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700 MHz & even sub-700 MHz

@ Istanbul, 2015 As you may well know, in Turkey, we still do not have any DTT investment. It is not yet clear, weather we will have in future. According to the Act 6112, it is definitely clear that Turkey will build DTT network, but the strict dates, the dates for the ASO which were in the Act, are now not clear. Which confuses every body in the broadcast sector.  Recently, actually yesterday, an important announcement was made by the EBU, on the spectrum usage. This announcement, which can be read through this link , points the problems which may occur if the usage of 700 & even sub700 band is shared with non broadcast services before the pre announced date which was set to be 2030.  These issues surely makes the discussion, should Turkey start to build DTT or looks for other solution, more meaningful.  I will try to keep you updated with the discussions in Turkey. 

An e-Interview with Kenneth Wenzel

Mr. Wenzel @ Amsterdam RAI, 2015 As those of you, who read my blog, well know I have been interviewing about digital radio solutions. I made interview with the head of DAB & DRM organizations; namely Mr. Patrick Hannon & Ms. Ruxandra Obreja. I also had chance to speak with Mr. Attila Ladanyi, CTO of T&C Holding. The interview with Dr. Peter Siebert, CEO of DVB Project Office, was, some how, also on digital radio.  Now, it is time to read another alternative approach. This time, I send my questions to Mr. Kenneth Wenzel. Many, know him as the man from Denmark, who tells that DVB-T2 Lite is enough for also digital radio. He is the CEO of U-Media ApS. I had the chance to meet Mr. Wenzel twice, one in Tallinn in 2013 and the second in Amsterdam in 2015. I also had the chance to saw his demo in Amsterdam, showing that radio over DVB-T2 Lite, actually works fine even on cell phones.  I personally want to thank to Mr. Wenzel, for his time... 1. Can you please,

Recent figures form Turkish PayTV market & Netflix

Finally, it is possible to reach the service of Netflix from Turkey. As a technology blogger, it is, in a way, my duty to comment on this important development.  I first want to share some figures from Turkish TV market. The data set is available for public access through the web page of the Supreme Council. Data is published as quarterly and latest is Q3 of 2015, which is published in December 2015. Total number of households is taken as 22 M: According to the data set, that I shared the link above, there are totally 5.994.631 subscribers in Turkey, to the TV services. The distribution of these subscribers are as follows: As you see above, the percentage is same :) There four Direct To Home Satellite PayTV Operators in Turkey, namely Digiturk, DSmart, FillBox & Tivibu. Total number of subscribers of these services is 4.367.153 There is one cable TV operator, which is Turksat, state owned & also the satellite operator. There are two IPTV operators: Tivibu (a ser

Once again digital radio, an interview with Attila Ladanyi, CTO of T & C Holding and Board Member of the RDS-Forum.

Paris / January 2014 As you may noticed, I posted two interviews on digital radio, one of which is with Mr. Patrick Hannon & the second is with Ms. Ruxandra Obreja. I am pleased to say that both interviews were very informative for me & also for the Turkish market. I was working on the digital radio transition project professionally when I posted those interviews. After a change in my position, although I am not directly involved in the project any more, I keep following the progress and still try to understand the technology. This is the third interview with the same 4 questions. Mr. Attila Ladanyi is the CTO of T & C Holding and also a Board Member of the RDS - Forum. The photo in this post is from Paris. 1. There are many examples of digital radio transitions all over the world. Some are great success whereas some are total fail.  I think there is not a one-right-path to follow. What do you recommend us, I mean in Turkey, with all those experiences? I do

Shall we not build DTT, after WRC 2015

According to the news in the web site of EBU, 470 - 694 MHz will be reserved for DTT & radio microphones not only till WRC 2019, but also till WRC 2023. At the WRC 2023, 470 - 960 MHz band will be reconsidered. It is good news for the DTT business in Europe. But is it a good news for Turkey? As you may well know, Turkey has not yet spend any money on DTT. There is no DTT network, nor a finished frequency allocation tender. Hence, we can say that there is nothing, just NOTHING regarding DTT.  So, in best circumstances, the tender for DTT frequencies can be finished by 2016 & the network would be ready by 2017. Well, the picture becomes interesting from that point. The frequency allocation would be for 10 years, which covers 2016-2026. But, during the WRC 2023, the frequency usage will be reconsidered again. It may be more meaningful to think not to build DTT at all, and start thinking to work on xG mobile networks. I would appreciate for your comments... 

Latest update regarding DTT in Turkey, EEMKON 2015 Istanbul aftermath

Actually this post might be a little shorter then usual, here goes: Nothing new was happening regarding the progress of DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) in Turkey, suprisingly this changed, a presenter of Turk Telekom attended the event in Istanbul.   And thank God that Mr. Umut (Udo) Keten attended this event organized by the Chamber of Electrical Engineers (EMO). He started explaining the view of Turk Telekom (the largest telco in Turkey) and how they see DTT. And what a suprise this was, not many expected this interest with DTT and we definately would like to hear more from Turk Telekom’s point of view regarding this ‘sensitive’ matter. I figured I should at least try to summarize the presentation but it would only mislead or misconceive some idea’s to my readers.   However rest assured, I will try to get in touch with a senior officer at Turk Telekom, this in turn to squeeze out an e-interview on their position of the DTT process in Turkey. While you are wait

DAB, DAB+, DRM30, DRM+, DVB-T2 Lite or just DIGITAL RADIO?

Some love to talk with abbreviations. They think that talking with abbreviations make them look to know a lot about the subject that they are talking about. Well, looking to know and to really know is absolutely different. To really know a subject, the recipe is the same for all; hard work. It needs many nights without sleep and many hours of talk with experts.  To be honest, I am trying to keep me updated with the latest technology in radio & television, which is not always possible. To be updated one should follow some major events, which are mainly the IBC in Amsterdam, the NAB in Las  Vegas, the DVB World Congress in different cities of Europe and some other events of EBU & ABU. As an amateur blogger it is not so easy to do for me. But, any way God helps and I manage to follow most of them. With luck, the General Assembly (GA) of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, ABU, was in Istanbul this year. I had a presentation on Emergency Warning System at the Technical

what is the lattest information from Turkish DTT?

This post will be a short covarage of the potential problems regarding the DTT launch in Turkey: It is quite obvious for anyone that the ASO in Turkey, should have been completed till now. This lateness make the things some how more problematic. Broadcast sector actually are not using the terrestrial transmitters any more. TV reception is heavily, nearly fully depends on FTA satellite, for which each & every broadcaster has license. So, for the broadcasters, the DTT is not needed with this model:  Pay for the licence, ---MONEY Build the Network,   ---MONEY Pay for the Transmitter + Multiplex operator company,  ---MONEY also pay for the annual fee of frequency usage. ---MONEY Well this is a all give model actually :) There is not even one income, with building DTT.  Or just forget about the DTT, just close down analog terrestrial transmitters and save money and leave the full UHF band to the mobile networks. Well, to be honest the second option seems mor

TRT DAB

Finally, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, the public broadcaster of Turkey, has officially announced the re-start of the DAB tests in Turkey. At a meeting where the 4K broadcast was announced the General Manager of TRT, Mr. Şenol GÖKA, has declared their interest in DAB.  There is also an article in a magazine of TRT Radio , in which the details of the tests are explained.  I hope that this tests will be the first steps for a digital radio in Turkey. 

waiting for WRC, thinking of DTT in Turkey

You probably know that WRC 2015, is going to start in 2 weeks. There will be debate on the use of 470-694 MHz. The European public broadcasters, and the organization of the public broadcasters, namely European Broadcasting Union, EBU are trying to secure the rest of UHF band for terrestrial broadcasting.  For the ones out of broadcasting, the frequency band can be thought as the road for the automobiles. When the road is wider, you can put more cars on it. If you squeeze the cars, then it is OK for you to live with a narrower road. That's exactly what happened when the terrestrial television went through the digital transmission. The size of the cars, the bandwidth needed for a TV channel, has went down. Hence, the whole UHF band for analogue TV transmission is more then enough. On the other hand, there was a increasing demand of bandwidth in mobile networks. This demand, caused the release of 800 MHz band to mobile.  With the developments in the encoding technology, the