NAB EVP/CTO Kevin Gage challenged broadcasters to include mobility when thinking of traditional radio strengths like robustness, scalability and localism in terms of future broadcasting systems.
“The audiences we serve are increasingly mobile, and they want their media content along for the ride, Gage said, speaking at the opening of NAB’s Broadcast Engineering Conference last week in Las Vegas.
“Radio has long been a mobile service, but we can make it even more pervasive with its inclusion on more handheld devices, and its expanded service to vehicles through hybrid radio techniques.”
Gage asked broadcasters to engage and help make NAB Labs a vehicle “for our mutual propulsion into the next generation of broadcasting,” as reported by the NAB Tech Check.
The Labs has begun work on areas to benefit radio, such as “hybrid radio,” the back-channel from cellphones with embedded FM chips back to the station and to advertisers, as well as AM revitalization, citing the station tests of all-digital AM HD Radio technology. The latter had never been broadly tested, he said, noting the resulting data shows “promising results.”
“Today’s consumer is more technologically demanding and savvy than any other era, and with our new platforms we will have a new way to connect with them, to meet their requirements and exceed their expectations,” according to Gage.
