SBTVD
Encyclopedia
ISDB-T International or SBTVD, short for Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital (Brazilian Digital Television System) is a technical standard for digital television
broadcast used in Brazil
, Peru
, Argentina
, Chile
, Venezuela
, Ecuador
, Costa Rica
, Paraguay
, Philippines
, Bolivia
, Nicaragua
and Uruguay
, based on the Japanese ISDB-T standard, launched in commercial operation on December 2, 2007, in São Paulo
, Brazil.
The SBTVD standard was developed by a study group coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications and was led by the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) with support from the Telecommunication's Research and Development Centre (CPqD). The study group was composed of members of ten other Brazilian ministries, the National Institute for Information Technology (ITI), several Brazilian universities, broadcast professional organizations, and manufacturers of broadcast/reception devices. The objective of the group was to develop and implement a DTV (Digital TV) standard in Brazil, addressing not only technical and economical issues, but also and mainly "digital inclusion" for those living apart from today's "information society" and looking for "e-gov", i.e. to make government closer to the population since in Brazil more than 94% of families have at least one TV set.
SBTVD is also called ISDB-Tb
(ISDB-T Japanese standard, Brazilian version) and basically differs from original ISDB-T by using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
as a video compression standard (ISDB-T uses H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2
), a presentation rate of 30 frames per second even in portable devices (ISDB-T, One seg
, uses 15 frame/s for portable devices) and powerful interaction using middleware Ginga
, composed by Ginga-NCL and Ginga-J
modules (ISDB-T uses BML
).
In January 2009, the Brazilian-Japanese study group for digital TV finished and published a specification document joining the Japanese ISDB-T with Brazilian SBTVD, resulting in a specification now called "ISDB-T International". ISDB-T International is the system that will be proposed by Japan and Brazil for other countries in South America and around the world.
, European DVB-T
and Japanese ISDB-T) and its technical aspects but the discussion become a robust study only in 1998.
From 1998 to 2000, the ABERT and SET group, supported by Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie developed a very complete study based on several tests considering not only technical characteristics of each standard but also signal quality, both indoor and outdoor. That was the first complete study comparing all three major DTV standards in the world by an independent entity (i.e. without influence of the ATSC Committee, DVB Group or ARIB/DiBEG Group) and it was considered a very rigorous and robust study by the DTV technical world community.
The results of the "Brazilian digital television tests" showed the insufficient quality for indoor reception presented by ATSC (that is a very important parameter because 47% of television sets in Brazil use only an internal antenna) and, between DVB-T and ISDB-T, the last one presented superior performance in indoor reception and flexibility to access digital services and TV programs through non-mobile, mobile or portable receivers with impressive quality.
In parallel in 1998, the Brazilian Ministry of Communication ordered the National Telecommunication Agency to carry on studies to select and implement a DTV standard in Brazil. Due to the completeness and quality of the ABERT/SET/Mackenzie study, ANATEL considered that as the official result and supported it considering ISDB-T the better standard to be implemented in Brazil.
However the final decision about the standard selected wasn't announced at that moment (August 2000) because of three main points:
In the light of those points, the Brazilian Government, under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
, created a more structured discussion group, to review the first studies and to address these new points.
The National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) was charged by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications to lead this work with the technical support of CPqD, and the contributions of 10 other Brazilian ministries, the National Institute for Information Technology (ITI), 25 organizations related to the matter (broadcast professionals, broadcast companies, TV program producers, etc.), and 75 universities/R&D institutes and electro-electronic manufacturers. More than 1,200 researchers/professionals were mobilized.
The DTV Work Group was organized in a structure with 3 areas of development:
The objective of the DTV Work Group was not only to define the technical and economical aspects of the Digital TV system but also to address:
Anyway, technical requirements are important and were also considered:
Just for the Consultant Committee, 20 public RFP (Request for Proposal) were published trying to cover all areas that compose digital TV: Modulation, Signal Processing/Compression, video systems, audio systems, data transport, middleware, etc. The RFPs strongly reinforced the creation of research networks where the studies could be carried in a decentralized manner by several institutes working together.
Some groups worked to present a totally new digital standard, some groups worked to analyze and select the most known digital TV standards (American ATSC
, European DVB-T
and Japanese ISDB-T), and other groups worked to implement new features/modules to these already known standards.
After 3 years of studies and developments, the SBTVD Forum announced the selection of Japanese ISDB-T system as a baseline for the SBTVD system, enhanced by some new technologies:
SBTVD system also presents some adaptations (the following are the main ones):
Note: There are around 16 technical documents for the SBTVD system, with more than 3,000 pages published by the ABNT
(Brazilian Association for Technical Standards) and the SBTVD Forum detailing the entire SBTVD system.
The selection of the Japanese ISDB-T system as the baseline for SBTVD was based on video/audio quality indoor and outdoor, signal robustness, excellent interference treatment, support for complex interactive TV programs, and quality mobile TV. Besides that, ISDB-T with the new features like MPEG-4 video compression and Ginga middleware become an excellent support for those social requirements intended by the Brazilian Government (digital inclusion, educational and cultural support, e-gov, etc.).
Economical points were analyzed too, such as the elimination of royalties by the Japanese Government on the use of ISDB-T, the transfer of technology from Japan to Brazil, the creation of a Japanese-Brazilian work group for ongoing developments, and financial help for the initial implementation from the Japanese Development Bank.
The final decision was announced on June 29, 2006 by Presidential Act # 5.820 officially stating that Brazil adopted the ISDB-T terrestrial digital transmission system as the baseline for ISDB-Tb (the commercial name for the SBTVD system). The Presidential Act also defines the implementation plan and rules for digital TV in Brazil stating that in seven years all Brazilian territory must be covered by the digital TV signal and in 10 years (i.e. 2016) all TV broadcast must be digital, and that the band used by the broadcast companies for analog TV must be returned to the Brazilian Government. It is important to note that this Presidential Act states that ISDB-Tb must offer a "Multiprogram" feature. During the implementation in Brazil, however, the Ministry of Communication changed this requirement and blocked this feature at least till May 2009.
The decision for ISDB-T was contested by some sectors of society that complained it was a "political" decision where the Brazilian Government was influenced by the Broadcaster Association, specially by Rede Globo (the biggest Brazilian TV network), since ISDB-T isolates TV business from telecommunication company business which will protect the already decreasing earnings of broadcasters in a world that is migrating from TV to Internet and cellular telephone services.
Several technical/engineering organizations and even isolated engineers and technicians that have studied all 3 major standards (ISDB-T, ATSC and DVB) in detail state that ISDB-T really is the best option.
Hence, even if it was really a political decision, it was still the best technical decision.
Analyzing the process now, after 3 years, that seems it was the correct decision because there is a crisis about mobile/portable TV in Europe — highlighted by Nokia selling its mobile TV division — and mobile TV services are lasting to engage because of the costs of portable TV rates (in DVB standard portable TV is offered by Cellular Phone companies as paid services). In Japan, where portable TV is free, the usage is increasing greatly year by year, and the same is happening in Brazil. Also, the decision to include MPEG-4 as the video compression system in SBTVD was shown to be correct by the DVB Committee in Europe launching the DVB 2.0 standard with MPEG-4 as video compression, the USA studying to implement MPEG-4 in ATSC, and Japan analyzing how to evolve the original ISDB-T to implement that feature.
At this very moment the SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) and the original ISDB-T are not compatible systems. That means a TV set or a set-top box bought in Japan will not work in Brazil and vice versa. However, the Japanese-Brazilian Working Group is working to join the two systems into only one to achieve the benefits of gains of scale.
On the other hand, Brazil is producing several types of TV sets and set-top boxes for the SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) system and in a good quantity and there is no problem meeting the consumer demand for TV sets, set-top boxes and also for transmitters and other components.
Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Philippines and Nicaragua have recently adopted ISDB-T and will reinforce the gains of scale in the production of equipment, thus continuing to reduce the price, consolidating the use of the ISDB-T International standard not only in South America.
(Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - Brazilian Association for Technical Standards in English)) and to plan further developments.
was the first company to do a public demonstration of SBTVD transmissions and receivers on June 19, 2007, although other companies claimed to have receivers ready at the time. At their showroom in São Paulo
, two Full HD LCD sets were shown: one with a built-in tuner and another connected to a prototype set-top box. The tuner and set-top box were developed in Brazil, at Samsung's research center in Manaus
, Amazonas. 1seg
broadcasting to mobile devices was also shown.
The signal was a test reel from Rede Globo
(the biggest TV network in Brazil), broadcast at 1080i
(the standard does not define 1080p) consisting of short clips from soap operas, talk shows, soccer games from recent years and footage of the Brazilian Carnival
in Rio de Janeiro
along with some scenic views. All the content was natively HD, some of which was shot with high definition cameras experimentally placed in many of the studios where Globo produces its programs. The 2007 Pan American Games
were also experimentally broadcast in high definition by Globo. Broadcasts of the event could be seen both from Samsung's show room and electronics megastores that received digital tuners to show and demonstrate the technology to the public.
Regular SBTVD broadcasts started on December 2, 2007, initially in São Paulo
. By January, 2008, the system had also launched in these other Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro
, Belo Horizonte
, Goiânia
, Porto Alegre
, Curitiba
, Campinas
, Cuiabá
, Salvador
, Florianópolis
, Vitória, Uberlândia
, São José do Rio Preto
, Teresina
, Santos, Brasília
, Campo Grande
, Fortaleza
, Recife
, João Pessoa
, Sorocaba
, Mogi das Cruzes
, Ribeirão Preto
, Manaus
, Belém
, Joinville
, Aracaju
, Londrina
, São Luiz, Araraquara
and Natal
.
From the broadcasters' point of view, the DTV implementation in Brazil seems to be very successful if compared with the implementation process in other countries. After 16 months, the digital TV signal covered almost 50% of the Brazilian population. For the consumers, the DTV implementation is being taken up more slowly, because of the prices of new DTV sets and set top boxes, and failure to understand the new technology and/or its benefits.
A new push in set-top box and DTV sets sales is expected with the final specification of Ginga
middleware that will allow interactive use of TV.
Ginga 1.0 (a first implementation of Ginga) was already released for use by set-top box/DTV manufacturers, using NCL
(Nested Context Language)/Lua as its declarative programming language. That part of Ginga is called Ginga-NCL. However, the complete Ginga middleware specification was planned to present the declarative NCL module and procedural Java module to allow programmers, manufacturers and users to take the best from the two environments: declarative and procedural.
The Java part of Ginga, called Ginga-J, had its specification approved by the SBTVD Forum in April 2009. The same forum declared that the APIs set developed by Sun Microsystems, called Java-DTV, is the standard for SBTVD system, after negotiations with Sun Microsystems to reduce royalties in 15%. Hence, the royalty cost defined by Sun for Java-DTV is much more affordable than that charged by GEM APIs owners (GEM middleware is used in DVB-T - the European DTV standard). That will benefit development of interactive set-top boxes and TV sets keeping them cheaper than if GEM was used as middleware or even if GEM APIs were used with Ginga-J.
It is expected that in the 3rd quarter 2009 the first set-top boxes and TV sets with complete Ginga middleware (Ginga-NCL and Ginga-J) will be available in the market. That date will probably match with the release of first interactive programs to be broadcast by television companies.
At launch on December 2, 2007, set-top boxes were available for prices ranging between R$900 (~US$450) and R$1200 (~US$600), inhibiting sales. But after 8 months the prices dropped quickly to around R$300 (~US$150). President Lula announced subsidies worth 1 billion Reais (~US$ 556 millions) so these prices will face a new reduction phase.
By May 2009 a 42 inches LCD TV FullHD (1920 x 1080) with built-in Digital TV tuner and special characteristics such as double presentation rate (120 Hz) and exceptional contrast (50.000:1) was being sold for R$3,600.00 (~US$1,800.00) in São Paulo City, a very impressive price reduction for such a quality product, and other basic devices present even lower prices. However, until September 2009 the smallest TV that could be bought with an integrated digital tuner was a 32 inches LCD TV. This is slowing down the adoption of digital TV in Brazil, since most people that watch FTA TV cannot afford buying expensive LCD TVs, and 21 and 29 inches CRT TVs are still very popular among the low income population and can be bought for about R$400.00~R$600.00 (US$200.00~US$300.00).
Sales of mobile receivers (for Notebooks, mobile DTV sets and mobile phones with a built-in DTV receiver) are increasing very fast and it seems that mobility is perceived by consumers as a more attractive SBTVD/ISDB-T feature than HD or Full HD definition. The SBTVD/ISDB-T standard allows a very impressive mobile reception, with high quality and steady image, without noise, excellent audio and very robust reception even in the presence of signal reflection, electromagnetic or impulsive interference.
According to the Brazilian government, analog shutdown is scheduled for 2016. Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela are planning the deployment before announcing their analog shutdown date.
Only federal government TV channels are allowed to use Multiprogram in Brazil today. TV Cultura, a public television from the state of São Paulo, obtained special authorization (for educational purposes only) and is currently using this feature to broadcast four different video programs. Besides the HDTV and the one-segment (handheld) streams, an additional archive program (Multicultura) and the Virtual University channel (UNIVESP) have been on air since August 2009.
In Japan Multiprogram has being successful the launch of ISDB-T there.
That idea will be presented to the Brazilian Government in the WiMAX Forum in June 2009, in the hope of creating an international standard for the return channel.
Brazil and Japan are presenting the benefits of SBTVD/ISDB-Tb standard to Guatemala
, Cuba
, Belize
, Mozambique
, Tanzania
, Malawi
, Thailand
, and some SADC
countries.
Additionally, Brazil and Japan are trying to present the benefits of SBTVD/ISDB-Tb to Colombia and Panama which have initially chosen the European standard as of January 2011 and Honduras and El Salvador who have initially chosen the US-American standard as of December 2010.
ITU-T certification for SBTVD/ISDB-T solutions
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - a United Nations' regulatory agency for telecommunication and information technology questions - has certified on April 29, 2009 the module Ginga-NCL and the language NCL/Lua as the first international recommendation for interactive multimedia environments for Digital TV and IPTV—Recommendation H.761.
NCL/Lua and Ginga-NCL were developed by the TeleMidia Laboratory of the Informatics Department at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), a Brazilian university.
This is an important ITU-T standard as it addresses the standardization of middleware for interactivity in devices and set-top boxes for IPTV and Digital TV, before that market becomes full of incompatible hardware/software solutions, thus impacting final users.
Additionally, on October 2009, ITU has defined officially SBTVD as a subsystem for ISBD-T, developing 2 new recommendations:
a) Modulation: BST-OFDM (Band Segmented Transmission-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing).
b) Frequency Band: VHF or UHF, according to the country implementation strategy. UHF is a very affordable band once it is possible to implement digital services in current UHF "spaces" in broadcasting spectrum while analog services are still running in "jammed" VHF band. After digital TV implementation rollout is finished and analog signal is cut off, then VHF can be used for other services or even to expand digital services to more broadcasters. Japan, Philippines, and Brazil have chosen UHF. Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela are in implementation design phase, so the band to be used was not defined.
The ISDB system can also work based in cable or satellite trasmission (ISDB-C and ISDB-S) using appropriate frequency band, but these standards are outside the scope of this arcticle.
c) Transmission architecture: Segmented
Other arrangements possible according to the desired resolution/number of programs transmitted)
d) Frame Rate:
e) Channel Bandwidth:
Japan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador: 6 MHz (It is possible to use SBTVD/ISDB-T system with 13 segments in 7 MHz or 8 MHz if that is required by any country. Maldives
is the first country to adopt ISDB-T with 8 MHz channel bandwidth.)
f) Audio Compression System:
All compression systems must be conform to ISO/IEC 14496-3:2004 standard.
The Allowed transport mechanisms LATM/LOAS.
Note: Japan uses MPEG-2 AAC for non-mobile/mobile service and MPEG-4 HE-AAC for portable service.
The Allowed transport mechanisms ADTS
g) Video Compression System:
Also, video codification must be conform to ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005 standard.
These standards are also known as ITU-T H.264:2005 Recommendation.
Note: Japan uses MPEG-2 video.
h) Video Resolution, Framing and Aspect Ratio:
i) Multiplexing system: MPEG-2 system (ISO/IEC 13818-1 2000).
That standard is used by Japan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador.
j) Processes for Error Correction: Time Interleaving and Frequence Interleaving
k) Interactive TV middleware:
l) Other carcteristics:
Allows 1 program Full HD (1920 x 1080 dots at 16:9 aspect ratio) in a channel; or 1 program HD and 1 program SD in a channel; or 3 programs SD in a channel.
For instance such alert, Earthquake Early Warning
(EEW), is welll utilize with alert sound and emergency box superimposed on TV screen at time of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
and many aftershock
s in several days.
In April 2011, the Chilean Subsecretary of Telecommunications will disclose to implement similar alert system utilized in Japan through ISDB-T. Philippines will implement emergency warning broadcast to households.The SBTVD Forum closed an agreement with the Brazilian Government for the adoption of the Japanese standard EEW or EWS in June 2011.
For detailed technical data, see ABNT
(Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - Brazilian Association for Technical Standards in English
), at DTV area.
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
broadcast used in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, based on the Japanese ISDB-T standard, launched in commercial operation on December 2, 2007, in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil.
The SBTVD standard was developed by a study group coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications and was led by the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) with support from the Telecommunication's Research and Development Centre (CPqD). The study group was composed of members of ten other Brazilian ministries, the National Institute for Information Technology (ITI), several Brazilian universities, broadcast professional organizations, and manufacturers of broadcast/reception devices. The objective of the group was to develop and implement a DTV (Digital TV) standard in Brazil, addressing not only technical and economical issues, but also and mainly "digital inclusion" for those living apart from today's "information society" and looking for "e-gov", i.e. to make government closer to the population since in Brazil more than 94% of families have at least one TV set.
SBTVD is also called ISDB-Tb
ISDB-Tb
ISDB-Tb is the short for International System for Digital Broadcast, Terrestrial, Brazilian version.It is a Digital TV system based on Japanese ISDB-T . ISDB-Tb system is also known as SBTVD and is used in Brazil...
(ISDB-T Japanese standard, Brazilian version) and basically differs from original ISDB-T by using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
as a video compression standard (ISDB-T uses H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2
H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2
H.262 or MPEG-2 Part 2 is a digital video compression and encoding standard developed and maintained jointly by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group . It is the second part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-2 standard...
), a presentation rate of 30 frames per second even in portable devices (ISDB-T, One seg
1seg
is a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Service began experimentally during 2005 and commercially on April 1, 2006. In Brazil, the broadcast started in late 2007 in just a few cities, with a slight difference from...
, uses 15 frame/s for portable devices) and powerful interaction using middleware Ginga
Ginga (SBTVD Middleware)
Ginga is the middleware specification for the Brazilian Digital TV System . Ginga was developed based on a set of standardized technologies, such as ITU-T J.200, and also adding innovations developed by Brazilian researchers...
, composed by Ginga-NCL and Ginga-J
Ginga-J
Ginga-J is the Ginga middleware subsystem which provides an execution infrastructure for Java applications, with functionalities for the Digital TV environment.-References:***...
modules (ISDB-T uses BML
Broadcast Markup Language
Broadcast Markup Language, or BML, is an XML-based standard developed by Japanese ARIB association as a data broadcasting specification for digital television broadcasting...
).
In January 2009, the Brazilian-Japanese study group for digital TV finished and published a specification document joining the Japanese ISDB-T with Brazilian SBTVD, resulting in a specification now called "ISDB-T International". ISDB-T International is the system that will be proposed by Japan and Brazil for other countries in South America and around the world.
History
The history of SBTVD development can be divided in two major periods: a) Initial Studies and Tests; b) Implementation of Digital TV Work Group and final definition of SBTVD standard.Initial Studies
Since 1994 a group composed of technicians from Brazilian Society for Television Engineering (SET) and Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (ABERT) has been analyzing existing digital TV standards (American ATSCATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
, European DVB-T
DVB-T
DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
and Japanese ISDB-T) and its technical aspects but the discussion become a robust study only in 1998.
From 1998 to 2000, the ABERT and SET group, supported by Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie developed a very complete study based on several tests considering not only technical characteristics of each standard but also signal quality, both indoor and outdoor. That was the first complete study comparing all three major DTV standards in the world by an independent entity (i.e. without influence of the ATSC Committee, DVB Group or ARIB/DiBEG Group) and it was considered a very rigorous and robust study by the DTV technical world community.
The results of the "Brazilian digital television tests" showed the insufficient quality for indoor reception presented by ATSC (that is a very important parameter because 47% of television sets in Brazil use only an internal antenna) and, between DVB-T and ISDB-T, the last one presented superior performance in indoor reception and flexibility to access digital services and TV programs through non-mobile, mobile or portable receivers with impressive quality.
In parallel in 1998, the Brazilian Ministry of Communication ordered the National Telecommunication Agency to carry on studies to select and implement a DTV standard in Brazil. Due to the completeness and quality of the ABERT/SET/Mackenzie study, ANATEL considered that as the official result and supported it considering ISDB-T the better standard to be implemented in Brazil.
However the final decision about the standard selected wasn't announced at that moment (August 2000) because of three main points:
- Some groups of society wanted to be more involved in that decision;
- The ATSC Committee and DVB Group wanted to review the ABERT/SET/Mackenzie report and ANATEL decision;
- Political discussions brought new requirements for the standard to be implemented in Brazil, such as digital inclusion and e-gov dissemination.
In the light of those points, the Brazilian Government, under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
, created a more structured discussion group, to review the first studies and to address these new points.
Implementation of Digital TV Work Group and final definition of SBTVD standard
The program SBTVD program was deployed on November 26, 2003 by Presidential Act # 4.901, focusing the creation of a reference model for national terrestrial digital TV in Brazil.The National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) was charged by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications to lead this work with the technical support of CPqD, and the contributions of 10 other Brazilian ministries, the National Institute for Information Technology (ITI), 25 organizations related to the matter (broadcast professionals, broadcast companies, TV program producers, etc.), and 75 universities/R&D institutes and electro-electronic manufacturers. More than 1,200 researchers/professionals were mobilized.
The DTV Work Group was organized in a structure with 3 areas of development:
- Development Committee (CD – Comitê de Desenvolvimento): to define, develop and implement a political and regulatory basis;
- Consultant Committee (CC – Comitê Consultivo): to define and develop the technical aspects of digital TV, and to select the best technology to be used in Brazil (including eventually a technology totally created in Brazil);
- Management Group (GG – Grupo Gestor): to manage specialized research groups.
The objective of the DTV Work Group was not only to define the technical and economical aspects of the Digital TV system but also to address:
- "Digital inclusion" for those living apart from today's "information society";
- The implementation of "e-gov", i.e. to make government closer to the population, because more than 94% of Brazilian families have at least one TV set;
- The provision of educational support via Digital TV through specialized content and interactive programs;
- The provision of cultural dissemination;
- The provision of social integration.
Anyway, technical requirements are important and were also considered:
- 3D (soon)
- High definition;
- Interactive TV;
- Mobile and portable TV with quality;
- Signal robustness indoor and outdoor;
- Excellent data payload in the band.
Just for the Consultant Committee, 20 public RFP (Request for Proposal) were published trying to cover all areas that compose digital TV: Modulation, Signal Processing/Compression, video systems, audio systems, data transport, middleware, etc. The RFPs strongly reinforced the creation of research networks where the studies could be carried in a decentralized manner by several institutes working together.
Some groups worked to present a totally new digital standard, some groups worked to analyze and select the most known digital TV standards (American ATSC
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
, European DVB-T
DVB-T
DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
and Japanese ISDB-T), and other groups worked to implement new features/modules to these already known standards.
After 3 years of studies and developments, the SBTVD Forum announced the selection of Japanese ISDB-T system as a baseline for the SBTVD system, enhanced by some new technologies:
- MPEG-4 AVC compression system (H.264) for video — allows more data payload in the same band. Japan uses MPEG-2 video;
- Middleware called "Ginga" more robust with declarative and procedural modules, to allow complex interactive applications. Japan uses BML middleware which is only declarative;
SBTVD system also presents some adaptations (the following are the main ones):
- The emission masks of transmitters were specially adapted in order to comply with more adverse scenarios for interference from other stations — this is important for implementation purposes in many countries where the spectrum is congested;
- Multiplexing and data structures and signaling were adapted to western standards, with the inclusion of character sets for Latin derived languages;
- Presentation rate of 30 frame/s even for portable receivers - more quality for portable TV;
- Implementation of Open Reception instead of B-CAS DRM Copy protection present in Japanese standard.
Note: There are around 16 technical documents for the SBTVD system, with more than 3,000 pages published by the ABNT
Brazilian National Standards Organization
The Brazilian National Standards Organization, usually rendered in Portuguese as Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas , is the normative body which is responsible for technical standards in Brazil, and intends to promote technological development in the country...
(Brazilian Association for Technical Standards) and the SBTVD Forum detailing the entire SBTVD system.
The selection of the Japanese ISDB-T system as the baseline for SBTVD was based on video/audio quality indoor and outdoor, signal robustness, excellent interference treatment, support for complex interactive TV programs, and quality mobile TV. Besides that, ISDB-T with the new features like MPEG-4 video compression and Ginga middleware become an excellent support for those social requirements intended by the Brazilian Government (digital inclusion, educational and cultural support, e-gov, etc.).
Economical points were analyzed too, such as the elimination of royalties by the Japanese Government on the use of ISDB-T, the transfer of technology from Japan to Brazil, the creation of a Japanese-Brazilian work group for ongoing developments, and financial help for the initial implementation from the Japanese Development Bank.
The final decision was announced on June 29, 2006 by Presidential Act # 5.820 officially stating that Brazil adopted the ISDB-T terrestrial digital transmission system as the baseline for ISDB-Tb (the commercial name for the SBTVD system). The Presidential Act also defines the implementation plan and rules for digital TV in Brazil stating that in seven years all Brazilian territory must be covered by the digital TV signal and in 10 years (i.e. 2016) all TV broadcast must be digital, and that the band used by the broadcast companies for analog TV must be returned to the Brazilian Government. It is important to note that this Presidential Act states that ISDB-Tb must offer a "Multiprogram" feature. During the implementation in Brazil, however, the Ministry of Communication changed this requirement and blocked this feature at least till May 2009.
The decision for ISDB-T was contested by some sectors of society that complained it was a "political" decision where the Brazilian Government was influenced by the Broadcaster Association, specially by Rede Globo (the biggest Brazilian TV network), since ISDB-T isolates TV business from telecommunication company business which will protect the already decreasing earnings of broadcasters in a world that is migrating from TV to Internet and cellular telephone services.
Several technical/engineering organizations and even isolated engineers and technicians that have studied all 3 major standards (ISDB-T, ATSC and DVB) in detail state that ISDB-T really is the best option.
Hence, even if it was really a political decision, it was still the best technical decision.
Analyzing the process now, after 3 years, that seems it was the correct decision because there is a crisis about mobile/portable TV in Europe — highlighted by Nokia selling its mobile TV division — and mobile TV services are lasting to engage because of the costs of portable TV rates (in DVB standard portable TV is offered by Cellular Phone companies as paid services). In Japan, where portable TV is free, the usage is increasing greatly year by year, and the same is happening in Brazil. Also, the decision to include MPEG-4 as the video compression system in SBTVD was shown to be correct by the DVB Committee in Europe launching the DVB 2.0 standard with MPEG-4 as video compression, the USA studying to implement MPEG-4 in ATSC, and Japan analyzing how to evolve the original ISDB-T to implement that feature.
At this very moment the SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) and the original ISDB-T are not compatible systems. That means a TV set or a set-top box bought in Japan will not work in Brazil and vice versa. However, the Japanese-Brazilian Working Group is working to join the two systems into only one to achieve the benefits of gains of scale.
On the other hand, Brazil is producing several types of TV sets and set-top boxes for the SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) system and in a good quantity and there is no problem meeting the consumer demand for TV sets, set-top boxes and also for transmitters and other components.
Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Philippines and Nicaragua have recently adopted ISDB-T and will reinforce the gains of scale in the production of equipment, thus continuing to reduce the price, consolidating the use of the ISDB-T International standard not only in South America.
SBTVD Forum
Some months after the Presidential Act # 5.820, on November 2006, the SBTVD Forum was created to lead and coordinate technical discussions about the standard, to create all related documentation (in conjunction with ABNTBrazilian National Standards Organization
The Brazilian National Standards Organization, usually rendered in Portuguese as Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas , is the normative body which is responsible for technical standards in Brazil, and intends to promote technological development in the country...
(Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - Brazilian Association for Technical Standards in English)) and to plan further developments.
First public tests
SamsungSamsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
was the first company to do a public demonstration of SBTVD transmissions and receivers on June 19, 2007, although other companies claimed to have receivers ready at the time. At their showroom in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, two Full HD LCD sets were shown: one with a built-in tuner and another connected to a prototype set-top box. The tuner and set-top box were developed in Brazil, at Samsung's research center in Manaus
Manaus
Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....
, Amazonas. 1seg
1seg
is a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Service began experimentally during 2005 and commercially on April 1, 2006. In Brazil, the broadcast started in late 2007 in just a few cities, with a slight difference from...
broadcasting to mobile devices was also shown.
The signal was a test reel from Rede Globo
Rede Globo
Rede Globo , or simply Globo, is a Brazilian television network, launched by media mogul Roberto Marinho on April 26, 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Organizações Globo, being by far the largest of its holdings...
(the biggest TV network in Brazil), broadcast at 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
(the standard does not define 1080p) consisting of short clips from soap operas, talk shows, soccer games from recent years and footage of the Brazilian Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
along with some scenic views. All the content was natively HD, some of which was shot with high definition cameras experimentally placed in many of the studios where Globo produces its programs. The 2007 Pan American Games
2007 Pan American Games
The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to July 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Committees competed in 332 events in 34 sports and in...
were also experimentally broadcast in high definition by Globo. Broadcasts of the event could be seen both from Samsung's show room and electronics megastores that received digital tuners to show and demonstrate the technology to the public.
Start of regular broadcasts and implementation status
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
. By January, 2008, the system had also launched in these other Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...
, Goiânia
Goiânia
-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....
, Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, Curitiba
Curitiba
Curitiba is the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is the largest city with the biggest economy of both Paraná and southern Brazil. The population of Curitiba numbers approximately 1.75 million people and the latest GDP figures for the city surpass US$61 billion according to...
, Campinas
Campinas
Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....
, Cuiabá
Cuiabá
Under the Koppen climate classification, Cuiaba features a tropical wet and dry climate. Cuiabá is famous for its searing heat, although temperatures in winter can arrive sporadically at 10 degrees, indeed atypical, caused by cold fronts coming from the south, and that may only last one or two...
, Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
, Florianópolis
Florianópolis
-Climate:Florianópolis experiences a warm humid subtropical climate, falling just short of a true tropical climate. The seasons of the year are distinct, with a well-defined summer and winter, and characteristic weather for autumn and spring. Frost is infrequent, but occurs occasionally in the winter...
, Vitória, Uberlândia
Uberlândia
Uberlândia is the main town in the Triangle region, west of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. With a population of 604,013 inhabitants, according to 2010 estimates, the city is the second largest in the state second only to Belo Horizonte...
, São José do Rio Preto
São José do Rio Preto
São José do Rio Preto is a city and municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Is located at the north/northwest portion of the state, 450 km from the city of São Paulo and 700 km from Brasília....
, Teresina
Teresina
Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. It is located in North-central Piauí 366 km from the coast.It is therefore, the only capital in the Northeast that is not located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. With 814 439 inhabitants, it is the 19th...
, Santos, Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
, Campo Grande
Campo Grande
-Climate:Campo Grande has a highland tropical climate, semi-humid, hot, and notably seasonal, with a dry winter season from May through September or October. Under the Koppen climate classification Campo Grande features a tropical wet and dry climate, albeit a noticeably cooler version of the...
, Fortaleza
Fortaleza
Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...
, Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
, João Pessoa
João Pessoa
João Pessoa , is the capital city of the state of Paraíba, was founded in 1585 and sometimes called the city where the sun rises first, is a Brazilian city and the easternmost city in the Americas at 34º47'38"W, 7º9'28"S. Local residents call its easternmost point Ponta do Seixas. It is also...
, Sorocaba
Sorocaba
Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...
, Mogi das Cruzes
Mogi das Cruzes
Mogi das Cruzes is a municipality in the state of São Paulo metropolitan region of the state capital. The population in 2010 according to the Census population is 387,241 inhabitants, resulting in a population density of 533.90 inhabitants per km ²....
, Ribeirão Preto
Ribeirão Preto
Ribeirão Preto is a municipality and city in the Northeastern region of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is nicknamed Brazilian California, because of a combination of an economy based on agrobusiness plus high technology, wealth and sunny weather all year long. With 605,114 inhabitants,...
, Manaus
Manaus
Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....
, Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
, Joinville
Joinville
Joinville is a city in Santa Catarina State, in the Southern Region of Brazil. Joinville is Santa Catarina's largest city. In 2010, its population has reached approximately 520,000, many of whom are of German descent....
, Aracaju
Aracaju
-Vegetation:Aracaju lies in tropical forest. Rainforests are characterized by high rainfall, with minimum normal annual rainfall between 2,000 mm and 1,700 mm...
, Londrina
Londrina
Londrina is a city located in the northern region of the state of Paraná, Brazil, and is 369 km away from the capital, Curitiba. Londrina was originally founded by British settlers. The city exerts great influence on Paraná and Brazil's south region...
, São Luiz, Araraquara
Araraquara
Not to be confused with Araracuara, a town, region, genus of trees in ColombiaAraraquara is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is also known as "the abode of the sun," because of its impressive sunset and because of its hazy temperature, especially in summer.More than 200,000 people...
and Natal
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
-History:The northeastern tip of South America, Cabo São Roque, to the north of Natal and the closest point to Europe from Latin America, was first visited by European navigators in 1501, in the 1501–1502 Portuguese expedition led by Amerigo Vespucci, who named the spot after the saint of the day...
.
From the broadcasters' point of view, the DTV implementation in Brazil seems to be very successful if compared with the implementation process in other countries. After 16 months, the digital TV signal covered almost 50% of the Brazilian population. For the consumers, the DTV implementation is being taken up more slowly, because of the prices of new DTV sets and set top boxes, and failure to understand the new technology and/or its benefits.
A new push in set-top box and DTV sets sales is expected with the final specification of Ginga
Ginga (SBTVD Middleware)
Ginga is the middleware specification for the Brazilian Digital TV System . Ginga was developed based on a set of standardized technologies, such as ITU-T J.200, and also adding innovations developed by Brazilian researchers...
middleware that will allow interactive use of TV.
Ginga 1.0 (a first implementation of Ginga) was already released for use by set-top box/DTV manufacturers, using NCL
Nested Context Language
Nested Context Language is a declarative authoring language for hypermedia documents.NCL is an XML application language, which provides several facilities for authoring a complete hypermedia document with synchronization relationships among its components...
(Nested Context Language)/Lua as its declarative programming language. That part of Ginga is called Ginga-NCL. However, the complete Ginga middleware specification was planned to present the declarative NCL module and procedural Java module to allow programmers, manufacturers and users to take the best from the two environments: declarative and procedural.
The Java part of Ginga, called Ginga-J, had its specification approved by the SBTVD Forum in April 2009. The same forum declared that the APIs set developed by Sun Microsystems, called Java-DTV, is the standard for SBTVD system, after negotiations with Sun Microsystems to reduce royalties in 15%. Hence, the royalty cost defined by Sun for Java-DTV is much more affordable than that charged by GEM APIs owners (GEM middleware is used in DVB-T - the European DTV standard). That will benefit development of interactive set-top boxes and TV sets keeping them cheaper than if GEM was used as middleware or even if GEM APIs were used with Ginga-J.
It is expected that in the 3rd quarter 2009 the first set-top boxes and TV sets with complete Ginga middleware (Ginga-NCL and Ginga-J) will be available in the market. That date will probably match with the release of first interactive programs to be broadcast by television companies.
At launch on December 2, 2007, set-top boxes were available for prices ranging between R$900 (~US$450) and R$1200 (~US$600), inhibiting sales. But after 8 months the prices dropped quickly to around R$300 (~US$150). President Lula announced subsidies worth 1 billion Reais (~US$ 556 millions) so these prices will face a new reduction phase.
By May 2009 a 42 inches LCD TV FullHD (1920 x 1080) with built-in Digital TV tuner and special characteristics such as double presentation rate (120 Hz) and exceptional contrast (50.000:1) was being sold for R$3,600.00 (~US$1,800.00) in São Paulo City, a very impressive price reduction for such a quality product, and other basic devices present even lower prices. However, until September 2009 the smallest TV that could be bought with an integrated digital tuner was a 32 inches LCD TV. This is slowing down the adoption of digital TV in Brazil, since most people that watch FTA TV cannot afford buying expensive LCD TVs, and 21 and 29 inches CRT TVs are still very popular among the low income population and can be bought for about R$400.00~R$600.00 (US$200.00~US$300.00).
Sales of mobile receivers (for Notebooks, mobile DTV sets and mobile phones with a built-in DTV receiver) are increasing very fast and it seems that mobility is perceived by consumers as a more attractive SBTVD/ISDB-T feature than HD or Full HD definition. The SBTVD/ISDB-T standard allows a very impressive mobile reception, with high quality and steady image, without noise, excellent audio and very robust reception even in the presence of signal reflection, electromagnetic or impulsive interference.
According to the Brazilian government, analog shutdown is scheduled for 2016. Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela are planning the deployment before announcing their analog shutdown date.
Multiprogram Feature
This innovative feature of the ISDB-T standard allows a consumer to watch three different programs at once, or in a sports match, it is possible to watch the game from the point of view of different cameras. The Brazilian Ministry of Communication prevented commercial broadcast companies from using this feature; only public DTV channels are allowed to use it. This decision was taken because Multiprogram could allow unauthorized use of the TV broadcast band. To start with, the Ministry of Communication informed it was being created required legal support to allow the use of such feature, but later decided that the feature will be blocked until new studies are performed. Rede Globo (one of the main Brazilian TV broadcasters) and ABRA (Association of Broadcasting Companies) are pushing the Ministry to keep the Multiprogram feature blocked because it will impact the current TV business model, reducing revenues from advertising. However, once users see the benefit of the Multiprogram feature, some organizations are asking the Ministry of Communication to allow its use by all broadcasters. Some broadcasters, using a different business model from that used by Rede Globo, are asking the Federal Superior Court to decide if the Multiprogram blockage is legal.Only federal government TV channels are allowed to use Multiprogram in Brazil today. TV Cultura, a public television from the state of São Paulo, obtained special authorization (for educational purposes only) and is currently using this feature to broadcast four different video programs. Besides the HDTV and the one-segment (handheld) streams, an additional archive program (Multicultura) and the Virtual University channel (UNIVESP) have been on air since August 2009.
In Japan Multiprogram has being successful the launch of ISDB-T there.
Return Channel
Brazilian broadcasters defend the use of the current analog TV VHF band for the "return channel", the channel that allows digital TV sets to send data to broadcasters as part of an interactive TV service. That 700 MHz band enables the return channel using WiMAX technology, which would be another option to be added to the regular ones (ADSL Internet, Cable Internet, GSM EDGE, GSM 3G, WiFi or dial).That idea will be presented to the Brazilian Government in the WiMAX Forum in June 2009, in the hope of creating an international standard for the return channel.
Expansion of ISDB-T International/SBTVD/ISDB-Tb around the world
The Brazilian and Japanese governments are working together to show the benefits of SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) standard to all South-American countries, focusing specially on the social benefits of digital inclusion through DTV and quality of image, sound and robustness of ISDB-T system as well as mobility and interaction.Countries have adopted ISDB-T International/SBTVD (ISDB-Tb)
- PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
on April 23, 2009 - that decision was taken based on recommendations by the Multi-sectional Commission to assess the most appropriate standard for the country, service started on March 30, 2010, and the deployment of the standard will start in October 2010. The National Government announced that the analog "blackout" will be gradual, starting in 2020, in the Lima Metropolitan Area, and finishing after 2030. They also announced that entry-level receivers (for standard definition only) will cost around US $20; - ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
on August 28, 2009, and service started on April 28, 2010. - ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
on September 14, service started in June 2010. - VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
on October 6, 2009. The seven stages of Set-top boxSet-top boxA set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
manufacturing, testing and implement schedule is well proceeding and will start to deploy DTTDigital terrestrial televisionDigital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
from 2011. - EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
on March 26, 2010 - Costa RicaCosta RicaCosta Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
on May 25, 2010 - ParaguayParaguayParaguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
on June 1, 2010, and started experimental broadcasting from AsunciónAsunciónAsunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
area on 15 August 2011. - PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
on June 11, 2010; - BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
on July 5, 2010, and start trial transmissions from June 2011 in La PazLa PazNuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
, CochabambaCochabambaCochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...
and Santa Cruz. - NicaraguaNicaraguaNicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
on August 10, 2010 - UruguayUruguayUruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
on December 27, 2010, and start trial transmissions from September 2011 for seven months. - MaldivesMaldivesThe Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
on October 19, 2011, attracted to Earthquake Early WarningEarthquake Early Warning (Japan)The is a warning issued just after an earthquake in Japan is detected. The warnings are issued mainly by the Japan Meteorological Agency , and they issue tips on how to react to the warnings.-Introduction:...
for tsunamiTsunamiA tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
, and the first country with 8 MHz channel bandwidth.
Brazil and Japan are presenting the benefits of SBTVD/ISDB-Tb standard to Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and some SADC
Southern African Development Community
The Southern African Development Community is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states...
countries.
Additionally, Brazil and Japan are trying to present the benefits of SBTVD/ISDB-Tb to Colombia and Panama which have initially chosen the European standard as of January 2011 and Honduras and El Salvador who have initially chosen the US-American standard as of December 2010.
Countries and territories using SBTVD/ISDB-T/ISDB-T International
| Latin America (Adopted) | Latin America (In Assessment) | Africa (In Assessment) | Asia (Adopted) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Brazil |
 Belize |
 Zambia |
 Japan |
 Peru |
 Guatemala |
 Mozambique |
 Philippines |
 Argentina |
 Cuba |
 Botswana |
 Thailand (In Assessment) |
 Chile |
 Tanzania |
 Maldives |
|
 Venezuela |
 Malawi |
||
 Ecuador |
 Namibia |
||
 Costa Rica |
 Kenya |
||
 Paraguay |
 Burundi |
||
 Bolivia |
 Central African Republic |
||
 Nicaragua |
 Chad |
||
 Uruguay |
 Democratic Republic of the Congo |
||
 Rwanda |
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 Angola |
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 Cameroon |
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 Republic of the Congo |
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 Equatorial Guinea |
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 Gabon |
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 São Tomé and Príncipe |
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 Lesotho |
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 Swaziland |
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 Benin |
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 Burkina Faso |
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 Cape Verde |
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 Côte d'Ivoire |
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 The Gambia |
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 Ghana |
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 Guinea |
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 Guinea-Bissau |
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 Liberia |
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 Mali |
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 Mauritania |
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 Niger |
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 Nigeria |
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 Senegal |
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 Sierra Leone |
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 Togo |
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 Comoros |
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 Djibouti |
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 Eritrea |
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 Ethiopia |
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 Madagascar |
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 Seychelles |
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 Somalia |
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 Uganda |
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ITU-T certification for SBTVD/ISDB-T solutions
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - a United Nations' regulatory agency for telecommunication and information technology questions - has certified on April 29, 2009 the module Ginga-NCL and the language NCL/Lua as the first international recommendation for interactive multimedia environments for Digital TV and IPTV—Recommendation H.761.
NCL/Lua and Ginga-NCL were developed by the TeleMidia Laboratory of the Informatics Department at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), a Brazilian university.
This is an important ITU-T standard as it addresses the standardization of middleware for interactivity in devices and set-top boxes for IPTV and Digital TV, before that market becomes full of incompatible hardware/software solutions, thus impacting final users.
Additionally, on October 2009, ITU has defined officially SBTVD as a subsystem for ISBD-T, developing 2 new recommendations:
- a. UIT-R BT.1699 regarding technical aspects of Ginga-NCL middleware for DTV and;
- b. UIT-R BT.1306 regarding innovations presented by Brazilian standard over ISDB-T like MPEG-4 compression, and others.
Technical facts
b) Frequency Band: VHF or UHF, according to the country implementation strategy. UHF is a very affordable band once it is possible to implement digital services in current UHF "spaces" in broadcasting spectrum while analog services are still running in "jammed" VHF band. After digital TV implementation rollout is finished and analog signal is cut off, then VHF can be used for other services or even to expand digital services to more broadcasters. Japan, Philippines, and Brazil have chosen UHF. Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela are in implementation design phase, so the band to be used was not defined.
The ISDB system can also work based in cable or satellite trasmission (ISDB-C and ISDB-S) using appropriate frequency band, but these standards are outside the scope of this arcticle.
c) Transmission architecture: Segmented
- Non-Mobile receivers: 13 segments (for Full HD resolution.
Other arrangements possible according to the desired resolution/number of programs transmitted)
- Mobile receivers (in vehicles for example): The same as Non-Mobile
- Portable receivers (mobile phones for example): 1 segment
d) Frame Rate:
- Non-Mobile/Mobile service: Japan, Peru, Argentina (also 25 frame/s and 50 frame/s), Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador: 30 frame/s and 60 frame/s
- Portable service: Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Philippines and Ecuador: Maximum of 30 frame/s; Japan: Maximum of 15 frame/s
e) Channel Bandwidth:
Japan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador: 6 MHz (It is possible to use SBTVD/ISDB-T system with 13 segments in 7 MHz or 8 MHz if that is required by any country. Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
is the first country to adopt ISDB-T with 8 MHz channel bandwidth.)
f) Audio Compression System:
- Non-Mobile/Mobile service:
- Multi Channel 5.1: MPEG-4 AAC@L4 (Advanced Audio Coding, Level 4) or MPEG-4 HE-AAC v1@L4 (High Efficiency AAC, Version 1, Level 4)
- Stereo: MPEG-4 AAC@L2 (AAC Level 2) or MPEG-4 HE-AAC v1@L2 (HE-AAC, Version 1, Level 2)
- Portable service: MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2@L2 (HE-AAC, Version 2, Level 2) for stereo audio (or 2 mono channels) only.
All compression systems must be conform to ISO/IEC 14496-3:2004 standard.
The Allowed transport mechanisms LATM/LOAS.
Note: Japan uses MPEG-2 AAC for non-mobile/mobile service and MPEG-4 HE-AAC for portable service.
The Allowed transport mechanisms ADTS
g) Video Compression System:
- Non-Mobile/Mobile: MPEG-4 AVC HP@L4 (Advanced Video Coding, High Profile, Level 4)
- Portable: MPEG-4 AVC BP@L1.3 (AVC, Base Profile, Level 1.3)
Also, video codification must be conform to ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005 standard.
These standards are also known as ITU-T H.264:2005 Recommendation.
Note: Japan uses MPEG-2 video.
h) Video Resolution, Framing and Aspect Ratio:
- Non-Mobile/Mobile:
- SD 720x480i at 4:3 or 16:9
- SD 720x480p at 4:3 or 16:9
- SD 720x576i at 4:3 or 16:9
- SD 720x576p at 4:3 or 16:9
- HD 1280x720p at 16:9
- Full HD 1920x1080i at 16:9
- Note: i = interlaced framing; p = progressive framing
- Portable:
- SQVGA (160x120 or 160x90)
- QVGA (320x240 or 320x180)
- CIF (352x288)
- All these formats using 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios.
i) Multiplexing system: MPEG-2 system (ISO/IEC 13818-1 2000).
That standard is used by Japan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador.
j) Processes for Error Correction: Time Interleaving and Frequence Interleaving
k) Interactive TV middleware:
- ISDB-T: Declarative: BML; Procedural: Not implemented - Optional GEM
- SBTVD/ISDB-T International: Declarative: Ginga-NCL; Procedural: Ginga-J
l) Other carcteristics:
- Multiprogram:
Allows 1 program Full HD (1920 x 1080 dots at 16:9 aspect ratio) in a channel; or 1 program HD and 1 program SD in a channel; or 3 programs SD in a channel.
Alert broadcast
Allows the government or authority configure the emergency warning broadcasting system and send an alert (earthquake, tsunami, etc.) to each device in the area ISDB-T/SBTVD/ISDB-T International signal is present. The alert signal uses some data space in one of the segments of the data stream and turns on all receivers, if turned off, and presents the alert information.For instance such alert, Earthquake Early Warning
Earthquake Early Warning (Japan)
The is a warning issued just after an earthquake in Japan is detected. The warnings are issued mainly by the Japan Meteorological Agency , and they issue tips on how to react to the warnings.-Introduction:...
(EEW), is welll utilize with alert sound and emergency box superimposed on TV screen at time of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
and many aftershock
Aftershock
An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock...
s in several days.
In April 2011, the Chilean Subsecretary of Telecommunications will disclose to implement similar alert system utilized in Japan through ISDB-T. Philippines will implement emergency warning broadcast to households.The SBTVD Forum closed an agreement with the Brazilian Government for the adoption of the Japanese standard EEW or EWS in June 2011.
Summary table
(modified from ISDB-T article)| Transmission channel coding | ||
|---|---|---|
| Modulation Scheme |
|
|
| Error correction coding |
|
|
| Guard interval | 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 | |
| Interleaving | Time, Frequency, bit, byte | |
| Modulation Type | BST-OFDM (Segmented structure OFDM - 13 segments) | |
| Conditional Access | Multi-2 | |
| Middleware | Ginga Middleware: Ginga-NCL (declarative environment) and Ginga-J (procedural environment) | |
| Service information | ARIB STD B-10 | |
| Multiplexing | MPEG-2 Systems | |
| Audio coding | ||
| Non-Mobile/Mobile |
|
|
| Portable | Stereo only: MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2@L2 | |
| Video coding | ||
| Non-Mobile/Mobile | MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) HP@L4 | |
| Portable | MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) BP@L1.3 | |
For detailed technical data, see ABNT
Brazilian National Standards Organization
The Brazilian National Standards Organization, usually rendered in Portuguese as Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas , is the normative body which is responsible for technical standards in Brazil, and intends to promote technological development in the country...
(Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - Brazilian Association for Technical Standards in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
), at DTV area.
Derived from ISDB-T International
- SATVD - Argentinean System of Digital TV, or SATVD-T - Sistema Argentino de Televisión Digital Terrestre
- SBTVD - Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital
See also
- ISDB-TbISDB-TbISDB-Tb is the short for International System for Digital Broadcast, Terrestrial, Brazilian version.It is a Digital TV system based on Japanese ISDB-T . ISDB-Tb system is also known as SBTVD and is used in Brazil...
- 1seg1segis a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Service began experimentally during 2005 and commercially on April 1, 2006. In Brazil, the broadcast started in late 2007 in just a few cities, with a slight difference from...
- Mobile terrestrial TV/audio/data service - GingaGinga (SBTVD Middleware)Ginga is the middleware specification for the Brazilian Digital TV System . Ginga was developed based on a set of standardized technologies, such as ITU-T J.200, and also adding innovations developed by Brazilian researchers...
- MiddlewareMiddlewareMiddleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact... - ISDB-Tmm (Terrestrial mobile multi-media)
External links
- ISDB-T Official Web Site, DiBEG (Digital Broadcasting Experts Group from Japan)
- SBTVD Specifications in Portugues, Español, English
- Organization for ISDB-T International of Peru (Spanish)
- International Promotion of ISDB-T：Demonstration of 8MHz-bandwidth ISDB-T Transmission System, ARIBAssociation of Radio Industries and BusinessesThe Association of Radio Industries and Businesses, commonly known as ARIB , is a standardization organization in Japan. ARIB is designated as the center of promotion of the efficient use of the radio spectrum and designated frequency change support agency...
(in Japanese and English)- AnritsuAnritsuis a Japanese corporation that is in the test and measurement market. Products include microwave, RF, and optical signal generators , spectrum analyzers, and network analyzers. It was formed with the merger of two companies, the Annaka Corporation and Kyoritsu Electric in Japan in 1931. In 1990...
Supports 8MHz ISDB-T Channel Bandwidths.mov (YouTube)
- Anritsu
- The advance of ISDB-TB in Latin America; Tutorial:The Brazilian System Digital TV, 8 technical articles show how to work the ISDB-TB System Revista da SET, March 2010
- Switching On to ISDB-T Digital Highlighting Japan September 2010 (Public Relations Office Government of Japan)
- SBTVD Forum
- The SBTVD website of the Brazilian Communications Ministry
- DVB-T and ISDB-T Comparative Test Results in PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in October 2008 (DiBEG) - Comparison Test Results in Brazil, ATSC, DVB-T and ISDB-TNHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
- Pictures of the Samsung Public SBTVD demo in São Paulo
- Final report of the Digital Terrestrial Television Peruvian Multi-sectional Commission
- DTT arrives in Peru - La TDT llega al Peru
- Schedule for the implementation of Digital TV in the world
- Free-to-air DTV in Latin America NexTV Latam, TV Telco Latam
- DTV Around the World - Why Argentina Selected ISDB-T after Testing US’s ATSC (Part 2), September 9, 2010 (HDTV Magazine)