DRM Looks at Receivers, Other Developments

Each year at this time attendees ready to make their trip to Amsterdam for the IBC convention. In 2020, however, the continued health crisis has forced industry players to adjust their plans and come up with other ways to creatively bring their peers together. The solution for many has been to organize — and attend — virtual meetings.

One example of this was the Digital Radio Mondiale event “DRM — Advanced Radio for All,” which took place Sept. 9, during IBC’s virtual event, “IBC Showcase.” The two-hour online meeting provided insight into recent DRM developments taking place around the world, as well as a peek at new products. Through a mixture of live presentations and videos the webcast connected DRM Consortium members, affiliates and guests.

Global Updates

According to DRM, more than 100 participants from all continents and countries as far apart as Australia, Romania, Brazil, India, Germany and Indonesia took part. Event highlights included details on DRM progress in places like India, where they have installed more DRM medium-wave transmitters. And in Indonesia, where they are successfully implementing DRM for FM transmitters. Other announcements included those from Pakistan about the government recently approving DRM as standard for the digitization of all bands in the country, and South Africa on its new digitization policy.

The event also offered specifics on recent advances to DRM technology, equipment and receivers with information from Switzerland, India, China, South Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom.

DRM-compatible receivers were a main topic of the virtual meeting. Gospell and Inntot promoted a variety of standalone and in-car solutions. Starwaves highlighted the Tuk-Tuk radio set and launched its new receiver W293BT. RF2digital showcased its multi-standard SDR option. Other information came from Cambridge Consultants regarding new developments on low-cost, low-energy receivers and also from Avion.

In addition, presenters from RFmondial, Nautel and Starwaves showed how DRM can deliver up to 18 DRM channels within 600 kHz on one frequency, from just one FM digital transmitter and antenna.

Additional Applications

Another presentation of interest was the overview about using DRM for emergency warning and education (both in receivers and for public signage). At the end of the virtual update, the DRM consortium unveiled a new video designed to help organizations and individuals learn more about the DRM standard and its implementation.

Event speakers included Ruxandra Obreja, DRM; Simon Keens, Ampegon; Lindsay Cornell and Nigel Fry, BBC; Tim Whittaker, Cambridge Consultants; Alexander Zink, Fraunhofer IIS; Haochun Liu, Gospell; Rajith Nair, Inntot; Philipp Schmid, Nautel; Ghulam Mujaddid, PBC; Albert Waal, Rfmondial; William Kim, Rf2Digital, Frederik Ndolu, RRI, Johannes von Weyssenhoff, Starwaves; and consortium representatives Yogendra Pal and Radu Obreja.

“This was a unique event which amply demonstrated the commitment of our members and of all those interested in DRM’s potential,” said Ruxandra Obreja, DRM chairman. “Recent DRM advancement and receiver developments are leading to expanded applications, such as delivering education and emergency warning information. These, of course, are extra benefits while DRM ensures full country coverage with increased energy savings and spectrum efficiency.”