This year’s Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) General Assembly ended by announcing that All India Radio, the Indian public broadcaster, has now joined the Consortium and its leading bodies.
The assembly reviewed the developments of the past year and set the tone for 2017-2018 with emphasis on receivers and key markets in Asia and Africa.
Under the banner “Digital Radio Mondiale Delivers”, the 2017 General Assembly of the DRM Consortium took place on May 10 and 11 in Baden, near Zurich, Switzerland.
The exclusive General Assembly meeting for members only on the first day reviewed the major developments in DRM, updates on technical developments, receivers, cooperation with international organisations and specific developments as reported by some of the key members like Fraunhofer IIS, NXP, Radio France International, BBC, Nautel, Ampegon, RFmondial etc.
The open DRM sessions had special addresses from the representatives of Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) and BBC.
The open session had two major headings, the first of which was about Key DRM countries. This was illustrated with reports from local representatives in India, Pakistan, Germany, Southern Africa and Brazil.
The other major topic was the development of several types of DRM receivers. The news on several car models launched this year in India and carrying standard DRM receivers was greeted with interest. Equally impressive was the presentation of the software defined multi-standard receiver, Titus II, and the latest developments of receivers like Avion and Gospell, as well as the plans of companies in South Korea and the UK.
The available receivers were put to good use on both days when Babcock facilitated a live BBC transmission from the UK.
On Thursday participants were linked to the Babcock engineers at the Woofferton transmission site in south-west England while the signals were on air.
For the coming year, the DRM Consortium will consolidate its work in markets like India, Indonesia, other Asian countries and Southern Africa.
In parallel it will vigorously pursue receiver developments, preferably as multi-standard offers, and will pay particular attention to the automobile segment.
For Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Chairman, the General Assembly was more than a moment to take stock. “It was a celebration of success in countries like India. It was also a moment to review the excellent DRM progress in other key countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, South Africa, and acknowledge the interest shown for DRM in some African countries, Russia and other Asian countries. The fact that there are already ingenious standalone and car receivers featuring DRM gives confidence in DRM and the ultimate success of digital radio all over the world,” she said.