NAB FASTROAD Initiative Chooses Companies to Support Design and Development of Electronic Program Guide for HD Radio™ Market

CHANTILLY, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The National Association of Broadcasters’ FASTROAD (Flexible Advanced Services for Television & Radio On All Devices) technology advocacy program (www.nabfastroad.org) has awarded a contract to BIA Financial Network (www.bia.com) working with Broadcast Signal Lab (www.broadcastsignallab.com) to develop the business requirements, system architecture and specifications of an Electronic Program Guide – an interactive on-screen schedule of broadcast programming – suited to the HD Radio market for local broadcasters.

The BIAfn/BSL project team will be assisted by Unique Interactive, which has developed a similar EPG service for the Digital Audio Broadcast market in the UK and elsewhere, and will work with iBiquity Digital Corporation, developers of HD Radio technology. This project continues iBiquity’s commercialization of the EPG service they developed for HD Radio broadcasters with the assistance of Unique Interactive.

The project work has already begun and is expected to be completed by late summer. The overall goal is to lay out the framework to support the radio industry with HD Radio-based EPG services, similar to the DAB market world-wide. The BIAfn/BSL effort relies on iBiquity’s EPG-supporting features of the HD Radio system.

The project has four initial milestones: develop a set of business requirements; create a preliminary EPG architecture; recommend market(s) for actual field testing in subsequent phases; and, deliver a final EPG architecture specification and recommended practices.

NAB FASTROAD is the technology advocacy program of the NAB. Its mission is to seek and facilitate development and commercialization of new technologies that can be exploited by broadcasters using radio and television broadcast spectrum. NAB’s FASTROAD website is www.nabfastroad.org.

BIA Financial Network, Inc. has served the media and telecommunications industries for more than two decades with financial, strategic and operational advisory services and investment resources. Additional information is available at www.bia.com

Broadcast Signal Lab provides a full range of broadcast engineering services from FCC application engineering through facility design & construction, to continuing signal quality monitoring & maintenance; including migration to digital broadcasting. See www.broadcastsignallab.com for additional information.

Unique Interactive specializes in Digital Radio & Interactive technology. UI supplies technology products and services to broadcasters in the UK and around the world. Visit the Unique Interactive website at http://www.uniqueinteractive.com.

HD Radio broadcasting allows AM/FM stations to offer crystal-clear digital sound and scrolling text. Multiple channels are offered from a single FM channel, and advanced services such as iTunes® Tagging, traffic updates and location-based information, are possible subscription free. Over 1,600 US HD Radio stations are on the air, more than 700 offering new multicast channels. For a list of HD Radio receivers and stations, visit www.hdradio.com.