New Delhi: Public Broadcaster Doordarshan has launched Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) across 16 cities in India on February 25, 2016, reaching mobile TV to its viewers. The sixteen cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Guwahati, Patna, Ranchi, Cuttack, Lucknow, Jallandhar, Raipur, Indore, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Bangalore and Ahmadabad.
Mobile TV can be received in and around these cities, using DVB-T2 dongles in OTG enabled smart phones and tablets and Wi-Fi dongles on moving vehicles. Doordarshan channels will also be available on the new platform on television sets that have built in DVB -T2 Tuners, called integrated digital TV (iDTV).
While iDTV is available easily in television sets marketed by companies like Sony, LG, Panasonic and Samsung, the dongles are available at online shopping sites like Flipkart, Ebay and Snapdeal. Users need to download the software and plug the dongles onto smart phones and tablets, to receive DD signals.
There will be no charges for watching the DD channels on the DTT platform. Moreover, no internet connection is required after the software has been installed. Public and private transportation vehicles and public places are potential environments for Mobile Television.
At present, DD National, DD News, DD Bharati, DD Sports, DD Regional/DD Kisan are being relayed across Mobile TV. Enabling Digital Terrestrial Television requires just a one-time investment on a dongle and involves no extra expenditure, unlike other services, like streaming on internet. The TV pictures are, moreover, free of “ghosting” and “snowing”.
Digital Terrestrial Television secures greater plurality in platform ownership, ensuring that no single platform owner may exert undue influence on public opinion or political agendas. The digital transition offers a greater opportunity for production of local content and so, more job opportunities and increase in creativity and entrepreneurship.
A strong DTT platform is critical for healthy competition in the TV market, not to speak of a wide range of social benefits, of which the most essential is the all-weather reliable platform. Since there is no risk, whatsoever, of a catastrophic failure of the network, DTT is an alternative distribution platform.
Television has strongly shaped the lives of Indians for decades, since its days of black and white transmission in the late 1950s. Since then, television has been available in colour. Digital Terrestrial TV is the next stage in the evolution of the medium, when it can be received on smart phones, tablets and on moving vehicles. The new audience, which is constantly on move, are the key beneficiary of this technology.
At present, mobile TV can be received using a dongle for mobile phones and tablets. But the day is not far when it will be embedded inside the devices. Watching TV from a phone is always an interesting experience. Public and private transportation vehicles in public places are the potential environment for mobile TV services.
In the DTT transmission, everyone watches the same content at the same time and are guaranteed the same high level of service, bathed as they all are in the same signal. So, the Indian viewer now has the option to watch Doordarshan channels in a new way. The service is now available across 6 cities, but that number is expected to increase in the near future.
