Race to comply with digital switch-over intensifies

A tour in shops and homes in Yaoundé shows that many households have plasma screens to meet with modernity. Cathode ray tube displays have disappeared or almost off the shelves of supermarkets in Yaoundé.

A tour in a number of shops in the capital city shows that with the switchover to digital radio and television in Africa established by the International Union of telecommunications (ITU) planned tomorrow, flat screen displays are becoming more fashionable. Prices range between 100,000 and 650 000 F depending on brands and the size of the screens.

In these commercial areas, everyone was unanimous on the situation. "We must move with time and the transition to digital television is close. So the older televisions have no place", noted the head of a specialized shop.

On the other hand, in other commercial shops in the capital, analog displays persist despite their programmed death. These old screens are liquidated at 35 000 F or even 80 000 F. Alain F., still has an analogue television, but aware of this digital switch over, he came to the central market to adapt to modernity by providing a plasma screen to his family.

"I have been using my old television for ages and I came here to get a digital television in order to be in good standing like everyone else," he said. For Marcel Kamga, the seller, flat screen is not always synonymous with digital. According to him, "some flat screens are not a digital television decoder. You need a decoder to be able to connect to digital." Before adding that "most of the clients who come here think that all flat screen TVs are digital, which is not always the case. For this, the TV needs a digital input for images."

Indeed, in households as well as in shops, the concept of digital television is not yet rooted in the habits. Everyone has a little idea. For Clémentine Ebuea, mother, "when talking about digital television, it refers to flat panel displays. I made efforts to have one. So I am already linked to the new situation," she says.

Experts define a digital TV as one that broadcasts the images from a digital transmitter to digital broadcasting standards. It has a built-in decoder which allows it to recognize the digital signal to carry it for the rest of its operation such that it can be rendered by the screen.