Kordia recently completed the installation and commissioning of a state-of-the-art antenna system for the much-anticipated Commercial Radio Australia rollout of Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) digital radio.

Kordia was selected by TX Australia Pty Limited (TXA) – the transmission provider appointed by Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) – to install the digital radio antenna systems. The advanced systems were to be established in the five state mainland capitals, in preparation for the May 2009 switch on.

Digital radio allows radio broadcasters to provide additional audio channels. The technology also offers superior sound quality, pause and rewind facility, as well as scrolling news, sport and weather reports. Kordia is proud to be at the forefront of this new technological frontier for radio.

“This is a significant broadcast engineering project and Kordia is one of a few specialist companies with the strong capability and track record in broadcast technology to perform the wide spectrum of engineering tasks,” says Kordia’s Australian Managing Director, Peter Robson.

The engineering tasks for the DAB+ project include antenna rigging and feeder cabling, combiner sub-systems installation, overall antenna system testing, RF coverage measurements and some tower structural  analysis. To this end, Kordia mobilised rigging teams to the TXA sites in Carmel, Perth, Mt Coot-tha, Brisbane, Crafers, Adelaide, Artarmon, Sydney and Melbourne.

“TXA, Kordia and all our contracted suppliers are organisations that worked together to build the Australian radio industry’s digital future”, said Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia.

Kordia’s rigging teams replaced the existing television antennas with new antennas that allow the broadcast of both digital television and radio services – a significant breakthrough in broadcast technology. Digital Radio DAB+ is now broadcasting in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane from the Kordia-installed antenna systems.