Thanks Vickram, for definitely more than 99-paise worth of inputs. While the technology aspects have kind of gone mostly over my head (sorry, I'm the fuzzy-brained sort), the gist seems to be to utilise existing technology, mostly computer-driven, existing bandwidth (already widely available, esp in Gurgaon) and build a network that is probably less centralized (and hence less liable to crash because of one single system failure). Please correct me if I have it wrong.
I don't feel that being energy efficient is trivial in the Gurgaon context (or the India context). And its not just about carbon credits. We do not have power. Period. We have just finished part-1 of our needs assessment survey in a Gurgaon village school, and the fact is that the children laughed at the minimum threshold of power that was in our survey - 10 hours a day. Every single time that I have been to the school, there has been no power. The generators are used to power the submersible water pump. Otherwise, children sit under trees and do what passes for classes. The situation is only slightly better in urban, mall-ridden Gurgaon, where private generators spew carbon into the air to ensure that we have power 24X7. We need to look at solutions that can survive in such a situation, that can use, say solar power, or charge up quickly in the few hours that are stingily released each day. Solutions to situations like these have been found by private organisations such as Hole In the Wall Ltd (HiWEL) for their computer kiosks in Ladakh and Rajasthan, but these are not cheap solutions. We'll need to understand the technology in much greater depth before we can consider pushing it over a cup of tea and biscuits. Sajan, do you have any response to Vickram's suggestions. I'll also run it by our informal consultants, techies who have been hand-holding us from day 1 -- Manas Chakrabarty and Ajay Jaiman. Since we're so surrounded by technology here in Gurgaon, it is certainly very tempting to give a new solution a shot. Regards Arti Vickram Crishna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: My 90 (no wait, it has reached 99) paise, inline below... Vickram http://communicall.wordpress.com http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com --------------------------------- From: Arti Jaiman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> :) Sorry Sajan. Actually, I must clarify that everyone from the receptionist to the officers on the 6th floor at Sanchar Bhavan have been extremely helpful whenever I have gone over (often enough), to the extent of offering me tea and biscuits, and sundry bits of advice. And, of course, giving us our frequency letter. Which is great. It makes it much easier to suggest innovations that do not injure the spirit of that letter. Once we've ironed out the early wrinkles of running a CR station, we want to explore setting up extremely local content production units, which can be transferred via the Internet or similar technology to the studio, and then beamed up. Our challenge is that our "community" is spread out over quite a large area, divided by uncrossable expressways, broken roads, railway lines, etc. If we somehow use the airwaves to bypass these roadblocks, it will transform the content of our station. If anyone has any ideas, please do post them. Indeed. Why not? I have kept the pertinent points from the earlier exchange, below. I agree with Arun's suggestion, but assuming a budget could be made available for achieving outstanding results, without straining the physical infrastructure, I think there is a strong case for distributing (a business case could be made out for easy loans) a digital wireless solution. It consists of networked netbooks (including XOs, for communities that choose this education-focused initiative) and thin client PCs, wherever either is suitable, together with point-to-point wireless networking (open licensed) for bandwidth. FOSS audio software for editing and production could be installed in multiple locations, and up to 2000 x 50 mW microtransmitters (100 W maximum). I am thinking of a dense network of computers, and plenty of possibility for editing studios in schools, community centers, and the like. There are many possibilities for siting transmitters, from any nodal point. Each one would have a potential range of up to 400 meters in any direction, attenuated of course by concrete buildings and heavy trees. And wherever there are gaps that your station chooses not to be, the ministry is free to allow other transmitting frequencies (and in limited cases even the same one), provided they are not higher powered. And why should they be? It is about time that the government put rules and structures in place that encourage energy saving as a national priority. I am in favour of a PIL to plea for a ruling that imposes such conditionality on the government, forcing them to put notings on any energy related licensed activities, justifying higher energy permissions. While this may seem trivial to people whose first concern is giving a voice to the disempowered (in which group I belong too, except I don't think this is trivial), such energy saving solutions qualify for carbon credits, an economic incentive earning forex-denominated funds. However, this is not an activity directly related to the implementation of this Gurgaon community station. The number and siting of transmission points will be determined by the distribution of receptive audience. With relatively ubiquitous distribution of computing centers, siting of editing/production can also be achieved based on the actual demand, instead of artificial and non-people-centric location parameters. sajan venniyoor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:As far as I know, there is no official concept of a backup or stand-by transmitter. If you have two transmitters, you'd probably have to apply for separate licenses for each of them. Vickram writes: Does this mean that if the station uses multiple transmitters, which is a whole new and different creative opportunity, allowing for multiple points of production presence in the station area, it should only mention them as one? The chances of getting licenses for 8 to 10 5watt transmitters for a single CR station are, at present, somewhat less than remote. You'd need a major policy change for that. On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Arti Jaiman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At the recent CR conference at the Manthan Awards in Delhi, Arun Mehta suggested that we explore the possibility of asking the Sanchar Bhavan mandarins to allow us 8 to 10 5-W transmitters instead of one 50W trasmitter in order to cover the large number of schools spread out in our area in Gurgaon. While it is an interesting proposition, I dread to think what would happen to our application, if we were to throw in this googly. Actually, between the tea, biscuits and bonhomie, I don't think it is a googly. Any functionary needs decent justification for enabling an application of policy in an innovative manner (ie, different from what the previous incumbent did). Hopefully, some civilised interaction and exchange of views will result in the framing of an application in a manner that the concerned officer can freely affix the seal of approval. There is no need to point out that such approvals do not impede the flow of the kind of civilised exchanges in which the commercial operators are accustomed to engaging. YOU CAN SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY RADIO FORUM (India) BY JOINING AND TAKING AN ACTIVE PART IN ONE OF THESE NETWORKS http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-awareness (Awareness building) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-helpdesk (Offering help) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-policy-advocacy (Policy advocacy) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-techoptions (Technical options) _______________________________________________ cr-india mailing list [email protected] https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india Arti Jaiman Project Manager: TRF Radio +91 9811126336 www.trfindia.org www.jaiman.org www.pitara.com
YOU CAN SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY RADIO FORUM (India) BY JOINING AND TAKING AN ACTIVE PART IN ONE OF THESE NETWORKS http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-awareness (Awareness building) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-helpdesk (Offering help) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-policy-advocacy (Policy advocacy) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-techoptions (Technical options) _______________________________________________ cr-india mailing list [email protected] https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india
