ASIA

India’s HT Media has announced a 25% price hike for all its radio stations under the Fever FM brand.According to the network, the hike is needed as the industry volume is back to pre-Covid levels.The Fever Network operates Fever FM, Punjabi Fever, Radio Nasha and Radio One. While Fever FM and Radio Nasha are Hindi Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) and Retro Bollywood stations respectively, Radio One is in the international format and Punjabi Fever is a Punjabi radio station in Delhi.Overall, the network has 22 stations across 15 cities, reaching 35 million listeners with a cumulative digital reach of 6 million.It has three stations each in Delhi and Mumbai and two stations each in Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. It is also present in Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and in seven cities of UP.Ramesh Menon, CEO – radio and entertainment, HT Media and Next Mediaworks, said: “Advertiser’s confidence, on radio in general and Fever network in particular, is back and that has resulted in higher inventory demand in most of our markets. We are committed to providing the best advertising environment to our customers without compromising on the content experience of our audience. The ever-increasing demand for inventory has thus necessitated the need for price increase across our markets.” […]

Mirchi 102.4 FM, UAE, has introduced an AI presenter.The presenter, named AIRAH (Artificial Intelligence Radio Host), will host the mid- morning show Mirchi on AI from 10am to 1pm.The show will cover all things technology and social media.AIRAH is based on voice cloning technology powered by Deepsync Technologies and follows a text-to-speech format.The voice used for cloning is that of the popular RJ Sanchari. AIRAH also have her own social media handle @Airahonmirchi on Instagram.Brij Bhalla, CEO at Dolphin Recording Studio LLC, said: “This newest innovation will be ground-breaking in many ways in the days to come, opening newer horizons in radio. 102.4 Mirchi’s new radio innovation has ambitious plans to revolutionise the commercial radio space with its latest launch.”Preeti Phalke, Content Director — 102.4 Mirchi, added: “Radio as we know it, has evolved from SW, MW to FM in the past few decades providing entertainment in all formats across languages. From recorded to live radio, the industry has seen a 360-degree change in its approach towards entertainment. Radio has always moved with the times controverting the death of radio.” […]

Through its extensive presence across the Middle East and North Africa region, Sky News Arabia broadcasts comprehensive 24/7 regional and international news coverage across its TV, radio, and digital platforms. When the broadcaster enhanced its radio offering from a simple audio simulcast to unique, radio-specific content, they selected the DAD automation system from ENCO to enable intuitive audio workflows with their existing Avid iNEWS® newsroom computer system (NRCS).This project was developed in line with the network’s aim to consistently enhance its services. As Sky News Arabia was already using the iNEWS system for its TV broadcast, they also wanted to integrate their TV and radio operations through the same NRCS to keep the workflow streamlined, and ensure ease of use for its journalists and producers.ENCO’s iNEWS MOS Interface plug-in enables Media Object Server (MOS) protocol integration between iNEWS and the DAD automation system, allowing journalists and news producers to access DAD audio asset libraries directly within the iNEWS client interface. Users can search the ENCO library, preview clips, trim media as needed, and bring the results into their stories by simply dragging and dropping the desired items. iNEWS rundowns are automatically synchronized as playlists on the DAD automation system to keep everything effortlessly updated for subsequent playout.Audio clips can be recorded into Sky News Arabia’s DAD system in the studio, or imported as files either manually or through watch folders using the DAD Dropbox utility. Journalists interact with the DAD system primarily through the iNEWS plug-in, while studio personnel take advantage of the intuitive DAD Presenter interface for managing playout.ENCO’s world-class customer support and installation services proved extremely valuable in ensuring a smooth deployment for Sky News Arabia’s technical requirements. ENCO personnel ensured the project was implemented successfully in a timely manner, and played an active role in helping Sky News Arabia resolve third-party workflow and technical issues unrelated to DAD itself. The broadcaster has been very satisfied with the results of the integrated DAD and iNEWS solution, and continues to add DAD licenses at more journalists’ desks as their radio news operations have grown.Suresh Kumar, Director of Technology, Sky News Arabia, commented: “The process of deploying DAD radio automation and integrating it with our iNEWS newsroom system was done in line with our aim to constantly enhance our technical efficiencies. This seamless integration will enhance our ability to deliver content quickly and efficiently to our audiences through our radio channel, and we were pleased to partner with ENCO who acted as an extension of our own team throughout this project.” […]

AV digitizing and archiving specialist NOA GmbH has won a major contract with United Arab Emirates-based public service broadcaster and media company Abu Dhabi Media.Systems integrator Broadcast Solutions Middle East has been working with NOA to manage the project, which includes the delivery and installation of a complete audio and video archive workflow system in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the digitization of the organization’s entire national radio and television archive including 153.000 audio tapes and 340.000 hours of video.As part of the agreement, a scalable jobDB workflow management system will be installed as a basis for the facility comprising 16 channels of audio ingest with NOARecord and N7000c audio hardware units on four ingest places as well as 32 channels of video ingest with NOA FrameLector , five BarcodeStation custom script creation stations, five UniversalDialoger scanners and five full-scale MediaButler transcoding processors. In addition, the package includes a carrier positioning system for the required multisite logistic realization.The jobDB workflow orchestration system can combine any kind and number of audio and video ingest stations and server-side tools into an effective industrial digitization facility. It connects audio (and video) capture, quality control, and other client workstations as well as server-side tools and transforms them into an efficient industrial digitization facility. In addition, jobDB allows the setup of processes for capturing, reshaping, and analysis of media as required for archiving, transcoding, or other complex business processes. It integrates automatic, semiautomatic, and manual or instructive process steps in a well-defined and complex process flow.“This project is the largest Archive Transfer Technology installation to take place in the Middle East,” explains NOA’s managing partner Jean-Christophe Kummer. “ADM decided to approach this task with a CAPEX investment in mind — not as an outsourced service, since they have all gear, expertise and staff in-house and wanted to maintain control of the assets from a legal point of view. In addition, ADM is relying on us to manage the logistics of all carriers between the archive in Abu Dhabi and the ingest facility in Dubai. We are thrilled to continue our global expansion with this prestigious project and are confident we can assist the organization in streamlining its large-scale digitization process with our reliable tracking and quality ingest systems.” This is the second large deal for NOA in the UAE. In 2017, Sharjah Broadcasting Authority, the government organization dedicated to developing the media industry in the emirate of Sharjah in the UAE, purchased its first mediARC for the digitization and management of its entire legacy video archive. Subsequently in 2021, SBA purchased – besides a second mediARC system as part of its disaster recovery plan – also a complete OTT ready integration to ensure the preservation and presentation of its archive now and in the future.Established in 1969, ADM, which is part of ADQ, has become one of the largest media companies in the Middle East and GCC regions. The organization operates across the broadcast, publishing, and digital media sectors. In addition, the new addition of ADRadio’s digital platforms and applications features audio and podcast streaming across the radio assets. […]

Mediacorp Singapore’s English and Malay language station Ria 897 has announced a series of new programmes and pairings starting May 8.On the popular morning show #2BudakNakal, DJ Hans Ashrie returns to helm the programme together with Nity Baizura.R-ADI-OCACTIVE with Adi Rahman every weekday from 10 am to 12pm will feature a range of topics including food, physical and mental health, celebrity news and tech.Gen-M with Adi Rahman and Saffwan Shah every Monday to Thursday and Azlin Ali on Fridays, 12 pm to 2 pm will present focal topics through the millennial lens, all while holding true to Malay cultural roots and values. These topics include social issues, career entrepreneurship, travel, adventure and finance.Ria Mania with Saffwan Shah every weekday from 2 pm to 4 pm will continue to air familiar tunes and favourite hits, interspersed with discussions about all-things trending to empower listeners to embark on what their hearts desire such as starting that business or going for the dream solo travel.Malam Ini Kita Punya with Dalina Jaapar every weeknight, 8 pm to 12.00am, will treat listeners to specially curated playlists of Indie and love songs. Together with talk segments centered on issues of the heart, listeners can share their love confessions.Misteri Jam 12 with Hans Ashrie every Tuesday and Wednesday and with Saffwan Shah from Thursday to Saturday, 12 am to 1.00am, will continue to send shivers down the spine with the eeriest and spookiest supernatural stories. […]

India’s government has ordered its public broadcaster, All India Radio (AIR) to be exclusively referred to as Akashvani in all broadcasts from now on.Akashvani, which means ‘voice from the sky’ was a name proposed by Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore in a poem he had written for the inauguration of the Calcutta shortwave service in 1939. However, since 1956 both names have been used in the broadcasts.AIR began its journey on June 8 1936, when the British government renamed the Indian Broadcasting Company. The Akashvani name was added in 1956.In a satellite message on May 3, relayed from the policy division of the office of the director general, Akashvani, to all centres across the country, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has decided to enforce a provision of the law by which the radio vertical of Prasar Bharati will now be called only Akashvani.On Wednesday, the English morning news bulletin broadcast at 8.15 am-carried the All India Radio name in its introduction. But by the afternoon news bulletin, broadcast at 4.05 pm, the announcer had switched to Akashvani.Akashvani’s home service comprises 470 broadcasting centres located across the country and broadcasts in 23 languages and 179 dialects, covering 92 per cent of the country’s area and 99.19 per cent of the total population. The new announcement pattern will be followed in other languages or dialects as well.The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, mentions that ‘Akashvani’ means the offices, stations and other establishments, by whatever name called, which, immediately before the appointed day, formed part of or were under the Director-General, All India Radio of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Prasar Bharati Act came into force on November 15, 1997.“This was long pending and in line with the law which came into being in 1997. Our listeners have more of a connect with Akashvani and so we are ridding ourselves of colonial baggage that may have persisted,” said Gaurav Dwivedi, Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, which is the parent organisation of Akashvani. […]