NEW DELHI: Minister for Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu today said that digital radio provided an opportunity for all the stakeholders, including public and private broadcasters, to achieve and contribute to digital and connectivity revolution in the country.

Digital radio technology would provide listeners with significantly improved audio quality and service reliability at an affordable price, the Minister said this today during his address at the Digital Radio for All conference organised by Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) along with Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL).

Elaborating further, Naidu said that it was an opportune moment for automotive manufacturers and retailers to incorporate digital radio systems in vehicles that provided consumers with significantly improved audio quality and service reliability at an affordable price. This would enable the scaling up and adoption of this new digital technology.

Regarding achievements of All India Radio (AIR) in adopting digital radio technology, Naidu mentioned that AIR has already completed the technical installation and upgrading of 37 powerful transmitters in the first phase of digitisation of radio broadcast, adding that it was “a project unparalleled in the world today”.

Digitisation would ensure reduced electric power consumption for all digital transmissions, saving AIR and taxpayers significant transmission cost in the future. He added that All India Radio has re-invented itself through its digital transmitters based on the ITU-standard Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

Emphasising on the need for traffic advisory services on national highways, Naidu said that the next phase of this service through AIR FM transmitters needs to be digitised based on ITU standards to exploit its full potential. The service would offer multiple radio program, detailed and multi-lingual on-demand traffic and travel information and emergency warning services.

From a commercial perspective, the system provides audiences with receivers at an affordable price as well as an attractive package of benefits, which include a wider range of services, easier tuning, and selection of programming, improved stereo and surround sound in cars, amongst others

From a technical perspective, a key and a revolutionary feature of DRM is the ability to select from a range of transmission modes. This allows radio broadcaster to balance or exchange bit-rate capacity, signal robustness, transmission power and coverage. The DRM broadcasting system is specifically designed to allow the new digital transmission to co-exist with the current analogue broadcasts.