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Digital Radio and the Future of Shortwave
by James Careless
on 10.16.2011
http://www.rwonline.com/article/digital-radio-and-the-future-of-shortwave/24599
Digital shortwave radio is no dream: It exists today. Right now,
foreign-service broadcasters
in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceana and the Americas are providing regular digital
radio
broadcasts over shortwave, using the DRM30 transmission standard.
"The Digital Radio Mondiale AM solution operates worldwide," said Ruxandra
Obreja. She is
chair of the DRM Consortium, the international not-for-profit group of
broadcasters,
transmitter/receiver manufacturers and broadcasting unions, who use and promote
the
DRM30 standard for short, medium and longwave and DRM+ for VHF. "In the past 18
months, India and Russia have already adopted it [DRM30] as their digital
solution and have
earmarked serious investment for its implementation."
In July 2010, Indian public-service broadcaster All India Radio issued a tender
for 40 new
medium-wave and five new shortwave transmitters for DRM operation, as well as
the
upgrade of 36 other transmitters to support DRM30.
RELIABLE SYSTEM
DRM30 is meant to replace interference-prone analog AM broadcasting with a
reliable digital
signal that delivers high quality audio plus a host of data features. However,
the system has
been stymied by a limited availability of receivers.
DRM´s progress to date has been "very little in Europe and North America," said
Andy
Sennitt, longtime shortwave radio watcher and editor in charge of the Radio
Netherlands
"Media Network" website. "Most emphasis now seems to be on India, China and
South
America."
However, at the IBC2011 trade show in Amsterdam, the situation showed signs of
changing.
At several events during the exhibition, the DRM Consortium highlighted new
partnerships
with receiver manufacturers that are expected to bring several new models to
market over
the coming year, including new standalone, USB-based, in-car and professional
receivers.
Also, chipmaker Frontier Silicon announced that it was adding implementations
of DRM30
and DRM+ to its Kino 3 radio processor, one of the most widely used digital
radio IC chips on
the market.
However, these positive signs have been a long time in coming.
Gerhard J. Straub, director of the Broadcast Technologies Division at the U.S.
International
Broadcasting Bureau (IBB); the agency that runs the Voice of America and Radio
Marti', says
the slow uptake of DRM30 are shared by all digital radio systems, which have
not benefited
from governmental mandates the way digital television has.
"I think the consumer is overwhelmed with media choices today and unless there
is
compelling content available on a specific platform, what incentive is there to
migrate to a
specific technology over another one?" he said.
Then there´s the issue of supply and demand: Broadcasters don´t want to switch
to DRM30
unless there are enough receivers in use worldwide. Meanwhile, receiver
manufacturers
have been reluctant to commit to DRM, due to a lack of programming.
"DRM is not seen as a profitable line for the major manufacturers," said
Sennitt. "A few
smaller manufacturers have produced DRM receivers, but the unit cost is still
too high, and
there simply aren´t enough DRM transmissions audible at any one location to
stimulate
consumer demand. It´s a classic chicken and egg situation - which comes first,
the
transmissions or the receivers? The broadcasters and the receiver manufacturers
are each
waiting for the other to move first."
ADDITIONAL RECEIVERS
The decisions by Russia and India to adopt DRM30 for domestic broadcasting may
be
changing that equation.
"Our experience over the past year has been that chipset and receiver
manufacturers are
increasingly interested in creating DRM platforms or very often multi-standard
platforms that
accommodate several digital audio solutions including DRM," said DRM Consortium
Chair
Ruxandra Obreja.
In fact, Obreja said. "Our membership has increased in the last 12 months and
it is no
wonder that the companies which have joined us are the top manufacturers of
radio chipsets
in the analog and digital world."
Receiver partners MSway, Frontier Silicon, Chengdu NewStar Electronics and
Himalaya all
highlighted their DRM30/DRM+ receiver solutions during IBC2011.
With the potential DRM30 audience in India and Russia, use of the system in
medium wave
may prove feasible, but for shortwave it may be too late.
While DRM30 theoretically has what it takes to resurrect shortwave into a
digital radio band,
the real culprit behind shortwave´s decline is the Internet: After the Web
arrived, many
shortwave listeners had a better, far more reliable way to get the content they
wanted. In the
developed world, this killed much of the demand for shortwave broadcasts from
international
broadcasters.
In the developing world, however, the need for shortwave radio remains, but
listeners do not
have the money to buy expensive DRM receivers.
"Unless a company comes along with a DRM receiver that can cost less than $40
for
countries in the developing world, it won´t happen," said Keith Perron, founder
of shortwave
program producer PCJ Media.
In the context of a Web-dominated world, can DRM30 save shortwave radio?
"Definitely not,"
said Andy Sennitt. "There are too many other factors that have sealed the fate
of shortwave."
OTHER USES
Glenn Hauser, host of "World of Radio," does hold out some hope for DRM30 on
shortwave,
seeing it being useful for "single-hop coverage at limited distances, as feeder
to relay stations
as with Radio New Zealand International to the Pacific."
In fact, Thomson Broadcast demonstrated a DRM30-based rebroadcasting system at
IBC2011 which would facilitate delivery to local FM stations programming via
shortwave.
"Maybe we should ask that question from another angle," says IBB´s Gerhard
Straub. "If
traditional shortwave broadcasting fades away, someone is going to use that
spectrum for
something, and we can be almost certain it is going to be used with a digital
system. I think
the DRM system has the ability to revitalize the HF spectrum, but I think it is
up to the
broadcasters to find a way to utilize the technology to give the audience
something that they
cannot get somewhere else."
In response to these doubts, the DRM Consortium´s Ruxandra Obreja poses a
question of
her own: "Is there a demand for digital radio or will analog do? The obvious
answer is that in
a digital world, with very congested and limited spectrum resourStandard rig :
ICOM R75 /
2x16 V / m@h40 heads Sennheiser
Please read and distribute this 15 year research article
http://tinyurl.com/5vzg7e
Please read my article on SINPO at http://tinyurl.com/yt7qjd
________________________
http://zlgr.multiply.com (radio monitoring site plus audio clips ) MAIN SITE
http://www.delicious.com/gr_greek1/@zach (all mypages !!)
........
Zacharias Liangas , Thessaloniki Greece
greekdx @ otenet dot gr ---
Pesawat penerima: ICOM R75 , Lowe HF150 , Degen 1102,1103,108,
Tecsun PL200/550, Chibo c300/c979, Yupi 7000
Antenna: 16m hor, 2x16 m V invert, 1m australian loop
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