Wednesday 15 December 2021

DRM+ Digital Radio on FM Band Now Launched in Copenhagen.

A multinational project might challenge DAB and put new life into terrestrial
broadcasting.
The licence for the test broadcasts runs until August 2022, which can be extended to August 2023. The frequency allocated is 86.5 MHz and with a bandwidth of 200 kHz, which makes room for two DRM signal. Each DRM signal has a capacity of 186.4 kbps and accommodates three audio channels and multimedia services, so for the 200 kHz a total of six digital radio stations can thus be broadcast.
Further down the line there are ambitions to involve the Öresund region and possibly collaborate with another FM station on the Swedish side of the sea sound.
The trial on the 86.5 MHz frequency has also been approved by the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency. The fact that the experiment is done a bit below the regular FM band (band II 87.5-108 MHz) is due to the fact that there is no space in this dense region. The new receivers for FM/DRM can handle 64-108 MHz.

This is a collaborative multinational project organised by Open Channel, an independent Danish network operator in Copenhagen, with Canadian Nautel (transmitter), German RFmondial (DRM modulator & measuring instruments) & Fraunhofer IIS (Content server) and Swedish Progira (network planning). The project is supported by Gospell, NXP, partners in Denmark and other non-DRM Consortium members like Bauer Media (supplying content) and Kathrein (antenna).

The DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) is a system for terrestrial digital radio developed in France, Germany and Sweden. It can be used in all sound broadcast bands from 30 kHz to 200 MHz (i.e. longwave, medium wave, shortwave and the FM-band) while the DAB system is limited to VHF band III (the 200 Mhz band).

DRM30 has been in operation for many years on shortwave and medium wave. India is the leading country with a new national DRM broadcast system. DRM+ on FM is still being tested in countries like Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia and India.