With this post, it my pleasure to state that you will read more frequently on radio & TV news form Turkey... According to the regulation which is issued on 23 December 2018 by the Supreme Council of Radio & Television there will be a tender on digital radio, FM & DVB-T2 in Turkey.  In this post, I will concentrate on digital radio.  According to the Item 27.1.b: "Sayısal radyo yayınları, ulusal ve ITU-R standartları ve teknik parametrelere uygun olarak Üst Kurulca belirlenecek teknik parametre ve standartlara göre yapılır." with my translation: "The digital radio broadcast will be made according to the technical parameters & standards stated by the Supreme Council, which will be decided accordingly to the national and ITU-R standards & technical parameters." From this statement it is not easy or even possible to find out the standard that will be chosen by Turkey. Actually there are more than one standard: DAB+ DRM+ DVB-T2 Li...

Since October 2015, HD Radio is owned by the DTS . I recently read a press release on the HD Radio by DTS. I want to share some important issues of this press release Acquired by DTS in October of last year, HD Radio technology is the only digital broadcast system approved by the FCC for AM/FM radio in the U.S. offering new FM channels, crystal-clear sound and advanced data services with no subscription fees. HD Radio technology was built into approximately 37% of cars sold in the U.S. in 2015 across all 36 available vehicle brands and more than 200 models. More than 2,300 radio stations have upgraded to HD Radio technology, including 98 of the top 100 stations in the top 10 U.S. markets. The latest updates from HD Radio include: A variety of new car models arriving on the market this year will feature HD Radio receivers, including the Hyundai Ioniq,  Kia Niro , Toyota Mirai, Toyota 86, Audi R8 Spyder, Lexus LC and Alfa Romeo Giulia. The Acura NSX will feature DT...

Time to time, it becomes extremely difficult for me to follow up the progress in technology. The main reason for this is nothing but MONEY :)  I have to finance all my trips to events, at which I have the chance to meet colleagues from industry and ask my questions. But, for some events, the cost for the event is too high, like the DVB World Congress in Venice. Although I bought the tickets for the flight & booked a hotel on my own, it seems that I will not find a way to attend the event, as it is not possible for me to pay 1000 € for a two day congress. The title of this post is again on the same issue, the unability to attend the events. As you may already know, there is a hot topic in the digital radio world: Sweden. It is a country of social democrats and a heaven for some, because of this. This Nordic country, has been trying the digital radio for many years and now decided not to proceed any more. It is quite interesting as another Nordic, Norway, is p...

Mr. Wenzel @ Amsterdam RAI, 2015 As those of you, who read my blog, well know I have been interviewing about digital radio solutions. I made interview with the head of DAB & DRM organizations; namely Mr. Patrick Hannon & Ms. Ruxandra Obreja. I also had chance to speak with Mr. Attila Ladanyi, CTO of T&C Holding. The interview with Dr. Peter Siebert, CEO of DVB Project Office, was, some how, also on digital radio.  Now, it is time to read another alternative approach. This time, I send my questions to Mr. Kenneth Wenzel. Many, know him as the man from Denmark, who tells that DVB-T2 Lite is enough for also digital radio. He is the CEO of U-Media ApS. I had the chance to meet Mr. Wenzel twice, one in Tallinn in 2013 and the second in Amsterdam in 2015. I also had the chance to saw his demo in Amsterdam, showing that radio over DVB-T2 Lite, actually works fine even on cell phones.  I personally want to thank to Mr. Wenzel, for his time... 1. Can yo...

Paris / January 2014 As you may noticed, I posted two interviews on digital radio, one of which is with Mr. Patrick Hannon & the second is with Ms. Ruxandra Obreja. I am pleased to say that both interviews were very informative for me & also for the Turkish market. I was working on the digital radio transition project professionally when I posted those interviews. After a change in my position, although I am not directly involved in the project any more, I keep following the progress and still try to understand the technology. This is the third interview with the same 4 questions. Mr. Attila Ladanyi is the CTO of T & C Holding and also a Board Member of the RDS - Forum. The photo in this post is from Paris. 1. There are many examples of digital radio transitions all over the world. Some are great success whereas some are total fail.  I think there is not a one-right-path to follow. What do you recommend us, I mean in Turkey, with all those experiences? ...

There has been a debate on the standard of the digital radio all over the world. WorldDAB & DRM are the two leading non profit organisation to support their solutions; DAB+ & DRM+. There is also another alternative with radio over DVB-T2 Lite profile. During IBC 2015 all three tried to convince the attendees that their solution was the ONE.   The panel of WorldDAB  Mr. Kenneth Wenzel, showing the digital radio over DVB-T2 Lite profile  Head of WorldDAB, Mr. Patrick Hannon Actually I should admit that I did not have chance to attend any DRM event. Although I promised to attend & I shared their program on this blog, I totally forgot this. I had the chance to meet with Mr. Kenneth Wenzel again, with whom I first met at the Levira's event in Tallinn in 2013. I also found chance to chat with the CEO of DVB Project, Dr. Peter Siebert & Head of DigiTAG Mr. Simon Fell & Deputy Head of DigiTAG Mr. Stan Baaijens. We had a meeting with t...

If you are interested in digital radio, then you will love Eureka!, the e-magazine from World DMB. It is not so frequent as a blog, but it gives you a quick update from the globe. According to the latest issue of the magazine Norway, will be the first country in the world to close down the analog FM broadcast. It seems that Switzerland will be the second. If you look at the GDP per capita, you can claim that this is not a coincidence.  According to the World Bank data, the GPD per capita of Norway is 97363 USD, and Switzerland is 87.733 USD.  You can have a look at the Eureka! . 

It is my honor to post this e-interview with Ms. Ruxandra Obreja, the Chairman of the DRM Consortium. Just one sentence information about the DRM: DRM is one of the digital radio standards available for choice, and is the only one which can work for all frequency bands. I want to thanks Ms. Obreja for her time and detailed answers. She came to Ankara many times for conference speeches. She is also  Head of Digital Radio Development in the BBC World Service.   In this second interview on digital radio, I used the same questions. I thought that by this, it would be easier to have a decision on both options. Actually, DAB/DAB+ and DRM may live together. Turkey may choose DAB/DAB+ for digitization of FM and DRM for digitization of short & medium wave radios. 1.  There are many examples of digital radio transitions all over the world. Some are great success whereas some are total fail. I think there is not a one-right-path to follow. What do you reco...

It is my honor to post this e-Interview with Patrick Hannon, the President of WorldDMB.  There are many examples of digital radio transitions all over the world. Some are great success whereas some are total fail. I think there is not a one-right-path to follow. What do you recommend us, I mean Turkey, with all those experiences? Digital radio is established in a growing number of markets.  The earliest markets -  UK, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland - have been followed by successful launches in Australia (2009), Germany (2011), Netherlands (2013) and Italy (2014). Recently, Norway became the first country in the world to announce a firm date of Digital Switchover (2017) and Switzerland plans for DSO in 2020-24.  In all of these countries, DAB / DAB+ is the chosen standard.   Whilst every country is different, there are a number of common factors, which underpin success: A consumer proposition which is superior to FM – e.g. greatly im...

As you may well know in Turkey, there is no digital terrestrial television & digital radio network yet. The DTT network will be build with DVB-T2 standard. This lateness may be a window of opportunity. I have met Kenneth Wenzel in 2013 in Tallinn, Estonia. He has a proposal for digital radio over DVB-T2. There are different profiles for DVB-T2, one of which is DVB-T2 Lite. This low profile is designed for mobile DTT, Wenzel claims that it is also suitable for digital radio.  His presentation is as follows: http://www.slideshare.net/KennethWenzel/open-channel-ukpresentationt2litebroadcast20150206sverigesradio?related=1 The only problem with DVB-T2 Lite radio is the receiver side. There are some receivers on the market and I believe many will be if more DVB-T2 Lite radios implemented.  

It was February 2014 when I first met with Mr. Patrick Hannon. Beside his professional carrier as a VP at Frontier Silicon , he is also the President of WorldDMB , the non-profit organization  is the global forum for digital radio, facilitating the adoption and implementation of digital broadcast radio based on DAB, DAB+. We have met in Paris, at the French Radio Days event.  I am honored to announce that Mr. Hannon accepted my e-interview offer. I will send him questions and post his answers. As you may well know, nowadays there is a digital transition in radio market. It is not as fast as television, but it progress. In some countries it is faster than others. Norway announced 2017 for the date of FM Switch Off. UK was the first to start DAB. Germany is an example of unsuccessful DAB and also restart of digital radio with DAB+. To put in a nutshell, there are different trials all over Europe.  Turkey, is an other example. Many do not know but in Turkey...

It has been quite a while since my last post. Unfortunately reason for this is not me. After three major election in two years time, I hope that some progress will happen. The only news to announce is that some changes have been made in the Act of RTUK. With these changes RTUK has the right to organise a new tender for DTT frequencies. In the digital radio side things are more complicated. FM frequencies have not tendered yet. FM broadcasters are waiting for a FM frequency tender, which will cause new problems. There are more than 100, yes hundred, FM radio stations in İstanbul. After a tender nearly half of these will loose their frequency. DAB/DRM battle is continuing in which DAB seems to be more lucky.

For more than 10 years I am attending TV Conferences in Istanbul. Name of the event was Cebit Broadcast Cable & Satellite Fair & Conference. I presented papers at this event two times in different years. By the time this event is combined with Cebit IT and conference part of the event disappeared totally. I am very glad to see that RATEM organized a special event for TV sector in Turkey. I should mention that iTVF is not just about technical part of TV. It is also an event to meet content owners with international sales firms. It can be thought as a combination of Mippcom & IBC. But of course it is just a small version of both events. At least for this year. There were two day discussions on digital TV and digital radio. It may sound unbelievable but in Turkey digital terrestrial television network is not yet constructed. In nearly all European countries DTT network is built, and again in many Analog has been switched off. We are a little bit late for both and time...