Came across the following BBC News article which suggests Ofcom may rethink its plans for the sale of the analogue spectrum...
Ofcom may rethink spectrum sale
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7646348.stm ...I can't help thinking the key word is 'may' as they've said that they might rethink it, rather than that they will rethink it.
They do seem to be making a real mess of DSO - I can't see how they can justify only putting half of the freeview multiplexes onto the majority of relay transmitters so they can flog off one of the frequencies.
This makes it a postcode lottery, in effect, where those who happen to be served by a main station get a more extensive service than those who are served by a relay.
If they really have to flog off frequencies I don't see why they couldn't ring fence three frequencies for the COM muxs and run those as an SFN on all transmitters.
They do seem to be making a real mess of DSO - I can't see how they can justify only putting half of the freeview multiplexes onto the majority of relay transmitters so they can flog off one of the frequencies.
This makes it a postcode lottery, in effect, where those who happen to be served by a main station get a more extensive service than those who are served by a relay.
If they really have to flog off frequencies I don't see why they couldn't ring fence three frequencies for the COM muxs and run those as an SFN on all transmitters.
Even if the COM muxes were to be made available on all 1154 transmitters, rather than just 80, that would only extend the reach by less than 10% of the UK population. It wouldn't make commercial sense for any operator to pay for the equipping of those extra 1000+ sites. In fact there was even doubt at one stage whether ITV were willing to do that for themselves, another factor in Grade's flirting with the idea of removing ITV's PSB status.
True, but if you're equipping them to tx 3 multiplexes, sticking a bit of extra kit in to do a few more doesn't seem that much of a stretch.
It's still 3 x 1074 transposers, that's capital expenditure for 3222 units, plus on going running and maintenance. I agree if you're installing the kit for the three PSBs anyway, that makes extra installation costs negligible, but I don't think the sums add up enough for the beancounters.
Anyway, what's going to be so compelling on the COM muxes ? As it stands, folk who are unserved now by Freeview will swap four (and if they're lucky five) analogue channels overnight to about 20 (including the four they've already got). That's not a bad deal
Anyway, what's going to be so compelling on the COM muxes ? As it stands, folk who are unserved now by Freeview will overnight swap four (and if they're lucky five) analogue channels overnight to about 20 (including the four they've already got). That's not a bad deal
Those people who've been led to believe that by 2012 they'll have the freeview service? It's not been made that clear that they're only getting half of it.
People have put up with getting second rate service on the premise that it's temporary during dual running and they will be able to have freeview when analogue is shut down. But they're still going to get a second rate service. If OFCOM had anything about them they would require all relays to provide the full six multiplexes.
Forgot the complete mess surrounding DSO and especially HD on Freeview in my little rant about OFCOM yesterday. I really have lost all faith in them completely - if they're not regulating on behalf of the viewers, what is the point!
Anyway, what's going to be so compelling on the COM muxes ? As it stands, folk who are unserved now by Freeview will overnight swap four (and if they're lucky five) analogue channels overnight to about 20 (including the four they've already got). That's not a bad deal
Those people who've been led to believe that by 2012 they'll have the freeview service? It's not been made that clear that they're only getting half of it.
People have put up with getting second rate service on the premise that it's temporary during dual running and they will be able to have freeview when analogue is shut down. But they're still going to get a second rate service. If OFCOM had anything about them they would require all relays to provide the full six multiplexes.
I honestly don't think they will be missing out on anything worthwhile, but I do agree they are being mislead by Ofcom and Digital UK, and that Ofcom are turning DSO into a total botch.
if you take a look at the leaflet on digital uk's site that they've apparently been sending to everyone in the border region its noteable that its only the PSB channels that are advertised within that booklet.
I suspect that as DSO continues more and more prominence will be given to PSB 1-3 and less and less to the other three commercial muxes.
The small carrot of 3 (possibly 4, maybe even 5 if the encoders continue improving) HD streams is worth talking about as well.
I saw the 36Mbs DVB-T2 tests at IBC 2008 (the same kit is running from Guildford at the moment and is the test bed for Mux B switching to HD) and was really pleasantly surprised. 11Mbs H264 - which will give us 3 HD Streams - with the latest encoders looked a lot better than BBC HD DSat 16.5Mbs.
There are suggestions that the max encoder efficiency isn't yet close to being reached - so 4 or even 5 HD watchable streams in a single DVB-T2 mux is not a ridiculous suggestion. I'll settle for 3 at the moment though!
The reporting of the Ofcom / EU decision about digital dividend spectrum is slightly clouded though. Apparently the much-reported Telstra digital broadband system used in Aus is not currently applicable to the UK - as our 3G Spectrum auctions precluded the use of 3G technology on the spectrum in question...