According to the studies on the DVB-T, India, Afghanistan, And Indian Occupied Kashmir all are on DVB-T technology and if PTV adopts DTMB technology then Pakistan will be limiting it’s terrestrial beam to within the confines of Pakistani territory and will not be viewed outside Pakistan

Special Report

ISLAMABAD: The Chinese are trying to sell to Pakistan Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB) technology, which is almost ‘obsolete’ and will not benefit Pakistani official TV channel PTV, in any case.

Government has some big plans for the digitalization of national broadcaster PTV for which plans are afoot, sources confided to this scribe.

However, what is depressing is that Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB) being adopted by the PTV has no popular acceptance worldwide and is less compatible when compared with the very vogue Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T).

According to the studies on the DVB-T, India, Afghanistan, And Indian Occupied Kashmir all are on DVB-T technology and if PTV adopts DTMB technology then Pakistan will be limiting it’s terrestrial beam to within the confines of Pakistani territory and will not be viewed outside Pakistan.

According to tech experts, the DTMB is still under testing phase and apart from China other countries did not adopt it, yet, as most of the research work is still going on this technology. China itself is in the process of improving this technology.

Technical experts believe that a lot of factors need to be considered before adopting the DTMB in Pakistan. Firstly, a digital antenna and receiver will be required to receive the DTMB and the cost per household to receive the transmission will not be less than Rs 6000. Then a very less number of Digital Smart TVs are in use due to the high price. If the DTMB will broadcast HD channels, the user should have equipment to receive the digital HD channels.  Thus this is not cost effective option as long as our people are concerned.

The tech experts also raised the question whether the spectrum required to broadcast is available or it has already been allocated and auctioned by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and that what will be the roll of PEMRA and the PTA to regulate the DTMB.

The tech experts threw their weight behind the DVBT technology saying it is the most widely used digital television standard in use around the globe for terrestrial television transmissions.

It provides many facilities and enables a far more efficient use of the available radio frequency spectrum than the previous analogue transmissions. The DVB-T makes use of many modern technologies to enable it to deliver high quality video in a broadcast environment. It is capable of carrying a very significant level of data. Normally several television broadcasts may be carried on a single transmission and in addition to this several radio channels may be carried as well. As a result, each transmission is called a multiplex. With this technology one can get up to seventy free-to-air standard channels, 15 HD channels and around thirty radio services.