Broadcast consultant urges careful digital switchover
Published:Thursday | July 14, 2022 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
AS JAMAICA shifts from analogue television to the new ATSC 3.0 digital technology, one broadcast consultant is cautioning that transition be managed carefully with consideration for the effect on cost and the local environment.
Gary Sgrignoli of the United States-based Meintel, Sgrignoli, and Wallace engineering consultancy firm, sounded the warning while speaking to journalists on Tuesday during the opening session of the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s ATSC 3.0 Boot Camp and Seminar at the Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny.
“ ... It has to be done when there is enough receiving equipment at a reasonable price for folks of all economic levels. If they are not wealthy, where do they get the TV? It is not an ‘if’ problem, it is a ‘when’ problem,” said Sgrignoli.
“You do not want to turn off the analogue too soon. Everybody, including myself, would love to see analogue gone and everybody watching ATSC 3.0, so we have to make sure that when they turn off the analogue, there are enough choices for receivers, including low-cost versus going all the way up to the expensive sets for those who can afford it,” he said.
The ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGenTV, is an overhaul to the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s standard for sending and receiving over-the-air signals since the group first introduced ATSC 1.0 in 1996. Its features include 4K and HDR picture resolutions, along with advanced Dolby audio, and provides viewers with data-transfer options.
In January 2021, then Information Minister Fayval Williams mandated that all free-to air operators be required to switch to ATSC 3.0, as part of the country’s digital switchover strategy. Additionally, Broadcast Commission Executive Director Cordell Green declared that the switchover must be completed by 2023.
But Sgrignoli noted on Tuesday that Jamaica’s natural hilly terrain could considerably impact how signals for the ATSC 3.0 are received in different locations.
“I have learned a lot about Jamaica and Jamaican television since I got here, and the mountains and hills and valleys are a problem,” Sgrignoli said. “I am sure the stakeholders are going to be very careful because they cannot afford to have this fail.”
Television Jamaica has so far launched the island’s first transmitter sites for ATSC 3.0 – one at its Lyndhurst Road location in St Andrew and the other at Flower Hill in St James – making Jamaica the third country to implement the new technology, after the United States and South Korea.
Television Jamaica, a member of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, is the first Caribbean broadcaster to be granted membership status in the Advanced Television Systems Committee.