NBN: KBP says ISDB is the Pro-Filipino digital TV standard

With the Philippines’ looming migration from analog to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcast, limited channel options, signal interruptions and poor-quality image and audio will soon be things of the past. 

Digital TV viewing will introduce an all-new improved experience with multiple channels per frequency, high-quality image and sound, and other exciting functionalities. 

And, among the existing DTT standards available today, Japan’s Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) is what the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the country’s foremost broadcast media organization, believes to be the one that will best serve the interest of Filipinos. 

According to Atom Henares, chairman of the KBP Television Committee, “ISDB is a pro-Filipino standard because it has features that can address better the needs of the Filipino viewers, not to mention that it costs less than DVB2, its European counterpart.” 

DVB2 or Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial2 is the second generation of Europe’s digital TV standard, DVB. 

Although, ISDB can carry less channels compared to DVB2, Henares believes ISDB’s capacity is enough to transmit channels that will be produced by broadcast networks. 

What’s more, Henares stressed, Filipinos don’t have to pay more just to have the extra number of channels that might just end up unused by the networks. The set-top box required for analog TV sets to receive digital signal for DVB-T2 is 60 percent more expensive than that of ISDB. 

With ISDB, a frequency can carry up to eight channels, which, when already rolled out, can provide Filipino viewers with up to 176 free-to-air tv channels that will allow broadcast networks to produce more channels that can cater to different market segments and specific interests. 

Another feature of ISDB is its mobility. All handheld devices like mobile phones and small TV sets that can receive digital signals will be able to receive digital broadcast. This is in contrast to DVB2 where mobility is just an option and not all devices can receive its signal unless customized to do so. 

“Filipinos are always on the go and with ISDB, you can watch your favorite TV programs even when on the road,” said Henares. 

ISDB also features a data transmission feature that allows broadcast networks to flash data at the TV screen of the viewers. 

This feature can be utilized in weather forecasting and government announcements. It can also be very helpful during emergency situations given that the Philippines is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, making the country prone to earthquake and volcanic eruptions, as well as in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which brings storms and typhoons all year round. 

“It is also ISDB that already has seen test broadcasts by some TV networks,” said Henares. 

Engr. Antonio M. Leduna, Chief Technology Officer of National Broadcasting Network (NBN) said, “Since we began test broadcast on ISDB in 2009, signal was robust and there was no degradation in the quality of the images and sound. 

NBN has tried broadcasting in both high and standard definitions and has also utilized the emergency warning and data casting features of ISDB. Their programs can also be viewed in hand held devices. 

Net 25 and GEM TV have also tried broadcasting in ISDB since early 2008. 

According to Engr. Cesar Villadiego, Head of Engineering of Net 25, “We haven’t experienced any problems in our digital transmission. In fact, all our programs are still broadcast in high definition using ISDB.” 

More than the features of ISDB, the Philippines will also benefit from migrating to the DTT standard as Japan promised funding and technical support for the country’s digital tv migration. 

“The Japanese government has earlier said it will support the country’s transition into the DTT era by, among other things, setting up a factory here in the country for the manufacturing of set-top boxes. 

This will create jobs for Filipinos and make the equipment more accessible,” said Henares. - PNA, dated 30 June 2011, 01:34 P.M.

Source: National Broadcasting Network

ScreenAfrica: Philippines urged to adopt DVB-T2

A joint delegation of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) industry led consortium and European Union representatives have met with The Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to present the technical superiority of the DVB-T2 digital terrestrial television (DTT) standard over the dated Japanese ISDB-T system. 

Screen Africa readers will recall how last year former South African Minister of Communications Siphiwe Nyanda called for a review of the cabinet-adopted DVB-T standard in favour of ISDB-T against industry wishes. Siphiwe’s successor formally announced in November 2010 that South Africa would adopt the second generation DVB-T2 for its digital migration. 

In The Philippines, DVB and the EU presented the economic advantages and benefits of the economies of scale of DVB-T2. They hope that the NTC will reconsider its deadline of 30 June for its final decision on the adoption of a digital standard. The delegation called for a proper DVB-T2 field trial to be held so that a full comparison can be made of the competing standards. 

“It has been proven that under similar conditions, DVB-T2 either provides nearly 100% more payload or the transmitter power can be reduced by 8-10 dB, which results in a drastic decrease of capital investment and operational costs for the transmitter network. Owing to the significant success of DVB-T2, low cost STBs are already available for as little as 45 USD in UK retail stores. In addition, there are commercially available low cost DVB-T2 HD set-top boxes operating in 6 MHz channels, as required in the Philippines,” commented Peter Siebert, Executive Director, DVB. 

DVB-T2 is the world’s most advanced DTT system offering higher efficiency, robustness and flexibility than first generation DTT systems such as DVB-T and ISDB-T. It builds on the basis of DVB-T and by adding new modulation, coding and error correction techniques a dramatic efficiency increase is achieved over any other DTT system in the world. DVB-T2 also provides excellent performance for mobile reception. DVB-T2 supports the main frequency bandwidths of 6,7 and 8 MHz, covering all possible broadcasting scenarios around the world, including 6 MHz countries such as the Philippines. 

“The growing interest in DVB-T2 around the world seems to be a symptom of mature thinking. Countries are now looking for the best long-term solution, rather than a quick-fix using inferior technologies. This trend definitely favours DVB-T2,” said Phil Laven, Chairman, DVB. 

Since the first DVB-T2 services were launched in December 2009 in the UK, 2010 and early 2011 have seen services launched in Italy, Sweden and Finland. The total number of countries that have declared their intention to deploy the state-of-the-art second-generation digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmission system now stands at a remarkable 28. In the Asian region, India, Singapore and Sri Lanka have chosen DVB-T2 and tests have been carried out in Malaysia and Thailand. - dated 30 June 2011, 01:02 PM

Source: Screen Africa

Manila Bulletin: KBP bats for cheaper Japanese standard for local digital television

As far as KBP members know how ISDB-T is going through, NBN and Gem TV broadcasters expressed their proud and confident say that their ISDB-T transmission is still not yet encountering any problems at all. Remember, those two networks are the first among Philippine broadcasters to trial ISDB-T since 2008. And in fact, Gem HD still transmits high definition signals as of this writing on Channel 49, which we can say the first TV network to migrate into digital terrestrial TV. Read post after the jump.

MANILA, Philippines — Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), an umbrella association of local broadcast media continues to lobby for adopting the Japanese digital television standard in the country, instead of the more expensive European standard. 

Among the existing DTT standards available today, Japan’s Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) costs less than Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial2 (DVB2), its European counterpart, according to Atom Henares, chairman of the KBP Television Committee. 

DVB2 is the second generation of Europe’s digital tv standard, DVB. It can carry more channels than ISDB. However, he believes ISDB’s capacity is enough to transmit channels that will be produced by broadcast networks. 

“Filipinos don’t have to pay more just to have the extra number of channels that might just end up unused by the networks. The set-top box required for analog TV sets to receive digital signal for DVB-T2 is 60 percent more expensive than that of ISDB,” Henares explained. 

With ISDB, a frequency can carry up to eight channels which, when already rolled out, can provide Filipino viewers with up to 176 free-to-air tv channels that will allow broadcast networks to produce more channels that can cater to different market segments and specific interests. 

Another feature of ISDB is its mobility. All handheld devices like mobile phones and small TV sets that can receive digital signals will be able to receive digital broadcast. This is in contrast to DVB2 where mobility is just an option and not all devices can receive its signal unless customized to do so. 

“Filipinos are always on the go and with ISDB, they can watch their favorite TV programs even on the road,” he pointed out. 

ISDB also has a data transmission feature that allows broadcast networks to flash data at the TV screen of the viewers. This can be used in weather forecasting and government announcements. It can also be very helpful during emergency situations given that the Philippines is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, making the country prone to earthquake and volcanic eruptions, as well as in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which brings storms and typhoons all year round. 

“Since we began test broadcast on ISDB in 2009, signal was robust and there was no degradation in the quality of the images and sound,” says Engr. Antonio M. Leduna, Chief Technology Officer of National Broadcasting Network (NBN). 

NBN has tried broadcasting in both high and standard definitions and has also utilized the emergency warning and data casting features of ISDB. Their programs can also be viewed in hand held devices. 

Net 25 and GEM TV have also tried broadcasting in ISDB since early 2008. 

“We haven’t experienced any problems in our digital transmission. In fact, all our programs are still broadcast in high definition using ISDB,” according to Engr. Cesar Villadiego, Head of Engineering of Net 25. 

More than the features of ISDB, the Philippines will also benefit from migrating to the DTT standard as Japan promised funding and technical support for the country’s digital tv migration. 

“The Japanese government promised to support the country’s transition into the DTT era by setting up a factory here for the manufacturing of set-top boxes. This will create jobs for Filipinos and make the equipment more accessible,” concluded Henares. - Emmie V. Abadilla, dated 30 June 2011, 01:42 A.M.

Source: Manila Bulletin