News

With testing for digital TV transmission for the greater Kampala area under way, Uganda’s migration to digital TV is back on.

For the open source geeks out there, I have re-published a script I wrote some years back to scan for DVB-T channels. If you live in the greater Kampala area; feel free to check it out from my GitHub repositories.

To use this tool, you will need a DVB-T2 tuner – USB dongle or PCI-based card.

So far, Broadcasting is currently on the frequency 674000000; in addition to the already existing pay tv frequencies of 490000000 , 498000000 , 522000000, 538000000, 546000000, 570000000, 586000000, 634000000, and 690000000.

We are really in the initial stages, as most broadcasters are not yet on at this time. Also analogue TV users should expect to be temporarily switched off this week as transmission masts are re-fitted with new panels.

Happy testing

I never thought I would comment on the continuing NSA revelations by Edward Snowden on this blog.
Considering how deprived most developing nations like Uganda are when it comes to ICT, one would brush off such leaks as a problem for the west.

But then again, due to our dependence on IT products and services (think Google, Microsoft, etc) from the US, IT users need to seriously reconsider what services and products they use.

If you are still using any of Microsoft’s products e.g. Windows, I recommend you take a look at this and other articles on Microsoft and the NSA.

Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft – John C Dvorak

Turns out Microsoft has been helping out the NSA and its surveillance work – confirming what a lot of us in the open source community always thought.
This might be a good time to migrate your systems away from those proprietary vendors unless of-course you don’t mind having ‘back-doors’ in your software and possibly being monitored.

A raspberry pi kit just got delivered to the labs for testing. I’m looking forward to see what sorts of things a raspberry pi can do for us here in our Uganda.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock; the biggest news this past year in IT hardware has been the raspberry pi. Initially meant to help school kids learn how things work. This project has been a wild success, but mostly with the adult kids. Most appealing is the very small form factor and the $35.00 cost. With all these features, this little board gives you all the computing power you need to do your work plus some pretty cool stuff. Some of the interesting projects out there using the raspberry pi include: a web server to store all you files, a router, a webcam server, a weather station controller, a game arcade system, etc.. You can read more about the Pi here

Meanwhile, Uganda continues to struggle with the Digital TV migration process. After failing to meet the December 2012 regional deadline to switch from analogue to digital TV, the Uganda Communications Commission has now set tentative dates with an assurance that by December 2013, all of Kampala, and major towns in the country will have switched. In my opinion, the targets while attainable are still very ambitious considering that there has been very little done so far to prepare Ugandans for this change. It is hoped that testing of digital TV transmission will begin in May this year. Lets wait and see.

Some interesting news stories in our neck of the woods that caught my attention recently:

Kenya is considering moving away from proprietary to open source software solutions for government bodies. As the article suggests, this move is not only a cost saving measure, but opens up opportunities for local software developers. I think other economies should follow this example. Read more

Also in Kenya, the migration to digital TV is moving rapidly, as the authorities increase incentives of importing digital TV ready equipment. Vendors are now able to import either over-the-air channels only set top boxes (STB) or premium channel STBs. This move means the prices of digital TV equipment will go down. Read more

Locally in Uganda, there’s still a whole lot of talk on digital TV migration, as providers still fight over who will distribute the signals. It looks likely that the initial switch date of December 2012, will be missed. A ban on TVs that do not have a DVB-T2 chipset is being implemented starting next year. Read more

As reported in one of the local dailies, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has directed TV broadcasters to plan for digital TV using DVBT-2 capable equipment. DVBT-2 is the second generation of of Digital Video Broadcasting and ensures spectrum usage efficiency of up to 50% while providing for better quality HDTV. Uganda joins countries such as South Africa and the UK that have joined this standard. Read more at Daily Monitor

Considering that Uganda is already way behind in meeting the December 2012 migration date, I think this is a good move. The UCC directive may not be warmly welcomed by the existing providers who are using the older DVB-T standard, but I believe, this will open up the market to cheaper alternatives.

Throughout this process, I have been bothered, by the perception among our people that getting digital TV means signing up with one of the pay TV providers like DSTV, Star, Go or Zuku TV. May be the UCC needs to better inform Ugandans that the switch, will only cost one a conversion box or Zero if you already own a TV with a digital TV built-in tuner! By the way, those boxes, now that DVB-T2 is the preferred standard should be cheaper and even affordable when subsidized.

What do you think?

Just a quick one to wish you a great year ahead!

For all of you who keep tabs with what’s happening in Technology, I would recommend this 21-minute film, a very interesting video worth your time

Networked Society ‘On the Brink’

With less than 16 months left, questions are being asked as to whether Uganda will beat the December 2012 deadline of switching from analogue to Digital TV. A couple of posts of interest:
UBC Not ready … Daily Monitor
Government Stops … New Vision

My observations so far:
There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the migration from analogue to digital TV. For example, the general public perception is that this switch would necessitate households to subscribe to a TV digital provider. There’s very little information with the exception of the informational TV ads that were run by Uganda Communications Commison (UCC) a few months back.

There’s lack of any serious pilot testing taking place at the moment. The only broadcaster currently transmitting a Free to Air signal is Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC). With more broadcasters allowed to run tests, I believe most early adopters would begin to switch.

Do you live in Uganda? What do you think?

A couple of items caught my attention this week.

1. Google plus, a facebook alternative was launched by the search company, Google. While it’s currently an invite-only service, Google+ looks very promising and may very well attract those who are not comfortable with facebook’s privacy. You can read more about Google plus at: Google+

With facebook launching an exciting product next week (some sort of Skype?), things are getting very exciting in the social networking space.

2. For Linux enthusiasts out there, many of you already know how ubuntu, the Canonical based Linux distribution, helped accelerate the adoption of the Linux desktop. Well things are no longer rosy, for the distribution, as it slipped from No.1 position to No. 2 on distrowatch’s last-3-month’s rankings. Lots of users have been turned off by the latest Ubuntu 11.04 release which uses the Unity interface that was picked in favor of the traditional Gnome desktop. For those looking at alternatives, consider Fedora, a Red-Hat Linux derivative. Fedora continues to set the trend when it comes to bleeding edge technology. An example is the recently released Fedora 15. Check it out at: Fedora Project

For the folks in the good ole US of A, Happy 4th of July!

Thanks to Brian and his team at Generation Next, the AExBox project was featured on their program of 26 January 2011, with a re-run on the 27 January 2011. The AExBox is a home automation, and entertainment system, that lets you control your house lights, record TV from a remote location. Its also, a next generation home media center