yet another DRM :-) Fears for new digital radio system

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: September 14, 2004 4:35:04 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Fears for new digital radio system
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

 Fears for new digital radio system

 By Chris McWhinnie
 BBC Monitoring in Amsterdam


 Plans to offer the internet using mains electricity cables could cause 
so much interference that new digital radio stations could be 
obliterated, a broadcasting conference has been told.

 The warning came from Peter Senger, the chair of the Digital Radio 
Mondiale (DRM) at the International Broadcasting Convention in 
Amsterdam.

 DRM is a standard agreed by world broadcasters for a completely new 
short wave radio system

 The new internet power line distribution system has been evaluated by 
engineers, including the BBC, and has been found to affect short wave 
in particular.

 Short wave is mainly used to broadcast internationally and the AM 
bands have been used since radio first started in the 1920s.

 The DRM system uses existing AM broadcast frequencies to deliver 
near-FM quality digital sound.

 It uses compression to squeeze clear digital sound into the narrow 
radio channels that currently carry crackly analogue signals.

 The DRM technology has the potential to make digital radio available 
in places that Digital Audio Broadcasting (Dab) radio or even FM will 
probably never reach.

 As for the hardware required to hear these stations, there will be a 
new consumer DRM radio in the shops by Christmas 2005 and a tiny 
PC-only DRM set is already on sale.

 Testing times

 DRM is not being used by many radio stations yet. However a number of 
radio stations have seen the potential for new cross-border radio 
stations.

 A Germany-based music station is believed to be in the planning 
stages. BBC World Service and its counterparts abroad already have some 
regular DRM programmes and are backing the system.

 DRM is being seriously considered in many countries where the FM radio 
band is full. China sees DRM as the answer to pushing digital radio 
across its vast territory.

 The UK is not planning to use DRM for domestic radio. The UK has 
pinned its digital hopes instead on Dab, which offers stations like BBC 
1Xtra, 6 Music, Oneword and Core. More digital radios have been sold in 
the UK than any other country.

 Switching-off analogue FM and AM may take years and making millions of 
much-loved analogue radio sets useless will no doubt be controversial.

 If power line internet transmission is introduced, then international 
broadcasting on shortwave may also be consigned to history due to the 
interference from data travelling over mains electricity cables.

 Story from BBC NEWS:
 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/3652202.stm>

 Published: 2004/09/13 13:06:07 GMT


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