Digital broadcasting – political interference?
In 2005 South Africa adopted the digital video broadcasting (DVB) standard for digital broadcasting when this was approved by the South African Bureau of Standards. Since 2007 all digital migration trials have been conducted based on this standard. Now government is interfering in the process by suggesting that a Japanese-derived standard will be more advantageous for South Africa.
On 18 April 2010 the Department of Communication (DoC) issued a call for participation in the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) standards symposium. The symposium was held on 29 and 30 April 2010.
The call stated that “new information has emerged pertaining to mobility, portability, interactivity and signal robustness of DTT standards” and stated that the symposium would seeks to gain a comprehensive understanding and insight of what each standard offers; determine the flexibility of the standards to incorporate technology innovations; determine the interactivity in relation to each standard.
This renewed interest in – and debate on – digital terrestrial broadcasting standards seems to span across the region with the a SADC Working Forum on Technical Aspects On Digital Broadcasting Migration held 26 – 28 April 2010 in Maseru, Lesotho.
The SADC session deliberated on technical standards for digital broadcasting and the set top box. Discussion included issues on the digital video broadcasting for terrestrial) (DVB-T) standard that has been adopted throughout the region, and surprisingly, also on the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting − Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard. ISDB-T has limited and fragmented implementation in Japan and Brazil with recent adoption by Argentina, Peru and Chile amongst others.
In a radio interview with 702 the director general of the DoC, Mamodupi Mohlala, said: “We have to put in place the right standard for the set top box”, and specifically mentioned two standards currently in deployment around the world. Was the DG softening up the industry of what the DoC has in mind: to scrap the DVB-T standard and opt for the Japanese standard?
A statement issued by the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA) said: “It is always good to do some soul-searching and validation checks on earlier decisions. It is however curious that these renewed deliberations follow extensive public consultation on the standards matter, approval of the standard by all SADC countries acceding to the ITU Geneva 2006 agreement, and in the case of South Africa, specifically approving the standard in the Broadcasting Digital Migration policy published by the minister and the adoption of national standards for both the transmission and set top box by the South African Bureau of Standards.
“The region and South Africa in particular is at an important juncture where there is the opportunity to leapfrog a technology generation and deploy networks that would result in at least a 30 − 40% increase in spectrum efficiency above other terrestrial broadcast technologies deployed to date. However the Japanese ISDB-T standard currently mentioned as an alternative in some political circles is hardly a new standard, or more advanced or superior to the currently adopted national standard (DVB-T).”
According to some participants in the symposium there was clearly hostility against any one who still favoured the DVB standard.
SADIBA is concerned that a possible revision of the standards adopted to date might negatively impact on the commercial launch date for DTT in South Africa of October/November 2010 and the cabinet-approved date for analogue TV network switch-off of November 2011.
One cannot help but wonder where the political pressure is coming from. Japan or Brazil? One thing is sure, if South Africa is to adopt the Japanese standard, the agreed implementation dates will be abandoned and the cost of migration to digital terrestrial TV will increase! Let’s hope that technology will win over political considerations.
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