MediaCorp Digital Television

Come 2020 roof top TV antennas like the ones seen above would completely clear the Singapore skyline. This is made possible by use of indoor antennas with your digital TV set using a digital tv standard  DVB-T2 adopted by MediaCorp. MediaCorp is transmitting all free-to-air channels in digital since Dec 2013, of  which all except  Ch U are in HD . Ch U will go HD in 2016. Asean countries except the Philippines had agreed to switch off analog TV by 2020 and  to adopt DVB-T2 standard thereby creating a big market for digital TV equipment and exchange of information.
Digital TV can be received free to air by an integrated digital TV set or with a digital TV set top box connected to existing TV sets. The Government has announced subsidies for more than 150,000 households to switch to digital by 2020. And sets with a DTV approved label are now available at TV retail outlets.
 MediaCorp engineers have been installing transmitters progresively island wide since 2013 to be completed by 2020 or earlier. You can find out if you area is digital ready by checking this website http://www17.mediacorp.sg/digitaltv/
Digital TV pictures are digitally coded and as such lead to better quality pictures and enhanced related data services. It also enables the telecast and display of high definition pictures and sound. Because the channels are free to air viewers need not subscribe to any cable service.

Liew Ter Kwang

In 1967 when I arrived at Caldecott for my first job as a technical cadet,  I was greeted by Liew Ter Kwang who was then the Engineer in Charge of TV studios.Mr Liew put me to do viision control(the technical term is CCU,,camera contro unit) My stay at Ca;decott Hill lasted for 43 years. Of the years I know him, he had always been an engiineer who had high standards of professional conduct and was very knowlegeable on new broadcast equipment and developments. He was responsible for many of the broadcast systems which improved and expanded the the operations of the company.
Here is a short write up from Karen of MediaCorp//Reminiscing Liew Ter Kwang.....

(Talking to official from China TV at an international conference)

Ter Kwang joined RTS in 1962 as Engineer-in-charge (Master Control Room) and retired in 1997 as Senior Executive Engineer (Projects and Development).
An honours grad in electrical engineering, Ter Kwang has held various senior engineering positions in SBC for the past 30 years and has a wealth of experience in planning and designing of broadcast engineering facilities. He also spent two years as VP of Business Development in SIM Communications.

Recalling back the time in 1963 when TV Singapura was first launched, Ter Kwang was in charge of the operations of the Master Control Room, responsible for switching programmes from the right sources on air and ensuring that the technical equipment are in normal correct operational conditions. On remembering the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew:
The TV Production Studio at the Temporary TV Studio Complex was the venue for the recording of many press conferences held by the then Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. This included the significant press conference held on 9 August 1965, in which PM Lee announced the separation of Singapore from Malaysia. In the middle of this recording, Mr Lee broke down in with tears. The recording had to be stopped for a of couple minutes before it could be continued. Immediately after the completion of the recording, Mr Lee asked the reporters not to report his crying scene in the press. Ter Kwang recounted that after much persuasion by the then Director of Broadcasting, Mr P.S. Raman, Mr Lee said before he left the TV Studio, "I leave the matter to the broadcasters to decide whether to broadcast it or not".
TV Singapura decided to telecast the complete recording on air and that clip has become part of an important archive of a nation’s turning point.