Digital Switchover - UTV Region (DigitalUK)

The Cush

The Tyne Tees DSO dates are now up - DSO 1 12-Sep-12, DSO 2 26-Sep-12.

Only the dates for NI remain to be published.

Rick_

I have a horrible feeling that when they do put the dates up they will say Nov 2012 and/or early 2013.

watty

The "White Space" proposal is utter stupidity.

The Cush

Paddy C wrote: »

I have a horrible feeling that when they do put the dates up they will say Nov 2012 and/or early 2013.

Oct/Nov would be my guess in conjunction with ASO south of the border in Oct 2012.

lawhec

The Cush wrote: »

The Tyne Tees DSO dates are now up - DSO 1 12-Sep-12, DSO 2 26-Sep-12.

Only the dates for NI remain to be published.

I would say that looking at the schedules for 2012 in England for the last transmitters there to convert, it looks likely that all three main transmitters in NI will be done at the same time either over one or two stages.

I've a hutch that the switch over here will definitely be finished by October next year.

Mr. Rabbit

lawhec wrote: »

I would say that looking at the schedules for 2012 in England for the last transmitters there to convert, it looks likely that all three main transmitters in NI will be done at the same time either over one or two stages.

I've a hutch that the switch over here will definitely be finished by October next year.

Yep, the final date for England is apparently the 26th September 2012, several months early, or so it would seem.

Surely the announcement of the exact dates for NI must be fairly imminent ?

Has the NI DSO manager been officially confirmed yet ?

The Cush

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

Surely the announcement of the exact dates for NI must be fairly imminent ?

Has the NI DSO manager been officially confirmed yet ?

1. Yes

2. No (unofficially confirmed)

The Cush

A job vacancy has appeared on the DigitalUK website for a Retail Support Executive - Northern Ireland (Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Newry and Omagh)

Retail Support Executive - Northern Ireland (Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Newry and Omagh)

Salary £19,000 per annum plus 10% bonus and company car


Working for Gekko representing Digital UK, this exciting opportunity is your chance to be part of the biggest change to TV in the UK for over 50 years. Delivering our award-winning training programme you will ensure staff have the essential knowledge and skills to provide effective, timely advice about the digital switchover process.

Visiting stores on a regular basis, the demonstration of strong communication skills will not only build relationships with retail managers and their staff, but also ensure take up of the various POS and support tools available. You'll also be responsible for the merchandising of in-store promotional material and for the monitoring of the ‘digital tick’ logo scheme.

With a passion for technology, you'll be IT literate, have experience of working in a field/retail based role and be highly motivated to develop your career further.

If you live within the locations specified and are interested in one of the positions, please email your CV with a covering letter to talent@gekko-uk.com quoting "Northern Ireland 0911".

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/about_digital_uk/jobs

Mr. Rabbit

Well, here we are now in October 2011.

Still no DSO manager announced.

Still no exact date for DSO.

Still no firm details of RTE mini mux.

Still no UTV HD.

What a mishmash, and only about a year to go to DSO.

Complete organised confusion, as usual in NI

The Cush

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

Well, here we are now in October 2011.

Still no DSO manager announced.

Still no exact date for DSO.

Still no firm details of RTE mini mux.

Still no UTV HD.

Denis Wolinski says he is the DigitalUK National Manager Northern Ireland since July - http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/denis-wolinski/2b/781/238.
Also from linkedin, Russell Keene, is Assistant National Manager, Northern Ireland at Digital UK since August - http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/russell-keene/3/911/297

I think we'll see the NI switchover dates soon.

Regarding the RTÉ/TG4 mini-mux have they setup the not for profit company to apply for the licence and run the multiplex?

Mr. Rabbit

The Cush wrote: »

Denis Wolinski says he is the DigitalUK National Manager Northern Ireland since July - http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/denis-wolinski/2b/781/238.
Also from linkedin, Russell Keene, is Assistant National Manager, Northern Ireland at Digital UK since August - http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/russell-keene/3/911/297

I think we'll see the NI switchover dates soon.

Regarding the RTÉ/TG4 mini-mux have they yet setup the not for profit company to apply for the licence and run the multiplex?

Thank's for the info. Cush. Hadn't realised that was official.

They're going to need to get a move on in announcing the dates since October 2012 ionly 12 months away, and they'll need to start with some sort of publicity campaign at some stage. I've seen some national ads but nothing specific to NI yet.

News on the RTE mini mux has been very quiet of late. The confusion over Divis or Black mountain, Divis and Black Mountain, or just Black Mountain is annoying. That situation needs clarified as well.

The Cush

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

Thank's for the info. Cush. Hadn't realised that was official.

Not officially announced by DigitalUK yet.

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

They're going to need to get a move on in announcing the dates since October 2012 ionly 12 months away, and they'll need to start with some sort of publicity campaign at some stage. I've seen some national ads but nothing specific to NI yet.

Still three and a half weeks remaining in Oct, lots of time yet for an announcement.

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

News on the RTE mini mux has been very quiet of late. The confusion over Divis or Black mountain, Divis and Black Mountain, or just Black Mountain is annoying. That situation needs clarified as well.

No confusion that I can see, Brougher Mountain, Black Mountain, and Carnmoney Hill are expected to be the sites that will carry the mini-mux according to the UK Government's Digital Television website from last April.

Digifriendly

Simple question re RTE/TG4 mini-mux. Do you think some sports will be 'blacked out' the way they are via Sky digital for NI viewers e.g. CL soccer/ROI soccer internationals and HC rugby?

ardmacha

Do you think some sports will be 'blacked out' the way they are via Sky digital for NI viewers e.g. CL soccer/ROI soccer internationals and HC rugby?

Following the EU Court of Justice ruling yesterday, this kind of thing may not happen any more in any case.

Mr. Rabbit

No confusion that I can see, Brougher Mountain, Black Mountain, and Carnmoney Hill

The confusion is which site is going to be used for the greater Belfast area.

I assume it isn't going to be the low pored relay transmitter at Black mountain ?

This is the bit that appears to be unclear and causing confusion.

The original announcement stated Divis, Brougher, Carnmoney Hill,along with Black Mountain and Sam did indicate the old mast at Divis would be retained for the mini mux. I had assumed the Black Mountain site would be the low powered relay covering west Belfast ?

5 Watts post DSO is hardly going to cover all ofgreater Belfast, so I can only assume Digital UK have made a mistake in omitting Divis. Is this a case of not having local knowledge about the set up here ?

Then again, maybe It's me that's barking up the wrong tree.

Peter Rhea

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

I had assumed the Black Mountain site would be the low powered relay covering west Belfast ?

5 Watts post DSO is hardly going to cover all ofgreater Belfast

Why do you assume that all transmissions from this site will have to use the same equipment?

Mr. Rabbit

Peter Rhea wrote: »

Why do you assume that all transmissions from this site will have to use the same equipment?

Because no one has said otherwise.

Up until the mini RTE mux plan, the only TV transmissions from this site post DSO are 5 watts.

There has been no official statement that indicates anything different.

Peter Rhea

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

There has been no official statement that indicates anything different.

And when there is an official statement, I'm sure it will indicate something different.
It's a strange line of reasoning you have there, Mr. Rabbit.

The Cush

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

Up until the mini RTE mux plan, the only TV transmissions from this site post DSO are 5 watts.

There has been no official statement that indicates anything different.

The mini-mux is still 12 months away, lots of time for official statements.

lawhec

The slight hold up on the announcement of a date for DSO seems to be related to the likelihood that an All-Ireland DSO announcement will take place, with both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic co-ordinating on dates. My understanding is that a local team has now been put in place in the past few weeks based in Belfast and that a switch over date will be announced shortly depending on the level of co-ordination with their southern counterparts. If I was a gambling man I'd be going for a date some time in mid-October 2012 for it to be completed.

As for the RTÉ mini multiplex, a lack of transmission on Divis may not be a problem if transmissions from Black Mountain are configured in a similar fashion to Channel 5's analogue broadcasts presently. I'm sure engineers at Ofcom and Arqiva are working out plans for best coverage without interference issues.

The Cush

All transmitters will switchover in 2 stages in Oct 2012 -

Stage 1 - 10 Oct 2012
Stage 2 - 24 Oct 2012

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/when_do_i_switch/northernireland
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/69601/DG0115_2k_NI_Regional.pdf

reslfj

The Cush wrote: »

All transmitters will switchover in 2 stages in Oct 2012 -

Stage 1 - 10 Oct 2012
Stage 2 - 24 Oct 2012
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/69601/DG0115_2k_NI_Regional.pdf

"'I live in Northern Ireland; can I buy a Saorview box to get digital TV?’

If you purchase a Saorview TV or box, it will pick up
Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland
television services where they are available." /NI leaflet page 9



This quote is not valid

• A Saorview box cannot - as we all know - receive the UK PSB-3 DVB-T2 HD mux.
• ROI television services will - in many areas of NI - only be available via the DVB-T2 RTÉ/TG4 minimux.

They should print new and corrected leaflets - IMHO.

Lars

The Cush

reslfj wrote: »

This quote is not valid

• A Saorview box cannot - as we all know - receive the UK PSB-3 DVB-T2 HD mux.
• ROI television services will - in many areas of NI - only be available via the DVB-T2 RTÉ/TG4 minimux.

Good point.

The question atm is has RTÉ and TG4 established the the joint venture company that will apply for the licence and run the multiplex? Maybe no information on the mini-mux until that happens.

Returning to the information I posted above this morning, the leaflet and the link has been removed from the DigitalUK NI switchover page as reported over in Digitalspy about an hour later. Somebody in DigitalUK jumped the gun it appears.

Maybe we'll see a joint announcement on Monday 10th, one year prior to the start of the switchover in NI.

mrdtv2010

I passed by Divis on the airport road a couple of weeks back. Divis B is now complete, fully stayed and looks a very impressive structure. Pretty soon given the UK schedule full power tests on the post DSO frequencies will take place in the dead of night: analogue TV will be shutdown overnight. They may well migrate analogue working to the new mast as happened in GB with the other mast rebuilds. The full power tests will reveal the extent of the overspill although LCNs won't be transmitted. When this happens I'll give a heads up so the enthusiasts who can manually tune in the post DSO frequencies will be able to see C/N, signal strength and quality depending on their receiver sophistication. That will be revealing.

Post DSO Divis PSBs are 100kW and COM muxes are 50kW a whopping improvement on the current < 3kW offer!

We'll probably see the official chapter and verse on Monday since these dates have been circulating widely in NI broadcast circles for a while.

Incidentally on the question of the RTE minimux they could operate Black Mountain and Carnmoney Hill as a DVB-T2 SFN depending on the mode and channel availability as this would give impressive coverage of the Greater Belfast area which is a classic signal 'bowl'.

Digifriendly

reslfj wrote: »

"'I live in Northern Ireland; can I buy a Saorview box to get digital TV?’

If you purchase a Saorview TV or box, it will pick up
Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland
television services where they are available." /NI leaflet page 9



This quote is not valid

• A Saorview box cannot - as we all know - receive the UK PSB-3 DVB-T2 HD mux.
• ROI television services will - in many areas of NI - only be available via the DVB-T2 RTÉ/TG4 minimux[/B].
  

They should print new and corrected leaflets - IMHO.

Lars

I question the 'many areas' for mini-mux as at present most of NI can pick up RTE/TG4/TV3 on analogue and surely once Saorview signal is juiced up it will at least mirror present analogue RTE coverage and maybe even better it.

Mayo Exile

The Cush wrote: »

All transmitters will switchover in 2 stages in Oct 2012 -

Stage 1 - 10 Oct 2012
Stage 2 - 24 Oct 2012

Details of DSO in the South would need to announced pretty soon in light of this information. End of this month maybe? I'm guessing they'll coordinate the switch off?

The Cush

Mayo Exile wrote: »

Details of DSO in the South would need to announced pretty soon in light of this information. End of this month maybe?

Maybe as soon as next week, the Dept press release last week said they would be "announcing further details shortly", prior to the launch of the "Going Digital" National Digital Switchover Information Campaign. The question now is will there be a joint announcement of the dates with the UK.

Mayo Exile wrote: »

I'm guessing they'll coordinate the switch off?

That's the plan since the MoU was signed between the two goverments in Feb 2010 and confirmed by the Dept of Communications July 2010.

On Thursday 29 July 2010, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (“the Minister”), announced that analogue terrestrial television will be switched-off in the State in Quarter 4 of 2012, in conjunction with analogue switchover in Northern Ireland.

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1059.pdf

Mr. Rabbit

lawhec wrote: »

The slight hold up on the announcement of a date for DSO seems to be related to the likelihood that an All-Ireland DSO announcement will take place, with both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic co-ordinating on dates. My understanding is that a local team has now been put in place in the past few weeks based in Belfast and that a switch over date will be announced shortly depending on the level of co-ordination with their southern counterparts. If I was a gambling man I'd be going for a date some time in mid-October 2012 for it to be completed.

As for the RTÉ mini multiplex, a lack of transmission on Divis may not be a problem if transmissions from Black Mountain are configured in a similar fashion to Channel 5's analogue broadcasts presently. I'm sure engineers at Ofcom and Arqiva are working out plans for best coverage without interference issues.

No doubt it'll all be the subject of a topic on Talkback !

Rick_

October? Exactly one year from now? How disappointing that it couldn't have been before the Olympics at least...

Fingleberries

Paddy C wrote: »

October? Exactly one year from now? How disappointing that it couldn't have been before the Olympics at least...

Would October be the ASO (Analaogue Switch-Off) date, if so does that preclude that the Digital Signal would be switched on in the region before then for a brief period of simulcast (as with Saorview at the moment)?