The candidates for this year’s Steering Board Election have been published.
All of the organisations currently represented on the Steering Board have put forward candidates, which is very good news. If you would like to stand for the election (or would like to nominate someone) then please e-mail me.
Only members can vote in elections, and voting will open on Tuesday 8th February and run through until the General Assembly on Tuesday 15th February.
The Fourth General Assembly of RadioDNS is to be held at the European Broadcasting Union, Geneva on Tuesday 15th February 2011 at 14:30 CET.
You are all welcome to attend, either in person, or via teleconference / web-conferencing.
The General Assembly is the most important RadioDNS meeting of the year, where you can see everything the organisation has been doing, and ask questions about its running and the future direction. The members and supporters of RadioDNS are key to its success, and this is your meeting.
Space in the meeting room is limited, and we must give preference to our members first, but anyone is welcome to join by teleconference.
You can view the draft Agenda, and register. If you would like to add items to the Agenda, please e-mail me.
The Fourth General Assembly, along with the Hackday, are all part of the EBU’s (excellent) Digital Radio Week 2011. Find out more about it, and see what other sessions you could register for.
The Steering Board is elected for one year terms. There will be an election for the new Steering Board (who take their roles in April 2011) in the week prior to the General Assembly (8th-15th February, and the results will be announced at the meeting.
Only members of RadioDNS can stand for, or cast votes for, the Steering Board, the roles of Chairperson and Secretary. Members will be contacted shortly to make nominations, and with the voting process.
Nominees and their details will be posted here from next week.
We’re very pleased to announce the second event for hackers / software developers who want to get involved with RadioDNS.
The EBU is hosting a hands-on technical workshop in Geneva on the morning of 15th February 2011 (09:00 – 14:00 CET), for which we’re really grateful.
This is a hands-on event, which is intended for hackers/ software developers who want to hack and develop code against the various RadioDNS standards.
There will be plenty of resources in the room, including a number of live transmitted signals (DAB, FM) to work against, USB devices to receive them on, code repositories and libraries (mainly for python), and servers providing content and warmth.
You’re welcome to come along and develop server-side services, client applications or any of the other software components that make up RadioDNS and its applications. (Don’t forget, the documentation is open for you to look at).
Space is limited to approximately 30 people (and their laptops). Priority will be given to RadioDNS Members, and we may have to restrict attendance to 2 people per organisation/company if the workshop is oversubscribed. You can register here.
Radio DNS – A clear story on radio’s future from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.
Jonathan Marks writes:
This is the first in a series of short videos made at IBC-2010 to explain Radio’s connected future, or perhaps “hybrid” is a better description. In this segment, Nick Piggott explains the bridging function that RadioDNS will provide and the problems it will solve for the global radio industry. I think the great thing about RadioDNS is that the concept is simple, it is already implemented in some countries and it works with any kind of FM or digital radio.
To me it is the equivalent of the decision in 1963 to adopt a 19 kHz pilot tone to switch on the “stereo” indicator on an FM radio. RadioDNS deserves the same instant global hit (and therefore rapid adoption). See radiodns.org for more information.
RadioDNS was presented to the Spanish radio industry at Radio 2.0 in Madrid, Spain this week – in a talk entitled “How can technological innovation increase consumption of radio, and effectively connect with brands?” (Nick Piggott)
RadioDNS will also be part of a speech at the EGTA “Radio Thematic Day” at the end of next week in Instanbul, Turkey. EGTA is the association of radio and television sales houses. (James Cridland)
And, later this month, the RadioDNS Project will be taking part in ON2 Test Signals in Berlin, Germany – in both the workshops (Nick Piggott and some of the RadioDNS development team) and in the conference (James Cridland).
We’re grateful for the chance to spread the word about RadioDNS.
Nick Piggott, Chair, writes the following:
Hello,
We send these RadioDNS updates out periodically, to keep you up to
date with progress on the project. If you or a colleague
might enjoy getting these updates, join http://groups.google.com/group/radiodns-announce
RADIODNS AT IBC
IBC is one of the world’s biggest broadcast technology exhibitions,
and RadioDNS was represented as part of the EBU’s “Hybrid Digital
Radio” presentation, on Stand 10.D12. The EBU have constructed an
entire digital transmission chain, and RadioDNS forms an integral part
of that.
Interest in the Hybrid Radio concept is high. At the EBU Press
Conference on Friday 10th September, which covered topics including 3D
HDTV, TV Loudness and Hybrid Radio, more than half the questions were
about Hybrid Radio. There was a steady flow of visitors to the stand,
wanting to know more about the opportunities that RadioDNS enables.
I’d like to thank the EBU for their kind invitation to present on
their stand. It’s a great example of how our Members and Supporters
can support RadioDNS in practical ways.
RADIODNS ON MORE DEVICES
There doesn’t seem to be any limit to the devices that people can use
for Hybrid Radio.
The EBU have implemented RadioDNS on the CHUMBY ONE, which is a small
desktop media device, which retails for around $100. Not only is a
great demo of how radio should work on a media device, it’s also been
enthusiastically received by the Chumby developers, who want to make
RadioDNS an integral part of the product. Follow the discussion here.
RADIODNS IN WASHINGTON, DC.
RadioDNS will make a presentation to the NRSC (National Radio
Standards Committee) on 29th September, to update the members on our
progress.
I’m going to be in Washington on 28th and 29th September, and can meet
any US broadcasters, manufacturers or service providers who would like
to know more about RadioDNS. If you (or a colleague) are attending the
NAB show, then do get in contact (nick.piggott@radiodns.org) and we’ll
find a time to meet up.
Thanks to the NAB (another of our Members) for organising this
opportunity.
RADIODNS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
RadioDNS encourages the development of open-source solutions. I’m
pleased to tell you about more open source code that is available to
developers, and could help you get RadioDNS services for your radio
station(s) faster and more cheaply.
There are two implementations of RadioVIS servers now available:
• The EBU has released its RadioVIS tool and server, written in Java,
supporting both STOMP and COMET.
• Global Radio has released a simple RadioVIS publishing tool and
server, running under Node (server side Javascript).
EBU will be shortly releasing more code, including the Chumby One
code, and Global will be releasing code relating to the mobile
clients. More on that soon.
SENSIA TO GET RADIOVIS WITH FM
The Sensia has been an iconic device for hybrid radio, and PURE will
be releasing a firmware update by Christmas that will enable RadioVIS
when you’re listening to FM Radio. This opens up the opportunities for
many more radio stations to start visualising their output.
NEW MEMBER JOINS RADIODNS
I’m really pleased to welcome Cox Media as a member of RadioDNS. Cox
are a prominent radio operator in the US, and it’s great to even more
of our US colleagues join the group.
PROMOTING RADIODNS
If you would like to include RadioDNS in your presentations, then get
in contact and we will try and provide you with things like Powerpoint
Slides and images you can use. We’ll try and make this a part of the
website, but in the meantime just e-mail feedback@radiodns.org
Of course, you can take full credit for introducing your audience to
the concept of Hybrid Radio.
—–
That’s all for this update. If you signed up after visiting us at IBC,
then thanks for taking the time to come to the stand and find out
about RadioDNS. As people join the list every day, I’ll just remind
you that RadioDNS is an open project, run by its members, and you can
find out about how to be a Member, Supporter or User.
If you have anything you’d like included in the new update, just send
it to feedback@radiodns.org. And of course, you can follow us on
Twitter as @RadioDNS.
Thank you for your support and interest in RadioDNS,
Nick Piggott
Chairperson
RadioDNS
Ben Poor, Lead of the RadioVIS developer workgroup, says in a post today…
I’d like to take a short moment to encourage all of you who are involved in
the broadcast of RadioVIS feeds to expand the range of platforms that you
support. I know that the majority of you are broadcasting RadioVIS topics
covering the DAB platforms, and some also the existing version of the IP
platform from the specification.
Some of you may be aware that there are a number of devices coming very soon
which will make use of FM RDS information to locate a RadioVIS feed, and it
would be most advantageous to Broadcasters and the RadioVIS ecosystem to
have your feed available at launch.
A number of different Stomp servers provide facilities to ‘symbolic link’
topics, meaning that there is not a great deal of extra work to be done. I’m
sure that any questions on the exact implementation of this would be
gratefully received on the discussion group.
We’re delighted to announce that RadioDNS will be demonstrated and discussed at Le Radio, France’s premier radio conference, in Paris in October.
Nick Piggott, Chair, will be at the event, discussing the future of hybrid radio.
At the recent IBC conference in Amsterdam, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) demonstrated a number of hybrid radio devices using open source radio production and transmission tools.
Above is a video of RadioVIS/FM running on a Chumby One: demonstrating FM audio being accompanied by visuals from the internet connection, using RadioDNS.
Notably, this service displays live pictures from traffic cameras, and the production tools also built by the EBU allow broadcasters to immediately slot live pictures into the broadcast.
The stand also displayed RadioVIS/DAB on a PURE Sensia and two implementations of RadioVIS/FM on two mobile phone platforms; as well as other digital transmissions. The entire platform, including the software-defined radio system for DAB transmission, cost less than €5,000.
The team behind the software suite – both the production suite and the Chumby software – plan to release the code in open source.
Further information related to this project: