ASEAN Countries Target 2008 for DTV Initiative

The ten member countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are setting guidelines and a list of criteria to encourage adoption of DTV in the region by 2008, but have not decided when the countries will shut down analog TV. The ASEAN Digital Broadcasting Cooperation Initiative is being spearheaded by Singapore and Brunei.

Dr. Tan Chin Nam, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts said, “By adopting DVB-T as a standard, I think we will remove uncertainty in the market. From the manufacturers’ point of view, it will be easier to come up with a quantity of equipment which will be able to address the market needs in a very cost-effective manner.”

ASEAN sees digital broadcasting opening up new opportunities for industry and viewers beyond off-air terrestrial DTV. These include HD delivery through IPTV and video-on-demand mobile DTV services. See Channel NewsAsia article “ASEAN to define guidelines for adoption of digital TV by 2008” by Wong Siew Ying for additional information.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.