Digital Switchover Thread

There was a reporter at the Selkirk transmitter just on News 24 and they had a tv in the background with News 24 on and the delay was around 7 seconds from whatever she was doing to appear on the tv, so much was the delay that the newsreader (can't remember his name top of my head but he used to do the anchoring on Sky News) told the reporter to stand in front of the tv screen and wave and see how long it took for it to appear!

I think you mean Simon McCoy, Russ.

That's the one, thanks. I tried to do my research on the BBC News website but when they have Dermot Murnaghan and Natasha Kaplinsky still doing breakfast, I had no chance! (as found here )

Whitehaven actually , (nowhere near as nice !)

Er, actually it quite nice here in Whitehaven, thankyou.

It was such a huge build up here prior to the event and then a bit if an anticlimax when it happened.

Now it seems strange to think other people are still waiting to switchover

Is it going to be the case for every transmitter that switches that BBC2 goes first and the others not for a month later? If so, what the hell for? Why not do it all at once, and why the rush to get rid of BBC2?

Possibly BBC are using historical reasons to switch BBC2 first - it was the first station to transmit in the number of lines, the channel to transmit in colour and now the first channel to lose analogue signal in each region!

Whitehaven, Windermere, Workington... always get them confused!

Whitehaven's ok.... apart from the nuclear power station down the road

BBC2 goes to allow a temporary multiplex to broadcast (a mixture of channels) on that frequency on the relays which won't have been broadcasting Freeview (only main transmitters broadcast Freeview before switchover). This allows a month for final testing and checks and configuration before the other analogue channels are switched off and the multiplexes are reconfigured into their final line up. It also gives time and encourages the last few viewers to make the switch before they've lost everything.

No, the multipex that has replaced BBC 2 analogue, is the final version of BBC A. It is carrying the BBC's channels. What also vanished last night at Selkirk is the old Mux 1, that the rest of the UK still has. That includes Whitehaven (OK it's not that bad a place, sorry). Whitehaven will get BBC A when parent station Caldbeck switches next year.

Selkirk will lose BBC1, ITV-1, C4 and C5 analogue on Nov 20. That day Mux 2, A, B,C,D will be replaced by D3&4, BBC B, SDN, COM A, COM B, respectively.
C5 will not be on SDN, but instead BBC B. COM A and B will be the same as Mux C and D.

BBC A Mux is reported as being at 64QAM and 8k and carrying:-

BBC One Scot
BBC Two
BBC 3
BBC 4
CBBC
BBC News
BBC Red Button (Ch 105)
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio R n Gaidheal

And, it's estimated, up to 500 digital terrestrial boxes or IDTVs across the Borders can't decode the BBC channels as a result.....because they are only compatible with 2k

Yes, that comes as no surprise. It seems the Digihome (aka Vestel) PVR might not be 8k compliant either. There could be real fun and games, when the first urban area has DSO in April (Torbay area- Beacon Hill Tx )