In February and March 2021, the DRM Consortium, its members and
supporters in India and internationally, conducted an extensive
demo/trial of the global, ITU recommended DRM Digital Radio Mondiale
standard applied for local/regional services in the FM band. This
demo was carried out at the request of the AIR (All India Radio) as
part of an evaluation of two digital radio options for the FM band
to choose from and recommend for adoption to the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting.
The by on-the-road measurements in New Delhi as well as Jaipur
were done with a professional DRM receiver and a selection of
commercial DRM receivers and mobile phones upgraded for DRM
reception in the FM band.
The measurements were carried out based on a pure-digital
single DRM signal (block) as well as multi-DRM configurations
(placing multiple DRM blocks side-by-side from a single
transmitter). DRM is a pure digital standard. However, simulcast
operation (DRM and analogue FM signals side-by-side from a single
transmitter) was also conducted from the same transmitter. DRM was
also shown to work in FM white spaces without affecting ongoing
analogue FM transmissions.
While the AIR R&D team carried out measurements on behalf of
the evaluation Committee, the DRM Consortium in parallel undertook
its own set of professional-grade measurements, both with a
professional DRM monitoring receiver as well as with
consumer-grade radio sets, car receivers and mobile phones.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / CONCLUSION
The presented results of the collected measurement data from the
DRM FM-band trial in New Delhi and Jaipur are both extremely
positive and very encouraging.
The measurements clearly demonstrate that DRM as the global
all-bands digital radio standard can deliver an unmatched number
of digital audio services in the given spectrum (up to 3 audio
plus 1 multimedia service per DRM signal block), while allowing
for maximum utilisation of the FM-band spectrum (with every DRM
signal occupying only 96 kHz spectrum bandwidth, half the
bandwidth analogue FM requires for a single audio service).
During the trial it was confirmed that adding DRM transmissions to
the FM band is fully compatible and does not interfere with
on-going analogue FM services. Also, DRM as a pure-digital radio
standard proved its ability to efficiently broadcast multiple DRM
signals side-by-side from a single transmitter (multi-DRM
transmitter configuration), and for operating in flexible
configurations alongside an analogue FM signal from the same
transmitter (simulcast transmitter configuration).
During the workshop DRM was demonstrated to deliver additional
Journaline advanced text service in multiple Indian languages, to
be ready for delivering Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF with
CAP interface), and to efficiently enable traffic, travel and
online teaching services over broadcast, without requiring
Internet connectivity.
Reception of DRM services in the FM band was demonstrated on
various consumer receivers of various types, on car receivers, and
on mobile phones. It was proven that existing receiver models,
already supporting DRM in the AM bands as adopted by India, can
support DRM in all bands by a simple firmware upgrade without
hardware modifications.
DRM in FM-band is the natural extension of the digital radio
standard already deployed in the AM bands in India. DRM is made
for today’s and tomorrow’s FM environment and radio services in
India.
Download the full overview here:
target=_new href="http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect.php?https://www.drm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16_Results-of-DRM-FM-Trial-Delhi-Jaipur_v1.0.pdf">https://www.drm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16_Results-of-DRM-FM-Trial-Delhi-Jaipur_v1.0.pdf
(DRM Consortium)
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Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi