Olympic Games delay London switch-over

Am I alone in really mistrusting OfCom, SwtchCo and the DCMS? Tessa lacks bottle, there's a tremendous lost opportunity here to (a) showcase British technical achievement and (b) to provide temporary DTT capacity in Greater London during (and for) the 2012 Olympics.

The idea is that analogue should remain on during the games, but why? Certaincy? So - she doesn't trust digital?

This ought to be a tremendous opportunity to drive functionality into DTT, and use its flexibility to deliver specific coverage for contestants and visitors. But instead lets just rely on 50 year old technology, we are British after all.

See :


http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=193&id=1031

The alternative would be to escalate the London switch-over. Go for it Tess!

50 year old?

Surely it is either :
69 years (1936 was the launch of VHF 405 electronic scanning TV in the UK)
41 years (1964 was the launch of UHF 625 line TV in the UK)
38 years (1967 was the launch fo UHF 625 line PAL colour TV in the UK)

Or are you basing it on the launch of VHF or UHF 625 line B&W TV on the continent?

Surely by 2012 analogue TV is going to be seen as a hideous anachronism, and large swathes of the UK will have been digi-only for some time.

I don't see what purpose this decision will achieve. Visitors will presumably be watching any TV at hotels which will all have switched over.

From 1964 to 2012 would be 48 years! The technology and patents surrounding PAL Colour Television were developed in the early to mid 1960's, this gives us 50 year old technology.

Wasn't clear to me whether you meant the technology was 50 years old now or in 2012! (Maybe I was a bit dense.)

Well given that PAL is basically NTSC with a clever tweak you could argue that PAL is based heavily on mid-50s tech. (625 is a 50s tech and quadrature modulation of a subcarrier for chroma is around the same age)

PAL as a specific technique - adding the phase reversal on alternate lines - courtest of Mr Bruch (and his pulses!) is early 60s though I agree - though it wasn't deployed until 1967 when the UK and Germany launched services almost simultaneously.