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The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union’s (ABU) annual event Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2010 drew to end in Kuala Lumpur on the 11th March 2010. The annual industry event served as a platform to share insights on the changing broadcasting world between the professionals gathered.

Discussion on the “Digital Transition” was one of the highlights of the event. Addressing the audience ABU acting Secretary-General David Astley remarked digital transition would take time to be duly adopted by the broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region. Though, digital broadcasting has witnessed tremendous growth since it first started, but the high cost for simulcast and training staff on the new systems is a major concern. “Challenges will continue to grow, and with the pace of technology change, it is going to get more complex in future years,” he said.

The members of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium members made presentations on various aspects of digital radio development and implementation pertaining to this year’s theme of the event - "Leveraging the Digital Advantage". A live DRM+ transmission chain with 5.1 Surround Sound was also set up by DRM that generated high interest of broadcasters present at the event.

Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), was honoured with a lifetime achievement award for her commitment to the development of digital radio in the Asia-Pacific region.

Talking about the content in his keynote address, Mock Pak Lum, Managing Director of MediaCorp Technologies said that to have an over the edge advantage broadcasters need to lay utmost focus on the quality of content. Besides, cooperation and collaboration could be a way out to retain their presence as an infotainment medium among its audience. This is also required to maintain their presence in the increasingly convergent world of medium and technology.

Issues related to the archiving of the content were also addressed by the speakers at the Symposium. Ashish Mukherjee, President of Benchmark Microsystems of India mentioned that the cost of the archive was not just software and hardware, but the life-cycle cost. For efficient archiving the broadcasters should manage immediate content. Also, staff training is a significant measure for efficient archiving. He also said that it is important for broadcasters to move their media archive from expensive to cheap storage because as broadcasters require the archives time-to-time to make compelling production.