Radio Broadcasting in Europe: the Search for a Common Digital Future

Europe’s radio is also characterised by a long history of being defined and driven by the state, in highly centralized fashion in the case of countries such as France (Meadel 1994), or indeed in former totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe (Paulu 1974), and along more federal or devolved lines in countries such as Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands (Kuhn 1985). The development of state broadcasting monopolies in most European countries, established in the early years of the twentieth century following the invention of sound broadcasting, has ensured that there is an enduring shared common ideological approach to radio broadcasting, which now finds expression in the field of digital radio policy

Emittance Quality of Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (TDMB)

Television terrestrial broadcasting technology, even fix or mobile have a rapid development along with the development of digital technology. Many countries decided to move from analog TV broadcasting to digital TV broadcasting. Sultan Agung Islamic University (UNISSULA), one of the private university in Central Java had begun to develop the Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (TDMB), as a research to support the migration from analog TV broadcasting to digital TV broadcasting. Because of that goal, must be observed the range of the scope by testing the TDMB Transmitter in UNISSULA. The tool of the test is drive test measurements by Purposive Random Sampling on the three research area, there are, the main road in Semarang, eastern part of the transmitter, Southern part of the transmitter. The Measurement is limited to strength and quality signal

Beyond Europe: Launching Digital Radio in Canada and Australia

Eureka 147 was, as we have argued throughout this volume, a European technology designed within the very particular context of European public service broadcasting (see also Rudin 2006; O\u27Neill 2009). At the same time, the consortitum behind DAB technology had the ambition that Eureka 147 would become the world standard for digital radio. DAB was indeed the first such technological system to achieve standardisation at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and be recommended as a global standard for digital terrestrial sound broadcasting by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

Digital technologies and the future of radio: lessons from the Canadian experience

This paper reports on an ongoing comparative study of the development of digital radio in Europe and Canada. Focussing on the Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) platform in Canada, of which it was an early adopter, the paper examines the complex interaction of industry, government regulation and the difficulty of policy formation matching the pace of technology development. Based on interviews with leading radio professionals, the paper presents a critical review of the ‘transitional policy’ towards the digitalisation of radio and examines the international market pressures that led Canada to largely abandon this approach in favour of the current multi-platform system. Despite extensive regulatory intervention to protect Canadian interests, the dominant influence of the US market on Canadian broadcasting matters is evident. Most recently, the entry of satellite-delivered subscription radio services by XM Radio and Sirius have illustrated the difficulty of regulating against powerful, global interests. Often seen as combining the best aspects of the European public service system with the commercial success of the US industry, the current stage of policy development in Canadian digital radio offers, it is argued, some important lessons for similar developments in Europe

Developing Digital Radio for Ireland: Emerging Approaches and Strategies

Ireland’s experience of the transition from public service broadcasting to public service media has gathered pace within the last year with new legislative arrangements for media regulation, the awarding of digital terrestrial television licences and renewed attempts to introduce digital radio broadcasting on the DAB platform. The national public broadcaster, RTE, has played a central role in these developments as it attempts to manage a range of technology platforms and to provide media services for an increasingly diverse and complex market. This paper addresses the case of digital radio in Ireland and the prospects for a successful launch of DAB in 2008. Following previously stalled efforts, digital radio in Ireland is clearly entering a new phase of development: a trial digital service has been established as of 2007, a new licensing policy is in development, and a partnership of public and private broadcasters, Digital Radio Ireland, has brought together RTE and a range of leading commercial, independent radio stations, to raise the public profile of digital radio as a new service. Public awareness campaigns, buoyant sales in the consumer electronics retail sector for digital receivers, and the shutdown of the national Medium Wave broadcasting service have all served to call attention to the fact that radio is changing. But is Ireland’s digital radio initiative a case of ‘too little, too late’? The paper argues that the context for launching digital radio is very different to that of earlier attempted deployments. A diversity of digital services is now well established and is likely to have a strong bearing on adoption of DAB technologies. Unlike the early 1990s when DAB as a platform was first developed, public expectations for new digital audio services have already been extensively formed through the use of interactive websites, online radio and personalised audio services, podcasting, file sharing and portable mp3 player use. Consequently, the paper will ask if public service media provision for digital radio broadcasting can meet audience expectations and if strategies can be evolved to avoid some of the pitfalls of previous failed implementations

Mobile Television: Challenges of Advanced Service Design

In this paper, we propose an integrative framework based on dynamic models of the evolution of industries. The main arguments are illustrated using the case of mobile TV. One main assertion is that the value network of mobile data services is much more complex than that of previous generations of mobile services, in particular voice and messaging. The new environment requires a significantly higher degree of coordination and integration between more participants in the value net and a consistent constellation of technology, policy and firm strategy. Unless such compatible arrangements are in place, mobile TV will not take off. The paper develops these themes theoretically and illustrates them with a detailed case study of mobile TV in South Korea as well as comments on the situation in Europe and the U.S. The private and public sectors in South Korea were capable of producing conditions in which mobile TV could flourish. Even so, significant challenges remain to create a financially sustainable mobile TV industry. In contrast, in Europe and the U.S. major obstacles to the development of mobile TV continue to exist. Unless these obstacles, including problems with spectrum policy, are addressed, mobile TV may not be able to develop its full market potential

Back to the Future: The Emergence of Contrasting European and US Approaches to Digital Radio

Digital radio has been in development for over 25 years and yet is no nearer a point of successful adoption. This paper explores the emergence of contrasting European and American approaches to digital radio. The most established of these, Eureka-147 or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), which originated in Europe, is contrasted with the so-called IBOC or /HD Radio approach, as alternative collective conceptualizations of how technology can bridge contemporary broadcasting practice to an ̳imagined‘ digital future. Drawing on the concept of ̳symptomatic technology‘ (Williams 1974), DAB‘s origins in European R&D policy of the 1980s and its affinity with established European broadcasting practice is characterised as a distinct technological vision for how the frontiers for radio broadcasting could be expanded within the European political and cultural landscape of the time. DAB‘s attempt to map a global solution for digital radio, combining satellite and terrestrial broadcast strategies, met with significant US opposition which subsequently supported the development of the alternative ̳in-band, on-channel‘ approach. While neither solution is guaranteed long term success, their importance lies in the mobilization of the relevant national and international policy frameworks for the construction of radio‘s future. Paying close attention to the discourses of technology inherent in these approaches and drawing on relevant contemporary engineering and technical descriptions, this analysis seeks to complement social shaping of technology studies (Mackay and Gillespie 1992) by focussing on the promotional efforts designed to support a particular technology‘s adoption