 From the days of the earliest broadcasts, which consisted of sending telegraph signals over the airwaves using the Morse code to disseminating current breaking news stories from around the world and opening up a world of entertainment, radio has been the household medium of communication for over a hundred years. David Wood has been at the forefront of technology and development in radio communications at the European Broadcasting Union and the International Telecommunication Union. We asked him, where does radio broadcasting stand today? Well, radio is certainly our past, but it's also our present and our future. It's the guide that guides us every day. It's the medium that we trust most and you know some people call it the theater of the mind. It began in the beginning of the last century. By the 1920s, it was a household item. First of all, with AM, then with FM, and more recently with digital radio. And throughout its 100 years, radio has always risen to changing technology. It's going to do that now. But believe me, there are many, many doors opening today for digital radio. Behind the doors of the annual Radio Fair in Berlin is a great opportunity to explore some of the latest and greatest innovations in wireless broadcasting. So we travelled there to find out more. We are here at the EFAT trade fair in Berlin looking at new technologies, new innovations in radio. It's very crowded, lots of people are milling about, it's very noisy. But I'm here with Christoph Dosh, who's chairman of ITUR Study Group 6, which looks at broadcasting issues. Christoph, what is this digital radio? What you see here is really the inclusion of additional information into digital radio. Behind me, you see the digital radio studio where they produce a live program for DAB Plus. And as an example, we are standing here in front of a camera where we can take pictures of ourselves. And these pictures are then transmitted as a live show together with the radio program, like an awful transmit to weather maps or you can transmit cover of CDs, any information you want. This is real multimedia. You have all the possibilities of the digital world. And in addition, people who Twitter, for example, their responses can be inserted on the fly as well in the DAB multiplex and made seen by others. Klaus Eligner is the director of IRT, the Institute for Rundfunk Technique, a research institute for public broadcasting organizations based in Munich. Dr. Eligner, some people say that radio is a dying medium as internet and television occupy that communication space. What do we say is the future of radio? Well, radio is far from being dying as a broad audience is still using radio services. Despite all the internet, still a very intensively used media for a broad audience in all life situations. So think about your home environment when you are going around. You're listening to radio. If you're driving a car, you're listening to radio. If you are somewhere in your spare time, you're listening to radio. So the hours you're listening to radio are still very, very high. So the future of radio is bringing this radio to the new world, enabling radio with new capabilities, where you have interesting additional possibilities. I'm with Olaf Meng, Senior Product Manager of Traffic Solutions at Garmin, the navigation system producer. Olaf, what are the new directions that Garmin is taking in terms of radio and connectivity with the navigation systems? Today we've seen much, much more information on our devices than in the past. It's becoming more accurate, more granular, and so we can calculate much, much better detours and give the users much better ETA, Estimated Time of Arrival, which makes it much, much more stress-free to drive insidious or outside on autobahn and interstates. Radio technology is enhancing the devices, giving real-time digital traffic information on the devices. So we are able to provide the customers much better user experience than ever before. I'm in a digital radio studio, which for all practical purposes looks like a normal studio. It has microphones. It has a sound mixer, but there are other things as well. There's a computer here and there's a camera. And all this adds up to multimedia, converged radio. I'm here with Vera Linz, who can tell us more about how this works. It's digital radio, it's broadcast. We try to combine three things, classical radio, additional information like pictures or news and other information. And what we also include is social media. So you can read our Twitter feeds, we Twitter with the people and you can also see our website. So that's an innovation because we put three things together. The International Design Centre in Berlin wants this medium to be used as a stand-off. I'm with Dr. Benk Struffal, CTO of Technisat, one of the manufacturers of innovative devices and radio. We have devices here, which are for the home. Like these devices here, which could sit excellently on a kitchen table. They have a size of a toaster, and when you can contain also some good loudspeakers, you can get a good sound, but they are, of course, connected to the mains. They are for stationary use. On the other hand, these also have wireless LAN built into them. You can control them via an app. You can connect also with these to your home, European P devices and play back whatever music you have and you're stored in your own home. They're also able to connect to internet radio so you can get the full range of whatever you want to listen to with these devices. At the other end of the scale, we have these devices here, which are about the size of a lunchbox. For them, you do not have the possibility to connect to the internet. You also have not the possibility to connect to your home network. They are simply for listening to the radio in very good quality. You still have the advantages of DAB Plus, of course, that you can have one unified list of radio channels and you select that radio channel no matter where you are. So the future is wireless? Yes, I think so, absolutely. When it comes to being able to receive radio everywhere you are and also not only in your home, but also on the move, it's wireless and the DAB Plus is really the way that we can get very good quality wherever you are. Commercial radio networks, public service broadcasting, amateur radio and community radio stations are essential communication channels, both for information and entertainment around the world and are especially important for remote communities where radio serves as a vital lifeline. Playing a key role in connecting a vast number of the global unconnected population is the resourceful allocation and management of radio spectrum. Francois Ronsi, director of the ITU Radio Communication Bureau, explains. The ITU World Radio Communication Conference is the ITU assignment and allotment plans and procedures ensure that spectrum is available for this medium as it evolves and that it is available in every country. The ITU study groups develop the global standards that ensure the lowest cost through economies of scale and the most efficiencies of spectrum for the sustainable development of radio in the future. In particular, to reach the one billion people who still do not have access to radio today. And so where do we go from here? Technology guru David Wood. Radio has many roads to travel and we have to choose between them but there is one fundamental need. Radio has to be available to everyone and this means that it has to be included in every phone and tablet and we can all help to persuade manufacturers to do this. Radio is so many things. It's fun, it's easy, it's a puzzle, it's serious. It's huge and it's personal. Most of all, it's alive and it's our friend. An international telecommunication union production for World Radio Day. ITU innovating together.