iTVF digital radio day

Day 2 of iTVF event hosted an important discussion: digital radio standard. There were important presentations from WorldDMB, Digital Radio Mondiale, EBU, RadioDNS and Sony. Session started with the key note speech of Mr. Taha YÜCEL, deputy chairman of Supreme Council of Radio & Television. He addressed some legal issues regarding the transition period from analogue to digital in radio broadcasting. 

It may not be quite clear for some that 3G / 4 G or WiMax can not replace broadcast. Let me try to explain this a little more. Technologies of cellular phones or WiFi depends on unicast streams. Where each and every user / consumer sends a request to the server and a unique stream starts from server to the consumer. It is one - to - one type of service. 

In the broadcast world however things occur differently. Service is send from the transmitter (like the server in unicast world) to the air. All consumers get the same if they are in the coverage area of the signal. This type of service is one - to - many. 

In some specific cases one - to - one type of service may be suitable, like true on demand service. But this, will require huge bandwidth and many servers. Especially in a case of emergency, it is seen that one - to - one type services fall down quickly. Like the bombing in Boston or earthquakes. Broadcasting on the other hand has also some disadvantages, main of which is the lack of a return channel. 

In the session it was interesting to hear that Finland is planning to shut its FM broadcast down at 2017. They, as many other countries in Europe, choose DAB+ as the digital standard. It is quite clear to choose an open standard. Where HD FM is basically designed for US, and is not an open standard. 

RadioDNS, was an other interesting presentation. I was aware of RadioDNS, and has wrote an article describing that in 2011. It combines broadcast radio with internet hence solves the problems of one way type of service of broadcast radio. I hope to be the first radio broadcaster in Turkey that tries RadioDNS. These is a secret, so do not tell anyone :)

It is understood from the session that:

• digital radio will not start before 2015 in Turkey. 
• as the number of receivers increase price of them will decrease but will never be as cheap as FM ones. 
• ANTEN A.Ş. will also be the transmitter company for digital radio.
• It is more or less clear that DAB+ will be the standard for digital radio in Turkey.
• It is an advantage that TRT had some trials with DAB in the past. This can accelerate the process of testing.
• RTUK, the Supreme Council of Turkey for Radio & Television, backs digital radio project. 

And one more conclusion from the iTVF, I am in the right direction to become what I always want to be. With more than 15 years of experience in Radio TV & IT sector of Turkey I know a lot of people and has knowledge about all the processes in the value chain of radio & TV business. 

Hope to work in a position and have chance to use this experience in the future.