An Analytical Approach to Analogue/digital Transition in Radio and Television Broadcasting

An Analytical Approach to Analogue/digital Transition in Radio and Television Broadcasting

CHAPTER ONE

Aim of the Study

This study is designed to fill the apparent scientific vacuum in the government-led digital transition process, as highlighted in the problem statement. Specifically, it proposes to develop a theoretical model that could be used as an analytical tool to assess the levels of progress (degree of success) at any stage of the transition programme. This progress is based on a set of success factors adjudged to guarantee a smooth digital transition process, such as definite actions taken (or not taken) by any constituted authorities or authorized individuals in the transition process. Precisely, the objectives of this thesis include:

To obtain the derivatives of each of the success factors involved in the transition exercise.
To identify the important phases of the transition programme in tandem with ITU and COMESA roadmaps.
To identify other possible factor(s) that could influence the transition prograame if any.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

The transition from analogue to digital radio and television broadcasting services is approached in different ways by different countries. This chapter reviews the available and the most related literatures to this study and several of them describe the diverse approaches to the digitization process as adopted by the various stakeholders in the transition race. The approaches are either directed towards government-led digital transition programme or market-led digital transition programme. Some of the available approaches to the exercise are presented as follows: the broadcasters’ transition date roulette – strategic aspects of the Digital Television (DTV) transition, the transition to digital television in the U.K and technical advances in digital audio radio broadcasting.

Additional approaches described in this chapter include; the challenges of digitization on the broadcasting media in Nigeria, an analysis of factors affecting the adoption of digital terrestrial television services in Thailand and the introduction of digital television in Germany among others. Also, this chapter illustrates the state variable analysis which enhances the understanding of a dynamic system. The principles underlying fuzzy logic and the basic features of fuzzy logic that make it the centre of focus in handling imprecise data, are equally handled in this chapter. The summary of the reviewed literature is presented as the last part of this chapter.

Approaches to Transition of Digital Radio and Television Broadcasting

The available approaches toward digitization of broadcasting are presented in this section and some of them use mathematical models in relating various real-life challenges to science. A mathematical model is any scientific model that represents a real-life situation using mathematical tools and concepts [16]. The first available approach is “the broadcasters’ transition date roulette: strategic aspects of the Digital Television (DTV) transition.”

In the U.S., 12th June 2009, was set as the last date for full-power television stations to cease from transmission of analogue television signals and transmit only DTV signals [17]. This is as a result of regulatory decisions that provide broadcasting stations with two mandatory cutoff dates and years of varying regulatory conditions. The condition is for voluntary transition before a mandatory cutoff date [17]. The focus is on the stations’ decision whether to transit on February 17, 2009, the initial planned transition date or to continue in analogue broadcast until 12th June 2009. The purpose of the literature is to validate the notion that a station does not only look at its own costs and viewership when deciding to switch early, but also looks at the decisions it expects from other stations [17]. The paper uses an analytical model, called Game theory to describe the various factors or parameters that influence the digital television transition in the U.S. The parameters are costs, viewership and decisions of other stations.

The theory develops a model for a local television market with only two stations, labeled 1 and 2 [17]. Each station wants to maximize its profit during the transition period and sets aside the impact of its current actions on profits after the transition period. A station earns profits by selling advertisement at the rate p per viewer. Revenue from advertising is pq, where q is the station’s viewership. To broadcast in the short run, a station incurs only a fixed cost, which is given in [17] as:

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Introduction

This chapter presents a theoretical model which serves as a systematic instrument for measuring the degree of success of the digital transition exercise. This systematic tool otherwise known as the analytical state model is derived using the principles of control engineering. This chapter also explains all other supporting techniques used in developing the model. It starts by presenting the conceptual model of the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting and its theory is borrowed from that of a general dynamic system. It describes the state transition matrix which determines the interactions of the different success factors identified in the last two chapters of this study.

The factors are chosen based on the experience of already digitized Nations during their digital transition process. The method of data acquisition/collection is also illustrated and the method employs the ideas of linguistic variables. This chapter equally demonstrates the procedure for the model simulation along with its accompanying flowchart display. In the same vein, the expected result of this study is not ignored in that it is considerably narrated just before the summary of the chapter.

The Conceptual Model

The transition from analogue to digital radio and television broadcasting is considered as a dynamic system as illustrated in figure 3.1 below, with an input u(t), an output and a state variable [42].

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Introduction

This chapter presents and analyzes the findings of this study. The chapter is divided into three major sections namely; presentation of the results of the model simulation, analysis and discussions of the results. The results are illustrated in both tabular and graphical forms. The degree of success is measured in terms of the key success factor (leadership) to the programme and also with respect to the time taken to arrive at any given stage of the transition programme. The results demonstrate that it is possible to use analytical model to study the transition programme.

Presentation of Results.

The results of the digital transition process y(t), with respect to the time taken to achieve the transition are obtained when the key success factor, are considered to be: bad, poor, fair, good and excellent. Each of these input levels is coded with a scalar value which is accompanied by fuzzy logic membership degree as shown in table 3.1 of chapter three. For each of the success factors; strong leadership, effective communication strategy, sufficient funding and team work, the influence of its sub-factors on it is calculated by keeping one sub-factor constant and varying others at each period. This is done for the bad, poor, fair, good and excellent levels of inputs. Also, the influence of the factors on each other is evaluated by using the same approach as for the sub-factors. It is important to note that some numerical figures are assigned to the initial conditions see appendix B for details. At any given period of the transition , the initial conditionand the input variable are used to evaluate the state variable , as stated in equation (3.4) in chapter three. The time taken to accomplish the transition process is measured in years and the following scale holds throughout this presentation:

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Summary

The transition from analogue to digital broadcasting has been faced with some challenges and one of which is lack of a systematic approach towards the execution of the programme. This study is concerned with government-driven transition exercise. Relevant literatures to the study are reviewed and they show that the approaches adopted by various stakeholders/countries are either ad hoc based or directed towards market-led digital transition. There is scarcity of analytical models, if any, with a general application to direct the implementation of the government-driven digital transition programme. Based on this problem, this study has developed an analytical model to fill the systematic vacuum in the government-led digital transition process. The model could measure the degree of progress of the transition programme at any given level of inputs.

The simulation of the model is carried out using MATLAB computer programming. This study used exploratory survey research method to achieve the expected results. The findings that emerged from the study are summarized as follows:

Five major success factors have been identified and each of which has its derivatives that formed a set of sub-factors. These sub-factors at different levels produce different degrees of influence on their main factors.
Some important phases of the programme have been identified in partnership with ITU and COMESA roadmaps as: SNDTC, DPR, PASO, M/R, CASOE and FDB as explained in chapter 4 above.
The transition time, the inputs (success factors) to the programme and the initial conditions of the transiting system have been identified as the influential factors to the transition programme.
The degrees of success of the transition programme, largely depends on the inputs to the programme and the initial conditions ,of the transiting system and not necessarily on the transition time.

Conclusions

Based on the results obtained from this study, the following conclusions are drawn:

This study has been able to develop a model that could evaluate the degree of success of the transition programme at any level of inputs. This shows that the result of the digital transition programme could be predicted if the inputs and their initial conditions are known.
This study could serve as part of the contributions from the research community to the digital transition process. This is because it has provided a systematic approach towards a government-driven digital transition in radio and television broadcasting.

Challenges Encountered

This study is not devoid of some weaknesses that constrained its absolute success in some ways. Those that are raking high in the list of its potential weaknesses are as follows:

How to quantify government policy, effective communication, team work and sufficient funding was difficult to arrive at.
The involvement of fuzzy logic in this study makes it complicated, thereby causing its understanding to be a bit difficult.

Suggestions for future Studies

This study has uncovered new research questions which require thorough studies. The following are the suggested areas for further studies;

An analytical model for a sustainable digital radio and television broadcasting in 21^stcentury (i.e. a transition driven by government policy).
Intricacies involved in the operations of set top box in digital signal reception with analogue television and how it could be used in analogue radio to receive digital signals.

REFERENCES

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[3] U.S. Fire Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Voice Radio Communications Guide for the Fire Service, 2008.
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[12] Roadmap for the Transition from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting in Nepal, Telecommunication Development Sector, 2012.
[13] Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Association of Regulators of Information and Communication for Eastern & Southern Africa (ARICEA), Roadmap for Digital Broadcasting Migration Implementation, 2011.
[14] I. Bozsoki, ITU Activities and publications on Digital Broadcasting Transition. Head, Spectrum Management & Broadcasting Division BDT/IEE/SBD, Itu activities, WSIS AL C9, 2013.
[15] Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon
street, New York, 7^th Edition, 2005.
[16] D. J. Carrejo, J. Marshall, What is Mathematical Modeling? Exploring Prospective Teachers’ Use of Experiments to Connect Mathematics to the Study of Motion. Mathematics Education Research Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, pg 45–76, 2007.

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