In the midst of the controversy in South Africa surrounding digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmission standards, pay-TV channel M-Net and free-to-air broadcaster e.tv launched a combined trial in Johannesburg on 16 September using the Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2) standard.
This is an upgrade of DVB-T, which was used in the two broadcasters’ original trial launched in November 2008 and approved by government.
DVB-T2 set top boxes (STBs) have been deployed in 60 homes in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Meanwhile, the Department of Communications (DoC) is planning to launch its own trial in Pretoria to test the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Ð Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard, developed in Japan and rolled out in Brazil. Parastatal signal distributor Sentech has applied to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for a licence to test the ISDB-T standard. The licence would be valid for 12 months.
Read more in the October 2010 issue of Screen Africa
