In the last week of January, the first commercial digital television broadcasts were made in Colombia with the European DVB-T standard. Likewise, this country hosted the first meeting between Latin American countries that have adopted the European standard.
The tests were carried out at the facilities of Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC), under the coordination of the National Television Commission, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies and RTVC.
This first official broadcast was transmitted from the Calatrava station, which covers the north, west and part of the centre of Bogotá. The signal broadcast was observed by digital television receivers, with image and sound superior to those corresponding to the analogue signal.
During the event, the director of the National Television Commission, Juan Andrés Carreño, explained that within a short time televisions with the capacity to receive digital signals of the European standard and decoder boxes will be available to Colombians, with the European tuner, to install them on current televisions.
On the other hand, the first meeting was also held in Bogotá between the authorities of the Latin American countries that have adopted the European standard of digital television with the participation of the ambassador of the European Union in Colombia, Fernando Cardesa; the Spanish expert in Digital Terrestrial Television and director of the Spanish organization Impulsa DTT, Eladio Gutiérrez; and representatives of Uruguay, Panama and Colombia.
The three countries agreed on the importance of working together on content projects for digital terrestrial television. They ratified the criteria by which they selected the European DVB standard and shared the first successes achieved in its implementation, such as the technical assistance project that will begin its implementation in Colombia during the first half of 2010 and through which the Ministry of ICT achieved the donation of 730 thousand Euros to start the training of digital content producers and advice on regulatory issues.
