What's Hot in DAB! - Email Newsletter N.20

What's Hot in DAB!

The World DAB Forum Newsletter N.20 - March 2003 _________________________________ -------------------------------------------Contents: WorldDAB at 3GSM Event, Cannes News from Scandinavia - Finland - Denmark - Nordini News from Spain - Catalonian Regional Licence News from Germany - New DAB Services by Bayerische Rundfunk Best Practice from the UK Car Manufacturers News - Commercial Radio Supports Ford Campaign BBC Launches First Major Marketing Campaign Manufacturers News - PURE Digital - Blaupunkt - PersTel - GyroSignal Professional Equipment News - ManDLS-Unique Interactive - GyroSignal - Factum Content Workshop
WORLDDAB AT THE 3GSM WORLD CONGRESS 2003 Led by the World DAB Forum, key players in the digital radio industry hosted a series of high-profile briefings with mobile manufacturers and network operators at the 3GSM event in Cannes last month. The fact finding mission allowed the radio industry to meet with its mobile counterparts and discuss initiatives that could benefit both sectors. Annika Nyberg said: "The mobile industry and DAB Digital Radio are natural partners. The two technologies are compatible and complementary so we
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should - we must - be talking to each other." For more information on this event, please contact Lisette Cooper at the WorldDAB project office mailto:cooper@worlddab.org. To view the full press release, visit: http://www.worlddab.org/pressreleases/WorldDAB_3gsm3.pdf Top ____________________________________ NEWS FROM SCANDINAVIA FINLAND A seminar on "The Future of Digital Radio" in Helsinki in January, organised by Digita Oy, attracted representatives from both public and commercial broadcasters, as well as the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications. Speakers at the seminar included World DAB President, Annika Nyberg who presented an international overview of DAB. Mr Ismo Kosonen, Director of the Media Policy Unit at the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications spoke about licensing of DAB, saying that while there were no obstacles to licence applications, the Ministry was still awaiting the active participation of commercial broadcasters in Finland. Quentin Howard from Digital One in the UK described the success story of DAB in the UK, emphasising the need for co-operation between broadcasters, manufacturers and retailers. And from France, Alain Delorme, Managing Director of TDF looked at the similarities and differences between DAB and Digital Radio Mondial. For further information, please contact Riitta Kontula at Digita Oy, tel: + or mailto:riitta.kontula@digita.fi Top DENMARK Head of DAB at Danmarks Radio in Denmark, Karen Marie Zeuthen, says that within a year Denmark will achieve 100% coverage. DR launched a digital platform in October with eight channels and coverage of some 80% of the nation. Please contact Karen Marie Zeuthen for further information at mailto:KMZ@dr. dk.
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Nordini As reported in last month's newsletter, the Nordic Radio Digital Initiative was established to improve awareness of digital radio by communications and marketing activities targeted at relevant segments of the DAB chain. Nordini is calling for more members, especially amongst the commercial radio stations and manufacturers of electronic consumer devices, major retail chains and other interested parties. For more information, please visit http://www.nordini.org or the Danish DABrollout site at http://nordini.dk. You can also contact Carsten Corneliussen at mailto:CCO@dr.dk. Top ____________________________________ NEWS FROM SPAIN The bidding for two regional licences in Catalonia has closed and an announcement will be made on March 19 as to which groups have signalled their interest in operating the multiplexes. The award of the licences by the regional government is not expected for another nine months. For more information, please contact Pilar Esteve at mailto:pesteve@gencat. net. Top ____________________________________ Germany From January 27, broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk offers more services on DAB with new traffic, business and news channels. A new music channel, Das Modul, will also be available, offering a variety of music types for younger listeners that will change throughout the day. The new services are completely automated and Johannes Grotzky, MD of radio at Bayerische Rundfunk, says the company is initiating the services to test new technical systems on computerised broadcasting control. As the maximum capacity is reached within the DAB package, the programmes Bayern2Radio and Bayern 3 will no longer be simulcast on DAB. They have been replaced by 4 DAB only channels: BRModul, BR-News, BR-Traffic, BR-Business. For more information, please contact Ingrid Mitterhummer at Bayerische

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Rundfunk, mailto:Ingrid.mitterhummer@brnet.de Top ____________________________________ BEST PRACTICE FROM THE UK CAPITAL GOLD UK broadcaster, Capital Gold, part of the Capital Radio Group, has launched the biggest on-air promotion for DAB digital radio ever undertaken by a radio network. Reaching a potential audience of nearly 1.6 million listeners on its analogue AM network in eight regions across the UK, as well as on its five DAB digital simulcast stations, Capital Gold is running an eight week campaign giving away more than 100 Evoke-1 radios from Pure Digital. For more information contact Mandy Green, DRDB press office on 2636, or email mandy@drdb.org. Visit www.digitalradionow.com or www. capitalgold.com. The full press release can be viewed at http://www.worlddab. org/pressreleases/Capital-gold-launches-biggest-DAB-promotion.pdf
DIGITAL NEWS NETWORK LAUNCHES HEADLINES ON SCROLLING TEXT Digital News Network (DNN), available to a potential 13 million listeners across the MXR regional DAB multiplexes in the UK, is launching local news and information scrolling text and data. The new data services provide the latest local, regional and national news to listeners via scrolling text (DLS) on each DNN audio channel, and also on an innovative DAB data service that provides more in-depth coverage of the leading news, entertainment and sports stories. The service is updated throughout the day, and is the first DAB data service in the UK to offer such a high level of local & regional news information. The software to run these services has been developed and is managed by UBC Media Group's technology division, Unique Interactive. For the full press release, please go to the WorldDAB website at http://www. worlddab.org/pressreleases/1_DNN_local_DAB_programming_18-02-03.pdf Top ____________________________________
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CAR MANUFACTURERS NEWS - UK COMMERCIAL RADIO SUPPORTS FORD CAMPAIGN A new radio advertising campaign supporting Ford's commitment to DAB digital radio launched nationwide across more than 250 national, regional and local analogue radio stations in the UK. The campaign is designed to drive consumers to local Ford dealers where they can experience in-car DAB via the Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB 52. To support the campaign, Ford has produced an eight page booklet on DAB as part of a distance learning pack for dealers, along with colour posters for all dealerships. Its consumer magazine distributed to 600,000 Ford owners, also carries an article about DAB digital radio in-car. For more information Ford and DAB, please contact Diane Wray at MXR at mailto:diane.wray@mxrdigital.co.uk , or tel: +Top _____________________________________ BBC LAUNCHES FIRST MAJOR MARKETING CAMPAIGN In June, the BBC will launch its first major marketing campaign in the UK in support of its digital radio portfolio. The on-air trail campaign on television, radio and online, will promote the BBCs five digital only radio networks, 1Xtra, BBC Five Live Sports Extra, 6 Music, BBC7 and the Asian Network. For the full press release, please visit the WorldDAB website at http://www. worlddab.org/pressreleases/BBC-05-03-03.pdf Top _________________________________________ MANUFACTURERS' NEWS PURE DIGITAL Has announced three new DAB digital radios at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show in February in the UK: * Evoke-2 adds FM radio to the DAB mix, plus stereo speakers and battery operation. Priced around 159.99, Evoke-2 will be available from the end of

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March * The Elgar is a special edition version of the EVOKE-1 that comes in a cherrywood veneer and delivers scrolling text on an LCD display thats white on blue. The Elgar is priced around 119.99 and is available from April. * The DRX-702ES is Pure's latest tuner. It features dual-band reception for use throughout Europe and delivers DAB, FM and AM. The DRX-702ES retails for around 329.99 and is available later this month. Also on display at the show, though not officially launched, was Pure's first personal DAB radio, the Pocket DAB 1000. More details on this one later. Please visit http://www.pure-digital.com for more information on PURE's range of DAB products. Top PERSTEL Korean manufacturer PersTel is launching a dual band personal DAB product at Cebit later this month. BLAUPUNKT Introduces the new Woodstock DAB 53 in-car digital radio at the Automotive Show in Geneva this month. Building on the features of the Woodstock 52 with AM/FM, DAB and MP3, the Woodstock 53 adds one-touch digital recording and speed dependent volume control to the radio's benefits. The Woodstock 53 will be on sale in Germany by the middle of May at a suggested retail price of 579 Euros. GYROSIGNAL At Cebit this year, DAB module supplier GyroSignal is exhibiting its newest products. These include: * DAB tuner (302 series) * DAB kitchen radio (303 series) * Mini DAB system (305 series (All of the above deliver Band III, L band and Canadian L band with FM and AM) * DVD/DAB system * DVB-T/DAB-T Receiver * DAB USB Receiver * Kids radio (details TBC) For more information on GyroSignal, please email mailto:welcome@gyrosignal.
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com , or visit www.gyrosignal.com. Top _________________________________________
PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT NEWS MANDLS-UNIQUE INTERACTIVE Emap has joined the growing list of DAB digital radio broadcasters to use ManDLS, Unique Interactive's online DLS text manager. Using an innovative web-based system, EMAP can now monitor and update the DLS text messages on all of its DAB services nationwide from anywhere in the world. Please contact Giacomo Shimmings at Unique Interactive, tel: +44 (0)1676 mailto:giacomo.shimmings@unique.com , or visit http://www.ubcmedia. com GYROSIGNAL GyroSignal has developed a DAB LED Display Panel that can capture live DAB messages such as news broadcasts, real time traffic news, latest stock/finance updates etc. The panel can be sited at commercial and public sites such as department stores, supermarkets, banks, government agencies, parks, buses. Contact mailto:welcome@gyrosignal.com , or visit www.gyrosignal.com for more information. FACTUM Swedish company Factum has developed a PC tool capable of inputting ETI or STI bitstreams and storing them as files on a hard disk. The DAB ETI/STI Frame Recorder can then play back as live. Typical applications are ensemble mux simulations for testing DAB transmitter or receiver systems, or for DAB compliance tests. Other developments from Factum include the STI-C communications monitor, and a data receiver for B2B applications over DAB. Please contact Roger Johansson at Factum for more information, mailto: roger. johansson@factum.se Top _________________________________________

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CONTENT WORKSHOP WorldDAB encourages broadcasters to attend a workshop for programmers in Brussels on May 28. "Capitalising on DAB Digital Radio" is a free workshop designed to discuss content and programming opportunities for broadcasters on DAB. It is the first time World DAB has held such a non-technical workshop. The event is sponsored by World DAB, AER Association Europeenne des Radios and EBU European Broadcasting Union. Registration for this event has now started, please visit the WorldDAB website for further information and the workshop programme http://www.worlddab.org/events/contentworkshop.htm
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