Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) to be demonstrated simultaneously from two continents
This year's annual General Assembly of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union will be hosted by the Indonesian public broadcaster, RRI, in Bali. DRM will feature not only in the meetings of the specialised committees but also concretely with a live medium wave transmission on 20-24 October from one of the RRI MW transmitter in Denpasar, Bali on 1206 KHz. The DRM broadcasts will feature special messages for the ABU participants, presentations on RRI, DRM the emergency warning functionality, music, as well as the Journaline service accompanying the audio, allowing listeners to look-up the latest news on demand, free-to-air, on their receiver screens and in multiple languages simultaneously. The DRM demo run by RRI is actively supported by GatesAir, Transradio, Fraunhofer IIs and RFmondial key members of the Consortium.
In parallel, Babcock International (member of the DRM Consortium) will transmit BBC World Service content in DRM short wave from Singapore on 11995 kHz (25 metre band) at 0500-0700 UTC or 1300-1500 local time.
After last year's DRM medium wave trial, north of Jakarta, this is another chance to enjoy the audio qualities of DRM, and, as Mr Frederik Ndolu, member of the RRI Supervisory Board said:" to show RRI's commitment in understanding what is the most efficient solution for getting the best programmes, in the best quality to all our listeners, wherever they are in our vast country."
Almost at the same time with the big gathering on the tropical island of Bali, the General Assembly of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (24-27 October) will convene in Havana, Cuba. It will mark a significant moment as the Digital Radio Mondiale Consortium has announced it will be bringing the first live digital radio signal transmission to Cuba, the Caribbean region and parts of northern Latin America, and even as far north as Florida. The broadcast facilitated by Babcock International will come from the BBC via its Atlantic Relay station.
The DRM transmission will be in the 13 meter-band on 21720 kHz and will carry BBC World Service programmes in English. Additional multimedia features of DRM will also be demonstrated on radio receiver screens. The DRM broadcast will be on air from 1600-1800 UTC, 1200-1400 local time on Oct. 24 and 25.
Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Chairman, feels that: "this is a great opportunity to introduce DRM to the Caribbean nations, to highlight some of its great benefits, like the emergency warning functionality, so much at the top of the agenda for the people in this region of the world."
(DRM Consortium Press Release)
