Digital Broadcasting Conference

Myanmar’s Forever Group together with the ABU co-hosted the Digital Broadcasting Conference for Asian Broadcasters in late November. This ran over 3 days and consisted of a series of workshops and a conference. More than 100 broadcasters and technical professionals from Myanmar and across the region attended.

This conference was considered important at this time because many countries in the region have not only adopted DVB-T2 as their national DTT standard but are now proceeding with implementation of services. This includes countries like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Vietnam etc.

Many of the presentations focussed on most aspects of planning, design & implementation. DVB was represented by John Bigeni and Gerard Faria (Teamcast) conducted workshops covering a range of topics aimed at assisting broadcasters in planning and implementing services using the new DVB-T standard. Other members of DVB such as Enensys, Rohde & Schwarz &  Sony also participated in the event.

Myanmar which is experiencing unprecedented economic change itself but still very much a developing country has had very early entry into Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting having commenced DVB-T transmissions as early as 2006. The Forever Group have already commissioned 3 DVB-T2 transmitters and commenced test transmissions.

28 Nov 2012
John Bigeni, DVB

Myanmar Update (Jan. 9, 2012)

Myanmar is now introducing DVB-T2 overlaying their existing extensive DVB-T network. The forever group (National Broadcaster) have already ordered 3 DVB-T2 transmitters which will be on trial service early 2012.

Myanmar Update
In 2005 Myanmar chose DVB-T technology for their terrestrial digital TV network and began transmissions, promoted by MRTV-4, in Yangon on the 7th March 2005.
The adoption of DVB-T was written into legislation in 2006.
By 2008, MRTV-4 had extended DVB-T coverage to 50% of the population with another 15 DVB-T “re-transmission stations”. In Yangon 22 DTT channels consisting of a mix of free to air and pay-TV are available, according to recent information and 10 channels in other major cities.
The number of transmitting stations has now risen to 28 increasing the DTT coverage to 56 % of the population.
The current plan is for analogue switch off to take place when DTT take up has reached 80-90% which might take 15-20 years.
Back ground
Myanmar covers 261,228 square miles and has a population of around 55 million. It is divided into 14 states and divisions, with a total of 325 townships. Analogue TV coverage is around 92% of the population.
Transmission system
Myanmar has chosen to use an 8k DVB-T system broadcast at UHF using 8MHz channel spacing.
In Yangon 64 QAM was used on one of the three channels and 16 QAM on the other two, with code rates of 2/3 and 3/4 respectively. The guard interval was 1/32 for all.
Transmitter powers were 500W for one channel and 2kW for the other two.
In other parts of the country transmitter powers range from 100W to 1.2kW.
Source: DVB correspondents
Item added: 22nd March 2010




Myanmar chooses DVB-T for digital terrestrial TV standard
At the third Asean Digital Broadcasting (ADB) meeting, held on the 29th August in Brunei, it was announced that Myanmar as well as Singapore have chosen DVB-T for its digital terrestrial transmission broadcasting standard.
The main thrust of the meeting was to share knowledge and experience and also plan the transition to a common digital terrestrial television standard in the Asean region. More than 50 delegates from seven Asean countries attended the meeting namely Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines.
Source: Borneo Bulletin
Item added: 30th August 2005

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If you have more up to date information please send it to dvb@dvb.org
Last page update: 22nd March 2010, Barry Tew