DRM Elections: Micronas, RFI and RTL Group Join Steering Board; Chairman Peter Senger Gains Fourth

At this year’s General Assembly, the Digital Radio Mondiale consortium added Micronas GmbH, Radio France International and RTL Group as new, voting members to its steering board. They replace outgoing steering board members TELEFUNKEN SenderSysteme Berlin AG and Telenor/Norkring (who remain as active DRM consortium members), and Voice of Nigeria.
DRM’s members also voted to re-elect DRM Chairman Peter Senger to a fourth consecutive two-year term. Senger, who is Deutsche Welle’s COO, has led DRM since its inception in 1998. DRM’s annual meeting was held in Hangzhou, China at the invitation of China’s State Administration of Radio, Film & Television, on March 31- April 1.
Founded in Guangzhou, China in 1998, the DRM consortium has expanded into a group of 81 broadcasters, network operators, equipment manufacturers, broadcasting unions, regulatory bodies and NGOs representing 27 countries. It’s a digital on-air system for short-wave, medium-wave/AM and long-wave. Nearly 60 international, national and local broadcasters have started transmitting in DRM, and the first DRM-capable consumer receiver, MAYAH’s DRM 2010, is available.
Remaining as DRM’s Vice Chairman is Jan Hoek, who is Acting Director General of Radio Netherlands. Also continuing are Donald Messer (Director, Spectrum Management Division, IBB/VOA) as Technical Committee Chairman and Michel Penneroux (Head of AM Broadcasting, TDF) as Commercial Committee Chairman.
DRM also re-elected the following Steering Board members with voting rights: BBC; Coding Technologies GmbH; Deutsche Welle; DRS Broadcast Technology (formerly IDT Continental Electronics); Fraunhofer IIS; Harris Corporation, Broadcast Communications Division; Hitachi Kokusai Electric Ltd.; IBB/VOA; Radio Netherlands; Robert Bosch GmbH; Sony International Europe; TDF; Thales Broadcast & Multimedia; T-Systems International GmbH and VT Merlin Communications. The broadcasting unions ABU, ASBU, EBU and ITU are also represented in the Steering Board, but without voting rights.