Southeast Asian nations agree on STB specifications

June 23, 2008 - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has reached an agreement on a common set of specifications for standard-definition and high-definition digital set-top boxes (STBs) at the end of the ASEAN Digital Broadcasting meeting held in Singapore last week.

The agreement was reached in advance of the anticipated transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, and with the aim of creating economies of scale for equipment manufacturers and lowering prices for consumers in the region. The members also proposed that ASEAN considers adopting Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) as the middleware used for the set-top boxes. Participating in the event were delegates from the seven countries of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Discussions are to continue on exploring interactive TV costs, MPEG4 licensing issues, establishment of a common Digital TV Sound Standard, and a study of the high-definition 720p/1080i transmission and production formats. ASEAN has also agreed to establish the ASEAN HD Centre, which will provide training on HD productions and facilitate HD co-productions within the ASEAN region.

Dr Christopher Chia, CEO of the Multimedia Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), said: “ASEAN as an integrated market represents more than half a billion pairs of television eyeballs. We are thus very pleased that agreements have been reached on various fronts to move the region towards digital switch-on. Banding together through standardisation and cooperation will generate economies of scale. This will create further economic spillovers in terms of equipment and consumer electronics design, manufacture and marketing, new marketing avenues and boost the creation of more digital content for ASEAN and international markets.”