The EBU’s 19th EURORADIO Assembly took place last week in Tenerife, at the invitation of Radio Nacional de España.
The packed programme dealt with a broad spectrum of topics, including funding issues and the challenges and opportunites that accompany a more converged media landscape. In her welcome address, Media Director Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser said that, in the last year, radio had taken a more prominent position in the EBU, with the Euro-Chip campaign and the radio recommendation R 138 being just two examples of this.
The Secretary of RadioDNS, Mathias Coinchon (Senior Project Manager at EBU Technology & Development) demonstrated visual radio, service following and tagging based on the RadioDNS Hybrid Radio specifications. Mathias says:
“RadioTAG enables personalisation of programme enrichment. The demo in Tenerife was a prototype implementation where programme elements can be tagged – or bookmarked – on a simple receiver without web browsing capabilities, and the tagged elements displayed later on a more advanced receiving platform, such as an Android tablet.”
Mathias continues, “Tagging could help to enable the listener to listen again, download podcasts, or access additional information about the content. It can also help the link to social media platforms and to music platforms such as Spotify.”
EBU Technology & Innovation has created a set of tools for broadcasters to launch hybrid radio services, whether they are on FM or DAB/DAB+. An online platform is available, where broadcasters can very easily register their station and define simple visualisation. This service is free but, for now, experimental. The EBU believe that it is important that broadcasters activate hybrid radio for their station to break the ‘chicken and egg’ situation and help bring more receivers to the market.