Sentech says that it 'is delighted' with the minister of Finance's announcement that funds will be made available for the digitisation of the television broadcasting signal distribution network.
Johan Raath, Sentech's manager in the COO's office, says South Africa's analog television broadcasting infrastructure has been around since 1976 and has become too costly to maintain. Sentech therefore requested capital from government to upgrade and digitise the television broadcast network.
"Apart from cost, one of the key reasons the infrastructure needs to be upgraded is to enable the country to meet its requirements in broadcasting the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup tournament to the rest of the world," he says. "South Africa must be fully prepared to meet the needs and expectations of all foreign broadcasters."
Raath says it is therefore imperative that all infrastructure is upgraded and available by 2010. To meet this challenge, urgent attention will be given to policy frameworks, licensing conditions and funding to ensure that very strict timelines are met, he says.
The other benefits of upgrading from an analog to a digital broadcasting infrastructure include combining traditional television with multimedia applications to enhance the consumer's experience. A key development in this area has been the introduction of the DVB-H (digital video broadcast - handheld) technology, which combines the use of television with a mobile phone receiver, Raath says.
"This will open wide vistas for the broadcasting system to support voice and video with text in all official languages. It will also be possible to utilise the infrastructure for services beyond broadcasting. Services that will benefit from such technological developments could include e-health and e-education to previously disadvantaged communities, e-government, Pay TV, data multicasting, news clips, games, multiple language offerings and so on."
Other benefits of upgrading the infrastructure include more efficient utilisation of the frequency spectrum, lower costs for broadcasters, and the possibility of licensing more broadcasters.
"This will make the broadcasting environment much more competitive, which will in turn result in the lowering of costs for the consumer and many more services being provided to the 7 million households with television sets in South Africa," says Raath.
For more information contact Pranill Ramchander, Sentech, +27 (0)11 691 7256, [email protected]
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