and a celebrated humanitarian in his community.”

The association noted that Perry began his radio career in 1993 with the founding of Perry Publishing & Broadcasting Co. and the purchase of an AM station in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“Since then, he has grown the company into the largest independently owned African-American broadcasting company in the nation, with 11 radio stations across the southeast United States.”

Earlier he was co-publisher of The Black Dispatch, and in 1979, became the owner and publisher of The Black Chronicle, a paid weekly newspaper serving Oklahoma.

Perry has also held high posts in Oklahoma state government as the secretary of commerce and secretary of economic development and special affairs. He’s active in efforts to promote and restore African-American-owned commerce in Oklahoma City.

Past honors include induction into the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame and American Urban Radio Network Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Radio Show organizers also have announced that their 2021 fall conference will not be held as planned in New Orleans but will instead at the rescheduled 2021 NAB Show, which has been pushed back from April to October 2021 in Las Vegas. The fall Radio Show in 2022 is scheduled for Nashville.

The full agenda of the Radio Show is at https://radioshowweb.com/.

The post Radio Show Explores What’s on the Horizon appeared first on Radio World.

The author is general manager of Radio Rioja.

LOGROÑO, Spain — On Feb. 25, 1933, the Spanish General Telecommunications Administration issued a broadcast license for the area of Logroño for a radio station with the call sign EAJ 18 and the name “Radio Rioja” to Ismael Palacio.

Today, the station is still active in Logroño, the capital of the province of “La Rioja,” and now has two sisters in other cities in the Rioja province. It is an independent broadcaster affiliated to the Cadena SER Networks, broadcasting the general programming of that group in AM and FM.

Depending on the time of day, it provides its audience with the signals from the networks of SER and SER+, Los Cuarenta Principales and Cadena Dial.

Throughout its long history, it has been committed to regional sports and politics, with a very active news operation. For decades, public figures and groups from Logroño and La Rioja have passed through the main studio to appear on programs.

Thousands of interviews and local and regional reports have been produced from its recording studio as well as national news stories in contribution to the SER Network headquarters in Madrid.

The newsroom dedicates most of its time to providing content for the regional and local slots as well as contributions for Madrid. However, apart from the conventional SER and SER+ radio programming, there are other important sources of income with low production costs for content such as musical products centrally produced at the company headquarters.

A highly automated operation along with other applications allows Radio Rioja to cover expenses and continue being the news station that Riojans demand.

Automation Needs

Radio Rioja has paid attention to its automation systems, valuing reliability, availability and good operation. When renewal of its legacy system was due, they opened up to evaluate the most common systems used in Spain.

During the presentation and evaluation of AEQ AudioPlus, we found that its performance was outstanding and easy to learn and use. We obtained references from other radio stations about compatibility with work practices and requirements for daily SER servicing along with a standard compatible scheduling and billing system.

Then Radio Rioja made one of the most difficult decisions that broadcast technicians and engineers can be faced with: installing and integrating a new and different automation system.

AEQ has been developing and installing radio automation for more than 30 years, with experience of the requirements and demands of thousands of customers. AudioPlus is its third-generation system, developed after Mar System and Mar4win. It’s designed to run on Windows operating systems and with SQL Server databases. It includes a self-installation wizard.

It is compatible with professional, low-cost, USB and virtual AoIP soundcards and provides a set of complementary editing and management tools, as well as links to all kinds of external software applications.

AudioPlus also offers a remotely controlled playout module compatible with Cadena SER commands, and a module for exchange with external management software applications, both for advertisement traffic and musical programming.

Finally, it has a file import module that is adapted to database formats used by various manufacturers. In particular, the format used by Dalet had been used by Radio Rioja and debugged in previous migrations. It worked like a charm, moving the audio files in a few hours while each file’s ancillary information was migrated to AEQ format.

Thanks to its intuitive user interface, the transition to the new system hasn’t really needed additional effort. The person who traveled there to perform the migration trained users on the system’s operation in a few days. During this period, AEQ AudioPlus scheduling was done in parallel with the earlier system’s scheduling

The system includes four recording/playout workstations: one for each control or automatic playout station, one for programming, and a high-availability server with a RAID disk system. Everything was connected over an IP network.

System preconfiguration and installation was done by AEQ personnel, as there were some specific tasks that required special treatment for this “on the fly” migration.

Raquel Cortés of AEQ Technical Assistance Service was on site; she installed the system, transferred the audio files and data, and provided a training course to Radio Rioja staff. Support was carried out by AEQ Sales Area Manager Eduardo Guerrero.

During the installation, the audio codecs for external retransmissions and program transportation were upgraded to IP technology, so four AEQ Phoenix Mercury units and an AEQ Phoenix Venus also were installed.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

For information in the U.S., contact Peter Howarth at AEQ Broadcast International in Florida at 1-800-728-0536 or visit www.aeqbroadcast.com. For international queries, contact AEQ in Spain at +34-91-686-1300 or visit www.aeq.eu.

The post User Report: Radio Rioja Chooses AEQ Automation appeared first on Radio World.

CEntrance describes the PortCaster as a “handheld device [that] fills an important gap for podcasters and radio program hosts who need to add music, effects, and either a local or a remote call-in guest to their ‘talk radio’ -style show.”

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The company says that the PortCaster uses the company’s Jasmine mic preamps. Features include 48 V phantom power, smartphone input, limiters, monitor controls and an aluminum case. Very useful for radio stations is the mix-minus function. It will work with Android, iOS, Mac, Windows laptops, phones and tablets.

There will be three models with different optional features such as an SD card-based 24-bit/48 kHz digital recorder and an onboard rechargeable battery.

Info: https://centrance.com

The post PortCaster Makes a Nice Radio Tool appeared first on Radio World.

A new ebook from Radio World explores one of the most pressing topics in radio technology: What will the future air chain look like?

The concepts of virtualization and putting parts of the air chain in the cloud were already on the minds of forward-looking managers; and the 2020 health crisis has accelerated the trend even over the past few months. New products, new software and new partnerships are helping bring the future closer.

We sat down with five leading industry technologists for a roundtable discussion.

Find out what Roz Clark, Alan Jurison, Shane Toven, Philipp Schmid and Greg Shay had to say when we asked about the implications of virtual; the shift from a cap-ex to an op-ex model; what parts of the air chain are or will be virtualized; and what will virtualization bring to the “back end” of the airchain.

Read it here.

The post Virtualizing the Air Chain: Next-Gen Radio Architecture appeared first on Radio World.

In radio project news: Kintronic Labs said it completed the installation and commissioning of a two-tower, 100 kW medium-wave directional antenna system for Far East Broadcasting Co. on an offshore island in South Korea.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

“The transmission system involving Nautel NX100 main and standby transmitters, and the Kintronic Labs antenna system is designed to broadcast in wideband analog, single-channel DRM or DRM simulcast modes via two separate directional patterns,” the company stated.

It provided the photo below. Send news of radio technical projects to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post FEBC Has New 100 kW DA System appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has decided to adopt a consent decree and grant a translator construction permit application despite a series of objections filed by two separate entities.

Back in February 2016, the FCC issued a construction permit license to Rocket Radio Corp. (RRC) for translator K246CH in Tuba City, Ariz., a town of 8,600 within Arizona’s picturesque Painted Desert. The new translator was to serve as a fill-in translator for KIKO(AM), a country music station serving Apache Junction, Ariz.

After the license was granted, an informal objection was raised by Linda C. Corso, owner of KRDE(FM), a country music station in nearby San Carlos, Ariz.

[Read: Licensee Agrees to $8,000 Consent Agreement on Unauthorized License Transfer]

In the midst of all this, RRC filed an application to make minor changes to the translator’s licensed facilities, a move that prompted another entity — this time Mountain Community Translators (MCT) — to file an informal objection.

The FCC agreed with some of the assertions filed by these two licensees. But it dismissed other claims and said the Media Bureau would enter into a consent decree with RRC to resolve issues that were raised during the FCC’s review of the applications.

But there’s a hefty penalty that comes with this consent decree in the form of a $15,000 civil penalty. The FCC also said that not only must RRC pay the civil penalty in a timely manner but must also submit to probationary oversight if it applied to build any other facilities over the next three years.

All this began when the FCC approved RRC’s request to change its translator’s channel to Channel 275 during a 2016 filing window for FM translator modification applications. In April of that year RRC filed a license application and submitted a program test letter saying that it had begun program tests with the translator at the station.

Soon after an objection was filed by Corso who said that RRC broke several rules: It did not construct the facilities authorized in the permit, it violated the commission’s rules governing station identification, and it made false certifications and statements in its license application and the program test letter.

In response, RRC revised its certifications in an amended license application in July 2017 to reflect that the facilities constructed did vary from those authorized in the permit. RRC said it was unaware that the translator’s facilities had not been constructed as authorized and it assured the FCC that the translator has been operating with authorized parameters since October 2016.

Corso fired back again. In another objection she accused RRC and several of its employees of witness intimidation and harassment, and said RRC deliberately concealed facts from the commission. She also asked several questions: why was the translator not constructed as authorized? And how could RCC be unaware of this?

In June 2018, RRC filed a minor change application asking to increase the translator’s power and change its channel. Soon after, another objection arose from MCT which alleged that RRC made a false certification in its application. In July of that year, RRC filed an application to modify the permit to specify the same power increase and channel change proposed in the minor change application. MCT objected to that application too.

Upon review of the objections, the FCC rejected several of Corso’s allegations. The commission did not find that the translator was operating with a different antenna and at a different power than specified in its permit. The commission also found no merit to Corso’s allegation that the translator violated the commission’s rules governing station identification or her allegations that RRC made misrepresentations to the commission.

The commission did find, though, that the facilities constructed were not those authorized in the permit and that RRC violated sections of the commission’s rules.

Specifically, the commission found that for six months in 2016, the translator’s antenna was mounted at the wrong height and oriented in the wrong direction. By starting program tests with nonconforming facilities, RRC also violated the Communications Act and FCC Rules. Plus, the commission found that that RRC further violated the rules by failing to amend its license application in a timely manner and failed to correct the program test letter to reflect that the facilities constructed were not those specified in the permit.

The FCC also rejected MCT’s assessment that RRC made a false claim that it did not have an authorization for an FM translator station that served the same area and was rebroadcasting the same signal as the translator. While MCT correctly noted that RRC is the licensee of another FM translator — K247CF in Payson, Ariz. — that serves substantially the same area as the facilities authorized in the permit, the two translators have not rebroadcast the signal of the same primary station at the same time. K247CF only began rebroadcasting the translator’s primary station when the translator went off the air in May 2018. The FCC also concluded that RCC did not make misrepresentations or false statements to the commission.

As a result of its findings, the Media Bureau entered into a consent decree with RRC based on its unauthorized construction of the translator and its violations of FCC rules. RRC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $15,000. The consent decree also stipulates that RRC will have an outside broadcast engineer come and examine any facilities that RRC constructs or operates and that this engineer will review technical parameters of any future facilities that RRC constructs over the next three years.

The post Arizona Licensee Gets Green Light on License After Agreeing to $15K Consent Decree appeared first on Radio World.

When The Infinite Dial’s P1 survey respondents aren’t listening to radio or online media, they’re listening to podcasts. But how often do they listen, and what types of podcasts do they listen to? The researchers searched for answers, and here’s what they found.

As with most of the other conclusions in the data, research suggests considerable differences in level of interest in podcasts among P1 listeners as a function of their preferred format. Listeners of alternative rock appear to be in the lead, with 81% claiming they listen to podcasts. At the midpoint are the 61% of classic rock listeners. The trailing edge is represented by classic hits with  a listenership of 38%.

[Read: Report Says Stations Struggle to Build Online Listenership]

The data for weekly listenership among P1 respondents does not track with those who claim to listen. While alternative rock’s P1 listeners continue to lead with 51%, the middle ground is held by R&B with 32%. Those who listen least on a weekly basis, according to the survey, are the contemporary Christian demographic, at just 17%.

Perhaps more interesting than how often the different P1 groups listen to podcasts, is what the survey suggests are their favorite topics. Not surprisingly, music is named by the survey among many respondents. Beyond that, responses vary considerably. Classic rock listeners name history, news/info and food as their top picks. Country’s P1 listeners picked true crime, wellness/self-improvement and music as their top three. Music, entertainment/celebrity gossip and food were favorites for hip-hop/rap listeners.

One of the biggest surprises in podcast data might be the results for P1 listeners in the sports and contemporary Christian groups. While they are on opposite ends of the spectrum in The Infinite Dial’s sex/age positioning nomograph, both groups have named sports, technology and history as the top topics for podcasts they listen to.

The post Infinite Dial Research Suggests a Variety of Topics Attract Podcast Listeners appeared first on Radio World.

The DRM Consortium is inviting industry stakeholders to view a series of new video productions to get more information on the basic principles of DRM and benefits of to implementing this all-band digital radio system.

On the heels of its participation at the Virtual IBC event held earlier in September, the DRM Consortium created a series of videos that offer everything from basic information on DRM to more complex technical details. The videos offer details on addressing transmission issues over large disparate geographic areas, how to provide adequate disaster warning transmissions with DRM and how to improve local radio services to geographically disparate communities with less power — including how to provide three different radio broadcasts from a signal transmitter.

[Read: DRM Advanced Radio for All]

“Content can be richer, more varied and in the regional languages or dialects [of those areas],” according to the introductory video. “More content in more languages on flexible DRM for all.”

Additional benefits for DRM — or Digital Radio Mondiale — include the delivery of data along with the audio broadcasts. In the video “From Broadcaster to the Listener,” the narrator gives viewers a look at what opportunities DRM can provide to an imaginary country, one with large cities with millions of people, smaller township areas as well as vast forest region that divides a country in two and causes significant geographical broadcast challenges to traditional radio broadcasts.

Using DRM gives this fictional nation the opportunity to reach more of its citizens with clear, crisp audio as well as connect with them via video/data images. DRM radios have a screen and can provide consumers with text, pictures, maps, math lessons, live sports results, emergency warnings and other educational information, creating an “opportunity for digital radio station managers to use this data channel to create a new revenue stream,” the video says. “Visible adverts can be broadcast alongside traditional audio advertising. DRM is flexible, green and delivers universal access to information so the whole country can be connected.”

Philipp Schmid, CTO of Nautel, a maker of DRM transmitters, explains in another video how six independent DRM signals can be emitted from a single Nautel GV family transmitter, in effect combining signals to be broadcast from a single amplifier, a single antenna and a single location.

“In this way we can of course get a lot more data capacity for our transmitter but we can also use white space that was unable to be allocated in analog FM,” he said. An analog FM channel would have prevented the other adjacent channels to be utilized, he said. But in digital transmission we can make sure that all of these modulated signals are emitted at the same time. “By doing so, we can eliminate interchannel interference and in this way a receiver can pick up its own independent sideband and all the audio services on it.”

The technology may revolution digital radio broadcasting, Schmid said. “It allows us to pack more signals into a smaller frequency spectrum, enabling more broadcast transmission, more radio stations, more services [and] better utilize our spectrum that is available for radio broadcasting,” he said.

Another video demonstrates how DRM is able to deliver distance learning material over large, remote geographic areas where IP is not available.

New DRM receiver options — including standalone models, DRM-capable smartphone receivers and automotive models — have been released from companies like Avion Electronics, Gospell, Inntot, Starwaves and RF2Digital.

The post DRM Consortium Updates Industry with New Video Productions appeared first on Radio World.