ARLA/CLUSTER: Capital da India faz testes em DRM+ (FM)

[João Gonçalves Costa]

DRM+ on air in New Delhi

India’s capital city is getting a taste of Digital FM today with a test transmission of DRM+ on air, jointly organised by All India Radio (AIR) and the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium. 

A DRM ContentServer, DRM Modulator and special transmitter has been installed at the headquarters of AIR in the heart of the city, carrying the live programme of both AIR Gold and AIR Rainbow plus the Journaline text news service on the test frequency 100.1 MHz. DRM+ is capable of carrying up to 4 radio services per frequency.

During this DRM+ India Showcase week (23rd - 27th May) a workshop is being held for AIR engineers and members of the industry to learn and discuss all aspects of DRM technology. While on the first day an overall view of DRM was given to participants, during the workshop there will be extensive hands-on experience, field trips and discussions of new content offers, transition strategies, simulcast, and receivers. The week’s work will culminate on Friday when the New Delhi DRM+ trial test results will be presented and evaluated.

For the demonstration a full DRM+ capable transmission chain was set up at the AIR premises, consisting of a Fraunhofer DRM ContentServer R5 in the studio generating the DRM+ multiplex signal, an RFmondial DRM+ Modulator and a new generation Nautel V-Series transmitter with VSDRM+ exciter at the transmission site.

Coverage of the DRM+ signal at roughly 500 W radiated power (300 W exciter output) has already exceeded the predicted 10 km reach. It could be successfully received up to 28 km on the first day and is comparable with that of analogue FM station operating at 5 times the power of the DRM+ signal.