DRM – Across Continents
The General Assembly started with one of the key DRM countries in focus: Indonesia.
In 2023 Indonesia took the decision to adopt the DRM standard to digitise radio services in the country (with its 280 million people and 17,500 islands) in the AM and FM bands (VHF band-II), as well as VHF band III (174–202 MHz), accompanied by DAB+ (upper part of VHF band III, 202–230 MHz).
India remains a huge DRM country with 37 High-Power MW Transmitters On-Air, about 900+ million people served by DRM digital radio signals (in full-digital configuration) and over 13 million cars on Indian roads with built-in DRM receivers, at no extra cost. India also has strong DRM development & manufacturing facilities.
The decision of the Indian Government on the digitization of the FM band (private stations have 40% coverage and together with the public broadcaster about 74%) is still eagerly awaited by all the stakeholders. The Consortium is advocating the ‘one standard for one country’ approach, with DRM in VHF band II being easy to implement on all platforms, mobile phones included.
The DRM developments in these 3 big Asian countries, as well as the adoption of the dual open standards in South Africa, has a ripple effect. Thus, Papua New Guinea is also interested in the dual solution adopted by Indonesia and the African continent, which has in principle adopted the dual standard solution and is watching what is happening in South Africa, Nigeria, the big African movers. India had possibly an impact on Pakistan’s DRM all-band digitization decision, Nepal etc.
DRM – Driving the Multi Standard Receiver Solutions
Another important development, in part fuelled by the Indonesian digitization model, is the development of multi-standard receivers, many on display at the May DRM General Assembly.
Thus CML Micro, Glovane (South Korea) and NewGlee (China) launched a dual DRM-DAB+ receiver. RF2Digital of South Korea announced that they have a fitting solution for Indonesia, South Africa etc. with analogue, DRM and DAB+ receiver developments. Its Milan module is aimed at the automotive industry. Fraunhofer IIS (Germany) announced that the Digital Radio Receiver Framework is ready for Multi-Standard Digital Radio, supporting the full DRM and DAB+ feature sets. There is now a prototype demonstration on Android Auto including Journaline TTS access. Starwaves of Switzerland, in cooperation with Fraunhofer IIS, launched a full-featured Dual-Standard Android SoftRadio App for DRM and DAB+, available in the Google Play Store.
Several DRM members introduced, alongside DRM-DAB+ solutions, DRM-CDR modules and receivers aimed primarily at the Chinese market.
The importance of receivers, standalone, but mainly in car dashboards, and on the innovative application of software was underlined by Inntot of India. It is already supplying software-based receivers for 2.2 million of the over 13 million cars with DRM reception on Indian roads. OptM, a company based in Bengaluru, India, is also involved in supplying locally developed OEMs solutions.
Dual-standard chipsets, tuners and digital radio coprocessors like those offered by Skyworks of USA and global NXP for DRM in AM and FM bands and all recommended broadcast standards, are now available for the car industry and receiver manufacturing in general.
One receiver solution demonstrated again in Jakarta with extra features and a firm release date, is the affordable, improved N88 receiver from CML and Alongside Tech – USA and manufactured in Asia and primarily aimed at the Indian market. The updated version has more features and allows a DRM multimedia experience using N88 USB-C connectivity with a dedicated Android application. It can also deliver text and images and has the DRM Emergency Warning Functionality integrated. N88 can also be used to deliver another great DRM benefit: E-Learning.
In fact, any part of the DRM transmission chain is now covered: from transmitters, even for dual standards (VHF band II and band III), to receivers, including monitoring equipment, like the one premiered by Redwood (South Korea) in Jakarta, and RFmondial (Germany).
All these companies exhibiting and presenting in Indonesia conveyed a simple message: DRM dual-standard equipment can deliver complete country coverage, in excellent audio, accompanied by multimedia services on all terrestrial broadcast bands.
There is a DRM Radio in My Ear
The last important update refers to the groundbreaking solution that delivers the much-desired digital radio in mobile phones or rather in mobile/cellular accessories such as headphones or earbuds. In this new approach the wireless neckband of a headphone acts as the natural antenna. Promoted by CML, their DRM1000 tuner chip captures and processes the DRM broadcast signals natively and makes it available via wireless Bluetooth to the DRM companion app running on the mobile phone. The same concept applies to the popular earbuds. The charging cases of the earbuds contain the small DRM chip which acts as the DRM receiver.
This innovative approach does not require any internal mobile phone hardware additions or design modifications, works with a wide range of mobile phones supporting Bluetooth connectivity, and gives access to all DRM services not only in the FM band but also in the MW and even SW bands.
The lightweight DRM companion application on the mobile phone linked to the wearables is available as a free download. It is responsible for service selection (i.e. controlling the tuner) and displays Journaline interactive text with graphics, emergency warnings, and programme guides without using a single kilobyte of cellular data. The complex digital demodulation is done by the chipset outside the phone, thus sparing the smartphone’s battery.
In short, the radio reception of the on-air signal is moved from the physical mobile phone to a wearable device (headphones, earbuds, and later other similar products) while consumers have immediate access to DRM digital radio services in all frequency bands without the need to replace or upgrade their mobile phone.
DRM – Better and Faster
As demonstrated in Jakarta DRM is making big strides geographically and technologically. While the qualities and features of the DRM standard remain unchanged, there are always new developments (see updated DRM Handbook – version 6, now available as a free PDF download under handbook.drm.org).
DRM members are pioneers of digital radio innovation. DRM is harnessing AI for education, reaching people where no data plan can be accessed or electricity switched on, saving lives when mobile towers are down. Streaming, D2mobile, AI, are out there but DRM has the reach and the ability to use and maximise them all. The only big challenge remains time and the speed of governmental decisions. The DRM Consortium and the industry are ready.
An extended, edited version of this article was published in the current edition of Global Radio Update, the e-book magazine from Radio World, and is available on the Radio World website.
