Successful tenders for the development of Digital Radio infrastructure in Australia have been announced today.

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner, said the announcement represents a significant development in Australia’s migration to a Digital Radio platform.

“We are now literally building towards a new era, one that will deliver a multi-media experience to radio listeners, broadcasters and advertisers alike.

“The successful tenders have come through a competitive bidding process and will be working to our timelines to deliver the equipment that will make Digital Radio an exciting new media proposition,” Ms Warner said.

The successful tenders announced so far include:

• Rohde & Schwarz (high power DAB+ transmitters)
• Factum (DAB+ Multiplexers & coders)
• The United Group (systems integration services & pre-build)
• Kordia (project management support)

These organisations will be helping to develop the infrastructure for DAB+ radio, a standard that is also being adopted by other countries.

Free-to-air digital radio services will begin in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth from early 2009.

It will be interesting to finally see the long-awaited arrival of digital radio in this country. Whether it will be a success or not is still up for debate by many in the marketing industry.