10 Oct Digital Radio Debate Hots Up in Brazil
The debate about digital radio is intensifying in Brazil in October. Institutions that were not giving much importance to the new media, like the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and local broadcast associations, are now promoting debates and hearings on digital radio. The proof was the packed hall that was the setting on Tuesday, October 8th, of a public hearing held in the Congress (Parliament) to discuss a report presented by Deputy Sandro Alex about digital radio. Speakers from the Ministry of Communications, ANATEL (regulator), EBC (public broadcaster), ABERT (largest commercial radio association), ABRATEL (commercial radio association), ARPUB (public radio association) and AMARC (community radios association) made long presentations and all rejected the report. This document had suggested “more than one standard for Brazil with HD in FM and other suitable system for the other bands”. The main argument for the recommendation made by the Parana deputy was that HD has FM receivers in the market. Deputy Luíza Erundina criticized the suggestion of introducing a “closed” system for Brazil. Sandro Alex took away his text and promised to present a better one at a later date.
-Watch the debate here
– Report presented by Sandro Alex
Meanwhile the telecommunications regulator, ANATEL, and the Ministry of Communications have set stringent parameters for the new tests in SW, MW, FM and FM for community stations (low power) so that they can efficiently measure the digital radio coverage in mobile situations (cars and mobiles). According to ANATEL´s report, the Brazilian spectrum is crowded and digital radio can only be introduced in a simulcast mode, only if its signal is placed as a single band of the analogue. This is good news for DRM that was invented this way from the beginning. The public broadcaster, EBC, is preparing a 10KW short wave transmitter to broadcast in DRM to the Amazon region, as a demonstration of what digital radio in SW is capable of.