London DSO

Would have worked for Tyne Tees but not NI which needs co-ordination with the Republic. DSO completion in the Republic coincides with DSO2 in NI on 24-Oct-2012.

I am sorry but all this just seems very pathetic!! Why on earth do all this nonsense just because it's a switchover from analogue to digital. Its not the first mast and definitely not the last. Why haven't they done this sort of thing at every other switchover beforehand and are any planned for the future switch-over (I somehow doubt it)?
Complete waste of time, money and energy.

I'm not sure there's any dependency from Ulster to release frequencies for the Eire DSO.

There will only be a couple of minor frequency changes in Eire on October 24th, and all the DTT transmitters are already at final power. DSO in Eire is really nothing more than switching off the analogue transmitters.

Remember there is only one mux in Eire, and fewer transmitters, so it's been possible to launch DTT at high power from the outset, without any of the transitional arrangements the UK has endured.

Think it's more that High Power NI DTT would affect Analogue in the Republic, rather than the reverse. Switch off Republic Analogue services simulraneously and that problem goes.

Yes fair point, though it's only going to be the COM muxes from three main transmitters that carry them that would be an issue..

The far more important PSB muxes are using the existing high power analogue allocations at all sites, so a PSB DSO could have occurred earlier. (Rather like it has in the UK in some areas, but been hushed up. Rowridge is good example, DSO 1 and 2 were last month, but the COMs won't change, or increase in power until this week)

It is the big switchover - the most high profile and the largest number of people affected. There's been surprisingly little fanfare about DSO so far, why shouldn't Arqiva blow their own trumpet about it?

Anyway I suspect doing it at other sites wouldn't have been that great as they're more remote. I cant imagine David Attenborough going up to Winter Hill for a light show that will be viewed by a few sheep.

Arqiva obviously doesn't think so, and it's their money and if they want to spend it on a publicity stunt to promote their business then why not? They do seem to be getting a bit of press coverage at the mo when it's a usually a company that doesn't really have a public profile

Ohh I dunno. Considering the closest town is Bolton - less than 3 miles away. Winter Hill towers over a lot of the conurbations such as north side of Greater Manchester (i.e. Wigan, Bolton, Bury and can be seen as far afield as Salford and Manchester - then otherside such as Darwen Blackburn and even Chorley). I am sure that a spectacle could have been seen.

But that aside it would have been better for spectacles at the first and last switchovers to celebrate the changeovers, rather than celebrate just 1 changeover that covers Greater London.

But saying that I can think of no other country which has "celebrated" the fact of changing from Analogue to Digital. even when The Netherlands went fully digital a full years ago there was no fanfare.

But only if you live in London. The vast majority of the country is either uninterested or confused by the new round of adverts for switchover (on the HD channels especially), which have no mention that they're only aimed at London.

It's high profile because of what and who is in London. As well as a 5th of the population, the area switching contains the HQs of all the big national broadcasters, all national newspapers, and many ad and PR agencies. It also contains national government, the homes of virtually every MP as well as The City of London and head offices of many other influential and important organisations.

If it goes wrong here then that's a huge PR blunder for Arqiva and Digital UK.... that wouldn't be the case with the switchover at somewhere like Caradon Hill.

I think you've missed the point. It's a corporate marketing stunt, it's not really marking a technological breakthrough. It's a large company - Arqiva - promoting themselves and they're not going to do that half as well in Whitehaven or Divis! For a start it's a lot easier to get their 'VIP guests' to Crystal Palace thann it is a hill just outside Belfast


I've no idea what the Dutch equivalent of Arqiva is but they presumably don't need the publicity (if they are a public organisation like the IBA was then they almost certainly won't) and 90% of the population of The Netherlands use cable anyway so the switchover was very low profile

Although the Dutch managed something far more spectacular than a laser show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nEYXOmWMRs

They were just copying Oxford