The DRM Consortium will make its first ever DRM transmissions for Southern Africa in French and English on 11 October on the occasion of the Digital Radio Conference organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels. The two day conference will include two live studio discussions on the possibilities and future of digital radio from the multimedia radio studio of the European Parliament. The programmes aim to showcase multiplatform and distribution techniques in front of a studio audience of Digital Radio Conference delegates.The live show in French from 1200-1300 UTC will be followed two hours later (1400-1500 UTC) by a Digital Radio Show in English with international participation including the chairpersons of the DRM and WorldDMB
Consortia.
Both the French and English programmes will be carried live on 21800 kHz (DRM) from Ascension Island and should be heard in South Africa, Angola, Zambia, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. The English programme will also be carried at 1800 UTC into Southern Asia on 12085 kHz (DRM), at the end of the regular daily BBC/DW DRM transmission.
Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Chairperson, says: “This is an exciting and imaginative undertaking that will demonstrate practically, even if for a short while, to European MPs and radio enthusiasts at thousands of kilometres apart the capacity of DRM to cover huge areas with excellent audio quality programmes. We are grateful to the EBU for the opportunity to showcase, alongside other platforms, that part of DRM, the only standard for all bands below and above 30 MHz, that could offer so much to the radio lovers in Africa.”
(Source: DRM Consortium/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)