South Africa has joined 21 other countries that will implement the DVB-T2 transmission standard for local and regional broadcasters. The decision follows a recommendation by the South African Development Community to implement the standard, and the government said it would mandate the end of analog TV broadcasting by the end of 2013. South Africa chose DVB-2 over the Brazilian version of the Japanese ISDB-T standard.
DVB-T2 is a digital terrestrial transmission system that offers efficiency, robustness and flexibility. It introduces the latest modulation (OFDM) and coding techniques to enable the efficient use of terrestrial spectrum for the delivery of audio, video and data services to fixed, portable and mobile devices. These new techniques give DVB-T2 a 50 percent increase in efficiency over any other DTT system in the world, according to the Digital Video Broadcasting consortium.
DVB standards cover all aspects of DTV, from transmission through interfacing, conditional access and interactivity for digital video, audio and data. The consortium, made up of more than 250 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others, was formed in 1993.
