The ITU has just published three recommendations on DRM+, known in the documents as Digital System G.  This heralds the introduction of the full DRM system (DRM 30 and DRM+).

The process began in October 2009 with DRM’s submission proposing that DRM+ should be added to ITU-R Rec. BS.1114.  This is the ITU recommendation for sound broadcasting in the frequency range 30 MHz to 3 GHz.  DAB, HD-Radio and ISDB-T were already recommended in this document as Digital Systems A, C and F respectively.  The members of the ITU WP6A and SG6 ensured that proper rigour was applied to the proposal and after several meetings and the submission of test reports and other information, the proposal was adopted for consultation in May 2011 along with two further recommendations concerning the planning basis of DRM+ and its use for the hearing impaired.

Lindsay Cornell, Chair of the DRM Technical Committee welcomed the publication: “This is obviously great news for DRM since both the system characteristics and the planning basis for DRM+ are now part of the global regulatory landscape.”

“The DRM Consortium and all DRM supporters”, said Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Consortium Chair, “are delighted that the full DRM standard is recognised and available to broadcasters on all continents.”
The three recommendations and the URLs to view them are as follows:

– “Systems for terrestrial digital sound broadcasting to vehicular, portable and fixed receivers in the frequency range 30-3 000 MHz”:
R-REC-BS.1114-7-201112-I!!PDF-E.pdf

– “Technical basis for planning of terrestrial digital sound broadcasting in the VHF band”:
R-REC-BS.1660-5-201112-I!!PDF-E.pdf

– “Digital radio broadcast service, captioned radio”:
R-REC-BS.1894-0-201105-I!!PDF-E.pdf