Nigeria Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting: An Evaluation of the Transmitted Signal received under different environmental features in North-Central Region

Abstract

The Government of Nigeria in the year 2016 switched from analog television broadcasting to digital terrestrial television broadcasting with the focus of providing reliable quality of television services to users. Regardless of the advantages of digital Terrestrial television system over analog television and efforts make by Nigeria Government to improve broadcasting, Signal reception is observed to be very poor. Therefore, this study aimed at monitoring, evaluating and mitigating environmental factors that cause signal degradation as well as attempting to provide solutions that will enhance the reception of signal even under severe environmental conditions. The transmitted signal of digital Terrestrial television was measured and received under different environmental features within the coverage area. The antenna radiation field was divided into four distinct regions (North-East, North-west, South-east and South-west of the transmitter) where the characteristics of the radiated wave are observed and measured starting from distance of 10km, 20km, 30km, 40km, 50km, up to 100km for each of the region. It was observed that the transmitted signal received at different distances varies depending on the physical features along the signal path. The result also shows that space loss increases with increase in distance. This study will guide DTT operators within the study area to precisely choose a site for installing the transmitting antenna for effective transmission.