The curtain has fallen on the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit for M&E Industry held in Mumbai, May 1-4. This large-scale event was opened by the Indian Prime Minister who also launched the “Create in India” mantra aimed to enhance the country’s global outreach in the industry.
The DRM Consortium, represented by some of its key members in India and the world were active during the four days of the WAVES exhibition and conference. DRM had a modern and fully equipped booth that attracted visitors eager to learn about DRM or see how it works in cars, mobiles and on a very small and affordable receiver to be produced in India.
In the only radio session of the summit, on May 2nd, the DRM chairman, Ruxandra Obreja and DRM vice-chairman Alexander Zink (Fraunhofer IIS) had a chance to stress the advantages of DRM already rolled out in India. They underlined that the standard meets the Indian requirements, while there is an urgent need to fully roll out the DRM standard in the FM band for the benefit of the public broadcaster AIR, of the commercial FM stations and, ultimately, of the over 400 million Indians. Finalising the digital DRM project without disturbing the existing arrangements and exploiting the white spaces and CTI model in the big Indian metros is what DRM proposes to make Indian radio thrive in the digital age.
On May 3rd a Maruti car with a DRM receiver incorporated into the dashboard completed the DRM presence. This new car, one of over 7 million with DRM receiver already on Indian roads, was parked next to the DRM booth allowing visitors to enjoy the exceptional quality of the DRM signal or programmes broadcast by AIR Mumbai. Many visitors , among them key people from the Indian regulator, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, from commercial and community stations, and also a full delegation from Tanzania, had a chance to listen to the excellent live DRM audio.
Members of the DRM Consortium like CML Micro, Fraunhofer IIS, Starwaves, Gospell, Inntot, Optm, NXP, RFmondial, Alongside Tech, Solar Grove Solutions presented tirelessly during the four days of the summit various aspects of DRM, starting with the transmission chain created in small in the WAVES booth. Thus, the specialists could show on the spot the many DRM advantages and services for AM and FM like distance learning on tablets from a Starwaves receiver with wi-fi, emergency warning activated through the Fraunhofer IIS content server and received on a screen and in car, public signage alternating on the same screen in the booth, digital to mobile unit presented by Optm, mobile reception with dongle (Fraunhofer and Starwaves). A constant stream of visitors was also attracted by the dashboard receivers (NXP solution and Gospell) and solutions and the new, small N88, the result of cooperation between CML Micro, Solar Grove and Alongside Tech, to be manufactured in India.
For the exhibitors and participants the WAVES summit, though very much focused on visual entertainment, demonstrated the many advantages of digital radio, ready to enhance the life of Indians, once the DRM standard is being rolled out also to the popular FM frequency band. This will make India not only the largest radio market but the largest digital radio market with transmissions on many receiving platforms, in the world.
More details on the presence of DRM at WAVES will be made at the annual General Assembly of the Consortium and at the ABU-DRM workshop on May the 6th.
