MrXX®
16-02-2004, 04:08 PM
www.radioinfo.com.au
Continuing with our digital radio focus this week, radioinfo spoke to
the Chairman of Satellite Music Australia Greg Solomon who, with his
brother Rick, owns a company which has been broadcasting digital audio
on Pay TV and in-house radio channels for 8 years. We wanted to find
out what he has learnt about how consumers are responding.
SMA got a kick along this month as Foxtel announced that its digital
expansion would include 30 channels from SMA (as reported here last
week).
When radioinfo caught up with him he was on his way home from a Foxtel
meeting where he was discussing the price of services. “There will be
a big announcement on prices in the next few days,” says Solomon. The
audio channels his company provides will be available to all customers
on the carrier’s basic package, as they are currently on Austar.
Solomon sees the best thing about working with digital to be the fact
that so much information can be stored in the digital format about
each item.
“We store everything in 16 bit WAV format. As each track comes in we
digitize it and ad 22 – 34 pieces of metadata to each track. This
includes licencing information, artist, album, release date, and then
we go down more to include track data, tempo, acoustic power,
harmonics. We then ad a lot of other info such as biography and other
data. Because the platforms we are sending to Austar have been fully
interactive the data is useful to consumers in many ways.
“All that data has been available from us for a long time and will now
become more required by consumers and transmission agencies. The
Foxtel digital program guide will show name and artist and track on
each channel now and will work towards being fully interactive."
Solomon gives examples of interactive Gig Guides which allow consumers
to search for a band playing and show performance details. “Soon we
will also be able to back end it into a seating plan and show what
seats are available at the gig. Eventually consumers will be able to
purchase seats using their remote control.”
Other interactive services offered by SMA’s channels include news
headlines and music charts. Interactive competitions will also be
added.
“We’ve been doing this for 8 years now,” says Solomon. “We now have
the largest digital library in the Southern Hemisphere by a country
mile. A massive database built over 8 years. Unlike radio stations, we
have all genres available which are already digitized in intelligent
files. Depending on what platform it has to go to, whether it be pay
tv, internet, kiosk or carrier pigeon, we can wrap, pack and ship the
data in whatever from a client may want.
“We are not the end interface with consumer, we are the engine for
others. There are some internet players with big library databases
too, but their libraries are in mp3, which throws one sixth of the
data into the garbage bin. That’s fine for internet speakers, but when
you’re sending it to 5.1 sound systems and Hi Fis, you want best
quality.”
On SMA’s current audio channels the consumer sees the track listening,
artist name and record company with a background graphic. SMA is
currently sending 24 channels to Austar and will send 30 to Foxtel.
When asked about the services current users most value Solomon says
“overwhelmingly it is quality first and then the amazing range of
choice.”
The channels are mostly “commercial free and DJ chatter free.”
“If you’re a jazz freak you can tune in to us for your dinner party
without getting announcer interruptions. Because we have such a large
library the variety is amazing and we program it very intelligently.
There’s not a 4-6 hour rotation on our channels except those which are
purposely built on high rotation.
“We work on the tempo rate and harmonics and relate that to the
surrounding tracks to create a great program for the target consumer.
On some stations we change the mood as the day progresses, on the
dance channel where listeners want to bounce off the walls after 11pm
on Friday and Saturday nights we program the best mix for them.”
1100 tracks are added to the SMA database per week and the company
works with record companies to assist them in digitizing their artist
releases.
When asked about his thoughts on free-to-air digital radio, Greg
Solomon is surprised it hasn’t happened faster. “I think the major
operators have baulked at the expense so far and have been trying to
work out how they can keep the jump on their competitors because this
evens the playing field between AM and FM. That is starting to change
now.”
According to Solomon the compelling reasons for a consumer to buy a
digital radio will be “quality” and “new services.” He cites US
satellite digital radio as an example of this model working for
consumers.
In the US, as in Australia and the UK, competition from new sectors
has galvanized traditional radio sectors to get over their rivalries
and work together to oppose the new players – time will tell if this
works for the radio industry as a whole.
Continuing with our digital radio focus this week, radioinfo spoke to
the Chairman of Satellite Music Australia Greg Solomon who, with his
brother Rick, owns a company which has been broadcasting digital audio
on Pay TV and in-house radio channels for 8 years. We wanted to find
out what he has learnt about how consumers are responding.
SMA got a kick along this month as Foxtel announced that its digital
expansion would include 30 channels from SMA (as reported here last
week).
When radioinfo caught up with him he was on his way home from a Foxtel
meeting where he was discussing the price of services. “There will be
a big announcement on prices in the next few days,” says Solomon. The
audio channels his company provides will be available to all customers
on the carrier’s basic package, as they are currently on Austar.
Solomon sees the best thing about working with digital to be the fact
that so much information can be stored in the digital format about
each item.
“We store everything in 16 bit WAV format. As each track comes in we
digitize it and ad 22 – 34 pieces of metadata to each track. This
includes licencing information, artist, album, release date, and then
we go down more to include track data, tempo, acoustic power,
harmonics. We then ad a lot of other info such as biography and other
data. Because the platforms we are sending to Austar have been fully
interactive the data is useful to consumers in many ways.
“All that data has been available from us for a long time and will now
become more required by consumers and transmission agencies. The
Foxtel digital program guide will show name and artist and track on
each channel now and will work towards being fully interactive."
Solomon gives examples of interactive Gig Guides which allow consumers
to search for a band playing and show performance details. “Soon we
will also be able to back end it into a seating plan and show what
seats are available at the gig. Eventually consumers will be able to
purchase seats using their remote control.”
Other interactive services offered by SMA’s channels include news
headlines and music charts. Interactive competitions will also be
added.
“We’ve been doing this for 8 years now,” says Solomon. “We now have
the largest digital library in the Southern Hemisphere by a country
mile. A massive database built over 8 years. Unlike radio stations, we
have all genres available which are already digitized in intelligent
files. Depending on what platform it has to go to, whether it be pay
tv, internet, kiosk or carrier pigeon, we can wrap, pack and ship the
data in whatever from a client may want.
“We are not the end interface with consumer, we are the engine for
others. There are some internet players with big library databases
too, but their libraries are in mp3, which throws one sixth of the
data into the garbage bin. That’s fine for internet speakers, but when
you’re sending it to 5.1 sound systems and Hi Fis, you want best
quality.”
On SMA’s current audio channels the consumer sees the track listening,
artist name and record company with a background graphic. SMA is
currently sending 24 channels to Austar and will send 30 to Foxtel.
When asked about the services current users most value Solomon says
“overwhelmingly it is quality first and then the amazing range of
choice.”
The channels are mostly “commercial free and DJ chatter free.”
“If you’re a jazz freak you can tune in to us for your dinner party
without getting announcer interruptions. Because we have such a large
library the variety is amazing and we program it very intelligently.
There’s not a 4-6 hour rotation on our channels except those which are
purposely built on high rotation.
“We work on the tempo rate and harmonics and relate that to the
surrounding tracks to create a great program for the target consumer.
On some stations we change the mood as the day progresses, on the
dance channel where listeners want to bounce off the walls after 11pm
on Friday and Saturday nights we program the best mix for them.”
1100 tracks are added to the SMA database per week and the company
works with record companies to assist them in digitizing their artist
releases.
When asked about his thoughts on free-to-air digital radio, Greg
Solomon is surprised it hasn’t happened faster. “I think the major
operators have baulked at the expense so far and have been trying to
work out how they can keep the jump on their competitors because this
evens the playing field between AM and FM. That is starting to change
now.”
According to Solomon the compelling reasons for a consumer to buy a
digital radio will be “quality” and “new services.” He cites US
satellite digital radio as an example of this model working for
consumers.
In the US, as in Australia and the UK, competition from new sectors
has galvanized traditional radio sectors to get over their rivalries
and work together to oppose the new players – time will tell if this
works for the radio industry as a whole.