Television standards in South Africa

South Africa has started the process of migrating television broadcasts from the analogue Phase Alternate Line (PAL) system introduced in 1975 to a digital system that is more efficient and made possible by technical progress, mainly in computer processing since the 1960s when PAL was introduced in Europe. PAL is the analogue television standard for most of Europe and large parts of Africa and Asia, including China and India. Its main competitors were the French SECAM (also widely used in Africa) and the North American NTSC (also used in Japan, South Korea and a few other countries). This has meant that a German or Kenyan analogue television set, for example, could be used without problem in South Africa but that a Japanese or American one would certainly not work.

Digital television broadcasting (over the air or OTA) more efficiently uses the available spectrum and allows for the transmission of many more channels. This is, indeed, why satellite broadcasting (like DSTV in South Africa) has been digital for some time now. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)  has been driving a world-wide effort to convert OTA broadcasts to a digital standard. In SA this is essentially the SABC and e-TV. The migration to digital broadcasting has already been completed in the United States and in the SADC region, Mauritius is nearly done. The SADC region had decided to adopt the DVB-T (Digitial Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) standard that is also in use in Europe, Indian and Australia. DVB-T is an open standard which incorporates some patented algorithms for encoding of the signal.

Recently, the South African government has started to suggest that SA might switch to the Japanese ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) standard. Since trials of DVB-T have already started, such a switch would imply considerable cost for the industry. It would also put South Africa's chances of completing the conversion from analogue to digital television by 2015 in considerable jeopardy!

Further reading

Digital TV standards: The truth behind it by Jan Vermeulen,  MyBroadband  (10 June, 2010)

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/12989-Digital-standards-The-truth-behind.html or http://www.webcitation.org/5qbKvRh6n

Digital TV conspiracy: Is govt lying? by Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor (Johannesburg, 10 Jun 2010)

http://www.webcitation.org/5qbKneplW

Police protecting SA from “illegal” shirts (and iPods?)

As part of the state-corporate criminal take-over of South Africa, otherwise known as the 2010 FIFA Sucker World Cup, police have been clamping down on “illegal” T-shirts. In Pretoria this week, five Ethiopians were reported arrested on charges of dealing in counterfeit goods. Now, in a country which is second in murder and first in rape, does the public really demand protection against counterfeit (whatever that means) T-shirts? Is it really necessary to arrest people for a putative offense that does not harm anyone or anything except corporate profits and poses no imminent danger that cannot be obviated by simple confiscation of the shirts? When does intellectual property vest in a yellow shirt with a national symbol on it?

In the meantime the Intellectual Property Research Unit at UCT have confirmed that it is illegal in South Africa to rip your own CDs and put them on an MP3 player or iPod. This issue has been discussed in the blogosphere before and it stems from a special provision in SA's Copyright Act for sound recordings. Otherwise SA has, as far as I know, fairly generous fair use provisions. Can we expect the police soon to be stopping people and arresting them for using an iPod with “counterfeit” music on it? This ridiculous notion is supported by a dinky industry association website stoppiracy.org.za which shows how close to the coalface it is by proclaiming that

“[b]y buying pirate music you are supporting organised crime”

which will, I am sure, come as a great shock to those who are in the habit of paying for pirated music!

Three policewomen suspended for Zuma e-mail

Cape Town's Die Burger reports that three police officers in the city have been suspended from duty for “improper conduct” while on duty for circulating a doctored film poster of President “Bring me my Machine Gun” Zuma and Julius “Kill-the-Boers” Malema. Now, this seems pretty innocuous (even, lame) and I have certainly received much worse at work so I think that it could become an interesting test case for what constitutes reasonable private use of work e-mail. In many jurisdictions (including, I believe, South Africa) the right of employees to reasonable use of office facilities for private purposes has long been recognised. This would include receiving personal calls on your office telephone as well as making them and so on. With so many excellent webmail providers out there, I think it is not advisable to use an official e-mail address for a lot of personal mail (including with colleagues) and if you prefer to use a single interface for all your mail, rather forward your office e-mail to a private address. Anyway, the SA Police Service (soon to be a Force again, I believe) has a history of biting the dust in Labour Law disputes and one can only trust that the trend will persists.

Meksiko kan per SMS selfoonnommer registreer, 25m doen dit nie

In Meksiko, soos in Suid-Afrika met die RICA-wetgewing, moet nuwe selfoongebruikers hulle persoonlike gegewens by die regering registreer en het bestaande gebruikers tyd gekry tot 'n bepaalde datum om dít te doen. Alhoewel Meksikane dié registrasie kon doen deur net 'n SMS te stuur met hulle federal ID-nommer (die sogenaamde CURP), is 31% van die lyne in Meksiko nie geregistreer nie en die sperdatum was Saterdag die 10e. Volgens 'n berig in La Jornada moet die selfoonmaatskappye nou begin om ongeregistreerde gebruikers se diens te beëindig. Dit kan natuurlik maklik wees dat die 25m lyne ter sprake grotendeels tweede of derde SIM-kaarte verteenwoordig en nie primêre gebruikers nie, wat 'n baie interessante refleksie sal wees op die statistieke waarmee die selfoonmaatskappye só graag spog.

Die prentjie hierbo is deur die Flickr-gebruiker Venturist en die twee webbladsye in Spaans waarna verwys word, is ook beskikbaar by http://www.webcitation.org/5ovObv6Uf en http://www.webcitation.org/5ovOpIDoH.

Goedkoper bel in Suid-Afrika

Oor die Paasnaweek (wat saamval met Pasga hierdie jaar) maak baie mense van dié rustige tyd gebruik om met familie en vriende wat ver is te gesels. Hoe skakel 'n mens tans goedkoop binne Suid-Afrika?

Aangesien dié land sowat tien keer soveel selfoonlyne as landlyne het, fokus ek op oproepe na selfone en oproepe in spitstyd sodat die inligting ook ná die langnaweek bruikbaar kan wees. Selfs die groot netwerke, Vodacom en MTN, het relatief redelike tariewe indien 'n mens die regte pakket kies. Met Vodacom se All Day is die tarief R1,80 na ander netwerke en R1,70 per minuut na Vodacom maar ek verstaan nie wat die tarief van R3,60 per minuut vir „Voicemail Deposit” nou eintlik is nie. MTN se OneRate bied 'n heeldag-tarief van R1,75 per minuut maar daar word duidelik aangedui dat dít per sekond verreken word, vanaf die eerste sekonde.

Diegene wat toegang het tot 'n Telkom-lyn hoort lankal bewus daarvan te wees dat Telkom se tariewe na selfone relatief billik is. Telkom se webwerf is nie die maklikste om te navigeer nie maar die huidige tariefblad gee R1,47½ as die minuuttarief (met 'n minimum van 60s en dan per 30s) wat aansienlik goedkoper is as Vodacom en MTN se tariewe en wat nog saans ná 20:00 val met sowat dertig sent. Telkom het egter 'n komplekse tariefstruktuur en ek verkies 'n eenvoudige en eenvormige prys per minuut.

Die kleiner spelers, Cell C en Virgin Mobile, het nog meer aantreklike tariewe. Hoewel ek eintlik net na voorafbetaaldienste wou kyk, moet ek meld dat Cell C vir tussen R49 en R100 per maand (afhangende van die gratis selfoon wat gekies word) op 'n kontrak van 24 maande vir 'n mens 100 gratis heeldagminute gee met 'n prys van R1,50 per minuut na alle netwerke daarna. Cell C verreken oproepe op dieselfde 60/30-basis as Telkom. Met Cell C se Easychat All Day voorafbetaalplan is die oproepkoste ook net R1,50 per minuut, heeldag en na alle netwerke. Virgin Mobile het ook 'n innoverende vooruitbetaal-opsie waar hul tariewe R1,99 per minuut is vir die eerste 5 minute per dag en daarna R0,99 per minuut, alles per volminuut bereken. Vir die meer intensiewe gebruiker, veral vir iemand wat 'n klein aantal lang oproepe op die meeste dae maak, is hierdie 'n baie gunstige tarief.

Mense wat reeds Internet  het sal moontlik 'n stem-oor-IP-diens (VoIP) soos dié van Telfree wil oorweeg. Telfree se huidige tarief is R1,33 per minuut wat, tydens spitstyd, baie gunstig is. Telfree is ook draagbaar en 'n mens kan dit baie maklik uit die buiteland gebruik, veral met hulle nuwe webblaaier-koppelvlak.

Indien 'n mens in ag neem dat die gebruik van Telkom en Telfree 'n bykomende infrastruktuur vereis maar dat die selfoonnetwerke geen maandelikse fooi vir voorafbetaalde gebruikers het nie, lyk dit asof dit moeilik is om Cell C se aanbod van R1,50 per minuut te klop. Cell C bied tans nog geen omvattende en vinnige Internet-diens nie maar vir die minder veeleisende verbruiker wat hoofsaaklike wil bel en SMS stuur, is dit Easychat All Day 'n  goeie keuse – ook vir almal wat hoofsaaklik vóór agt saans bel. Indien die leser tans meer as R2,00 per minuut betaal, dink weer!

Foto hierbo deur Flickr-gebruiker aussiegall.