noggin's posts, page 94

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

Yep - got that without missing a beat

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

Yes - you're right. However the BBC did arrange their own uplink (via Arqiva - though weren't they still NTL at that point?) rather than Sky uplinking them? I have a feeling the coding and mux was BBC (which became Siemens), with the uplink only handled by Arqiva? (The BBC TV Centre uplink came on stream when the English regions requirement was added - and I think operated by Siemens?)

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

There were 'solutions' that automatically re-tuned Sky boxes to a chosen channel after a power glitch... (I know a lot of broadcasters used Sky domestic receivers - some with the SDI mods - rather than the 'Pro' receivers - as there was a still a major cost difference)

However I suspect you are right in this case

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

If you had wanted to I suspect you could have run the DSat receiver in 16:9 FHA output - which would have switched between 4:3 12F12 and 16:9 16F16 output and used SCART-pin 8 switching to drive an external ARC that switched between bypass (For 12F12) and 14L12 (for 16F16), and instead sacrificed 16L12 output for movies?

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

What third party?

The BBC uplink their own DSat services - not Sky - even though those services are available to Sky viewers on Sky boxes.

The Sky receiver (which can be purchased commercially, similarly to any other IRD) was simply receiving a consumer signal that had been uplinked by the BBC. It wasn't receiving a Sky uplinked-signal.

The BBC uplinked-services are compatible with both Sky boxes and Freesat boxes, and contain EPG data etc. compatible with both platforms. Even in the early days of DSat, when the BBC were FTV-encrypted, and on Sky's platform only, the BBC arranged their own uplink (usually using BBC equipment, though some services may have come from an Arqiva uplink?) with Sky encryption equipment on BBC premises.

(Of course it's also worth pointing out that all transmitters in the UK are operated by a 'third party' - Arqiva. Neither the BBC, nor ITV/C4 operate their own OTA DVB-T/T2 transmitters.)

(Also not sure what you mean by 'BBC studios transmitters'? The transmitters in question are the main BBC One transmitters used in the East of England. Studios here don't really have transmitters.)

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

ISTR that leg was fibre, not microwave? (Hadn't all the microwave slots already gone - ISTR Anglia had some)

There was VBI signalling that controlled :

1. Whether the microwave feed from Sandy Heath to BBC Cambridge at Hills Road carried the output of the FRV receiver dish (which was also used for Luton and Northampton microwave contributions from radio station DTL positions - and usually passed-on via fibre to Norwich), or the feed of BBC One East incoming which was fed to Sandy Heath as part of the distribution system. This was to allow BBC Cambridge to have 'BBC One East' as a source, which they then genlocked Hills Road to, to allow for a 'soft opt'.

2. Whether the Sandy Heath transmitter was fed from the received BBC One East feed (locally received at Sandy Heath via Microwave) or a synchronised version of BBC Cambridge (received via fibre - and which had the VBI signalling on it) The synchroniser was, ISTR, a PAL composite (not decoded PAL) Tektronix model (which could have more latency than just a frame - but avoided decode/recode artefacts when the BBC One East feed was round-tripped via Hills Road)

Unfortunately the VBI decoding at Sandy Heath was pretty conservative, and defaulted to opt-back (which was discovered on the opening night - as opt-backs were repeatedly triggered by Norwich's vision mixer cuts...)

The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

Cambridge used a radio studio for the first studio for the Cambridge sub-opt.

The first iteration of the Look East Cambridge 'Close Up' sub-opt (which started in Jan 1997) was from a set installed in the local radio centre studio at Radio Cambridgeshire in Hills Road. You wouldn't really have known it was from a radio studio on-screen. (Once the Radio Newsroom at Hills Road had joined the TV newsroom in a solicitors office next door, the Radio Cambridgeshire radio newsroom was gutted and the space turned into a more permanent TV studio)

Unlike the Hull sub-opt, which used the Leeds Pres gallery (with the Hull studio working into it), the Cambridge sub-opt had an on-site gallery (and two edit suites) That made things a bit trickier in terms of transmitter and BBC One 'not-quite-network' routing for Cambridge ISTR.

Substitute programmes

I think there is also the issue of 'balance across the piece'. If HIGNFY had a number of party leaders or similar senior politicians scheduled to appear during the EU Election Period, they would have achieved balance over that period. If Heidi Allen was the only party leader (or senior politician) booked for the shows during that time, it would be trickier.

However the argument about the EU elections potentially not happening is a pretty poor one. There was always a reasonably strong likelihood that EU elections were going to happen once it was clear the UK Parliament wouldn't support a 'No Deal' Brexit.

I do wonder if this is an Indie production company thinking they could sail close to the wind, and the BBC Editorial Policy department exerting some control.

Channel 4

I think that the days of changing channel number are 'numbered' literally.

The commercial pay-TV operators have fixed channel numbers and no editing functionality for the end user, and I suspect Freesat and Freeview similarly now expect EPG channel numbers to remain fixed (I haven't checked the D-Book stuff to check whether it's a requirement though)

I guess the big difference between Radio and TV is that there is far more regional variety in radio, and mobile reception where cars travel between areas, is more widespread, so the Radio vs TV analogy isn't quite the same. (Plus Radio EPG is very niche on DAB/FM)

SKY Q USB ports question

Yep - Sky+ (non-Sky Q) boxes effectively record the stream as received directly to the hard drive without decrypting them.

If the broadcast is FTA (i.e. unencrypted) then it can be copied off and played on a PC or other platform if you have the right software and hardware and know what you are doing.

If the broadcast is encrypted (i.e. pay-TV or FTV) then the recording is encrypted. You can copy it off, but you won't be able to play it on another device, though can copy it back on at a later date.

It was possible to get Sky+HD boxes with eSATA ports to use eSATA hard drives IF you removed the internal hard drive ISTR, which made this a bit easier.

The Sky+/Sky+HD boxes decrypt on playback, not on recording, hence the recording on the disk remaining encrypted.

(When we replaced our Sky 1TB box with a 2TB box, I was able to copy recordings over so we didn't lose stuff we hadn't watched or wanted to keep. I also archived all the FTA recordings to a second HDD)

Sky Q includes a lot more functionality (including the ability to playback local recordings to iOS devices like iPads) which may change the way decryption is handled - but I suspect the 'on-disk' recording of encrypted content remains encrypted (there may just be more than one decryption path in the Sky Q box.)

Elections 2019

For the 2015 and 2017 General Elections Huw shared anchoring duties with David Dimbleby (David presented the first chunk, Huw the second chunk).

It was widely expected that 2015 was the last General Election Dimbleby would present, as the Fixed Terms Parliament act meant the next one should have been in 2020.. However the 2017 snap election changed that...

I think the last General Election Huw presented for BBC One Wales was 2010?

Sky's Branding

My understanding is that there are probably 4 types of LNB that 'could' be supplied with Sky Q - but I don't know whether Sky installers carry them.

1. Sky Q is compatible with Wideband H/V LNBs (where a pair of LNB cables carry a wide band Horizontal or wide band Vertical feed - with no Hi/Lo switching) These two feeds are all you need to feed as many tuners as you like (previously you would have needed 4 LNB feeds from a regular Quad/Quattro Universal LNB to do this - and Sky wanted to be able to re-use existing 'Sky+' twin cabling so needed a better solution...)

These Wideband LNB feeds are only compatible with Sky Q (and relatively few other receivers - so aren't useful for Freesat were you to stop subscribing to Sky Q and return your receiver. This is very different to the older Sky SD and HD situation where you could swap out a Sky SD/HD box for a Freesat or other FTA box using the same LNB feeds)

2. Sky Q is also, I believe, compatible with Sky's new dSCR protocol (incompatible with the old Sky SCR system) which is based, I think, on JESS/Unicable II - where the LNB shifts tuner-feeds to fixed 'user bands' as requested by the receiver. This is very different to H/V Wideband in how it operates - and has a limit on the number of receivers each dSCR device can feed, but there are multi switches that can detect what type of receiver is connected to each port, allowing Sky Q and Sky HD/SD/Freesat receivers to share the same infrastructure I believe.

LNBs with both 1. and 2. are available with additional, separate legacy, LNB feeds, which can be routed separately and independently to feed older Sky, or non-Sky, receivers.

So you could have a Dual Wideband, Dual Wideband + Legacy, dSCR or dSCR + Legacy LNB (or multi switch) fitted for Sky Q...

it's a bit of a minefield when you get away from standard domestic installations.

Looking to the future - Unicable II is an incredibly powerful standard - as it removes H/V/Hi/Lo from distribution (as it's shifted it to the LNB or multiswitch).

In mainland Europe, where it is far more of a requirement to simultaneously feed multiple satellite positions to residences, Unicable II allows a single LNB feed to carry up to 32 tuner feeds (so 32 DVB-S2 IDTVs, 16 Dual Tuner PVRs, 8 Quad Tuner PVRs etc.), with each tuner able to switch between one of four satellite positions. That's pretty impressive down a single cable. It also allows for receivers to use 'FBC' Full Band Conversion DVB-S2 tuners that take one or two LNB feeds in but can then tune 8+ separate transponders irrespective of their satellite, polarisation or band.