David Day, president of DaySequerra Corp., thinks the industry has “got to find other ways to make radio a bigger part of home entertainment today.”
Radio World talked to Day as part of a series of newsmaker interviews in advance of the NAB Show. DaySequerra is a family-owned business with 30 employees based in West Berlin, N.J.; it recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
RW:What notable technology developments at DaySequerra should radio managers know about?
Day: 2013 is a big year for DaySequerra. Our significant investment in developing DSP technology will begin to pay off. We’re now shipping our new product line, delivering higher performance inside our lower-priced receivers and mod monitors. I’m just juiced with the outstanding RF and audio performance we’re able to get out of these new boxes.
RW:What will be your most important radio product news at the 2013 NAB Show?
Day: We’ll introduce our new line of DSP-based AM-FM analog and HD Radio modulation monitors, and our breakthrough HD Radio M4DDC TimeLock, a single box solution that automatically maintains MPS and HD-1 time and level alignment. The M4DDC is the first solution like this and solves a nagging, real-world problem for HD Radio stations.
RW: An important part of your business involves techniques in which stations implement HD Radio. What should users know about this?
Day: We continue to listen to what broadcasters need and focus to provide HD Radio solutions that make it easier for stations to monitor, process and align their HD Radio signals. We have had a great dialog with broadcasters who are looking to increase the number of HD channels beyond three, and how we can best support those very low-bit-rate channels with our LBR4 codec preconditioner.
RW: What’s the biggest question about the industry’s outlook that you hope to answer as you walk around the show and attend sessions?
Day: We are always interested in what the trends are and what direction the industry in going and what the outlook is for growth. I’m going to be on the lookout for where the industry at large is headed. These are very interesting times. I personally believe that we need to better package the radio experience so it’s more relevant to the consumer; Artist Experience is a good place to start. And there is just nothing like listening to a great 5.1 broadcast in the car. But we’ve got to find other ways to make radio a bigger part of the home entertainment today.
RW: What adjective would you use to describe business outlook for you and your radio customers in 2013? Where will your business growth most likely come from?
Day: Radio had a strong 2012 and we see that trend continuing in 2013. Cap-ex budgets that had been tight in 2011, improved in 2012 and are trending to increase in 2013. And DaySequerra will launch its new consumer tuner in late 2013; we couldn’t be more excited.
RW: Anything else attendees should know about tech trends that affect them?
Day: We see more emphasis on quality-of-service and systems that provide autonomic measurement and alerting to free up scarce engineering resources for other tasks as an ongoing trend.
Find other News Makers interviews at radioworld.com.
