This major breakthrough for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) was announced during the 25th ABERT Broadcasting Congress in Brasilia, Brazil (19-21 May).
Seven experts representing the DRM Consortium (from BBC, Digidia, Dolby, Fraunhofer IIS, TDF, and Thomson Grass Valley) were invited to this congress and made well received presentations in the plenum. In addition, DRM in the AM bands with multimedia elements Slideshow and Journaline, DRM+ with 5.1 Surround Sound, and DRM/AM simulcasting were demonstrated during the 3 days of the congress, while live transmissions from Chile, Ecuador and French Guyana could be listened to on the latest generation of DRM receivers.
During the opening session of the congress on May 19th, the Brazilian Minister of Communications Helio Costa announced an upcoming public consultation period of 180 days. The aim of this consultation is to choose the most adequate digital radio system fulfilling all broadcast requirements of Brazil.
DRM has confirmed throughout the congress, attended by 1500 participants, its readiness and willingness to lead this evaluation, together with Brazilian partners and the general support of the Brazilian authorities. The preparation of these trials has already started during the congress.
The DRM Consortium will contribute to the selection of the best digital radio solution for Brazil. The open, global DRM Digital Radio Mondiale standard was recently officially chosen by India and Russia for their radio broadcasting bands.
(Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India/HCDX)
