ASIA

A trend we have been observing over the past few years is the divergence of audio listening habits.The mass consumer end of the audio market has shifted to earbuds and average quality audio codecs delivering fast streaming audio, while the high end continues to seek high quality digital audio files and hi-fi storage and playback systems.New technology is now promising to deliver higher quality audio but with maximum convenience to the mass market end of the audio audience.Our go-to audio tech research company, Futuresource, has identified some new trends that promise to close the gap between high-quality audio and seamless convenience.Technologies like Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), Auracast and flexible rendering solutions are revolutionising the audio landscape, delivering better sound without building usability barriers, according to analysts Rasika D’Souza and Guy Hammett.The rise of BTLEBTLE is one of the most significant advancements in wireless audio. Powered by the LC3 codec, it doesn’t achieve fully lossless audio, but it does offer a more efficient compression algorithm, delivering far higher-quality sound at lower bitrates. This means consumers can enjoy richer, clearer audio without increasing data consumption or compromising battery life, which is a key selling point for portable devices like earbuds and speakers.Additionally, BTLE significantly reduces latency compared to classic Bluetooth, making wireless audio a viable option for gaming and video streaming, as well as live radio talkback, where wired connections have long been the preferred choice.Extending the horizon with AuracastAuracast, a companion technology to BTLE, adds to the wireless audio experience, allowing a single audio source to broadcast to multiple devices simultaneously. This enables shared listening experiences and improves accessibility. As an example, users can seamlessly share music or podcasts with friends, or connect multiple speakers for a synchronised multi-room system.

Unlike previous wireless audio advancements, BTLE and Auracast are poised for widespread adoption.Major system-on-chip (SoC) vendors, such as Qualcomm, are already embedding these technologies into their hardware, ensuring they will become standard features in the majority of future wireless audio products. Plus, consumers need no additional understanding and effort to reap the benefits of BTLE, making better audio quality accessible to everyone.Flexible rendering for home audioIn the home audio space, flexible rendering technologies like Dolby‘s Atmos FlexConnect and Fraunhofer‘s UpHear are redefining the listening experience. Traditionally, home theatre setups required careful speaker placement to achieve optimal sound, often discouraging consumers due to the complexity and effort involved.These new systems remove that barrier. Flexible rendering calibrates and optimises audio, based on the placement of speakers, regardless of where they are in the room. As a result, consumers can add as many or as few speakers as they like, and the system will quickly and seamlessly recalibrate to deliver the best possible sound experience.This modularity not only simplifies the home theatre experience. It also allows consumers to easily add new speakers from friends or family into their Bluetooth listening experience.Convenience meets quality in a new era for audioThe critical difference with these new technologies is that they require no compromise between quality and convenience. Consumers have consistently demonstrated a preference for ease of use over high fidelity, but now they can enjoy both. Through enhanced wireless audio performance and adaptable home theatre systems, these advancements will align quality audio technology with modern lifestyles.With this seamless blend of convenience and performance, the future of personal and home audio has never looked or sounded better.Senior analyst Rasika D’Souza and Guy Hammett recently discussed the audio innovations, purchasing patterns and their view on what’s ahead for personal and luxury audio in 2025. Check out our new Future Sessions 2025 video series here.Related articles:See also: www.audioinfo.worldDivergence and convergence of listening: smart speakers and the age of audioSmart soundbars are comingMedia Consumer Snapshot 2016 […]

As World Radio Day 2025 approaches, UNESCO is helping radio stations prepare for the annual day 0n 13th February.The UN has listed 13 ideas for credible content to strengthen the image of radio around the world.The 13 ideas are:
Put more emphasis on facts
Review your programming strategy
Present realities from elsewhere
Inform from an intersectional point of view
Start an “On the way to COP30” chronicle
Give the audience a say
Prepare for the storm
Raise the safety awareness of environmental journalists
Redouble your efforts to combat disinformation
Encourage your audience to listen to the radio critically
Strengthen staff competencies in relation to climate change issues
Set the tone
Green your radio
Full details for each idea are available here.The theme of 2025 WRD is Radio and Climate Change.In addition to the resources offered by the UN, radioinfo is a partner with UNESCO for this year’s World Radio Day, so we are offering stations a free chapter from Steve Ahern’s text book, Making Radio and Podcasts.Download your free chapter here.Join the list of world radio stations celebrating WRD here and use it to locate stations around the world that you can partner with or interview when the big day comes around. […]

The past few years have seen an explosion in applications of artificial intelligence to creative fields. A new generation of image and text generators is delivering impressive results. Now AI has also found applications in music, too.
With the music industry still adjusting to disruptions caused by the internet and streaming services, there’s a lot of interest in how AI might change the way we create and experience music, writes Oliver Bown, Associate Professor at UNSW.
Automating music creation
A number of AI tools now allow users to automatically generate musical sequences or audio segments. Many are free and open source, such as Google’s Magenta toolkit.
Two of the most familiar approaches in AI music generation are:

continuation, where the AI continues a sequence of notes or waveform data, and
harmonisation or accompaniment, where the AI generates something to complement the input, such as chords to go with a melody.

Similar to text- and image-generating AI, music AI systems can be trained on a number of different data sets. You could, for example, extend a melody by Chopin using a system trained in the style of Bon Jovi – as beautifully demonstrated in OpenAI’s MuseNet. Google has released MusicLM – an AI-based music generator that can convert text prompts into audio segments. It’s another example of the rapid pace of innovation in an incredible few years for creative AI.
Such tools can be great inspiration for artists with “blank page syndrome”, even if the artist themselves provide the final push. Creative stimulation is one of the immediate applications of creative AI tools today.
But where these tools may one day be even more useful is in extending musical expertise. Many people can write a tune, but fewer know how to adeptly manipulate chords to evoke emotions, or how to write music in a range of styles.
Although music AI tools have a way to go to reliably do the work of talented musicians, a handful of companies are developing AI platforms for music generation.

Boomy takes the minimalist path: users with no musical experience can create a song with a few clicks and then rearrange it. Aiva has a similar approach, but allows finer control; artists can edit the generated music note-by-note in a custom editor.
There is a catch, however. Machine learning techniques are famously hard to control, and generating music using AI is a bit of a lucky dip for now; you might occasionally strike gold while using these tools, but you may not know why.
An ongoing challenge for people creating these AI tools is to allow more precise and deliberate control over what the generative algorithms produce.
New ways to manipulate style and sound
Music AI tools also allow users to transform a musical sequence or audio segment. Google Magenta’s Differentiable Digital Signal Processing library technology, for example, performs timbre transfer.
Timbre is the technical term for the texture of the sound – the difference between a car engine and a whistle. Using timbre transfer, the timbre of a segment of audio can be changed.
Such tools are a great example of how AI can help musicians compose rich orchestrations and achieve completely new sounds. In the first AI Song Contest, held in 2020, Sydney-based music studio Uncanny Valley (with whom I collaborate), used timbre transfer to bring singing koalas into the mix.
Uncanny Valley’s song Beautiful The World won the 2020 AI Song Contest.
Timbre transfer has joined a long history of synthesis techniques that have become instruments in themselves.
Taking music apart
Music generation and transformation are just one part of the equation. A longstanding problem in audio work is that of “source separation”. This means being able to break an audio recording of a track into its separate instruments.
Although it’s not perfect, AI-powered source separation has come a long way. Its use is likely to be a big deal for artists; some of whom won’t like that others can “pick the lock” on their compositions.
Meanwhile, DJs and mashup artists will gain unprecedented control over how they mix and remix tracks. Source separation start-up Audioshake claims this will provide new revenue streams for artists who allow their music to be adapted more easily, such as for TV and film.
Artists may have to accept this Pandora’s box has been opened, as was the case when synthesizers and drum machines first arrived and, in some circumstances, replaced the need for musicians in certain contexts.
But watch this space, because copyright laws do offer artists protection from the unauthorised manipulation of their work. This is likely to become another grey area in the music industry, and regulation may struggle to keep up.
New musical experiences
Playlist popularity has revealed how much we like to listen to music that has some “functional” utility, such as to focus, relax, fall asleep, or work out to.
The start-up Endel has made AI-powered functional music its business model, creating infinite streams to help maximise certain cognitive states.
Endel’s music can be hooked up to physiological data such as a listener’s heart rate. Its manifesto draws heavily on practices of mindfulness and makes the bold proposal we can use “new technology to help our bodies and brains adapt to the new world”, with its hectic and anxiety-inducing pace.
Other start-ups are also exploring functional music. Aimi is examining how individual electronic music producers can turn their music into infinite and interactive streams.
Aimi’s listener app invites fans to manipulate the system’s generative parameters such as “intensity” or “texture”, or deciding when a drop happens. The listener engages with the music rather than listening passively.
It’s hard to say how much heavy lifting AI is doing in these applications – potentially little. Even so, such advances are guiding companies’ visions of how musical experience might evolve in the future.
The future of music
The initiatives mentioned above are in conflict with several long-established conventions, laws and cultural values regarding how we create and share music.
Will copyright laws be tightened to ensure companies training AI systems on artists’ works compensate those artists? And what would that compensation be for? Will new rules apply to source separation? Will musicians using AI spend less time making music, or make more music than ever before?
If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s change. As a new generation of musicians grows up immersed in AI’s creative possibilities, they’ll find new ways of working with these tools.
Such turbulence is nothing new in the history of music technology, and neither powerful technologies nor standing conventions should dictate our creative future.
About the Author
Oliver Bown, Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. […]

As you begin planning your year for 2025, our calendar can help you.Included are our Advertising Feature topics for the year, World  Radio and Podcast Conference dates, Courses, Survey release dates, holidays and other important events for your year.For AdvertisersFor Conference AttendeesClick through to any item to see full details and a link to each event.For AdvertisersHere is our list of features for the year across our Australia/NZ, Asia, Africa, Podcast and Audioinfo sites.

Features are shown on the first day of every month. Plan your advertising early:January:Audio TechnologyFebruary:World Radio Day and UNESCO’s WRD theme for 2025, Radio and Climate ChangeConsumer EntertainmentAudio Technology,Course Recruitment – Tertiary EducationMarch:Audio Advertising,ABU DBS Broadcasting SymposiumRadioDays EuropeApril:Technology at NABMay:Podcasting,Broadcast Asia,Asia Podcast AwardsJune:Playout Systems and Music SystemsJuly: Microphones & Production ToolsAugust: Audio AI,Digital Studio Design and TechnologySeptember:RadioDays Asia ConferenceIBC ConferenceOctober: Audience ResearchConferences: CRA, CBAA, Broadcast IndiaNovember:Course Recruitment – Tertiary Education,Podcast studio design and podcast equipmentDecember:Transmitters and Receivers,Streaming PlatformsAdvertising contact: [email protected]Major Radio and Podcast Conferences & Events in 2025Did you know that attending industry conferences is tax deductible travel in most countries?See the list of radio and podcast conferences below or click on the calendar entries above for more details and website links.January:Paris Radio Show: France 28th-29th JanFebruary:World Radio Day, 13 FebHEARD, Commercial Radio Australia: Sydney, 15 FebSaudi Media Forum: Riyadh, 19-21 FebPacific Media Partnership Conference: Suva, 11-13 FebABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium: Kuala Lumpur, 24-27 FebIAB Australia Audio Summit: Sydney, 26 FebMarch:Audio Publishers Association (APAC): New York, 2-3 Mar RadioDays Europe: Athens, 9-11 MarRadio Days Ireland (RDI): Dublin, 27-28 MarEvolutions by Podcast Movement: Chicago, 31 Mar-3 AprApril:NAB Show: Las Vegas, 5-9 AprMay:World Press Freedom Day Conference: Bucharest, 5-8 MayAsia Podcast Awards: Entries open, May 12Crocodile Awards Ceremony: Cairns, 17 MayThe Podcast Show: London, 21–22 MayAudio Storytelling Festival: Vilnius County, 25-28 MayBroadcastAsia: Singapore, 27–29 MayMumbrella360: 27-29 MayJune:Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: Cannes 16-28 JuneABU – RAI Days: 3rd Global Conference on Media, Communication, and Film: Singapore June 20-22July:DigiMarCon North Asia: Shanghai, 18-19 JulyDigiMarCon: Tokyo, 20-31 JulyAugust:DigiMarCon: Auckland, 7-8 AugustDigiMarCon: Sydney, 13-14 AugustPodcast Movement Conference: Washington, 18–21 AugDigiMarCon: Melbourne. 19-20 AugBeijing International Radio, TV & Film Equipment Exhibition: Beijing, 20–23 AugSeptember:RadioDays Asia ConferenceDigiMarCom Virtual: Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), 4-5 SeptIBC Conference, Amsterdam, 12–15 SepDigiMarCon South East Asia: Singapore, 18-19 SepDigiMarCon: New Delhi, 24-25 SepOctoberDigiMarCon Middle East: Dubai, 1-2 OctDigiMarCon: Johannesburg, 6-7 OctDigiMarCon: Capetown, 9-10 OctCommunity Broadcasting Conference (CBAA), Hobart, 23-25 OctDigiMarCon, North Africa: Cairo, 23-24 OctBroadcast India: Mumbai, 17–19 OctAustralian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs)UNESCO Global Media and Literacy Week: Nigeria, 24-31 OctNovemberDigiMarCon Virtual: Asia/ Pacific, 5-7 NovemberIf you would like your event included in our calendar, please email [email protected].ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach tens of thousands of readers who work in radio, podcasting, audio production, technology, sales, creative, programming, marketing and management. Contact [email protected] […]

Vishwajeet Chauhan has been named Nautel’s Business Development Manager for the entire Indian Subcontinent. His territory now covers the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives.Nautel is the world’s largest manufacturer of AM and FM radio broadcast transmitters. More than 20,000 Nautel transmitters have been deployed in over 177 countries since 1970.Vishwajeet, who has 14 years of experience in Radio, has been engaged with Nautel since 2014 when he was project leader for the large Medium Wave transmitter project for All India Radio. He joined Nautel as Business Development Manager for India in 2019.“Vish’s experience covers a wide range of solutions for radio, with both Engineering and Sales/Marketing background,” said Wendell Lonergan, Nautel Head of Broadcast Sales. “With his deep technical knowledge and hands-on experience with end to end radio solutions, he will be a true asset to broadcasters throughout the Indian Subcontinent. We look forward to our association with Vish for many years to come.” […]

For broadcasters searching for a reliable, versatile audio monitor for UHD, live sports, and 12G-SDI workflows, the award-winning PAM2-12G is now shipping.PAM2-12G provides high-quality audio monitoring for customers needing to handle a wide variety of signal types, including AES and analogue audio, UHD and HD-SDI, or AES67/Dante, SMPTE 2110, and SMPTE 2022-6 IP sources. PAM2-12G is available in a 2RU form factor, with an intuitive front panel interface including two high-resolution LCD screens showing 16 audio bargraphs with selectable scales, scroll-to-hear audio channel navigation, 8 user presets for fast configuration changes, and a high-quality loudspeaker system.In addition, PAM2-12G range includes advanced monitoring features such as comprehensive loudness monitoring with histogram display, Dolby-encoded audio monitoring (including metadata and downmixing), and a video confidence display of both SDI and IP sources.Besides handling baseband video and audio signals, PAM2-12G is equipped with 2 x 10Gig/E interfaces for direct connection into COTS IP fabrics. Supporting IP control protocols such as NMOS and Ember+ allows for ‘In-Band’ control, offering tight integration with a variety of control systems. Audio over IP is also covered, with Primary and Redundant 1Gig/E Dante/AES67 ports, allowing up to 64 AoIP audio channels to be monitored. […]