The vendors have their fingers crossed that the All India Radio, Doordarshan and FM Phase III requirements may see the light of day in 2009-10.

The year 2008-09 will perhaps go down in the transmitter industry history as the most dismal year. There was no procurement of FM transmitters from either All India Radio or the private radio channels. Almost all orders had been placed for FM Phase II radio stations in the preceding year, barring very few spillovers and Phase III FM radio stations policy is still awaited. Similar was the fate of megawatt and DRM transmitters. Doordarshan had invited bids for two TV transmitters, there was litigation, and orders were not placed in the last fiscal.

All India Radio had invited a tender for 42 FM transmitters, valued at Rs. 17-18 crore, which would have been awarded in 2008-09. Able UK along with Rohde & Schwarz technology and rigid line accessories from Falcon was shortlisted. Other bidders were RVR, alongwith BECIL (Harris). When the order was placed on Able, RVR went to court as Able had bid for the tender in three currencies, euros, USD and rupees. Also the rigid line accessories which Able offered for Rs. 8 lakhs, sourced from Falcon were offered for Rs. 2 to Rs. 2.7 lakh in competitive bids.

All India Radio also cancelled the order for MW transmitters of 5kW filter and 10kW on BECIL.

Doordarshan had invited tenders for 2 TV transmitters in 2008-09, 1 transmitter, 10kW, VHF, for Kokrajhar (constituency of Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh) and 1 transmitter, 20kW, VHF for Bilaspur. The total value of both would be approximately Rs. 3 crore. This went into court. Prasar Bharti recently won the court case for 10kW and Harriban withdrew the court case for 20 kW. Supplies may be expected in 2009-10.

A handful of orders have been placed by IGNOU for the educational sector. Rohde & Schwarz supplied 11 transmitters.

A few low power transmitters, in 50w and 100w range, have been procured by some community radio stations; Bharat Electronics supplied Rs. 1 crore of community radio transmitters in 2008-09. Webel also had some minor supplies. Vendors are not very keen to supply community radio transmitters as they yield very low margins.

The year, 2009-10 looks promising. AIR has expressed interest for 19 numbers of FM, 1kW, transmitters from ELETTRONIKA, Italy. The broadcaster has also invited a tender for 3 numbers of 5kW of FM transmitters, where Harriban is the lowest bidder. FM Phase III may get finalized with a new government in place and an aggressive minister at the helm.

Apart from the 2 TV transmitters from DD being resolved, a new tender for solid state 500 Watts VHF /UHF analog TV LPT Transmitter (which are also digital ready) in 1+1 configuration (one transmitter in circuit and other as passive standby) has been invited on February 26, 2009. The 500W (1+1) TV transmitter system shall consist of 2 numbers. of 500W VHF/UHF solid state air cooled transmitters, one in circuit and other transmitter in passive standby configuration, valued at Rs. 30-35 crore.

Prasar Bharti had invited a tender for two numbers of megawatt, super power transmitters for external radio services for Rajkot and Chinsura. Arraycom (Harris), and BECIL (Thomson) bid for the tender. Orders were not finalized as Arraycom approached the Courts. This year may see this order placed too.

DRM is the obvious replacement for traditional short wave transmissions. DRM allows direct access to millions of listeners in excellent sound quality, without the hindrance of having to negotiate a way past the gatekeepers and at an excellent cost/reach ratio. DRM on medium wave is perfect for broadcasters aiming for a national audience, especially in countries covering a sizeable geographical area

DRM transmitters are essentially medium wave transmitters for digital am radio, which in India only AIR is allowed to broadcast. Last year, a tender for two numbers of DRM transmitters was invited. The bidder was Thomson. Orders are yet to be placed.

There is a strong interest in DRM digital radio amongst Indian FM broadcasters. Recently, in the last week of May, a DRM Digital Radio Mondiale session was very well received by the commercial FM broadcasters in the annual India Radio Forum held in Mumbai. All India Radio has recently announced its decision to adopt DRM for the upcoming transition to digital radio. Seventy per cent of the country is planned to be covered with DRM broadcasts by the end of government's Eleventh five year plan. This analog-to-digital migration plan is in line with the analog radio switch-off date of 2015. This augurs well for the transmitter market.

Mobile TV transmitters have no application in India, since the policy has not been finalized. Doordarshan is serious about its mobile TV plans and has recently invited a tender (Expression of Interest) for hiring a consultant for developing a public-private-partnership model for digital broadcasting services. The opening date is August 13, 2009.

Doordarshan is seeking inputs on both DVB-H for mobile and DVB-T for digital terrestrial broadcasting, but the focus appears to be largely on DVB-H: Doordarshan seeks to retain control over the DVB-H trasmission service, and offer partners control over a majority of the transmitted channels on a revenue sharing basis. The prospective private broadcaster will have to invest on capital expenditure on transmitter, antenna and allied equipments, while DD will provide infrastructure. The job of the consultant will be to help identify a business model for the partnership, the required investment from the private partner, and identify potential revenue from the service and how it will be split.

Doordarshan has proposed the following rollout plan for its Mobile TV services. These plans are likely to be changed, depending on the suggestions of the consultants.

Phase I: Doordarshan proposes to provide 16 channels, of which 4 will be retained, and the remaining 12 may be provided to a private partner on a revenue sharing basis. In Phase I, the DVB-H Service will be expanded to the NCR region (Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida), and introduced in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, where Digital Terrestrial Transmitters are already available. Uplink will be from the same cities, and the private partner will be responsible for content aggregation, marketing, operation and maintenance of the expanded network in metro cities. This phase is likely to be completed by the Commonwealth Games.

Phase II: Once the service becomes popular in metro cities, DD will again look at the partnership model for other cities - DVB-H transmitters along with head ends will be installed at 17 state Capitals (including 4 metro cities) for statewise DVB-H bouquets of channels. DVB-H is proposed to be launched in 13 major cities with a population of over 1 million: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubhaneshwar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jullandhar, Lucknow, Patna, Shimla, Jammu and Thiruvananthapuram. These cities already have analog TV transmission infrastructure, which will be upgraded for DVB-H.

Phase III to V: DD will target 96 cities in Phase III, where analog HPT TV Transmission facilities are available. In Phase IV, the broadcaster will set up 100 new high power DTT TV Transmitters. In Phase V, once all the DTT HPTs are installed at 230 proposed locations, the installation of Digital Low power trasmitters will be taken up in locations where high power transmitters are not economically viable. Around 400 DTT LPTs are planned.

The private sector is apprehensive, now that DD is well on its way for mobile TV, terrestrial transmission may continue to be the sole domain of Doordarshan. This is contrary to the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The industry is hopeful that the worst is over, and 2009 onwards business shall look more positive.

Radio may typically be divided into three major parts, Studio, Transmission and Studio Transmission Link. Traditionally, we have invested in studio setup and transmission equipment, and have cut cost on STLs.  This needs to change, we could opt for VSATs rather than leased lines.
Circuit switching should be our primary link and packet switching should be our secondary link. In the real-time network we cannot tolerate the drops in our network, and where it is not on real-time there is no problem is using packet switching.
Whenever we switch the medium into packet switching, the stability will decline because the conversion may take time, which will reduce the medium’s quality because if the physical network is through but protocols are not working properly, then it may create problem.

Vikramdeep Singh
Technical Head, Fever 104 FM

MAJOR PLAYERS

Harris is the leader in analog transmission for AM Radio and FM Radio because, over the years, the company has invented many of the industry's key technologies. In the sixty years they have been building radio transmitters, its R&D efforts produced more than 50 major technical developments, including many world standards.

FM transmitters. Harris developed technologies to make the uncompressed digital audio air chain a reality. The DIGIT CD Digital FM Exciter is a world standard with over 5000 units delivered; no other exciter even comes close. DIGIT CD is the first exciter with an AES3 input. Harris' Intraplax STL Plus, an STL that transports uncompressed digital audio over public networks and wireless microwave radios is another first. With the Platinum Z line, Harris leads the way in mid-power solid state FM transmitters that are available for the price of vacuum tube models. And finally at lower power levels the new Harris ZX line of modular solid-state transmitters bridges the gap to provide Harris quality at a refreshing price.

TV transmitters. Harris has set the pace for television's transition from analog to digital technology. Indeed, the RF Test Bed that Harris developed for the Advanced Television Test Center in 1990 enable all digital television systems proposed for the United States to be equitably evaluated. Harris is also a leader in technology for the European-standard Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T) market.

In India, the company is represented by Horizon Broadcast Electronics.

Nautel in January 2009, introduced the broadcast industry's most complete line of solid state FM transmitters with the addition of seven new NV Series models. Building on the overwhelming customer response to the company's groundbreaking 44kW NV40, Nautel now offers FM output power ranging from 3.5 kW to 44 kW with the following product models: NV3.5; NV5; NV7.5; NV10; NV15; NV20; NV30 and the flagship NV40. These products offer cost effective solutions for stations operating at virtually any FM power output level. In India, the company is represented by Comcon.

NEC has recently added low power digital TV transmitters to its product line. The company leads the industry in high-power solid-state transmitters. The DTL-10 Series extends NEC's impressive lineup from low- to high-power operation.

When it comes to transmitters, Broadcast Electronics continues to make more advances than any other company in the industry. Standout features include optional standby exciters, IPAs and power supplies that can give you full power standby without having to buy another transmitter. Large, removable panels that provide immediate access to every major assembly for fast and easy repair in the unlikely event of a problem, and advanced controllers that offer operators faster access to more information than ever.

Broadcast Electronics announced a low-power FM transmitter line scalable from 1kW to 5kW with integrated FM exciter at BES Expo 2009 in India.

In India, Technomedia represents Broadcast Electronics, and the company acquired 34 percent market share in the FM transmitters sold for FM Phase-II radio stations.

Axcera, USA in India is represented by Technomedia for their entire range of TV transmitters. This includes the complete range of transmitters and gap fillers for mobile TV.

RVR Elettronica was founded in 1979 to manufacture telecommunication and FM broadcast equipment. During these 30 years, RVR Elettronica has formed an established group of companies composed of more than 200 professional figures, consolidating its leader position in the FM worldwide market. The company provides a complete range of solid state FM transmitters and amplifiers, using MOSFET technology models from 300W up to 30KW and hot-pluggable models from 5Kw to 30Kw.

In India, Harri-Ban Communication Pvt Ltd are the authorized representatives of RVR Elettronica Italy.

Rohde & Schwarz new generation liquid-cooled TV transmitters as well as FM transmitters are in use in India.

TV Transmitters. To meet modern TV transmission requirements, Rohde & Schwarz TV transmitters support existing analog and digital standards. Available digital standards are DVB-T, DVB-H, ATSC, MediaFloTM, ISDB-T and DTMB. Various models of low power, medium power and high power transmitters are available in VHF and UHF.

Thomson. Built on more than two decades of pioneering solid-state broadcast technology, Thomson television transmitters support new UHF/ VHF market requirements and address the promising opportunities of the digital area. Its comprehensive product range covers sets new standards for performance, security, and maintenance.

The company's solution for mobile TV provides telcos and broadcasters with a fully integrated system that combines our broadcast, video transmission, and service-management expertise. Supporting DVB-H and FLO infrastructures, it offers a complete solution for managing and broadcasting live content over mobile networks.

Thomson offers digital radio mondiale (DRM) transmitters which cover the entire gamut of shortwave, long and medium wave; and medium wave transmitters.

In India, the company is represented by Falcon Technologies.

A variety of other international brands are also retailed in India. They include SENDER for medium wave transmitters, SBS for FM transmitters, Eddystone for terrestrial television transmitters, and Paradise Datacom for satellite transmitters. These are retailed in India by Richardson Electronics.

Bharat Electronics, indigenously manufactures and offers 2?ó50W VHF band-II TV transmitter model, LVV 159; 2?ó50W UHF band-IV & V TV transmitter model, LUV 146; 500W VHF band-III TV transmitter model, MVV 204; 500W VHF band-IV & VTV transmitter model MUV 205; and 500W mobile TV transmitter for the broadcast and television industry.