1 DD/krs/CEO presentation to ITU Telecom World 2009 FINAL FUTURE SPECTRUM NEEDS SUPPORTING A DIGITAL TRANSITION (FROM A BROADCAST SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION PERSPECTIVE)

DD/krs/CEO presentation to ITU Telecom World 2009 FINAL

1

FUTURE SPECTRUM NEEDS SUPPORTING A DIGITAL TRANSITION (FROM A BROADCAST

SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION PERSPECTIVE)

ITU TELECOM WORLD 2009, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Date: 7 October 2009Presented by: Dr. Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, Chief Executive Officer

2DD/krs/CEO presentation to ITU Telecom World 2009 FINAL

SENTECH TOWER JOHANNESBURG


OVERVIEW

SENTECH TOWER

WHO IS SENTECH?

SENTECH BROADCASTING SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION INFRASTRUCTURE

TERRESTIAL NETWORK: TRANSMITTING STATIONS

SATELLITE DISTRIBUTION

SENTECH’S TELEPORT

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

OTHER SERVICES

TRANSMISSION PLANNING

GIS PLANNING

MEASUREMENTS

SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION TRAINING

KEY PROJECTS

DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION (DTT)

DTT: SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

CHALLENGES FOR DIGITAL DIVIDEND TO BE USED FOR BROADCASTING SERVICE CHANNELS

DTT IMPLEMENTATION IN SOUTH AFRICA


WHO IS SENTECH?

SENTECH is:

A commercially run, 100% owned by the State of the South Africa,

whose business is in electronic communications.


Sentech Business:

• Broadcasting Signal Distribution• Telecommunications

• Other services


SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

Television FM (Frequency Modulation)

SW (Short Wave) MW (Medium Wave)

Ku-Band Direct-to-Home Satellite C-Band Satellite

MMDS

BROADCAST BACKBONE

Satellite distribution (C-Band Point-to-Point)

Terrestrial Linking

Satellite Contribution

BROADCASTING SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION


VALUE ADDED SERVICES

Network splitting Paging, RDS,(Radio data services), VBI

(Vertical blanking interval)

Television Nicam Stereo FM Stereo

VIVID DTH PLATFORM

Free to air Future subscription services

SenCom

BUSINESS TV and BUSINESS RADIO

Sen TV Sen Radio

Sen Data Sen Educate

BROACASTING SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION cont.


• Satellite Teleports (STP)

• 15 Transmitter Control Centers (TCC)

• Transmitter Stations

• V Transmitters

• FM Transmitters

• Medium-Wave Transmitters

• Short-wave Transmitter Station – 500Kw, 250Kw & 100Kw

transmitters

• C-band and Ku-band Satellite Uplink Facilities

BROADCASTING SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION INFRASTRUCTURE


TERRESTRIAL NETWORK: TRANSMITTING STATIONS


SATELLITE DISTRIBUTION


SENTECH’S TELEPORT


• Voice - International Voice Traffic (in-bound and out-bound)

• Data - VSAT

TELECOMMUNICATIONS


Consulting Engineering

Project Management Training

Technical Auditing Spectrum Monitoring

Refurbishment Maintenance

SERVICES

OTHER SERVICES

HIGH SITE ACCOMMODATION (FACILITY RENTAL)

Mast Building

Site Road

Emergency Power



Technical regulatory assistance

Radio propagation planning

Regulatory / Technical data management

Geographical Information System Analyses

Site selection

In-flight and Terrestrial measurement

Desktop Publishing / Graphics

Geographical Information Systems


GIS PLANNING




MEASUREMENTS

• Verify faultfinder and research

• Horizontal Radiation Pattern (H.R.P)• Vertical Radiation Pattern (V.R.P)• Effective Radiation Power (E.R.P)• Correct tilt of transmitting antennae• Correct null tilt• Correct orientation of transmitting antennaes • Frequency compatibility


SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION TRAINING

• Sentech has conducted professional signal distribution and broadcast training in:

• Namibia

• Ghana

• Nigeria

• Botswana

• Madagascar

• As well as various Broadcasters in South Africa



• Upgrade analogue transmitters site to enable DTT transmission

• Set Top Box integration

• Spectrum utilization during dual illumination

• Installing the multiplexers

• Training

• Regulatory policies


KEY PROJECTS

• DTT: migration of analogue terrestrial television infrastructure to digital.

• 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer:

- Sentech successfully provided backup satellite infrastructure (local feed) for the 2009 Confederations Cup.

- On a commercial basis, Sentech successfully provided FIFA with the international feed and back-up linking from its teleport (STP).




• The purpose of the project is to migrate all Sentech analogue TV services operating on VHF and UHF from a PAL-I protocol to an MPEG-4 digital TV platform.



DTT: SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

• As far back as 2000 South Africa acknowledged that migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television is inevitable. Sentech conducted T-DAB transmission test in Pretoria and digital terrestrial television transmission in Johannesburg (Source: Notice of publication of Terrestrial Broadcasting Frequency Plan 2003, Government Gazette No.25786 of 28 November 2003, General Notice Number 3365).

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) followed the work of the ITU leading to the Regional Radio Conference (RRC) concerning the introduction of digital broadcasting (Source: Notice of publication of Final Terrestrial Broadcasting Frequency Plan, 2004, Government Gazette No. 28299 of 5 December 2005, General Notice Number 1513).


DTT: SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE cont.

• South Africa participated in RRC-06 and is signatory to the Final Acts. The Government of the Republic of South Africa under the Department of Communications (DoC) established an industry Digital Migration Working Group (DMWG). The DMWG comprised of broadcasting signal distribution, broadcasters, consumer groups and set-top-boxes manufacturers.

• The purpose of the industry migration working forum was among others to share ideas on how South Africa can migrate from analogue to digital, explore possible standards for transmission and set-top-boxes and to prepare a report for submission to the Minister of Communications in order to formulate a broadcasting digital migration policy.



• The Digital Migration Working Group report was submitted to Minister of Communications in 2006. The Minister of Communications established an advisory council known as the Digital Dzonga (South). The purpose of the Digital Dzonga is to advise an oversee the implementation of the migration process. Sentech is represented in Digital Dzonga (South) Council and is the Chair of the Broadcast Infrastructure Working Group.

• On 8 September 2008, the Minister of Communciations published Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy in Government Gazette No.31408.


• On 21st February 2007 the South African cabinet decided as follows:

i. Digital TV signals will be switched on as of 1 November 2008 and the analogue TV signal switched off on 1 November 2011

ii. Sufficient frequency spectrum must be retained for digital broadcasting migration.




ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF DTT:

• Spectrum Efficiency

• Spectrum a finite national resource

• Digital makes far more efficient use of the available spectrum

• Allows for expansion and new services


Analogue TV Analogue TV

• 8 MHz Spectrum8 MHz Spectrum

• One ServiceOne Service

• New Frequency per siteNew Frequency per site

Digital TV Digital TV

• 8 MHz Spectrum8 MHz Spectrum

• 6 or more Services6 or more Services

• Same frequency re-used in Single Same frequency re-used in Single

Frequency NetworksFrequency Networks

ANALOGUE ANALOGUE DIGITALDIGITAL

Reg 1 TV

Reg 2 TV




Opportunities of DTT for South Africa as a developmental State committed to the creation of an information society, the main aspects are: -

• multiple channels with a broader array of programmes and

services including more social economic and political programme content.

• Public Interest services: e-government, e-health, e-medicine, e-learning, telecentres and community centres.

• a greater programme choice for the viewer.

• opportunity to develop the television industry.


CHALLENGES FOR DIGITAL DIVIDEND TO BE USED FOR BROADCASTING SERVICE CHANNELS

• An appropriate frequency spectrum plan that will show a systematic switch off of analogue broadcasting services. The spectrum from analogue switch off would then go towards the dividend.

• There are currently broadcasting and non-broadcasting services operating in the spectrum 790 – 862.

• The position of television broadcasters is that ICASA should not make further assignments to non-broadcasting services in this band 790 – 862.

• However, the position of communication service providers in South Africa is that ICASA should migrate all broadcasting services from frequencies 790 – 862 so that the band can be used exclusive for telecommunications services.


• Sentech commenced the migration process from 1 April 2006.

• Currently the project is in phase 4 providing population coverage of 33.3%. The objective is to achieve 63,3% population coverage by 31 March 2010. Subject to timeous finalisation of the DTT spectrum plan and policy implementation.

• Sentech switched digital signals on 30 October 2008, two days before the deadline at the ITU, World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly (WTSA).

DTT IMPLEMENTATION IN SOUTH AFRICA


DTT IMPLEMENTATION IN SOUTH AFRICA cont.


Chief Executive Officer: Dr. Sebiletso Mokone-MatabaneTel: +27 11 691-7069Fax: +27 11 691-7118email: [email protected]

Sentech LimitedPrivate Bag X06HONEYDEW2040REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

THANK YOU

Documents

1 DD/krs/CEO presentation to ITU Telecom World 2009 FINAL FUTURE SPECTRUM NEEDS SUPPORTING A DIGITAL TRANSITION (FROM A BROADCAST SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION PERSPECTIVE)