Without content, the digital transition is an empty shell – Motaze

Prior to the meeting at the Conference Hall in Yaoundé, the officials in charge of the Cameroon Digital Television Project (CAM - DTV) first conducted a series of consultations with Governments, EPA (administrative public institutions) and private companies to get the maximum amount of opinion before effectively giving experts and actors in the audio-visual sector the go-ahead with work on the installation of the first set of digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels.

In his introductory remarks, the Minister Secretary General at the services of the Prime Minister and president of the CAM – DTV, Louis Paul Motaze, said that "without content, the digital transition is an empty shell. This transition is so similar to a motorway without cars. The contents are the main aspects of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) because it reflects sufficiently the battle of the re-conquest of the hearing and the re-appropriation of the rich culture."

"The main challenge is that of content. When you buy an instrument, the instrument is for a purpose. When you buy a machete, eventually, it is used on the field. Therefore, it is the utility that justifies the purchase of a machete. Contents are a real challenge, in the sense that they structure the collective thinking," Meva Melouta, the Deputy Coordinator of the technical secretariat of the Steering Committee and monitoring of the implementation of DTT in Cameroon told the press in accord with the president of Cam – Dtv.

To ensure the availability of DTT channels, it was necessary for Cam - Dtv and various expert and consultants to carry out a re-foundation of foreign channels of the audiovisual landscape and the revitalization of the national cultural heritage.

In total, 30 local and foreign channels will be the first bunch of Cameroon TNT, with "simple criteria like the quality of the broadcast, elements of the message to convey, quality of the message and also the amount," to quote Meva Melouta.

The migration from analogue to digital will ultimately be a social process that involves the entire company and taking into account all views.

During these meetings in Yaoundé which ends on Thursday, August 6, 2015, participants will be adviced to focus on the elaboration of a national guide for the production of audiovisual heritage content. TNT's facade.

With the sole aim to make the public believe that Cameroon has moved to the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), the government, celebrated with great pomp a few weeks ago, the transition to the "partial TNT" which concerned only a small group of 1,000 selected households.

The power of the media helped some tens of thousands of Cameroonians who were involved in the transition via the small screen, radio, or print media believed in the effectiveness of the TNT. However, it is fair to say that until now, Cameroon had not yet moved to DTT. That is if only it is to be considered that the small group of 1,000 selected households is sufficiently a representative of all Cameroonians.

Elsewhere on the market, except for specialized image delivery enterprises which have digital decoders sold with a subscription to the scope of the citizen lambda, it is virtually impossible to find a TNT decoder in the shops or garage sales.