On Jan 13, 10:36�am, IBOCcrock wrote:
"Shortwave Awaits DRM in United States"
DRM Proponents Eye 2008 Olympics, 26 MHz Band

by Jeff White, 7.18.2007
The author is vice chairman of the U.S. DRM Group and president of the
National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters.

ELKHART, Ind. U.S. shortwave broadcasters anticipate the availability
of the first low-cost Digital Radio Mondiale receiver by the end of
the year, though no DRM transmissions are originating yet in the
United States, despite FCC approval.

China may begin DRM transmissions in time for the 2008 Olympics,
spurring a global receiver launch and shortwave broadcasters from the
U.S., and other countries would like to use DRM on the 26 MHz band for
low-powered local FM-quality broadcasting.

These were the highlights of the U.S. DRM Group meeting, which was
held in May in conjunction with the annual meeting of the National
Association of Shortwave Broadcasters.

Broadcasters, manufacturers and others interested in the progress of
DRM in North America gathered for their fourth annual meeting, held at
the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind.

About 60 persons attended the meeting, which included program
producers, station managers, network operators, marketing people,
shortwave listeners and consultants.

DRM sends text, graphics

"This is our big opportunity," said Mike Adams, chairman of U.S. DRM's
International Broadcasters Committee, "to get together each year and
find out what's going on with DRM in North America." Adams is an
engineer who monitors new technologies for Far East Broadcasting
Company, a worldwide religious broadcasting network.

FEBC's Mike Adams, TDF's Michel Penneroux and Continental's Don Spragg
lead a discussion about DRM's future in North America.

Herb Jacobson of HCJB began the meeting with a detailed explanation of
the basics of DRM -- its advantages to broadcasters and how it works.
He explained which popular shortwave transmitters are easy to convert
to DRM modulation and which ones are more difficult.

Don Spragg, formerly of HCJB and now working for Continental
Electronics -- which, along with other U.S. manufacturers Nautel, BE
and Harris, sells DRM transmitters -- explained that shortwave
broadcasters were really behind the origins of DRM because they wanted
a system to enable them to go digital.

DRM officially was launched in 2003 and it has expanded to AM,
longwave and now FM use as well.

Spragg said that DRM technology enables broadcasters to transmit in
various grades of audio and can carry up to four programs
simultaneously in one channel. DRM can be used to transmit voice,
music, text, graphics, slide shows and multiple languages. There are
currently 766 hours per day of DRM transmissions, according to the DRM
Consortium.

Most, but not all, of these transmissions are in Europe, including
those from Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems, which attended the meeting in
Elkhart. In the Americas, there are DRM transmissions from CBC Radio-
Canada in Sackville, New Brunswick; Telediffusion de France in French
Guiana, HCJB in Quito, Ecuador; Radio Netherlands in Bonaire; and
Christian Vision from Chile.

All of these facilities except Bonaire conducted special DRM
transmissions during the U.S. DRM meeting, and the monitoring station
in Elkhart was able to pick them all up with excellent reception. The
audio was FM mono quality.

There was also a special trans-Atlantic DRM test during the meeting
from Vatican Radio. The Vatican organ music and special conference
ID's were heard with excellent quality and a 21-27 dB signal-to-noise
ratio. Transmission power levels ranged from four kilowatts from Quito
up to 250 kW from Vatican Radio.

Receiver timeline fluid

"DRM has much to offer," concluded Spragg. "It's an exciting time. DRM
has an important place, especially if we're going to see a revival of
the shortwave broadcasting spectrum."

The current problem with DRM is that consumer-friendly receivers are
not yet available in North America. A few early receivers are now on
the market in Europe for as little as 200 euros, or about $270; but
improved versions are still being developed and have yet to hit the
store shelves.

For some time now, it has been possible to use certain shortwave
receivers connected to a personal computer with special DRM software
to listen to DRM transmissions. However, the goal is to have stand-
alone receivers that can pick up DRM signals without the need to
connect them to PCs. Recently, a few of these types of radios have
been released on the market in a small scale in Europe, even as
modifications and improvements continue to be made.

Michel Penneroux, chairman of the DRM Consortium's Commercial
Committee, said, "The problem is in this kind of situation, the
timelines of the various players are different from one to the other.
The broadcasters have one timeline. The transmitter industry has
another. The receiver industry has [yet another]. So you wait until
the retailers say 'We want this because the customers are interested
in this.'"

So far retailers like RadioShack have not yet shown much interest in
selling DRM receivers. "The numbers [they need] are very big," said
Penneroux, "with 2.5 billion receivers to renew worldwide.
Manufacturers are very secretive about what they want to do, what are
their plans, when they're going to launch. This is the reality."

Some participants at the meeting said that there may also be a role
for DRM in AM broadcasting in the United States, given the controversy
over problems with IBOC at night. They speculated that combined DRM/HD
Radio receivers might be on the horizon.

"We are building a digital radio world for the next 20 years," said
Penneroux. "We are expecting by around the end of this year the first
low-cost DRM receiver with an ST chipset. The receiver will be made in
China, will cost less than 50 U.S. dollars, and will have a high-
quality front-end."

2008 Olympics

In fact, China may be where the big global DRM boom begins.

The Chinese appear to be moving toward domestic DRM transmissions in
time for the 2008 Olympics, which would mean massive production of DRM
receivers that would be available to both the internal and worldwide
markets at low cost.

Several U.S.-based and European shortwave broadcasters plan to begin
DRM transmissions to China in time for the Olympics.

There is also a great deal of interest in the United States and other
countries in using DRM on the 26 MHz band for low-powered local FM-
quality broadcasting.

Participants in the meeting in Elkhart acknowledged that this would
involve regulatory hurdles, since the 26 MHz band is allocated to long-
distance international broadcasting. But the High Frequency
Coordinating Conference, where most shortwave frequency planning is
done worldwide, recently proposed a division of the band, with one
portion to be used for international broadcasting and the other part
for local DRM broadcasts.

So far no shortwave stations have begun DRM broadcasts from U.S. soil,
however the FCC has approved it and many stations are watching the
development of DRM and the receiver market.

No one wants to lose their current analog audience, but the concept of
transmitting on shortwave with an FM-quality signal and reducing their
electrical bills to a fraction of their current levels has most U.S.
international broadcasters keeping a close eye on DRM.

Jeff White is general manager of WRMI - Radio Miami International in
addition to his roles with the U.S. DRM Group and NASB.

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.7242.html

This sounds exactly like the situation with HD/IBOC - no one wants it,
except for the scammers peddling their hyped-products. Interesting,
that Radio Shack has shown little interest in DRM receivers - maybe,
they learned after getting burned with having to unload dust-
collecting HD/IBOC receivers. Digital radio is stalling everywhe

"Straining to hear digital radio - Europe has a head start in
terrestrial digital radio, but is anybody listening?"

"But today, digital radio is struggling to find its legs. While it's
still in the cradle in the United States, it has begun to crawl, a
bit, in Europe and elsewhere... Europe has had a standard for digital
radio for some time. The European Union adopted the standard, called
Eureka 147, 10 years ago. But high prices and a lack of consumer
interest have kept the market tiny."

http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=...524&ref=nb ra

"Annual DAB sales 50% below forecast"

"The following graphs are copied from the DRDB's (Digital Radio
Development Bureau -- UK DAB's marketing and PR arm) sales forecast
documents from 2004 and 2007, and they show that the forecast sales
for 2008 are a massive 50% below what the DRDB had previously forecast
they would be for 2008, and the cumulative sales will be 18% below
previously forecast by the end of this year and 30% below what they
had previously forecast by the end of next year."

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/ar...ales-50-below-...

By John Plunkett
guardian.co.uk,
January 10 2008

Digital radio will suffer a double blow this weekend with the closure
of two
national digital stations, Oneword and Core.

GCap Media's music station Core is expected to close tomorrow, while
UBC's
spoken word outfit Oneword, whose future has long been in doubt, will
cease
broadcasting on Saturday.

Both stations were broadcast via digital audio broadcasting (DAB) on
Digital
One, the national digital radio multiplex majority-owned by GCap.

In a dramatic scaling back of GCap's digital offerings, its digital
music
station Life is also set to close while its chillout station, Chill,
has
been removed from the Sky Digital platform. It continues to broadcast
on
regional DAB multiplexes and online.

GCap's other digital-only stations are TheJazz and Planet Rock, which
both
remain on Digital One. TheJazz, which has just celebrated its first
birthday, has upped its capacity on Digital One and now broadcasts in
stereo.

Oneword, which was launched by UBC in 2000, was part-owned with
Channel 4
until the broadcaster sold its 51% stake, bought for �1 million in
2005,
back to UBC for �1 in the run-up to Christmas.

UBC, as the sole shareholder, will close the station, which plays a
mixture
of books, comedy, drama and reviews, on Saturday.

Oneword had 151,000 listeners in the third quarter of last year,
according
to the latest Rajar figures, but its prospects suffered a serious blow
after
the BBC launched its own spoken word digital station, BBC7.

"Unfortunately Oneword will no longer be broadcasting from Saturday
January
12," said a statement on the Oneword website.

"We are genuinely grateful to all our listeners for their loyal and
continued support over the last eight years. We wish you a very happy
2008."

GCap's Core, which launched in 1999, became a jukebox music station in
March
last year when it took its presenters off air. It had 122,000
listeners in
the third quarter of last year.

Digital One is in negotiation with a number of potential operators
about
filling the vacant berths on the national multiplex

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...adio.gcapmedia...


http://groups.google.com/group/alt.r...9608a881540c2a

There goes the start of the downfall of the digital radio farce in the
UK !