This year’s Radiodays Europe host country – Austria – is a hotbed of technical talent. In this session, three recent innovations were showcased – from a public broadcaster, commercial broadcaster and an independent technology company.
Rüdiger Landgraf (Kronehit, Austria) explained how Skip FM works in the KRONEHIT App. The app allows users to skip music within the live radio stream. The tool is interactive and individual but, ultimately, still radio. And it’s really working on smart speakers! Rüdiger showed how the tool has led to fewer listeners dropping out of the stream using Alexa and Google Home. Furthermore, it has created additional revenue opportunities for Kronehit, through the ability to serve video and audio spots and gather music data, whilst not affecting the station’s existing workflow.
Albert Malli (Ö3, ORF, Austria) demonstrated Xebris Flow, a new kind of traffic software for radio stations. The product was developed to provide a better traffic incident management system that broadcasters can use. The software allows you to quickly create messages based on incidents, offers prediction that reflects the language and tone of a given radio station, and allows you to handle the data in a variety of formats. Xebris Flow gives you a “studio view” for use whilst preparing reports and a “read view” that is tailored to the needs of the on air presenter, with the opportunity to send breaking alerts and corrections to the presenter’s screen.
Florian Novak (Tonio, Austria) has created an app for TV channels and radio stations which enables broadcasters to send extra, synchronised information direct to their audience. Inaudible to the human ear, the data is decoded by your mobile device whilst you watch or listen to a programme and then offers links related to the on air content. This includes website links, ticket links, photos and status updates. For example, if the latest Adele song is playing on air, the radio station app might serve ticket links for an upcoming tour.
It was a whirlwind of a session, but offered a fantastic insight into the world of Austrian radio…
