Enabling 49 additional Digital TV channels in PNG via a new DVB-T2 Transmitter
Background
Since PNG’s capital and economic hub Port Moresby transitioned from analogue to digital TV in 2014, home access to TV has been on the rise with residents demanding a larger variety of channels. The transition started with Digicel PNG, the country’s dominant telecommunications company launching the first multichannel TV network in Port Moresby in 2014 by providing high-definition content through its extensive mobile-tower network.
Today, Digicel’s Digital TV service, Digital Play is delivered via both DTH and DTT networks and consists of 92 local and international channels.
With a population over 360,000 and area of 240km2, Port Moresby’s communities to be served are relatively compact. The local mountainous terrain limits wider coverage so the terrestrial network in Port Moresby requires fewer transmitters each with carefully focused coverage.
Customer Needs
The ever increasing range of available content, an increase of viewers in the region and consequent demand for more immersive content experiences saw Digicel enlist a leader in media technology solutions, MediaKind to enhance its current system. The upgrade would provide an additional 48 SD MPEG4 channels through deploying an award-winning compression headend technology and expanded transmitter infrastructure. To support the largest number of users, MediaKind selected Techtel to facilitate the first expansion for the DVB-T2 VHF terrestrial transmitters, at Burn’s Peak site in Port Moresby.
Solution
As part of the solution, Techtel provided and integrated Egatel’s DVB-T2 Transmitters, which now enable the delivery of more than 49 additional services for Digicels subscribers in Port Moresby, over two newly added transport streams.
The Egatel DVB-T2 system itself incorporates power amplifiers based on LDMOS transistors technology characterized by high power density, allowing very high efficiency. Furthermore, Egatel integrate a modulator that covers the main TV and Radio spectrums, equipped with the latest technology in signal processing allowing Digital TV broadcasting with the highest quality and reliability. The integrated transmitter is compatible with both single frequency (SFN) and multiple frequency (MFN) networks, a result of Egatel’s system’s configuration flexibility.
In addition, the new DVB-T2 system features integrated digital adaptive pre-correction for easy commissioning and testing requirements with flexible configurations accommodating various redundancy scenarios.
As a part of its integrated offering, Techtel supplied, installed, commissioned and tested a new 600Wrms (2+1) DVB-T2 transmitter system by Egatel, as well as seamless integration of the platform into Port Moresby’s existing transmission facilities by adding a new RF combiner with two narrow-band and one wide-band inputs. The combiner and its internal filters have been custom designed and fine-tuned to accommodate the four adjacent RF channels compliant with PNG RF spectrum allocations for broadcasting of DTV services.
Results
After comprehensive testing, Techtel’s integration team were able to achieve exceptional RF signal and sharp filter performance with shoulder value measured at over 49dB, and MER value of higher than 35dB, which translates into superior signal quality for the viewers, with minimal interference.
Together with the installation of MediaKind’s technology, Techtel’s integrated transmitter has empowered Digicel to open up new revenue streams by delivering 48 more channels, bringing the company’s total broadcast channels to 92 in Port Moresby alone. Since the start of the project, Digicel PNG has already launched 4 new TV plans includinga 60 channel bundle on the Digicel TV terrestrial service in and around Port Moresby.
The new channel line-up includes FOX, HBO, Cartoon Network, Fox Sports, MTV, Discovery as well as Digicel TV’s exclusive coverage of the Hunters, NRL, English Premier League soccer, Super Rugby and more.
Techtel is an established provider of digital TV broadcasting transmitters with many other channels powered by Egatel in service in the Australian market.
