Digital Switchover Category

We’ve just released one of our almost legendary audio updates.

A stack of TV and Tech news to cover, including:

• BBC slashes BBC HD bandwidth by 40%
• Channel 4 3D starts next week
• Welsh TV hits Manchester, plus a Switch update
• Happy Birthday to the Apple iPhone
• Ourkindofmusic ceases their kind of music
• Plus your emails

The show is attached to this blog entry, or you can listen at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html, or get us from the FrequencyCast Podcast page on iTunes.

 FrequencyCast Update 12 Nov 2009 [11:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Digital Britain report is finally out. On the 16th of June, Lord Carter’s long-awaited report into plans for our digital future were revealed.

There’s been lots of media chat about this already, but in case you’ve missed it, what we think are the three headlines are as follows:

1. Analogue Radio off by 2015: The intention here is to get national FM services and existing local services over to DAB by 2015, freeing up space for what’s being called “ultra local” stations on FM. Listeners would need to migrate from FM to digital by 2015. There are also targets proposed to get digital radio listening up to 50% by 2013, a somewhat ambitious target, and a target of DAB-only car radios in new cars by 2013. AM stations also need to shift to DAB.

2. Broadband tax: To help achive the Government’s “every home must have at least 2Meg broadband by 2012″ pledge, a stealth tax of 50p per month on all landlines is proposed to improve the infrastructure.

3. Internet piracy. The target is for UK ISPs to reduce online file-sharing and piracy by 70% within a year, with measures ranging from warning letters, speed throttling, to details being passed to copyright owners. Ofcom will be given the power to enforce this.

For the full report, see http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

The UK Digital Switchover continues, with Devon, Dorset and Somerset next on the list.

The Beacon Hill transmitter and its 23 relay transmitters serve Torbay and South Devon. They’re set to go fully digital from 08 April 2009.

Stockland Hill, serving Exeter, parts of Devon, Somerset and Dorset, is due to follow in May 2009.

If you need help getting ready for the analogue switchoff, please go to http://www.switchhelp.co.uk for advice.

… in the US, anyway.

The US was set to complete its switch to Digital TV next month, on the 17th of February 2009. However, with an estimated 6 and a half million homes not yet digital, the US Senate has voted to delay the turning off of analogue telly until June the 12th.

Unlike in the UK, over in the States, there’s a goverment help scheme to offer $40 towards the purchase of a set-top box (typically costing between £50 and $75).

No sign of a slowdown for the UK Switchover, with more of the country set to switch in 2009 including the Scottish Border Region, the West Country and parts of Wales. More on the UK switchover on our sister site Switch Help

After the Whitehaven switchover test, the UK-wide switchover has finally started in earnest.

On the 6th of November 2008, the BBC 2 analogue service from the Selkirk transmitter was switched off, beginning the Border TV Digital Switchover.

According to The Scotsman newspaper, 52,000 households get their telly from the Selkirk transmitter, and 97% of them were ready.

Looking for information on going digital? See Digital Switchover Help

On Wednesday the 23rd July, a transmitter update for Freeview viewers in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall will break a number of older Freeview boxes. This update has already knocked out boxes in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Tyne Tees, Border, Granada, Yorkshire and parts of the Anglia regions.

Freeview set-top boxes from Bush, Daewoo, Labgear, Triax and Portland can’t cope with a transmitter upgrade that’s creeping across the UK. Affected boxes can’t cope with the changes made at transmitter sites, and the advice is – bin it, and buy another.

Find out more at www.frequencycast.co.uk/freeviewlandfill.html

In May 2008, a bunch of Freeview boxes served by the Sutton Coldfield transmitter stopped working. Now it looks like boxes in Scotland have gone the same way.

Boxes powered by the SetPal technology, including those made by Daewoo, Labgear, Portland and Triax, lack sufficient internal memory to cope with the number of Freeview stations after a transmitter upgrade, and become useless.

More on the story, including a quote from our sister site, Radio & Telly can be found here: Daily Record 5 July 2008

There are believed to be between 200,000 and 350,000 affected boxes in the UK, and as the transmitter networks get upgraded ready for the Switchover, more and more boxes are set to become landfill fodder

Details of Devon and Cornwall’s Digital Switch programme were announced in July 2008. In July 2009, the Huntshaw Cross transmitter group, serving North Devon, will make the switch to digital. Later in July 09, the Redruth transmitter group, serving west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will see analogue turned off. Then, in August 2009. the Caradon Hill transmitter group, serving Plymouth, parts of Devon and east Cornwall, will make the change.

More on the digital switch at www.switchhelp.co.uk

Plans are being drawn up for “Channel 6” – a nationwide local TV service. The group United for Local Television is campaigning for a UK-wide network of local TV stations to fill the void in local TV news and content that’s not being servced by the BBC and ITV.

Campaigners include local TV operators, voluntary organisations and media campaigners, and has the backing of 126 MPs.

If successful, Channel 6 would launch before the end of 2012 the Digital Switchover

It’s the first of March, and Show 24 of FrequencyCast has just been released. Yes – 24 shows… we’ve reached our second birthday. Thanks for being with us for the ride!

Here’s what we cover in today’s show:

• News Updates: An end to the High Def DVD format wars, BBC on the iPhone, the US strike’s over, we discover more about podcast listening, and we say hello to the 21st Century KITT.
• Focus – Digital Radio: After DAB has had a really rough couple of months, Carl and Pete pick up the pieces, look at some DAB technology, ask whether the future is Net radio, and read through listener’s texts and mails on digital radio.
• Neuros OSD: A new piece of kit – a gadget that converts your video, streams your content and acts as a PVR.
• Your Questions: Listeners questions on wireless V+ box connections, Freeview Series Link, video on a whiteboard, TV in other rooms, HDMI cables and Freeview in hilly areas.

You can download Show 24 direct to your MP3 player, listen online, or view the show notes at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast24.html

Enjoy the show? Add a quick iTunes review: Review us.

 FrequencyCast Show 24 [31:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

UK Podcast Team, FrequencyCast has released an audio podcast providing help on the Digital Switchover. This follows results of our survey telling us that 39% of our listeners and visitors aren’t ready for analogue TV to be switched off. See our press release for more.

Our “Unofficial Guide to The Digital Switchover” looks at the top ten things you need to know, and answers our listener’s common switchover questions.

 The show lasts for 20 minutes, and can be downloaded for free from our Digital Switch page

 Digital Switch Audio Guide [20:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’re taking a straw poll from our listeners to find out how many folk are ready for the Digital TV Switchover, to help with an upcoming podcast feature we’re planning. We’d appreciate your vote:

The Analogue switch-off is upon us. In the early hours of this morning, the first part of the UK to switch to a digital service, lost its analogue BBC2. That part of the country, was Cumbria’s Whitehaven, in the North West of England. The transmitter, serving around 25,000 homes, made the switch at 2am, under the glare of the UK’s media. Whitehaven’s other channels will go by November, and the UK’s analogue telly finally vanishes in 2012. For more on the digital switch and what it means to you, download the MP3 of Show 7 of our online radio show.

Between now and 2012, the UK has to “go digital”. The extra choice is great, and more and more people are switching. But is it all good news? Are you happy with the switch-off of analogue telly? Should we wait till we’re ready, or plough ahead?

We have a new pages of notes at www.frequencycast.co.uk/analogueswitchoff.html

We’re also asking for your votes via this page… as well as your comments here on our blog – for possible inclusion in a future show…