Prasar Bharati’s DVB-T2 services on trial in 19 cities in India

Prasar Bharati has started trial transmission of television and radio channels that can be accessed on smart mobile phones with the help of a dongle from January this year. The ‘Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial (DVB-T2)’ services will allow TV and radio channels to be enabled on smartphones by interfacing with a dongle for receipt of signals from a terrestrial transmitter.

This new technology innovation is being replicated in 19 cities of the country while Bengaluru has already successfully started the test transmission. Trials in different areas of the city have revealed clear audio-video digital pictures and sound. The new services will allow customers to watch TV channels and listen to their favourite radio channels free on mobile phone. For this, customers will not need an Internet connection or even a SIM card but just a dongle.

“Since a sizeable population in the country is on the move, glued to their mobiles or tablets, if we can use this technology that has no data charges, it will revolutionize broadcasting services in a big way. We can also increase the number of channels through local insertions once the service starts. Further, with tablets nowadays coming with inbuilt tuners, anybody can access this service. The cost for a receiver is not prohibitive,” said N Thiyagarajan, Additional Director General of Engineering, South Zone of Prasar Bharati.

The services will comprise of five Doordarshan (DD) channels (DD National, DD News, DD Sports, DD Bharati, DD Chandana and three AIR channels) and People can watch images and hear sound while moving in a vehicle within city limits as the range of accessibility is 70 km.