As Australia heads towards the imminent launch of digital radio using DAB+ technology, the alternative digital radio transmission system, DRM (and DRM+), has not been ruled out for use in Australia. DRM was mentioned several times at this week’s RadComms09 conference as a possible solution for Australia’s vast regional areas and will continue to be an option as the regulator moves forward with frequency planning. Steve Ahern reports from the conference on the current thinking about DRM.
In a conference session on Wednesday, ACMA’s Giles Tanner (pictured below) foreshadowed the possibility of this country using DRM as a supplementary transmission technology, and in this morning’s Day 2 Opening Session, CRA’s Joan Warner told conference delegates that commercial broadcasters may be open to the use of DRM or DRM+ for remote areas.
Warner’s commercial radio members have decided that DAB+ will bring better benefits to listeners and advertisers in most regional cities and towns, but have taken the pragmatic approach that DRM might be able to deliver better coverage of Australia’s vast remote areas at a lower cost. 80% of Australia’s commercial radio stations are in regional areas.
The ABC is also keen to continue to explore DRM and DRM+ for its network of high powered regional AM transmitters, which need the wide coverage that DRM could deliver to serve rural populations, especially in times of disaster such as the recent Victorian bushfires.
The DRM transmission system has improved markedly in recent years and DRM+ is being explored as a serious option in Europe. Russian and Indian broadcasters have just decided to use DRM, as reported two weeks ago here on radioinfo.
Keeping DRM on the table is a good idea, but the big issue for broadcasters and regulators to consider if a hybrid system is to be successful here will be interoperability of receivers.
If DRM and DRM+ are really to be serious options for Australia, receiver manufacturers will need to include DRM chip sets in radios being sold in Australia so that, in the long term, radios will seamlessly move between DAB+ and DRM+ when listeners drive through remote areas or move house from region to region. This is a big ask, but as various Asian countries with bigger populations than ours decide on a mixture of DAB and DRM, there will be more incentive for receiver manufacturers to make radios capable of receiving both of the compatible transmission standards in the one device to be able to sell across the entire Asian region.
