BPL could 'obliterate' DRM broadcasts

Fears are held for DRM, the new Digital Radio System, so says Chris McWhinnie of BBC Monitoring in Amsterdam

Plans to offer the internet using mains electricity cables could cause so much interference that new digital radio stations could be obliterated, a broadcasting conference has been told.

The warning came from Peter Senger, the chair of the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) at an International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam.

The DRM technology has the potential to make digital radio available in places that Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio or even FM will probably never reach.

As for the hardware required to hear these stations, there will be a new consumer DRM radio in the shops by Christmas 2005 and a tiny PC-only DRM set is already on sale.

Switching-off analogue FM and AM may take years and making millions of much-loved analogue radio sets useless will no doubt be controversial.

If power line internet transmission is introduced, then international broadcasting on short-wave may also be consigned to history due to the interference from data travelling over mains electricity cables.

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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