Digital television: DoC still mum on standards decision

Radhakrishna Padayachie said he WILL make the announcement by the end on November. That’s come and gone now. It seems such an easy decision to make which will allow the industry to get on with it.
 
I really feel for the people that depend on terrestial TV.
 
Why are the big broadcasters like Multichoice, MNET and ETV waiting for the government to make a decision? Why is the government even involved? The broadcasters themselves should make a decision and then broadcast in whatever standard they want to. I don't see the need for government involvement in this at all. Let broadcasters broadcast in whatever standard they want to, and let the market decide which standard prevails. This is what happened with the VHS vs Betamax issue. Imagine if the government then had told people which standard they had to use?
 
deweyzeph said:
Why are the big broadcasters like Multichoice, MNET and ETV waiting for the government to make a decision? Why is the government even involved? The broadcasters themselves should make a decision and then broadcast in whatever standard they want to. I don't see the need for government involvement in this at all. Let broadcasters broadcast in whatever standard they want to, and let the market decide which standard prevails. This is what happened with the VHS vs Betamax issue. Imagine if the government then had told people which standard they had to use?
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Perhaps because government regulates the wireless spectrum. If anyone can put up any sort of wireless equipment with no oversight, there would be interference issues for everyone. This is something that needs to be agreed upon BEFORE it's rolled out, to ensure people can actually use and enjoy it.

Format wars are a bad analogy. Government doesn't mandate VHS or BetaMAX (or any of the other wars) because it affects no-one else. You having a BetaMax VCR doesn't mean my VHS doesn't work any more at all. If I broadcast with a nice strong transmitter all over the current TV frequencies no-one will be able to watch SABC or eTV any more.
 
The government doesn't know its arse from its elbow. They couldn't regulate their way out of a shoebox. It's time for self-regulation in the industry because the involvement of government only hinders the industry, it doesn't help it at all.
 
It’s no delay, ANC Inc. is setting up companies to get a piece of this pie.


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deweyzeph said:
The government doesn't know its arse from its elbow. They couldn't regulate their way out of a shoebox. It's time for self-regulation in the industry because the involvement of government only hinders the industry, it doesn't help it at all.
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Self-regulation can be a bad thing (the american healthcare & pharmaceutical system being a prime example where pack of anti-retrovirals costs you $5.5k). Spectrum needs to be regulated not only for reasons that Valerion said but also since SABC needs to decide on a standard and they just happen to be government owned. Uniform standard also allows you to waste less spectrum since you can allocate transmission bandwidths more efficiently (especially in OFDMA based transmissions).

Kruben said:
It’s no delay, ANC Inc. is setting up companies to get a piece of this pie.
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I'm also thinking there's something similar going on, decision was made long ago but they were too incompetent to setup their own BEE diamond mines early on and now someone has said "WAIT!"
 
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When is the DOC going to get a competent minister to run it?

Casaburri... say no more...
Nyanda... another joke...
Padayachie... another disaster in the making...


Looks like the Comms department is very low on the ANC's priority list!
 
The Dept of Health had advocated for a return to tradition in the form of vegtables. Perhaps the delay is that the DoC is considering going back to tradition methods in the form of smoke signals?
 
Valerion said:
If I broadcast with a nice strong transmitter all over the current TV frequencies no-one will be able to watch SABC or eTV any more.
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Does it matter... anything you broadcast will be a major improvement on those 2...
 
It's too close to the end of the year celebrations, whereby they're only looking forward to feeding their faces.
I wouldn't expect an answer before February 2011 when they roll on back to so-called 'work'.
 
They are quiet because they realise that DVB-S has already won the market and no one is interested in yet another STB and more complications just to get a few stations that broadcasts terrestrially.

Forget about terrestrial TV - we've been having satellite for 15 years now.
 
Can't we just use DVB-T(2) like the rest of the world? All Sony television sets available in South Africa with built-in digital tuners use DVB-T, not ISDB-T. This is interesting, since Sony is Japanese. Multichoice and e.tv have also already indicated that they will use DVB-T, so what are we all waiting for (other than government tenderpreneurs)?
 
Why bother installing an aerial for a few channels when you can get free installation of a dish and get so much more? To hell with DVB-T, DVB-T2, ISDB-T and Mr-T.
 
dj_jyno said:
Can't we just use DVB-T(2) like the rest of the world? All Sony television sets available in South Africa with built-in digital tuners use DVB-T, not ISDB-T. This is interesting, since Sony is Japanese.
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Where the company is from is irrelevant as they make kit for all regions. They will ship EU stuff to SA as has been the case for years.
 
Am I misreading the article as the decision was made to go DVB-T2 although not officially announced locally? We are going the route the rest of the SADC are taking.


Here is another article:
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=127899
Yesterday, communications ministers of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), including SA, announced that the region would continue implementing the European technology — Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T).

The decision will bring relief to the local technology sector, which had threatened court action to undo Gen Nyanda’s decision in April to order a review of alternative Brazilian-Japanese technology, know as ISDB-T — even after trials for the European standard had been carried out, after Cabinet approval four years ago.
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Greggle said:
The Dept of Health had advocated for a return to tradition in the form of vegtables. Perhaps the delay is that the DoC is considering going back to tradition methods in the form of smoke signals?
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Drums..not smoke signals ;)
 
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