Digital Radio in Africa Opportunities and Challenges By: Vaughan Taylor Pr.Tech Eng. Transmission Specialist LS of South Africa

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1 Digital Radio in Africa Opportunities and Challenges By: Vaughan Taylor Pr.Tech Eng. Transmission Specialist LS of South Africa

2 Agenda Historical Overview Present Challenges facing broadcasters on the African continent The future promise of digital considering the following; Applicable Standards The relevance of digital trials for the industry, and Challenges for Digital LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

3 Historical overview There are well over 100,000 radio stations on air around the world today. FM Analogue broadcasting is widely used throughout the African continent these stations are either state (public) and commercial/community operated entities There remains a handful of AM and SW broadcast stations on the air today. FM stations are valuable commodities LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

4 Present challenges facing African Broadcasters The FM band in most African major radio markets is over-subscribed! This is the single largest barrier-to-entry for new radio stations in primary markets Traditional broadcast mediums such as AM and FM are generally inefficient as they only permit one programme per available slot Whilst the most common value-adds (being competent audio processing and RDS) are known tools to enhance a listeners experience, any radio station today is being challenged by the ability of any listener today to freely download the music of their choice onto a mobile device LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

5 The harsh reality of the FM band in several radio markets today LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

6 What does the promise of digital hold for radio in Africa?...(1) It is certain that FM radio will continue its existence in Africa and several parts of world, even though there are countries where FM analogue switch-off is planned in this year. For the most part FM and some AM/SW receivers are commonly available. For the most part AM audiences in South Africa for example are by contrast smaller to the FM markets. For primary and developed markets it stands to reason that the time is ripe to consider alternatives to supplement the existing analogue mediums.. LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

7 The promise of Digital.? (2) Applicable standards. DAB+ is one such digital radio technology which is aimed for use across several countries in Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. The original technology was developed in the mid 1980 s was launched as a trial by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in September An upgraded version (known as DAB+) was released in 2007 offering several enhancements above the original Eureka 147 version. South Africa has launched a trial DAB+ service which is being done through national signal distributor Sentech and the National Association of Broadcasters. The service was formally launched in December LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

8 Present DAB+ status of active/pilot services (3) LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

9 The promise of Digital..(4) Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work in the medium and short-wave bands. DRM is seen as the technology which will certainly breathe new life into traditional MW/SW analogue broadcasting offering listeners with much improved audio quality. An initiative headed up by Radio Pulpit has seen the launch of a DRM pilot service on 1440kHz being broadcast from a TX station on the eastern side of Pretoria. LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

10 The relevance and opportunities of Digital trials for the industry The relevance of digital radio trials are indeed a positive development for Africa by way of the following; DAB+ holds the promise to further expand radio markets where present FM capacity is diminished and/or completely exhausted. DAB+ and DRM are mutually inclusive technologies a station could technically exist on both platforms allowing the receiver to make the selection between the services! DRM provides a means to rejuvenate MW and SW broadcasting bands through offering improved audio quality and programme associated data features LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

11 Challenges for Digital Broadcasting The success of Digital Radio depends ultimately on the availability of receiving sets. DAB+ offers the widest selection of sets at this point with some of these devices being offered around USD25. There are fully-fledged services in operation in 21 countries around the world today. As in the case of DRM the world is eagerly watching the largest implementation of a complete network of high power transmitters for All India Radio in terms of further stimulating the manufacture of affordable receivers. A South African DRM receiver initiative is also being investigated LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

12 Thank you very much for your attention! LS telcom Presentation Lichtenau,

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