News

The Russian Commission presented a report on the possibility of working in Russia on DAB+ networks. It was decided that DAB+ technology could be used, pending certain conditions and availability of frequencies and changes in regulation. In South Africa, communications authority ICASA plans to conduct a survey to launch terrestrial digital radio in South Africa.

The group Bauer Media has decided to rebrand its radio station in Manchester Key 103 to become Hits Radio. The station will broadcast on its FM frequency in Manchester and the rest of the country in DAB.

Norkring have opened new support channels, and increased the bitrate from 64 to 80 or 96 kbps for DAB+ stations in Brussels and Flanders.

In Flanders and Brussels,the bitrates of almost all radio stations are increased to either 80 kbps or 96 kbps, which has resulted in a significant improvement of DAB+ coverage and audio quality.

Manchester's Key 103 is to become "Hits Radio" and become available on various local DAB multiplexes across the country. Hits Radio will go live on 4 June 2018.

The allocation of frequencies was done by the State Commission on Radio Frequencies following the meeting held on April 16. The band planned for usage is 175.872 to 228.128 MHz and the possibility of using these frequencies was confirmed by the Research Institute of Radio, which conducted tests of compatibility of DAB + networks with networks already operating in Russia.

Witold Kołodziejski, KRRiT chairman: "The National Broadcasting Council does not withdraw from the radio's digitisation plans, despite the questions and doubts that have arisen. We maintain financing for DAB+ digital radio for public radio, but we are also developing a new strategy that will enable the launch of additional radio stations."

There are 4 places in the multiplex of digital radio stations in Kyiv. Applications for participation in the tender will be accepted from May 17 to June 15.

Witold Kołodziejski, KRRiT chairman: "We have 34 cities with 47 frequencies just for the digital local broadcast and we intend to launch it as soon as possible. The next step is to launch a regional-national multiplex. We count on the fact that with time, there will be an increasing saturation of the market with digital receivers, because today it is slowly becoming a standard."

Wiltec has introduced the first hearing protector with DAB+ radio from 3M and the Honeywell Sync Wireless earmuff with Bluetooth. Up to 10 DAB+ stations and five FM stations can be stored via two buttons on the outside.