Firm denies responsibility for hitches in digital switch over in FCT
Pinnacle Communications has denied any responsibility for the hiccups that trailed the activation of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) decoders from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcast as experienced by some users in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Daily Times reports that following the successful switch on of the Abuja platform by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Pinnacle Broadcast Centre, located at Mpape, an Abuja suburb, controversy has trailed the activation of some of the digital set up decoders purchased by interested viewers.
Media Consultant to Pinnacle Communications Limited, Jimmy Enyeh, who made the denial in a statement issued in Abuja, said that the contract to produce and supply the set-up boxes were awarded to seven different companies by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) with Pinnacle Communications not a beneficiary.
According to him, these companies were saddled with the activation of the set-up boxes which experienced some hiccups after the switch-on.
Enyeh added that the successful launch of the digital switch over pilot scheme in Jos in April, clearly demonstrated the gains of digitization in the broadcast industry, asserting that the development has encouraged indigenous companies to invest in the manufacturing of Set-Top-Boxes (STBs).
“Pinnacle Communications was quite visible in the process that culminated to Digital Switch Over (DSO) from analogue to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting in Abuja on account of being a major player in the setting up of the Abuja platform at the Pinnacle Broadcast Centre, Mpape, but it was not in charge of the set-up boxes that experienced activation problems.
“To ensure that the hitches regarding the activation of the set-up boxes were nipped in the bud, the NBC had requested viewers to send their decoder unique identity number to the commission, while regretting any Inconvenience this might have caused viewers,” he said.
