DRM surprises IBC with big announcements

AMSTERDAM — On Sept. 16 the Digital Radio Mondiale Consortium hosted a session at the IBC show which surprised attendees with a number of significant announcements.

Ruxandra Obreja, chairman of the DRM Consortium, welcomed via video conference Murtaza Solangi, Pakistan’s minister of Information and Broadcasting. He confirmed the installation of a 1,000 kW DRM MW transmitter at Rawat (near Islamabad in the northeastern region of the country) and said “work on this project will be executed soon.”

In addition, it was announced that in August, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information released a reform regulation of terrestrial radio broadcasting services that officially adopts DRM standard for broadcasting in MW, FM and VHF-III (in the frequency range 174–202 MHz, while the frequency range 202–230 MHz is allocated to DAB+). Said regulation lays out modulation parameters, frequency allocations and coverage maps for each service area, and applies to both public and commercial broadcasters, as well as to community radio stations (limited to FM band only).

Just before the show opened, key Chinese authorities, the National Radio and Television Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation , issued a statement to encourage the adoption of DRM for domestic MW broadcast and provincial stations to broadcast DRM services as well. Those authorities also recommended a further strengthening of in-vehicle audio and video digital broadcast reception, as an essential component of the country’s basic public services.

During the IBC session, CML Microcircuits announced the full release of their DRM1000 broadcast receiver module. CML says the DRM 1000 is the world’s lowest-cost, lowest power, and smallest sized Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) “antenna to speaker” module, containing all hardware, software, IP and patent licenses required for building a dual mode (digital and analog) DRM-capable receiver.

Among the first radio receivers to utilize the DRM1000 module, Haochun Liu, head of research and development at Gospell Digital Technology, unveiled the GR-221, a portable radio with a rechargeable battery and the smaller GR-220, powered by just two AAA batteries. Liu said the GR-220 is the world’s smallest DRM receiver. Both products can still receive emergency alerts even when they are in sleep mode.