ACMA look to DRM

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has reserved spectrum in the shortwave bands for Digital Radio Mondiale.

Giles Tanner, General Manager of ACMA’s Inputs to Industry Division says: “ACMA intends to plan for the introduction of Digital Radio Mondiale but is also aware that international arrangements are still evolving and that Australia is influenced by these arrangements,

“ACMA believes that a greater public benefit should be realised if its
introduction is planned rather than introduced prematurely while
international developments are still occurring. ACMA’s use of embargoes and
planning is intended to avoid the premature introduction of unplanned
services that may compromise the benefits to the public that would otherwise
result from the delivery of comprehensively planned Digital Radio Mondiale
bands.”

Spectrum has been set aside in the 49, 41, 31, 25, 22, 19, 16, 13 and 11 meter bands. All suffer from varying propagation conditions, depending on time of day, season and sunspot cycle.

DRM uses modern audio codecs to deliver near-FM quality digital audio over narrowband broadcast channels, even in conditions where analogue may be unusable. Recently an upgraded variant of DRM, DRM+ has been launched that targets much higher quality audio in the VHF-FM band.

ACMA’s UK counterpart, Ofcom, is seriously considering introducing DRM to the mediumwave AM band from 2012.