An international digital radio summit held in Tokyo has been told that Italian digital radio operators favour DAB+, but want receivers that get all types of digital radio signals. Senior executives from the digital radio broadcast industry faced off against the world’s on-line music service providers this week, presenting their future visions to Japan’s leading audio manufacturers to highlight new and exciting global market opportunities for receiver manufacturers.
Among a range of suggestions for receivers, Italian RAI representative Giuseppe Braccini pushed for car receivers to have what he calls “service following” functionality so that receivers move seamlessly between FM, DAB, DAB+, DMB, etc. See his presentation here.
Australia’s Joan Warner also spoke at the summit, outlining the Australian approach and the Digital Radio plus brand campaign. See Warner’s presentation here.
German expert Rainer Wegner from the German Ministry of Economics and Technology told the audience that Germany is focusing on Band 3 frequencies for the relaunch and expansion of digital radio, with a preference for using DAB+. Click here.
World DMB President Quentin Howard gave a rundown of global take up of digital radio in his presentation.
The European Broadcast Union recently declared its full backing of WorldDMB’s digital radio profiles, encompassing all three Eureka 147 standards: DAB, DAB+ and DMB-A. The broadcast radio industry in Europe and Australia has also declared its commitment to the accelerated roll-out of digital radio from next year.
Executives from companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer heard from broadcasters about the latest market opportunities these new launches represent.
This year the radio market is also experiencing the breakout of Internet radio from the confines of the personal computer and onto a wide range of innovative consumer electronics devices. For the first time, consumers are able to listen to broadcast and Internet radio on simple-to-use home audio receiver products, ranging from inexpensive wirelessly-connected table-top radios to top-end HiFi AV receivers. Driving this migration are innovative and highly-motivated content service providers who are defining new and exciting ways for audiences to listen to the music they love. Delegates heard presentations from those product developers too, including speakers from Pandora, Rhapsody and Last.fm.
Frontier Silicon sponsored the summit, which was held at the prestigious British Ambassador’s residence in Tokyo.
Frontier Silicon ceo Anthony Sethill, told the conference: “It is widely recognized just how important it is to the growth of digital radio in Europe and Australia to have Japanese audio manufacturers continuously investing in new radio receiver products. This summit gives the leading audio brand manufacturers a unique opportunity to hear first hand from key industry executives how the digital broadcast and Internet radio markets are converging. Audio brands have never had a better opportunity to exploit this convergence by investing in innovative connected-audio products.”