What is it I do again?
When I first started working on DAB Digital Radio in London, no-one had heard of it. It was a geeky world of techno-babble and acronyms and bore very little relation to most people’s lives. So I didn’t really try to explain it. I just worked on computer-related technology for a radio company.
Times have changed though, and the chances are that if you’re in the UK, you might well have used a DAB radio and experienced some of my work. The most obvious thing is the dynamic text that scrolls across the screen when you’re tuned to a station. Around two thirds of DAB radio stations in the UK use technology built by myself and my former colleagues at Unique Interactive to manage what appears in that text and get it reliably on the air.
For the last 18 months or so that same technology has been used on trial DAB services down here in Sydney. It’s actually quite flattering to pick up a radio set on the other side of the world and see your work in action on the screen. However, unlike the UK, Digital Radio here is virtually unheard of, and at least 5 years behind. Receivers are not on generally on sale yet, primarily because (beyond the trial) DAB services haven’t been licensed. What I’m working on here then is demonstrating some of the capabilities of the technology for the benefit of the broadcasters.
