As part of the implementation of the ATU’s Strategy for Introduction and Promotion of Digital Sound Broadcasting (DSB) in Africa and as its initiative, the ATU has collaborated with the ITU, AFRALTI, and WorldDAB and DRM Consortiums, in putting together a first-of-its-kind specialized course on DSB systems under the ITU Academy. ATU is pleased to announce that the first cohort of the course is now underway since commencement on 2 nd May 2023. The special technical course is fully sponsored by ATU and is benefitting a total of 100 students from across the 51 Member States (average of two students per Member State).
The one-month online course is being delivered through ATU’s two capacity-building partners, namely: AFRALTI (English class) and ESMT (French class) both of which are ITU centres of excellence on technical subjects – with AFRALTI now crowned with a global status as the ITU global academy training centre. The course offers an in-depth technical review of the DAB+ and DRM30/DRM+ digital sound broadcasting standards. It also covers the formation of multiplexed audio streams with associated data and data services, the carriage of the multiplex and associated signalling, the broadcast transmission stream, and RF transmission modes and details. Further, the course also includes an overview of receiver products, regulatory aspects and transmission planning, among other practical implementation aspects of DSB.
While Analogue Sound Broadcasting (i.e. FM Radio) is and will remain a critical ICT service in the short and medium term, time is now to prepare Africa for the ultimate future of radio which will surely be DSB. It is in this regard that ATU deems the course as fundamental. In promoting DSB, ATU is in no way discounting analogue FM Radio: with the recent successful project on the optimization of the FM frequency channels for analogue FM Radio for Africa (i.e. the ITU’s GE84 Plan for Africa), ATU is in fact promoting both analogue (FM Radio) and digital radio (DSB) to ensure sound broadcasting (either analogue and/or digital) continues to play its crucial role now and into the future.
ATU wishes all the enrolled experts good learning and successful graduation upon completion of the course. ATU remains optimistic that the course beneficiaries will be the cornerstones in building Africa's DSB future. The future outlook of sound broadcasting i.e. both Analogue and Digital remains bright.
Useful links:
– ATU’s Strategy for Introduction and Promotion of Digital Sound Broadcasting (DSB) in
Africa can be found here.
– The said ITU Academy course on Digital Sound Broadcasting (DSB) course can be
found here.
