RadioScape plc has announced that following a number of recent contract awards it has now delivered its 100th DAB Broadcast System for live service transmission.
The Company has additionally sold over 40 broadcast and test systems to DAB receiver manufacturers across Europe and Asia building radios for this expanding market.
2008 will be a year of increasing activity in the international radio market as more countries roll-out DAB and DAB+ services, commented John Hall, CEO, RadioScape. With new contracts in China, Indonesia and Belgium we now have DAB installations in 14 countries and we see demand continuing to increase on the back of further successful field trials in recent months.
RadioScapes announcement comes at a time when the UK commercial broadcast industry is debating the economic viability of DAB. Hall commented: Broadcasters realise they must take advantage of the opportunities afforded by digital if they are to make DAB economic. We are increasingly working in close cooperation with broadcasters to enable new types of digital content and services, leveraging our significant DAB receiver expertise to create end to end solutions. Most of these engagements are overseas at present, but we see real opportunity to assist UK broadcasters encourage more rapid consumer take-up.
In China, where RadioScape is already the primary supplier of DAB broadcast systems, the Company has recently expanded its installed base of DAB broadcast and monitoring systems, and is now enabling services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Yunnan. Chinas media ministry, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), has already endorsed DAB as the industrial standard for digital audio broadcasting in China. DAB transmissions will be a major feature of the 2008 Olympics with 14 services being planned for live transmission during the Games.
In Indonesia, a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) cooperation project, between South Koreas Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and DMB Nusantara, a Jakarta-based DMB service provider, recently selected RadioScapes DAB Broadcast System for its nationwide DMB infrastructure across Indonesia. This will enable access to mobile broadcasting services for up to 40 million Indonesians including radio, TV programs, movies and other entertainment content on mobile devices.
In Belgium, RadioScape has recently been awarded a contract by the state broadcaster, RTBF, to provide its latest fusion broadcast systems and field monitoring equipment to enable the roll-out of DAB services to the French speaking area of Belgium.
Many countries are also in the process of concluding DAB trials using RadioScapes broadcast and field monitoring systems: In Australia, RadioScapes field monitor and fusion broadcast systems have recently been used to undertake DAB+ network tests in Sydney. The tests were coordinated by Commercial Radio Australia, the national industry body representing Australia’s commercial radio broadcasters. The Australian Government requires the commercial DAB+ network rollout, for metropolitan areas, to be operational by 1st January 2009.
France also recently announced that all of its radio services will be digitised in the near future. As part of that process, RadioScapes portable field monitors were deployed in the trials in Nantes, while Digital Radio France deployed field monitors in its Paris trial.
Germany has invested in a significant number of RadioScapes latest range of field monitors to assist regional engineers in maintaining the national DAB transmitter network. Recently, both commercial and public broadcasters released statements of support for a re-launch of digital radio in Germany based on the Eureka 147 family of standards.
Quentin Howard, President WorldDMB, commented: Todays announcement by RadioScape is further evidence that the DAB family of standards continues to gain momentum around the world, becoming the system of choice for European and Asian broadcasters. No other system offers the variety and range of consumer devices, nor matches DABs low network costs, making it the worlds leading terrestrial digital radio and mobile multimedia solution.