Is world-wide radio standardisation out of reach? Not if you read the recent article in the EBU TECHNICAL REVIEW written by Christian Vision's Andrew Flynn. The text explains how the DRM Consortium has created its DRM Digital Radio Receiver Profiles and what they encompass.
DRM and DAB/DMB
The profiles have the same objectives as the DAB/DMB Digital Radio Profiles, which were published by the WorldDMB Forum two years ago. Both address similar issues and the process to create them have (on purpose, as Andrew explains) been quite similar as well. Both systems also do not exclude each other and are complementary to address the different needs in the ecosystem of broadcasters. In fact, the DRM Consortium has taken DAB/DMB compatibility into account when creating their set of specifications. The harmonisation of profiles and middleware applications is important to help broadcasters to scale services for different delivery platforms and also ease integration by manufacturers.
What is next?
At the Digital Radio Summit, which was held at the EBU last month, it was clear the proponents of digital radio delivery solutions (which besides DAB/DMB and DRM also include IMDA and RadioDNS), have done a lot of homework. With the specifications in place, it is now up to manufacturers and broadcasters to make digital radio flourish.
More information
The DRM article can be downloaded here. For more information on Digital Radio in general, please contact: Mathias Coinchon (EBU). EBU Members interested in this topic, may also want to attend the upcoming EBU TECHNICAL Webinars on Digital Radio.