The exhibition hall outside CRA’s national radio conference was packed with stands of interest to the radio industry. radioinfo toured some of them to see what they had to offer.
The stands we inspected included RCS, AFTRS, Media Super, Digital Radio, AIM, AVC, Adstream, Workflow and Broadcast Australia.
BROADCAST AUSTRALIA
The most impressive was Broadcast Australia’s display, which featured a giant map of Australia as backdrop and a model broadcast tower.
Broadcast Australia operates facilities for the ABC and SBS, as well as for a range of commercial broadcasters, especially in regional areas. The company, which was recently taken over by a Canadian pension investment fund, has committed to becoming more energy efficient and recently cut over its first ‘green’ broadcast site in Tasmania, with all the broadcast power drawn from renewable sources such as the sun and wind power.
Broadcast Australia also got our award for best stand because they had the most impressive corporate gift, a radio pen, which is bound to become a collectors item for radio geeks.
MEDIA SUPER
In this industry, where people begin their careers at a young age, usually in the bush, superannuation is not often thought about until years later. It was good to see industry super fund Media Super letting radio people know about the options open to them. Media Super takes into account the portability of jobs in the radio industry and is currently trying to reach radio people to help them with think about their superannuation options. We will feature Media Super in a more detailed story on radioinfo soon.
DIGITAL RADIO
Digital radio models were on display at a vibrant stand featuring models from Pure, Yamaha, and others. Of most interest was a digital radio dongle for use with iPhones, new portable models with good colour screens, and new car radios.
RCS
Scheduling and playout powerhouse RCS proudly displayed its new studio automation product Zetta, which combines the best of Master Control and NexGen, and also its new traffic scheduling system Aquira. More details on these two big developments from RCS will be revealed on radioinfo soon.
AFTRS
AFTRS was there, with a list of students who are about to graduate. They will be on the job market soon. Contact Mark, Kim or Rebecca at AFTRS to find out about the next batch of potential employees.
When radioinfo visited the stand we spotted past student Radar Radio’s Reagan McLachlan chatting with Rebecca Ritchie. Radar won an ACRA this year for best new digital radio format (tied with DMG’s Koffee). Congratulations Regan and the Radar team.
AIM
All in Media is the company behind the impressive Pinata digital radio production software. AIM was at the conference promoting its range of other products, including a new iPhone App, which will get a more detailed story on radioinfo soon.
AVC
AVC group displayed its Axia desk, which is part of the new generation of broadcast desks to use IP based signal routing. The desks install with the plug-in of a single blue Cat 5 or yellow Cat 6 cable and are a control surface which powers an engine usually located outside the studio.
ADSTREAM
One of the most popular stands was Adstream, partly because of the respect which the ad distribution company is held in the industry, and partly because of the good coffee they were serving from their stall. radioinfo can vouch that the coffee was good quality, just like the company itself.
RADIO WORKFLOW
As reported in previous artciles on radioinfo, Workflow is a company using software to offer faster, more efficient tools to broadcasters to enable better production and uploading of preproduced audio.
