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The Digital Radio Mondial Consortium had its most ambitious Broadcast Engineering Society presence so far at the 28th BES Expo in New Delhi, India, Feb.15–17. Over the three days, the DRM Consortium welcomed hundreds of visitors to its booth, which profiled several Indian and international members and partners, including CML Micro, Fraunhofer IIS, Gospell, NXP, RFmondial and Starwaves.
On Feb. 15, the DRM Consortium showcased DRM Digital FM reception on an Android mobile phone. The demonstration showed that DRM Digital FM reception does not depend on proprietary receiver technology — it can be received on a mobile phone using an existing, off-the-shelf analog FM tuner chipset already used in billions of devices.
A car parked in the spacious DRM booth allowed visitors to compare the old analog sound with live DRM digital Medium Wave audio and text in a car. You can see a video demonstration here.
During the exhibition, there was great interest in the CML Micro’s new energy and cost-saving all-band DRM1000 receiver module, which will be available in volume soon.
NXP, whose chipsets are already used in millions of Indian cars, presented its new, enhanced version of the one-chip solution for automotive radio and audio, commercially available from 2025. Live DRM medium wave and FM band broadcasts were received at the booth on several Gospell radios.
Digital solutions
Fraunhofer IIS exhibited its latest innovation for DRM transmission and reception, including DRM ContentServer and MultimediaPlayer technologies (available for manufacturer integration), showcasing a series of applications like an emergency warning and public signage services, vital for users and listeners.
RFmondial, a company offering professional products and services for the digital broadcasting industry, demonstrated the advantages of their DRM multichannel single-transmitter solution for maximum cost-efficiency when digitizing the FM band.
For Starwaves, the BES exhibition was the place to demonstrate its newest W2401 receiver with a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot.
The BES conference held in parallel with the exhibition included two DRM contributions: “Digital Radio — Ingredients of Success,” detailing the success of DRM in Asia, and “Digitising FM — the Way to a Win-Win Solution,” focusing on the significant opportunities of DRM when introduced in the FM broadcast band.
DRM Consortium Chairman Ruxandra Obreja said, “BES was a great opportunity to show that the DRM standard offers the same benefits in all frequency bands. This has been recognized in India and in other big Asian countries that are rolling out DRM in AM and FM.”
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