DVB-T in Germany

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DVB-T logo

This article describes the operation of DVB-T in Germany . The DVB-T2 standard currently used in Germany is part of this standard with modified parameters and codecs. The abbreviation stands for Engl. “ D igital V ideo B roadcasting - T errestrial”; in German, for example: "Digital, terrestrial television" and describes a variant of DVB that is used for the radio transmission of digital radio and television signals via terrestrial (earth-bound) paths. DVB-T was specified in 1997 by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in the EN 300 744 standard. The modernized successor standard to DVB-T is DVB-T2. DVB-T2 uses less bandwidth for signal transmission . DVB-T and DVB-T2 (optionally in HD resolution) are the defined standards for aerial television in Germany .

On February 11, 2015 , the Federal Cabinet made it possible to reassign frequencies in the 700 MHz band by changing the ordinance . The change from DVB-T to DVB-T2 is imminent between 2017 and 2019. [outdated]

Course of the switch to DVB-T

The shutdown of analogue television when switching to digital television was carried out in a regulated manner. For public service broadcasting, the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty enabled analogue broadcasting to be gradually discontinued, under reasonable conditions for users.

On Monday, August 4th, 2003 at 8:00 am, analogue broadcasting of television programs in the greater Berlin area was discontinued in favor of digital broadcasting via DVB-T. That was the beginning of the shutdown of the analog antenna television in Germany. By 2008, around 600 analogue TV broadcasting systems and more than 8,700 filler transmitters had been switched off and replaced by 488 DVB-T broadcasting systems.

While in the first conversion areas there was often a simulcast phase lasting several months (simultaneous broadcast in the analog and digital standard), this phase was significantly shorter with later conversions; From 2005, most areas switched directly from analog to digital without an interim solution.

Today, at least 90% of households should be able to receive the public broadcasters using DVB-T via a roof antenna . This is achieved by almost exclusively broadcasting via basic network transmitters ; analogue filling transmitters were largely shut down in the course of the changeover. The ALM's 2006 digitization report describes the goal as follows: "In addition, they have reduced the requirements for full coverage via terrestrial frequencies and are now concentrating on the main transmitter locations with the aim of reaching 90 to 95 percent of the population via antenna."

The two large private broadcaster chains ( RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 ) only broadcast their programs via DVB-T in the areas that were first developed. The private broadcasters have largely stopped expanding DVB-T broadcasting in DVB-T regions that have been newly developed since 2005, after the state media authorities were no longer able to finance the broadcasting costs due to complaints from the cable network operators . At the end of 2007, new multiplexes with private programs went on air for the first time in a long time, one multiplex each in Saarland and Leipzig.

In January 2013, the RTL Group announced the decision - later revised - to stop broadcasting its programs via DVB-T on December 31, 2014, and even on July 31, 2013 in Munich. The reasons given were the lack of security for the Frequencies beyond 2020 - the RTL frequency in Nuremberg was assigned LTE as early as October 2010 - and a missing industry standard for encryption . This is also the basic requirement for smaller broadcasters, but what the above. New activation of small local stations contradicts. On April 2, 2013, ProSiebenSat.1 surprisingly announced that it would extend the broadcast until the end of 2017, as the use of its programs in DVB-T households was above average. On June 3, 2014, RTL Group also announced its decision to broadcast its free TV programs for at least two more years (until December 31, 2016) via DVB-T. The reason given was that a nationwide DVB-T2 platform planned by Media Broadcast was emerging as a portable commercial business model for digital aerial television. RTL intends to use this platform to offer the media group's free TV channels encrypted in HDTV format to terrestrial TV households.

With the Bad Mergentheim transmitter , SWR switched the last remaining public broadcasting system from analog operation to DVB-T on June 30, 2009. From July 1, 2013 to January 2, 2014, Vogtland Regional Fernsehen was the last program to broadcast terrestrial analogue.

In 2007, 12% of households in Germany used a DVB-T receiver, in 2011 it was 25% and in 2016 it was 15.8%.

Overview of the changeover schedule

Changeover in Germany - the names of the stations in brackets
Region (transmitter systems) Start of changeover Analog shutdown Multiplexes
Berlin / Potsdam ( Alexanderplatz TV tower , Scholzplatz transmitter , Berlin-Schäferberg ) November 1, 2002 August 4, 2003 first 2, then 8, now 9
Bremen / Unterweser ( Schiffdorf , telecommunications tower Bremen , Steinkimmen ) (ARD multiplex with rbTV as fourth program, in Steinkimmen again with tagesschau24 ) May 24, 2004 November 8, 2004 only 6, now 7
Hanover ( Telemax , Hemmingen ), Braunschweig ( Broitzem telecommunications tower , thermal power station ) first 4, then 6, now 7
Cologne ( Colonius ) / Bonn ( Venusberg ) only 5, now 6
Greater Rhine-Main area ( Hohe Wurzel , Großer Feldberg , European Tower Frankfurt ) 4th October 2004 December 6, 2004 only 2, now 6
Düsseldorf / Ruhr area ( Essen-Holsterhausen , Florian Tower , Rheinturm , Langenberg / Hordtberg , Wesel-Büderich ) November 8, 2004 April 4, 2005 only 5, now 6
Hamburg / Lübeck March 2005 only 6, now 7
Kiel / Flensburg 5, later 6 (3)
Filling station Düsseldorf / Ruhr area ( Kleve / Bresserberg ) April 4, 2005 2
Southern Bavaria, Munich ( Olympic Tower ) May 30, 2005 August 31, 2005 6th
Nuremberg city ( telecommunications tower Nuremberg ) May 30, 2005 August 31, 2005 6 or 5 (since October 7, 2010)
Southern Bavaria ( Wendelstein ) May 30, 2005 6th
Nuremberg / west. Upper Palatinate ( Dillberg ) May 30, 2005 3
Central Germany (Leipzig / Halle / Erfurt / Weimar) December 5th and 6th, 2005 3
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ( Schwerin , Rostock , Marlow , Garz (Rügen) , Wolgast , Heringsdorf , Helpterberg ) (ARD multiplex only Das Erste and regional programs) 2
Osnabrück / Lingen ( Osnabrück-Engter , Lingen , Bad Rothenfelde) (Bad Rothenfelde only NDR multiplex) December 14, 2005 3
North Baden / Rhine-Neckar ( Heidelberg , Weinbiet ) May 17, 2006 3
East Frisia ( Aurich-Popens ) May 22, 2006 3
Kaiserslautern ( Dansenberg ) 3
Stuttgart ( woman's head ) 4th
Hesse ( Habichtswald , Hoher Meißner , Rimberg , Heidelstein , Angelburg , Würzberg ) May 29, 2006 3
Göttingen / Weser Uplands ( Solling ) 3
Ostwestfalen-Lippe ( Teutoburg Forest , Bielefeld-Hünenburg , Jakobsberg ) 3
Wuppertal ( Küllenhahn ) 3
Northwest Bavaria ( Kreuzberg , Frankenwarte ) 3
North Frisia / Schleswig-Holstein West October 24, 2006 3
Eastern Bavaria ( Hohe Linie , Hoher Bogen , Brotjacklriegel , parish churches ) December 6, 2006 3
Brandenburg South ( Frankfurt / Oder , Cottbus ) December 12, 2006 3
Filling station Düsseldorf / Ruhr area ( Gelsenkirchen-Scholven ) February 1, 2007 1
Lüneburg Heath / Wendland ( Uelzen-Sprakensehl , Visselhövede , Dannenberg-Zernien , Lüneburg / Steinhöhe, Rosengarten ) (Dannenberg-Zernien without ZDF multiplex) March 13, 2007 3
Münsterland ( Nottuln , Münster ) June 12, 2007 3
Upper Rhine / southern and central Black Forest ( Brandenkopf , Totenkopf , Hochrhein ) July 10, 2007 3
Other parts of Central Germany ( Leipzig , Upper Lusatia , Dresden , Chemnitz , Chemnitz , Schöneck ) July 23, 2007 3
Saxony-Anhalt ( Brocken , Magdeburg , Wittenberg , Halle ) October 9, 2007 3
South Westphalia ( Nordhelle , Siegen , Hochsauerland ) November 13, 2007 3
Aachen ( Aachen-Stolberg , Mulleklenkes ) November 20, 2007 3
Augsburg, Bay. Swabia ( Augsburg ), Allgäu ( Grünten , Hoher Peißenberg ), Old Bavaria ( Pfaffenhofen , Landshut ), Oberschwaben-Bodensee region ( Höchst ), Alb-Danube region ( Ulm-Ermingen ), Black Forest-Baar region ( Donaueschingen ), western Swabian Alb ( Raichberg ) November 27, 2007 3
Rhineland-Palatinate South ( Donnersberg , Kettrichhof ) / Northern Black Forest and central Upper Rhine ( Fremersberg ) 4th December 2007 3
Saarland ( Göttelborner Höhe , Riegelsberg-Schoksberg , Spiesen ) December 13, 2007 4th
Berchtesgadener Land ( Untersberg transmitter ) April 29, 2008 3
South Thuringia ( Inselsberg , Sonneberg , Saalfeld , Kernberg (Jena) ), North Saxony-Anhalt ( Dequede ) July 1, 2008 3
Rhineland-Palatinate North ( Koblenz , Ahrweiler , Bad Marienberg , later Linz ) August 26, 2008 3
East Württemberg ( Aalen ), Hohenlohe ( Waldenburg ), Northern Black Forest ( Pforzheim ) November 5, 2008 3
Rhineland-Palatinate Northwest ( Trier , Eifel , Saarburg , Haardtkopf ) November 12, 2008 3
Lower Franconia ( Pfaffenberg ), Middle Franconia ( Hesselberg , Büttelberg ), Upper Franconia ( Ochsenkopf , Geisberg near Bamberg ), northern Upper Palatinate ( Amberg ), Altmühltal ( Gelbelsee ) November 25, 2008 3
Taubertal ( Bad Mergentheim ) June 30, 2009 3
Filling station Rhineland-Palatinate ( Linz ) September 30, 2009 3
Filling station Baden-Württemberg ( Oberböhringen , Heilbronn ) October 14, 2009 3
Traunstein, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Passau November 4, 2009 3
Lindau ( Pfänder (A) ) (without ZDF package, 3sat via ORF package) October 5, 2010 2
Filling station Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Waren / Müritz) May 8, 2013 (ARD)
May 6, 2014 (ZDF)		 2
Dresden-Wiener Platz ( Dresden Television ) May 1, 2014 January 10, 2013 1

Reduction of the frequency allocation in the 700 MHz band

For Germany, the Federal Network Agency has been planning to clear the frequencies between 698 and 786 MHz previously used by DVB-T (channel 49 with 698 MHz to channel 60 with 786 MHz) in order to transfer the freed-up frequencies to providers of mobile broadband (e .g . mobile internet). The basis for the so-called Digital Dividend II is the Digital Agenda 2014–2017 , which is based on the decisions of the World Radio Conference 2012 on the subject of aerial television. Originally it was decided to reserve the frequencies for DVB-T, DVB-T2 and professional radio links until 2025. According to the plans, the range between 733 and 758 MHz should be cleared, but remain free until further notice. Over 100 DVB-T radio channels at various locations would be affected by the shutdown. The "Task Force DVB-T Germany of ARD and ZDF" has been highlighting the frequencies concerned since August 2014 in its station and program list.

Replacement of DVB-T by DVB-T2

Logo for DVB-T2 HD with HEVC (Codec H.265) in Germany

As early as October 2009, ZDF announced the prospect of long-term high definition terrestrial television. On June 3, 2014, the state media authorities announced that the conversion to DVB-T2 would begin in Germany in 2016 and that this should be completed by 2020. The private and public broadcasters agreed to switch to the use of High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265) so that more programs can be broadcast in better quality. In particular, it should then also be possible to receive high-resolution HDTV via antenna. However, the private program providers wanted to transmit their programs with basic encryption. The public service providers should remain freely receivable.

In August 2014, the Federal Network Agency presented plans to accelerate the switch to DVB-T2. Due to the Digital Agenda 2014 to 2017, the Federal Network Agency can no longer support the simulcast solution favored by the broadcasters by simulcasting DVB-T and DVB-T2 at the same time by 2019, because the evacuation of channels 49 to 60 should be completed by 2017. For users of terrestrial broadcasting technology, this meant giving preference to DVB-T2-compatible end devices in the run-up to the changeover, which can also decode DVB-T until the final switch to DVB-T2.

In Germany there was a DVB-T2 model test for test purposes in the Hamburg area (Lüneburg, Rosengarten ), Munich and Berlin. In addition to the technical testing, an introductory scenario was also developed. The introduction of the new DVB-T2 standard began in May 2016 in some metropolitan areas (entry phase). The final expansion is planned for June 2019. The WDR started test operations in the Cologne / Bonn area in August 2015. At the ANGA COM 2015 the "DVB-T2 HD" logo was presented. It identifies devices that meet a double compatibility requirement. In the future, these devices will be fully compatible with the new HEVC coding standard used in Germany , and at the same time they can be connected to the IRDETO decoding technology for encrypted transmissions on German private television.

In 2009, the Institute for Broadcasting Technology conducted a test in the Freimann area near Munich in preparation for the conversion .

In some metropolitan areas, a preliminary DVB-T2 test and introductory phase was started on May 31, 2016, with the first channels in HD quality being offered. On March 29, 2017, all programs in the metropolitan areas were basically switched from DVB-T to DVB-T2 by noon. After this changeover in the metropolitan areas, DVB-T reception in the form of severely restricted simulcast operation with a multiplex will continue to be possible for a maximum of nine months. There are no frequencies available for more extensive simulcast operation.

The changeover in other regions of Germany is to take place in the period up to 2019.

See also

Web links

Commons : DVB-T  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal government creates prerequisites for mobile broadband expansion - Dobrindt: The way is clear for fast frequency allocation ( memento of the original from March 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release No. 011/2015 of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure from February 11, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmvi.de
  2. ↑ In favor of the mobile Internet: Cabinet heralds the end of DVB-T on February 11, 2015
  3. ^ Frequency reorganization : Federal Cabinet buries DVB-T on heise.de on February 11, 2015
  4. ↑ hr-online.de: Questions and Answers Rhein-Main ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hr-online.de
  5. ↑ Berlin: The antenna is dead, long live the antenna! . Report on heise.de on August 4, 2003
  6. ↑ heise.de: Antenna television digitized in Germany
  7. ↑ a b ALM digitization report for 2006 , pdf, accessed on June 1, 2013
  8. ↑ Radio station on the Leipzig DVB-T city channel ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slm-online.de
  9. ↑ RTL plans to withdraw from aerial television. In: wuv.de. January 16, 2013, accessed January 17, 2013 . (The specified shutdown date for RTL is incorrect.)
  10. ↑ Everything about RTL reception via DVB-T - withdrawal from DVB-T broadcasting. In: RTL audience service / FAQ. January 22, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Hoping for DVB-T2 platform: RTL Germany extends DVB-T commitment. In: kress.de. June 3, 2014, accessed January 3, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Last analogue TV channel switched off in Germany. Yahoo News January 3, 2014
  13. ↑ 25% of private households use DVB-T receivers for television reception . In: Press release of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) . August 28, 2012.
  14. ^ State & Society - Equipment with consumer goods - Equipment of private households with entertainment electronics - Germany - Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) . In: Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) . Retrieved November 22, 2016.
  15. ↑ Shutdown of the RTL bouquet: Channel change in Munich / southern Bavaria and RTL shutdown in Nuremberg ( memento of the original from February 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dvb-t-bayern.de
  16. ↑ Media Broadcast extends DVB-T range for ZDF with activation in Waren / Müritz
  17. ↑ Markus Wilmsmann: Digital dividend 2nd Federal Network Agency wants to auction frequencies as early as 2015. eventelevator.de, June 24, 2013, accessed October 30, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Digital Agenda 2014 - 2017. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, 2014, archived from the original on October 30, 2014 ; accessed on October 30, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmwi.de
  19. ↑ a b Thorsten Neuhetzki: 700 MHz DVB-T frequency auction. That is what the BNetzA is planning. teltarif.de, October 24, 2014, accessed October 29, 2014 .
  20. ↑ Channel and program list Germany. (PDF) Task Force DVB-T Germany from ARD and ZDF, Institute for Broadcasting Technology Munich, August 18, 2014, accessed on October 29, 2014 .
  21. ↑ A kind of "roadmap" for high-definition television is presented in the teletext offering, including terrestrial reception on page 793 (accessed on October 16, 2009)
  22. ↑ Terrestrial in HD: DVB-T2 will come with encryption from 2016. June 3, 2014, accessed March 8, 2015 .
  23. ↑ SächsABl. 2014 p. 1560 with maps (PDF; 1.7 MB)
  24. ↑ WDR starts DVB-T2 test operation in August 2015. In: teltarif.de . March 7, 2015, accessed March 8, 2015 .
  25. ↑ http://dvb-t2hd.de/
  26. ↑ IRT sends DVB-T2 test signals from December 11, 2009; Retrieved March 5, 2010
  27. ↑ Conversion to DVB-T2 HD: Twelve hours without TV reception , test.de from March 28, 2017, accessed on March 29, 2017
  28. ↑ a b FAQ: Introduction of DVB-T2 in Germany. In: ndr.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, accessed on February 7, 2016 .