Jaipur, 29th, March 2022.

Xperi Corporation’s, HD Radio team completed successful test and demonstration of digital FM broadcasting in Delhi, NCR. In partnership with Prasar Bharati, the team established a temporary digital FM broadcast system as Akashvani Bhawan, New Delhi.

The HD Radio digital broadcast system was tested in the National Capital Region (NCR) as well as in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The test was conducted in NCR starting January to March 2020. And the additional digital broadcasting test were facilitated in Jaipur, Rajasthan with the support from All India Radio (AIR) engineering & R&D team throughout March 2021. 

The overall test programme was created with the inputs from All India Radio (AIR) engineering and R&D teams. The evaluation criteria measured key technical parameters for signal quality, coverage area, indoor reception, interference concerns as well as listener experience metrics for audio quality and services. And the evaluations were completed in March 2021.

On the occasion of completing digital broadcasting tests, Mr. Ashruf El-Dinary , SVP, Xperi Digital Platforms, Stated –“We were pleased to demonstrate the high quality digital radio services that millions of people experience across North America. Successfully showcasing this technology in India highlights the power of digital radio.”

The HD Radio team showcased the features and highlighted the digital radio features and along with superior coverage and signal quality at the transmission site.  While testing with only 120 Watts of digital power the digital signal broadcast from central Delhi out to the IGI T3 Airport, Delhi. The total area of the transmission covered the metro Delhi area with a reception range of 18 – 20 km and the signal will easily expand to cover the entire Delhi-NCR.

This test site allowed the evaluation of potential interference to adjacent transmissions. The HD Radio team demonstrated service reception on a variety of consumer grade HD Radio products including home radios, portable radios, car radios and mobile handset. And the overall result states that HD Radio digital FM broadcasting is ready to serve India’s transition to digital FM services and the current analogue radio frequency is also able to transform to Digital Radio broadcasting. The enhanced digital services require an HD Radio receiver to experience the benefits such as seamless transmission, improved audio quality, multiple audio programs on a single frequency for spectrum efficiency, multimedia services with text and images, and public safety applications through emergency alerting systems for any national disaster communications and digital content.

The digital technologies are most successful when they serve the local community as a reliable, cost-effective means of distributing information. Technology leaders understand these benefits. In year 2020, Mr. R.S. Sharma, Ex Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), echoed the need to adopt Digital Radio quickly in one of the press conferences jointly held with Prasar Bharati. Each of these evaluation metrics would assist the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) in decisions regarding the regulatory plans for digital FM broadcasting in India.

The HD Radio technology has been successful across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and is launched in other countries such as the Philippines, Panama, and elsewhere reaching over 400 million people with 4,700 digital programmes with over 200 million hours of digital radio transmission and over 100 billion hours of consumer listening since 2005, the HD Radio system is the most successful digital FM solution in the world.