JA
Did BSB ever actually broadcast anything in widescreen, or was it just something they were capable of?
JK
Cable television has been in Ireland for many more years than in the UK. In the late 1960s the new development called the Ballymun Flats were provided with cable television to provide the UK channels and the homegrown RTE station to each flat.
By 1971 RTE the state broadcaster launch a subsidiary called RTE Relays. RTE knew at least 60% of people in the Irish republic could access BBC and ITV by the late 1960s, thus taking viewers away from RTE. So they decided that they could make some money, and provide a cable television service, where crystal clear television pictures of BBC1, BBC2, ITV (Channel 4 from 1982) along with RTE. And thus cable had arrived in Ireland.
From 1981, cable expanded across more of Ireland, especially in Cork City, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. Cork City's cable company offered the most channels along with the UK stations, they offered more from other broadcasters.
By the time I was born in 1985, cable was available to many in the Irish republic who could not pick up the UK stations via spill over signal from Northern Ireland or Wales/West of England.
By 1971 RTE the state broadcaster launch a subsidiary called RTE Relays. RTE knew at least 60% of people in the Irish republic could access BBC and ITV by the late 1960s, thus taking viewers away from RTE. So they decided that they could make some money, and provide a cable television service, where crystal clear television pictures of BBC1, BBC2, ITV (Channel 4 from 1982) along with RTE. And thus cable had arrived in Ireland.
From 1981, cable expanded across more of Ireland, especially in Cork City, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. Cork City's cable company offered the most channels along with the UK stations, they offered more from other broadcasters.
By the time I was born in 1985, cable was available to many in the Irish republic who could not pick up the UK stations via spill over signal from Northern Ireland or Wales/West of England.
NG
They had 16:9 capable gear (modified Beta SP decks), and I think they had a widescreen telecine for movie transfer. If anything was 16:9 it would have been movies I expect. AIUI the telecine was also used for 16:9 transfers for the C4 Pal Plus trials?
noggin
Founding member
Did BSB ever actually broadcast anything in widescreen, or was it just something they were capable of?
They had 16:9 capable gear (modified Beta SP decks), and I think they had a widescreen telecine for movie transfer. If anything was 16:9 it would have been movies I expect. AIUI the telecine was also used for 16:9 transfers for the C4 Pal Plus trials?
DV
The main issue imo was that the 405line service was widespread and of decent enough quality over large footprints. The BBC 1 and ITV variants offered were very high quality services and the average viewer had no real incentive apart from the South Coast and some limited urban areas where broadcast was difficult to move to Cable. The number of new viewers that Cable could attract over 405 line TV was insufficient to make a National offering even restricted to large urban areas commercially viable.
The introduction (quickly) of 625 Colour also knocked that away as a possible building block. The regulatory environment severely restricted additional entrants so the only additional services that could be carried were alternative ITV regions - it's only real USP.
The Satellite explosion killled off any major expansion once and for all, until Fibre brought the reality of major content offering via Broadband. We'll see soon enough whether Sky Q via BB attracts new viewers, I doubt that there's the traction unless they choose to start curtailing their Sat offerings.
The introduction (quickly) of 625 Colour also knocked that away as a possible building block. The regulatory environment severely restricted additional entrants so the only additional services that could be carried were alternative ITV regions - it's only real USP.
The Satellite explosion killled off any major expansion once and for all, until Fibre brought the reality of major content offering via Broadband. We'll see soon enough whether Sky Q via BB attracts new viewers, I doubt that there's the traction unless they choose to start curtailing their Sat offerings.
IS
One of the main unique selling points that cable had when television started to move away from just terrestrial was that it was capable of interactivity. That was a major thing that was to be the future, because everyone wanted to interact with their TV didn't they?
Turned out that we didn't, and Sky with its weedy phone line back channel was perfectly capable of doing what we did want. In fact the only game I've ever played along to on the telly was E4's Banzai and that was on an Ondigital box without a phone line.
The Internet took a lot of the thunder of interactive TV too, although cable should have head the upper hand there as it had co-ax (and later fibre) into people's homes capable of large bandwidths. But that kinda got lost in amongst all the other broadband offerings, I don't think Virgin Ave ever really got across the message that if you're in a cabled area their broadband is different. Though to be fair getting that technical detail across to the average consumer is difficult
The patchy roll out of cable is a problem too, I know a street in North London with no cable despite the ones either side having it. The reason is that it's the last road before the Borough border which also was the border between two of the cable franchises. Presumably it just got missed back in the 90s
Turned out that we didn't, and Sky with its weedy phone line back channel was perfectly capable of doing what we did want. In fact the only game I've ever played along to on the telly was E4's Banzai and that was on an Ondigital box without a phone line.
The Internet took a lot of the thunder of interactive TV too, although cable should have head the upper hand there as it had co-ax (and later fibre) into people's homes capable of large bandwidths. But that kinda got lost in amongst all the other broadband offerings, I don't think Virgin Ave ever really got across the message that if you're in a cabled area their broadband is different. Though to be fair getting that technical detail across to the average consumer is difficult
The patchy roll out of cable is a problem too, I know a street in North London with no cable despite the ones either side having it. The reason is that it's the last road before the Borough border which also was the border between two of the cable franchises. Presumably it just got missed back in the 90s
PC
Part of the problem with cable is that it doesn't want to promote a major selling point - that you don't need a phone line to get the internet - because they want you to take out a landline with them ...
The rollout problem is a real issue with new developments springing up all the time. We would have got cable in our house because of the landline issue but it's not available.
The rollout problem is a real issue with new developments springing up all the time. We would have got cable in our house because of the landline issue but it's not available.
NG
The Internet took a lot of the thunder of interactive TV too, although cable should have head the upper hand there as it had co-ax (and later fibre) into people's homes capable of large bandwidths.
Are Virgin now delivering fibre-to-the-premises?
Virgin's Fibre broadband is still - usually - fibre-to-the-cabinet AIUI with DOCSIS over Coax used for the local loop. (European DOCSIS carries IP download data modulated onto regular DVB-C muxes, with more muxes being dedicated to you the more bandwidth you pay for)
Effectively Virgin uses DOCSIS for broadband-over-coax in the way BT Infinity uses VDSL for broadband-over-phone lines. (Both are described as fibre - but there isn't a fibre connection to the premises, in the way that suppliers like Hyperoptic and Gigaclear provide. Though BT are now rolling out a FTTP product I didn't know Virgin were.)
noggin
Founding member
The Internet took a lot of the thunder of interactive TV too, although cable should have head the upper hand there as it had co-ax (and later fibre) into people's homes capable of large bandwidths.
Are Virgin now delivering fibre-to-the-premises?
Virgin's Fibre broadband is still - usually - fibre-to-the-cabinet AIUI with DOCSIS over Coax used for the local loop. (European DOCSIS carries IP download data modulated onto regular DVB-C muxes, with more muxes being dedicated to you the more bandwidth you pay for)
Effectively Virgin uses DOCSIS for broadband-over-coax in the way BT Infinity uses VDSL for broadband-over-phone lines. (Both are described as fibre - but there isn't a fibre connection to the premises, in the way that suppliers like Hyperoptic and Gigaclear provide. Though BT are now rolling out a FTTP product I didn't know Virgin were.)
IS
Oooh maybe not, I assumed they did. I moved away from a Virgin area years ago so assumed.
We had a new electricity supply put in a while back and the engineer we dealt with suggested putting in a second duct so we can use it for fibre in the future. Quite a good tip I thought, though we a didn't do it for various reasons
I was always very happy with my cable Internet connection, when I had to go ADSL it was a bit of a shock how flaky it can be
We had a new electricity supply put in a while back and the engineer we dealt with suggested putting in a second duct so we can use it for fibre in the future. Quite a good tip I thought, though we a didn't do it for various reasons
I was always very happy with my cable Internet connection, when I had to go ADSL it was a bit of a shock how flaky it can be
IS
Thankfully we don't have cable in our street, when they came to dig it up in the 1990s the residents enquired if there would be any scaring on the footpaths and driveways, i.e. a trench laid out and filled in or a complete resurface of all paths and driveways so there was no scaring. When they were told no there would be scaring the residents told them to get knotted! When the construction company turned up, cars were parked in the road next to the paths and some half on the road and half on the path. When asked for them to move them the doors were closed in their faces. After a week, they gave up and shipped out never to be seen again!
UK
I almost switched to Virgin a year or two ago. Their sales people were very keen on saying they were the only ‘true’ fibre provider (ie it was fibre all the way to people’s houses), saying that FTTC wasn’t the same. At best they were badly trained / misinformed. For most (all?) customers it’s copper from the ‘node’, just thicker copper than the Openreach FTTC service.
Apparently the way Virgin’s internet service is engineered is ‘interesting’ (not in a good way technically speaking). I get the impression it works very nicely until you’re in an oversubscribed area and then it can be a very frustrating service to use- problem is working out which you may live in before signing up!
Oooh maybe not, I assumed they did. I moved away from a Virgin area years ago so assumed.
I almost switched to Virgin a year or two ago. Their sales people were very keen on saying they were the only ‘true’ fibre provider (ie it was fibre all the way to people’s houses), saying that FTTC wasn’t the same. At best they were badly trained / misinformed. For most (all?) customers it’s copper from the ‘node’, just thicker copper than the Openreach FTTC service.
Apparently the way Virgin’s internet service is engineered is ‘interesting’ (not in a good way technically speaking). I get the impression it works very nicely until you’re in an oversubscribed area and then it can be a very frustrating service to use- problem is working out which you may live in before signing up!
PC
In fairness, when my parents' streets were dug up for cable some time ago the smooth pavement surfaces were replaced by a bumpy, lumpy mess. Now that's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things for most people, but I can see why it could be for some.
Nice bit of NIMBYism there. What about residents who may have wanted the service? Why are you ‘thankful’ you haven’t got cable in your street? Surely having the widest choice of providers (whether for pay TV or internet) is a good thing?
In fairness, when my parents' streets were dug up for cable some time ago the smooth pavement surfaces were replaced by a bumpy, lumpy mess. Now that's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things for most people, but I can see why it could be for some.