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Tag: digitalisation

  • AIR’s digitalisation to stretch beyond 2015

    AIR’s digitalisation to stretch beyond 2015

    NEW DELHI: The All India Radio digitalisation programme may not be complete by 2015 due to shortage of funds, says AIR engineer-in-chief AS Guin.

    The Short Wave bands will be digitalised first and this can be achieved by 2015, provided the Planning Commission releases the entire amount, but medium wave “which is the poor man’s band” will not be fully digitalised and more specifically, there will not be complete switch off from analogue to digital radio, Guin explains.

    The AIR has asked for Rs 59 billion from the Commission under the 11th Five Year Plan. They feel the amount is huge, and the government may not be able to release the entire fund. To go for complete digitalisation would take much more funds – almost astronomical – and AIR mandarins feel that they should not ask for the moon, which is why no further plans are afoot for asking for more funds.

    Short wave transmitters that have been in use for more than 20 years will be replaced and these alone would be DRM compatible, not all.

    “But in any case, we shall not switch off the analogue mode for the medium wave by 2015, because that is the wave compatible with the radios costing Rs 50 or 100, the one used by the poorer section of the society. They will not be able to bear the cost, so we cannot deny them the only source of information and entertainment some of them have,” Guin stressed.

    In fact, as of date even the fairly well-to-do would not be able, or may not wish to spend money buying a digital radio set.

    “The ones available cost in today’s prices about $70, that is Rs 3,500,” Guin revealed, adding: “This is prohibitively costly.”

    So why bring in a technology that even the well-off may not opt for?

    “It is expected the prices will come down as we go by,” he averred. There are two factors at play here.

    First, as and when DRM technology goes national, prices will come down. “As of now, most countries are using DRM technology for SW for their external broadcasting. National lever SW DRM tests have been conducted in Mexico and other places,” Guin said. But when DRM goes national, the price will come down.

    The other factor is that as the new digital mode becomes popular, the prices of the sets would also come down.

    “The main thing will be the content,” Guin said. The content for SW and MW have to be different, because if the same content is run on both, why would anyone buy a costly handset to catch SW?” he asks.

    There have to be popular programmes specially developed for SW bands, he felt, otherwise the digital radio programme will not pick up in good earnest.

    The digitalisation process would start with all the studios. Each state capital would have one Short Wave transmitter and there will be three transmission complexes with five transmitters per complex for national digital radio coverage.

    These complexes will be suitably located., Each complex will transmit five digital channels across the country, including regional language channels. This will mean that these channels will be accessible across the country. So, a Bengali in Mumbai would not have a problem if he wishes to hear All India Radio Kolkata.

    Explaining the merits of such a costly technology, Guin said that interactive broadcasts and a number of value-added services will be possible. One of the most important things will be the pro-active role AIR will get to play in disaster management.

    AIR will introduce a system across the channels on the coastal belts, which will be integrated with the early warning systems.

    Thus, whenever an early warning is triggered off the computer linkage with the radio stations will ensure that the channel would automatically switch over to transmitting the warning, with the ongoing programme switched off.

    Once the warning has been issued, the radio station would switch over to the normal ongoing programme. This will give a huge lead time for people to evacuate.

  • PSBs differ on views of future

    PSBs differ on views of future

    MUMBAI: Public service broadcasters (PSBs) in the Asia-Pacific region have widely different views about their future, the 2006 Public Broadcasting International (PBI) conference in Maputo, Mozambique, was told on Friday.

    The secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), David Astley, said that a recent ‘thumbnail survey’ undertaken by the ABU showed that PSBs in the more advanced countries were cautiously optimistic about their future, but those in developing countries – many of whom were in transition from state broadcasting to independent PSBs – were quite pessimistic.

    “Finding strategies to cope with the erosion of audience share from the increased competition that the development of digital broadcasting is bringing about was the major challenge identified by the PSBs in the more advanced countries,” Astley was quoted as saying in a report put out on the ABU website.

    “Audience behaviour is changing as people respond to the growing choice in digital media, and broadcasters, in turn, are having to respond to those changes by providing more content on demand and on different platforms.

    “Generally the PSBs in the more advanced countries are optimistic about their future but recognise that they must embrace change and increase production of local content that is both distinctive and of high quality, to differentiate themselves from commercial broadcasters.”

    Astley said that broadcasters in the developing countries, many of whom were in transition from being state broadcasters to independent PSBs, were mostly pessimistic about their future.

    “The main issue that they identified was funding,” he said. “Many are not confident that they will have sufficient funding to meet their obligations as public service broadcasters.

    “Even without considering the cost of digitalisation in the future, many do not have backup transmitters or money for spares for studio equipment.

    “Some are being pressured to go commercial in order to lessen reliance on licence fees or direct government grants – but this might only be replacing political influence with commercial influence.

    “In any case, few state broadcasters have staff with the management and marketing skills to compete with their more experienced commercial competitors.”