Thursday, January 24, 2008

More Information on Dialog DVB-T

Yesterday was a historic day for broadcasting in Sri Lanka since the first ever DVB-T service was launched by Dialog Telekom making it the first service in South Asia too.

Most of the newspapers carried this news story as one of the major stories in the business section. This project has been implemented in collaboration with the Media Ministry of Sri Lanka. At the moment nine channels are available on this service including Rupavahini, Channel Eye/Nethra, ITN, Derana, Swarnavahini along with two foreign channels inclusive of Al Jazeera. coverage will be made available in Colombo areas, Wattala, Gampaha and in the 2nd phase of expansion the Eastern Province will be covered. Coverage is expected to be expanded to cover the entire island. According to sources Dialog does not intend to become a content provider but rather a platform that others can use. This will enable new companies that intend to start television channels to broadcast using the Dialog platform saving the cost of setting up transmission towers. Around 500 set top boxes will be distributed for this purpose at a cost that is said to be cheaper than a mobile phone and at cost price without a profit. Additionally since this is a pilot project the service will be rental free.

We believe that those of you who have modern television sets equipped with digital receivers and are residing in areas where coverage is available will be able to receive this service if the receiver is connected to a television antenna, preferably a UHF antenna. Those of you who are able to do are requested to update us with the quality of the service. In addition this service can be received on mobile phones with equipped with DVB receivers and also on vehicles equipped with DVB receivers. Unfortunately not many in Sri Lanka posses DVB receivers.

This is indeed a stepping stone for Sri Lanka to jump onto the digital broadcasting bandwagon and with many countries already switching off Analog transmitters it is time for the TRC and the Media Ministry to formulate procedures with deadlines that will see local broadcasters setting up their own digital transmitters or connecting to a platform such as that provided by Dialog. As done with DVB it is time for the Media Ministry to get local radio stations to move into DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) since the FM band is more crowded than the television service.

At the moment it is not clear whether the Maharaja's (Sirasa, Channel One & Shakthi TV), ETV, Art Tv and other channels that are not present on Dialog's DTH service will become part of their terrestrial service which does not include any pay television channel but only the free to air channels. However we urge the operators of the mentioned television services to seriously consider becoming part of the platform or to setup their own digital service instead of sticking to Jurassic technology. It is highly likely that the day SLRC splits Nethra TV & Channel Eye it will be done on the digital platform rather than on the analog platform.

Link : Daily Mirror (Jan 24th 2008) - Dialog TV launches another South Asia's first DVB-T

31 comments:

AI said...

I try to scan it. (have small usb DVB-T Tuner) it didnt found any signal

Lula said...

I have received 8 Channels(with small usb DVB-T Tuner)under Singapore. 6 Local Channels, cristal clear.

online said...

Hi lula
I want to know from where you bought dvb-t receiver it is out of sri lanka or supply by dialog?

Thanks bye

Lula said...

Bought it from Singapore. Price unknown. It's a gift

online said...

HI lula can you give me the model no?

Nuwan Ganganath said...

At the moment I'm in Germany and I have a DVB-T tuner. If I bring it to Sri Lanka, can I watch any channels?

Sattvasia.Com said...

USB Digital Tv tuner Only cost 45 Australian dollars in Australia (1AUD=~Rs 90 at the moment). Rs.4100. It supports both High Definition and standard Definition.

Lisura said...


Anybody watching dialog DVB-T transmission ? its down till yesterday.

Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kumar said...

706 MHz Dialog TV

Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisura said...

I think they have stopped the transmission. Earlier they said it covers 50 miles radius from Colombo. But we experienced it only within the city.

Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisura said...

As they dont get an income they might have stopped it. I heard that their is a DVB-T service in Jaffna with about 40 channels. It's a pay tv service.

Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kumar said...

I don't know about coverage in Gampaha, don't give any parameters, search by default with all values. I thing it is working again. Just check again.

Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisura said...

Thanks kumar for the news. I checked last night and 8 channels are there and all are Free to Air at the moment.

Sumie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kumar said...

@lisura
What r the 8 channels?

Lisura said...

Rupavahini
Channel eye
Derana
Buddhist tv
Channel C
Citi Hitz
Kalaigner tv
HTV

Kumar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisura said...

@ Kumar

Theres no such file on my system. What info do you want ?

Kumar said...

I receieve DVB-T signal, but there are no channels visible.

Lisura said...

Where are you at the moment ? Did you check it now ? I'm unable to confirm as I dont have the USB stick with me. I shall update you in a while......

Kumar said...

I am in COlombo, I received the channels but i scanned yesterday after that evrything gone, when i scan it shows signal found but no chnanels.

Lisura said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisura said...

I too came across the same problem. Scanned in my PC and all are gone except I now receive channel C on 658000 Khz

In the prevously tuned one on 706000 KHz the other 7 channels are visible

Sumie said...

all my problems solved now. I got them set correctly. If you know the parameters, you can set them right too.

Lisura said...

What are those ?