Digital TV migration equipment installed at Vision Group

By John Odyek

Signet, the sole company licensed by Uganda Company Communications Commission to distribute digital TV signals in Uganda has installed its equipment at Vision Group head offices in Kampala for picking digital TV signals.

Engineers contracted by Signet were on the roof of Vision Group installing microwave links.

They also installed indoor equipment such as encoders, which digitize TV signals in the Vision Group TV studios.

Mark Walungama head of Television, Vision Group said Signet was installing their microwave link for sending digital signals to the Kololo mast owned by Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).

Signet is a sister company to UBC that is responsible for distribution of digital TV signals.

Walungama said no agreement had yet been reached between Signet and the broadcasters on the fees for distributing digital signals.



He said when an agreement was reached, the TV signal distribution would start.

"We have no agreement yet with Signet. They are installing the equipment to be ready. They had delayed to install the equipment," Walungama said.

Bruce Xion, project manager Gospell Digital Technology said they were installing the microwave links and indoor equipment for digital TV signal broadcasts.

Xion said the equipment had delayed at customs by one month. "In China customs clearance is done in one week. But in Uganda it has taken a week. I don't know why it takes so long," Xion said.

Xion said the equipment was imported from USA. He added that installation could take a day and the equipment would be ready for use. He said they were subcontracted by Complant Ltd to do the work.

TV Broadcasters have asked government to suspend the digital migration from analogue to digital TV broadcasts as the necessary infrastructure and agreements are not yet in place.

The Uganda Communications Commission last month began enforcing the International Telecommunications Union set June 17 2015 deadline of transiting from analogue to digital broadcasts.

UCC switched off free to air of analogue broadcasts in Kampala leaving people using analogue TVs and those without Pay TV in 'TV darkness'.


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