#DRMdigitalRadio Awareness Campaign in #Vizag #Hyundailndia on 21-12-2020 #AIRvsp

Digital Radio has capability to provide multiple services on single frequency.   Now, we can select the available services which want to enjoy.Video shows how to tune digial radio in car.

Source : https://youtu.be/OEGZjpLWJxc

A very simple video explaining about "What is DRM"

Here is simple video explaining about "What is DIGITAL RADIO MONDIALE?"

DRM is the universal, openly standardised digital broadcasting system for all broadcasting frequencies, including the AM bands (LW, MW, SW) DRM ensures the efficient and complete digitisation of those countries committing to the digital radio roll-out. The great flexibility of DRM supports all types of coverage needs – from local, regional, nation-wide to international. DRM allows a seamless transition to digital radio with the upgrade of existing transmitter infrastructure as well as with analogue-digital simulcast configurations. DRM digital radio can save broadcasters up to 80% in energy and maintenance costs.

for watching Video click the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGa8X5hr5Vw

AIR FULLY COMMITTED TO DRM – REQUESTS FULL SUPPORT OF AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY FOR NATIONWIDE ROLLOUT

All India Radio updated the 2nd NXP Car Forum (on November 25th) by giving details about new transmitters, extended pure DRM transmissions, extra content and improved communication.

All India Radio is fully committed to DRM Digital Radio for all of India. AIR urged the Automotive Industry to make DRM available in all car models support and help promote the DRM migration while supporting all supporting all DRM features and bands and to start promoting DRM to customers in cooperation with AIR. “Together let’s convince the government to mandate DRM in cars”.  More here

Source :- https://www.drm.org/air-fully-committed-to-drm-requests-full-support-of-automotive-industry-for-nationwide-rollout/

DRM Gospell Receivers Available to buy in India

 

DRM Gospell Receivers Available to buy in India through Antriksh Digital Solutions


Gospell Digital Technology Co., Ltd (www.gospell.com) and Antriksh Digital Solution LLP of India (www.antrikshdigital.com) have recently signed a cooperation agreement for the sale of DRM digital radio products in the Indian market. The two parties have also officially launched the promotion of Gospell’s DRM receiver products.

This cooperation agreement means that Antriskh becomes a Gospell digital radio distributor. Both parties will integrate their own resources according to market needs: Gospell will provide high-quality DRM digital radio products and services, and Antriskh will provide their customers with convenient purchasing modalities. The core advantage of this cooperation is to simplify the customer purchase process (no foreign exchange) and shorten the product shipment cycle. Indian customers can immediately purchase locally high-quality DRM digital radio products from Gospell through the distributor Antriskh and enjoy all the benefits of the Gospell products.

Currently there is a stock of Gospell DRM 216 receivers at reduced price which can be acquired for individual use. Currently only GR-216 is available in stock, and new models will be gradually introduced in the future.

The cooperation with Antriskh underlines Gospell’s customer-oriented business approach and its services strategy which prioritises the customers’ needs and expectations. This cooperation will streamline the purchasing process making it more convenient for our customers!

For more details:

https://www.drm.org/drm-gospell-receivers-available-to-buy-in-india-through-antriksh-digital-solutions/ 

Inntot Technologies provides cost effective software based digital radio receiver

Inntot Technologies provides software based digital radio receiver stack solutions that are cost effective and make costly hardware based implementations obsolete. Inntot is playing a pivotal role in the Analog Sunset of AM and FM broadcast radio transmission and paving way for mass adoption of digital radio transmission by lowering cost of entry for the end consumer. Supported by Unicorn India.


For more details, Click the link below

https://www.inntot.com/drm-software-receiver-stack/

Key Benefits of DRM (Digital Radio Technology

Read more about this in DRM Hand Book. V.5 available @ www.drm.org

Link www.drm.org

Digital Radio: The Time to Plan Ahead is Now

If COVID-19 has reset many parameters and changed our lives, some of the old assumptions have stayed strong.

One of these is that, despite the challenge from new platforms like internet streaming, expensive satellite and nebulous but undeniable 5G promises, terrestrial broadcasting still offers mobile reception that is both cost effective and reliable.

A recent study “Share of Ear” from Edison Research shows that listening in cars seems to be recovering after taking a hit during bleak pandemic summer months. And, at least in the United States, at home listening is now higher than pre-COVID 19. This reflects the work from home shift favored now by many companies.

Vital Services

For radio, there is more than this, however. At a recent ITU event for Africa the obvious but undeniable fact that radio reaches those parts that other newer technologies cannot was very evident.

Radio remains the most effective ways to deliver information and education in rural and remote areas, where information can educate and even save lives in emergency situations. Together with the growth of community radio, information and culture become more accessible to all.

Ruxandra Obreja

A new and vital component of radio services is increasingly becoming education or rather distance learning, with about 463 million students worldwide cut off from education. It was noted that in Africa, where AM, and particularly FM radio, remain extremely popular, the demand for new frequencies is increasing.

ITU and African Telecommunication Union (ATU) had already planned to optimize the GE84 Plan (the ITU frequency plan) for African countries in 2018. The optimization GE84 Plan was intended not only to respond to the increasing demand in analog sound broadcasting, but also to enable and facilitate the introduction of digital radio in Band II (DRM).

Looking ahead to 2021, three frequency coordination meetings are slated to take place in order to get all 54 African administrations to adopt common technical criteria and conditions for mutual agreements. During these meetings they will also submit their frequency requirements, run compatibility analyses and mutually coordinate their stations.

Stay Competitive

Clearly, there is quite a bit of planning going on for analog — as well as for digital radio. It’s now accepted that analog radio needs to make a transition to digital broadcasting to allow radio to add new programming and features. This move will permit radio to stay competitive in the new digital entertainment and information age.

More generally, as we know, some countries and broadcasters have strongly supported the transition; others are taking a more cautious approach. And some have expressed little or no interest.

We have quite a few good examples of planning on the arduous road to digital. Pakistan has put in place a three-stage costed plan to go DRM on all frequencies. Indonesia is following suit by starting with the Band II and digital FM (DRM) and showing how the DRM can be used for the vital emergency warnings the population needs.

Germany is planning a pre-Christmas marketing campaign on all platforms to promote the already rolled out DAB+.  This effort  also comprises the training of employees in over 1500 stores, presumably in order to increase the sale of DAB+ receivers.

For digital radio beginners (administrations and broadcasters, manufacturers, retailers etc.) going from evaluating and potentially increasing the number of frequencies or available programs to infrastructure upgrades (in the case of DRM) is not so simple.

Act Strategically

The planning also includes, or at least should include, a content schedule for broadcasters to include on these new channels. All India Radio is currently increasing its time of pure DRM transmissions and is comprising popular music, news, and generally attractive and different content from its analog offering.

The broadcaster is also considering the allocation of the third of three programs that DRM makes possible on one current frequency, for education. And then all this activity must run in parallel with planning for receiver availability and campaigns coordination, similar to the above-mentioned one mentioned in Germany.

DRM maps out this intricate process in its latest DRM video “DRM from Broadcaster to Listener.”

Source:- https://www.redtechtribe.com/guest-commentaries/digital-radio-the-time-to-plan-ahead-is-now/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

The  DRM video is an easy introduction to the benefit of the only all-band digital radio standard. Digital Radio Mondiale, accompanied by a clear explanation of how best to deliver local, regional national and international coverage. The steps that a country needs to consider are presented in a lively and easily understandable manner. The DRM video turns any digital radio novice into a DRM practitioner.

Source : https://youtu.be/V-DpTa5yU28

Coverage- AM V/S DRM

Coverage- AM V/S DRM

Digital radio technology has revolutionised the communications industry, improving many aspects of the radio user's experience. There are several benefits of using digital radios, but the most obvious benefits are:

Clearer signals – Unlike analogue radios, there is no background noise when using digital radios, so when the signal weakens the voice clarity remains the same. When the signal is fully lost the digital radios stop receiving.
Increased coverage – Digital technology increases coverage by up to 20% over analogue radios because the unwanted background noise is filtered out. Digital radios are also able to correct errors in weaker transmissions and therefore fill in the gaps.
Secure transmissions – It is much more difficult to listen in to digital transmissions than it is to listen in to analogue transmissions. Digital radios also offer encryption as standard.
Robust equipment – All manufacturers are investing their efforts and money into producing the very best digital radios, and therefore the quality and reliability of the equipment is excellent.

For details click here: www.drm.org

ALL INDIA RADIO (AIR) TO EXPAND DRM DIGITAL RADIO SERVICES

After the disruption caused by the pandemic, All India Radio (AIR) decided not only to restart transmissions in pure digital mode but also to expand DRM MW digital Radio services.

According to a recent decision of AIR, the stations with single DRM MW transmitters are to carry two digital audio channels in simulcast mode and three audio channels in pure digital mode with Journaline. All the DRM MW stations have been asked to carry out test transmission immediately, to ensure readiness and sustainability of the transmitters for regular transmission of DRM in pure and simulcast modes. This will be an opportunity to carry out field survey . In simulcast mode two digital audio channels and one Journaline (if feasible) is to be tested. In pure digital mode, three audio channels will be available with one Journaline (if feasible). Whether in simulcast or pure DRM the first channel will be News 24×7and second channel will be primary/main channel. In pure DRM the third channel will be the popular Vividh Bharati music programme.

It has further been decided that five major stations (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Rajkot), which have 2 MW DRM transmitters each, will operate one of these transmitters in pure Digital mode throughout the day.

Six more stations (Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Jagdalpur, Bhawanipatna, Sambalpur and Jeypore), which have digital ready MW transmitters, have also been asked to test these transmitters for DRM digital transmissions. In fact test transmission in DRM has already started from Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam is almost ready.

DRM Advanced Radio for All

 

The recent DRM virtual showcase proved to be a real box of delights and new announcements demonstrating that the digital radio industry remains resilient and innovative even in pandemic times. “The best DRM IBC show with the lowest carbon footprint and best attendance” was one of the many feedbacks received. And there were lots of things to excite the over 100 participants from literally all over the world.

The highlights were grouped around some big themes like DRM in practice, extensively proven and used in the FM band; DRM and its possible major role in delivering educational content to large and remote areas in times when many students cannot attend face-to-face lessons; use of DRM in public signage which can be applied for both education, health and emergency announcements; a new and “live” way of monitoring on-air transmissions, which can be beneficial to both the engineers and the editorial staff of broadcasters.

[Read: Can Digital Radio Standards Coexist?]

While the all-band, open DRM standard is stable and well-established, technical improvements can always be implemented like the recent updating of the DRM system specification ETSI ES 201 980. Three improvements were announced by the DRM Technical Chair (BBC) and are to do with removal of some obsolete or unused modulation features and enhanced signaling when using emergency warnings. The changes, which are backwards-compatible, will make DRM’s implementation in chipsets and receivers more reliable, and add additional support for receiver text displays to be able to also support different scripts from around the world. We now know that the publication of the new ETSI version is expected early in 2021.

Around that time a DRM medium-wave pilot to be run by the BBC for the Middle East is also expected to start, as out of the 468 million people tuning to the BBC worldwide, we were told by the BBC representative that a quarter are still doing so on AM. And shortwave, a bit of a blast from the past for some, is not forgotten in places like Russia, China, and many other countries, as the demand for SW digital transmitters is quite healthy. As mentioned by the Ampegon representative the demand is mainly now for bigger capacity transmitters, above 25 kW going to 50 kW, able to cover wide areas with good analog and digital sound and delivering big energy savings. In its new factory Ampegon is working on satisfying these demands.

Improvements were also announced at the level of professional monitoring all these transmissions. So RFmondial announced the upgraded HTML5 GUI in its DRM/AM Monitoring and Measurement Receiver Family RF-SE and the possible software update of older versions. A new exciter version was also unveiled by the German company. Their German colleagues at Fraunhofer IIS also completed the picture with end-to-end implementations offering solutions (content server and multimedia player, data services like Journaline and Emergency Warning Functionality), services for supporting DRM field trials and rollout, as well as  unique expertise.

But the DRM Showcase was not all about better hardware. It was also about technical innovation. And the one that elicited most of the questions was the extended DRM multiplex for FM, an idea that benefited from the input of Nautel and RFmondial engineers. This solution allows one analog FM transmission (200 kHz) and four DRM channels (two in each of the 200 kHz guard spaces as a DRM channel only occupies 100 kHz). Or if the whole 600 kHz are used in pure DRM then up to six DRM channels (each service with up to three audio and one data services) can be offered from the same transmitter, same antenna with possible sharing of costs among several broadcasters. The individual broadcasters remain in control of their transmissions without the involvement of third-parties.

As usual, participants were also interested in what is happening in the various countries about implementing DRM. While India remains the top DRM country (alongside China), the adoption of DRM in all bands by Pakistan and its public broadcaster (PBC) was one of the big surprises of the showcase. The comprehensive three-phase costed plan to introduce DRM in FM, and medium-wave, first, in all the key areas of the country has been endorsed and praised since the “DRM—Advanced Radio for All” by top Pakistani officials.

Indonesia and its public radio (RRI) representative also presented its five FM transmitters which went on air over the last few months and the excellent results of the Emergency Warning Functionality demonstrated on a DRM FM transmitter in Jakarta in August. The recent tender for digital DRM transmitters in SW, MW and FM in Brazil was welcome news and the expectation is now that a locally produced SW DRM transmitter will be soon transmitting from the key public broadcaster central site.

Africa always gets a mention though South Africa has really scored a first with its policy announced two months ago that it recommends both DRM and DAB as a way to digitize radio in the country; a true torch-bearer for other African countries so reliant on AM and FM radio.

Over 2.5 million of cars with DRM receivers are placing India in a class of its own. Receivers are fitted at no cost in cars from the top brands. Work is continuing to increase pure DRM hours for five All India Radio (AIR) transmitters to full day and diversify content. Possibilities are being explored to have an educational channel and invite also some private broadcasters to use the extra channels available through DRM on AIR transmitters. Six more medium-wave transmitters are to be added to the existing 35 MW DRM transmitters. One of these new batch of DRM transmitters using all the extra DRM features will be launched officially in Hyderabad very soon. The increase of the DRM presence and the general technical effort being made will stimulate the receiver production and availability.

And a good part of the DRM event was devoted to the development of receiver and receiver solutions. One trend we noticed was the extension of DRM reception to FM so that it can cover analog and AM as well as FM broadcasts. Most of the receiver manufacturers proudly announced the availability of attractive features like support for xHE-AAC codec, Journaline, Emergency Warnings. The receivers introduced in excellent videos like that of Avion (India) came in all shapes and forms; from the rich variety of Gospell (China) and its GR series and DRM car stereo, to the Indian multifunctional receivers and SDR-based solutions of Inntot (India). RF2 digital (Korea/Germany) also came up with an SDR receiver solution for analog and all DRM bands, being also a multistandard device. Cambridge Consultants (U.K.) is working on a very low-energy and low-cost solution. The same idea was embraced by Starwaves (Germany/Switzerland) which presented a “tuk-tuk” radio (stripped down but very functional). It also announced the world premiere of Starwaves W293BT receiver, available now upon orders.

So, DRM is making great strides technically, geographically and in coming up with ingenious receiver solutions. To encourage as many digital radio practitioners, stakeholders and decisionmakers to embrace and implement digital radio, DRM, the consortium launched on Sept. 9 its own new video, “DRM — From Broadcaster to Listener.”

Source  :-  https://www.radioworld.com/global/drm-advanced-radio-for-all

A NEW ERA BEGINS FOR BRAZILIAN RADIO BROADCASTING 22 SEP A NEW ERA BEGINS FOR BRAZILIAN RADIO BROADCASTING

A new era begins for Brazilian radio broadcasting with the arrival and installation of a first shortwave digital radio DRM transmitter developed and manufactured in the city of Porto Alegre by BT Transmitters. The transmitter will be sited at the public broadcaster (EBC) Rodeador Park, near the capital Brasilia, to be connected to one of the huge HF antennas of EBC (National Amazon Radio is transmitted from there).

The equipment (a transmitter of 2.5 kW) will be tested on an experimental and scientific basis with the help of the University of Brasilia (UnB) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The National Radio of the Amazon broadcasts from Brasilia especially to the Northern, Amazonian region of Brazil. The signal will be also available in the neighbouring countries to the north of Brazil. This is primarily a domestic shortwave digital project aimed at the Amazon where about 7 million riverside and indigenous people live. They are far from any other means of communication as there is no mobile phone or internet coverage.

Rafael Diniz, the Chair of the DRM Brazilian Platform, thinks that: “Shortwave digital radio (DRM) for the Amazon region will ensure a new level of communication and information as Nacional’s programming is both popular and educational. It brings audio and much more at low energy cost to whole communities there. With the adoption of digital radio, one of the major problems, that of poor sound quality affecting at times shortwave, will end. Listeners will be able to enjoy DRM broadcasts in short wave with a quality similar to that of a local FM station together with textual and visual multimedia content.”

“This is a huge step forward, says Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Consortium Chair, “not just for Brazil but for the whole of Latin America. When everything else fails or does not exist, DRM will provide information, education, emergency warning and entertainment at reduced energy costs.”

Source :- https://www.drm.org/a-new-era-begins-for-brazilian-radio-broadcasting/

How to receive DRM signals through SDR

How to receive DRM signals through SDR.

SDRs are used for radio communication based on software-defined wireless communication protocol. Instead of components (such as radio frequency amplifiers and mixers), these use software on embedded or computer systems.

Software-defined radios (SDRs) are available at cheaper prices online, which can be used to receive DRM transmissions. Some commercial wide-band SDRs are RTL-SDR V3 (cheapest), FUNcube Pro+, Airspy, SDRPlay, HackRF and BladeRF.

An SDR can be simply plugged into the USB port of a laptop or desktop computer. An external antenna is connected to the SDR. Length of the antenna depends on the distance between the computer and transmitting station.

Another aspect of DRM reception is suitable software. Some free and downloadable software to receive DRM transmissions are HDSDR, SDSharp and Dream.

Configuring the SDR with suitable software for DRM reception can be tricky. Most manufacturers provide a quick start guide to help set up. For receiving a particular modulation (like AM, FM, DRM, SSB, USB or CW), a compatible program is run on the computer to control the receiver.

Source: Electronics For You.

For details click link below.

Link: https://www.electronicsforu.com/technology-trends/tech-focus/digital-radio-mondiale

Decoding Digital Radio Mondiale DRM Using software

Decoding DRM Using Dream Decoder

Using DREAM DRM SOFWARE
Dream is a fully Open Source DRM30 and AM Software Radio with advanced features for both amateur and professional use. It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux and can be used with any receiver supported by the Hamlib radio control libraries. It supports decoding of audio, text messages, EPG, AFS, BWS, Journaline and MOT Slide Show. It fully supports the RSCI for professional remote logging.

For details click link below.
Link:https://www.drm.org/pc-based-receivers-and-software/

To watch related video.click link below.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lextsInwtUQ

xHE-AAC : The combination of Extended HE-AAC and MPEG-D DRC

xHE-AAC for DRM

DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) is the first digital radio standard to adopt xHE-AAC (mandatory since 2013) and benefit from its features. As xHE-AAC is a superset of the MPEG HE‑AAC codec used for all DRM transmissions to date, HE‑AAC remains available as part of the DRM standard to retain compatibility with existing systems. With xHE-AAC, DRM broadcasters can now use the same codec for all types of content and benefit from a simplified codec configuration process: The encoder automatically optimizes all quality-relevant parameters, eliminating the need to change configuration settings depending on the type of audio content being broadcast. In addition, the reduced bit demand of the codec allows for the delivery of a wider selection of audio programs.  

xHE-AAC (the combination of Extended HE-AAC and MPEG-D DRC), primarily developed by Fraunhofer IIS and the latest addition to the MPEG AAC codec family, bridges the gap between speech and audio coding. It provides consistently high-quality audio for all signal types, such as speech, music or mixed content, at all bit rates – starting as low as 6 kbit/s for mono and 12 kbit/s for stereo services, up to 500 kbit/s and above. This makes xHE-AAC the audio codec of choice for digital radio and adaptive streaming applications. It is a mandatory audio codec in Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and in Google's Android Pie operating system; the FDK2 implementation including xHE-AAC is provided by Fraunhofer and is available here.

Adaptive Streaming

xHE-AAC was inherently designed for adaptive streaming: its bit rate flexibility enables MPEG-DASH or HLS streaming apps and streaming radio players to switch to very low bit rate streams and offer continuous playback even under challenging network conditions. When network connectivity recovers, the xHE-AAC player will adapt to a higher bit rate and seamlessly switch over the full range of bit rates, up to transparent quality. Additionally, the outstanding coding efficiency of xHE-AAC means the bit rate saving can be invested in improving the video quality of mobile video streaming.

Loudness and Dynamic Range Control

MPEG-D DRC – Loudness and Dynamic Range Control – provides mandatory loudness control for xHE-AAC to play back content at a consistent volume and offers dynamic range control processing to provide the best possible user experience for listening on any platform and in any environment.

Compatibility of xHE-AAC

xHE-AAC profile decoders are capable of decoding all AAC versions including AAC-LC, HE-AAC and HE-AACv2. It is easy to integrate xHE-AAC streams into existing encoding workflows by supplementing legacy higher bit rate streams.

Source: Fraunhofer.

For details click the link below.

https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/broadcast-streaming/xheaac.html

DRM FOR FM – MEASURES UP TO EXPECTATIONS IN INDONESIA

Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) has just conducted measurements proving the DRM in FM is spectrum, energy efficient delivering audio and text in superior quality without any interference even in very crowded FM environments. 

RRI has always been on the forefront in the field of radio broadcasting and on-line radio.

The successful testing and measurements carried out in July came on the back of pioneering DRM deployments in the FM band.

Finally reached to the conclusion: Based on the results of the field measurements obtained in the six test points covered by the 1kW transmitter it was noted that these can be served with only 50 watts of DRM power delivering throughout a good DRM audio quality. In testing a simulcast broadcast using 1 kW and 800 Watt with spacing distance 150 kHz between the middle frequency FM and DRM, the measurement showed no interference between FM and DRM. The DRM quality was at least equally good to FM, but the sound quality of DRM was even better than FM.

The field test results are thus consistent with the ITU-R Recommendations BS. 1114 and BS. 1660.

For details click link below.

https://www.drm.org/drm-for-fm-measures-up-to-expectations-in-indonesia/

Audio Source Coding XHEAAC

Audio Source Coding XHEAAC

Extended HE-AAC audio coding (xHE-AAC) For generic coding of both audio and speech content at all bit rates, a subset of the MPEG xHE-AAC toolbox chosen to best suit the DRM system environment is used. For example a standard configuration for use in one short wave channel could be 16 kbit/s stereo. 

 

Specific features of the xHE-AAC stream within the DRM system are: 

 

• Bit rate: xHE-AAC can be used at any bit rate. The granularity of the xHE-AAC bit rate is 20 bit/s for robustness modes A, B, C and D and 80 bit/s for robustness mode E. 

 

• Sampling rates: Permitted sampling rates for the use of xHE-AAC within DRM are selected such that the interface of the xHE-AAC codec towards the surrounding application can easily accept or provide 48 kHz audio signals, respectively. The actual core sampling rate is selected by the encoder upon initialization to ensure the best possible audio signal quality and is typically not visible to higher layers of processing.

 

 • Audio super framing: To ensure the best possible audio quality particularly at lower bit rates, the xHE-AAC encoder can flexibly assign the available bit rate within certain constraints to each audio frame. Audio super frames - as generated by the xHE-AAC audio encoder and inserted into the DRM logical frames - always have a constant size. However, the number of audio frames per audio super frame is not fixed, and audio frames may span audio super frames. This flexibility is achieved by a slight adjustment to the audio super frame header configuration used for the AAC codec in DRM. One audio super frame is always placed in one DRM logical frame in robustness modes A, B, C and D and in two logical frames in robustness mode E (see clause 6). In this way no additional synchronization is needed for the audio coding. Retrieval of frame boundaries is also taken care of within the audio super frame

Source: ETSI

 Link:.https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_es/201900_201999/201980/04.01.02_60/es_201980v040102p.pdf

DRM Virtual Event ‘Advanced Radio for All’ at IBC 2020

Under the overarching theme “DRM – Advanced Radio for All” the DRM Consortium has planned for a virtual showcase to share with participants the  practical advances of DRM in various parts of the world and the recent improvements to the DRM performance, equipment and receivers.

Planned for September 9th (1000-1200 UTC) this special IBC event hosted by the DRM Consortium will bring together specialists and practitioners from India, Indonesia, UK, Germany, Pakistan, China, Brazil and many more places to present to you DRM implementation and innovation as well as working and available receivers. The two-hour event will be a mixture of live presentations, videos, questions and answers, both immersive and exciting.

Ruxandra Obreja, the Consortium Chairman, hopes that: “this will be a unique event which will stand out in the sea of current virtual webinars and meetings. The interest and practical roll out of the only all-band digital radio standard, even in these challenging times, demonstrates that DRM is even more attractive now as it digitally future-proofs for all broadcasters large or small. DRM is offering more news and entertainment programme choice to all listeners, as well as the increasingly necessary access to education and emergency warnings, while ensuring full country coverage with increased energy savings and spectrum efficiency.”

Some of the companies participating are: Ampegon, BBC, Encompass Digital Media, Fraunhofer IIS, Gospell, Inntot, PBC, RFmondial, RRI, Starwaves.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE DRM SHOWCASE

Source:-https://www.drm.org/drm-virtual-event-advanced-radio-for-all-at-ibc-2020/

ABU Technology Webinar series 2020 from 7– 29 September.

 

We are happy to announce the ABU Technology Webinar series 2020 which will run from 7– 29 September. Registration is now open online. Please register soon to book your seat.

The ABU Technology Webinars is a series of online webinars offered free of cost to those interested in broadcast technology. The month long series will include presentations on different aspects and applications of broadcast technology.

HOW THE WEBINAR SESSIONS WORK

Each webinar session will last 60-90 minutes and will start at 0130hrs GMT (9:30am KL/Sin/HK time – view in your timezone) each day and will be repeated at 0800hrs GMT of the same day (4:00pm KL/Sin/HK time – view in your timezone). Both sessions are identical. Please choose the session that suits you best.

This year the webinar topics will cover the following main themes:

Broadcast Engineering Basics

Cloud & AI Technologies and Applications

SDI to IP Migration and Implementation

HDR Technnology and Applications

CDN/ OTT/ IBB Implementation

Source: The ABU Technology

For details click link below:

https://www.abu.org.my/eventer/techwebinar2020/

DRM for FM Bands - An article by Sh. Y. Pal former ADG, AIR

All India Radio (AIR) has adopted the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard for digital terrestrial radio broadcasting in MW and SW bands. Thirty-eight high-power DRM transmitters are carrying regular digital transmissions, either in pure digital and/or in simulcast mode.Sometime back, AIR had issued instructions to increase the transmission hours of such transmitters in pure digital mode. Also each of the four metro cities had been asked to operate one transmitter in Pure Digital Mode. Over 80% of the Indian population was expected to be able to receive radio programs in digital. And this is before most of these transmitters started operating in pure DRM digital mode.The COVID-19 lockdown has adversely affected the digital transmission schedule in pure digital but we are confident that it will be restored soon.

The stakeholders’ efforts are also paying off, as the ecosystem for DRM digital receivers has evolved in India, from domestic chipset development to receiver design and production.The Indian auto industry has responded very positively. Over 2 million cars on Indian roads have line-fit DRM receivers, and this number is increasing every day.Five leading automotive manufacturers — Maruti/Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, MG Motors and Toyota — are rolling out cars with built-in DRM receivers. Most of the other leading car manufacturers are understood to be in the process of incorporating them but are waiting to see the demand first.Development and production of standalone DRM receivers is also being taken up fast by Indian as well as foreign companies.Made-in-India Avion DRM receivers are already available online at Amazon. The DRM receiver prototype by Inntot, another India company, has been successfully demonstrated. The company paired with Clarion for manufacturing DRM car receivers and is looking for partners for starting large-scale production of standalone DRM receivers.Foreign companies — Gospell, Starwaves, Titus and Nedis — have come out with a number of models of standalone as well as car models of DRM receivers. Cambridge Consultants in the U.K. have just unveiled the prototype of a low-cost DRM receiver. Korean companies RF2Digital and AlgorKorea are also developing software-defined DRM radios.To further boost the presence of digital radio in the country, AIR has taken a number of initiatives and it held a DRM Stakeholders Meeting in February, which was addressed by the CEO and Member (Finance) of the Prasar Bharati. A Project Management Unit (PMU) has also been constituted to ensure that DRM Digital Radio is rolled out successfully.

AIR is broadcasting in the FM band also for local coverage. It provides about 43% coverage of the 1.3 billion population. Private broadcasters in India are allowed to broadcast in FM only but it is not possible to meet their demand for additional FM services, particularly in big cities, due to limited spectrum available for FM broadcasting. Their coverage is also limited to about 40%.Therefore, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the broadcasting sector regulator, has recommended that private FM broadcasters be allowed to broadcast in digital in the white spaces in the VHF band II (FM band). Though TRAI has not specified which digital broadcast standard is to be used, it is recommended that white spaces may be auctioned by 200 kHz bandwidth blocks.India is currently carrying out trials of ITU-approved standards, including DRM, in the FM band. DRM is fully compatible with the existing FM band transmissions. It utilizes the unused white spaces in the spectrum, technically unavailable for further analog FM expansion.Using DRM, in the allocated 200 kHz bandwidth, a broadcaster can transmit up to six high-quality audio services along with a host of value-added services and Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF). All digital services work without disturbing the existing analog FM services.DRM standard can be supported natively on all mobile phones based on the already available tuners for analog FM reception. No additional hardware and, therefore, no additional design or component cost is required to enable DRM digital FM support on these phones.The DRM App for mobile phones has already been developed and demonstrated by a number of organizations. Only the mobile phone manufacturers need to provide access of the baseband digital output. The mobile phone industry is also expecting the clear policy announcement for the country to start incorporating this functionality in future phone models.For legacy phone models, external FM front-end dongles have been developed. These dongles along with the already developed DRM radio app can be used to receive full DRM FM functions. This has been demonstrated successfully by a number of developers.As the DRM standard works in all the broadcast bands, most of the DRM desktop receivers available today or in development are already prepared for DRM in the FM band. Several of them have demonstrated their working in all the broadcast bands, including FM band.The designers/manufacturers of DRM receivers are thus eagerly waiting for the official policy announcements of the Indian government to finalize the digital FM support in their DRM receiver models. Use of DRM in FM band by AIR and private broadcasters in India would motivate them further to incorporate DRM FM facility in the receivers being produced and/or designed by them.It is thus the right time for India to go for digital broadcasting in the FM band, too, using the DRM standard already adopted in MW and SW bands. Indian industry is looking towards meeting the huge domestic demand and is ready for massive exports.Read other recent stories and commentaries about digital radio

Source :-https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/digital-radio/commentary-use-drm-on-indias-fm-band

Session on DRM – Advanced Radio for All

The Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium invites you to the two hour session called 

“DRM – Advanced Radio for All” 

9th September 2020 

1000 – 1200 UTC 

At this DRM event some of its members and affiliates will showcase their latest DRM developments, products and technical advances. This is an excellent opportunity to get the latest DRM updates or simply ask questions and connect with the worldwide DRM family. 

For details click the link below: 

https://www.drm.org/

Operation of MW DRM Transmitter in Simulcast & Pure DRM mode at single frequency(Fc-9) for reception of Digital signal

In India,so far AIR stations have been operating MW DRM transmitters in simulcast and pure DRM mode at Fc+9 and Fc digital carrier respectively. Due to different carrier frequencies for receiving digital signal, the listeners were required to tune the receivers back and forth.
The matter has been examined to overcome the inconvenience of listeners. It has now been decided to operate the Transmitter at Fc-9 single digital carrier frequency in both simulcast and pure DRM mode with effective from 01-09-2020. Inthe chart given below AIR Pune is listed at Sr. No. 23 among all other stations in India. So be tuned to AIR Pune at 783 KHZ digital carrier frequency from 1st September, 2020 and enjoy.

DREAM DRM SOFWARE for DRM

 

DREAM DRM SOFWARE for drm receivers

Dream is a fully Open Source DRM30 and AM Software Radio with advanced features for both amateur and professional use. It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux and can be used with any receiver supported by the Hamlib radio control libraries. It supports decoding of audio, text messages, EPG, AFS, BWS, Journaline and MOT Slide Show. It fully supports the RSCI for professional remote logging. Binaries and source code are available.

The PC-based DRM+ Test Receiver allows you to investigate and demonstrate the audio and multimedia capabilities of DRM+ broadcasting as well as perform field trials and intensive measurement campaigns


For details click lin below:https:

https://www.drm.org/pc-based-receivers-and-software/

DRM FOR FM – MEASURES UP TO EXPECTATIONS IN INDONESIA

DRM FOR FM – MEASURES UP TO EXPECTATIONS IN INDONESIA

Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) has just conducted measurements proving the DRM in FM is spectrum, energy efficient delivering audio and text in superior quality without any interference even in very crowded FM environments. 

RRI has always been on the forefront in the field of radio broadcasting and on-line radio.

The successful testing and measurements carried out in July came on the back of pioneering DRM deployments in the FM band.

PREPARATION 

On 10 June 2020, a digital radio transmitter was installed and commissioned by RRI at Pelubharan Ratu in Sukabumi province, West Java. For this purpose, the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)[1] digital radio system was used: this innovative step meant this is the first ever digital radio broadcasting station in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia.

Currently, the Pelubharan Ratu digital radio station is broadcasting three programmes in digital form, RRI Pro 1, RRI Pro 3 and, through its digital technology, news and current affairs information in textual form (in writing) in Bhasa Indonesia. The data provision is done through a digital system known as Journaline. The possibilities are immense as the system can cater to news and other information spanning 64,000 pages.

The second such digital radio transmitter was installed and commissioned on 11 June 2020 at Pantai Labuan in Banten Regency, West Java. Following this, the third DRM FM digital radio transmitter was installed and commissioned in July 2020 in Cilacap, Java Tengah province. These stations also provide similar programmes and digital services. In addition, by August 10, RRI plans to install and commission two more DRM FM transmitters in Painan, West Sumatra and in Labuan Bajo, Nusa Tengarah Timor province in eastern Indonesia.

In July RRI conducted the evaluation of trials and measurements of the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) technology in Pelabuhan Ratu area, Sukabumi, West Java, an area often struck by natural disasters.

These activities carried out on Wednesday (23/7/2020) and (Thursday (24/7/2020) were conducted in preparation for the implementation of digital radio.

DRM is an open all-band standard digital audio broadcasting radio technology recommended by ITU and ETSI (EN 302 245 and ES 201 980). DRM has several features and benefits including the incorporated feature of Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF).

DRM can be a digitisation solution both in the MF radio frequency band, or VHF Band II (FM). Irrespective of band, since the DRM standard is one, each DRM radio frequency channel can accommodate up to three broadcast programs (audio) along with text data (presented as news media, advertising, public information, and so on).

DRM is both spectrum and energy efficient and delivers local, regional, national and international coverage. Unlike analogue DRM can be used to achieve broader coverage using the Single Frequency Network (SFN) feature.

DRM can be used on the MF radio frequency bands using the same bandwidth as analogue (AM) and this was successfully demonstrated in Indonesia during the Bogor and Bali trials.

If DRM is used in the VHF Band II it only utilises a 96 kHz that can accommodate up to three audio channels and one data channel. This was also demonstrated by RRI in their trial conducted with the DRM Consortium in Batam. So, half the spectrum for up to three audio channels and one data channel, rather than one analogue audio only programme in FM.

In Indonesia FM is widely used in large cities, so there are not many FM radio frequencies available now. To avoid interference between FM radio broadcasts, the FM broadcast radio frequency channel is ideally separated by 400 kHz (adjacent-4). As DRM can fit in these guard spaces DRM can be a solution even in the cities with a very congested FM spectrum.

The DRM for FM RRI measurements in West Java were carried out for two days, namely 23 and 24 July 2020. The first day, they started with six Test Points (TP), namely TP1 on Karang Hawu Beach, TP2 Karang Papak Beach, TP3 Kadaka Beach, TP4 Vihara Nam Hay Kwan Se Im Pu Sa, TP5 Batu Bintang Beach and TP6 Pantai Loji.

The sixth test point location was obtained based on the results of simulated computer predictions of radiation coverage of an analogue 1 kW FM transmitter.

Measurements were aimed at technically evaluating DRM transmissions and features that can be broadcast through DRM transmitters.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of the field measurements obtained in the six test points covered by the 1kW transmitter it was noted that these can be served with only 50 watts of DRM power delivering throughout a good DRM audio quality. In testing a simulcast broadcast using 1 kW and 800 Watt with spacing distance 150 kHz between the middle frequency FM and DRM, the measurement showed no interference between FM and DRM. The DRM quality was at least equally good to FM, but the sound quality of DRM was even better than FM.

The field test results are thus consistent with the ITU-R Recommendations BS. 1114 and BS. 1660. The next measurement is scheduled to be held at RRI Central Jakarta in August 2020.

Source:https://www.drm.org/drm-for-fm-measures-up-to-expectations-in-indonesia/