All India Radio: Singing the IT Song

Today, AIR has 214 broad-casting centers in India serving 99.13% of the
population. This soaring growth over the years could not have been possible
without AIR's sustained effort to keep pace with the technology of the times.
AIR has its own software for booking artists, library management of archival
material, royalty payment and payroll. Other software include automated
processing of applications for frequency clearance, remote monitoring and
control of transmitters, online budgeting and expenditure monitoring system.

Currently, a server kept at the headquarters in Delhi connects to the network
using a leased line. AIR runs an extranet site called 'Airnet' for its
internal use, to which all stations and offices of AIR can log in to feed and
access information.

A LAN of 150 computers powers the internal infrastructure. News on phone is
currently available at five stations and will be rolled out in 11 more stations,
within a year. Radio on demand, available at the four metros, is the other
interactive service. Close to 100 AIR studios, around the country, have already
been digitized and in another two years the rest will follow suit.

A New Broadcasting House (NBH), has been built in Delhi, with a technology
investment of 30 crore. The NBH has 26 transmission studios and all NBH users
are being allocated proximity cards, which control access to the studios.

Recording, editing and transmission on the computer is done using the Radio
Automation System-Dalet. All Digital Audio Workstations in the NBH are
networked, with the servers in clustered arrangement and with an external
storage box in RAID5 configuration. About 4000 hours of stereo programs can be
stored with the flexibility of increasing this limit. Central switching takes
care of distribution of feeds from different sources to different destinations.

The General News Room (GNR) has provision for online automatic capture and
distribution of newswires of six agencies. Within 2 years all Regional News
Units (RNUs) are to be connected to the AIR news Headquarters for exchange of
news feeds.

Digitization is the latest buzzword in its corridors. For 2005, AIR promises
better technical quality, more coverage, better reception and low distortion.
There are plans to begin digital transmission on medium wave and short wave as
well as digital distribution of programs through satellite within two years. The
INSAT transponder is already being used for radio transmission.