JOHANNESBURG, South Africa � Johannes von Weyssenhoff, representing the community station Wecodec in Johannesburg, presented the case of DRM to an international audience at the �Radio Days Africa,� an annual event taking place at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. His presentation also included results and findings of WECODEC�s ongoing DRM+ trial, the first of its kind on the African continent, according to DRM news.
The trial has demonstrated that there is no interference with analog stations on either side of the digital signal in the crowded FM spectrum of Johannesburg. The DRM power for the test is � that of FM, giving similar coverage at 4QAM. �Fixed reception is performing better than FM. While exact ratios are still to be determined, generally it can be said that, so far, the findings and measurements confirm that less energy is needed for digital coverage than for analog,� according to the same article. During the presentation it was shown that three audio services were broadcast, using the latest xHE-AAC audio codec. Various text and data sets were also broadcast successfully.
The main focus of the presentation was on spectrum and energy efficiency, as well as universal access to information for marginalized communities, using tools like Journaline. This attracted the attention of some South African and African community radio stations.�
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