[IP] yet another DRM :-) Fears for new digital radio system
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 14, 2004 4:35:04 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Fears for new digital radio system
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fears for new digital radio system
By Chris McWhinnie
BBC Monitoring in Amsterdam
Plans to offer the internet using mains electricity cables could cause
so much interference that new digital radio stations could be
obliterated, a broadcasting conference has been told.
The warning came from Peter Senger, the chair of the Digital Radio
Mondiale (DRM) at the International Broadcasting Convention in
Amsterdam.
DRM is a standard agreed by world broadcasters for a completely new
short wave radio system
The new internet power line distribution system has been evaluated by
engineers, including the BBC, and has been found to affect short wave
in particular.
Short wave is mainly used to broadcast internationally and the AM
bands have been used since radio first started in the 1920s.
The DRM system uses existing AM broadcast frequencies to deliver
near-FM quality digital sound.
It uses compression to squeeze clear digital sound into the narrow
radio channels that currently carry crackly analogue signals.
The DRM technology has the potential to make digital radio available
in places that Digital Audio Broadcasting (Dab) radio or even FM will
probably never reach.
As for the hardware required to hear these stations, there will be a
new consumer DRM radio in the shops by Christmas 2005 and a tiny
PC-only DRM set is already on sale.
Testing times
DRM is not being used by many radio stations yet. However a number of
radio stations have seen the potential for new cross-border radio
stations.
A Germany-based music station is believed to be in the planning
stages. BBC World Service and its counterparts abroad already have some
regular DRM programmes and are backing the system.
DRM is being seriously considered in many countries where the FM radio
band is full. China sees DRM as the answer to pushing digital radio
across its vast territory.
The UK is not planning to use DRM for domestic radio. The UK has
pinned its digital hopes instead on Dab, which offers stations like BBC
1Xtra, 6 Music, Oneword and Core. More digital radios have been sold in
the UK than any other country.
Switching-off analogue FM and AM may take years and making millions of
much-loved analogue radio sets useless will no doubt be controversial.
If power line internet transmission is introduced, then international
broadcasting on shortwave may also be consigned to history due to the
interference from data travelling over mains electricity cables.
Story from BBC NEWS:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/3652202.stm>
Published: 2004/09/13 13:06:07 GMT
Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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