01 May Voice Of Russia Shifts To Digital Standard
Russia’s government is shifting to DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) the digital radio system. The Voice of Russia broadcasting company was the first to implement the new digital standard 7 years ago.
All industrial countries are to shift to the digital system shortly. The global digital revolution began in 1998, when DRM broadcasting emerged. The consortium features hundreds of radio stations including such media giants as BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale. DRM is the universal, openly standardized, digital radio system for short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave – digital radio with the ability to use existing frequencies and bandwidth across the globe. Another advantage is its high resistance to interference, compared to other standards, which is essential for broadcasting over large territories.
The Voice of Russia is a pioneer of digital broadcasting in Russia. After a series of successful experiments within the DRM standard, the company has been broadcasting in the digital format daily since 2003, says Rashel Stavisskaya, VoR consultant: “Today, VoR features are broadcasted in the digital standard to Europe in Russian, English, German and French. We are also broadcasting to China and India. The new technology opens new horizons. Digital radio has near-CD sound. The VoR plans to broadcast to Arab countries and Latin America”. Radio experts believe DRM to be the future of broadcasting. Its main advantage is a high quality of sound, the same as mp-3 players have. Thus, the VoR features in more than 30 languages can be listened to in a high quality sound anywhere in the world soon. The DRM system is also ideal for transmitting signals not only abroad but also within countries which have a large territory. Thus, it was a natural choice for Russia.
The digital format is the modern reality. Still, an appropriate base needs to be created to shift to full-fledged broadcasting in this format, that is, to provide people with digital radios, Rashel Stavisskaya says: “Several countries are producing digital radios, but they are few and expensive. Still, this technology can be used to transmit audio content, text and photo and video data. Russian manufactures have already learnt to make quality digital radios”.
Russia plans to shift to the digital standard by 2015. If mass production of quality and cheap digital radios is arranged by that time, broadcasting will enter a new digital era. Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/01/5905343.html