Cable tv headends

jpsr

Are there any cable tv headends left in irish towns.
Since upc took over chorus/ntl and upgraded there network they dont need a headends in each town.

I just love the satellites and how they are all cabled together.
If anyone has pics of irish headends or know of any around, please let me know.

bulbs2010

i used to work for chorus and i see your from mullingar.the new mullingar head end is behind the chinese chipper on mount street.its fed from the telephone exchange beside it,its not like the good old mast on the dublin rd.some very funny storys about that head end,I remember we had problems with bbc 2 ,so a guy decided to make a parabolic type aerial only problem is he made it in his back garden in dalton park and it was too big to get it out when it was finished ,it had to be cut in half and welded back together at the headend.It worked perfect for 20 years

jpsr

bulbs2010 wrote: »

i used to work for chorus and i see your from mullingar.the new mullingar head end is behind the chinese chipper on mount street.its fed from the telephone exchange beside it,its not like the good old mast on the dublin rd.some very funny storys about that head end,I remember we had problems with bbc 2 ,so a guy decided to make a parabolic type aerial only problem is he made it in his back garden in dalton park and it was too big to get it out when it was finished ,it had to be cut in half and welded back together at the headend.It worked perfect for 20 years

I used to cycle to that headend at the dublin road when i was a teen, its what got me into satellite tv, loved to look at those channel master dishes.

I know the parabolic aerial your talking about, i remember it on the mast.

I was talking to a guy from upc 2 years ago and he said the new headend was on top of the hospital, i could see a few channel master dishes on top, but since upc took over from chorus it was removed, another guy from upc said the main satellite headend was in dublin fed from fibre along the motorway to mullingar.

Is the headend in the back garden of the chineese, and whats at it are there dishes there.

Would love to visite the upc headend in dublin, but dont know where it is.
You hardly have pics of the headend in mullingar or any other 1.

bulbs2010

yes it is all fed from dublin but there is a cabin in mount st where it is all distributed from.go down to the back of the labour exchange and you will see it

jpsr

bulbs2010 wrote: »

yes it is all fed from dublin but there is a cabin in mount st where it is all distributed from.go down to the back of the labour exchange and you will see it

Ye i seen it there, not what i was expecting.

Is there and local satellite headends in any of the towns, or are they all like this now.

Do you know where the main upc one is in dublin.

zg3409

In Wicklow town the UPC headend is near the Scenic view car park up the hill from the Convent. It used to get the UK channels off air from the UK. Then they used Sky boxes (no signal displays regularly) and then fed from MMDS. The system offers 17 analogue channels and nothing else. 99% of users left 20 years ago as the service was beyond pathetic. Even Comreg did a report saying the Sky boxes would not power up after any power glitch. Sometimes channels would be down for over a week before anyone fixed it. There is still some large dishes on the site, but I think they are unused.

The RTE's must be fed from MMDS as there is no X 24th October logo. Even MMDS has more channels than this cable system.

One part of the town was so weak recently for more then a week, before they fixed it. I had set up a temporary satellite dish before they arrived!

jpsr

zg3409 wrote: »

In Wicklow town the UPC headend is near the Scenic view car park up the hill from the Convent. It used to get the UK channels off air from the UK. Then they used Sky boxes (no signal displays regularly) and then fed from MMDS. The system offers 17 analogue channels and nothing else. 99% of users left 20 years ago as the service was beyond pathetic. Even Comreg did a report saying the Sky boxes would not power up after any power glitch. Sometimes channels would be down for over a week before anyone fixed it. There is still some large dishes on the site, but I think they are unused.

The RTE's must be fed from MMDS as there is no X 24th October logo. Even MMDS has more channels than this cable system.

One part of the town was so weak recently for more then a week, before they fixed it. I had set up a temporary satellite dish before they arrived!

Thanks, ill have to go visit that headend.
Had a look at google maps, could'nt see Scenic view car park, is that on the convent road.

I was in bray before, is wicklow town far from there.

zg3409

From this car park you can see it:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Wicklow+town&hl=en&ll=52.972285,-6.035593&spn=0.000803,0.002401&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.587666,78.662109&hnear=Wicklow,+County+Wicklow,+Ireland&t=h&z=19

It's in the field next door, a small square building with a tower and loads of old bits. The car park has two arches like the letter M.

Wicklow town is 20 minutes drive south of bray.

Antenna

When in Enniscorthy Co Wexford in 2009, I spotted what was obviously the cable TV headend on the outskirts of the town. Attached picture I took then. I also include streetview link. The two terrestrial aerials (VHF and UHF) visible on my picture are aimed at Mt Leinster (for the Irish channels in analogue), MMDS (you can spot 3 MMDS aerials on the mast) is obviously used as a source for everything else nowadays ( I doubt the satellite dishes are active!). I assume this mast picked up the UK channels from Wales in the past, the receive aerial removed since then.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Enniscorthy,+Ireland&hl=en&ll=52.498797,-6.551174&spn=0.001006,0.002012&sll=37.6,-95.665&sspn=42.194652,65.917969&oq=Enniscorthy&hnear=Enniscorthy,+County+Wexford,+Ireland&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=52.498797,-6.551174&panoid=Aj-xWH3ooo3ylRgm31eX8Q&cbp=12,0,,0,0

jpsr

Thanks antenna,

Thatsa great pic, its nearly hidden by the trees.
The building were the receivers are must be really hidden by trees,as its out of sight.

Its a wonder it has'nt been took down now, as i think most are.

Solair

That's the old Cork Multichannel HQ on George's Quay.
It used to have huge satellite dishes on the roof.

http://www.google.ie/maps?q=union+quay+cork&hl=en&ll=51.895015,-8.470285&spn=0.000953,0.002411&sll=53.401034,-8.307638&sspn=7.49851,19.753418&hnear=Union+Quay,+Cork,+County+Cork&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.894984,-8.47011&panoid=1cFdtjE6uRiuTwLiX1tLxw&cbp=12,239.25,,0,-17.44

Not sure that UPC have any presence there anymore, but it was where the cable network in Cork was run from for decades.

jpsr

Thanks for that, pitty i cant see whats on the roof, or is there a way.

Solair

I think it was removed. There used to be a couple of huge satellite dishes up there.

Antenna

jpsr wrote: »

Thanks antenna,

Thatsa great pic, its nearly hidden by the trees.
The building were the receivers are must be really hidden by trees,as its out of sight.

The cabin(s?) where the receivers etc are are visible in the streetview link in my previous post (alongside the public road). The cables obviously go underground from the mast (at the ditch between two fields) to there. Two cabins are visible, don't know if both are in use.
I assume the satellite dishes still on the mast were for receiving former analogue Sky satellite services on Astra 19.2, subsequently the channels taken from MMDS.
In this post I attached another picture of the mast from another direction.

BTW in the streetview link if you turn left in the direction of the road I think that is Mt Leinster straight ahead, where the Irish channels are being transmitted from. It was clearly visible.