Results and outlook
The pilot project for digital terrestrial television and additional interactive services based on the MHP standard can be seen as an integral part of Austria‘s overall strategy for the introduction of digital broadcasting.
The digitization of broadcasting will affect all broadcasting forms and platforms, including radio and television as well as satellite, cable and terrestrial transmission. The pilot tests in Graz and the sustainable accumulation of specific know-how by all parties involved will serve as an indispensable aid in the general process of digitization.
In particular, the future significance of the MHP-related activities of the television stations and software companies involved in the Graz project is not just limited to the terrestrial platform. The experience gained in Graz with this new technology will certainly serve to benefit all broadcasting platforms.
For the regulatory authority KommAustria and its operative arm RTR, the pilot project has provided critical technical and strategic insights with regard to the invitation to tender for Austria‘s first multiplex platform, which will be published in the first half of 2005. In this context, the primary question is which performance features of digital terrestrial broadcasting should be emphasized in the introductory phase: programming diversity, picture and reception quality, or new forms of reception (e.g., portable indoor, mobile reception).
In KommAustria‘s Digitization Concept, which was created with the support of the Digital Platform Austria (a forum set up in 2002 and consisting of some 300 experts from all fields concerned with digitization), regular DVB-T broadcasting operations are scheduled to begin in 2006.
After the construction of DVB-T networks in areas of high population density, the Digitization Concept calls for the complete transition of each Austrian province from analog to digital transmission between 2007 and 2010. By 2010, terrestrial television should be completely digitized, and the coverage level should be very close to the full coverage offered in analog operation.
