Digital Vision Technologies (DiViTech), a Reunert-supported company, is starting to supply locally-produced set-top boxes to Africa, to take advantage of the demand for decoders as the continent turns on digital television.
The Southern African Development Community is moving to digital television using the European DVB-T2 standard. It has set itself the deadline of turning off analogue broadcast towards the end of 2013.
The International Telecommunications Union will stop protecting analogue broadcast in the middle of 2015, which means countries that have not migrated run the risk of signal interference.
DiViTech COO Bertus Bresler says the company is already active in 12 countries in the West, East and South of Africa. He says orders are slow, but expected to pick up soon.
About 100 million houses in Africa will need set-top boxes to convert the new signal for viewing on analogue sets. Bresler says the company wants to take advantage of this demand as SA only needs about 11 million decoders. “You have to look in Africa.”
Rising demand
DiViTech is the result of a partnership between Reunert and Nozala Investments, which is a broad-based women's investment company that was formed in 1996, explains Bresler. The partnership was signed in Reunert's 2010 financial year.
As Nozala owns 95%, the unit is 95% empowered, says Bresler. He adds that DiViTech handles its own sales, marketing and manufacturing, and about 30%-40% of the value of components in its boxes is sourced locally.
Some countries in Africa are already launching pay-TV stations on the new digital platform, says Bresler. He expects this to spur demand for boxes as the continent migrates its free-to-air channels. “We're getting a lot of enquiries.”
Reunert has been investing in its set-top box facility for about six years, says Bresler. Although Altech has the lion's share of the market, he says DiViTech is “here to stay”.
The new DVB-T2 box the company is preparing to supply in Africa has been designed to run off very little power, and has no cooling vents to prevent being clogged up by dust, says Bresler. He explains this is possible because of the low power use, so the box does not run hot.
In addition, its decoders can withstand a lightning strike and run off a car battery, adds Bresler. The boxes are made at its plant in Parow, which also produces other consumer electronics equipment, he says.
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