NEW DELHI: DRM Consortium Chairperson Ruxandra Obreja has hailed the national seminar on Digital Radio Mondiale in Delhi as 'the most successful meeting held by the DRM with the industry in India to date.'She said that the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event offered up to the minute information on the roll out and actual DRM transmissions on the air and excellent news on DRM production.

She said the progress on DRM in India and other key countries will figure prominently during the DRM General Assembly scheduled to take place on 26 March.

'DRM: The Future of Indian Radio - Business Opportunities for Stakeholders' had been organised last week by CII in co-operation with the DRM Consortium, and was 'the first of its kind involving technology specialists, broadcasters and representatives of Government and industry, noted Obreja.

The clear aim of the seminar was to tackle head on the question of receivers, and she said representatives of chipset manufacturers like Analog Devices, NXP, and local entrepreneurs engaged already in designing or even manufacturing receivers were enthusiastic. TVB Subrahmanyam of Analog Devices gave a clear picture of the potential yearly DRM market of about 16 million desktop, mobile and car radios, estimated at possibly a value of up to half a billion dollars. Ashok Chandok of NXP gave examples of the successful tests carried out in cars in areas already covered by AIR DRM transmitters. Ankit Aggrawal of Communication Systems Inc. offered a glimpse into the first Indian made desktop DRM receiver with all extra DRM features, ready to be produced very soon. Businessmen like A Kharabanda and Ramendra Baoni talked about the excitement, the real challenges and great opportunities the DRM receiver market affords to those willing to take the risk. All speakers mentioned that the price of receivers is dependent on good, desirable content and on volume while no price was really mentioned.

CII National Committee on ICTE Manufacturing chairman V Sharma says that the DRM receivers will be recognised by the government and manufacturers as one of the critical products deserving interest and investment.

The seminar was attended by over 120 participants who focused on the opportunities offered by the current roll-out of digital radio to the Indian industry. Several speakers stressed that All India Radio (AIR) was equipped to launch DRM, which would make all short wave and medium wave channels available to everyone in FM-quality over an area and at a cost that no current or future FM plan could match. The reach would be unlike FM which was today available to around 45 per cent of the country (including 25 per cent coverage by private channels). On the other hand, medium wave covered the entire country.