Anthony Doesburg: Keep it quiet, but Aussie radio leaping ahead

As radio stations in Australia's five biggest cities progressively start digital broadcasts from today, the New Zealand radio industry is being cautioned not to talk up the technology too far ahead of time.

Australia's move to digital begins in Perth and during this month dozens more private radio stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide will follow suit. The public-service ABC and SBS networks will go live in August.

"I think it's a pretty big deal," says Joan Warner, head of Commercial Radio Australia, the industry body that is driving the move to digital.

The digital switch-on, based on DAB+ technology, has been three years in the planning and is costing about A$60 million ($75.78 million) for coverage in the five metropolitan areas.

"Even in a time of financial crisis we're putting our money where our mouth is. We're pushing our industry forward."

In part that's recognition that if existing broadcasters don't take the step, newcomers could steal their lunch. But the investment should also pay dividends by opening up new ways for radio stations to reach their audiences.

"It's a strategic move, and a necessary one, just as being online and having podcasts and getting into every device we can are necessary for radio broadcasting."

And let's not forget the listeners - what will they get from digital radio?

For one thing they will have in-building coverage.

If it seems remarkable that Warner sees fit to tout that as a feature of the service, she points out that elsewhere in the world where digital radio has been introduced, indoor reception has not been a given. "We've learned from overseas mistakes, where they only planned for mobile coverage, and therefore often the digital signal doesn't get into apartment blocks or buildings or is very weak."

The dividend for broadcaster and audience, however, is that there's more to digital radio than just sound. Depending on how much listeners are prepared to fork out for a receiver - retailers such as Dick Smith Electronics and Harvey Norman are selling them from about A$140 - they'll be able to pick up a range of text and visual information being transmitted by broadcasters.

More expensive digital radios will also have pause and rewind features. And digital - as opposed to analogue - allows more audio channels to be squeezed into the same amount of radio spectrum.

That all adds up to more content around which to sell ads in new ways.

Just as Australia has absorbed the lessons of overseas digital radio pioneers, New Zealand's radio industry would do well to learn from the experience of its transtasman counterpart.

First up, Warner advises, resist promoting the technology too early.

"Don't tell listeners too much about it before you're very close to turning on services, otherwise they lose interest."

Commercial Radio Australia began a digital radio advertising campaign only three weeks ago.

"The other thing is make sure that both public-service broadcasters and commercial broadcasters are working closely together and that the message that goes out to the market is the same from everybody."

Warner says it's also important to have retailers and manufacturers on side. "Be talking to them 12 months out. Keep them in the loop - if there are any delays, let them know."

Riding Australia's coat-tails certainly makes sense from a technology viewpoint. DAB+ is one of numerous digital radio standards, and is an advance on DAB, used in Britain. But the US is using HD Radio, with which DAB+ is incompatible.

The benefit of New Zealand using the same technology as Australia would be cheaper receivers.

And that looks to be the way we're going. Kordia - which has designs on being New Zealand's digital radio infrastructure provider, as it already is for Freeview digital TV - began running a DAB trial with several radio stations in Auckland in October 2007. Several are now also being broadcast in DAB+, including Radio NZ's Concert programme.

Aaron Olphert, Kordia's business manager, says there have been no technical hitches. Because DAB+ makes frugal use of the airwaves - as many as 20 DAB+ channels can be transmitted in roughly the same amount of spectrum needed for a single FM signal - there had been concern that it would not be suitable for the high dynamic range of classical music. But that hasn't proved the case.

"The hurdle is getting access to commercial spectrum," Olphert says. And that's dependent on spectrum being freed up as analogue TV is phased out, for which there is no firm timetable.

Warner, meanwhile, doesn't want to guess how quickly digital radio will rule the Aussie airwaves. But one receiver maker speculates that 15 per cent of radio listening could be digital within three years. They'll have some idea how realistic that is as they begin collecting receiver sales data from today.

On the airwaves

Digital radio's benefits include:

* More stations in the same amount of spectrum.
* Radios can offer features such as pause, rewind and record.
* Signal can also transmit text, so details such as the song's name can be shown on a small screen on the radio.