Summary

Brazil's ABERT/SET Digital Television Study Group recommended COFDM modulation for the country's future digital terrestrial broadcasting standard, citing superior coverage, multipath robustness, HDTV capability, and mobile reception. Field tests in São Paulo showed only COFDM-based systems delivered television pictures to 100% of sites within 10 km of the transmitter at 2.5 kW average power.

Source document circa 2000 preserved as-is

Last Updated Thursday, February 17, 2000

ABERT/SET DIGITAL TV STUDY GROUP PRESS RELEASE

BRAZILIAN DIGITAL TELEVISION STUDY GROUP INDICATES COFDM AS THE MODULATION FOR BRAZIL
February 11, 2000

1. On February 11, at 3:00 pm, the ABERT/SET Study Group on Digital Television submitted to ANATEL (the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency ) the first part of the report regarding the Brazilian tests on digital terrestrial television systems. These tests on the existing systems ATSC, DVB-T and ISDB-T, respectively developed in the United States, Europe and Japan, are being conducted by the ABERT/SET Study Group since September 99, under the supervision of ANATEL.

2. This first document only addresses the modulation issue. After an extensive set of carefully performed laboratory and field tests, the Group reached the conclusion that COFDM must be the modulation for the system to be indicated in the near future, at the completion of the tests, as the most appropriate for adoption in Brazil.

3. This definition speeds up the channel allotment planning studies, which are being conducted by ANATEL with the participation of the ABERT/SET Digital Television Group, since they heavily depend on the employed modulation.

4. The main issues which lead to the Study Group's conclusion are: Better delivery of service within the coverage area, equal or superior to the current analogue one;

Higher reception robustness in the presence of multiple reflections, inherent to any off-air reception; Capability of transmitting high definition television signals, which the Group believes to be the future of television;

Mobile reception possibility.
It is important to note that, during the field tests performed in the city of S„o Paulo, only the systems using COFDM modulation succeeded in delivering television pictures to 100% of the sites within a distance of 10 km from the transmitter, using a 2.5 kW average transmission power.

5. Concerning the possible systems using COFDM, it is still necessary to perform additional tests, and to consider market issues, such as the impact of each choice on the Brazilian consumer electronics industry, and the time frame for commercial availability of each system.

6. The ABERT/SET Study Group will be carrying out tests and assessments until April 30, when the Final Report shall be submitted to ANATEL, containing the Group contribution to the decision on the Brazilian Digital Terrestrial Television Standard to be taken by the Agency .

7. From now on, the ABERT/SET Study Group will focus its efforts on the DVB-T and the ISDB-T systems which employ COFDM . Nevertheless, the Group will continue to evaluate the performance of the ATSC system , and its evolution towards complying with the issues mentioned in the above paragraph 4, considered vital by the Brazilian broadcasters for launching Digital Television in Brazil .

BRAZILIAN FIELD TRIALS CONFIRM TECHNICAL SUPERIORITY OF COFDM

HDTV & Mobile Reception were Decisive Factors. Geneva, 14th February 2000: The ABERT/SET Digital Television Group, the official committee charged with testing digital terrestrial television systems for Brazil, has recommended a COFDM modulation scheme for the country's future digital broadcasting requirements. The findings of ABERT/SET group were submitted earlier this week to ANATEL, the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency responsible for the selection of the country's digital television system. The report follows an extensive set of carefully performed laboratory and field trials involving ATSC, ISDB-T and DVB-T that began in September last year. The main reasons cited by the committee for its recommendation were:

* Better delivery of service within the coverage area
* Equal or superior to the current analogue system; higher reception robustness in the presence of multiple reflections, inherent to any off-air reception
* Capability of transmitting HDTV
* The possibility of mobile reception

Theo Peek, DVB Chairman, said "Brazil is a key South American market, and this recommendation represents the first time a 6MHz country outside Japan has recommended COFDM technology. It finally puts to bed all the criticisms about the availability of 6MHz DVB-T equipment and sends a clear message to the entire region and indeed the rest of the world who are presently considering their future DTTV requirements."

The recommendation is a key victory for a COFDM system such as DVB-T in Brazil where digital terrestrial broadcasting will be faced by a unique set of problems.

DVB testing was well supported by NDS & Tandberg TV who provided DVB-T modulators, receivers and technical support.

Nokia and Philips provided set-top-receivers.
Continental Microwave Ltd. (CML) and NEC provided transmitters and Rohde & Schwarz provided a test transmitter. In addition, valuable technical support came from NTL. Background The DVB Project The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) is an industry-led consortium of over 263 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others in over 59 countries committed to designing global standards for the delivery of digital television and data services. The DVB standards cover all aspects of digital television from transmission through interfacing, conditional access and interactivity for digital video, audio and data. The consortium came together in 1993 to create unity in the march towards global standardisation, interoperability and future proofing.

To date, there are numerous broadcast services using DVB standards. There are hundreds of manufacturers offering DVB compliant equipment, which is already in use in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. A host of other services are also on-air with DVB-T, including data on the move, high-bandwidth Internet over the air and the possibility to introduce terrestrial Pay-TV services. Owing to its use of the multi-carrier Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM) modulation technique, DVB-T is capable of delivering a crystal clear picture to televisions connected to portable, set-top antennas in hostile reception environments such as city apartments, or even to receivers on the move. DVB-T has been rigorously tested in slow-moving city trams and at speeds in excess of 170 mph. BRAZILIAN FIELD TRIALS CONFIRM TECHNICAL SUPERIORITY OF COFDM PRESS RELEASE 15 February 2000 dvb_PR067

 
|Home| |E-MAIL|