Germany’s Fraunhofer IIS announced a partnership with Total Traffic Network Plus, part of Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network, to make Fraunhofer’s text-based news service, Journaline, available in the US over digital broadcasting systems.
The companies are working together to deliver real-time news information on Total Traffic Network Plus, such as local and national weather conditions, sports scores, and news headlines, directly to mobile devices in the US through a simple to navigate menu structure.
“As two of the most innovative products on the market today, Journaline and Total Traffic Network are the perfect match of technologies to deliver the highest quality service for traffic and enhanced information,” said Harald Popp, head of the department Multimedia Realtime Systems at Fraunhofer IIS. “Total Traffic Network is the ideal platform for news delivery, and Journaline ensures that all information is transmitted quickly, reliably and smoothly, and presented to the user in a convenient way for immediate access,” he added.
“This is a natural extension to our offering – our users already rely on us for up-to-the-minute traffic updates and with Journaline technology, we’re able to offer them real-time news topics that they care about. Journaline is a revolutionary technology and we’re confident that the millions of Total Traffic Network users will be pleased with this new addition,” said Lance Locher, Senior Vice President, Total Traffic Network.
“Total Traffic likes to focus on ‘standardized’ rather than ‘proprietary’ solutions,” added Jeff Littlejohn, EVP of Distribution for Clear Channel Radio “These international standards make it easier for our receiver partners to implement services in an economical and expeditious manner.”
As an open, internationally standardized data application for digital radio systems, Journaline delivers hierarchically structured textual information, enabling users to easily and immediately access topics and information they are most interested in. Users can browse all received information – both program-related and program-independent textual information – and select their favorite news items when and where they want.
Specifically designed for digital broadcast services, Fraunhofer says Journaline: Works with virtually any broadcast platform due to its low transmission bandwidth consumption; Supports a metadata option for high quality text-to-speech playback; Features geo-referencing to enable the presentation of locally relevant information; and Delivers a ‘Hot Button’ feature that allows broadcasters to trigger backchannel interactivity such as, linking to online websites, initiating phone calls or sending short text messages.
Earlier this year, JVC announced its JVC KD-NT3HDT in-dash receiver as the first receiver to support Journaline for in-vehicle applications. The companies say this receiver is the first of many to come with Journaline and Total Traffic Network Plus implementation.
