SINGAPORE: 'Visual Radio' as a concept is all set to enter the Indian sub-continent, backed by Finland based handset major Nokia.

In a visual radio scenario – the unmodified traditional analog FM broadcasting is mixed with new interactive visual channel. The result is a rich media experience to the end user.

Nokia is pushing this concept in partnership with Hewlett Packard in countries like Finland, Thailand, Singapore and some European countries as well.

Through the Visual Radio – listening to radio from a mobile would never be the same – as the service would allow listeners to tune in to FM radio and at the same time, view interactive information and graphics on their Nokia mobile handset.

For example, one would be able to see the title and artist of a song playing on the radio, and participate in radio station promotions and various quiz programs interactively.

Visual Radio content is created at the radio station using the Visual Radio Tool developed by Jutel, another Finnish company focusing on supplying digital radio broadcast solutions globally.

“VRT handles the metadata related to the radio program and it has tools to build the interactive elements, like quiz shows, for the program.

VRT communicates with the radio station's content management system, to receive the radio station's playlist and synchronization information for mobiles. The playlist is used as a skeleton for the Visual Radio content. Once the playlist is available, a journalist or an editor can either automatically or manually generate the Visual Radio content,” informed Jutel business development director Arto Isokoski.

With a lot of FM broadcasters vying the increasing subscriber base in India – the concept is currently being evaluated by many with pilots in the offing. “We are discussing with three big Indian FM broadcasters owning several radio stations to provide this concept for their users. This would be out in the market soon. Nokia would be partnering HP in this regard, like in other geographies,” he added.

“This would be a good way to merge synergies between a FM broadcaster and a telecom service provider. As both of them are looking at ways to increase profitability – technology driven concepts like this would make a lot of sense in developing markets like India,” Isokoski added.

At present, there are eight different models from Nokia including the Nokia 7710, Nokia 3230 and the Nokia 6230i mobile that support this concept and moving forward the compoany plans to launch more models having capability to deliver Visual Radio to its end customers.

CyberMedia News

The author traveled to Singapore at the hospitality of Sonus Networks.