Newsletter

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Partners,

July seems to have been “The African month” for DRM. The organisation of regulators in Southern Africa (CRASA) invited DRM to participate in their recent digital radio workshop and introduce the standard. The DRM benefits were of great interest to some of the 15 countries grouped in the Southern African Development Community (the SADC organisation). On this occasion we also met the active members of the Southern African Platform. More on this as well the promised information on the use of datacasting through DRM by the German Navy are to be found below.

The Steering Board of the Consortium met in London and reviewed the recent activities and looked at the next few months. It was a good meeting attended for the first time by representatives of one of the most recent members, the Indonesian public broadcaster, RRI.

Now is also the time to look closer at our Asia-Pacific Enterprise Award. We are pleased to announce a new partner, SAS, the leader in analytics that has joined us in this endeavour. So start nominating the best entrepreneurs willing to promote the standard and create receiver solutions.

Please scroll down to find more about all this. If you have exciting news about you and you want your company to feature in the next Newsletter Projectoffice@drm.org can tell you how!

Finally, Please do not forget to join us on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

And if you want to join the Consortium please contact, projectoffice@drm.org. 

Ruxandra Obreja
Chair, DRM Consortium

For regular news about DRM visit www.drm.org

Latest News

DRM at Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) Digital Radio Workshop

The DRM Consortium took part in the first Digital Radio Workshop held by the Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) and hosted by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 4-5^th.  Read more

DRM German Platform

The DRM German Platform meeting on June 22nd-23rd 2016 was hosted by the German network operator Media Broadcast at its shortwave transmitter station in Nauen, near Berlin, and by the University of Applied Science Berlin, the Beuth Hochschule.  Members of the Platform were able to visit the Media Broadcast transmitter site where they broadcast to the German Navy worldwide. Read more

RFmondial Applies DRM Data Broadcasting to Ships – Bremen, Germany

During the workshop of the Maritime Cluster of Northern Germany about digitisation in the maritime economy, Dr. Jens Schroeder, Managing Director of RFmondial GmbH (a DRM member), made a presentation about DRM Datacasting to ships via shortwave.  Read more

Filecasting First Achieved by TWR Using DRM Technology

Recently TWR made broadcast history when it transmitted a digital data file over shortwave from Guam in the Pacific Ocean to Thailand using DRM Technology.  Read more

In last month’s newsletter we were able to report that Hiroyuki Okamura from Japan was able to receive KTWR Guam's DRM transmission on 17780 on his SDR, 0800 UTC onwards.

DRM - Smart Radio for All - IBC to Host DRM Events

This year’s IBC conference in Amsterdam 9^th - 13^th September will host the most comprehensive presence at IBC to date by Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).   Delegates will receive the latest updates and global developments at four events hosted by key DRM members: GatesAir, Thomson Broadcast, Nautel and a joint event organised by Ampegon and Transradio.  Read more

DRM Enterprise Award – Asia Pacific Region 2016 has an Extra Sponsor

Nominations are now welcomed for the second DRM Enterprise Award for the Asia Pacific region. The Award is jointly sponsored by the DRM Consortium and SAS, the leader in analytics, aims to stimulate interest in the DRM standard in various parts of the world that can benefit from the full introduction of digital radio, like the various countries of the Asia Pacific region. The first DRM annual prize was aimed at the Pacific Islands and was awarded in 2014 to SIBC, the public broadcaster in the Solomon Pacific Islands.  Nominations should be sent to: projectoffice@drm.org by September 30^th.  

Association of European Radios (AER) Conference 2016

The DRM Consortium was invited to participate at the 2016 AER Conference that took place on June 21^st, at the European Parliament in Brussels.  The conference was hosted by the Audio-visual Unit at the European Parliament DG Communication.

For your information, material related to the AER 2016 Conference, including pictures and the .pdf presentation delivered by Michael Hill, is available here, listen back available here.

Current AIR Kolkata DRM Schedule (Huge Transmitter in the East of India)

The current AIR Kolkata DRM schedule is as follows:

594 kHz (Analogue): 0130-0230 UTC Nepali, 0230-0300 UTC News from Delhi, 0700-0800 UTC Nepali.

1134 kHz (Analogue): 1000-1100 UTC GOS-2, 1115-1215 UTC Tamil, 1215-1315 UTC Burmese.

594 kHz: 1330-1430 UTC Nepali, 1515-1600 UTC News from Delhi.

DRM is also now available with Delhi Rainbow channel at all the transmissions on 604 kHz during analogue broadcast times on 594 kHz and on 1144 kHz during 1134 kHz broadcast times.

German Service of Radio Taiwan International to Broadcast in AM & DRM

The German service of Radio Taiwan International will have special broadcasts in AM & DRM during August, September and October 2016 directly from Tamshui transmitter site in Taiwan. Reception reports will be verified with a special QSL-card.

Schedule as follows:  Frequency: 11665 kHz

July 22, 2016 at 1600-1610 UTC in AM and at 1620-1630 UTC in DRM (Test)

August 26, 27, 28, 2016 and September 02, 03 and 04, 2016 all at 1600-1700 UTC AM

October 01, 02, 03, 08 and 09, 2016 all at 1000-1100 UTC in AM

October 10, 2016 at 1000-1100 UTC in DRM

(Ghibaudo, DX-Window No. 559, Danish  Shortwave  Club  International)

In case you missed this article:

MW in Brazil

DRM Country Representative Marcelo Goedert’s insight into MW in Brazil?  The article was written with additional contribution from Rafael Diniz and Braulio Ribeiro.  Click here to read

Around the Web

SmartCast Project Using DRM for Long-Range Broadcasting

SmartCast Project Launched Using DRM

RadioandMusic: DRM at IBC

Broadcast Australia Updating Sites With Nautel

Inside Radio: Radios in More U.S. Homes Now Than in the 1950s

Did you know?

• Following requests from our readers, we have updated the DRM schedules on our website. So please check for yourself!  List of DRM transmissions Interactive map

• Over 30 broadcasters carry regular DRM transmissions, covering almost half the world’s population.
• The DRM standard is now fully endorsed by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute).

• The DRM Introduction and Implementation Guide have been updated to include the ETSI revised standard and are available online, in English and Russian. 

• The DRM standard as recommended by ITU and ETSI includes built-in Emergency Warning tools for swift and effective mass-notification in crises.   Listen here.

• DRM publishes a special monthly Noticeboard for India, and a new India page pulls together key DRM information on India.