Tuesday, December 28, 2010

SLBC Converted to Digital

Sri Lanka's terrestrial broadcasting system will be fully converted to digital by 2017, Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said, the Daily News reports.

He told a briefing in Colombo that the present analogue transmission would come to an end and analogue signals would not be available thereafter.

The minister has appointed a committee look into the technical aspects and evaluation of the digitalisation project. It will be headed by Mass Media and Information Ministry Secretary W B Ganegala.

The converting process would commence next year, the minister said. In line with digital technology, analogue television sets would have to be replaced with digital television sets by 2017, since only digital signals would be transmitted after that.

Because digital technology had the capacity to transmit several channels using a single frequency, obstacles to the expansion of broadcasting facilities could be removed, he said.

Sri Lanka will use the DVB-T2 digital standard. The first region to have the service will be the country's Western Province which includes the capital, Colombo.

Source: Sri Lanka to go digital by 2017 http://bit.ly/eGV0Uj
[Gaviria]