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Future of DRM on SW?
"Why don't you use DRM on Shortwave?"
DRM is the acronym of Digital Radio Mondiale, a new technology intended to offer digital, almost FM, quality to Shortwave, Long Wave and Medium Wave (AM) broadcasts. Unfortunately DRM is incompatible with ordinary Shortwave radios and requires buying new receivers, that are not currently available in mass production, or at a cost that is anywhere close to a conventional, analogue Shortwave receiver. Some DRM receivers requires a PC and a special device to listen to DRM signals. Our transmitters are DRM capable, and we already run preliminary tests with our own developed DRM encoders. We are ready to broadcast using DRM at any time, but unfortunately there are no mass produced receivers for our listeners to buy at a decent price, and - most importantly - there are no listeners for DRM at present. DRM is a very promising technology, has a 2-3 year delay over original plans, and it is still confined as a technological experiment. Will it be successful, meaning that we will see soon lots of listeners embracing it? Ask the man in the street: unfortunately marketing efforts to create awareness of this new potential media have not been started yet. Some large companies are pushing DRM by convincing program producers and broadcasters to start airing in DRM ahead of time, but unless there is mass availability and penetration of receivers on the listeners side, this will remain - unfortunately - a technological experiment, and broadcasters using it to reach their listeners now, are clearly throwing their money out of the window. Similar "experiments" were run in the past using analogue & digital satellite radio and WorldSpace. They failed miserably in reaching an audience for different reasons. We have been following with great interest the development of DRM, and as soon as one of our members send us a request to start DRM broadcasts we will do it. Currently we advise them to wait and see until there are low cost receivers available in mass production, and of course there are listeners using them. We are still very active on conventional Shortwave and Internet streaming, because there are listeners out-there, and there are regions in the world where Shortwave is still popular, still listened to. According to what we hear from missionaries in Africa, the Far and Middle East and S America DRM will have a hard time to be popular in those regions for some time (if ever), due to the high cost associated in the conversion of the present Shortwave and Medium Wave receivers to DRM capable devices. Unfortunately we have seen something similar to DRM today happening for satellite radio in Europe and WorldSpace, another promising technology marketed initially for listeners in Africa, and confined for years to embassies, consulates and a bunch of rich people on that continent. DRM, Worldspace and satellite radio in Europe, Africa and Asia are NOT what XM and Sirius are today in the USA. We wish they could be, maybe, sometime in the future. http://www.egradio.org/index.php?name=FAQ&id_cat=7 Then I ran this hit count for http://drm.org - http://siteanalytics.compete.com/drm.org/?metric=uv It looks almost dead. Is DRM causing much interference on SW, and does DRM appear to be a bust? I could only find a handful of very expensive DRM receivers. Radio Shack has indicated that they are not interested, and Sangean put their DRM receiver on hold. Thanks... |
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