Friday, February 17, 2012

BES Expo 2012 : Report

The BES Expo 2012 - 18th International Conference & Exhibition on Terrestrial & Satellite Broadcasting was organized at New Delhi from 11th to 13th Feb 2012 at hall 12 & 12A of Pragati Maidan expo centre.---------------------------------------- View of Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Broadcast Engineering Society (India), the society of broadcast professionals organises this International Conference and Exhibition on Terrestrial & Satellite broadcasting every year. All the previous expo's had a large participation of major broadcast equipment manufacturers and service providers.


Over 100 highly reputed organizations, service providers and major broadcast equipment manufacturers from all over the world displayed their latest state-of-art technologies and services. The event is approved by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India & India Trade Promotion Organisation and supported by Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Govt of India, Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union & The Society of Broadcast Engineers, USA and endorsed by International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers. This year's theme was "Broadcasting through multiple platforms". The event was inaugrated by Dr. S.Jagathrakshakan, Hon'ble Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Govt of India on 11th Feb, 2012. Guest of honour & keynote speaker was Mr.Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India.

Inaugurating the event Dr. S.Jagathrakshakan, Hon'ble Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Govt of India said "Broadcasting is one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy over the last few decades. Forecasts point out that with a huge potential this sector will continue to grow further. This growth has been possible thanks to the liberal & progressive policies of the Govt.of India, which has encouraged investments, promoted entrepreneurship & attracted innovation. Today, India's broadcasting industry is one of the largest in the world".
He also emphasised that "Digitalization promises to ensure attainment of the full potential of the broadcast sector and is expected to bring in major gains to all stake-holders".

A workshop on "Connecting in Crisis - Role of Radio in Natural Disasters & Emergency warning and alert using DRM system " was organized on day one in which presentations were made by Mr. Anthony Frangi, University of Queensland, Australia & Mr. Alexander Zink, Fraunhofer IIS, Germany.
International players showcased their products, facilities and services. On display were whole range of products like Amplifiers, Antenna Systems(Broadcast, FM & TV), Attenuators, conductors, Antenna testers, Audio measuring & test equipments, Audio mixers, Audio processors, Automation systems & softwares, Broadcast equipments & softwares, Broadband access products, Cables & accessories, Channel automation systems, Compact & digital disc production systems, DTH Systems, DAB Systems, Digital Audio & Video recording systems, Digital storage,archival & retrieval systems, DVB-T Transmitters, Earth stations/systems, Fibre optic solutions/services, Filters & splitters, Frequency monitoring systems, FM Exciters, HD Radio, HDTV, Headphones, Microphones, Mixers, Network management systems, Radio data systems, Radio automation softwares, Scheduling softwares, Satellite receivers, Switchers, Transmitters (AM,FM,TV), Test & Measuring equipments, Virtual Studio, VSAT systems, Wireless systems. Prasar Bharati ( Broadcasting Corp. of India ) put up a huge stall (1-4) in which latest technical innovations from All India radio & Doordarshan were exhibited.
Among the systems displayed by AIR & DD were :

a) Multichannel MW DRM Broadcast
b) SMS based status monitoring of 100 watts FM tranmitters
c) Glimpse of forthcoming AIR Webcasting & Podcasting services
d) Remote monitoring & control system for FM transmitters
e) Doordarshan's HDTV Plans
-------------------Screen shots of AIR Multichannel DRM txn on MW 1017 kHz
During the BES Expo 2012, All India Radio had test transmissions at 0330-1200 UTC with multichannel DRM broadcast on MW, 1st channel carrying music & 2nd channel talk program on a single freq 1017 kHz from a new Riz mobile transmitter with power output of 3 kW in DRM mode.

DRM Future Plans :

1) Replacement of two 1000 kW MW transmitters by new DRM compatible transmitters ( expected by 31st March 2012)
2) Replacement of 34 old MW transmitters by new DRM transmitters.
3) Replacement of 6, 10 kW mobile transmitters by mobile DRM transmitters.
4) Conversion of 36 compatible MW transmitters into DRM transmitters.
5) Replacement of five SW transmitters by DRM transmitters.
6) Implementation of pilot project of DRM+ txers at major cities.
7) New DRM+ transmittesr at 24 places ( DRM compatible FM txers)
8) Setting up 100 watt FM DRM+ compatible transmitters at 100 locations.
9) Replacement of existing MW/FM transmitters by high power DRM+ FM transmitters.


DRM Consortium was part of a large booth of Nautel/Comcon this year, a DRM+ surround sound demo was available at booth. Many DRM receivers were displayed at the booth. The newer version of DRM receiver DR111 from Chengdu Newstar Electronics Co.Ltd was on display at Digidia booth which was part of French Pavillion. Many officials from DRM Consortium attended the expo including DRM Project Director, Vineeta Dwivedi, Alexander Zink & Ludo Maes both Vice Chairman of DRM Consortium.

Transmitter manufacturer & provider of technology, services & systems, Thomson also participated in this years expo like last year, they displayed their latest DRM solution equipments. Among some of the prominent exhibitors were AGIV, Adobe, Autodesk, BECIL(Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd.), Broadcast Electronics USA, Broadcast & Cablesat, CAT-5 Broadcast, CDG Broadcast, Dalet, Digidia, Dolby, Electro Dynamics, Falcon Technologies, Grass Valley, Harr-Ban, Harris, Hitachi, Ideal Broadcasting, Mediaguru, Orban, R & S, Radio Frequency System, Radio Systems Inc., Sennheiser India, Sony, Rohde & Schwarz, Shaf Broadcast, Technomedia, Tektronix & Winmedia, Singapore.

A two day conference was also scheduled to be held at Pragati Maidan,New Delhi in which some of the prominent speakers are, Makoto Taguchi, NHK, Japan, Gerard Faria, Teamcast, France, Peter Busch, R&S, Germany, Brad Redwood, Masstech Group, Australia, Fabio Gattari, Etere, Italy, Mustapha Rezzoug, Netia, France, Ian Trow, Harmonic Inc, USA, Muzaffar Fakhruddin,
Sony, Malaysia, Danny Wilson, Pixelmetrix, Singapore, Gunnar Garfos, MMTV, Norway, Trevor Francis, Broadcast, Quantel Ltd, UK, Dr.P.K.Jain, ISRO, Pradeep Asthana, Newtec,UAE, Hermann Zensen,Digidia, France, Chirag Dadia,ATDI,India, Chris Grey,Sony,Hongkong, Jason Power,Dolby,UK, Ludo Maes, TDP, Belgium, Yogendra Pal, AIR, India, R.Sreedhar, CEMCA, India, Dr.H.O.Srivastava,WDF,India & Barsha Chabaria, Salaam Namaste CRS,India.



Ludo Maes, Vice Chairman, DRM Consortium during a presentation on DRM receivers





R.K.Jain, Engineer-in-chief, All India Radio presented momento to speakers



Shri.C.M.Jatua,Hon'ble Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Govt of India was the chief guest at the valedictory & awards function.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Alokesh for such a nice report !

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  2. Fantastic report! Thanks Alokesh da for sharing it with us.

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  3. Thanks for the detail report, which give us lot information.

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  4. Very informative report Alokesh.

    -Jose Jacob

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