A broadcast monitoring technology invented by a Thai company - Digital Associates - is set to change the way music, advertising and radio broadcasting industries operate in Thailand and perhaps the region.

The patented product, Intensive Watch, won the Science and Technology Ministry's National Innovation Award 2005, after which, Digital Associates received hardware support from IBM and, announced its commercial breakthrough early this week.

Based on "audio fingerprint" technology, Intensive Watch was developed to monitor music and advertisements airing on radio and television channels via an "application service provider" system on an "every second" basis, according company executives.

At a press conference on Monday, Digital Associates' managing director, Thanarat Leetrakul, said his company had clinched contracts with several music and entertainment companies such as Click Radio, A-Time, Virgin Radio, GMM Grammy, RS, and Small Room. He also said his firm would focus on the radio-broadcast market because no one has been able to provide a comprehensive and in-depth database of the music and ads running on the country's 880 stations.

"Our company was contacted

by Cesac [Communications-Electronics Scheme Accounting and Control], an international copyright organisation that collect fees on behalf of copyright owners in the US and it is expanding to Southeast Asia. Cesac has acknowledged Intensive Watch in Thailand and has shown interest in using the technology to collect copyright fees in Southeast Asia," said Thanarat in a statement.

"Intensive Watch does not aim to detect errors, but aims to be a third-party service provider, offering previously unavailable information to the public," he said.

Thada Olaric, a consultant for Digital Associates, said the technology was able to provide an accurate, real-time and comprehensive database. It will also boost investor confidence and expand the radio broadcasting market, "because the money will go to the right people".

Thanarat said Digital Associates currently covered the north and central regions and aimed to capture 80 per cent of Bangkok's radio broadcasting market by the end of the year.

Pichaya Changsorn

 The Nation