DIGITAL SATELLITE AUDIO BROADCAST ARRIVES IN CHENNAI

From Pop to Jazz, Country to Classical, Reggae to Rock, 24 hours of high quality audio entertainment. All you have to do is buy the digital audio receiver and point the antenna to the east. And lo! You can listen to your favourite music, all day long, absolutely free.

Bringing this whole new dimension to audiotainment is WorldSpace. A constellation of three WorldSpace satellites will provide WorldSpace service to a potential audience of more than 4.6 billion people.

November in Chennai saw the arrival of the state of the art digital audio receivers. Awareness about these digital receivers and this service was almost zero in the city, till the ad campaign was kickstarted by Worldspace. But since the arrival of the receivers in Chennai, all the stores, which have them on display, have been flooded with enquiries. At Spencers Superstore alone 40 orders have been booked for the receivers within four weeks.

Praveena Thomas of Spencers Superstore says, " The advantage of this service is that it is like a one-time investment and not like that of a conventional music system where you have to keep investing money for tapes and CD's. Here all you have to do is to buy the digital audio receiver, point the palm sized antenna to the sky, facing the east, and you can listen to your favourite music. This is the latest revolution to hit the music scene".

The digital audio receivers, which are now on display in select home appliances showroom in the city, have been exclusively invented by leading names in audio systems like JVC, Sanyo, Hitachi and Panasonic. All receivers have the option of being connected to Music Systems for better ouput. JVC, at Rs.7, 990/- a set, scores with its classy looks and stereo speakers and is now the most sought-after model, closely followed by Hitachi, priced at Rs.4, 990/-. The other two receivers Sanyo and Panasonic, have been priced at Rs. 9, 990/- and Rs. 11, 990/- respectively. In case you do not have a window facing the east, the antenna, costing Rs.1, 000/- a piece, can be installed for a charge of Rs.150/-.

According to Praveena Thomas, those who have enquired have displayed a high level of awareness and understanding of the concept. The most common grey areas being whether the antenna was required and whether reception of the signals was across all localities of the city.

Currently 32 channels are available. And this number will keep climbing in the months to come.

WorldSpace Direct Media Service also offers high quality select web content to be downloaded using the very same receiver. All that is needed is a monthly subscription to the service. This facility will be offered from September, 2001 in Chennai.