Projekt Announcement Radio Toolkit (ART) – Your Mix of Info and Music
About the project
The Bayerische Medien Technik (bmt) together with the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for new media (BLM), Mediaschool Bayern, Bayerische Lokal-Radioprogramme (BLR) and Bayern Digital Radio (BDR), is investigating the combination of music-only programmes with an announcement channel in digital radio DAB+. The project has a duration of 14 months and is funded by the Bavarian State Chancellery.
In the project, different music genres (e.g. electro, country, jazz) are broadcast in parallel to an information channel via DAB+ in the test ensemble 10D in Bavaria. The announcements are categorised and technically signalled according to the 10 types road traffic flash, transport flash, news flash, warnings, special event, event announcement, area weather flash, programme information, financial report and sport report (DAB Announcement feature).
On the reception side, listeners can individually choose the available announcement types on a radio supporting this feature. In case of an announcement, the radio fades out the music, switches to the information channel and returns back to the music programme afterwards. Due to the technical clustering in the project, the announcement feature will only be available for the provided music programmes.
In addition to the implementation of the basic idea, the project also deals with other topics, such as the cloud-based production of music programmes, speech synthesis of spoken content, virtualisation of the DAB multiplexer and the IP-based contribution to the DAB transmitter. The project also includes the evaluation of various receivers and a user survey.
Participants
Task & roles
Funding
Timeline
The project started in February 2023 and has a duration of 14 months.
Transmission network
DaThe BDR test network includes the two DAB+ sites Wendelstein (10 kW) and Büttelberg (2kW) . The network operator and holder of the frequency licence in channel 10D is Bayern Digital Radio GmbH in Munich. The BDR test network project is funded by the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM).
Receivers
The service can be received in the next months in the coverage area of the DAB+ test ensemble 10D in Bavaria with digital radios, which technically support the announcement feature.
In the project, DIRA M1 and DIRA M1 A mobile receivers from Telestar are used. Listeners who own such a device can add ART functions to their radio with a free software update.
Please note:
- The programs can only be received in the reception area of the test transmitter 10D and during the duration of the project (until March 2024).
- The software update is done on your own responsibility and under exclusion of any liability by the project