21 Jun German DRM Platform Meets in Copenhagen, Site of Current DRM FM Trial
The annual meeting of the German DRM Platform took place on June 15 and 16 in Copenhagen, Denkmark. This year’s event was jointly hosted by Aalborg University and Danisch Radio.
One of the key agenda items was the highly anticipated and most rewarding presentation by Kenneth Wenzel, project manager at Open Channel. He introduced the current DRM on-air trial in Copenhagen, just below the FM band at 86.5 MHz. Initial results of the trial started in 2021 are very promising. The participants could enjoy live reception on a range of DRM radio sets available at Aalborg University, situated several kilometres away from the transmitter site. In the next stages of the trial the aim is to deploy the multi-DRM transmission modes.
Detlef Pagel of RFmondial and Alexander Zink, DRM Vice-Chairman, introduced the audience to the new and highly efficient multi-DRM approach, whereby a single FM band transmitter can amplify multiple independent DRM signals side-by-side; this ensures a most efficient spectrum use and allows for infrastructure cost sharing between multiple broadcasters. This approach was recently demonstrated and verified on-air in Delhi and Jaipur, India. The Copenhagen presentation led to a general discussion of the future use of VHF band-II in Europe, as well as internationally. One of the strong conclusions was that DRM is perfectly suited to ensure that the FM band remains available for broadcast services including for radio and data distribution, even beyond a potential analog-FM switch-off.
Olaf Korte and Alexander Zink of Fraunhofer IIS presented the latest developments and activities around the digital radio feature EWF – Emergency Warning Functionality, both in Europe and internationally.
In addition, participants learned about the latest digital radio and digital media related activities of both the Aalborg University with their cooperation partners Open Channel and Mediathand, and of Danish Radio.