National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is the governmental body of the Kingdom of Thailand who’s responsible for the broadcasting and Telecommunication equipment license in the country.
As part of its responsibility, recently this governmental body just issued some NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft drafts of technical standards for radio broadcasting transmitter and radio broadcasting receivers.
Along with the two regulation drafts, the governmental body also issued a frequency allocation plan for Digital Broadcasting Services in Thailand. These steps were taken in order to catch up with the advancement of broadcasting technology as well as to tidy up the national frequency allocation to prevent interference.
NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for Radio Receiver
In the new NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for radio receiver products, it specifies the scope of what kind of digital broadcasting radio that will be regulated here. Based on the explanation, it’s specified that the new regulation draft only covers the digital broadcasting receiver with minimum specifications for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) receivers encoding MPEG-4 High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding Version 2 (MPEG-4 HE AAC v2) or DAB+ Audio. And this covers several types of digital broadcast receivers:
- (1) Automotive Receiver, both installed with new vehicles (New Vehicle) and replacement units (Spare Part).
- (2) Home or portable digital radio receiver (Domestic, Portable Receiver), and
- (3) Any other type of digital radio receiver that is an additional part for installation in a vehicle.
While for digital broadcasting receivers that cannot process on their own (Non-Standalone Receiver), such as computer-connected receivers in the form of Dongles or PCI Cards, are exempted from the coverage of this regulation draft.
Besides the scope, this new regulation draft for Digital broadcasting Receiver also explains the following things:
- Technical specification, which should follow modulation requirement explained in the table below.
| Receiver Type | DAB+ | AM | |
| Digital broadcasting Receiver Type (1) | Support | Support | Support |
| Digital broadcasting Receiver Type (2) | Support | Support | Optional |
| Digital broadcasting Receiver Type (3) | Support |
2. General technical characteristics: The technical specifications of digital broadcasting receivers shall comply with ETSI TS 103 461 v1.2.2 (2020-10) [1] or later versions and comply with the following requirements:
- (1) All three types of digital broadcasting receivers must be able to display Thai characters (Thai Script) and must comply with ETSI TS 101 756 v2.4.1 (2020-08) [2], Annex E or newer versions.
- (2) Type (1) digital radio receivers, in the case of supporting AM broadcasting services and FM broadcasting services, must have technical specifications in accordance with the Appendix.
- (3) Type (2) digital radio receivers that support FM broadcasting services and AM broadcasting services (if any) must have technical specifications in accordance with the appendix.
- Technical characteristics for the vehicle digital radio receiver (Automotive Receiver), both installed with new vehicles (New Vehicle) and as a replacement unit (Replacement Unit) (Radio receiver type (1)): The technical specifications for type (1) digital broadcasting receivers shall comply with Clause 6 of ETSI TS 103 461 v1.2.2 (2020-10) [1] or a later version, except for Clause 6.10 Display (Text Display), where the display shall be as follows:
Set the Radio receiver to display (Text Display) as follows:
- (1) Specify the ability to display messages or lists of service items in complete and complete messages according to the ETSI TS 103 461 v1.2.2 (2020-10) [1] standard or a newer version.
- (2) Specify that it must be able to display Thai language text completely (Thai Regional Profile) and must comply with the ETSI TS 101 756 v2.4.1 (2020-08) [2], Annex E or newer version standards.
4. Technical specifications for household or portable digital radio receivers (Domestic, Portable Receiver) (Radio receiver type (2)): The technical specifications for type (2) digital broadcasting receivers shall comply with Clause 5 of ETSI TS 103 461 v1.2.2 (2020-10) [1] or a later version, except for Clause 5.10 Display (Text Display), where the display shall be as follows:
Set the radio receiver to display (Text Display) as follows:
- (1) Specify the ability to display messages or lists of service items in complete and complete messages according to the ETSI TS 103 461 v1.2.2 (2020-10) [1] standard or a newer version.
- (2) Explicitly provide for the ability to decode dynamic text label signals from extended programme associated data (X-PAD). If display is to be disabled by the broadcast receiver, it must be done in accordance with (2020-10) [1] or later Version.
- (3) Specify that it must be able to display Thai language messages completely (Thai Regional Profile) and must be in accordance with the ETSI TS 101 756 v2.4.1 (2020-08) [2], Annex E or newer versions.
5. The technological characteristics of digital broadcasting receivers must comply with clauses 7 and 8 of ETSI TS 103 461 v1.2.2 (2020-10) [1] or later versions, with the addition of a test for decoding Thai language Service Information (Thai Profile) according to ETSI TS 101 756 v2.4.1 (2020-08) [2], Annex E or later versions, according to Table 2.
Table 2. Thai Service Information decoding test (Thai Profile)
| Testing | Details | Test Result |
| 1 | It can support the display of Thai character symbols according to the ETSI TS 101 756, Annex E standard in UTF-16 encoding in FIG type 2 instruction set | Can Display symbols, all Thai letters |
| 2 | It can support the display of Thai character symbols according to the ETSI TS 101 756, Annex E standard in UTF-8 encoding FIG type 2 instruction set | Can Display symbols, all Thai letters |
6. Additional Terms
- 6.1 Installation and Use
- It is required that digital radio receivers come with user manuals in both Thai and English.
- 6.2 Support Package
- (1) If there is a remote control, it must be equipped with batteries.
- (2) If there is an antenna, it must support use in the frequency band for digital broadcasting services.
7. Electrical Safety Requirements: Digital broadcasting receivers shall have the electrical and safety characteristics specified in Standard 1 as follows:
- 7.1 IEC 62368-1 [4] for Audio/Video, information and Communication technology equipment- Part 1. Safety Requirements
- 7.2 TIS 62368 Volume 1 [3] or newer version for Audio, video, technology, information and communication equipment, Part 1 Safety requirements or other equivalent standards
- Demonstration of compliance with technical standards
Radio receivers shall demonstrate compliance with this technical standard using the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) principle as stipulated in the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s Section on the Inspection and Certification of Standards for Radio Communication Equipment and Equipment in the Broadcasting and Television Business, B.E. 2556
More detailed information about this technical standard can be found in this link: NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for Radio Receiver
NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for Radio Transmitter
In the NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for broadcasting Transmitter, NBTC more emphasizes on the technical standards, which covers several topics below:
- General requirements, which consists of 4 main topics:
(1) System
The transmission system in digital broadcasting services shall be defined as Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in accordance with ETSI EN 300 401 v2.1.1 (2017-01) [1] or any later version.
(2) Multiplexing
Specify the multiplexing as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
(3) Modulation
Set the modulation to Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulation (D-QPSK)
(4) Mode
The signalling mode is set to Mode I with the signalling parameters as defined in ETSI EN 300 401 v2.1.1 (2017-01) [1] or a later version.
Although what we explained about NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for Radio Transmitter here is not detailed, you still check the detailed information from the original source in this link: NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation Draft for Radio Transmitter
Besides the digital broadcasting Receiver and Transmitter, the new NBTC Digital Broadcasting Regulation draft also issued the draft of frequency allocation for digital broadcasting radio. You may check the original regulation draft in this link.
That’s all we need to inform regarding new regulation draft issued by Thailand’s NBTC. Should you have any inquiries, or need any assistance to get Thai’s NBTC certificate for your telecommunication products, feel free to drop us an email.
