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Frontier Silicon organises global digital radio summit in Tokyo for the Japanese consumer electronics industry

Speakers include senior executives from leading broadcasters and digital content providers from around the world

Tokyo, 5 November 2008: Frontier Silicon, the leading supplier of digital radio technology, is today holding a digital radio summit at the prestigious British Ambassador’s residence in Tokyo. Senior executives from the digital radio broadcast industry together with the world’s leading on-line music service providers are presenting their vision to Japan’s leading audio manufacturers to highlight new and exciting global market opportunities.

The European Broadcast Union recently declared its full backing of WorldDMB’s digital radio profiles, encompassing all three Eureka 147 standards: DAB, DAB+ and DMB-A. The broadcast radio industry in Europe and Australia has also declared its commitment to the accelerated roll-out of digital radio from next year. Executives from companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer will hear from broadcasters such as Rai Way in Italy, Commercial Radio Australia and Germany’s Ministry of Economics and Technology about the latest market opportunities these new launches represent.

This year the radio market is also experiencing the breakout of Internet radio from the confines of the personal computer and onto a wide range of innovative consumer electronics devices. For the first time, consumers are able to listen to broadcast and Internet radio on simple-to-use home audio receiver products, ranging from inexpensive wirelessly-connected table-top radios to top-end HiFi AV receivers. Driving this migration are innovative and highly-motivated content service providers who are defining new and exciting ways for audiences to listen to the music they love.

Delegates at the summit will hear top executives from companies such as Pandora, Last.fm and Rhapsody on how they are providing personal radio and on-demand jukebox style music services. Such services, when combined with digital broadcast radio, provide consumers the best possible choice of radio listening in the home and on the move.

Anthony Sethill, CEO, Frontier Silicon commented, “It is widely recognized just how important it is to the growth of digital radio in Europe and Australia to have Japanese audio manufacturers continuously investing in new radio receiver products. This summit gives the leading audio brand manufacturers a unique opportunity to hear first hand from key industry executives how the digital broadcast and Internet radio markets are converging. Audio brands have never had a better opportunity to exploit this convergence by investing in innovative connected-audio products.”

Rainer Wegner, Executive Director, German Ministry of Economics and Technology added, “The German broadcast industry is committed to a re-launch of digital radio in 2009/2010 with a clear focus on DAB+.” Giuseppe Braccini, Director of Business Development, RAI Way added “As the leading broadcast network operator in Italy, we are fully committed to the continuing nationwide roll-out of digital radio in Italy.”

Jessica Steel, SVP of Business Development at Pandora stated “Pandora recognised early on the need to provide our personalized Internet radio service on a wide range of consumer electronics devices. In-home connected digital audio products are a key part of our strategy for delivering Pandora to our listeners wherever and however they choose”. Drew Denbo, General Manager of Business Development for Rhapsody America added, “Our ability to deliver our 6 million song catalogue to home audio devices, handsets, portable music devices, and music sites across the Web is critical to Rhapsody’s long term strategic success.”

Frontier Silicon continues to lead the convergence of broadcast and connected home audio products by providing radio manufactures with the world’s first receiver module to support both DAB and Internet radio in 2007 (Venice 6). Since then, the company has gone on to develop a next generation of converged receiver modules with the recently announced Venice 6.2. Receiver manufactures have the choice of producing DAB/ DAB+/DMB-A receivers along with Internet radio via wireless and Ethernet connectivity in a low-cost, feature rich, fast-to-market solution.

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About Frontier Silicon

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About Rai Way

Rai Way is a Rai Group company and owns signal transmission and broadcasting networks for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Italy.

On 29 February 2000, Rai contributed to Rai Way the assets, liabilities and employees engaged in the business of planning, installing, operating, managing and maintaining its transmission and broadcasting network.

Rai Way’s current main lines of business are:

• the management of the television and radio broadcasting networks,
• the lease of tower space to wireless telecommunication service providers,
• the supply to third parties of radio transmission and broadcasting services.

Rai Way has extensive experience in managing television and radio broadcasting networks and offers a full range of services, in addition to tower rental. In particular Rai Way offers broadcasters network planning, site location, installation, construction and everything needed to operate a network.

Rai Way manages broadcasting networks, including the three analogue Italian television networks, two DTT multiplexes and three Radio MF networks, covering over 99% of the Italian population.

Rai Way manages 2,340 sites and 1,866 owned structures (1,015 transmitters and 7,875 repeaters).

About Pandora

Pandora (www.pandora.com) is a free, personalized Internet radio service, available anytime and anywhere on the PC, in the home and on mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone.

Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, which began in 2000 and is the most thorough analysis of popular music ever undertaken. Each song in this massive collection, which includes Pop, Rock, Jazz, Electronica, Hip Hop, Country, Blues, R&B, Latin and Classical, is analyzed by one of more than 50 trained musicians, and assessed against up to 400 distinct musical attributes (encompassing melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.) to capture its unique musical identity. Pandora uses this information to build playlists based on musical similarity.

By simply entering a favourite song or artist, a listener is instantly launched into a personalized listening experience, full of new discovery as Pandora explores their favourite part of the music universe. Listeners can create up to 100 of these personal radio stations and refine them by providing feedback via the Pandora radio tuner. Additionally, listeners can create profiles, search for other listeners in the Pandora community who have similar musical tastes, and find stations built by other listeners, using artist and song names as well as genre and mood search terms.

The music analyst team works daily to keep the Music Genome Project updated with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalogue titles. Today, Pandora has a growing user base of more than 18 million registered listeners and national advertisers such as HP, Microsoft, Toyota, AT&T, Procter and Gamble, and Nike.