AIR to turn digital for world audience

The digital service, as a pilot project, will be webcast in India as a radio signal till a distance of 20,000 kilometres in a crystal clear sound.

Updated on: May 27, 2007, 23:16:20 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Listening to old melodies of KL Sehgal or latest tunes from Himmesh Reshammiya would now be possible in far west United States or on the interior of Indo-China border. In a quality better than FM radio.

It will all happen with All India Radio (AIR) planning to go digital. “We have started a pilot project to provide digital signals to radio audience in the country. The quality would be as clear as playing music at your home,” said Brajeshwar Singh, Director-General AIR.

The digital service will be available through internet via webcasting and as radio signal till a distance of 20,000 kilometres in a crystal clear sound. But the biggest stumbling block for the masses to listen to fine quality radio transmission is the high cost digital radio sets. Each set costs about Rs 12,000. But, Singh expects the price to go down once the use of radio digital signal improves.

Till, the technology becomes popular the AIR will provide the signal in both analog and digital mode. This will mean that there will be a signal for conventional radio sets along with one for digital radio sets. Once the transition from analog to digital is complete, the analog signal will not be available. “It will take seven to eight years,” Singh said.

AIR on Thursday conducted a presentation for Information and Broadcasting ministry secretary A Swarup on digital phase of AIR. The pilot project started from a transmission station near Delhi University is first of its kind in the country.

“Although 38 countries in the world has used digital mode for external transmission, India would be the first country to use the technology for national transmission,” AS Guin, Engineer-in-Chief of AIR.

The cost of converting entire AIR network on digital is high but the government expects to get approval of Planning Commission for this futuristic project soon. Under the pilot project, Delhi radio station is available on digital mode as well as analog mode. “We have divided the bandwith into two channels. One part is digital and other is analog. People who want to listen to better quality sound can opt for the digital signal” an AIR official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Stay updated with the latest Business News on Petrol Price, Gold Rate, Silver Rates, Diesel Prices along with Income Tax Calculator