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For Broadcasters

Benefits of Digital AM for Broadcasters

 

Expand your reach

 

For broadcasters of all kinds, DRM is a godsend.

 

For major international broadcasters, like the BBC, it is the obvious replacement for traditional Short Wave transmissions. DRM allows direct access to millions of listeners in excellent sound quality, without the hindrance of having to negotiate a way past the gatekeepers and at an excellent cost/reach ratio.

 

For specialised international broadcasters – for example, religious broadcasters – DRM is, so to speak, an answer to a prayer. It allows them to reach the parts other systems cannot reach, for a fraction of the cost.

 

DRM on Medium Wave is perfect for broadcasters aiming for a national audience, especially in countries covering a sizeable geographical area. In France, where the regulatory authorities have already approved DRM as the digital successor to Medium Wave, two transmitters will cover the entire country. In large countries, like India, Indonesia, South Africa or Russia , DRM may be the only means to achieve seamless national coverage in the digital era – and it will certainly be the most cost efficient.

 

DRM is also the ideal solution for regional Medium Wave coverage, on its own or as a complementary system to DAB. And, of course, DRM is simply perfect for broadcasters planning to roll out new, additional digital services and generate new revenue streams without compromising their existing content offer.

But even for smaller broadcasters targeting well defined, urban niches, DRM has an answer. It is DRM in the VHF/FM bands which, subject to regulatory approvals,  will allow community radios or specialised commercial broadcasters to reach their intended audiences bypassing the congestion and high costs of the analogue FM band.

 

A cost efficient solution

 

DRM is a cost efficient solution all along the value chain.

 

Analogue Short and Medium Wave transmitters can be converted to DRM mode at low cost and the useful life of the equipment significantly prolonged, both from a technical and a financial point of view.

 

The scope of the capital investment required is also manageable because just a few transmitters can achieve excellent coverage over very extensive territories. Unlike other systems of digital audio broadcasting, DRM does not require a large network of transmitters or a complicated lattice of repeaters to do the job.

 

Transmission revenue costs are no higher to those of analogue Short and Medium Wave broadcasts and offer excellent value for money given the wide area coverage and the superior sound quality.

 

DRM has been developed to operate alongside other digital radio technologies and in the field of receivers there are already radio sets that are compatible not just with one technical standard but with integrated hybrid tests that work in the analogue bands and can also decode DAB/DAB+ signals. The integration of DRM capability into these hybrid chipsets can be achieved at marginal cost, adding very little to the cost of the radio to the consumer.

 

Plug into the digital universe

 

While television is forging ahead with digital conversion and many countries have achieved it already, radio is entering the digital era at a much slower pace.

 

Radio does have a digital future, because of its immediacy and its portability and DRM will be an integral part of that future. For radio to move into the digital world in step with other platforms, sound needs to be in a format that these other platforms can understand – and the DRM standard provides that.

 

DRM also provides enhanced digital features such as on-screen SPIs, data streams and pause live radio and rewind functionality and it greatly facilitates interactivity with the audience.