MEDIAPULSE RADIO PANEL (RADIOCONTROL)
What is Radiocontrol?
Radiocontrol is a revolutionary electronic measurement device for radio consumption called Mediawatch, which was developed in Switzerland and is since 2001 – used for the first time worldwide – as the currency for the radio industry.
The heart of Radiocontrol is a wristwatch, which saves the recorded environment sounds. The integrated microphone records three time per minute for four seconds. Parts of the high, middle and low frequency ranges are then converted to digital numbers. 17 recording stations do exactly the same with all radio programs in Switzerland. The data of these stations are then matched with the data coming from the watches. This audio-matching process detects the programs listened to by the watch carriers.
How does Radiocontrol work?
The Watch The Radicontrol device is a wristwatch. Every minute the integrated microphone records the environment sounds for four seconds. The Radiocontrol watch also has a built in movement detector as well as a temperature measurement. This tells us if the watch has been worn. The recorded sounds are converted to digital information, which makes it impossible to reverse the process and listen to these sounds. The digital numbers are just 100 bytes light per 4 seconds (of originally 12’000 bytes). They are saved together with further information (such as the precise time, movement, temperature) on a flash-chip in the watch. These numbers can only be read and compared with the reference signals (recorded radio stations) by machines in the research institute IHA.GfK. The chip used today in the Radiocontrol watch is full after seven days measurement so that the test person sends the watch back to the institute. To enforce this, the digital display of the watch does not show the time anymore.
The measuring stations
The digital information in the Radiocontrol watch is not sufficient for the identification of the program listened to. This is done only by comparison of the watch information with the information of the recorded reference signals (all radio stations). At this time we have a total of 18 measuring stations in all Switzerland, which record international, national, regional and local radio stations with the exact same method as the watch does. The Radiocontrol system in Switzerland records 128 radio programs, of which 116 are recorded double (so that if one transmitter fails the system still guarantees the data). This information collected by the 18 measuring stations is sent electronically to the research institute IHA.GfK where they are compared with the watch data. Thus the system can register radio consumption by the minute.
The Swiss Radiocontrol panel
The Swiss Radiocontrol panel consists at this time of roughly 26’000 persons 15 years and older, who have declared to carry a Radiocontrol watch twice a year for a week. These persons stand for the total universe of 6 million Swiss (15 years +). These persons are recruited by telephone (RDD) using scientific standards. Daily 650 people in German speaking Switzerland (therefrom 16 speaking the Rhaeto Romanic), 250 in French speaking Switzerland, 100 in Italian speaking Switzerland and 10 persons in the Pricipality of Liechtenstein wear a Radiocontrol watch. Every day the test persons having worn a watch for one week send their watch back to the institute, and every day new test persons receive their watch by mail. This gives us a rolling panel, that overall consists of 26’000 cases after 6 months (with roughly 155’000 measured days). You will find more information under: www.radiocontrol.ch
The role of Publica Data in the Radiocontrol System
At time 44 Swiss and 10 foreign private radios have contracts with Publica Data for the measurement of their audience with Radiocontrol and the delivery of Radiocontrol data.
Publica Data has the following specific responsibilities toward these contract partners:
| • | Controlling the proper identification of the stations with Radiocontrol (together with Mediapulse AG and IHA.GfK) |
| • | Controlling of the data production Radiocontrol |
| • | Installment and maintenance of RC Reporter reporting software |
| • | Continuous data reporting |
| • | Preparing the commercial data (for commercial radios) for the planning tool RadioControl Manager (incl. tariffs for commercials) |
To the more general responsibilities of Publica Data:
| • | Further development of the software tools (together with clients, Mediapulse AG and IHA.GfK) |
| • | Publication of data (together with Mediapulse AG) |
| • | Marketing of Radiocontrol data to further potential clients (advertising industry, consulting, press and other media) |
| • | International marketing of data from Swiss Radiocontrol |