ENGINEERING

The Engineering Division of the department is responsible for the operation and maintenance of Radio Botswana and Botswana Television broadcast equipment. The division is made up of three sections, namely Radio Studios, Television Studios, and the Transmission Section. These sections are responsible for development, operation, maintenance and repair of their respective areas of operation.

RADIO STUDIOS

Radio Botswana originates from five well-equipped studios. Some radio studios used by two channels are computer-aided. With the completion of the new department headquarters soon, more radio studios will be operational with state-of-the-art technology.

TELEVISION STUDIOS

Apart from the continuity studio, the station has three main studios. These are: a dedicated news, weather and current affairs studio, a general 4/5-camera production studio with both tape and server access in the gallery, and a fully cabled 5/6-camera studio with lighting grid.

TRANSMISSION SECTION

The only practical means of ensuring complete national coverage in a vast country such a Botswana is via satellite. Both radio and television programmes are available country-wide direct-to-home via satellite. Satellite newsgathering vehicles also use the same transponder to file stories from anywhere across the country back to headquarters.

However, satellite-receiving equipment is expensive to the majority of viewers as compared to the terrestrial receiving gear. As a result, parallel to satellite coverage, this low entry medium must continue to be extended to the public. It is for this reason that the department is expanding its terrestrial transmitter network for both radio and television to cover settlements around the country. Radio and television transmitters are located at various points across the country.

The national terrestrial transmitter coverage is extensively provided in medium, UHF/VHF/FM bands, and to a lesser extent via short wave.