Brazil Begins DTV Broadcasts

By Doug Lung
published

Brazil launched digital broadcasts this week, which included high-definition programming and news from TV Globo. As previously reported in RF Report, Brazil selected a customized version of the Japanese ISDB-T standard that incorporates technologies such as MPEG-4 video encoding that were not widely available when the original ATSC, DVB-T and ISDB-T terrestrial DTV standards were adopted.

Brazil’s unique version of the ISDB-T standard, which has not been widely used outside of Japan, has put a high price on DTV set-top decoder boxes in Brazil. Although the boxes currently cost nearly US $300, Brazil’s government—like the United States—is expected to offer hundred of millions of dollars in credits to help lower the cost of the decoders.

The digital broadcasts are currently taking place only in São Paulo, but are expected to be available in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, as well as some other cities, in 2008. Total countrywide rollout is expected by 2016.

Doug Lung
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.