The political pressure is coming from the ultra-left brazilian government which thinks that convincing other left thinking governments, they will make a group of nations without northern culture interference. It´s sadly but true and that´s how Brazilian government is thinking, plus they need scale urgently, so South Africa could help put prices down of their ultra-expensive standard. Brazil´s experience has not been a good one. Expensive ISDB-Tbr products, low number of users, very low roll out of the digital transmissions and low number of programs to be watched are now the portrait of the vicious cycle that was installed.
The main issue in developing countries like ours is affordability. Poor should be the main beneficiaries of the FTA Digital TV project, as it is sometimes the only cheap option of entertainment. The rest of people can consume media through other means (HD payTV, HD contend download, blueRay, etc)
If you look from this perspective, the rest of the technical discussion loses a lot of its importance. Technical discussions are sometimes very subtle, particularly if you consider that the Digital TV standard, if well planned in terms of coverage, has no influence on the picture quality experienced by the customer. Many Standard comparisons are fake, because they still rely on old analog paradigms. Quality of a Standard, in the digital age, is much more related to spectrum efficiency, robustness of the transmission, etc., issues that the end user never will perceive. The only issue poor man really perceives is how deep he must stretch his hand into the pocket.
In this context I would take care of bedding in ISDB-Tr, a Brazilian niche-market invention which never got any major backing. It was decided at highest political level, in a year of presidential elections. There is almost no eco-system to support further development or its sustainability. As this is now being recognized, other countries beyond Latin America are being invited to join the party and to pay the bill. ISDB-Tbr seems to have all the ingredients to stay stuck and internationally isolated, similarly to what happened with former Brazilian analog standard (the PAL-M standard, which was a unique combination of PAL and NTSC standards).
In times of standard globalization for the benefits of people, with GSM and UMTS becoming irrefutable examples, it seems a bit odd bedding on Digital TV niche-market Standards. In fact this all seems now to be framed in a broader political bed. If you read the local news in Brazil you will notice that actual Government is pushing the south-south alignment, making also agreements with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. to show its importance in being able to align secondary markets, all this as a way to get a permanent sit in the UN security council.
The main issue in developing countries like ours is affordability. Poor should be the main beneficiaries of the FTA Digital TV project, as it is sometimes the only cheap option of entertainment. The rest of people can consume media through other means (HD payTV, HD contend download, blueRay, etc)
If you look from this perspective, the rest of the technical discussion loses a lot of its importance. Technical discussions are sometimes very subtle, particularly if you consider that the Digital TV standard, if well planned in terms of coverage, has no influence on the picture quality experienced by the customer. Many Standard comparisons are fake, because they still rely on old analog paradigms. Quality of a Standard, in the digital age, is much more related to spectrum efficiency, robustness of the transmission, etc., issues that the end user never will perceive. The only issue poor man really perceives is how deep he must stretch his hand into the pocket.
In this context I would take care of bedding in ISDB-Tr, a Brazilian niche-market invention which never got any major backing. It was decided at highest political level, in a year of presidential elections. There is almost no eco-system to support further development or its sustainability. As this is now being recognized, other countries beyond Latin America are being invited to join the party and to pay the bill. ISDB-Tbr seems to have all the ingredients to stay stuck and internationally isolated, similarly to what happened with former Brazilian analog standard (the PAL-M standard, which was a unique combination of PAL and NTSC standards).
In times of standard globalization for the benefits of people, with GSM and UMTS becoming irrefutable examples, it seems a bit odd bedding on Digital TV niche-market Standards. In fact this all seems now to be framed in a broader political bed. If you read the local news in Brazil you will notice that actual Government is pushing the south-south alignment, making also agreements with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. to show its importance in being able to align secondary markets, all this as a way to get a permanent sit in the UN security council.
