Digital Radio Mondiale announced that the Emergency Warning Features of the DRM system would be featured in a broadcast included in the International Radio for Disaster Relief Trial (IRDR) Trial to coincide with the Media Summit on Climate Change to be held June 4–6 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
DRM explains that the goal of the trial, which consists of “special programs carried by 12 broadcasters,” is to demonstrate that shortwave broadcasting has a unique value for affected populations and that the existing framework of global shortwave coordination can be employed for disaster risk purposes.
Special clear channels have been selected for the IRDR trial and there will be transmissions from a number of different broadcasters and sites between 2 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. UTC each day of the Media Summit. The DRM Consortium says it has produced a 30-minute program explaining the benefits of the DRM EWF. The program can be heard on the BBC/Babcock transmissions on 15650 kHz at 3–3:30 a.m., 4–4:30 a.m. and 5–5:30 a.m. UTC on both June 5 and 6.
The DRM radio program illustrates what the inbuilt emergency functionality of DRM is and how alarm signals generated by the authorities can override running programs and carry the emergency message instantly to large numbers of people. The DRM broadcast, which will also be made available on the DRM website, precedes the presentation and demonstration to be given by Alexander Zink, vice-chair of the DRM Consortium and senior business development manager for Fraunhofer IIS in Germany, on the morning of June 6.
“During emergencies and times of crisis, most of the services fail,” said Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Consortium chairman. “Radio is the last line of communication and the obvious solution for bringing information to the people. We are very excited to have our first radio broadcast on the in-built emergency disaster functionality of DRM during such an important event like the one in Jakarta.”
