A radio show was set up and broadcast from the conference. As guests were being interviewed, simple photos of them at the microphone were added to the programmes Slideshow output. As people across Europe listened their radio displayed a picture of that speaker in the studio.

I know this is akin to having a webcam in a studio which people can see on a website but there one important difference here; a listener can enjoy this experience on the radio itself, where it’s most relevant, without having to look up a website.

This works “out of the box” with a DAB radio, or equally as well for an FM radio with built-in wi-fi.

A short video below explains it very well in three minutes. Click, watch, enjoy.

Most are listening on 3G with the result that listening to radio eats up their data plan and flattens their battery fast! It’s also costing the broadcaster in infrastructure costs and additional royalty payments.

The beauty of radio broadcasting is that you have flat-rate transmission costs regardless of audience size.

A new development from RadioDNS offers the best of both worlds. The listener’s app will stream as normal but when within range of an FM or DAB signal it flips over to that without listener intervention. Instant saving on bandwidth and data plans for everyone!

The app was demonstrated at the NAB Radio Show in Chicago last week and you can see a video below. Notice how the visual information remains the same regardless if the audio is IP or broadcast.

Take a glimpse of how it should be.

Above is a Nokia mobile with a built-in FM tuner and wi-fi … both fairly standard features on a mobile phone.

What happens is the radio can pick up certain information from the FM broadcast which points it to a webserver which then displays programme associated data on the phone.  If you want to know more about any of the pictures displayed simple click on it to be brought to the stations website.

This works just as well with DAB radio as it does with FM which is demonstrated above.

It’s all thanks to RadioDNS.org which helps you link your audio FM/DAB content with your web-content. Check out their website for more.

Last year he did a very brave thing many of us would love to do but don’t have the balls to. He packed in a big job at the BBC to travel the world for six months learning about radio around the globe.

The results are a nice escape from the inward looking boxes we find ourselves in sometimes and you can hear/see them in the video below.

Outwardly a quiet reserved gentleman, James is actually quite incisive, humourous and to the point. So grab a coffee, click play below and enjoy a presentation of his trip around the radio globe. The audio is from his appearance at RadioDays Copenhagen, where people wandered in a little late (you’ll spot this), and where they laughed in most of the right places (you’ll spot this too).

James’ blog is well worth subscribing to if you are in any way interested in radio. james.cridland.net/blog/

The video below shows tagging in operation using an iPhone app called TuneMark. When you hear a song you want to remember the name of, you tag it.  With this app you can look up the song name later, email it to yourself or shock horror even buy it on the iTunes store.

This is all nice and sweet for the music industry but what I really like about it is the listener can tag anything you choose to display.  For a talk show it could be the name of the guest or perhaps you’ll display your text/phone number regularly and listeners will tag it.

Crutially for radio it can be a revenue generator by charging a small premium for displaying advertiser information that listeners can tag and use at a later time. It might be a store locaction, a special offer or a phone number.

Tagging is genuinely useful for listeners and advertisers and another feature along with Slideshow that will revolutionise radio use.  Tagging is still at the planning stage and RadioDNS are actively incorporating it into their digital radio spec which will become a standard.

In the meantime, look at the video below to see how simple and how useful tagging will be for radio.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guT8tq_WVt0

This is a simple jpg or series of jpg images broadcast along with the audio and displayed on your DAB receiver. It can be as simple as a static station logo or a bit more advanced with several sides showing album artwork for the currently playing song, a studio webcam or something really useful like a graphic weather display or latest traffic information.

Because it’s a simple jpg you can expand it to other platforms such as your iPhone app.

The video below is a demonstration of the Heart (London) iPhone app which does all of what was mentioned above. Look at it and imagine this displaying on your radio.

Sexy ? Damn right!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG9r7QNiog0

James has a rather unique and very effective way of making engaging presentations.  Below is an 8 minute presentation he gave recently to the WorldDMB General Assembly in Paris. Watch it and in 8 minutes you too will “get it”.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0mYHHoIaMY

Check out James’ blog at james.cridland.net/blog

Here is a short video of the day and the immense media coverage it received from Commercial Radio Australia.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pWqYScq6Qc