Michael Hill from Radioplayer says “defending the dash board for radio” must be one of the world radio industry’s biggest priorities.
“We have to work together globally and establish standards and interfaces. We also have to offer plug and play and pitch a vision to the global car companies.
“Car companies think globally, so we have to link up as radio across the world to go forward with our own strategies. We cannot rely on Google, Amazon and Tune to help radio, they have their own business agendas.”
In the same session, Roger Lanctot (pictured right), an automotive expert from the United States, talked about how cars will soon have ‘driver monitoring’ telemetry in them.
“Cars will be able to detect so many things about you – driver emotion, attention, ‘forgotten baby’ and many other things about you.
“It will also be able to give us real time accurate data about listening, cross related to time, car model, location and more elements of audience research.”
The car is becoming a browser, according to Langtot. He urges radio stations to understand the consumption environment in the car, including who is in the driver’s seat and the passenger seat and what media functions they are using.
Stations will need to imagine what to send and receive to and from the car in the future and be ready to deliver that to the occupants based on their usage habits, which will become increasingly more available thanks to the evolving smart media dashboard.
In China, where radio is state controlled, it is not as strong in cars as it is elsewhere in the world. China seems to be skipping the radio in cars usage trend and jumping straight to connected/streaming content, while in other countries, radio is still strong in cars, although many new information and entertainment sources are challenging for car consumption supremacy.
Other key points in Lanctot’s presentation include:
• Infotainment systems in cars are big business
• Google wants a piece of the action
• Connectivity is all about customer retention
• Radio plays an essential role and remains dominant, though at risk
• We are on the cusp of realizing new audience measurement tools and tech
• Digital radio technology is the tool that is leveling the field of play – new content – new user experiences – more content
Connected car shipments will increase from 31 million to 84 million in the next 7 years according to Lanctot, who forecasts significant growth in key markets.
• China +42.6%: From $7.5 Billion in 2017 to $10.8 Billion in 2025 (CAGR 4.5%)
• North America +4.4%: From $7.7 Billion in 2017 to $8.1 Billion in 2025 (CAGR 0.5%)
• Europe +7.6%: From $10.1 Billion in 2017 to $10.9 Billion in 2025 (CAGR 0.9%)
• Japan -2.1%: From $3.28 Billion in 2017 to $3.21 Billion in 2025 (CAGR -0.3%)
• India: +75%: From $795 Million in 2017 to $1.4 Billion in 2025 (CAGR 7.3%)
• Brazil: +35.8%: From $1.1Billion in 2017 to $1.4 Billion in 2025 (CAGR 3.9%)
Read more reports on Radiodays Asia at AsiaRadioToday.com
Dear StJohn,
In the last paragraph, where you refer to "Software Designed Radio", did you mean "Software Defined Radio" ('SDR') where the demodulation of the signal whether AM, FM, DAB+ or DRM is carried out by software instead of physical components?
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield
I agree.
Remember however a lot of this problem is coming from the USA's Hybrid Digital radio.
Program stream identification is by frequency and by stream eg. ###.# FM HD4 as an example. There is also a delay after tuning the analog signal before the digital selection is available. HD Radio also has a tiny allocation for metadata for a station logo.
Where as with our DAB+ for capital cites and the wide area DRM, they both tune the radio by program stream name not frequency and have much greater ability to transmit images including logos.
The streamers don't use transmission frequencies so on digital radio we should not neither and we don't need to (Unlike the USA). Names are more easily remembered than numbers.
Remember that radio reception is more reliable than using wireless streaming as vehicles drive around particularly in the country. DAB+ & DRM receivers can use the Alternate Frequency Table lists the frequency and modulation by each broadcaster and if it is also transmitted on FM's radio data service and on AM, AMSS, receivers can select the best signal for that broadcaster as the receiver is driven around.
This much higher reliability means that the opening screen of all vehicles should contain a list of available radio programs and a radio button when streaming is selected. In addition the infotainment systems capable of DAB+, DRM, FM and AM, which can be easily achieved using Software Designed Radio designs so that live program can be heard anywhere.