ABU Technical Committee Meeting

21-22 October 2016

Bali, Indonesia
Doc T-16/20-9

STATUS REPORT
Organisation:

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

Period:

Oct 2015 to Sep

2016

Date of Report:

11 Oct 2016

PART A
Technical Developments during the past year:

System upgrades/changes to practices for improved quality/efficiency

1. Completed the refurbishment of one Continuity Studio for on-air operation;

2. Commenced the refurbishment of self-op audio mixing systems in two Studios;
3. Upgraded the online storage for video production of RTHKs mobile apps;
4. Upgraded the audio distribution infrastructure for newsroom;
5. Upgraded the 24 x 7 audio logging and live editing system for radio news;
6. Completed the setup of two gap-filler stations for Digital Audio Broadcasting
(DAB) for improving the coverage in the rural areas;
7. Completed the setup of six additional fill-in stations for the Digital Terrestrial
Television (DTT) services for increasing the DTT coverage;
8. Commenced the replacement of three sets of FM transmitters at one of the
principal FM transmitting stations for improving the service reliability;
9. Completed the upgrade of the staging storage and near-online storage for TV
production;
10. Completed the upgrade of the core network routing switch and firewall of TV
production to improve network availability, stability and security;
11. Commenced the revamp of network infrastructure for radio newsroom;
12. Commenced the setup of central network monitoring system for TV and Radio
production;
13. Commenced the setup of Virtual set system;
14. Commenced the trial of File-based TV production including studio, post
production, subtitling and playout;
15. Completed the setup of the presentation system for Analogue TV;
16. Commenced the setup of the backup presentation system.

New Services/new projects initiated

1. Launched the first TV news programme from Radio Newsroom through setting up
video news production facilities including video presentation room, server rooms,
master control and video ingestion room, post-production storage and
workstations;

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2. Launched the broadcasting of visualized radio programme on TV channel;
3. Initiated the setup of software defined storage as cross-platform central archive
storage for video and audio productions;
4. Launched the Facebook Live for visualized radio programme and live video news;
5. Launched the broadcasting of two Analogue TV channels via 40 analogue TV
transmitting stations in Hong Kong;
6. Launched the live video transmission of Road Traffic Condition over RTHK
backbone network;
7. Refurbished TV studio including replacement of studio lighting grid and
suspension system.

Research projects

Internet and Mobile Broadcasting Services

1.

Upgrade of Automated Publishing System (APS), an online publishing system

allowing RTHKs web and mobile apps to stream RTHKs TV and Radio broadcast
signals, as well as all contents made for the internet;

2.

Development of News Publishing System (NPS), a system allowing RTHKs news

web and mobile app to stream RTHK newsrooms audio and video news clips as
well as instant publishing of photos and text news;

3.

Enhancement of a video publishing system for RTHKs podcasts to publish video

contents to Connected TVs, RTHKs YouTube channels and RTHKs Facebook
pages.

Coverage %
Programme
Channels

Studios

Transmitters

Radio

Television

99% (AM/FM)

85 % (DTT)

83% (DAB)

99 % (Analogue TV)

3 (FM)
4 (AM)

3 (DTT, High
Definition)

5 (DAB+)

2 (Analogue)

File based Radio

R/N/D

SDTV

R/N/D

N/A

HDTV

R/N/D

UHDTV

R/N/D

N/A

HF

R/N/D

N/A

MF

R/N/D

FM

R/N/D

TV

R/N/D

Internet Services

R/N/D

R/N

R/N

Mobile Services

R/N/D

N/A

N/A

R = Replacement/upgrade
N = New
D = Discontinued

PART B
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Activities

Area

Brief Details:

Challenges/Problems Faced:

1. Objectives

1. Lack of resources

2. Progress to date

2. Lack of know-how

Solutions Implemented/Type of
assistance requirement from
ABU

3. Others (e.g. up-skilling)

1.

Development
projects/Upgrading
facilities/Training

Site management of newly

takeover of 23 TV
Transmitting stations from
Asia Television Ltd.

l To provide management of
common site facilities for the
co-site users of the TV
transmitting stations
l Commenced the site clearance
of the leftover properties from
the previous site owners and
site facilities refurbishment.

DTT Transmission
l establishment of five
more fill-in stations
l relocation of two
principal stations

2.

3.

l Enhance the DTT coverage to

sub-urban areas
l Save rental cost through
relocating two stations from
private owned stations to
government owned stations

l Lack of experience in handling

the takeover logistics and
mass replacement of aged
common site facilities since
such takeover is
unprecedented.

l Lack of skill in building,

electrical and mechanical
services.

Consult advice and experiences

from other government
departments such as
Department of Justice, Lands
Department, Government
Property Agency, and
Architectural Services
Department.

Employ staff with professional

skill in building, electrical and
mechanical services.

Involves negotiation with

commercial TV operators and
other government departments
during planning, approval and
implementation stages

Plan, communicate and coordinate

with various stakeholders well in
advance. Consult advice from other
government departments such as
Architectural Services Department.

Consult advice from Architectural

Services Department and other
experienced professional parties.

Conversion of TV studio

Replacement of lighting grid and

suspension system, planning and
budgeting is in progress.

The building is so aged that

there is insufficient information
for certification of safety

Participation in ABU
Activities

Area

Level of Participation

Reasons for not participating (though interested)

ABU Technical Committee

Attendance and sharing

Suggestions for New ABU

Activities e.g. study topic
projects, workshops,
symposiums etc, spectrum
activities, new technology

Activity 1

Study topics - Development of IPbased broadcast systems for

Radio and TV broadcasting

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Activities

Area

Brief Details:

Challenges/Problems Faced:

1. Objectives

1. Lack of resources

2. Progress to date

2. Lack of know-how
3. Others (e.g. up-skilling)

information flows

Activity 2

Activity 3

Technology information flows How to optimize cost efficiency of

deploying virtual set for studio
production

Solutions Implemented/Type of
assistance requirement from
ABU