Goodbye analogue telly, hello digital. Part 2
Post categories: distribution
| 17:22 UK time, Wednesday, 18 April 2012
In this final image of the spectrum analyser output you can see the radio waves are now entirely devoted to digital television multiplexes, and no more analogue stations are seen.
So there we have it, exactly on time the final transmissions of analogue TV fromÌýCrystal Palace ceased last night, with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Director General Mark Thompson actually pushing the final switch.
As we promised yesterday here's the final spectrum analyser shot, showing the spectrum over london now being entirely full of digital multiplexes of channels.
ÌýEDIT: Corrected a muddle with the Palaces, apologies for confusion.
Comment number 1.
At 19th Apr 2012, Briantist wrote:Thanks for the output of the spectrum analyser. I know I'm probably the only person who really appreciates it, thanks for making the effort.
You have, rather annoyingly added to my list of 20 names for six multiplexes!
Why do the six Freeview "multiplexes" have twenty different names? - ukfree.tv
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Comment number 2.
At 19th Apr 2012, CJ_Epping wrote:Ant - Analogue transmissions did indeed finish from Alexandra Palace early yesterday morning, but as your spectrum analyser output shows 6 multiplexes I suspect that you meant to write 'Crystal Palace'!
Also, am I right in thinking you rooftop aerial is a grouped, retail type aerial rather than a log? There is 10dB drop-off between the COM5 & PSB3 responses, and as it's clearly a gradual rolloff (and all multiplexes at CP are supposed to be the same ERP), is this down to your aerials response?
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Comment number 3.
At 20th Apr 2012, Liberal Majority wrote:Having been in the industry for 35 years, Ally Pally has always been on my radar.
I am sad to see the total abandonment of analogue in some ways. Yes, I know it suffers from noise and takes up lots of bandwidth, but it does have some advantages.
Mostly when it comes to bad reception. When the signal is a bit weak or you get a touch of interference, you may lose some quality and gain a bit of noise in the picture, but it is still watchable.
With my digital signal, it simply falls apart. The audio breaks up and becomes gibberish and the screen fragments into a piece of shattered stained glass -and if it gets worse, my programme is replaced with a black screen and "no signal."
And then there are all those jpeg style artefacts - I dread an adventurous TV editor putting a nice fog effect on the picture. On my basic TV set it looks terrible.
So, analogue may not have been the sharpest and noiseless system around, but it gave me consistently better service. And HD Analogue (which I used several times for corporate films) was truly wonderful.
All will be sadly missed as I stutter on with Digital.
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Comment number 4.
At 24th Apr 2012, DonningtonDave wrote:Briantist is not the only one who appreciates the analyser shots! Many thanks for posting them. My guess on the strength difference is antenna (or perhaps a little cable) roll off. I would also like to see some analogue-style tuning ability for digital rather than "no signal", but I accept that's likely to be a specialist interest for DX-ing.
Keep up the good work!
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