NEW DELHI: Appreciating the DRM roll-out in India, participants at the DRM European Workshop said India was ready to become the largest digital radio market in the world with over 600 million people being reached by DRM broadcasts.

The workshop was held to coincide with the DRM General Assembly, where again the Indian progress came in for praise.

Hailing the progress made in DRM Radio, participants at the 2016 General Assembly of the DRM Consortium said the commercial launch of the full-feature DRM Indian receiver, and of the line-fit car receiver in a top Indian car model were practical examples of DRM progressing significantly in the past 12 months.

The Assembly held on 5 and 6 April at the headquarters of Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen, near Nuremberg (Germany), and the DRM European Workshop was held over Wednesday and Thursday.

Members at the General Assembly also reviewed the excellent progress made in India, the interest shown in some of the Asian countries and the planned DRM+ trial in South Africa.

They appreciated the traffic information demonstration for cars and the multimedia player and the software defined radio receiver launched in India.

The theme for the Assembly was ‘Digital Radio Mondiale – Smart Radio for Everyone’.

This event gave an opportunity to Consortium members and invited guests to get together and exchange exclusive information on DRM in one of the most innovative research institutes in the world.

The DRM members welcomed the decision of Hungary to recommend DRM alongside DAB for its digitisation and encourage therefore the production of analogue/DRM/DAB receivers.

Besides the country updates, the company updates - including that from its newest member Panasonic - were highlights of the event.

The DRM General Assembly elected its Steering Board and re-elected Ruxandra Obreja as Chairman.

It also welcomed representatives of the PBC (Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation) and RRI (Radio Republik Indonesia) as observer members of the Steering Board.

The General Assembly approved the future strategy focused on getting DRM receivers so that digitisation can be enjoyed by all broadcasters large or small for the benefit of their listeners.

Obreja said, “DRM is digital radio for all as became so evident during the presentations and discussions on these two days and during the following European workshop. With effort, dedication and open mind DRM can now turn promise into reality.”

The DRM European workshop overlapped with the General Assembly on 6 and 7 April organised by the Consortium, Fraunhofer IIS and by the DRM German Platform.

Platform Chairman Joachim Lehnert said, “The event will focus on the receiver and car industries. We need multi-standard radios in Europe which can and should include DRM reception in the AM and in the VHF bands.”

The European Workshop was the first such DRM event aimed at offering solutions to all broadcasters large or small. During their presentations and discussions participants stressed that DRM is the ITU endorsed and internationally adopted standard for the distribution of programmes internationally, nationally and up to local coverage level. DRM can also provide an economic and complementary solution to exactly those coverage scenarios that the established DAB/DAB+ networks in Band-III were never designed for.

Following their deliberations the participants urged all stakeholders of Digital Radio in Europe – including European organisations, regulators, broadcasters and the receiver and automotive industry – to embrace publicly the duality and complementarity of the open DRM and DAB standards as the complete Digital Radio solution for Europe (and worldwide).

This means a digital future for all broadcasters, offering more programme choice to listeners, extra multimedia services with text and images, increased energy savings and spectrum efficiency.

The participants ask ‘all European stakeholders to promote actively the manufacturing and distribution of multi-standard Digital Radio receivers, comprising at least the DRM and DAB standards.’

At the end of the first day of the Workshop, Fraunhofer IIS (Bernd Linz) demonstrated the latest development to provide traffic and travel services in DRM radios, soon to be installed in Asia.