ASIA

ENCO have released their own AI module that can be adapted into almost any play-out system.At the 2023 NAB Show, ENCO showed of the product, ENCO GPT, that uses CHATGPT and a synthetic voice from Amazon to create stopdowns that upload straight into a live playlist.Ken Walther demonstrated the product for radioinfo.[embedded content] […]

GatesAir launched a couple of new products at the 2023 NABShow.The first is an analog only FM broadcast transmitter that can be populated to provide ten kilowatts. (main picture)It has a lower form factor at 5RU and a lower cost.They have also released the new Flexiva GX range of analog transmitters with eight models ranging from 50w up to 3.5kw.Kevin Haider spoke to radioinfo about the new products, and about some upgrades to Intraplex that have been recently released. […]

Sierra Automated Systems have been showing off their Global Connect product at the 2023 NABShow. SAS Global Connect allows systems throughout an entire network to talk to each other.Brad Roybal from SAS says the potential for this new system is almost limitless […]

Dielectric have been kicking some goals throughout the Philippines, and Cory Edwards (pictured-l) and Jay Martin (pictured-r) talked about some of the successes and some of the challenges. […]

AI voice production has been one of the most discussed topics at this year’s NAB Show, and radioinfo’s Wayne Stamm talked to Jeanette Kadow from Veritone about their synthetic voice product.Veritone won product of the year at the NAB shjow in 2021 with it’s voice cloning product that can either clone a voice or create an exact replica.radioinfo: So let’s take a look at Veritone’s AI Voice generation.Jeanette: Yep. So we won product of the year at the NAB in 2021 with our synthetic voice product.What we can do is we can either clone a voice and create an exact replica of a talent’s voice so that it cuts down on them having to do studio time in reads and promos and all that stuff. We can literally tell it what to say and it comes out speaking like Ryan Seacrest or whomever, or we also have a library of stock voices with, you know different male, female children, age ranges, different languages, different dialects of those languages or accents.Australian accent is one of the versions here in English, and that gives stations who might only have 1 or 2 voice people the option to now have several voices on the radio or more voices of, you know, voicing the the advertisement. And it could also be in multiple languages.radioinfo: One of the things that I heard discussed not long ago was then are the extraordinary lengths that the Veritone goes to to make sure that somebody’s voice isn’t actually stolen.Jeanette: That’s right. So that so that’s a really good point. So you can go on the Internet today and create a voice in a minute, and there’s no ethical security around that at all.We are we are an enterprise grade voice solution. We have inaudible watermarking on that voice, there’s permissioning on that voice. We consider it IP. We take that very, very seriously.radioinfo: And you’re seeing it continue to expand, demand for it is growing?Jeanette:  Absolutely. So I think when it first came to the radio market, you know, the DJs were afraid that this was going to take their job until they started realising, wow, I really only have time to do these five, you know, clients voice overs, but now I can do 50 for across the entire country and I can actually get paid for it.Now they’re monetising their own brand and their IP.I’ve seen just a huge difference in the last six months of it, you know, it being more widely adopted.radioinfo: I heard, a term that was used about how Veritone is able to generate the voice and get it so good. Was that Garbage in-Garbage out?Jeanette:  Yep. So garbage in. Garbage out. So again, if you go to kind of like one of these websites where you can create a voice in a minute, you’re going to get garbage.It takes about three hours of training data to actually create a broadcast quality voice if it’s clean audio, and radio has clean audio. And then we just synthesise it and then it’s basically, you know, utilised at your discretion with permissioning and consent.Veritone is first and foremost and AI company that has built an operating system for artificial intelligence that leverages what they regard as all the world’s best AI models into one operating system.In their operating system they have real time transcription for radio broadcasts, text recognition, speaker separation and content analytics.Veritone work with about 90% of the radio broadcasters here in the US, ingesting their live terrestrial feed and it gets indexed with real time transcription landing on their platform roughly about ten minutes after it airs.Basically this means that anything said on the air is now searchable.To hear more about what they can do with their analytics, and their application called Discovery, listen to the following from Jeanette. […]

The Digital Radio Mondiale™ (DRM) Consortium is holding its first in-person General Assembly post-Covid in Palma de Mallorca on April 27 and 28  under the banner “Smart, Local and Efficient” (https://www.drm.org/drm-general-assembly-2023).The DRM Consortium is also inviting people to join the first, open day (April 27) of the event via zoom: s.drm.org/ga23-registration.The complete open session on April 27th promises exciting updates from all the continents, with new information from Indonesia, India, South Africa, Brazil, Germany etc. Some of the participants (like BBC World Service, RFmondial etc.) will bring their own news about significant DRM developments.The eagerly awaited receiver session is scheduled on the same day, with participation from NXP, Skyworks, Cambridge Consultants/CML Microcircuits, Gospell, Inntot, Fraunhofer IIS, Starwaves and others.The existing and new receiver solutions are already supporting the full DRM standard (AM and FM bands) and all the DRM features set giving extra benefits like EWF (Emergency Warning Functionality), distance learning and extra content in various languages.The encouraging activity of the India automotive group, the progress of the innovative education project led by Encompass Media Services will also feature prominently and individually on the open day.The open day on April 27 will be both global and interactive, and time has been reserved for questions and discussions.On April 28 the DRM members are invited to debate and finalise the strategic directions for the coming year.Ahead of the DRM General Assembly DRM is also launching two competitions, one of which is a photo contest: https://www.drm.org/drm-general-assembly-be-a-prize-winner/ with winners to be announced on April 27.According to DRM Chairman, Ruxandra Obreja: “We want to make the DRM General Assembly 2023 a showcase for our sustained effort and future activities in a challenging but successful year. We also want to use this chance to examine ways to accelerate the take up of digital radio. Digital Radio DRM has proven to be both global and local, flexible and efficient. The chipset and receiver progress has been remarkable. The DRM Consortium is a dynamic family of great members, associates, and supporters. Its valuable expertise and activity make DRM a current, perfect solution for the current challenges faced by audio broadcasting, allowing everyone to stay informed, educated and safe wherever they are.” […]