Australia is just one of several countries now rolling out digital radio services based on DAB+ and other members of the Eureka-147 family of standards. In their case, it is Commercial Radio Australia which is leading the DAB+ challenge, unlike in many other countries where it is the public broadcaster that is to the fore.

This article describes the evolution of radio broadcasting in Australia and, in particular, stresses the importance for the radio industry worldwide to establish a foothold in the digital dividend now ... and control its own digital destiny. There are many technologies competing for the all-important spectrum required for digital radio and – whether broadcasters are thinking about digital radio now or in the future – they cannot just sit back and watch as other media technologies move over to digital platforms.

Since 2002, Frontier Silicon has shipped over 8.5 million DAB “solutions” (chips, modules, etc.) which are today used in more than 450 digital radio products.

This article describes how the company is implementing the new WorldDMB receiver profiles for digital radio in its latest generation of products, based on the Chorus chipset and Venice range of modules.

In the 5 years since my first Technical Review article on television displays, we have seen the domestic TV environment change out of all recognition, as Liquid Crystal and Plasma displays have essentially displaced the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) completely, in terms of sales.

This article covers the latest developments in the displays market, as we move into a world where manufacturers are prototyping a variety of different technologies and where 3D displays are also starting to appear.

To address the need for a more exhaustive luminance uniformity test for video displays, this article proposes a small-area uniformity method. In addition to the benefits of the currently recommended large-area uniformity, a small-area uniformity test can help identify sudden changes in luminance and also identify problematic areas and patterns.

This article describes some important issues relating to home networking. It addresses the issues of interoperability and connectivity of networked devices and then discusses the standardization progress in DLNA, UPnP and DVB. It briefly lists some proprietary home networking solutions and outlines some findings of the German research project, WiMAC@home.

Finally, the article provides some guidance to the broadcast community, to ensure that evolving solutions adopted by the market will meet their technical and operational requirements.