adminLiberty Dube Business Correspondent
THE ongoing process of migration from analogue to digital television broadcasting has made tremendous progress in Manicaland province and is expected to be complete by September next year, Transmedia chief executive officer, Mrs Florence Sigudu-Matambo revealed recently.
Broadcasting Association of Zimbabwe entered an agreement with Chinese ICT giant, Huawei to spearhead the digital migration project and fulfil the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) call.
The migration to digital television broadcasting requires that the television studios, the transmission network and the television receivers in people’s homes employ digital equipment.
Mrs Sigudu last week visited one of the transmission sites at Cecil Kopje to monitor progress where Chinese personnel were installing equipment for the digitalisation programme.
The Chinese firm recently installed new transmitters and generators to enable the smooth flow of the process at the site.
“There is very high frequency network in some countries most of them are actually in the process to move from Very High Frequency (VHF) digital to Ultra High Frequency (UHF) digital while here in Zimbabwe we are still on the VHF analogue. We intend to leap frog from VHF analogue to UHF digital, that’s the process we are undertaking. Despite competing demands, we have plans to finish by September 2016. Coverage will shrink when we move from analogue to digital,” she said.
For the mandatory project to be fully completed, it would require $125 million.
The purchase of ZBC’s 700MHZ frequency worth $200 million by NetOne earlier this year also boosted their coffers.
“I am happy with the progress made here. Government has been very supportive. We want a situation where everyone must receive signal starting from the peripheral of the country. People from the peripheral will benefit hugely from this project.
“This will also positively impact their lives, for instance people living within the proximity of transmission sites will have access to roads, electricity among other things,” added Mrs Sigudu Matambo.
The migration will see Zimbabweans waving goodbye to showery signal, poor and sound quality while ZBC would be able to transmit more television and radio channels.
Zimbabwe currently has 24 transmission sites and is working on establishing an additional 24. Construction has already started on 15 of the new sites.
“Television has been bad. Signal must be everywhere. We wouldn’t want a situation where people living near borders, particularly in Mutare would be forced to listen and connected to Mozambican radio or those in Beitbridge connected to South African radio. People should have a choice, we need to bring information closer to the people of Zimbabwe,” Mrs Sigudu-Matambo said.
Digitalisation process is divided into four phases, which are the Programme source, Heart- End, Conditional Access System and the Transmission Equipment installation.
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