The DVB Group heads to Buenos Aires after IBC to present alongside the ATSC Committee and Japan's ISDB, with DVB executive director Peter MacAvock eyeing Brazil as the key market: "If Brazil goes DVB then the rest of South America will follow."
Source documentcirca 1999preserved as-is
Monday September 13, 1999
DVB - off to Argentina
The next stop for the DVB Group after IBC is Buenos Aires, Argentina,to participate in an open forum alongside the ATSC Committee and theJapanese ISDB committee, writes Scott Lehane.
"There is now very clear evidence that they are wondering about thewisdom of having adopted ATSC so early," says Peter MacAvok -executive director of the DVB Project. The Argentineans hadreportedly wanted to hold the seminar earlier but the IBC conventiontends to tie up most of the DVB's upper echelons.
"They now feel that they require more information about what isactually going on. So they have called for a conference at this pointin time to discuss these issues," explains Anthony Smith, the DVB'shead of marketing. The DVB Project will provide technical expertisefrom the UK, Australia, Singapore and even India to discuss theircountries' respective DVB-T roll out plans. But after making theircase in Argentina, all eyes will be on Brazil says MacAvock, "My viewis that Brazil is the key. If Brazil goes DVB then the rest of SouthAmerica will follow," he says.
Brazil is currently conducting comparative experiments between thetwo systems. The tests are expected to be concluded by the end of theyear. "We have done side by side comparisons elsewhere in the worldand every time we have shown the superiority of DVB-T," saysMacAvock. "Rio is particularly difficult to cover and they are comingto the realisation that coverage is the single most important issue."
