Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I.T. Matters: Europeans make last-ditch appeal on digital TV standard

It seems something is lobbying the NTC's decision to finally go ISDB-T and dump DVB-T2 of the Europeans. Now, the representatives of the European Union and the Digital Video Broadcast Project presents its master of digital terrestrial TV standard to NTC, which they claim much advanced than the chosen Japanese ISDB-T. With this, the EU-DVB team tries to extend the NTC's deadline, but it'll go us much lag behind our fellow Southeast Asian countries, which compromised to switch-off all analog TV signals in the middle of 2015 and 2020.

Read post after the break.
REPRESENTATIVES of the European Union (EU) Delegation to the Philippines and of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Project have asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to extend its deadline for deciding on the digital television standard the country will adopt in order to enable broadcast firms to test the European system.

In a statement on Monday, the EU said the NTC should extend its June 30 deadline, to allow broadcast firms to review the upgraded European standard (DVB-T2). 
The DVB Project, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is engaged in the development of the European digital TV standard. 
“[B]roadcasters should be given the opportunity to try DVB-T2 and compare its performance with the Japanese [Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial, or ISDB-T] standard,” the EU said. 
The statement said the EU-DVB team presented its proposal during a meeting yesterday of NTC’s technical working group that is reviewing prospective digital TV standards the country can adopt. The meeting was held in the NTC headquarters in Quezon City. 
“The [group] asked the NTC…to consider recent compelling developments on this issue, with the rollout of the new leapfrog technology, DVB-T2, in Europe, Africa and Asia,” EU said.
The EU-led team added that Singapore had announced earlier this month that it would start rolling out DVB-T2 before the end of the year. 
“A decision in favor of DVB-T2 in the Philippines would enable consumers, broadcasters and regulatory authorities to benefit from the most world’s advanced TV technology at an affordable price,” EU claimed in its statement. 
The country aims to complete its shift to digital TV by 2015. 
Citing industry support, NTC said in June last year that it had chosen the Japanese standard over Europe’s DVB technology. 
In the wake of a recommendation from a committee in the House of Representatives, the NTC decided on May 26 to conduct a review, aiming to complete it by the end of this month. 
NTC Commissioner Gamaliel A. Cordoba said in a telephone interview yesterday that the implementing rules for digital TV rollout are “almost finished” and should be published early next month. - Kathleen A. Martin, dated 28 June 2011.
Source: I.T. Matters

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