Developments in the automotive sector - including the importance of metadata - were the focus of the first half of the session, followed by the global growth in small-scale DAB.
Now you can get up to speed with the video of the briefing, coupled with the expert speakers’ presentations.
WorldDAB’s Vice-President and Project Director of Digital Radio Netherlands, Jacqueline Bierhorst set the positive tone for the event, detailing how DAB+ is driving the uptake of digital radio, with it now being standard in over 90% of new cars sold in Europe.
The good news continued with Laurence Harrison from Radioplayer Worldwide recapping highlights from last year’s Car Buyers Survey which found that buyers say broadcast radio is the most valued audio source in the car. He described the figures as “unbelievably compelling and consistent,” and urged that broadcasters and car manufacturers collaborate to keep radio prominent and a good experience.
Lindsay Cornell, Chair of the WorldDAB Technical Committee, provided expert advice on using metadata to ensure stations look their best in the car. For broadcasters, he advised using the Service and Programme Information (SPI) to provide metadata over DAB to enhance services, and for device makers to decode the SPI over DAB in the background to enhance the User Interface.
Gereon Joachim from Xperi further emphasised the vital nature of metadata, saying that broadcaster-owned and created non-linear content has an important role to play in local market content discovery and personalisation. He showed a new example of song lyrics displayed on a Mercedes dashboard using DTS Autostage, with the metadata providing branding and deep engagement for listeners. Discovery only works with metadata – without it, it will become increasingly difficult to find the station, Joachim warned.