ASIA

India’s Radio City network recently concluded the first edition of its international property ‘Radio City Business Titans’.The three-day event celebrated the accomplishments of Indian entrepreneurs for upscaling their business through unwavering resilience and innovation. The event was held at Dubai and featured Indian business tycoons, Bollywood celebrities, and social media influencers.The event was held on August 27 where Radio City felicitated over 92 Business Titans across 20 business categories from multiple industries. It also featured Indian entertainment personalities Vivek Oberoi, Neha Dhupia, Sophie Choudry and Kainaat Arora who presented accolades to the entrepreneurs and commended the winners for establishing a successful venture.Dr. Bu Abdullah, Chairman of Bu Abdullah Group and Dr. Kabir, COO of Majestic Investments, Private Consultant to His Highness Sheikh Majid Rashid Al Mualla from the royal family of Umm Al Quwain also attended the event.Ashit Kukian, CEO, Radio City, said: “Indian enterprises are flourishing by integrating innovative ideas and technologies in their business strategy; thereby contributing to the growth of the Indian economy. We launched Radio City Business Titans with the objective of offering Indian businesses a prestigious platform to celebrate their triumphs and foster their business excellence.”  […]

RFmondial has successfully carried out a field test in Hanover under real conditions as part of the development of solutions for alternative distribution to DAB+ transmitters in the event of a disaster.In the event of a failure of the distribution link (modulation lines) to digital radio transmitters (DAB+), a stable radio broadcasting provision to the population must be guaranteed. As recent events have shown in the event of a disaster, broadcasting coverage in particular is an essential building block for informing citizens, since mobile phone networks are usually the first to fail. In order to increase the reliability of the broadcast an alternative distribution must be used during standard link failure (land-based lines in the event of flooding or satellite reception in the event of storms).For this purpose, RFmondial has developed a system that uses the regular air interface for the distribution, the so-called rebroadcasting. Those DAB+ transmitters that are no longer able to receive their standard link receive the program over the air from another DAB+ transmitter, convert it to a different frequency (channel) and transmit it again with a short time delay. This transmitted program is now received by one or more other DAB+ transmitters and broadcast again on a different frequency. This guarantees nationwide broadcasting coverage even in the event of a disaster.In addition, the control of the transmitters can as well be maintained via a data channel hidden in the DAB+ broadcast. The RFmondial technology was developed and tested in a field test in Hanover. For this purpose, a multiple frequency network (MFN) was operated, with a DAB+ transmitter (channel 5A) serving as the basic network transmitter in Hanover Hemmingen and another DAB+ transmitter (channel 7C) serving as a transmitter in rebroadcasting mode in Hanover Nordstadt. In addition to testing the rebroadcasting technology, the suitability of DAB+ receivers for switching to the now changed transmission frequency (service follow) has been examined. Manufacturers of consumer and automotive receivers took the opportunity to test and, in some cases, improve their receivers with regard to rebroadcasting.New developments by Plisch GmbH from Viernheim were used as DAB+ transmitter systems, which are equipped with various redundancies and thus ensure trouble-free operation. […]

The are delegates from the far, middle and south-east Asia, as well as from the Asia Pacific region. They hail from countries including India, Nepal, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore together with some from the UK, Sweden and a strong contingent from Australia.The Radio Asia 2022 conference, convened by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) is themed: “Building a new future for radio.” It is being held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.Running over two days from yesterday to today, Radio Asia 2022 will be followed seamlessly by Radiodays Asia 2022 on Tuesday and Wednesday (tickets for online attendance still available).The program yesterday comprised two Workshops. The first featured Akim Mogaji (below) from the BBC, UK, who spoke passionately about story-telling. Born to a white English schoolteacher mother and a black Nigerian engineer father,  he used his own experiences from childhood to the present to illustrate how stories are told. He explained the structure that underpins a good story, but it was the emotion in his story that shone through.The second session, titled New Content, New Platforms was led by Steve Ahern (main pic) who is currently Head of the ABU Media Academy. His message was that radio must “fish where the fish are.” So, if the “fish’ are listening to Spotify, podcast apps or other platforms, then radio must be available on there too.Joining Ahern (below right) was a panel of four experts, (from right to left):Andrew Morris of the CBAA took a deep dive into the value of the data available from digital platforms and how to harvest it.Richard Phelps from app creator All In Media (AIM) who spoke about clever ways to drive more listening through apps.Then, Alex Bilbie Clarke, Snr Product Mgr at the ABC, talked about what’s trending in apps – live streamed radio wins.And Natalie Pozdeev from AFTRS went into where the next generation of audio producers will come from and what type of content they will be making.The session closed after questions from the floor and lively discussion.
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Peter Saxon  […]

RNZ Pacific has resumed its shortwave analogue service to the Pacific region.The service, which airs between the 5 am and 9 am New Zealand time, was stopped in 2016.RNZ Pacific broadcasts in digital and analogue shortwave to radio stations and individual listeners in the Pacific.

The resumption of the analogue service will allow listeners in remote locations with a domestic shortwave radio to hear RNZ Pacific 24 hours a day, made possible with extra funding from the New Zealand government.RNZ Pacific will run three different frequencies at various times, at 5am NZT tune in on 7425 kilohertz, at 6am NZT listen on 9700 kilohertz, and at 8am NZT change the dial to 11725.The DRM digital service during breakfast hours will continue on transmitter two for its partner stations around the Pacific region. […]

Senior Indian Information Service officer, Vasudha Gupta assumed the charge of Director General of News Services Division, All India Radio.A 1989-batch Officer, Gupta has served in various capacities in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in an over 32-year  career.Before her appointment as Director General of the News Services Division of All India Radio, she was serving as DG, Press Information Bureau.

During her stint at PIB, she played an instrumental role in devising and implementing information dissemination products during the challenging period of COVID-19 pandemic.She is credited for leading the development a feedback dashboard for the Government of India across various media platforms, besides establishing a Fact Check system for the government.A Ph.D in Finance from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Gupta helped in the introduction of social media platforms in regional languages through All India Radio while she was posted as Additional Director General in AIR News. […]

Singapore’s Channel News Asia has launched a new digital audio strategy that involves live radio, original podcasts and repurposed audio content from some of CNA’s award-winning TV programmes.According to Crispina Robert, Senior Editor, CNA Podcasts, over the last 23 years, the CNA brand has undergone significant changes. Part of this evolution has been in radio. CNA938 began life in 1998 as NewsRadio 938 and in 2019, was rebranded as CNA938 and made available on mobile and online to cater to changing consumption patterns.Over the last two years, its signature news podcast, Heart of the Matter, saw steady growth in listenership – peaking during COVID-19, as audiences sought out expert perspectives on a fast-moving virus.

In the recently released Reuters Digital Report 2022, Singapore stands out as the only Asian country in the top 10 in a graph detailing the proportion of people who used a podcast. The report also indicates how technology is a big driver – new voice interfaces, smart speakers, in-car entertainment systems are all making it easier for people to ask Siri or Alexa to play their audio content.CAN Podcasts will now offer more choice with many new shows including a new personal finance pod called Money Talks. Adrian Tan and Crispina Robert navigate the issues around work and career in their podcast Work It.It also leverages on the best of CNA’s Radio and TV journalism. There’s content for book lovers, on health matters and all the news bulletins to start and end your day with. CNA Insider’s excellent journalism is also available in audio. CNA Correspondent is now available as a podcast – where hosts go behind the scenes to see how our journalists cover stories that matter to AsiaAccording to Robert: “In a world grappling with disinformation, credible news content is critical in our overall understanding of the issues that affect us. But beyond that, the wonderful thing about good audio content is the feeling that you are a fly on the wall, listening in on an interesting dinner conversation.” […]