DD’s live broadcasting capability gets a boost with 9 new C-Band DSNG vans

Union minister of state (Independent Charge) for Information & Broadcasting (I&B) and Sports & Youth Affairs Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore (Retd.) flagged off 9 DSNG Vans of Doordarshan on Monday.

As a part of fleet augmentation programme to enhance the capacity of Doordarshan for live broadcasting, 9 new C-Band DSNG vans has been inducted, which are capable of uplinking HD signals.

These vans have been procured at a cost of Rs. 22.83 Cr (at Rs. 2.54 Cr each) through a Global Tender.

These DSNG Units would enable Doordarshan to enhance its live telecast capability from the North-East as 4 of these DSNGs are meant for Gangtok, Kohima, Imphal, and Agartala.

The DSNG units would boost newsgathering as well as programming initiatives from the hitherto uncovered areas in the North East. Apart from this, new DSNG units are also being deployed at Allahabad, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh, Jagdalpur, and Pune

Doordarshan has a fleet of 34 DSNGs which are deployed across the country. 16 of these DSNGs operate in C Band while 18 operate in Ku Band. However, out of 34 DSNGs, only 2 are capable of uplinking HD signals, at present. DSNGs are Mobile Earth Stations which enable broadcasting from any remote place through a satellite system.

Speaking on the occasion, Col Rajyavardhan Rathore (Retd.) said that his Government stresses on Act East Policy and a lot of development efforts are taking place in North East India in this regard. Deployment of more DSNG vans in North East will help in making the development stories from North East reach the people.

I&B secretary Amit Khare, Doordarshan DG Supriya Sahoo and other senior officials of the ministry were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Rathore also chaired the meeting of Consultative Committee of I&B Ministry to discuss about the working and issues faced by Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).

Col Rathore apprised the Members of the Committee about the working of IIMC. He also explained to the members about the issues faced by IIMC and the roadmap to overcome them. He appreciated IIMC for their efforts in signing MoU with Canon and Sony for providing state of the art audio visual equipments to the Institute.

Members of the Committee appreciated the efforts of the Ministry in improving the quality of the research work on communication in the Institute. Members also suggested conducting research on various contemporary issues like dealing with the fake news. It was suggested to conduct seminars for working journalist for improving their skill.

A presentation was made by Dr. KG Suresh, Director General, IIMC on behalf of the Ministry giving details about the working of IIMC and various issues faced by it.

Parliamentarians Dev (Moon Moon Sen) Varma, Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal, Shri Neeraj Shekhar attended the meeting. Amit Khare and senior officers of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.