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BBC WS - "revolution" through cheaper DRM
Phil Dodd
Posts: 3,975 Forum Member
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This from an article retweeted on Twitter at 5:19 this morning. People in India will be able to listen to the BBC WS thanks to cheaper DRM. Also India's domestic radio service is building one medium wave digital station every fortnight.
Seems as though DRM could be on the up ? A good thing if it offers more choice to everyone ?
See what you think at :
https://audioboo.fm/boos/2075026-digital-shortwave-a-radio-revolution
By clicking on the white arrow in the round grey circle, it plays a report by Mark Whittaker to "BBC World Business" ( 7.56 long, MP3 format )
Seems as though DRM could be on the up ? A good thing if it offers more choice to everyone ?
See what you think at :
https://audioboo.fm/boos/2075026-digital-shortwave-a-radio-revolution
By clicking on the white arrow in the round grey circle, it plays a report by Mark Whittaker to "BBC World Business" ( 7.56 long, MP3 format )
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8 minutes later - Report says that India to build DRM receivers using an "open" standard and so will be able to bring the price down. Good news if the radios are eventually exported - possibly a chance for DRM to make a resurgence everywhere ?
This feature could have run 10 years ago with the same headline. I could also have done without Tony Hancock yet again.
And you can listen to DRM without power? The DRM sets so far have been more expensive than analogue, battery life is poor, and the signal is just as prone to interference as analogue is causing dropouts.
Here's an example of All India Radio DRM, note the 50Hz hum particularly on the speech 18 minutes in.
http://shortwavearchive.com/archive/c6hlohac9ejafb4ddpkah85v237rz3
As to yet another new cheap receiver here's a video about it, note how he skirts round the price and talks about mobile phones being expensive at first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iByylWcCwh0
The AIR tender is for 800 receivers, full details linked in this blogpost
http://drmnainfo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/air-produces-tender-for-800-trial.html
I noticed the bit about DRM without power too. I suspect that he may have been talking about another statement that he made ( "he" being the Indian representative of DRM for anyone who hasn't heard the BBC podcast ) that DRM only needs 45 to 50 percent of the transmitter power that a purely AM signal needs to cover the same area [ his claim not mine ].
The "breakthrough" sounded to be, from the BBC item, that the Indians would start mass-producing DRM receivers themselves using imported "chips" and an "open" design ( not sure whether this is hardware and/or software - but if it is FAAC and FAAD they need a licence for commercial use ? ).
Is it a non-story then ? Time will tell.
Some interesting comments from Jonathan Marks in particular here
http://swling.com/blog/2014/04/bbc-world-service-features-drm/
I put Delhi into the BBC World service schedule section and the DRM Asia shortwave broadcast is not mentioned. There's still a BBCWS DRM service to Europe but click on the link they have and the page about it no longer exists, been like that for awhile.
http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/drmdx/details&cmd=all&Id==692 Looks like there is an update on drmna.info that Chinese CDNSE Newstar, who might be front runners for the Indian set tender, will not produce any more DRM sets unless extra orders are made, and Peter Senger is trying to build up orders to reach this number? But the set is still expensive?
There is also more significantly a release from Frontier Silicon
http://www.frontier-silicon.com/world%E2%80%99s-most-integrated-digital-radio-chip#.U02f2fkRCrA They have a good track record with digital radio chipsets, if they can mass produce the chip at low cost, might be the breakthrough DRM is looking for for low cost sets?
Let's hope so ! DRM deserves it's chance to modernise traditional analogue frequencies.
Thanks for your quotes and links, and to Mike too - I'll read those in full later today after another exhausting day at the sports centre...
" You will soon be able to catch your favourite regional radio programmes on FM radio with maximising of the existing technology and junking of the "mindless" and "silly" plan of introducing digital radio, says Prasar Bharati chief Jawhar Sircar."
http://www.newskarnataka.com/news/content/exclusive/-Regional-radio-channels-on-FM-soon-Prasar-Bharati-CEO-Interview
I would have thought that with having to start from scratch and build all those transmitter sites then they could have gone straight to DAB and have provision for multiple language services. The price of sets could be got down with the volume required for India.
http://www.drm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Sam-Pitroda-Report-on-Prasar-Bharati-2014-02-06.pdf So AIR will be expanding FM coverage anyway, but the problem is that expanding FM to more than 65% coverage to 99% with AM will be very expensive than say DRM on MW, so it becomes a financial issue.
Going FM for 99% coverage would add a lot to AIR's operating costs.
However AIR could still mix FM and AM, where AM is used in rural locations?.
The January report than goes onto say that the DRM MW transmisssions could provide an extra channel which a private operator could use to reduce the cost and provide subsidies for DRM sets.
The report does not mention that perhaps having the sets pickup overseas DRM stations like the BBC in better than AM quality might also be an advantage.
Again getting low cost DRM sets on the market will be critical for DRM radio in India, if they don't arrive soon, (and the new chipsets might be in production by the summer with sets in Autumn) , then sadly DRM radio will be dead!
There's hardly a demand for these regional services given the fact that only 40 million listen to mediumwave anyway, population of India is 1.2 billion, and the commercial operators have no interest whatsoever.
Here's the latest reach figures
"India is the fastest growing wireless market, with almost half of the mobile phones population having a built-in FM radio, in addition to transistors/radio sets and car audio systems. The fact that a large chunk of radio listenership is on portable devices and happens out of home, augurs well for future industry growth.
With an increasing number of Radio-enabled mobile phones in the affordable price range, users in metros are switching from traditional radio sets to mobile phones as their primary mode of radio-listening.
According to Industry sources, the current radio penetration levels are estimated to be ~35-38% overall and ~77% in Metros. The figures in the graph below from the TAM's Radio Measurement clearly indicate the potential of radio, given a significant increase in FM population (barring Kolkata) in Metros."
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/india-media-and-entertainment-industry-radio-television-and-broadcast-237297561.html "
You can see how small the penetration must be outside the metropolitan areas where the growth has been driven by the FM private licences. Why should people suddenly change their habits and buy an expensive radio, which does nothing else but that, just because the state broadcaster has upgraded all their transmitters? They'll continue to use other media sources as they are at the moment, mostly television.
Nor is All India Radio interested in people picking up BBC World Service, they declined to remove the state monopoly of radio news in the 2013 private FM rollout plan.
Was interesting to see Russia deciding to go with an FM rollout and start to give up domestic AM and DRM, but still have external shortwave DRM tests in English and Hindi.
Africa and South America were also candidates for DRM but it's more looking more unlikely.