All posts by KEVIN GARDINER
Below are all of KEVIN GARDINER's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.K
Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitteWednesday 23 April 2014 4:18PM
Stourbridge
Thanks for the link about the local radio in the UK regions Brain. Very informative. Have you read my two messages concerning the ERP of the com 7 multiplex? It seems that the projected ERP, even prior to launch, was way under estimated compared to the actual ERP transmitted on the launch dates. The ERP Of com 7 has since been increased to higher ERP'S and some have been slightly lowered, but most have had an increase. If the reported ERP'S are accurate and in operation currently, then the com 7 multiplex ERP'S on this site can be altered accordingly.
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I've recently read a technical release about the roll out of the new com7 multiplex. The following information refers to the transmitters which have switched on the new multiplex and have made changes to their ERP.
OXFORD: CH 31. 17.4KW DOWN TO 16.38KW.
RIDGE HILL: CH32. 6.3KW UPTO 10.54KW.
SUTTON COLDFIELD. CH33: 81.3KW UPTO 89.2KW.
WALTHAM; CH31. 8.7KW UPTO 10.6KW.
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Sandy heath: ch32. 43.7kw upto 49.5kw.
tacolneston: ch 31. 22.4kw upto 27.4kw.
winter hill: ch 31. 24kw upto 25.7kw.
crystal palace: ch33. 36.3kw upto 43.09kw.
bluebell hill: ch 32. 3.7kw upto 4kw.
hannington: ch32. 29.5kw upto 36.7kw.
rowbrigde HP: ch31. 23.4kw upto 24.4kw.
blackhill: ch32. 39.8kw upto 42.8kw.
craigkelly: ch33. 9.3kw upto 10.84kw.
bilsdale: ch31. 17.8kw upto 18.48kw.
pontop pike: ch 33. 33.9kw down to 33.84kw.
divis: ch33. 10.5kw upto 12.4kw.
wenvoe Cardiff: ch31. 40.7kw upto 46.9kw.
Belmont: ch33. 33.9kw upto 37.14kw.
emley moor: ch32. 50.1kw upto 54.82kw.
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JB38, I originally put this report up to attract the attention of Brian, but he has so far, not commented on it. I'm not sure who is the editor webmaster of this website and therefore decided to inform you of the article I read. It is an official report and therefore, the Erp's of the new com7 multiplex can now be corrected to their actual Erp's as they stand now.
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BRAINTIST. Up till today, I haven't received an e-mail from you about this subject. But I kind of thought that the information in the report may well be copyrighted to DIGITAL UK for the time being , or when Ofcom being a public body, then publish it for public release for general public consumption. And of course, you have to be careful with copyrighted material.
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K
DTG Summit: Freeview 700 MHz band for 4G very likely, BBC pay-FWednesday 21 May 2014 6:17PM
Stourbridge
I have to fully agree with what you say on this subject Mick. I don't think that all the concerned bodies are working in unison here. On the one side, we have the television industry wanting to improve the digital visual technology and share that with the viewers by giving us ever improving, superb visual and audio quality etc, then we have the government etc on the other side, who seem to only care about how quickly they can sell off valuable spectrum to feed the greedy broadband and telecommunication companies. It's all well and good setting sell off goals for clearing of the tv spectrum, but the tv industry need time to create the new tv standard codecs, and how much spectrum they will need for the future . visual resolution technology is far outpacing the industries ability to keep pace with how to use it for broadcasting by means of compression codecs. Even before the full roll out of HD on Freeview in 2018, the BBC have two other higher HD specifications they are working on, pending a codec that can compress the video data stream sufficiently enough for broadcasting. A new compression codec, I believe, has to be able to perform at 50% efficiency over it's predecessor. And the higher the resolution of the video stream, the more bandwidth it will require to broadcast it. Also, prior to launch, the BBC etc want to improve the visual quality by addressing the question of the arti-facts that appear whenever there is sudden movement by adapting progressive scan for pre-recorded material at multiples of 50 fps, and are thinking of setting the lowest frame rate at either 100 or 150 fps. And for the top two highest resolutions, they think at least 300fps or higher to address the problem of motion blur. All of this needs time to address, before anything can be decided upon prior to how much bandwidth will be needed for terrestrial tv. then there's the public acceptance of having to purchase new television and recording equipment etc. for the new standards. If the powers that be, try implement un-realistic goals upon the television industries, then I can see that all terrestrial television will be forced to leave the uhf spectrum due to not being fully ready for the changes in spectrum allocated to them, and sadly, perhaps, having to be forced onto either satellite or cable networks instead. That will be a sad day I think.
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K
Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitteWednesday 28 May 2014 4:31PM
Stourbridge
I checked the technical specs of my HD tv today and found that the bit rate loss that I get on the main BBC HD multiplex has changed. My roof top antenna is pointed to Sutton Coldfield and the main multiplex has always given me a data loss reading of 700 to 800 bits. The new HD multiplex com7 is broadcasting at just under half the power of the BBC HD multiplex at 89kw ,and gives me a data loss reading of around 400 bits. The signal strength of the BBC multiplex is over 90%, but the data loss has dropped dramatically down from a constant 700 - 800 bits down to 40- 200 bits. The fact that the data loss of the low powered multiplex has stayed constant at 400 bits, and the BBC multiplex data loss has dropped dramatically, can only be that they may be in test mode, and have possibly altered the configuration to make the BBC HD signal more robust for areas where the terrain has plentiful of buildings or hills etc. Has anyone heard anything about this at all? Maybe Brian has an idea??
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K
Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) Full Freeview transmitMonday 2 June 2014 12:46PM
Stourbridge
Brian Gregory: Yes, it seems they have. I'm presuming that you use the Hannington transmitter to receive Freeview? If so, then you are correct to think that the ERP has been increased for the new com 7 multiplex. All the other multiplexes are either 25KW or 50KW. The come 7 multiplex on launch was 29.5kw, and it has now been increased to 36.7kw.
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K
Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) Full Freeview transmitMonday 2 June 2014 12:51PM
Stourbridge
BRAIN GREGORY, If you use Crystal Palace, then it was 36.3kw on launch and has been increased up to 43.09kw now.
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Wednesday 23 April 2014 1:11PM
Stourbridge
I performed a regular re-tune today , which I do every few weeks to see if anything new is on or has a test card etc prior to launch. And today a new radio station Is on air today on standard free view. prior to launch without an EPG, the station was in test mode and couldn't be picked up without specialist equipment etc. The station has come out of test mode, and the new station is BBC RADIO WM on Freeview channel 722 in mono sound. The station is on the main BBC multiplex PSB1.