STV News

I remember the studi, it was getting gutted out and worked on by two work man in this blog: there did say even back then it should be used for OPTS.

I saw the blog too and it is not set up for opts like Dundee and Edinburgh were. It was a single camera down the line studio. They would have to come up with something better than that??

But don't some parts of Dundee which are supposed to be served by STV North on either the Angus transmitter or the Tay Bridge Relay actually in fact get STV Central due to various different factors blocking the signal?

So the Dundee opt in other words doesn't even apply to some people in Dundee because of the blocked signals.

And of course there are parts of Edinburgh and the Lothians where the better, or even the only, terrestrial signal is from Black Hill, not Craigkelly. So they'll get STV West, losing out on their "local" news. For some reason the Haddington relay in East Lothian is fed by Black Hill as well, a strange arrangement. Of course viewers in the South of Scotland, some living less than 20 miles from Edinburgh, are saddled with ITV Tyne-Tees/Border, so we get more news about Sunderland than we do about Scotland.

It might be that a reception feed from Craigkelly might suffer from tidal reflections from the Forth Estuary. Looking at an OS map, it's likely that a receiving aerial on the mast would have no problems 'seeing' Craigkelly, but it would also 'see' quite a bit of water too. As the tide rises and falls the reflected signal from the water would produce huge variations in received signal. The path to Black Hill is 100% over land, so would be immune.

All the more reason to have all the areas covered on sky....then you can watch the region closest to you??

This is certainly the case in north Edinburgh where the better signal in some parts is from Black Hill, despite Craigkelly being visible just across the Forth, while in west Edinburgh, Corstorphine Hill blocks out Craigkelly's signal so the only option is to receive from Black Hill.

Haddington isn't the only relay in the east to get its feed from the west - the Broughton relay in Peeblesshire is also fed by Black Hill, while the relay in nearby West Linton gets its feed from Craigkelly.

Broughton can't get its feed from Craigkelly, because it operates on the same UHF allocations !!

I never knew that, I'd always thought that it was probably down to the topography around Broughton itself.

Oh dear - well that is disappointing information. I had thought a studio was kitted out like the existing opt outs from reading 623058's post.

I guess that would bring us back to the cost factor - I would say they'd not have enough in the piggy bank at present to launch this.

Do we have any idea when STV North broadcasts will be brought in line with the central belt? I know Claire Stewart had seemingly said it would not be anytime soon. IRC while ITV regional news revamped their shows seperately - this was completed in a reasonable amount of time.

Well I'm sure he won't mind me saying, sometimes you can come away from reading 623058's posts and not have a clue what exactly is being said.

They do need some LED wash lights on the grey panels, don't they. Or some texture or trim on the flats. Or fluorescent backlit boxes. Something. Its lacking something.

That must play a part, because Craigkelly's signal has to be very low in the area in order for Broughton to use the same allocations.