ISDB-Tb and DVB-T like comparing “oranges and bananas”
Saying that the equipment for International System for Digital Broadcast – Terrestrial, Brazilian version (ISDB-Tb) is the most expensive isn’t fair according to Andre Barbosa Filho, Special Advisor to the Civil House at the Presidency of Brazil.
One “can’t compare oranges and bananas,” said Filho at a Business Forum on Trade and Investment Opportunities between South Africa and Brazil on Friday.
Filho made this statement during a questions and answers session at the forum after advocating the reconsideration of South Africa’s digital terrestrial television (DTT) standards.
The debate around digital terrestrial television (DTT) standards was ignited after the Department of Communications (DoC) indicated that they wanted to re-evaluate the digital TV standards available and stated that South Africa had not yet settled on a standard.
MultiChoice, e.tv, the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA) and the South African Communications Forum (SACF) all disagree with the DoC. They point to the policy published in the Government Gazette in 2008 and the regulations published by ICASA this year.
During an impassioned speech Filho explained that he believed ISDB-Tb stands apart because it’s an “open source standard.” He also spoke about the importance of interactivity features in choosing a DTT standard, and mentioned their open source interactivity middleware, Ginga.
Qualifying the use of the phrase “open source,” Filho added that no royalties are applicable on ISDB-Tb. MultiChoice and e.tv have disputed this statement saying that among other things, both Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T) and ISDB-Tb make use of MPEG4 technology which is protected by patents.
ISDB-Tb and its Japanese parent, ISDB-T, have been heavily criticized by the South African broadcasting industry. Among the concerns was the lack of economies of scale as a result of sparser adoption.
According to e.tv, MultiChoice and SADIBA a change to ISDB-T will result in a higher set top box (STB) cost to consumers as well as limit the ability of local manufacturers to sell their digital TV equipment overseas.
The fact that custom transmission equipment and STBs would have to be developed for South Africa is also a concern. Currently ISDB-T and ISDB-Tb is only deployed in 6MHz configurations whereas South Africa uses an 8MHz configuration.
Filho reassured delegates attending the business forum that Brazil had international manufacturers ready to produce 8MHz ISDB-T transmitters.
Gerhard Petrick from SADIBA said that properly engineered ISDB-T STBs would be able to work in 6MHz and 8MHz environments. This would mean that STBs built specifically for a South African ISDB-T implementation could be sold in other countries that have adopted the standard.
Petrick went on to say that the ISDB-Tb STBs would be more expensive than DVB-T ones, but left the details of the response to his Brazillian colleagues. They declined to comment further.
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