The End of Sky UHF

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DjShadow

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#58361 10-Mar-2010 06:59

Just read this piece on stuff,
The UHF Service is getting switched off at Midnight Tonight, its done well running for around 20 years

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#305842 10-Mar-2010 07:58

Hurray! Farewell outdated analogue technology! Let it reside in the bowels of history :)

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

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old3eyes

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#305850 10-Mar-2010 08:29

What happens to trackside that shares the same channel as Discovery??

Regards,

Old3eyes

System

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#305855 10-Mar-2010 08:54

It will be interesting to see what they choose to do next

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ZollyMonsta

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#305857 10-Mar-2010 09:06

Maori TV and Trackside remain.. all other channels are gone off UHF. Trackside will be full-time on the channel.

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

DjShadow

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#305864 10-Mar-2010 09:13

ZollyMonsta: Hurray! Farewell outdated analogue technology! Let it reside in the bowels of history :)

Now doesn't that just leave TelstraClear running an analogue pay tv network? ;)

ZollyMonsta

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#305870 10-Mar-2010 09:40

Yes. ;-)

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

nickb800

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#305883 10-Mar-2010 10:28

"The closure of the service will free up radio spectrum that Sky Television could use to provide dozens of extra channels ? possibly including 3D channels ? to its 785,000 Sky Digital customers"
Does anyone know what this quote means? I thought UHF spectrum was in the ~700Mhz, and satellite Ku was ~15Ghz

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DS9

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#305885 10-Mar-2010 10:37

nickb800: "The closure of the service will free up radio spectrum that Sky Television could use to provide dozens of extra channels ? possibly including 3D channels ? to its 785,000 Sky Digital customers"
Does anyone know what this quote means? I thought UHF spectrum was in the ~700Mhz, and satellite Ku was ~15Ghz

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grant_k

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#305888 10-Mar-2010 10:45

nickb800: "The closure of the service will free up radio spectrum that Sky Television could use to provide dozens of extra channels ? possibly including 3D channels ? to its 785,000 Sky Digital customers"
Does anyone know what this quote means? I thought UHF spectrum was in the ~700Mhz, and satellite Ku was ~15Ghz

They are talking about a Terrestrial Service here, as a possible adjunct to the existing Satellite service.

Maybe that would be delivered via a Hybrid Box as suggested above, making a seamless experience for the viewer, but certainly it would only be available to viewers in the major cities, much as FreeView HD is now.

Personally, I can't see the business case for Sky to provide such a service for many years, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

mm1352000

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#305937 10-Mar-2010 13:04

I'm *really* interested to know what Sky's plans are! I read the Digital Futures report, many of the submissions and the preliminary decisions. The report seemed to suggest that Sky might get 5 bands of 8MHz each in the new UHF TV spectrum. Such an allocation would allow them to set up an extensive DVB-T network. However, not being a Sky subscriber I am more inclined to agree with TVNZ who argued that such an allocation is disproportionate to the number of services they currently offer (in comparison to the proposed Freeview allocation). I too think an equitable distribution of RF channels should be made available on a use it or lose it type basis. This would allow Freeview to have more capacity to offer more and better quality services (I'm thinking more channels and more HD goodness ;) ) in the future. If Sky did set up a DVB-T/2 network then there would be plenty of room for them, but if they didn't then there would be all the more room for Freeview and other new services.

Thoughts anyone?

System

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#305960 10-Mar-2010 14:45

mm1352000: I'm *really* interested to know what Sky's plans are! I read the Digital Futures report, many of the submissions and the preliminary decisions. The report seemed to suggest that Sky might get 5 bands of 8MHz each in the new UHF TV spectrum. Such an allocation would allow them to set up an extensive DVB-T network. However, not being a Sky subscriber I am more inclined to agree with TVNZ who argued that such an allocation is disproportionate to the number of services they currently offer (in comparison to the proposed Freeview allocation). I too think an equitable distribution of RF channels should be made available on a use it or lose it type basis. This would allow Freeview to have more capacity to offer more and better quality services (I'm thinking more channels and more HD goodness ;) ) in the future. If Sky did set up a DVB-T/2 network then there would be plenty of room for them, but if they didn't then there would be all the more room for Freeview and other new services.

Thoughts anyone?

I like your idea, it would stop one provider from hogggin unused bands.

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nickb800

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#305963 10-Mar-2010 14:49

System:
mm1352000: I'm *really* interested to know what Sky's plans are! I read the Digital Futures report, many of the submissions and the preliminary decisions. The report seemed to suggest that Sky might get 5 bands of 8MHz each in the new UHF TV spectrum. Such an allocation would allow them to set up an extensive DVB-T network. However, not being a Sky subscriber I am more inclined to agree with TVNZ who argued that such an allocation is disproportionate to the number of services they currently offer (in comparison to the proposed Freeview allocation). I too think an equitable distribution of RF channels should be made available on a use it or lose it type basis. This would allow Freeview to have more capacity to offer more and better quality services (I'm thinking more channels and more HD goodness ;) ) in the future. If Sky did set up a DVB-T/2 network then there would be plenty of room for them, but if they didn't then there would be all the more room for Freeview and other new services.

Thoughts anyone?

I like your idea, it would stop one provider from hogggin unused bands.

The only issue to consider here is that it could encourage sky to put out a bunch of useless +2hour services to hold onto their allocation.

mm1352000

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#305974 10-Mar-2010 15:20

@nickb800: I agree, however I would be very surprised if Sky decided to do that. grant_k is absolutely right in that there would have to be a business case for the service, and there is no business case in providing +2 or +1 services at the expense of adding an entirely new network infrastructure and requiring new hardware for customers.

I think it more likely that a cut down (channel count), low cost service to replace analog might be offered. Terrestrial broadcast costs are apparently cheaper than satellite so (putting aside initial setup costs) there might be an case for this. Who wouldn't be interested in a basic package with maybe one sport channel, one movie channel, one documentary channel, one news channel, maybe one music channel and one or two general entertainment channels? I know I might be if the price was right.

Alternatively there could be potential for special interest services such as a dedicated high definition sport or movie service. I know they have such packages available via satellite now, but what about offering them standalone? Would be the perfect way to do it I think...

zkcow

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#306022 10-Mar-2010 17:37

Personally I've always thought Sky should offer a 'buffet' service of sorts, where you choose which channels you want to have.

For example I would only choose to have Discovery, Nat Geo, Animal Planet, maybe Documentary/History/CI and Living. Maybe the Box or something too. I don't need Disney or Nickolodeon or most of the channels Sky offers.

DjShadow

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#306023 10-Mar-2010 17:41

Here is a Link to Sky's official press release: Link

I find this bit quietly amusing:

The Compaq 386 computers controlling the conditional
access system were originally purchased for $22,000 each back in 1990 –
after 20 years we have the honour of being the oldest NDS CA system
still operating anywhere in the world. In fact the only way to keep them
going through the year 2000 and up to today was to keep winding back
the PC’s internal time clock every year!

We plan to put
this “museum piece” on displace in the near future.

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