Digital Broadcasters | India | HDTV for 2010

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News sees India's regulatory authority for broadcasting and state broadcaster, - Prasar Bharati - as quickening its pace of interest in adopting new digital broadcast technologies with the key objective of covering the whole of the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi in HDTV. Prasar Bharati is the unbrella organisation for Doordarshan and All India Radio.

India's Business Standard newspaper reported on March 26, 2007 that Prasar Bharati will invest close to Rs 30 crore (300 million Rupees - US$6 million) in running pilot projects on mobile TV (including a related car TV project) and high-definition TV.

B S Lalli CEO at Prasar Bharati is quoted as saying that Mobile TV is to start in Delhi by May as the first Metro market.

B S Lalli is also quoted as saying Rs 10 crore (100 million Rupees - US$2 million)is allocated in the digital video broadcast technology for mobile TV. A further Rs 5-8 crore (500-800 million Rupees - US$10 million) will be required to enhance the Mobile TV transmission infrastructure. Some Rs 15 crore (150 million Rupees - US$3.5 million) is set aside for the pilot scheme for HDTV.

Korean mobile TV hand held device manufacturers, Samsung and LG Electronics are in discussion with Prasar Bharati for supply of handsets to consumers.

At present, however Prasar Bharati has an exclusive arrangement for the Nokia N-series handsets.

B S Lalli said the car TV project was successful but faced channel capacity problems in a fast moving car.

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News notes from the article that Prasar Bharati has the clear political objective to install HDTV by 2010 - that will be 2 years after the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 are televised by CCTV completely in high definition TV.

Original article at: <http://www.business-standard.com/economy/ storypage.php?leftnm=3&subLeft=1&chklogin=N&autono=278896&tab=r>

Digital Broadcasters | Australia | Saving Water by Radio

ABC Local Radio network in Australia, known as "The Backyard" informed Digital Broadcasters Vendor News of how a simple radio program idea helped most program participants cut their water consumption at home by a staggering 91 per cent in a 40 hour "drought" period. The program was part of an effort to build awareness of water conservation in a country suffering its worst drought this century.

And another outcome from "The 40 Hour Drought" radio project is that many Australians want their bosses to cut water usage too. Some 2000 participants registered across Australia. Of those, 80 per cent met the challenge: to limit water use to just 40 litres in the 40 hour period.

Normally, Australians use some 230 litres a day each, in their home - saving 630 000 litres of water. Compare that to an Olympic size swimming pool that holds one megalitre of water (one million litres).

The 40 Hour Drought ran from 7am on Wednesday March 21 to 11pm on Thursday March 22 March. It was the brainchild of four youngsters who attended the ABC Heywire (Haywire?) Youth Issues Forum. Saving water at work proved more of a challenge.

Dual flush toilets and awareness of water in daily life, where saving water as a talked over topic were matters that came out of the project noted Tony Rasmussen, Manager Network Development for Local Radio at http://www.abc.net.au/water.

Of all the messages to the ABC Local Radio message board, the ones that stand out relate to how much water is required to make something. Wayne Meyer is Professor of Natural Resource Science at the University of Adelaide. He's made it his business to know how much water is used in the production of food and fibre. 1kg of beef uses 50,000 ltrs of water, Wayne tells us. So a typical serving of around 200g would use 10,000 ltrs. That's the amount used by the grass and grains that the beast consumes. A kilo of clean wool takes 100 to 140,000 ltr simply to grow the fibre, without calculating the amount needed to clean it then manufacture cloth. Sheep are very efficient water harvesters, says Wayne. "The major amount of water which is involved, particularly in animal products, is associated with the evaporation in growing vegetation."

The best statistics in the Australian context though is beer versus wine making.

With beer, water is used to grow barley, the malting and then fermentation of beer. There isn't a lot of grain in beer so 100 ltrs ought to do it for a bottle of beer, Wayne feels. Add to that the volume in the beer itself.

Wine will use 270ltrs of water per bottle.

Beer is better in terms of use and as well, while Wayne notes a lot of grapes are grown under irrigation.

The ABC news release would have been so more meaningful if it had included something about the ABC Local Radio Network and its contribution to Australian national issues at a local level. (referred to as a boiler plate in PR jargon).

So here it is courtesy of Digital Broadcasters Vendor News. ABC Local Radio, known as "The Backyard" on the Internet, links ABC Radio's 60 local and regional radio stations and program websites around Australia. The Backyard reflects and extends the ABC's commitment to localism through the development of a web site for every ABC region in the country. It provides customised local access to ABC Online. The Backyard is focussed on the requirements of local ABC audiences all over Australia, who can now use their own web site to access a complete range of ABC broadcasting and community information in their region. Saving water is one such subject currently in focus.

Digital Broadcasters | India Terrestrial TV Reach

In India, terrestrial TV coverage by Doordarshan still only covers 79 per cent of the country reaching 91 per cent of the population. For All India Radio the figures are better at 91.78 per cent and 99.14 per cent respectively. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are covered through Doordarshan’s free to air DTH satellite service.

Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri P. R. Dasmunsi in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha (Parliament) March 20 said that as part of India's Eleventh Five Year Plan, subject to funds availability more AIR FM radio stations would be set up to fill gaps in coverage while DTH for DD was the considered route. (Digital Broadcasters Vendor News interpretation.)

Digital Broadcasters | 6m Malaysians Listen to Muzik FM

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News Asia (DBVNA) noticed an interesting announcement from Malaysia's news agency Bernama referring to the increasing number of listeners to Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) radio networks. Bernama quoting Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin said that some some six million residents across Peninsula Malaysia tune in every week. Peninsula Malaysia excludes Sabah and Sarawak.

Bernama said that this was the result of a survey carried out by "Utusan Airtime" on RTM's 32 radio stations.

Muzik FM was the most popular network, followed by Minnal FM and Klasik Nasional FM.

DBVNA notices that no other survey results were mentioned.

Digital Broadcasters | ACMA Licenses Station without Station ID

Digital Broadcasters Vendors News thinks this is bizarre. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA ) allocated in mid-February a radio license and no one publicly has a clue to what the station is going to broadcast nor what will be its station ID. Actually it looks like carte blanche for the licensee.....Is this bureaucracy gone mad? The future station has paid 200,000 Australian dollars that is all the public knows. The licensee, ANC International Holdings Pty Ltd is to provide a high powered open 'narrowcasting' radio service in Canberra, ACT. The proposed service will operate on 1323 kHz on the AM band. ANC International Holdings bid the A$200,000 at an auction on 8 December 2006 after four applications were received for the licence. ANC International Holdings Pty Ltd must commence the new service by 21 June 2007, or such longer period of time as approved in writing by ACMA. The definition of Open narrowcasting services are broadcasting services that are limited in some way - targeted at special interest groups, or are available in limited locations (for example sporting arenas or shopping centres), or are provided during a limited period or to cover a special event or because they provide programs of limited appeal. Over ninety per cent of currently operating narrowcasting services provide either tourist radio or racing radio services in Australia.

Digital Broadcast | Ang Moves to Network Electronics

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News has been informed that Patrick Ang becomes the Regional Sales Director for Network Electronics in Singapore. Ang was hired from Harris Inc. Network Electronics a market leader in digital routing, signal processing and optical transport solutions says that Ang's appointment is related to its Asian expansion and making Singapore its Asian headquarters. The Norwegian company has had a presence in Singapore already for several years. Network Electronics said the move to giving the Singapore office "regional status was to speed up response times to customers. Patrick Ang has also worked for Leitch Inc, Videotek Inc, Thomson Grass Valley and Philips Electronics. Ang reports to Joel Lam, Managing Director of Network Electronics Asia.

Digital Broadcasters | Qatar Broadband Huge Expansion

When Digital Broadcasters Vendor News analysed Qatar’s broadband expansion with the help of the Arab Advisor's Group it was amazing to see that a full two thirds of all Internet connections in the country are on broadband. In fact, Broadband accounts grew by 90% in 2006. For four years already, Qatar’s Internet subscriber base has been growing at strongly. In 2005 Q-Tel added 16,445 total subscribers 45% up year-on-year. Liberalisation is under way. Qatar's Law No. 21 of 1998, which established Q-Tel as the sole and exclusive operator providing fixed, mobile, Internet and datacomm services in the country was set aside towards the end of 2006 and revised Telecoms law is enacted. 2007 ازدياد استخدام الانترنت عالي السرعة في قطر بشكلٍ قياسي. يشهد السوق القطري طفرة في استخدام الانترنت و خصوصاً الانترنت عالي السرعة حيث نما عدد متسخدمين الADSL بنسبة 90% عام 2006 ليشكلوا قرابة ثلثي عدد المشتركين الكلي في الدولة الخليجية الصغيرة .. لايزال السوق القطري سوقاً محتكراً لشركة الاتصالات القطرية كيوتل في الوقت الذي يتوقع فيه دخول مشغلين جدد الى السوق لانهاء احتكار كيوتكل خصوصاً مع انشاء المجلس الاعلى للاتصالات و تكنولوجيا المعلومات ( منظم قطاع الاتصالات القطرية) . أصدرت مجموعة المرشدين العرب (Arab Advisors Group) تقريراً جديداً بعنوان " سوق الانترنت و نقل البيانات القطري " يمكن شراء التقرير من مجموعة المرشدين العرب مقابل 950 دولار فقط، حيث يحتوي هذا التقرير على 40 صفحة و 41جدول تفصيلي. يذكر أن شراء هذا التقرير سيحسب من ضمن الاشتراك السنوي مع مجموعة المرشدين العرب (Arab Advisors Group) فيما لو قرر المشتري الاشتراك ضمن فترة 3 أشهر من تاريخ شراء التقرير. و قد علقت الانسة هديل سكجها (محللة اولى) و كاتبة التقرير في مجموعة المرشدين العرب (Arab Advisors Group) ان استخدام خدمة ADSL في قطر قد تنامى بشكل ملحوظ في السنوات الثلاثة الماضية حيث تتوقع مجموعة المرشدين العرب (Arab Advisors Group) ان يستمر هذا النمو بنسبة سنوية تبلغ .521% لغاية 2011 ليصل عدد مستخدمين ال ADSL قرابة 174.000 في عام 2011. قام فريق المحللين في شركة المرشدين العرب (Arab Advisors Group) بإصدار حوالي 740 تقرير عن قطاع الاتصالات العربية، يمكن شراء هذه التقارير بطريقة فردية، أو عن طريق الاشتراك السنوي مع شركة المرشدين العرب (Arab Advisors Group)

Digital Broadcasters | Ms Dear New Head ABC TV Drama

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News reports that there is a new Head of Drama at ABC TV Australia. She is Miranda Dear promoted from within the organisation. Miranda joined ABC TV in August 2005 and co-executive produced a number of dramas after five years at SBS Independent, where she was Senior Commissioning Editor, Drama. Before that she was the Senior Film Buyer at Channel 4 Television in the UK, before moving to Australia as Film Four's Acquisition and Production Consultant.

Digital Broadcasters | NZ Netball | Silver Ferns Stick to TVONE

Television New Zealand has been in touch with Digital Broadcasters Vendor News on TVNZ's agreement with "Netball New Zealand". The netball agreement (announced March 12, 2007) is basically a renewal for the next three years and gives the terrestrial television broadcasting rights to TVOne for all international netball tests played at home by the national women's iconic team, the Silver Ferns. Not only that, Netball New Zealand has agreed to TVONE broadcasting the netball games on its digital and interactive platforms, from 2008 through to 2010. We can imagine how pleased TVNZ's Sports GM Murray Needham is when says the country's premier female sport remains available for viewing across the country.. Mr ZNeedham reminds us that the Silver Ferns are icons of New Zealand's domestic sporting landscape; they are current world champions and Commonwealth Games gold medallists. 2007 is the year the Silver Ferns women will need to defend their world crown. Netball New Zealand, CEO Shelley McMeeken is equally pleased to the continuing relationship with TVONE. Digital Broadcasters Vendor News notes that neither organisation divulged the financial terms of the agreement. <http://www.tvnz.co.nz> <http://www.netballnz.co.nz

Digital Broadcast | RRI Indonesia Installs IP Radio News Network

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News keeps you up-todate with news from industry players. Today, Bavaria based, ND SatCom, an SES ASTRA company (Euronext Paris: SESG and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) that along with its partner, Studio Hamburg Media Consult International (MCI) GmbH they had installed an IP-based radio content and distribution network for state broadcaster, Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI). The IP radio network links RRI's Jakarta headquarters and its 21 regional broadcast centers.

The IP radio network collects regional and national program and news content in the form of IP digital multicast streams that are then sent via satellite to 95 re-distribution relay stations that then deliver the output to FM terrestrial radio transmitters across the country.

The RRI project is using ND SatCom’s SkyWAN technology platform based on its VSAT network with central distribution hubs in Jakarta and Bandung.

Dieter Dreizler, Director Sales of ND SatCom in a statement let Digital Broadcasters Vendor News Asia know that the ND Satcom equipment affords RRI the ability to operate a cost effective network infrastructure.