Summary

Brazil's ABERT/SET Study Group submitted its final technical evaluation of three digital terrestrial television systems — ATSC, DVB-T, and ISDB-T — to regulator ANATEL in May 2000. The report concluded that ATSC failed to meet Brazilian technical requirements due to poor multipath robustness, while ISDB-T demonstrated superior performance for portable, mobile, and indoor reception.

Source document circa 2000 preserved as-is

Monday, June 5, 2000

BRAZILIAN ABERT/SET STUDY GROUP FINALIZES THE TECHNICAL EVALUATION OF THE THREE DIGITAL TELEVISION SYSTEMS

JUNE/2000

On May 15, the ABERT/SET Study Group on Digital Television submitted to ANATEL (the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency) the second part of the final report regarding the technical evaluation of digital terrestrial television systems. The tests were performed on the three systems currently available: ATSC, DVB-T and ISDB-T, respectively developed in the United States, Europe and Japan.

The field and laboratory tests were performed in Sao Paulo, from September/1999 to April/2000, under supervision of ANATEL and according to its Resolution 069/98, issued on November/98.

Last February ABERT/SET Study Group submitted to ANATEL the first part of this final report, only addressing the modulation issue. At that time the Study Group recommended to ANATEL the selection of a system using the COFDM modulation, considered the most appropriate for the Brazilian conditions.

The main results from the tests as per the second part of the final report are:

1 - Both DVB-T and ISDB-T systems offer better coverage efficiency within the service area, specially where signal reflections occur, in highly populated areas, which will be the first to be served by digital television;

2 - Both DVB-T and ISDB-T systems permit the implementation of a high definition transmission model with appropriate robustness;


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3 - Both DVB-T and ISDB-T systems offer better performance than ATSC system regarding coverage of shadow areas;

4 - The new ATSC receivers, recently developed and made available for the tests, do not present any performance improvement in practical conditions;

5 - Concerning indoor reception, ISDB-T system presents the best global performance; DVB-T system presents appropriate performance. However, ATSC system does not offer an appropriate performance for indoor reception;

6 - ISDB-T system presents much higher performance than the others regarding immunity to impulse noise and is the one that presents the highest flexibility for new applications on television broadcasting service, including portable and mobile reception.

Based on the results indicated above, ABERT/SET Study Group reached to the following conclusions:

· ATSC system does not fulfill the technical requirements for the continuity of the television broadcasting service, specially because of its poor robustness to multipath conditions as well as its low flexibility when compared to DVB-T and ISDB-T systems.

· Both DVB-T and ISDB-T systems are able to fulfill the requirements for improving or at least replicating the reception conditions of the current analogue stations, carrying HDTV signals and allowing the addition of new features for the benefit of the Brazilian television viewers.

· ISDB-T system is significantly better than DVB-T system concerning the performance for portable and mobile reception. This feature would allow the broadcasters to provide the best service to the population, besides allowing higher flexibility for new applications, which is important for assuring television broadcasting service competitiveness in the future.

However, for ANATEL’s final decision on the most appropriate system for Brazil, ABERT/SET Study Group considers to be fundamental the development of an additional analysis taking into account other aspects involved, such as: the impact that the adoption of each system would have on the Brazilian consumer electronic manufacturers, the conditions for the implementation of each system, their time frame for commercial availability, the introductory price of receivers in the Brazilian market and their expected dropping curve on the near future.

ABERT/SET Study Group is now developing a study concerning all these relevant non technical aspects which will be submitted to ANATEL in June as an additional contribution for the process of ANATEL’s decision on the digital television system to be selected for Brazil.


ABERT/SET STUDY GROUP ON DIGITAL TELEVISION


For further information contact Augusto Filho at 55.11.5084.1758 (e.mail- [email protected] )