Multichoice wants world first
"We are especially proud that South Africa will be one of the few countries where every adrenaline-pumping moment of the 2006 Soccer World Cup will be broadcast to DVB-H-enabled mobile handsets," Multichoice CEO Nolo Letele, said on Wednesday in an e-mailed speech delivered at a presentation as part of celebrating World Information Society Day.
Multichoice has, with the permission of sector regulator Icasa under a test license, been trialling DVB-H in Soweto, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban since November last year.
Letele said countries including Finland, Germany, Italy and France were among those trialling the technology and heading towards launching soon.
Different from 3G
SA’s biggest mobile operator, Vodacom, was the first to offer mobile TV to consumers, launching this over 3G in December last year.
Multichoice explained that the difference between the two technologies was that although 3G had the advantage of enabling content on-demand – i.e. being a two-way transmission – it was subject to bandwidth limitations, whereas this was not the case with DVB-H, which is uni-directional.
But, being a true broadcast, is not subject to such bandwidth and quality limitations. However, the two were complimentary technologies, and in time handsets would feature both.
The initiatives around DVB-H form part of South Africa’s aim to be technologically ready to broadcast the 2010 World Cup, for which South Africa is the host.
All players, including the three mobile operators, Multichoice, state-owned signal distributor Sentech and state broadcaster the SABC were collaborating towards this goal, Multichoice said.
Team work
Naspers CEO Koos Bekker said in his speech, also delivered on Wednesday: "Collectively we all understand the need to communicate to the whole world that South Africa will meet the broadcasting requirements for 2010, and can do so – in most respects – today already."
Outgoing Cell C CEO Talaat Laham said in a statement that it, along with the other players, was committed to ensuring the success of the DVB-H implementation.
Multichoice’s DVB-H partners include Naspers group company Irdeto to provide the encryption for the service, Sagem Communications, in providing one of the first DVB-H enabled handsets, and broadcast hardware provider Grass Valley.
Source: Fin24
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