Some 130 delegates from Africa, Europe and the Middle East attended the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation’s (CTO) 6th Annual Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum (DBSF), which ran at Johannesburg’s Southern Sun Grayston Hotel from 1 to 3 February.
Addressing Africa’s progress towards a successful migration from analogue to digital broadcasting, the conference generated bigger interest than ever before and provided a valuable platform for delegates to engage, debate and discuss with a wider network of ICT experts at an international level. Policy makers, regulators and broadcasters from a variety of African countries were able to asses and benchmark progress made in the emerging environment of DTT implementation.
Broadcasting experts agreed that shared international best practices were key to a successful digital migration in Africa.
At the DBSF the CTO expressed its vision ie. to “deepen, expand and diversify the partnerships between governments, businesses and other organisations to reduce global poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for ICT’.
The conference focused on key areas that included Policy and Regulation on the Digital Broadcasting Switchover; Funding the migration; Finding and deploying appropriate technologies; Building capacity for the migration and the Digital Dividend – Seeing beyond 2015.
The Forum also served as a reminder that the CTO, with its strength in its wide resource pool of telecom/ICT professionals, supplemented by its rich network of inter-governmental relationships in policy and regulation, across the world, is uniquely positioned to offer exceptional services to commonwealth stakeholders on a cost-effective basis where necessary.
An in-depth report of the DBSF will appear in the March issue of Screen Africa.
