First two HD Radio stations in South Asia on air soon
Two HD Radio stations will be start broadcasting in early 2016 for Betar, the national government broadcaster for Bangladesh. The HD Radio broadcasts on mediumwave, supported by two GatesAir Flexiva 10kW transmitters, will cover the capital city of Dhaka and surrounding regions. Thus Bangladesh is not following neighboring India which have adapted DRM30/DRM+ for digital terrestrial radio.
Upon evaluating digital radio standards, Betar chose the US standard HD Radio for to its audio quality and multichannel opportunities. For this application, signal coverage will be strengthened through a higher-than-usual FM tower for Betar and a panel antenna—the first of its kind deployed in Bangladesh. GatesAir worked closely with Betar across site planning and system design, including all transmission, antenna, monitoring and peripheral equipment. Along with the Flexiva transmitters, they also provided the Exgine4 HD Radio system which makes it possible to deliver program-associated data services (logos, station ID information, artist/song title details) over a single IP stream to the transmitter.
