The upgrade of the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC's) production systems from analogue to digital is 20% complete, says Sharoda Rapeti, SABC MD of technology.
The broadcaster aims to have the digitisation process complete before 2010.
Rapeti says SA is likely to launch digital terrestrial broadcasting within the next two years.
Last year, Rapeti announced at an SABC vendor briefing that digitising the SABC's systems would cost about R1.2 billion over the next six years.
She says the R1.2 billion budget was developed for the full transition and overhaul of the SABC's production infrastructure for radio and television broadcasting as well as information systems and IT solutions.
"The pricing advantage for technology solutions is, of course, through the effect of Moore's Law where relative to price, the performance of technology always increases. In economic terms, the supply and demand of technology solutions is also in our favour where, as more of the world's broadcasters adopt digital solutions, this can drive down supplier pricing," says Rapeti.
She says the SABC's forecasted spend is unlikely to increase. "We will manage within and downwards of this planned spend by taking factors such as forex and supply pricing into account.
"With respect to the overhaul and re-capitalisation of our IT infrastructure, we have commenced the enterprise resource planning project with the first significant delivery milestone scheduled for early next year."
Phase one complete
Rapeti says the SABC has completed phase one of its newsroom production systems, where more than 80% of bulletins are produced and served off digital server-based solutions.
"Ikwekewezi FM was our first station to be launched off an upgraded digital platform last year. We are refining the project blueprints for phase two in the newsroom as well as the expanded roll-out of digital production and studio system for public radio."
SA's digitisation
Rapeti says the SABC as a public broadcaster will play a major role in the determination and implementation of SA's transition to digital transmission technologies.
She says the public broadcaster will ensure consumers are taken through a structured process.
"Of course, there are many critical stakeholders that the SABC will have to work with, because this is a major national project for SA. These stakeholders include the Department of Communications, ICASA [the Independent Communications Authority of SA] and Sentech as well as our audiences."
Rapeti says SA will submit its regional plan to the International Telecommunications Union this year in line with the international planning process. "We are also considering other digital platforms to deliver content."
"ICASA and a number of other organisations, including the SABC, serve on the digital migration working group established by the minister of communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to provide recommendations on the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting," says Aynon Doyle, ICASA's senior manager for broadcasting policy.
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