Japanese officials spent November 22nd in Manila urging the Philippines government to ignore the European DVB transmission standard and instead to adopt the Japanese digital TV standard (ISDB-T). ISDB has enjoyed considerable success in Central and South America.

The Philippines government has been examining its digital TV future since 2010 and is committed to making the transition by 2015 in accordance with ITU agreements.

Japan’s Ambassador to the country, Toshinao Urabe, told journalists that he was quiet confident that a decision to adopt ISDB-T would be approved by President Benigno Aquino.

Urabe said the Japanese system suits the Philippines best, being an island country and disaster-prone like Japan, since its one-antenna ISDB-T system can even apply to mobile phones.  “What happened at the great eastern Japan earthquake, when people were hit by the earthquake, they were travelling on those trains. And someone got a message (on a mobile phone) that tsunami is coming. So, everyone said, ‘Let’s get off the train, and they went to a higher place. After that, the tsunami came and the train was destroyed,” he said.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO