Every year in April the broadcast community meets in Las Vegas, not for the gambling, but to participate in the NAB Show exhibition and conference. Around 92,000 visitors and 1,600 exhibitors, out of which over 50 are DVB Members, attended this year's event from April 6-11. The DVB was represented by Chairman, Phil Laven and Executive Director, Peter Siebert. They provided an update on the latest developments in DVB at the Broadcast Engineering Conference. Triggered by the discussion on the next generation ATSC 3.0 and the ongoing DVB-T2 trial in Baltimore there is a big interest in multi-carrier DTT solutions such as DVB-T2 technology.

The highlights of the trade show were definitely 4K Ultra HDTV and the new video coding scheme HEVC. The Japanese broadcast organization, NHK, demonstrated its Super Hi-Vision system in the new "NAB Labs Futures Park," a section of the NAB Show exhibition floor reserved for broadcast-related research and development projects from around the world.  The system's 7680 x 4320 video format provides 16 times the number of pixels as HDTV, for stunning clarity and an immersive visual experience. Meanwhile, the system's massive multichannel audio system produces unprecedented immersion into a 3D sound space for viewers located anywhere within a large viewing area. Besides the presentation in the theater, NHK also showed for the first time outside Japan the real-time, over-the-air transmission and reception of Super Hi-Vision broadcasts, using two UHF television channels. While this may be the solution for the distant future, for the near term, people will go for the 4K approach. Sony announced 55'' and 65'', 4K displays pieced at  5,000 and 7,000 USD. The new models were already available in Sony shops in downtown Las Vegas. 4K displays will soon support HEVC, the latest coding technology. In fact every video encoder provider was demonstrating the possible bitrate savings form HEVC. Compared to H.264, HEVC has the potential to deliver the same quality at half the bitrate.

4K and HEVC were only just two of the highlights of NAB 2013. Other trends spotted on show were, OTT, hybrid TV combining broadcast and broadband, Mobile TV and Second Screen technologies. NAB 2013 clearly demonstrated that broadcast is still an area were innovation takes place and new products and services are introduced for the benefit of the end-user.

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On the following day, a demonstration of DVB-T2 and DVB's Early Warning System, a crucial element in the decision making process for the country, was given to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (ICTO-DOST). This meeting provided a forum to explain the technological advantages and cost-effectiveness of implementing DVB standards as well as answer questions by the country's decision makers. The visit also provided an opportunity for Peter to meet the Technical Working Group (TWG), which includes broadcasters and regulators, that provides advice to the NTC on technical matters. He also had a chance to meet with broadcasters separately.

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It was reported back in January by Kenya's third largest newspaper - The Star - that the East African nation of Tanzania switched off its analog signal in the Dar es Salaam region. Details have since emerged from DVB Member Harris Broadcast in a recent press release that it is the supplier of video headend and transmitters to the Tanzanian Sahara Media Group, which has announced its intentions to develop a wide-ranging DVB-T2 digital television service across the country to provide the country's first free-to-air digital broadcasting services.

Initially the network will cover the main cities in the country, including Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Mbeya and Dodoma. In Mwanza, Harris Broadcast has installed a complete video headend that will initially perform the compression, multiplexing and conditioning of one national multiplex of 10 services to broadcast free-to-air.  The next phase will add two more multiplexes, each combining free-to-air and encrypted services, making a total of over 50 channels.  Later in the year the network will bring extended services to many other parts of the country, and will also include main contribution links back to the Mwanza main headend for regionalized DVB-T2 services.

"Tanzania is the latest in a string of African nations to transition from analog to digital TV services country-wide," said Harris Morris, CEO, Harris Broadcast.  "A viable digital over-the-air service, particularly DVB-T2, needs to focus not only on efficient transmitters but reliable encoding and networking equipment to ensure delivery of multiple high-quality services across very large areas."

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DVB Member Ateme has announced that its platform has been chosen for a new digital terrestrial TV service being launched next month in Haiti by pay TV operator, TiVi.

TiVi will combine advanced DVB-T2 transmission with Ateme's MPEG-4 compression technology to offer more than 75 channels within its lineup. The service will also use a software-based all IP approach for the headend, to deploy new features and add more channels in the future.

Another DVB Member, Verimatrix, a leader in software-based security solutions for service providers, also announced that TiVi has deployed its Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to provide revenue security for its DVB-T2 network.

TiVi founder and CEO, Charles-Edouard Denis commented "Our extensive channel lineup is the result of detailed market studies on viewers' expectations in Haiti. It includes content in a range of languages, along with a number of original high quality channels that provides a nice balance between sports, news, cinema, documentaries, culture and other types of entertainment for our customers".

In 2012, NU-TV announced the launch of another DVB-T2 television service in Haiti with an initial roll out of 116 channels in Port-au-Prince with sport, entertainment, news and educational programming from French, English, and Spanish originated channels, in addition to seven locally produced channels, to be followed with coverage for the rest of Haiti and including 20 HD channels added to the line-up.

Norkring Belgium, the owner of the DTT network in Flanders and Brussels has upgraded its transmitters from DVB-T to DVB-T2 to enable its partner Telenet to offer new services for its low-cost pay TV Teletenne offering.

The companies have reported the DVB-T2 solution makes the signals stronger and more robust for fixed, portable and mobile devices, e.g., receipt in the car, in the garden, and camping.

Source: Nokring Belgium

The installation of DVB-T2 transmission equipment is set to be completed by the end of the summer. This will allow for the launch of the DTT platform to commence.

The DTT platform will launch progressively by region (North, South and Central) and be followed by a six month simulcast period. Thereafter analog services will be switched off. DTT receivers are expected to cost 50-60 Euros although the price is expected to decrease.

Analog switch-off is set to be completed in 2015.

For further information on news of ASO around the globe visit the DigiTAG website.

DVB World Media Partner, Broadband TV News, has launched a dedicated German language website and daily newsletter. The daily newsletter publishes the latest developments on the German, Swiss and Austrian markets. In addition, Broadband TV News Deutschland also brings the most important international developments in German. 

Founded in 2003 by journalists Robert Briel, Julian Clover and Chris Dziadul, Broadband TV News provides readers with a concise summary of what's happening in cable, satellite, mobile and IPTV for busy decision-makers.

The German website is located at broadbandtvnews.de.

The number of pages will be increased with an eight page fold-out souvenir section celebrating the anniversary with pictures and quotes from the key people involved in DVB over the period. This special edition will be widely distributed before and during the anniversary celebrations at IBC. Taking space in this issue provides an ideal opportunity to highlight your long term support and shared success of DVB's worldwide standards.

If you are interested, please let us know as soon as possible as there is a limited amount of space available. Email WHDPR for further information. 

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