The Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) system provides a universal, non-proprietary, digital transmission system – designed to replace, eventually, the current analogue transmissions in the LW, MW and SW bands.

This article provides information on the DRM receivers that were demonstrated at IBC- 2002 during September. It also oulines the work being carried out within a number of projects which aim to enable the early introduction of DRM consumer receivers.

A news and information portal in nine languages ... streaming audio/video over the Internet ... content management systems ... data broadcasting ... data services for mobile phones ... a geographical information system …

The changes have come thick and fast at swissinfo/Swiss Radio International over the past few years, with the introduction of a host of new services and applications. A traditional shortwave broadcaster has now turned into a multimedia venture, as described in this article.

Microsoft® Windows Media® 9 Series is a set of technologies that enables rich digital media experiences across all types of networks and devices. These technologies include an encoder to author the multimedia content, a server to distribute the content, a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system to let content owners set usage policies, and a variety of players to decode and render the content on personal computers and other consumer electronic devices. These components are built on top of a programmable and extensible platform that enables partners to build tailored applications and services.

This article provides a high-level overview of the technologies in Windows Media 9 Series, with a particular focus on the different audio and video codecs available. Applications and services for broadcast (e.g., IP datacasting via DVB) are also discussed.

H.264/AVC is the current video standardization project of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The main goals of this standardization effort are to develop a simple and straightforward video coding design, with enhanced compression performance, and to provide a “network-friendly” video representation which addresses “conversational” (video telephony) and “non-conversational” (storage, broadcast or streaming) applications.

H.264/AVC has achieved a significant improvement in the rate-distortion efficiency – providing, typically, a factor of two in bit-rate savings when compared with existing standards such as MPEG-2 Video.

There are several different ways of distributing audio and video content over the Internet. You can encode it offline in any number of formats (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime etc) and host it on a web server for people to watch at their leisure. There may also arise a situation where you would want to do a live broadcast over the Internet, somewhat like a conventional television broadcast.

There are many factors to consider when setting up for a live Internet broadcast – beginning with the available “live” encoding technologies. This article covers some of the many products available that will enable you to present a live audio and/or video broadcast over the Internet, with varying levels of complexity.

In this short article, the author describes some of the difficulties encountered with setting audio levels and loudness in the new digital environment.

Much has been spoken in recent years about the “convergence” of the telecommunications and broadcasting industries. Today, both industries have made the analogue-to-digital transition – with GSM/3G and DAB/DVB respectively. Many companies from both industries now accept that there is potential for new revenue streams – that could be created through collaboration, but not through convergence.

The Virtual Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Personal Communications (Mobile VCE) was conceived to undertake leading-edge, industry-led, academic research for the mobile communications industry. This article discusses the motivations and constraints of their latest research initiative – which explores broadcast-mobile interworking – and describes the origins of the programme, its structure and key research themes.