MUMBAI: The DRM consortium organized a meeting in New Delhi recently, bringing together various stakeholders to discuss issues dealing with the roll-out of DRM Digital radio technology in India.
Senior representatives of more than 20 companies along with All India Radio’s engineer-in-chief RK Jain attended the two-hour long meeting. Jain, explained at length the current status of DRM transmitter procurement and installation process. Among other things, the importance of marketing and increasing awareness about digital change was highlighted. The great need for good, inexpensive DRM receivers was also emphasized to the receiver manufacturers and distributors present at the table.
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At the 48th General Assembly of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Corporation (ABU) issues surrounding DRM around the world were also discussed. The meeting brought together ABU participants from countries like India, China, Turkey, Germany and DRM Consortium members representing transmitter manufacturers, broadcasters and, for the first time, DRM receiver manufacturers.
Representatives of All India Radio, currently in the process of a DRM roll-out, gave their vision – a mixture of simulcast, new content and new additional information to accompany audio.
AIR has increased its DRM SW transmission by 8.25 hours to a total of approximately 16 hours a day. AIR first started Digital Radio Transmission from Delhi in Short-Wave band by using DRM Technology on 16th January, 2009 with a target coverage area of the UK and West Europe. Its Vividh Bharti service on DRM (in NVIS mode) has an approx coverage area of 800 Kms. With the increase in transmission time, more language services have now been added to the External services transmission.
Moderated by the DRM chairperson Ruxandra Obreja and stimulated by the ABU TC director Sharad Sadhu, the last minutes of the workshop were devoted to the thorny issue of content. Besides taking part in the various sessions (where updates on DRM activity around the globe and the DRM+ trial in the UK were given), DRM also displayed new receivers.
Other DRM member companies attending ABU were: Fraunhofer IIS, RFmondial, Nautel, Thomson, Transradio, Analog Devices, BBC, Deutsche Welle and TDP.
