MUMBAI: With the onset of New year, the music and radio industry in Asia is advancing towards new technologies. On 1 January, Dhaka FM, the first commercial HD Radio station was inaugurated in Bangladesh.
The station marks as part of the country’s phase II of FM commercialization authorizing new FM broadcast licenses. Present at the inaugural event were Minister for Information and Cultural Affairs Abul Kalam Azad, Secretary of Ministry of Information Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, and Brig General Ahsan Habib, the director general of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
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The first commercial HD Radio FM began broadcasting on 90.4 MHz using Broadcast Electronics (BE) RF and studio equipment.
RF and studio equipment manufacturer Broadcast Electronics and local representative Onair Solutions Ltd have provided a full RF and studio turnkey solution, from helping with licensing to launching of the station. Included in the equipment list were a new BE FM 10S solid-state transmitter with FXi250 exciters and new XPi 10esp HD Radio signal generator along with a backup STX LP 5kW low-power transmitter. For the studio, the station purchased BE’s The Radio Experience message management system for RDS text and HD Radio datacasting. BE’s AudioVAULT FleX studio automation system has been in operation at the studios since May of 2009, when Radio Dhaka signed on as the first live Internet station in the country.
Dhaka FM Ltd. chief operating officer MA Hakim said, …Just a few short years ago we started out as the first live Bangladesh station on the Internet. Today, we have been able to make these huge achievements with the help of our loyal listeners and our partnerships with local officials as well as companies like Broadcast Electronics and Onair Solutions….
Added Bob Struble, CEO of Ibiquity Digital, which licenses the HD Radio technology for stations worldwide, We are delighted that Dhaka FM has joined the growing number of broadcasters worldwide in adopting HD Radio Technology. HD Radio Technology offers Dhaka FM and other radio broadcasters a cost-effective and proven way to provide new audio channels and data services to their listeners without the need for new spectrum or frequency allocations….
With more than 100 HD Radio receiver models in the market and 22 global automakers supporting the technology, listeners in Bangladesh will immediately benefit from the new audio and data services of HD Radio, states the release. It seems that the industry has taken a New Year Resolution to invest huge sums in technologies, even though the media industry has faced a slowdown. Hope, the new advanced changes generate revenues and profits for the business to bloom this year.
