Name and Location
Digital broadcasting migration project, South Africa.

Client
The Department of Communications (DoC) and Sentech.

Project Description
Digital terrestrial television (DTT) is the implementation of digital technology to provide more channels and/or better picture quality and sound using a conventional television antenna or aerial, instead of a satellite dish or cable connection.

In 2005, State-owned enterprise Sentech announced its plans to roll out DTT using digital video broadcasting terrestrial (DVB-T) technology, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Initially, there will be two DVB-T transmitters for each location or site.

The first phase of the project involves upgrading the Sentech broadcast network and duplicating the current analogue network channels on a digital system.

Most of the 220 sites needed to broadcast DTT to 92% of South Africa's population are in place, but have to be upgraded to become fully digital. Once that process has been completed, DTT and analogue systems will run simultaneously (a dual-illumination process) until South Africa is ready to switch off analogue transmission. This decision will be made by government.

A set-top box (STB) will be required to decode the signal, even for public broadcasting and free-to-air channels. The STBs are expected to be subsidised.

Value
The upgrade is expected to cost R1-billion.

Supplying the STBs will cost an estimated R2.45-billion.

Duration
According to an agreement with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the country has until 2015 to complete the migration, after which it will no longer have exclusive use of the frequencies.

Latest Developments
The extensive compliance processes instilled to regulate the manufacturing of the STBs required for South Africa’s migration to DTT have emerged as a serious weakness, as industry gears up for the imminent and long-awaited launch.

Currently, STBs are required to undergo three compliance processes undertaken by the country’s communications regulator Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) before distribution.

Speaking to Engineering News Online at the sidelines of a South African Communications Forum- SACF-) hosted DTT readiness workshop in Pretoria in April, executive director Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha explained that it could take up to two months for manufacturers to undergo all three compliance check processes and that streamlining the three would considerably shorten the time-to-market for the decoders.

The parties concerned have agreed to investigate ways of streamlining the three processes after several complaints from industry players emerged at the workshop.

The SACF workshop aimed to determine the current compliance of STBs, assess the industry’s strengths and weaknesses, test the readiness of the sector, align preparations and close the gaps for a successful roll-out of the DTT platform.

STBs have long been at the centre of the delays in South Africa’s progression of DTT, with a drawn-out debate over the control systems of the decoders not yet put to bed, despite Cabinet in December opting for the nonmandatory use of a control system – in nonsubsidised units – that would be installed in the STBs.

The SACF previously told Engineering News Online that delays in South Africa’s transition to digital television had cost the country’s STB manufacturing industry more than R50-million and had stressed that any more delays would lead to further losses.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
The project is five-and-a-half-years behind schedule.

There have been several migration delays since South Africa reached an agreement with the ITU in 2006 to migrate from an analogue to a digital signal by mid- 2015.

One of the major stumbling blocks was the dispute about whether the STBs should have control system.

The SACF previously told Engineering News Online that delays in South Africa’s transition to digital television had cost the country’s STB manufacturing industry more than R50-million and had stressed that any more delays would lead to further losses.

Carrim has pointed out that the scrapping of the control system will result in a further 36-week delay – and not the six-month delay as was initially thought – as the SABS will need to rework the STB specifications (SANS 862) to exclude the STB control system.

Contact Details for Project Information
DoC media liaison officer Siya Qoza, tel +27 12 427 8511.
Sentech, tel +27 11 691 7000.