Brunei, Spore Goes On Digital TV Drive
By CT Hj Mahmod

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei and Singapore are spearheading an initiative to hasten the adoption of digital TV in the region, Singapore's Sunday Times reported yesterday.

Quoting Dr Tan Chin Nam, Permanent Secretary in Singapore's Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, who was in Brunei last week to attend the 14th joint technical committee meeting on cooperation in broadcasting between Brunei and Singapore, the report stated that both countries have jointly hosted two Asean Digital Broadcasting meetings this year.

Pehin Dato Awg Hj Hazair, Brunei's Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, also attended the meeting.

The two meetings led to the setting up of a taskforce, comprising representatives from six Asean countries, which is formulating common specifications for decoder set-top boxes (STB) for adoption at the third Asean meeting on digital broadcasting.

Digital TV is a new form of broadcasting that effectively turns the television set into a computer that can connect to the Internet, receive interactive programmes and carry many more channels. To receive the transmission, a new digital TV set or an STB to decode the digital signals is necessary.

Brunei mooted the idea of a common minimum standard for STBs for the Asean region in December last year. The proposal was supported by Singapore, Sunday Times reported.

Radio Television Brunei (RTB) and MediaCorp Technologies will be working together to develop interactive applications for digital TV, Dr Tan said.

Dr Tan was also quoted as saying, "Companies from Singapore and Brunei can also collaborate to develop digital media content which would dovetail with the Republic's drive to become a regional media hub.

"Such collaboration is significant as Brunei-Singapore bilateral cooperation has had a catalytic effect on regional cooperation," he added.

An RTB official last night told the Bulletin the initiative for digital TV in the region was supported by AMRI (Asean Ministers Responsible for Information), which was endorsed in Brunei.

"This will be discussed further at the upcoming AMRI meeting early next month in Cambodia," disclosed the official.

"The Digital TV initiative goes hand in hand with Asean member countries' vision to have a single platform; one single system for the whole region," he added.

In the context of Asean TV news, while stressing that PUB plays, an important role, the official said, "Brunei will become the hub for broadcasting for the whole of Asean." -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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