News

DRM test transmissions start

11-Mar-05

Radica starts DRM test transmissions. A series of technical trials commences on 9th March to investigate and demonstrate some of the exciting potentials of this new form of digital radio.

Transmissions are being made within a standard 9 kHz-wide medium-wave channel. During the course of the trials a selection of frequencies, powers, and configurations will be used, to subject the service to differing interference environments and propagation characteristics. Low power levels are being used particularly to evaluate the performance of DRM in the context of groundwave-delivered local broadcasting.

Currently transmissions are being made on 1386 kHz. Reception is expected to be confined to the central southern counties of the UK, though reception reports from DRM-equipped listeners anywhere are welcomed.

Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is the new ratified world standard for digital radio broadcasting for the long-, medium- and short-wave bands. DRM employs the revolutionary MPEG-4 aacPlus audio coding algorithm, augmented by SBR bandwidth extension, coupled with the spectrally-efficient COFDM digital modulation scheme, to achieve 'near FM' quality in an existing standard AM broadcast channel.

Radica is an official DRM Supporter and holds a licence agreement with Coding Technologies AB for the integration of aacPlus technology in future DRM transmission systems.