.jpg)
NCN Chairman and Pro Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr. Prem Misir, delivered remarks at the opening session and welcomed delegates from across the Caribbean and beyond.
Below is his presentation:
We are extremely honoured that the Caribbean Broadcasting Union has chosen Guyana as the host country and particularly the National Communications Network as its operational host for this 44th Annual General Assembly of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, which, indeed, is a prestigious gathering.
The theme of this conference is The Business of Broadcasting in the Digital Age which is timely and in sound compliance with the digital transition penetrating the global media landscape. Digital broadcasting is an ongoing revolution in the media world. In many countries, digital television has transfigured the television viewing experience, and has enabled broadcasters to provide television with enhanced picture and sound quality, and with multiple programming channels. And an important feature, among others, of digital broadcasting is that it frees up large slices of the broadcast spectrum for other uses such as public safety communications from the police, fire, rescue teams, or other emergency purposes.
On June 16, 2006, in Geneva, Switzerland, at a meeting of the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, 104 countries with over 1,000 delegates adopted and signed a Treaty Agreement to switchover from analog to digital broadcasting. The commencement date for the switchover was June 17, 2006, and the deadline to complete the switchover is June 17, 2015. The U.S. and 18 countries in Europe have already effected the switchover, but many countries are still straggling along the transition route. In addition, digitisation of sound broadcasting is lagging behind television in the Caribbean and many other countries. Perhaps, the delegates at this conference will review possible models for digital sound broadcasting as: The In-Band on-Channel (IBOC, HD Radio), popular in the U.S., Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), and Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).
The delegates’ presence at this conference, coupled with our own broadcasting fraternity, speak volumes, symbolising that we are all together in our collective pursuits, we have all dedicated ourselves to work as a team, to share our views, discover innovative partnerships, and seek resolution to significant broadcasting problems. In the end, our job is to comprehensively and competitively digitalise broadcasting.
The current transition to digitisation in its embryonic phase requires more than ever that we collectively define, demonstrate and communicate the intrinsic worth of digital broadcasting, which in essence brings me to this most important gathering of the broadcasting clan.
As I previously mentioned, the theme of this conference is The Business of Broadcasting in the Digital Age. This forum will probe several critical matters to do with digitisation; these are, among others: comparative digital television standards, stages of digital transition; digital dividends referring to financial benefits and technical innovations; enticement of advertisers with 360-degree marketing; integration of social media with digital broadcasting to forge stronger audience loyalties generally and specifically in relationship to environmental hazards; broadcasters’ relationship to the social media framework; use of SMART in digitisation to increase radio revenues; and journalism in the digital age.
This gathering from the Caribbean and beyond provides us with a rare forum that could present us with some ground-breaking paradigm shifts in broadcasting aligned to the requirements of the digital age.
The challenge over the next few days is to refine the characteristics of our digital broadcasting experience and speak about the value added of this experience for the good of the Caribbean.
