Friday, May 26, 2006

I&B Ministry plans Digital Delhi project

Friday - May 26, 2006
Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
The Information & Broadcasting Ministry (I&B Ministry) has drawn a new plan to phase out all analogue transmissions and to turn India completely digital in the coming Five Year plan (2007-12). The deadline for the project, Digital Delhi, has been set as 2010 and thereby India will go completely digital by 2015. In this project, Prasar Bharati will take the lead by ensuring digital terrestrial broadcast for all Indian cities by 2013 and this will extend to both All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD). The conversion of cable and satellite (C&S) homes from analogue to digital, the first step would involve providing conditional access to C&S homes and then converting them to digital technology by 2015.I&B Ministry also plans to take no chances with set top boxes, which will not be imported as per the present recommendations. Experts have drawn a detailed plan for indigenous production of digital set top boxes (STB's) to avoid controversies. Indigenous STB's should have digital analogue conversion capability for delivery of digital signal to the subscriber along with conditional access and address-ability features.The experts have also recommended that national standards for the manufacture of digital signal receivers must be established before indigenous production commences. In order to make digital conversion a complete success, testing, publication and adoption of technical standards for terrestrial digital transmission must be done by the government. This must also include adoption and publication of digital standards for cable television. The plan, which is to be implemented in a phased manner during the Eleventh Five Year plan, also recommends the creation of a body that will have a single regulator for both content and carriage.
http://www.televisionpoint.com/news2006/newsfullstory.php?id=1148637627

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