There is no doubt that the future of in-car radio lies in the connected dashboard. Maintaining radio’s prominence there was the topic of the WorldDAB Summit 2024 session, “How DAB+ revvs up radio.” The summit was held in Zagreb, Croatia on Nov. 14 by WorldDAB, the industry group promoting the DAB+ digital radio standard.
Keeping Radio in the Center
The first speaker during this session was Gregor Pötzsch, radio product owner of the Volkswagen Group’s CARIAD and chair of the WorldDAB Automotive Working Group. When it comes to the connected car’s dashboard, he explained radio needs to be center stage to show off what it can really offer. “To do this, it’s really important to keep radio prominent, to have an easy findability [for the listener],” Pötzsch said.
At the same time, radio stations need to provide multimedia content that looks compelling on a car’s dashboard video screen. Pötzsch mentioned specifically having a brand’s logo that presents well in the car and metadata including a slideshow, album cover art or the current on-air host as examples.
Pötzsch urged broadcasters to work together to provide consistent in-car content across the industry. “It’s really important to collaborate on this important information to enhance the user experience for the car user,” he said. “I’m urging and asking all broadcasters to come together to deliver important metadata [to the car].”
Following the Connected Car Playbook
Tomas Granryd, the coordinator of the EBU Connected Car Playbook, spoke next. The playbook is a clear map designed to bring the car industry, operating system providers, app stores and the radio industry together to develop in-car entertainment systems. Granryd outlined the challenges a more sophisticated automotive dashboard presents for broadcasters.
- Hidden FM/DAB button: “First of all, there is a risk of the FM/DAB button being hidden, lowering its prominence,” Granted explained.
- Voice activation unknowns: “The voice journey that is today completely unclear,” said Granryd. “What happens when you ask for that? There is no set of rules.”
- Strong global actors: “They are getting more and more prominence with our apps,” Granted explained. “So we need to find a way to have one clear message in this area.”
It is one thing to produce an EBU Connected Car Playbook. It is quite another to get the car industry to buy into it.
Critically, Granryd believes that radio broadcasters have the leverage to make their case. “If we start with the listeners that are sitting in the car, they have a very, very special bond to us,” he said. “70% of all audio consumed in the car is radio. So we have a kind of specific and special bond with the people in the car. And that’s why we formulated guidelines for what the audience expects in the car.”
So what should radio broadcasters ask of car manufacturers when it comes to building the connected car of the future? Granryd expects radio to continue to be the “top service” in the car, just as it has been for the past 70 years.
[Related: “WorldDAB Summit: FM Shutdowns in Germany and Switzerland“]
His vision for connected car dashboards ensures that radio buttons are “impossible to miss, with a hybrid model capable of receiving both over-the-air and IP based transmissions in a seamless manner. “It should provide direct links from linear radio to the broadcast app or the broadcast nominated app,” he added.
Granryd also explained his desire for reliable voice activation. “Today, it’s not a consistent experience, and that’s probably why people don’t use voice much in the car — because you try it once, it doesn’t work, and then you don’t do it again,” he said.
He concluded by detailing what his desired “radio button” on the dashboard should do. When a consumer requests a linear radio channel, the primary hybrid radio application should automatically launch. “It should open there and play from that,” he explained, “and when you ask for on-demand content, it should be played from the broadcaster’s nominated app.”
