South West England news thread (part 2)

The old thread has been archived, so I thought I'd start the new thread with this news that came in today:

Digital Switchover dates announced for Devon & Cornwall

... and apparently Crystal Palace is in one of the two counties now!

The dates just reported on Spotlight seem to be different to those on the BBC News website.

Doesn't make sense at all that article

There are effectively five transmitter groups in the 'westcountry' - Stockland and Beacon Hill go first...

So how do they manage to split Three remaining sites into four areas?

North Devon will go digital on 1 July 2009. Plymouth and west Devon will follow shortly after on 13 July.

West Cornwall and the Scillies will switch on 8 July, Caradon on 13 July and south east Cornwall on 12 August.

I do wish Digital UK would publish ALL of their press releases on the website so that we can read from 'the horses mouth'. Their website isn't much help either ... Apparantly Plymouth has a service area from Huntshaw Cross according to it.

Indeed.

The last time I checked, Caradon (13th July) was in south east Cornwall (12th August).

Those dates appear to be a complete anagram of carp.

Ok, I think I've sussed out the confusion now, they appear to be treating the Plympton site not as a relay off of Caradon Hill, but as an independent site.

So the order for West Devon and Cornwall will be

01-Jul-2009 - Huntshaw Cross and relays
08-Jul-2009 - Redruth and relays
13-Jul-2009 - Caradon Hill's Plympton relay and any secondary relays from Plympton
the final site to go will be on 12-Aug-2008 - Caradon Hill and it's relays (exc Plympton)

Yet I'm still confused that all the publicity yesterday was based on "one year to go", but the dates I've seen are Beacon Hill in April 2009 and Stockland Hill in May.

Is this page still up-to-date, does anybody know?

These are the dates that I know of, and I'm sure the BBC reported about them in May. Can't find anything about it thought but I'm sure I saw Digit Al in front of a Van in Exeter City centre with a count down clock saying 365 days

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/__data/assets/image/0012/12261/West-Country_June08.gif

Could anyone capture the headlines and intro of Spotlight at 6:30 PM as well as what precedes one-minute before the programme?

Half of Spotlight done out in the garden this evening. It has a dreamlike surreal feel when the studio presenters are let out into the sunshine.

I notice that this week the Spotlight Breakfast bulletins are coming from the sofa area (as they used to do a while ago when Victoria Graham presented them).

The lovely Aysha Iqbal (who is enough to brighten up anyone's morning) looks alot more relaxed than when perched at the desk.

http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/Spotlight-Breakfast-1.jpg

It seems that the sofa has also been moved slightly (and a section removed in the morning), to allow live presentation of the weather using the back-projection screen (which normally just has a recorded loop of either Plymouth Hoe, The Barbican, or Armada Way in Plymouth City Centre).

http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/Spotlight-Breakfast-2.jpg http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/Spotlight-Breakfast-3.jpg

A quick look at last night's Spotlight on iPlayer shows that the sofa remains in the new position for the evening programme (albeit with the missing portion replaced) and with the weather once again coming from the CSO screen.

Is Spotlight the only regional programme still using CSO?

No, South Today does too.

Is that the Southampton or Oxford version? I'll have a look tonight.