11 January 2012
ITU endorses DRM+
The ITU has just published three recommendations on DRM+, known in the documents as Digital System G. This heralds the introduction of the full DRM system (DRM 30 and DRM+).
The process began in October 2009 with DRM’s submission proposing that DRM+ should be added to ITU-R Rec. BS.1114. This is the ITU recommendation for sound broadcasting in the frequency range 30 MHz to 3 GHz. DAB, HD-Radio and ISDB-T were already recommended in this document as Digital Systems A, C and F respectively. The members of the ITU WP6A and SG6 ensured that proper rigour was applied to the proposal and after several meetings and the submission of test reports and other information, the proposal was adopted for consultation in May 2011 along with two further recommendations concerning the planning basis of DRM+ and its use for the hearing impaired.
Lindsay Cornell, Chair of the DRM Technical Committee welcomed the publication: “This is obviously great news for DRM since both the system characteristics and the planning basis for DRM+ are now part of the global regulatory landscape.”
“The DRM Consortium and all DRM supporters”, said Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Consortium Chair, “are delighted that the full DRM standard is recognised and available to broadcasters on all continents.”
The three recommendations and the URLs to view them are as follows:
– “Systems for terrestrial digital sound broadcasting to vehicular, portable and fixed receivers in the frequency range 30-3 000 MHz”:
http://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1114-7-201112-I!!PDF-E.pdf
– “Technical basis for planning of terrestrial digital sound broadcasting in the VHF band”:
http://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1660-5-201112-I!!PDF-E.pdf
– “Digital radio broadcast service, captioned radio”:
http://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1894-0-201105-I!!PDF-E.pdf
About DRM
Digital Radio MondialeTM (DRM) is the universal, openly standardised digital broadcasting system for all broadcasting frequencies including LW, MW, SW (AM) and above 30 MHz, band I, II (FM band) and III.
DRM provides digital sound quality and the ease-of-use that comes from digital radio, combined with a wealth of enhanced features: Surround Sound, Journaline text information, Slideshow, EPG, and data services.
DRM on short, medium and long wave for broadcasting bands up to 30 MHz (called ‘DRM30’) provides large coverage areas and low power consumption. The enhancement of the DRM standard for broadcast frequencies
above 30 MHz (‘DRM+’) uses the same audio coding, data services, multiplexing and signaling schemes as DRM30 but introduces an additional transmission mode optimized for those bands.
For more information and DRM updates please visit www.drm.org or subscribe to DRM news by writing to pressoffice@drm.org
