May 2010 update

James Cridland 6th June 2010

This is a semi-regular email from Nick Piggott, Chairperson of RadioDNS, to the RadioDNS Announcement list. You can subscribe to the list elsewhere on our website.

RadioDNS demonstrated on a mobile phone

This (slightly delayed) update is coming to you en route from the TechINK Conference at Microsoft, Mountain View, CA, where RadioDNS was presented. and where we achieved two “firsts” for the project.

It was the first time that RadioDNS was demo-ed live in the US. We are grateful to our member Clear Channel for allowing us to use 98.5 KFOX, KISS 98.1, 94.9 WILD FM and Star 101.3 as demo stations for RadioVIS.

We were also able to demonstrate, for the first time, RadioDNS running on a mobile phone, using the built in FM tuner. You can see a video of this in action. The demo app, which can be installed on an Nokia N900 phone, was developed by Peter Redhead of the Creative Technology Team at Global Radio (UK).

If you would like to organise a similar demonstration, contact me (nick.piggott AT radiodns DOT org) and we’ll try and organise one of the members to help you. (See also TRIALS below).

Steering Board Meeting

The Steering Board met for the first time during May, and the minutes are published. The project is looking healthy, and we’re still working on a couple of start up issues, like where to open bank accounts and have registered offices.

The main action point from the meeting was to form three Teams to work on RadioDNS applications. More on that next.

I’d like to thank all the SB members for attending the meeting (which was in awkward time zones for some) – SB members are YOUR representatives at the executive level of RadioDNS, so don’t hesitate to contact them or myself (nick.piggott AT radiodns DOT org) if you have thoughts/ideas/concerns about the project you’d like to see more specifically discussed.

Teams

Teams are our way of bringing together people with a common interest in developing an application based on the RadioDNS framework.

As three applications exist currently, the first three Teams are there to work on those and make them officially RadioDNS, which will include formal declarations of IPR/Patent status by the identified contributors:

• RadioVIS – will be led by Andy Buckingham of Global Radio (andy.buckingham AT thisisglobal DOT com)
• RadioEPG – will be led by Ben Matthew of Absolute Radio (ben.matthew AT absoluteradio DOT co.uk)
• RadioTAG – will be led by Ben Poor of Global Radio (ben.poor AT thisisglobal DOT com)

As RadioVIS is pretty much in production, that team will work on some tweaks based on production experience, and formally publish v1.00 of the RadioVIS spec. The other apps are still in development, so your contribution is welcome to make sure they do what the majority of users need them to do.

If you, or someone in your company, would like to join a Team, there are two ways of getting involved:

  • As a MEMBER, you can nominate someone to join the Team on your behalf
  • As a SUPPORTER, you can ask the Team Leader if you can join by invitation, which the Team Leader will discuss with the other Team members.

Just get in contact with the Team Leaders listed above, and say you want to get involved.

If you’d like to champion development of a new application, please let me know (nick.piggott AT radiodns DOT org) and we can get it on the agenda for the next Steering Board meeting.

Talking of RadioDNS

RadioDNS grows when members and supporters evangelise about what a connected radio future can do. If you’re doing a presentation or conference spot, or blogging about RadioDNS, let us know on feedback@radiodns.org, and we can dig out some slides & visuals for you. You’ll get the credit for introducing people to the RadioDNS concept.

May was quieter than April (and it could hardly have been busier):

  • Nick Piggott (Chairperson) presented to the EGTA AGM in Vienna on 27th May. EGTA is the Association of TV & Radio Sales Houses in Europe, and had earlier heard from John Pearson (Virgin Radio International) that “radio’s greatest weakness is its lack of back channel” and from Dominic Grainger (Group M) that radio needed to be “more measurable” and have “verifiable innovation”. RadioDNS provides solutions to those problems, and was received with interest.
  • Nick also presented RadioDNS to a number of companies in the automotive space, looking at how RadioDNS might help in-car, and with traffic/travel information enhancement.
  • RadioDNS was presented at RadioPULS, an annual conference in Sweden organised by Teracom (a leading infrastructure operator). RadioVIS was demonstrated on a number of radio stations. You should read James Cridland’s (Secretary Elect) excellent blog about it.

Trials

More stations have joined RadioDNS to undertake trials. Trialling RadioDNS is free, but do try and give us a bit of notice to get you set up, as we’re still hand editing the zone file. Just email feedback@radiodns.org if you’d like to be added for a trial.

We expect the final fees for RadioDNS to be in the order of USD8-USD10 a year per station, with a set-up fee of under USD100.

Developer’s mailing list

The Developer Mailing list has been busy this month. The list exists to help developers solve problems, discuss solutions, or just find out more about RadioDNS. Yes, it’s fairly techie, but the level of discussion is informative. It’s also a great place to do a search to see if your problem has already been solved.

You can subscribe here.

If you need confidential advice, then please e-mail feedback@radiodns.org and we’ll try and put you in contact with someone specific on a confidential basis.

Finally

Just a reminder that RadioDNS is probably the most efficient industry project in the world, which is what makes our membership fee just CHF2.000,- (about USD1,800, EUR1.200,-) a year, and being a supporter is absolutely free.

If you know a station or an individual who’d like to know more or get involved, send them in the direction of http://radiodns.wpengine.com/membership or get them to email feedback@radiodns.org

That’s May’s roundup. Thanks for reading, and for your continuing support for the project,

Nick Piggott
Chairperson
RadioDNS

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