Nautel participation in All India Radio's transition to DRM digital AM
involves 4.9 Megawatts total of transmission power.
Hackett's Cove, Nova Scotia — Nautel has begun deployment of 27 medium
wave AM transmitters and associated equipment ordered earlier this
year by India's Prasar Bharati. The orders for 100 kW, 100 kW and 300
kW DRM-enabled transmitters are being installed for All India Radio
and comprise the world's largest digital radio deployment to date. All
transmitters in the system are being configured for DRM30 transmission
and will be used in 27 locations throughout India.
Engineers from AIR were at the Nautel factory in Hackett's Cove, Nova
Scotia in early August to begin Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) of
the first transmitters in the order. Three 300 kW NX300 and one 200 kW
NX200 transmitters were accepted in early August; four 100 kW NX100
transmitters are scheduled for testing at the end of the month. The
NX200 is shipping August 27. Its installation in Delhi, scheduled to
begin in late October, will kick off the deployment in India; the
installation project will be led by Nautel Customer Service Technician
Bachar Dib. The NX300 transmitters shipping to India at the end of the
month will be installed in Jammu, Jalandhar and Lucknow.
All India Radio (AIR) serves the entire country of India via their
analog broadcasting service, covering a broad range of languages and
dialects through the country. The transition to digital broadcasting
will allow AIR to use alternate platforms such as podcasting, SMS,
webcasting and mobile services, and offer a 24-hour news channel along
with other programming. Additional services such as Interactive Text
Transmission and disaster warning are also planned.
"The significance of this project for Digital Broadcasting for India
and the rest of the world cannot be understated," said Peter Conlon,
Nautel President and CEO. "It represents a major change in the number
of potential listeners for DRM, and reinvigorates Medium Wave
transmission which has been languishing over recent years. This
deployment shows that Radio is still a valid medium that has a place
in our mixed media world for decades to come. Nautel is thrilled to be
part of this important project."
Nautel NX Series MW transmitters were first introduced in 2007. These
high power transmitters occupy a surprisingly small footprint for
their power and offer the industry's highest efficiency (90%) along
with AM precorrection, unmatched linearity and Nautel's exclusive
Advanced User Interface. Working with Nautel on the deployment are
Comcon, Nautel's in-country partner along with Altronic, providing RF
test loads; Digidia, providing DRM modulators/content servers and
Kintronic Labs, supplying matching systems for the project. The
project includes 6 Nautel NX300 (300 kW MW-AM), 10 NX200 (200 kW
MW-AM) and 11 NX100 (100 kW MW-AM) transmitters.
Nautel will be at IBC with the company's latest Medium Wave, FM and TV
transmitters, and will host a DRM event on the Nautel stand (8.C61) on
Saturday 14 September from 15:00 – 17:00. The event is titled "DRM
listeners: Building a Billion."
About Nautel
Nautel has emerged as one of the world's largest manufacturers of AM
and FM radio broadcast transmitters. With more than 12,000
transmitters deployed in over 177 countries since 1970, Nautel
continues to lead the way in providing valuable new solutions for
digital radio broadcasting and other applications.
(Press Release)
