OT The beginning of the end?

brianw wrote on 6/3/2012, 6:22 AM
No, not one of my political rants but just an interesting item of "progress".
As from June 6 Australia will be shutting down the free to air analogue TV services.
Starting rather late in the piece (1956,B&W: 1975 Color) we have been well served with in recent years an almost country wide coverage of five major networks.
All analogue transmitters have been duplicated in digital and with the ability for say, five programs per channel the free to air public is well served.

Who knows what effect our much vaunted upcoming 'fiber to the home' national network will have??
Brian

Comments

farss wrote on 6/3/2012, 6:59 AM
We now have a lot of "Free To Air" channels thanks to digital.
Only one I think is transmitting HD. Quantity over quality probably signals the beginning of the end for OTA. With FTH, actually more like FTN actually, there's no real reason to use valuable spectrum space for broadcasting.

Bob.
JJKizak wrote on 6/3/2012, 7:15 AM
As long as it's free who cares. But then again when there is a wire/fibre feed to the house the money changers take over, maybe start out with a small maintenance fee
then hit the "donate" button for better programing. Then maybe some advertizing. Maybe some political ads. Pot of gold.
JJK
im.away wrote on 6/3/2012, 9:12 AM
G'day Brian

Not all analogue transmitters have been duplicated with digital. In rural and remote areas many of the existing analogue tx's are self-help stations put in by organisations such as shire councils and aboriginal corporations. These organisations cannot be compelled to upgrade to digital and many won't be. Our shire council installed the SBS ananlogue service years ago, but still have not committed to going digital. I went out and purchased a VAST satellite receiver and can now pick up pretty much anything.

Cheers

Russ
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/3/2012, 4:11 PM
US went to mostly digital a couple years ago. Only full power TV stations had to switch over to digital OTA, low power didn't (repeaters, small local stations, etc). Canada went last year I think.

Lots of people lost signals as the FCC requires you cover your city of license so broadcasters went to smaller transmitters to save $$. Most people get stuff on cable/satellite anyway (I still use OTA).

Rob Franks wrote on 6/3/2012, 4:43 PM
"Canada went last year I think."

We actually went FULL digital as of September 1 2011. I remember that because we went to bed on August 31 and all analogue systems worked fine. However on the morning of September 1, no analogue (public) transmitter system would work.

Even the analogue two-way radios we use at work (I work for Government) ceased to function. It left us scrambling at work because we forgot to take into account that our radios would stop working as well. At $1800 per radio (20 analogue ones in our department), the boss was none too pleased!

I will add that the new digital radios we have now may be much smaller and lighter... but they are no where NEAR as good as the old analogue ones
JJKizak wrote on 6/3/2012, 5:45 PM
The problem with digital is they have to learn how to make it track below noise level like a lot of other high tech stuff.
JJK
john_dennis wrote on 6/3/2012, 7:50 PM
I watch ATSC over the air in a major US market. Only one station of fifteen is problematic in terms of dropped frames with a rooftop antenna on the second floor roof. The best channels are beautiful. The mix of quantity over quality is all over the place. The PBS station broadcasts the primary program at about 11 mbps with two subchannels at much lower bit rates. Some programs are as high as 17+ MBPS.
I am completely happy now that the transistion is over. Though the government made converters available for "free" (I'm a taxpayer, so free?) there was a big incentive to replace the old hardware and I mostly did before the transition. I know it could be difficult for people of different means.
Though the prospect of watching subchannels at ~2mbps may not be appealing to some, my wife and I have found we actually enjoy some of the programming that's available now. Last night I watched two Jack Bennny Show episodes with Clint Walker and Robert Goulet as guests.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/3/2012, 8:03 PM
Even the analogue two-way radios we use at work (I work for Government) ceased to function.

How did they stop working? They don't just stop, people had to turn them off manually. Was cable forced to go 100% digital too (US wasn't)? Satellite's that cover the US hit Canada too, I'm assuming stations could still receive that because US networks still have analog sparkles for some non prime time programming. The AM/FM radio stations didn't drop analog I think, I'd have to check but I believe I still get Canadian stations in my car (Buffalo area)

With so much of the Canadian population close to the US border I'd imagine that it was easier up north then here. Not as much to switch over either. Could be a reason they went 100% over.
ceejay7777 wrote on 6/4/2012, 3:21 AM
Where did "June 6" come from? Analogue services have been shutting down since June 2010 when Mildura started the ball rolling. Of course, Sydney will be last, not making the change until the end of December 2013. Having been given the digital spectrum for free, the commercial networks are still playing silly games (like 3D) in a vain attempt to hold on to their existing bandwidth as well, but the Feds have got their eyes on the billions expected to be reaped by selling it off to comms carriers.
Serena wrote on 6/4/2012, 7:24 AM
The change from analogue to digital broadcast couldn't affect handheld analogue radios. This is a matter of electronics not fundamental electro-mechanics. The change from DC to AC power didn't stop DC circuits working.
Rob Franks wrote on 6/4/2012, 7:27 AM
"How did they stop working? They don't just stop, people had to turn them off manually. Was cable forced to go 100% digital too (US wasn't)? '

The radios used telus antenna systems for extended ranges. When Telus flipped off the switch the radios no longer functioned.

Effective August 31 2011 no (Canadian) tv stations broadcast in analogue anymore. The exception was CBC TV who was granted an extension till August 2012, There are a couple other slight exceptions but that's about it. In Canada the CRTC (Canadian Radio TV Commission) governs all radio and tv signals so it's a bit easier to control the issue.

As far as I know most am/fm radio stations now braodcast in both digital and analogue modes. No ruling has come forth as of yet on a switch-over date.
Rob Franks wrote on 6/4/2012, 7:34 AM
"The change from analogue to digital broadcast couldn't affect handheld analogue radios."

Sorry... you're not quite correct.

The switch-over didn't affect the radios themselves, but rather the antenna systems the radios used. They were long range radios on a private network which used part of the Telus antenna systems for their extended range. When Telus shut down their analogue systems, they killed the radios.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/4/2012, 11:14 AM
So you lease antenna space from someone who changed systems. I would of thought that they would of told you guys what happens. All you would of had to do though is hook it up to an analog transmitter/receiver (they do still exist all over, would be a good backup system).

I know even though consumer products can't use UHF any more lots still do. I wish more consumer products did, it beats blue tooth, IR, AM/FM, etc. hands down.
Rob Franks wrote on 6/4/2012, 10:30 PM
"All you would of had to do though is hook it up to an analog transmitter/receiver (they do still exist all over, would be a good backup system)."

We already looked at that. The crystals (frequencies) in the radios would need to be changed which would no longer guaranty a private network. (As stated above, I work for government and the radios need to be on a private network).