APTICA has carried out a consulting project for the ASEP focused on establishing the technical conditions that optimize the implementation of DTT and ensure the quality of service received by users.

The National Authority of Public Services of Panama (ASEP) is the body responsible for establishing the technical and regulatory guidelines for the implementation of Digital Terrestrial Television in the country.

The the process of transition from analogue to digital televisión in Panama has already complete the first phase of DTT implementation, which includes the provinces of Panama, Panama West and Colon, where more than 60% of households have digital televisión. After this first phase, the ASEP detected the existence of configurations and heterogeneous deployment models among the operators, that affect the quality of the service. For this reason, he decided to hire a consulting project for the “STRENGTHENING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TECHNICAL STANDARDS OF INSTALLATION, OPERATION AND RECEPTION OF OPEN TELEVISION SYSTEMS”, a tender of which APTICA was awarded and that has been executed in the period from August to October 2018.

APTICA has carried out in this project an exhaustive analysis of the Digital Terrestrial Television technical chain, defining in each one of the phases of the service, the obligatory conditions and the most common techniques used by the operators to provide the service at international level, which should serve as orientation to the optimal deployment of networks in Panama. The study analyzes in detail the problems associated with the design and deployment of DTT networks, focusing on single frequency networks (SFN) such as those deployed in Panama. On the other hand, the parameters and methodologies that must be measured and monitored to ensure adequate service provision, are proposed.

The results of this study allow the ASEP to have a solid base to establish the technical and regulatory guidelines that must be fulfilled in the deployments of DTT networks in the country, ensuring high levels of both: quality of the service provided and experience received by the users.