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The community television channel Cape Town TV (CTV) has upgraded it transmission fascilities which means a clearer video image as well as better sound quality for the TV channel.
''The microwave link between CTV's broadcast centre in Observatory and the transmission tower at Tygerberg has been upgraded with faster bandwidth. This means that the annoying audio distortion and video signal disturbances that viewers were experiencing are now a thing of the past,'' says Mike Alridge, CTV's broadcast manager. ''Viewers will get a much better quality signal and their viewing experience will be more enjoyable as a result.''
The upgrade was done by Sentech and the link now transmits CTV's signal to Sentech's Tygerberg tower at more than double its previous capacity. Bandwidth has increased from 1.9Mbps to 4Mbps.
''The equipment that Sentech has installed for the upgrade demonstrates the new-found confidence that stakeholders have in the channel now that CTV has been awarded a seven-year broadcast license by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa),'' says Karen Thorne, CTV station manager.
CTV has paid off its previous outstanding debt owed to Sentech for signal distribution, but warns that the community TV station still faces hurdles to overcome. ''The frequency on which CTV is broadcasting will change once the migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting begins,'' says Mike Alridge. ''The current CTV frequency has been earmarked for use in the digital transition and Icasa has had to find an alternative frequency on which to accommodate CTV.''
''We will have to embark on a publicity campaign to educate our viewers about the frequency change,'' he says. ''Viewers will eventually have to re-tune their TV sets in order to pick up the channel on the new frequency.'' CTV can currently be found on the UHF frequency range.
