13 Nov ABU Technical Committee update
The ABU Technical Committee met on 24th and 25th October. Dr. Amal Punchihewa, ABU Technology Director, reports:
Radio and television developments over the last year were presented and discussed, generating much interest in technical innovations associated with UHDTV. Both NHK (Japan) and KBS (Korea) presented updates on UHDTV-1 and UHDTV-2. NHK outlined plans to start UHDTV-2 transmissions in 2016, in preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in Japan. And the largest South Korean broadcasters described their experiments with terrestrial transmission of 4K services using DVB-T2.
For radio, a major topic of interest was the use of the Early Warning Broadcasting (EWB) feature, recognised by the ABU and its members. Indonesia demonstrated the incorporation of the EWB feature into national networks and its integration into the national disaster management chain, allowing signals to be delivered to any appropriate region without disturbing others.
Jawhar Sircar, CEO of Prasar Bharati, updated the GA super panel session on India’s work on DRM receivers and deployment of the DRM network.
The biggest area of concern for ABU members is spectrum. The General Assembly addressed this in its super panel session. In the CTO forum on the issue I stressed that spectrum is crucial for production, for contribution and for distribution, whether by terrestrial or satellite. The Acting TC Chairman’s report to the GA also focused on HF broadcast and frequencies and the critical importance of frequency coordination.
In summary, broadcasters have worked closely together to present a more unified position, on spectrum, particularly following the World Broadcasting Union (WBU) statement in July 2014 and at the end of the conference, the EBU and ABU issued a joint press release.