NEWS 9/25

MediaTest celebrates its birthday and is about to cross the Atlantic!

MediaTest celebrates its birthday on September 15th! For five years, MediaTest audio watermarking technology has been successfully measuring TV and radio ratings, as well as advertising spot ratings, in Italy. In Germany, MediaTest fingerprinting technology records the number of radio broadcast views for press agencies. Now, the leap across the Atlantic is just around the corner. After a successful test phase in the first half of this year in Mexico, the USA, and Canada measuring soccer ratings for TV, radio, and streaming, as well as the use of MediaTest watermarking technology for TV reality shows in Mexico, MediaTest is about to make the leap across the Atlantic and also deploy automated music measurement and launch the MediaTest AI product for text mutations and image and video recognition.

Best regards
The MediaTest Team

NEWS 5/25

MediaTest at the "Radio Days" at the European University of St. Pölten.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on communication, business, and journalism were the focus of the radio days, "Facing the Future of Audio Journalism."

MediaTest CTO Parmy Brar was the keynote speaker at the "Radio Days" at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences and European University.

His topic: "The challenges for MediaTest in the use, adaptation, and further development of AI for MediaTest clients, currently for press agencies, editorial offices, and media houses in Europe and America!"

In the subsequent panel discussion moderated by University of Applied Sciences Professor Johanna Grüblbauer, Parmy Brar stated: "After the invention of the alphabet, the printing press, electricity, radio, TV, mobile communications, and the internet, AI is probably the greatest innovation in communication to date!"

The event was the highlight of the 8th International Radio Days 2025 in St. Pölten, which have been organized since 2018 under the direction of Ewald Volk. With funding from the EU's ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive Program, the circle of participants was expanded to five universities and colleges from five European countries in 2025. During this week, students from Belgium, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Germany, and Austria were able to not only broadcast live on FM 94.4 from the studio of Campus and City Radio St. Pölten, but also discuss the future challenges of audio journalism with experts.

NEWS 3/25

MediaTest founder Karl Amon with partner Günther Ogris at the new media competence center in St. Pölten

A global center for media and AI is being built here.

It's one of the most exciting regional projects currently being developed at the BIZ St. Pölten. A center is being built here to uncover fake news and use AI to strengthen democracy. A conversation with the clever minds behind MediaTest.

ST. PÖLTEN. Imagine reading an article and a program simultaneously telling you whether it's fake news. In other words, an artificially produced false report. A tool that can help journalism prevent untruths from being spread in the first place. This couldincrease trust in reporting and strengthen democracy.

Turning this idea into reality requires technology. And this is what MediaTest's high-tech competence center in St. Pölten is working on. Together with experts from the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (FH).

Patent for the measurement of media data

A groundbreaking development that the media industry is already embracing is the measurement of data. In other words, numbers of current viewers and listeners as soon as a program is broadcast. This technology also shows when the channel is switched.

The BIZ St. Pölten is currently working on the future of the media industry

This is particularly relevant for live radio or television broadcasts. "That's when you know the presenter shouldn't make such a fuss anymore," says Karl Amon. He is the founder and CEO of MediaTest. Together with Günther Ogris and Christoph Hofinger (bothmanaging directors of SORA), they founded the company in 2017. And together with the Englishman Parmy Brar (CTO) and Christian Rebernig (CFO), Karl Amon has been managing MediaTest since 2018.

MediaTest was founded in 2017 by Karl Amon, Günther Ogris, and Christoph Hofinger

There are now major international customers interested in and using the patented technology. An IPO is planned in five years. To ensure the company's continued growth, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences has been brought on board.

Cooperation with St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences

Measuring and storing such immense amounts of data requires several hard drives and processors. It's a good thing that St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences is currently setting up an "AI Reality Lab" in the Department of Computer Science and Security with funding from the state of Lower Austria – as Hannes Raffaseder, Managing Director of the university, told MeinBezirk. The university is thus combining scientific research with practical applications. Students and researchers can thus engage with current topics in the media industry.

An AI Reality Lab is currently being set up at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Computer Science and Security.

The technology can also bring benefits in research projects with industry for media-relevant use cases such as detecting fake news, analyzing metadata, and investigating user behavior. This is how the cooperation with MediaTest came about.

"The AI Reality Lab enables the analysis of stored data and the use of AI using a powerful computing infrastructure. The data storage required for MediaTest's use cases would be very extensive, with long-term estimates of 100 to 200 terabytes per week. MediaTest currently collects three to four terabytes weekly," says Hannes Raffaseder.

Hannes Raffaseder, Managing Director of the University of Applied Sciences

For St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, the partnership with MediaTest is an opportunity to develop new technologies for the media industry and promote practice-oriented research, Raffaseder continues. "The planned collaboration will combine various research areas at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences with MediaTest's research topics related to the analysis of large amounts of media data in order to develop new approaches for the investigation of news and digital content."

Background information on the technology

But what technology exactly is being used here? MediaTest essentially relies on two high-tech processes – based on electromagnetic waves. "We hide inaudible additional signals in a carrier frequency. It works like a barcode," explains CEO Karl Amon.

These additional signals are broadcast with a radio or television program, for example, and can be read during the broadcast using special devices called hardware encoders. "This tells us which station is being listened to, when, what is being broadcast, and how large an audience there was. This is our patent," says Karl Amon.

These "hardware encoders" decode the additional signals to conduct media measurements

The second method MediaTest uses is also used by other companies: fingerprinting. Frequency curves are compared. Once the curves are identical, you know which station was being listened to.

Two technologies that offer an incredible range of possibilities. Starting with the measurement of media usage, through analysis

BIZ St. Pölten_11. March 2025
Photo: Lauren Seywald / MeinBezirk

NEWS 10/25

This year's "minds" took place in Berlin from October 8th to 10th. At this event, the protagonists of the largest and most important press agencies in the world meet every year to exchange ideas. MediaTest was there and was able to present the possibilities of the MediaTest tool for press agencies.

MediaTest CFO Mag. Christian Rebernig

MediaTest CTO Parmy Bar

DPA CEO Peter Kropsch

NEWS

MediaTest audio watermarking technology has „Golden Ear“ status.

The MediaTest watermarking technology is based on the complex coding approach DSS. This means, that the marks are positioned using special technology and in frequency ranges, that the human ear cannot hear at all. The detection rate is 98%. The detection time is less than one second. These values are a top value that is otherwise rarely achieved. MediaTest received the “Golden Ear” certificate for this.

The "Golden Ear Certificate" means that the "watermarks" are imperceptible, i.e. not perceptible to the human ear, even in absolute silence.

MediaTest has therefore received trademark protection for the name of the encoders equipped with MediaTest audio watermarking technology. From 2023, the MediaTest encoders will bear the protected brand name "Golden-Ear-Encoder".

MediaTest in RedTech-Magazin_2022

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