Radio and cars are in focus again after the recent UNESCO call upon governments, regulatory bodies, the technology and automotive industries, and all members of the global radio community “to put safeguards in place to ensure that radio continues to thrive, and to protect the free and unfettered access radio provides to a plurality of opinions and to trusted information.”

India is the country where this perfect marriage between car and digital radio means that since 2017 over 6 million new cars with line-fit digital DRM radio in the dashboard at no extra cost to the drivers are being driven on Indian roads. Global companies have risen to the challenge, but not only them as southern India based Inntot Technologies is also at the forefront of this revolution.

Inntot Technologies achieved the first breakthrough, when it created SDR based Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Receiver solutions for both AM and FM bands with all complex operations including demodulation and channel decoding performed in the software. Subsequently, SDR based solutions for DAB/DAB+ and HD-Radio, CD-Radio etc. were also developed. Inntot is cooperating with several OEMs and Tier-Ones. Its audio Intellectual portfolio includes context based adaptive audio, active noise cancellation, spatialisation among the differentiating features, and also a mobile solution.

Recently, Rajith Nair, CEO and MD of Inntot Technologies recently declared that his efficient solutions and quick delivery makes the company well positioned to serve OEMs and Tier-Is by using its experience in digital signal processing, digital radio and audio domains (see The Economic Times – Inntot Technologies deploys 5 lakh digital radio and audio products in vehicles).

This example of Indian innovation and investment recently spurred the Indian automotive DRM group to ask the Indian government to extend digitisation to the FM band (by using DRM) thus safeguarding and increasing the success achieved in the automotive industry. A simple software upgrade, like one supplied by Inntot Technologies, can deliver and strengthen both the automotive offer to the Indian consumer and the all-important platform of radio.