No previous press or parliamentary discussions or requests from civil society, without apparent conflict, has evolved the way that will take Cuban television, who knows when on a permanently basis, through digital paths.
The Ministry of Communications of Cuba has issued a press release reporting that from June it will begin to implement one “demonstration zone” of the digital terrestrial TV service in the nation’s capital.
Tests to evaluate the quality of signal transmission and reception in “real conditions” will be performed in some households in Havana that will be equipped with external tuners to allow current analog TV sets to capture digital signals.
Authorities say signals will be transmitted using the standard Chinese Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting or DTMB, by its acronym in English. This, without explaining why that and not ATSC of American origin or Japanese-Brazilian ISDB-Tb which was adopted until 2010 by twelve Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Argentina.
The tuners will be distributed “in selected districts, in order to achieve adequate geographical spread and different reception conditions within the entire area of Havana,” the statement reads.
For now, and because it is a test, the devices will be delivered by payment of only 7.35 pesos (about 0.30 U.S. cents). A price in which is not contained the cost of equipment but only distribution costs and technical services.
The Ministry of Communications reports that “the current TV signal using analog technology will remain unaffected.
These tests, they say, “enable to adapt technical, economic and organizational measures to subsequently continue the deployment of digital TV in stages and regions across the country, according to the economic possibilities.”
Digital technology in television enables the ostensible improvement of quality of audio and high-definition image, plus it increases the number of signals in the same channel, and enables new possibilities for user interaction through the TV screens.
