Be a pioneer with the Sector’s first ever full Technology Survey
Technorama is looking for your help. In over 40 years nobody has attempted a comprehensive analysis of what technology is in use at stations, so Technorama has taken on the task. Welcome to the inaugural national survey on technologies used by the community media sector. How to get started is at the end of this story.
As at May 2019 there are over 461 licensed community stations in Australia, with 104 of these new to the last decade. That increases the need to understand the range technologies that are used in stations across the country.
Whether you’re involved in the management or operations side of community radio broadcasting, or are the person who deals with studio technology first hand: your knowledge and assistance will improve the overall picture of how well equipped the community media sector is in the country.
John Maizels, President of Technorama, said “It’s tragic that nobody has done a survey like this in the past. We’ve been running on guesswork for the longest time. The Technorama survey will help everyone from stations to peak-bodies to get a validated view of what’s being used, and therefore what might be needed.
Information you provide will be used in many ways. It will inform and guide Technorama, support decisions on training options for the Community Media Training Organisation; help guide the Community Broadcasting Foundation’s grantmaking processes and provide the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia with valuable information on how the sector uses technology.
Your input to the survey may also guide other stations like yours in their technology choices, helping them to make good selections and avoid poor selections, bolster grant applications and assist their technical staff in formulating their budgets and equipment replacement strategies.
We’d like you to be honest, and we won’t publish any identifying information or criticise your opinion in any way.
Chris Deacon, Technorama Board member and Survey Coordinator said “We’re asking everyone to take a bit of time to give us the best picture they can. That might be a lot of detail, or a high level view, but every bit helps. The more information that is included in the survey, the better our analysis will be. Much of the detail should already be in your asset register, so there might not be much effort needed at all.”
The survey should take you around 40 minutes to complete and asks questions about your station’s resources and skillsets, technologies used in the studio and on the road as well as how your station sends programming to the transmitter.
President John Maizels stressed the benefits of the survey “We’re pretty sure that 
everyone who contributes will get many tangible take-aways from the experience. And the opportunity to build a big-picture for CBF, CBAA and Technorama is huge. It’s going to help CMTO identify training opportunities, will provide vendors with potential opportunity areas, and Technorama will use the information to plan our webinars and events“
Do it now
You can get started right away: just click here to begin.
The anonymity process means you won’t be able to save and return to the survey, so please pick a time when you can do it in one pass. The survey will pause on a screen for 30-60 minutes but can’t be parked for longer.
Leap now: the survey will close on Friday 29th February 2020.