The Director General of Communications, Mamodupi Mohlala, said last week that South Africa hasn’t decided on a digital terrestrial television (DTT) standard according to TechCentral.<\/p>\n
Sparking confusion and anger with local broadcasters, she called for all available standards, including the Japanese and Brazillian Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting – Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standards, to be investigated for South Africa’s digital broadcasting needs.<\/p>\n
At a demo of M-Net and e.tv’s DVB-T broadcasting capabilities the CEO of M-Net, Patricia Scholtemeyer, said “the standard was approved by Cabinet, implemented in policy and confirmed in regulation.” The spokespeople at the event emphasised that DVB-T had officially been selected as the standard for DTT in South Africa by 2008 after a lengthy process that began in 2002.<\/p>\n
Karen Willenberg, M-Net’s Director of Regulatory and Legal Affairs, presented M-Net and e.tv’s answers to the claims being made about DVB-T, DVB-T2 and ISDB-T.<\/p>\n
Statement<\/strong><\/th>\n| M-Net and e.tv’s answer<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n | The DVB-T standard is problematic\/obsolete\/deficient.<\/td>\n | DVB-T is the most widely adopted DTT system in the world, with more than 150 million receivers sold in more than 40 countries.<\/p>\n | DVB-T has been trialled in SA for 2 years and it works.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n DVB-T2 is a new standard which was created because of problems with DVB-T1.<\/td>\n | DVB-T2 isn’t a new standard. <\/p>\n | It’s an upgraded version of DVB-T, developed by the DVB group for better spectrum efficiency.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n The adoption of ISDB-T will benefit local manufacturers<\/td>\n | While there may be short-term gains, adopting ISDB not sustainable in the long term.<\/p>\n | It will prejudice the local manufacturing industry, because the market for set-top boxes (STBs) produced in South Africa will forever be restricted to those few countries which have adopted ISDB.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n ISDB-T is an open source standard and DVB-T isn’t<\/td>\n | DVB and ISDB are subject to the same patents, royalties and IP restrictions. In particular, royalty payments for OFDM (the basic modulation system) and MPEG 2 and\/or MPEG 4, the compression system.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ISDB technology is superior<\/td>\n | The technical differences between ISDB-T and DVB-T are marginal.<\/p>\n | However, DVB-T2<\/strong> is a far superior standard. E.g. DVB-T2 delivers 50% more channels.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n An additional R2.2 billion in government subsidies would be required.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Existing skills and equipment can be used.<\/p>\n Existing frequency plan need not be changed.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n |
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