ISDB-T International

SBTVD, short for Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital (English: Brazilian Digital Television System) is a technical standard for digital television broadcast used in Brazil and Peru, based on Japanese ISDB-T standard, launched in commercial operation on December 2nd, 2007.

SBTVD standard was developed by a study group coordinated by Brazilian Ministery of Communications, leaded by Brazilian Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) with support of Telecommunication's Research and Development Centre (CPqD) and composed by members of other 10 Brazilian ministeries, National Institute for Information Technology (ITI), several Brazilian Universities, Broadcast Professional Organizations and several Manufacturers of Broadcast/Reception devices, focusing the implementation of a DTV (Digital TV) standard in Brazil, addressing not only technical and economical issues, but also and mainly "digital inclusion" for those living apart of today's "information society" and looking for "e-gov", i.e. to make government closer to population once in Brazil more than 94% of the families has at least one TV set.

SBTVD is also called ISDB-Tb (ISDB-T Japanese standard, Brazilian version) and basically differs from original ISDB-T by using MPEG-4 as video compression standard (ISDB-T uses MPEG-2), presentation rate of 30 frames per second even in portable devices (ISDB-T uses 15 fps for portable devices) and powerful interaction using middleware Ginga, composed by Ginga-NCL and Ginga-J modules (ISDB-T uses BML).

On January 2009, the Brazilian-Japanese study group for digital TV finished and published a specification document joining the Japanese ISDB-T with Brazilian SBTVD, resulting in a specification now called "ISDB-T International". ISDB-T International is the system that will be proposed by Japan and Brazil for other countries in Latin America and around the world.

History

Basically, the history of SBTVD development can be divided in two major periods: a) Initial Studies and Tests; b) Implementation of SBTVD Forum and final definition of SBTVD standard.

Initial Studies

Since 1994 a group composed by technicians from Brazilian Society for Television Engineering (SET) and Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (ABERT) has been analyzing existing digital TV standards (Amerian ATSC, European DVB-T and Japanese ISDB-T)and its technical aspects but the discussion become a robust study only in 1998.

From 1998 to 2000, ABERT and SET group, supported by Mackenzie Presbiterian University developed a very complete study based in several tests considering not only technical caracteristics of each standard but also signal quality indoor and outdoor. That was the first complete study comparing all three major DTV standards in world done by independent entity (i.e. without influence of ATSC Comitee, DVB Group or ARIB/DiBEG Group) and it was considered a very rigorous and robust study by DTV technical world community.

The results of "Brazilian digital television tests" showed the insuficient quality for indoor reception presented by ATSC (that is a very important parameter once 47% of television sets in Brazil uses only internal antenna) and, between DVB-T and ISDB-T, the last one presented superior performance in indoor reception and flexibility to access digital services and TV programs through non-mobile, mobile or portable receivers with impressive quality.

In parallel in 1998, Brazilian Ministery of Communication ordered to National Telecommunication Agency to carry on studies to select and implement DTV standard in Brazil. Due to completeness and quality of ABERT/SET/Mackenzie study, ANATEL considered that as official result and supported it considering ISDB-T the better standard to be implemented in Brazil.

However the final decision about the standard selected wasn't announced at that moment (August 2000) because of three main points:

• Some groups of society wanted to be more involved in that decision;
• ATSC Comitee and DVB Group wanted to review ABERT/SET/Mackenzie report and ANATEL decision;
• Political discussions brought new requirements for the standard to be implemented in Brazil, like digital inclusion and e-gov dissemination.

In the light of those points, Brazilian Government (President Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva) created a more structured group of discussion, to review first studies and to address these new points.

Implementation of Digital TV Work Group and final definition of SBTVD standard

The program Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital (SBTVD) - Brazilian Digital Television System in English - was deployed on November 26th, 2003 by Presidential Act # 4.901, focusing the creation of a reference model for national terrestrial digital TV in Brazil.

National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) was charged by Brazilian Ministery of Communications to lead this work with technical support of CPqD, and contributions of 10 other Brazilian ministeries, National Institute for Information Technology (ITI), 25 organizations related to the matter (broadcast professionals, broadcast companies, TV program producers, etc), 75 universities/R&D institutes and electro-electronic manufactures. More than 1.200 researchers/professionals were mobilyzed.

The DTV Work Group was organized in a structure with 3 areas of development:

• Development Comitee (CD - Comitê de Desenvolvimento): To define, develop and implement political and regulatory basement;

• Consultant Comitee (CC - Comitê Consultivo): To define and develop digital TV technical aspects, and to select the best technology to be used in Brazil (including eventually a technology totally created in Brazil);

• Management Group (GG - Grupo Gestor): To manage specialized research groups.

The objective of the DTV Work Group was not only define technical and economical aspects of Digital TV system but also address:

• "Digital inclusion" for those living apart of today's "information society";
• Implement "e-gov", i.e. to make government closer to population once in Brazil more than 94% of the families has at least one TV set;
• Provide educational support via Digital TV through specialized content and interactive programs;
• Provide culture dissemination;
• Provide social integration.

Anyway, technical requirements are important and were also considered:

• High definition;
• Interactive TV;
• Mobile and portable TV with quality;
• Signal robustness indoor and outdoor;
• Excellent data payload in the band.

Just for the Consultant Comitee, 20 public RFP (Request for Proposal) were published trying to cover all areas that compose digital TV: Modulation, Signal Processing/Compression, video systems, audio systems, data transport, middleware, etc. The RFPs strongly reinforced creation of research networks where the studies could be carried in a descentralized manner by several institutes working in a same theme.

Some groups worked to present a totally new digital standard, some groups worked to analyze and select the most known digital TV standards (American ATSC, European DVB-T and Japanese ISDB-T), and other groups worked to implement new features/modules to these already known standards.

After 3 years of studies and developments, SBTVD Forum announced the selection of Japanese ISDB-T system as a baseline for SBTVD system, increased by some new technologies:

• MPEG-4 and compression (H.264) for video - allows more data payload in the same band. Japan uses MPEG-2;
• Middleware called "Ginga" more robust with declarative and procedural modules, to allow complex interactive applications. Japan uses BML middleware which is only declarative;

SBTVD system also presents some adaptations (following main ones):

• The emission masks of transmitters were specially adapted in order to comply with more adverse scenarios for interference from other stations - this is important for implementation purposes in many countries where the spectrum is congested;
• Multiplexing and data structures and signaling were adapted to western standards, with the inclusion of character sets for Latin derived languages;
• Presentation rate of 30fps even for portable receivers - more quality for portable TV;
• Implementation of Open Reception instead of B-CAS DRM Copy protection present in Japanese standard.

Note: There are around 16 technical documents for SBTVD system, with more than 3.000 pages published by ABNT (Brazilian Association for Technical Standards) and SBTVD Forum detailing all SBTVD system.

The selection of Japanese ISDB-T system as baseline for SBTVD was based in video/audio quality indoor and outdoor, signal robustness, excellent interference treatment, suppoprt for complex imteractive TV programs and quality mobile TV. Besides that, ISDB-T with the new features like MPEG-4 video compression and Ginga middleware become an excellet support for those social requirements intended by Brazilian Government (digital inclusion, educational and cultural support, e-gov, etc).

Economical points were analyzed too, like elimination of royalties by Japanese Government in the use of ISDB-T, transference of technology from Japan to Brazil, creation of a Work group Japan-Brazil for on going developments, financial help for initial implementation from Japanese Bank of Development, etc.

The final decision was announced on June 29th, 2006 by Presidential Act # 5.820 officially stating that Brazil adopted ISDB-T terrestrial digital transmission system as baseline for ISDB-Tb (commercial name for SBTVD system). The Presidential Act also defines implementation plan and rules for digital TV in Brazil stating that in seven years all Brazilian territory must be covered by digital TV signal and in 10 years (i.e. 2016) all TV broadcast must be digital and the band used by broadcast companies for analog TV must be returned to Brazilian Government. It is important to notice that this Presidential Act states that ISDB-Tb MUST offer "Multiprogram" feature. During implementation in Brazil, however, Ministery of Communication changed the opinion and blocked this feature at least till current date (May 2009).

Some months after the Presidential Act, it was created the SBTVD Forum for DTV system rollout throughout all Brazilian territory and to coordinate ongoing developments.

The decision for ISDB-T was contested by some sectors of society that complained it was a "political" decision where Brazilian Government was influenced by Broadcaster Association, specially by Rede Globo (biggest Brazilian TV network) once ISDB-T isolates TV business from Telecommunications Company business which will protect the already decreasing earnings of broadcasters in a world that is migrating from TV to Internet and Celular Phone services.

Anyway several technical/engineering organizations and even isolated engineers and technicians that have detailed studied all 3 major standards (ISDB-T, ATSC and DVB) state that ISDB-T is really the best option.

Hence, if it was really a political decision, it is totally matched with the best technical decision.

Analyzing the process now, after 3 years, that seems it was the correct decision once there is a crisis about mobile/portable TV in Europe in this very moment - highlighting that Nokia has just sold its mobile TV division - and mobile TV services are lasting to engage because of the costs of portable TV rates (in DVB standard portable TV is offered by Celullar Phone companies as payed services). In Japan, where portable TV is for free, the usage is increasing a lot year by year, and the same is happening in Brazil. Also, the decision to include MPEG-4 as video compression system in SBTVD was really correct once DVB Comitee in Europe has just launched DVB 2.0 standard with MPEG-4 as video compression, USA is studying to implement MPEG-4 in ATSC and Japan is analyzing how to evolve original ISDB-T to implement that feature.

At this very moment SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) and original ISDB-T are not compatible systems. That means a TV set or a set up box bought in Japan will not work in Brazil and vice versa. However, the Working Group Japan-Brazil is working to join the two systems into only one to achieve the benefits of gains of scale.

By the other hand, Brazil is producing several types of TV sets and set up boxes for SBTVD (ISDB-Tb) system and in a good quantity and till the moment there is no problem to attend the consumer demand for TV sets, set up boxes and also for transmitters and other components.

Peru has recently adopted ISDB-Tb and will reinforce gains of scale in the production of equipments reducing more and more the prices.

First public tests

Samsung was the first company to do a public demo of SBTVD transmissions and receivers on June 19, 2007, although other companies claimed to have receivers ready at the time. At their showroom in São Paulo, two Full HD LCD sets were shown: one with a built-in tuner and another connected to a prototype set-top box. Tuner and set-top box were developed in Brazil, at Samsung's research center in Manaus, Amazonas. 1seg broadcasting to mobile devices was also shown.

The signal was a test reel from Rede Globo (the biggest TV network in Brazil), broadcast at 1080i (the standard does not define 1080p) consisting of short clips from soap operas, talk shows, soccer games from recent years and footage of the Brazilian Carnival in Rio de Janeiro along with some scenic views. All the content was natively HD, some of which was shot with high definition cameras experimentally placed in many of the studios where Globo produces its programs. The 2007 Pan American Games were also experimentally broadcast in high definition by Globo. Broadcasts of the event could be seen both from Samsung's show room and electronics megastores that received digital tuners to show and demonstrate the technology to the public.

Start of regular broadcasts and implementation status

DTT broadcasting systems. Countries using ISDB are shown in green.

Regular SBTVD broadcasts started on December 2nd, 2007, initially in São Paulo. As of May 28th 2009, the system was also launched in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Goiânia, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Campinas, Cuiabá, Salvador, Florianópolis,Vitória, Uberlândia, São José do Rio Preto, Teresina, Santos, Brasília, Campo Grande, Fortaleza and Recife.

By the side of broadcast companies, DTV implementation in Brazil seems to be very successful if compared with the implementation process in other countries. In 16 months, digital TV signal cover almost 50% of Brazilian population. By the side of consumers, DTV implementation is lasting to engage because of prices of new DTV sets and setup boxes, misunderstanding over the new technology and lack of perception for cost x benefit to move to the new technology.

A new push in setupboxes and DTV sets sales is expected with the final specification of Ginga middleware that will allow interactive use of TV.

Ginga 1.0 (a first implementation of Ginga) was already released to be used by setup box/DTV manufacturers, using NCL (Nested Context Language)/LUA declarative languages. That part of Ginga is called Ginga-NCL. However, the complete Ginga middleware specification was planned to present declarative NCL module and procedural Java module to allow programmers, manufacturers and users to take the best from the two environments: declarative and procedural.

The Java part of Ginga, called Ginga-J, has its specification approved by SBTVD Forum on April/2009. And the same forum defined that the APIs set developed by Sun Microsystems, called Java-DTV is the standard for SBTVD system, after negotiations with Sun Microsystems to reduce royalties in 15%. Hence, royalty cost defined by Sun for Java-DTV is much more affordable than that charged by GEM APIs owners (GEM middleware is used in DVB-T - European DTV standard). That will benefit development of interactive setup boxes and TV sets keeping them cheaper than if GEM was used as middleware or even if GEM APIs were used with Ginga-J.

It is expected that on 3rd quarter 2009 the first setup boxes and TV sets with complete Ginga middleware (Ginga-NCL and Ginga-J) will be available in market. That date will probably match with the release of first interactive programs to be broadcast by television companies.

At launch on December 2nd 2007, set-top boxes were available for prices ranging between R$900 (~US$450) and R$1200 (~US$600), inhibiting sales. But after 8 months the prices presented a fast reduction and are sold now by R$300 (~US$150). President Lula announced subsidies worth 1 billion Reais (U$ 556 millions) so these prices will face a new reduction phase.

By May 2009 a 42 inches LCD TV FullHD (1080 x 1920) with built-in Digital TV tuner and special characteristics like double presentation rate (120Hz) and exceptional contrast (50.000:1) was being sold in commerce for R$3.600,00 (US$1.600,00) in São Paulo City, a very impressive price reduction for such quality product, and other basic devices present even lower prices.

Mobile receiver sales (for Notebooks, mobile DTV sets and mobile phones with DTV receiver built-in) are increasing very fast and it seems that mobility is perceived by consumers (at this very moment) as a more attractive SBTVD/ISDB-T feature than HD or Full HD definition. SBTVD/ISDB-T standard allows a very impressive mobile reception, with high quality and steady image, without noise, excellent audio and very robust reception even in presence of signal reflection, eletromagnetic or impulsive interferences.

According to the government, analog shutdown is scheduled for 2016.

A very innovative feature that ISDB-T standard offers, called Multiprogram, is now under regulation in Brazil. Communication Ministery is afraid that Multiprogram could allow unauthorized use of TV broadcast band. And hence is creating required legal support to allow the use of such feature. Rede Globo (one of the main Brazilian TV broadcasters) is pushing Communication Ministery to keep Multiprogram feature blocked because it will impact its business model reducing revenues from advertising. However, once multiprogram is one of the features more visible as benefit by final users (in a same TV channel it is possible to watch 3 different programs, or in a sport match it is possible to watch the game from the point of view of different cameras) and considering that other players work with different business model, society, organizations and other broadcasters are joining forces to push Communication Ministery to open Multiprogram feature for all broadcasters.

Only government TV channels are allowed to use Multiprogram in Brazil today.

In Japan Multiprogram has being used since the launch of ISDB-T with success.

Return Channel

Brazilian broadcasters defend the use of current analog TV VHF band for "return channel" i.e. the channel that will allow digital TV sets to send data to broadcasters for interactive TV service. That 700 MHz band can allow return channel using WiMAX technology, which would be another option to be added to the regular ones (ADSL Internet, Cable Internet, GSM EDGE, GSM 3G, WiFi or dial).

That idea will be presented Brazilian Government in WiMAX Forum on June/2009 trying to create an International standard for return channel.

Expansion of SBTVD/ISDB-T around the world

Brazil and Japan governments are working together to show the benefits of SBTVD (ISDB-T) standard to all South-American countries, focusing specially social benefits of digital inclusion through DTV and quality of image, sound and robustness of ISDB-T system as well as mobility and interaction.

In April 23rd, 2009 Peru announced the decision for adoption of SBTVD (ISDB-T) as the digital terrestrial television system. That decision was taken based on recommendations by the Multi-sectional Commission to assess the most appropriate standard for the country, and the deployment of the standard will start on 2011.

Argentina is in final process to define DTV system and by the conversations between that country and Brazil, it seems Argentina will choose SBTVD (ISDB-T) by 2009. Chile, Ecuador,Venezuela and Cuba are also testing ISDB-T system.

Philippines is also another country seriuosly studying the implementation of ISDB-T standard.

ITU-T certification for SBTVD/ISDB-T solutions

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - a United Nations' regulatory agency for telecommunication and information technology questions - has certified on April 29th 2009 the module Ginga-NCL and the language NCL/Lua as the first international recommendation for interactive multimidia environments for Digital TV and IPTV -- Recommendation H.761.

NCL/Lua and Ginga-NCL were developed by the TeleMidia Laboratory of the Informatics Department at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), a Brazilian University.

This is an important ITU-T standard as it addresses the standardization of middleware for interactivity in devices and setup boxes for IPTV and Digital TV, before that market becomes full of incompatible hardware/software solutions, thus impacting final users.

Technical Facts

Treeview of ISDB-T, channels, Segments and arranging multiple program broadcasting.

a) Modulation: BST-OFDM (Band Segmented Transmission-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)

b) Frequency Band: VHF or UHF, according to the country implementation strategy. UHF is a very affordable band once it is possible to implement digital services in current UHF "spaces" in broadcsting spectrum while analog services are still running in "jammed" VHF band. After digital TV implementation rollout is finished and analog signal is cut off, then VHF can be used for other services or even to expand digital services to more broadcasters. Japan and Brazil have chosen UHF. Peru is in implementation design phase, so the band to be used was not defined.

ISDB system can also work based in cable or satellite trasmission (ISDB-C and ISDB-S) using appropriate frequency band, but these standards are not subject for this arcticle.

c) Transmission archtecture: Segmented

• Non-Mobile receivers: 13 segments (for Full HD resolution.

Other arrangements possible according to the desired resolution/number of programs transmitted)

• Mobile receivers (in vehicles for example): The same as Non-Mobile

• Portable receivers (mobile phones for example): 1 segment

d) Frame Rate:

• Non-Mobile/Mobile service: Japan, Brazil and Peru: 30 fps and 60 fps

• Portable service: Brazil and Peru: Maximum of 30 fps; Japan: Maximum of 15 fps

e) Channel Bandwidth: Japan, Brazil, Peru: 6MHz (It is possible to use SBTVD/ISDB-T system in 7MHz or 8MHz if that is required by any country)

f) Audio Compression System:

• Non-Mobile/Mobile service:
  • Multi Channel 5.1: MPEG-4 ACC@L4 (Advanced Audio Coding, Level 4) or MPEG-4 HE-AAC v1@L4 (High Efficiency AAC, Version 1, Level 4)
  • Stereo: MPEG-4 AAC@L2 (AAC Level 2) or MPEG-4 HE-AAC v1@L2 (HE-AAC, Version 1, Level 2

• Portable service: MPEG-4 HE-ACC v2@L2 (HE-AAC, Version 2, Level 2) for stereo audio (or 2 mono channels) only.

All compression systems must be conform to ISO/IEC 14496-3:2004 standard.

Note: Japan uses MPEG-2 AAC for non-mobile/mobile service and MPEG-4 HE-AAC for portable service.

g) Video Compression System:

• Non-Mobile/Mobile: MPEG-4 AVC HP@L4 (Advanced Video Coding, High Profile, Level 4)

• Portable: MPEG-4 AVC BP@L1.3 (AVC, Base Profile, Level 1.3)

Also, video codification must be conform to ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005 standard

These standards are also known as ITU-T H.264:2005 Recommendation.

Note: Japan uses MPEG-2 video.

h) Video Resolution, Framing and Aspect Ratio:

• Non-Mobile/Mobile:
  • SD 720x480i at 4:3 or 16:9
  • SD 720x480p at 4:3 or 16:9
  • SD 720x576i at 4:3 or 16:9
  • SD 720x576p at 4:3 or 16:9
  • HD 1280x720p at 16:9
  • Full HD 1920x1080i at 16:9
    • Note: i = interlaced framing; p = progressive framing

• Portable:
  • SQVGA (160x120 or 160x90)
  • QVGA (320x240 or 320x180)
  • CIF (352x288)
    • All these formats using 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios.

i) Multiplexing system: MPEG-2 system (ISO/IEC 13818-1 2000) That standard is used by Japan, Brazil and Peru

j) Processes for Error Correction: Time Interleaving and Frequence Interleaving

k) Interactive TV middleware:

• ISDB-T: Declarative: BML; Procedural: Not implemented - Optional GEM
• SBTVD/ISDB-T International: Declarative: Ginga-NCL; Procedural: Ginga-J

l) Other carcteristics:

• Multiprogram:

Allows 1 program Full HD (1080 x 1920 dots at 16:9 aspect ratio) in a channel; or 1 program HD and 1 program SD in a channel; or 3 programs SD in a channel.

• Alert broadcast:

Allows the government send an alert (earthquake, tsunami, etc) to each device in the area ISDB-T/SBTVD/ISDB-T International signal is present. The alert signal uses some data space in one of the segments of the data stream and turns on all receivers and presents the alert information.

Summary Table (modifyed from ISDB-T arcticle)

Transmission channel coding	Modulation Scheme	64QAM-OFDM, 16QAM-OFDM, QPSK-OFDM, DQPSK-OFDM (Hierarchical transmission)
	Error correction coding	Inner coding, Convolution 7/8,3/4,2/3,1/2 Outer coding:RS(204,188)
	Guard interval	1/16,1/8,1/4
	Interleaving	Time, Frequency, bit, byte
	Modulation Type	BST-OFDM (Segmented structure OFDM)
Conditional Access		Multi-2
Data broadcasting		ARIB STD B-24 (BML, ECMA script)
Service information		ARIB STD B-10
Multiplexing		MPEG-2 Systems
Audio coding		Stereo: MPEG-4 AAC@L2 or MPEG-4 HE-AAC v1@L2 Multi-Channel 5.1: MPEG-4 AAC@L4 or MPEG-4 HE-AAC v1@L4
Video coding		MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)

For detailed technical data please go to ABNT site (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - Brazilian Association for Technical Standards in English), at DTV area: http://www.abnt.org.br/m3.asp?cod_pagina=1249

Countries and territories using SBTVD/ISDB-T/ISDB-T International

Americas

• Brazil
• Peru
• Argentina (It was announced on April/2009 that Argentina is studying the implementation of the ISDB/SBTVD as its Digital TV system)
• Chile (Experimental)
• Ecuador (Experimental)
• Venezuela (Experimental)
• Panama (Experimental)
• Cuba (Experimental)

Asia

• Japan
• Philippines (Experimental)

External links

• SBTVD Forum - In Portuguese
• The SBTVD website of the Brazilian Communications Ministry
• Pictures of the Samsung Public SBTVD demo in São Paulo
• Final report of the Digital Terrestrial Television Peruvian Multi-sectional Commission - In Spanish