This is one in a series about trends in global radio. Matthew Phillips is product director at the U.K.-based IC supplier CML Micro and a vice-chairman of Digital Radio Mondiale.
Radio World: What is the company’s involvement with DRM?
Matthew Phillips: CML Micro has developed a highly integrated and low-power DRM-capable receiver module for DRM radio manufacturers to use.
The DRM1000 module is the technology core of a consumer DRM-capable radio receiver and can be used by any manufacturer to develop and produce DRM receivers quickly. The device has many leading technical features, and we hope that by making DRM radio attractive to use, simple to operate and cost-effective we can make DRM available to a worldwide audience regardless of income or location.
RW: What are the most important broad recent changes or trends for radio transmission and technology platforms around the world?
Phillips: Understanding how radio broadcasting and internet audio streaming coexist and flourish in their own strengths together is a major challenge. Internet streaming has its uses for on-demand type services. On-demand services require a user’s active selection and attention. However what is sometimes ignored is that curated content — put together more intelligently that random playlists made by machine algorithms — that we can consume while busy, or mass society uniting content such as sports events free to air, are much better delivered over broadcast radio.
Truly reaching all the world’s population and indeed reaching populations in times of crisis are again the province of radio. Radio needs to make this case forcefully to not be damaged by the rise of digital “slop content.”
RW: What do you consider the key recent advancements for DRM?
Phillips: The use of DRM for remote education or so-called e-learning is of great social importance. I hope we will see a much wider understand across emerging nations of the power of DRM to bring education to millions of children who currently miss their schooling for many reasons.
Education is the key to a stable better future for all of humanity, and DRM can help that process.
The vital support that DRM-based radio can bring to emergency and crisis management is needed urgently, particularly as the climate crisis shows its effect more frequently each year.
Finally the fact that DRM receivers have now become small enough, low-power enough, and cost-effective enough to be embedded in other products such as headphones, earbuds, wireless speakers and TV sound bars is an important milestone for DRM-based broadcasting.
RW: We’ve seen that a few countries have tried to sunset FM broadcasting. Do you feel this will continue?
Phillips: We do not think switching off FM in VHF Band II and replacing it with DAB in VHF Band III will accelerate. As you know the switch-off of FM in Switzerland has been halted and reversed.
The facts of physics are simple: VHF Band II propagation covers more area than VHF Band III propagation. This could be as high as double the area. This loss of coverage means more transmitters and more cost. This is unlikely to be acceptable in the current broadcast industry climate.
The migration of FM to a higher-capacity digital carrier but using the same lower frequency, to keep or in many cases exceed the current FM coverage, seems to us to be a more robust digital rollout model. When operated in VHF Band II, DRM can cover the same area as an FM broadcast with three times the channel carrying capacity and a tenth of the transmitter power, meaning lower electricity bills.
This seems to us the much more likely scenario to be adopted around the world.
RW: What should we know about hybrid delivery platforms?
Phillips: Hybrid delivery can come in many forms.
Analog radio simulcast with digital radio can be helpful to allow populations to migrate slowly from analog listening to digital radio listening — benefiting from more varied, better-quality digital content where it is available but still being able to fall back on the analog if needed.
DRM when embedded in devices such as wireless headphones can utilize a supporting application running on a smartphone or tablet for the control surface or user interface. This application then opens the door to interactive radio applications so listeners can be engaged directly to send feedback, take part in polls, or respond to broadcast advertising directly on their internet-connected phones and tablets.
We see this as a new hybrid model of radio and internet, bringing new features and interactivity to users and broadcasters.
RW: Will broadcasting remain relevant, in the age of so many alternative channels?
Phillips: For all the reasons I’ve outlined, radio with be relevant long into the future. We have already reached a point where the internet is overflowing with AI-generated untruth and social media systems whose algorithms reward clicks, not accuracy, and clickbait, not truth.
The world will always need information, education, truth and authenticity. Radio can be a beacon for all those important human values.
RW: Are there implications for radio stations in technologies like 5G Broadcast and ATSC 3.0?
Phillips: I am sure it is always possible for humans to invent new ways for audio content to be delivered that are less power efficient and more expensive. These may be suitable for certain use cases, but as they inevitably cost more, use more energy and are less effective in reaching people in times of emergency, I think they will remain niche technologies.
RW: What else should we know?
Phillips: The radio spectrum is a valuable resource. Lower frequencies have a disadvantage in needing larger antennas, but they have advantages for many areas of the world in terms of area coverage and affordability.
We should not be blindsided into believing that radio is a declining technology. Digital radio broadcasting based on DRM can bridge the digital divide for millions of citizens worldwide. Trusted information that is well-produced, thoughtfully created and efficiently delivered by radio has an expanding and exciting future. We should embrace that future.
