The
campaign regarding global migration from analogue to digital broadcasting precisely
commenced on June 17, 2006. Nigeria graciously signed regional and
international agreement to conclude the digital migration by June 17, 2012.
In a bid to meet up the deadline, in
2008, the Federal Government (FG) set up a Presidential Advisory Committee
(PAC). The following year, the committee submitted its report but the FG failed
to implement it, causing Nigeria to miss the June 2012 deadline. The migration
deadline was shifted to June 17, 2015.
Though the ‘Digi-team’ inaugurated by
the FG alongside the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) made a frantic
effort to fulfill the mandate, the efforts again didn’t yield any result owing
to paucity of funds as was reported.
Thereafter,
June 17, 2017 was recognized as the new deadline for the long-awaited
transition. In spite of all the efforts put in place by the NBC to actualize
the feat, yet the motive wasn’t realized. At the moment, Nigerians have been
promised that June 2019 wouldn’t pass them by as regards the long-awaited goal.
Having missed the switchover deadline
thrice, the citizenry is sceptical about the country’s chances of meeting the
new date. It has become obvious that for Nigeria to actualize the feat, there’s
need to comprehend the inevitable attributes of digital broadcasting, and the
dangers inherent in the ongoing analogue pattern.
Analogue mode of transmission is an unreliable
system, though it has worked well enough for over half a century. Analogue Television
(TV) transmits programming in a continuous signal. The signal varies in
amplitude, depending on the information contained in the audio or picture. It
is transmitted on a particular radio frequency from the TV station’s
transmitting antenna over the air, to the viewer’s TV set.
It’s noteworthy that each TV station
is assigned a particular frequency that corresponds to its channel number. So,
when a viewer tunes his/her TV to a given channel, he/she has actually chosen
to receive transmissions on that certain frequency.
TV frequencies are calibrated in Megahertz
(MHz). There are two major transmission frequency bands, namely: Very High
Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF). VHF channels 2 to 6 operate in
the frequency range between 54 and 88MHz. VHF channels 7 to 13 operate in the
frequency range between 174 and 216MHz. And UHF channels 14 to 83 operate in
the frequency range between 470 and 890MHz.
The aforementioned analog signal is far from
perfect. It does not usually reproduce the exact original programming. It can
easily deteriorate over long distances. It can equally suffer interference from
other sources, thereby producing ghost images, static, and ‘snow’.
Hence, analog transmissions
typically produce a lower-quality visual output than the original. The picture
is not quite as sharp; the background is sometimes grainy. And the sound
suffers from noise and reduced frequency response.
A
situation where the viewer tries to receive signal from a distant station is
even more unbearable. The farther the station, the worse the picture likewise
the sound. The results are also poor if the viewer is located in a big city
with lots of buildings that bounce the signal around. Among all, analogue
transmission is inefficient; each VHF or UHF channel takes up a lot of valuable
bandwidths.
Unlike analogue transmission that is prone to
fading, digital technology reproduces a reliable crystal-clear picture without
any form of interference. Digital tech equally enables TV stations to broadcast
multiple channels with different programming. It can fit four or more channels
into a single analogue channel; hence, it can accommodate as many wavebands as
possible within the existing spectrum.
Digital tech makes the work easier, improves
the professionalism, viewers’ delight, and creates more job opportunities as
well as uplifts income for both the broadcasters and the government. Above all,
it would enable more prospective broadcasting firms in Nigeria to be licensed
by the NBC.
To this end, Nigeria needs to hasten up
towards meeting the June 2019 deadline. It’s no longer about setting up a team
but bracing up to the reality, which is to apply a pragmatic approach instead
of the continued indulgence in theory.
Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting
(DTMB), to be utilized by Nigeria, adopts time-domain synchronous Orthogonal
Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technology, with a
pseudo-random signal frame to serve as the Guard Interval (GI) of the OFDM
block and the training symbol. Its content is viable and reliable, thus worthy
of emulation.
The
Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) has a very vital role to play. First,
they must acknowledge what they stand to gain. Broadcasting involves
generation, transmission and distribution. It’s the duty of the various
broadcasting stations to provide the required equipment for the first two
phases such as computers, amplifiers and digital transmitter.
The government, on its part, is to
provide the instruments for the distribution phase such as ITS and pinnacle. BON
must therefore conscientize their teeming members to do the needful.
Towards
sustaining the feat, if actualized, the FG needs to create stiff policies and regulations.
The NBC would be expected to be more proactive and endeavour to create the
needed awareness. Similarly, the broadcasting firms need to deploy standard
maintenance and anti-hacking softwares as well as engage reliable tech experts
in their daily activities, either as consultants or employees.
The overall project is
capital-intensive, so there’s need for adequate collaboration both on the part
of the government and the investors. Think about it!
FDN Nwaozor
CEO, Docfred Technologies
_______________________
+2348028608056
Twitter:
@mediambassador
