While government is still debating which digital television standard South Africa will use, broadcasters are taking matters into their own hands and testing the upgraded DVB-T standard, DVB-T2, starting in Soweto.
Broadcasters etv and M-Net announced on Thursday they will run a DVB-T2 trial in Soweto.
According to M-Net CEO Patricia Scholtemeyer, the T2 signal is now on air in Johannesburg, and a group of trial participants in Soweto are being recruited to test it.
“Once the selected trial participants have had some time to fully experience this technology, we will be inviting the industry bodies, academia and the media to share in the trial experiences and results.”
The DVB-T standard, used across Europe and parts of Africa, was adopted for SA in 2006, and broadcasters began testing it in 2008. Earlier this year, with 78% of the South African population already covered for DVB-T by Sentech, the Department of Communications announced it would also be considering the modified ISDB-T Japanese standard, also adopted by Brazil.
ISDB-T has never been tested on the 8MHz spectrum, used in SA. However, according to experts in Brazil, once it is made compatible with the 8MHz spectrum, it will offer the same economies of scale as the DVB-T standard. Brazilian experts argue that ISDB-T is superior to DVB-T and are keen to see SA and southern Africa adopt this standard.
Brazilian representatives were, however, unable to provide a comparative argument between ISDB-T and the DVB-T upgrade, DVB-T2, to a South African portfolio committee on communications, which visited the South American country in July.
According to etv and M-Net, DVB-T2 is 50% more efficient than DVB-T in the way it uses radio frequency, and given the extra capacity, T2 also provides scope for high-definition services to be provided on DTT.
Group CEO of etv Marcel Golding explains: “The development of T2 shows that DVB is the right choice for SA. T2 is a more efficient version of DVB-T and is available should we choose to use it. The T2 standard recently received the Innovation Award for Content Delivery Technology at IBC, the world's premier entertainment and media content exhibition.”
Sentech is currently setting up towers to test ISDB-T in SA.
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