Radio Fana Goes Digital

http://www.radiofana.com/

Radio Fana is automating its operations with the Radio-Assist Digital Audio Software Suite, acquired last December 2009 from NATIA, a French company, at a cost of eight million Birr.

The new system, integrated into the station's archiving system, will take care of the editing, recording, scheduling and transmission portions of the routine work, Mulugeta Mehari technical director at Radio Fana told Fortune. 

This is the first time such a programme is being installed in any radio station in the country, Mulugeta said. All 30 of its workstations have now become integrated into the new system, according to Mulugeta. The new system has been successfully tested over the past two weeks, he continued, and will officially be launched on February 8, 2010.

Radio-Assist, based on the Unicode International Standard, supports the Amharic, Oromiffa, Somali, Afarigna and Tigrigna-language daily broadcasts of the two main and two backup studios in Addis Abeba, Mulugeta said. The radio's broadcast has national coverage.

"Radio-Assist will integrate very well into our existing environment, and it will provide access to a robust set of tools for managing every aspect of our operations efficiently and cost-effectively," Mulugeta said in a written statement to Fortune. "All of these features, plus NATIA's excellent reputation and impressive list of industry references, made Radio-Assist the ideal choice for us."

Radio Fana selected NATIO from among three companies that offered tenders, but Mulugeta declined to disclose the other two companies.

Radio Fana was established in 1994 as a share company, but it had been broadcasting since 1985 as part of the TPLF/EPRDF in the civil war with the Derg Government. It introduced FM broadcasts on March 10, 2007, becoming the first in the country to do so.

Its national and FM 98.2 services now have a total of 252 hours of broadcasting. It is now preparing to move into a new building in the same location in front of Black Lion Hospital, on Yared St.

Source: http://addisfortune.com/Radio%20Fana%20Goes%20Digital.htm

Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia