London dinner
AIB Private Dinner, London, Tuesday 26 February 2008
BBC sets Arabic TV launch date
BBC Arabic TV is reported to have set its launch date as Tuesday 11 March 2008. The broadcaster will start its programmes from brand new central London studios in Egton House, alongside Broadcasting House, home of BBC radio and the world’s first purpose-built broadcasting centre.
You can read more about BBC Arabic TV in the latest edition of The Channel, the AIB’s magazine. To subscribe, follow the link below.
Al Jazeera tops credibility poll
In an extensive poll of Arab Academics in over 19 countries, Arab polling agency The Knowledge World Centre for Polls found that Al Jazeera was the most respected news agency in the Middle East, and over 98% of Political Science and Media professors in the region claimed to watch at least 3 hours of Al Jazeera per day.
Demonstrating its unrivalled popularity in the region, the poll found that Al Jazeera’s viewership was over three times that of its closest rival, and over twenty-eight times that of its third closest competitor.
Over 96% of the Arab academics surveyed found Al Jazeera a reliable source for news and over 73% expressed their confidence that the channel would quickly correct any mistakes that surfaced in news reports.
Speaking about the poll, the Director of the Knowledge World Centre for Polls said, “This is the largest poll of its kind ever undertaken in the Arab World. By working for almost one year and sampling almost half of all political science and media professors in the region, we believe that we have illuminated peoples’ understanding of broadcast news viewing patterns in this part of the world. As the results show, our study found that Al Jazeera is the most trusted and widely viewed channel in the Arab world.”
Al Jazeera’s Director General Wadah Khanfar said, “We are very pleased with the results of this poll. It is further recognition by academic professionals across the Middle East on the value of our mission of bringing ground-breaking independent news to the Arab world. This poll serves as a testament to the professionalism and hard work of Al Jazeera’s staff around the world.”
According to the Knowledge World Centre for Polls, based in Amman, Jordan, the poll was designed to measure the perceived objectivity and professionalism of Al Jazeera among the Arab world’s academic elite. Conducted over 11 months in 19 Arab countries, the Knowledge World Centre for Polls sampled over 600 PhD holders, almost 50% of all Political Science and Media professors in the Middle East, almost all of whom reported using Al Jazeera as a primary source of news.
WRN enters Turkish FM market
London-based transmission company WRN has finalised an agreement with a major FM network in Turkey to broker airtime on its behalf to international broadcasters and programme makers wishing to reach listeners across the country.
The network offers 28 relays in the west and south of the country with a major presence in four of Turkey’s five largest cities; Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa and Adana.
The FM network can broadcast programmes in Turkish, English, French and German and already hosts regular shows from Deutsche Welle and US religious broadcaster Family Radio. Broadcasters are able to specify coverage across the entire network, regionally and even locally.
Marina Lois, WRN’s product development and distribution manager, says: “Our agreement with this FM network opens it up to any international broadcasters seeking to reach a substantial population in Turkey and is part of WRN’s strategy to develop FM and AM relay opportunities for international broadcasters in key global locations. These already include relays in Afghanistan, Israel, Argentina and several major American cities.”
Broadcasters given access to Hillary state funeral
Radio New Zealand will provide extensive coverage of the state funeral for Sir Edmund Hillary from St. Marys Church in Auckland on Tuesday 22nd January.
Radio
New Zealand will provide extensive coverage of the state funeral for Sir
Edmund Hillary (left) from St. Marys Church in Auckland on Tuesday 22nd January
and is offering the coverage to broadcasters around the world on a
non-commercial free-of-charge basis (see below).
As the official radio broadcaster Radio New Zealand will also ensure New
Zealanders all over the world have the opportunity to be part of a very
significant time of national reflection and commemoration. Radio New Zealand
will broadcast the entire service live and will live-stream via the Radio New
Zealand website www.radionz.co.nz for
international audiences, allowing New Zealanders living or holidaying overseas
to share this important occasion with their friends and families back home.
People in the Pacific and parts of South East Asia listening on short wave will
be able to tune in to Radio New Zealand International on the frequencies of
15,720 kHz for the analogue service, and 17,675 kHz for DRM.
For those unable to listen to Radio New Zealands live coverage, a recording of
the service will be available on the website to be replayed as audio-on-demand
and as a podcast.
Radio New Zealand coverage will begin from 6.00 am on Tuesday morning (NZ time).
Morning Report and Nine to Noon will use respected senior
broadcasters including Geoff Robinson and Jack Perkins and a team of news
reporters in the lead up to live coverage of the funeral service which will
commence at 10.30 am.
The Radio New Zealand website is featuring several audio on demand programmes
covering the life and times of Sir Edmund Hillary, including an obituary by
Morning Reports Geoff Robinson and two special documentaries produced by
Jack Perkins for Radio New Zealand National.
Everest And Beyond, a tribute to the extraordinary life and
achievements of Sir Edmund Hillary was first broadcast on Friday 11th January
and Its One Thing To Climb A Mountain is a special three-part series
tracing the late Sir Edmund Hillarys extraordinary life from the conquest of
Everest onwards. The programmes highlight the largely untold stories of those
who were shoulder-to-shoulder with Sir Ed on his expeditions to remote corners
of the world and during his humanitarian activities with Nepals Sherpa people.
Broadcasters
wishing to carry the Radio New Zealand coverage or run the documentaries should
contact Matthew Finn, Broadcast Infrastructure Manager, or John Barr,
Communications Manager. The e-mail address system at RNZ is firstname.lastname @
radionz.co.nz.
Radioscape dives into the internet
Radioscape has entered the fast-growing world of internet radio, partnering with CSR to develop a complete internet radio design that’s being deployed in UK manufacturer Intempo’s internet radio products.
Intempo’s Daisy radio has been designed around RadioPro, CSR’s Wi-Fi internet radio example design. RadioPro provides Intempo with the benefits of a quick time to market, a flexible design and the lowest power internet radio platform in the industry. In partnership with Radioscape, CSR jointly developed the combined internet and FM radio to bring Intempo’s radio quickly to the market.
RadioPro is based on two low power chips from CSR: UniFi and its Multimedia Application Processor (MAP), a highly integrated chip with a RISC processor, a DSP and a stereo codec. The low power design of RadioPro has allowed Intempo’s internet radio to deliver 20 hours of continuous music streaming.
Tracy Hopkins Vice President of CSR’s Consumer Business Unit, commented, “CSR is committed to making the adoption and integration of wireless technology easier for designers and manufacturers. CSR’s RadioPro was designed with the intention of enabling OEMs such as Intempo to quickly produce internet radio devices for the mass market.”
Kevin Parslow, Intempo Design added, “CSR’s UniFi Wi-Fi silicon and software has enabled us to produce an internet radio that offers high quality and performance to a wide audience. The CSR RadioPro example design allowed us to bring the Daisy radio to mass production within a very short space of time.”
Andrew Dewhurst, Product Manager at RadioScape, added: “We have decided to jump straight past the conventional module approach and have provided our first complete Internet radio design. Firmware updates can be sent to all or specific receivers over the Internet and the receivers have a fail-safe backup in case of failed or interrupted downloads.”
The Intempo internet radio will be in UK shops in Q2 2008 with a price tag of GBP149.