Radio TechCon 2024 – Sessions
Radio TechCon 2024 took place on Monday, 25th November 2024 at IET London: Savoy Place.
This is an archive page. For full details of this year’s Radio TechCon, please go to radiotechcon.com
0900-1000 Enjoy a welcome coffee and breakfast (sponsored by IPE) in the Maxwell Library and visit our sponsors in the Exhibition zone. The Welcome Table will also be available if you would like to be introduced to some new contacts.
10:00 Welcome to Radio TechCon 2024
Our host, David Lloyd, welcomes you to the Turing Theatre and explains what to do if he catches fire.
Photo credit: Rupert Brun
Host: David Lloyd
10:05 Selling Electric Dreams: 100 years of the Electrical Association for Women
How did the Electrical Association for Women, founded in 1924, use new broadcasting technology to push its message about electricity in the home? And how did it explain these new technologies to its members? This talk draws on the EAW archives held at the IET and the newly digitised Electrical Age journal, first published in 1926.
Speaker: Anne Locker
10:25 Lighting up the Lantern – Bauer Media’s New London Broadcast Centre
Bauer has moved to its new UK HQ in The Lantern.
What goes into a building move as large and complex as this? We share studio photos, project-management tips and the things you need to know if undertaking a studio project on this scale.
Photo credit: Bauer Media
Speaker: Mark Farrington
10:50 Calculating your Company’s Carbon Footprint
The planet needs all the help it can get – but what are the practical steps broadcasting companies can do to help reduce their carbon footprint? This session will feature practical steps from those who are already on the carbon reduction journey.
Speakers: Dan McQuillin and Andy Land
11:15-11:45 – Coffee Break – Head to the Maxwell Library for a caffeine boost and enjoy our mini trade fair.
11:45 Mini Masterclass: VR for studio design
The BBC used Virtual Reality (VR) to help the design process for studio moves for Radio 2, 6Music and the new Birmingham complex in Digbeth.
Radio TechCon Mini-masterclasses aim to take you from complete beginner to competent bluffer in under half an hour.
This session will show you how to use VR to design and refine your studios and tell the story of your grand technical vision to their future users.
Speakers: Spencer Marsden and Thadeous Matthews
12:15 What has the Transmission Adjudicator ever done for us?
You’ve heard of Ofcom, but do you know much about the Office of the Adjudicator Broadcast Transmission Services?
If you don’t, this session will pull back the curtain on some regulation set up in 2008.
At first sight, it can seem complicated and even confusing. But it shapes every deal Arqiva does for broadcast transmission and gives stations and radio groups a bunch of rights to make sure they get a fair deal at a fair price.
What has the Transmission Adjudicator ever done for us? As it happens, more than you may realise.
Speaker: Glyn Jones
12:25 Amazon Alexa Skills: State of the Union
Amazon has introduced the Alexa Radio Skills Kit. What does this mean for radio stations and podcasters and their approach to developing voice-controlled Skills?
This session will have a brief overview of how the skills kit works, and go over the pros and cons of different approaches to getting your station heard on smart speakers.
Speaker: Jamie Woods
12:40 Modern Slavery and the Media Industry
Modern slavery might not seem like something which can affect you or your workplace. But with an estimated 120,000 in the UK living in modern slavery, it might be closer than you think.
Dr Astrid Leuba has experience fighting human trafficking and modern slavery. She will explain how you may be unwittingly enabling slavery in the workplace or supply chain and give practical examples of how you can spot the signs.
Speaker: Dr Astrid Leuba
13:00-14:00 Lunch – Take a break, chat to other delegates and meet our sponsors. There’s more than one food point in the Maxwell Library, so don’t go hungry!
14:00 Radio 2’s new studios
The BBC faced a challenge. It needed to move out of Wogan House and build new studios for Radio 2 and 6Music whilst keeping all the studio facilities flexible and dealing with the challenges of networking.
Learn how the BBC brought multi-disciplinary teams together to build something that met accessibility goals, lead time challenges and was easy to use all whilst keeping existing services on air.
Speakers: Dave Walters and Jamie Laundon
14:25 Making Speech-to-text fair
Speech-to-text has become an essential part of the audio industry – from powering smart speaker controls to writing scripts, we can all make use of it in our daily lives. But what happens if some users are having a better experience than others, purely because of their age and geographic location?
Hend ElGhazaly from the University of Sheffield sets out how the algorithms can be improved to make the experience fairer for all.
Speaker: Hend ElGhazaly
14:50 BFBS – Transmission in the Clouds
With an ever-changing audience that reaches from the UK to Canada, Bahrain, and the Falkland Islands to name a few, learn how BFBS has adapted to provide a trusted distribution platform that serves this wide footprint.
Mark Edgar and Vanessa Tarrier discuss the challenges of global delivery and the solutions BFBS has engineered including moving off prem and into the cloud.
Photo credit: BFBS
Speakers: Vanessa Tarrier and Mark Edgar
15:15 – 15:45 Engineers’ Tea Time – enjoy a cuppa and some cake, thanks to our official Sponsor Of Cake, Preco. This is your last chance to view the exhibition area.
15:45 Sounds Good? – Measuring mobile streaming
BBC R&D and BBC Distribution explain the challenges of how to assess the ability of our mobile phone networks and handsets to deliver a good live radio experience – could it be that the longer you cycle, the longer the buffer gets?
Using an adapted version of BBC Sounds on Android handsets the team investigated how different scenarios affected the listening experience and which measures (such as signal strength or buffer size) best allow you to technically assess the performance of the system.
If you want to know how to make the most reliable streaming app possible – this is the session for you!
This session may contain stunts.
Speakers: Andrew Murphy and Simon Elliot
16:10 Behind the scenes of the Sound Bath
The Sound Bath was an innovative installation created for the BBC Proms 2024.
In this session, sound designer Yasemin Kahveci will take us through their creation process, including some of the technical secrets and struggles that go into creating audio in 8:1 surround sound.
We’ll also be treated to a short stereo demonstration of the installation.
After a hectic day of sessions, this will be a lovely way to unwind and learn all at once!
Speaker: Yasemin Kahveci
16:35 The Pips at 100
The pips have been heralding the news and giving accurate time on BBC Radio for 100 years – but why do they exist? How do they work? And what is the nature of time itself?
Former Head Of The Pips, Rupert Brun, answers all (in five minutes).
Speaker: Rupert Brun
16:40 There’ll Be A Quiz At The End!
Stephanie Hirst returns to host our interactive end-of-TechCon quiz. She’ll be looking to see who was really paying attention, and awarding prizes to the winners!
Photo credit: Vincent Lo
Quiz Host: Stephanie Hirst
17:15 onwards – Evening reception – Once the main Radio TechCon sessions end, head back to the Maxwell Library for a post-TechCon drink and some nibbles, sponsored by LAWO.
What else can I see and do?
As well as giving you access to all our sessions, your ticket includes:
- Access to the exclusive exhibition area, where you can meet our sponsors and try new equipment hands-on.
- A chance to meet our amazing speakers.
- Arrival coffee and breakfast, tea and coffee breaks, a lovely lunch and official Radio TechCon cake in the afternoon.
- A post event drink / networking session.
- The chance to meet friends old and new, as well as learn new things to help you in your work.
- Attending Radio TechCon also means you can receive 8 hours of official CPD accreditation from the IET.
We look forward to seeing you on Monday, 25th November 2024 at IET London: Savoy Place.
The day starts with arrival coffees and access to the exhibition area from 0900, conference sessions begin at 1000 and end at 1715 approx – although delegates are encourage to stay on for a drink or two afterwards.
If you have any questions not covered by our FAQ, please get in touch with the team.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Radio TechCon reserves the right to amend the programme if necessary.
