The 2018 General Assembly of the DRM Consortium took place on April 17 and 18 under the banner “Digital Radio Mondiale Drives Forward”, at Mallorca in Spain.

The General Assembly set the strategy and working plan for the next year for DRM and also elected the Chair and the main bodies of this not-for-profit organisation.  

The only additions to the existing Steering Board are Nautel and RRI (Indonesian public broadcaster).  The other Board members are: Ampegon, BBC, Babcock International, Fraunhofer IIS, NXP, RFmondial and Thomson Broadcast.  Thomson Broadcast also joined the Executive Board and Ruxandra Obreja was re-elected Chair of the Consortium.

During the meeting, members also enjoyed direct live transmissions in DRM shortwave from the UK and Bulgaria on receivers like Avion, Gospell and Titus SDR.  

For Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Chairman, this was a moment to take stock “and review the excellent progress made by DRM in India and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as South Africa, other countries in Africa, Middle East and Europe and in the automotive industry. DRM as a flexible and economical provider of audio and extra benefits like emergency warning functionality is now in a unique position to give users a powerful, all-band solution for local, regional, national and international coverage. The General Assembly gave everyone  a reason to be proud but also to step up  the efforts of getting DRM transmissions and receivers in the market.”