Digital Radio in FM-Band - World´s First DRM+ Broadcast in Germany

November 21, 2007

Source: Digital Radio Mondiale

The first DRM+ field trial was launched yesterday, the 20th of November, in Hanover and will run until the 29th of February. The DRM+ broadcasting trial is carried out by the DRM Associate Member German State Media Authority of Lower Saxony (NLM) and the DRM Associate Member Leibniz University of Hanover which one designed and built up the first DRM+ transmitter. The results of the DRM+ broadcast measurements will provide a basis for the new DRM+ system which standardization is planned in 2008.

The DRM+ trial in Hanover is in line with the field trials scheduled in Germany on HD-Radio TM and DRM+. Both systems allow digital radio transmission in FM band. With reference to the final report from the DRM Associate Member University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern and the German State Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate (LMK) about the interference potential of DRM+ and HD-RadioTM, the German Federal Network Agency has settled licences for forthcoming field trials at an assigned time.

The recent DRM+ field trial takes place in Hanover until the 29th of February 2008, the HD-Radio TM field trial occurs in Heidelberg from the 1st of December until the 29th of February 2008 and the DRM+ field trial happens in Kaiserslautern from 1st of March to 31st of May 2008. The final report is a first technical basis towards digitization of FM broadcast radio service. It is available in German under: http://www.fhkl. de/~drm . “Joachim Lehnert, technical director of the LMK, is satisfied […] that digitization of the public radio broadcasting services in the European VHF FM band is basically possible” notes Dr. Joachim Kind, press officer at LMK.

DRM+ is a narrow band digital radio system and could gradually replace the analogue FM radio in the future. DRM+ is appropriate for the transmission of local and sub-regional single program offerings although it can obviously be extended to a bigger up to a nationwide coverage as a single-frequency network. Detlef Pagel, Chairman of the DRM German Platform and technical director at NLM, welcomes the world premiere DRM+ field trials with enthusiasm. “The results of the measurements are very important not only for Germany but for all over the world. They will be the basis for planning and regulation so that the DRM+ system can be introduced.”

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