ARE YOU READY FOR THE DIGITAL SWITCHOVER?

Trust me when I first heard about this Digital Switchover stuff I was first thinking it was all about Smartphone, computers and internet little did I know that my thought wasn’t even close to the meaning. Am sure some of the Nigerians reading this don’t even know what I’m talking about but not to worry that why you have me to give you the accurate and proper information.

Let me start by saying imagine as a Nigerian you are ask to pay before you can watch STV or AIT or even NTA what would be your reaction? Instead of just buying a TV set fix your antenna and begin to search for your favourite local station you are now been ask to buy a TV set and get and a Set Top Box (STB) which would cost you higher than the normal antenna before you are able to view stations. Note that this STB would be like a decoder  but not like that of the regular satellite decoder this is just a normal decoder that will allow you view your local stations but in a clearer and better picture. Still don’t get the gist oya make I tell you. The digital switchover is a process in which analogue television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves the conversion of analogue terrestrial television to digital terrestrial. Just to break it down, you all know the different between digital and analogue wrist watches now let me put it like this the transmission that we are getting from our TV set right now is the analogue transmission and the digital switchover is the digital transmission that would give us a clearer picture and sound quality. According to Engr. Edward Amana the chairman of the committee known as the Digi Team the reason why we have to switch to digital format is this “in the analogue format of broadcasting when people switch on their TV set and searched for channels to view they often come up with lots of static that is accompanied by much noise”. He said that “the Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) technology came up as a way of making broadcast signals transmission and reception more efficient and precise in terms of clarity of audio and video”. Now that we have gotten the gist let me go the main point of this article.

I recently discovered that January 15 2015 was the deadline that the federal government of Nigeria gave for the switch from the analogue transmission to the digital transmission and what baffled me most is that I only found out on the day the of the deadline. The question I first asked myself was “are you sure you are on this planet at all?”  “When they (the government) talk this one way I no hear?” but after I read about it in the Vanguard newspaper where I came across it I realised I wasn’t the only one that knows nothing about it. It was in this newspaper I realised that not only that many Nigerians are not aware of this change but also most of us don’t even know what the change means and why we must implement it. From what I read, nearly everybody that was asked about the digital switchover had no idea about what is it or when it was suppose to kickoff and how it would kickoff. This is just to show that the awareness created for this switchover has been insubstantial. It is totally absurd that something like this that would mean so much to Nigerians has not been given proper awareness so as to educate and inform the masses. I mean I would really go crazy if I wake up one morning to find out that I can’t access my local channels on my TV set all because of one digital switchover that I have no idea about and to now worsen the matter I would have to pay for a decoder just get back my signal. I don’t think this would be fair enough on Nigerians that why I have decided to help publicize it in my own way. Although according to Engr. Edward Amana who admitted himself that “the awareness has been faced with some problems because he says many Nigerians are still unaware of the digital change considering the fact that it has been on for two years now”. He although did say that “concerning the set top box and the publicity that everything is still a work in the progress considering the fact that we now have six month to go”. The date for complete switchover is now June 17 2015 which means that by then whoever doesn’t have the STB would not be able to view his/her favourite local channels. According to Engr. Edward Amana the switchover would take place in phases starting from the major cities before moving gradually to cities and eventually Nigeria as a whole. And Concerning the price we would have to pay for the STB or decoder if you like this was what he had to say “we are targeting a price tag of N2500 we (his team and the federal government) feel should be affordable by Nigerians who already have a television set or who are just planning to”.

So now that you have known about Digital Switchover let me ask you “are you ready for the change?” “Can or would you pay N 2500 for the Set Top Box so can you can be able to view your local stations?”