All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
jb38: If I post about multiples or divisions of power, people think they're being cheated out of something.
The key point is: at least 7 dB of increase post-DSO, about 2 dB greater loss with a 6-way splitter compared to a 4-way, net increase of at least 5 dB, should still result in better margin than before switchover.
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Mick White: Welcome to the marketplace.
The Virgin 1 change came about because Sky bought the Virgin and former Flextech channels from Virgin Media, and decided to Virgin 1, claiming that it overlapped with their other channels too much. Pick TV is the renamed Sky Three, with some of the most trashy Sky One content, though I think they have bought some old ITV programmes as well; Pick TV +1 is the same reheated content, re-reheated an hour later. Challenge is one of the Flextech channels.
Sky Sports News was removed from Freeview so that Sky could promote 'all five Sky Sports channels in HD exclusively on Sky'.
I do agree that I would prefer some more actual content, but as Brian says, it's entirely down to individual channels making deals with the commercial multiplex operators (SDN, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITV plc, and Arqiva, the transmitter operator). 'Freeview' is just a marketing name, the six multiplexes are operated by different companies, and three are restricted to channels from the public-service broadcasters (BBC, ITV/STV/UTV, C4, C5, S4C) only.
Freeview HD is also available in Newcastle and the surrounding area, from the Pontop Pike transmitter.
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Simon: Did you have digital before switchover started? Did you get Channel 5 analogue clearly?
If the answer to either of those was 'no', you may still have a Group A aerial, which was all that was needed for the four main analogue channels. It's sufficient for the PSB multiplexes, but for the commercial multiplexes, you need a wideband aerial. You would have needed a wideband for pre-switchover digital signals, and for Channel 5. See 'All about aerials' for information on the groups.
A Group A aerial should have a red plastic cap on the end of the aerial boom; a wideband would be black. It may not be very easy to see this, though. If the aerial is more than 15 years old it's likely to be Group A.
People *very* close to the transmitter might still get enough signal in the B-group channels to be usable even with a Group A aerial.
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Nick: Again, that's a commercial decision for the broadcasters to take. They're limited by the capacity of the Astra 2D satellite, which - for at least a few more months - is the only one which has a footprint covering only the British Isles. The channels that are on Europe-wide transponders have to encrypt, or they would have to pay much more for content rights.
The BBC are reshuffling their services onto fewer transponders, but this is so they can stop paying for one Europe-wide transponder, none of the free-to-air capacity would be freed up. However, it could allow Sky to move some (renting) services off 2D, where they're taking up valuable capacity, and make another FTA transponder available.
There will shortly be some more FTA capacity, probably in a couple of months, when Astra 1N reaches the rest of the cluster. This satellite is really intended for the Astra 1 cluster at 19.2°E but the need is more urgent at 28.2°. It has a spot beam for the British Isles as well as one each for western Europe and all-of-Europe.
Ofcom have no rights whatsoever to direct satellite transmissions, barring licensing the channels to broadcast at all. They cannot require channels, other than the PSB channels ITV1, STV, UTV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5, to transmit on any service. (The BBC Trust regulates BBC services.) EU rules allow channels to shop for any regulator within the EU.
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Let's hope that Sky move some encrypted services off 2D and onto the transponder that's freed up. Lyngsat.com reckons that transponder is leased and operated by Sky and the BBC are renting it from them. The Disney channels on 10862 H would be a good candidate, or Sky Movies Box Office on 10921 H. That would then free up one British Isles transponder for new FTA services.
I recall reading - but can't now find - a press release saying that ITV plc were going to rent three more transponders from SES Astra in addition to their existing six. They're probably coming from Astra 1N once it finally gets in position (estimate, about 45 days, as it's at 5.5°E now according to LyngSat and moving at a rate of 0.5° per day) but an extra one on 2D wouldn't go amiss.
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Another consequence could be that the five streams that *do* move could become available for Freesat viewers. My hypothesis has always been that Sky wouldn't add the Service Information data necessary for them to appear on Freesat to this Sky-operated transponder. On a BBC-operated transponder, this may no longer be a problem, although Sky do still have a long-winded change control process for anything that could affect their platform.
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My view is that Sky are exercising significant market power and should be investigated by the Competition Commission.
My preferred solution would be a separation of the platforms business (i.e. encryption, operating transponders on behalf of channels, subscription collection and distribution) from the channels business. At minimum this should be an arm's-length separation similar to that imposed on BT with Openreach, but preferrably BSkyB would be required to sell one or other of these businesses. As it is, Sky can cross-subsidise their channels with revenue obtained from viewers who intended that revenue to go elsewhere, and particularly the massive figures they bid for sports are subsidised from the entertainment pack subscriptions, not covered by the sports pack prices.
Subscription revenue should be divided based on viewing figures, including distributions to the PSBs.
The PSBs removing their channels from the Sky EPG - firstly, they can't. In fact Sky are required to carry PSB channels in the EPG. Secondly, it would be a pyrrhic victory - the households affected, about 30% of all homes in the country, would get angry at the PSBs, not at Sky.
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John (Derby): I don't think any specific order has been followed before. If any care is being taken, it will be at programme junctions, although at previous switchovers it appears that the BBC cares, for BBC One, but ITV and C4 don't. You'll probably see BBC One switch off at 00:35 after Weatherview, swiftly followed by the others, though they could stick it out to 1am. C5 goes to 'Super Casino' at 00:50.
Channel 5 analogue doesn't actually *need* to go off, with C35 being released for now, so they could pull the plug on that at any time.
The SDN multiplex probably won't go off at all, staying on the same transmitting aerial as before. All other services are likely to be interrupted.
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john: If you're having to rescan every time you want to watch a channel, the first thing to do is make sure the box has a 'clean' copy. Make sure you do a first-time installation/full retune/full reset/default setting (different manufacturers call it different things) rather than just 'Add Channels' or 'Automatic Scan'.
If that doesn't correct the problem, check that your box or TV isn't on the list of equipment known to have problems with a large Network Information Table - http://www.digitaluk.co.u…tnit .
Some boxes have this problem if they can't handle a mixture of 2K mode (used before DSO) and 8K mode (used after DSO). From next week's second stage, four of five SD multiplexes will use 8K mode, although SDN will stay in 2K mode until 12 October. (The HD multiplex uses a different mode altogether, but non-HD boxes won't even recognize that it carries digital TV signals.)
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Friday 26 August 2011 2:33PM
Lawrence: Each additional doubling of the number of points reduces the level at each output of the splitter by about 4 dB. A 6-way would be about 10 dB of insertion loss, while a 4-way is about 8 dB.
In comparison, Belmont signal levels will ultimately be increased by anywhere from 7 to 14 dB. Right now ArqA and ArqB are still on reduced power levels, only 3 dB more than pre-switchover power levels - this restriction ends in November after Tacolneston switches over.