All posts by David Roberts
Below are all of David Roberts's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
We Have been very busy,with the Winter Hill re-tunes,here in the North Wales coast area,the busiest in fact,since the re-tunes of November and December,2009.I even had a re-tune service call,in Menai Bridge,Anglesey,where the Winter Hill signal strength gain,was averaging 55-60db,on all six mux's.
Initially,on Wednesday,i started by putting all units into shipping or factory reset condition and doing a fresh install. Out of curiosity,i tried just one LCD,a Vestel derivative,where i just manually re-tuned channel's 50 and 49 and it worked. since then,i now just try manually re-tuning,the two missing multiplexes and it has worked in all but one case,where the channel 49 multiplex just wouldn't update.
In the instances where the Moel y Parc multiplexes are being received instead of the Winter Hill one's,i use an aerial group C/D pass filter.Now that the ITV,Channel Four MUX,has moved from 49 to 39,from Moel y Parc,the filter is ideal for use with units that only have Autotune,such as the Panasonic DMR-EZ45's.
Manufacturer's such as Fringe,stock these unit's.
They are meant for masthead use,prior to amplification,but i found that they will introduce sufficient attenuation of the Group A and lower B frequencies.
As i write this,we are still receiving re-tune request's,from viewer's and it is a welcome boost to what was becoming a poor trade to be in,in terms of financial gain.
Like other's who have posted replies here,i am also charging £20.00 for a Winter Hill re-tune,a reduction on my normal £25.00.
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Rob: If i may be allowed to contribute to this issue,part of the answer may be that In Wales,many viewer's prefer to watch their tv from English tv regions. Here on the North facing North Wales coast,Winter Hill is by far the preferred DVB-T service provider and it always has been the case. The same applies to the Southern part of South Wales,where a large proportion of viewers,prefer the output of the Mendip Transmitter,to that of Wenvoe.
To introduce a 'Wales Six' may lose BBC Wales more viewer's.Also in a recent survey carried out by BBC Wales,it appears public opposition to the whole idea of a Welsh Assembly Government,has increased.
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Briantist: Regarding the 'Wales Six' issue,it's true that viewers in Wales,now have an alternative to the Cardiff based BBC Wales and ITV Wales,that is within easy reach.In other words Satellite.
What I would really like to see,is the Broadcaster's,engaging with their audience's and taking on-board their opinion's.
I work in the TV Trade as both a repair tech and installer,in the North Wales coast area and what is more than apparent to me,is that the broadcaster's are out of touch,with viewer opinion.
In 2009,ITV Granada tried to offload their North Wales audience that they had served,since 1956. That hasn't worked as the ITV Granada audience, is as vast as ever it was. Reason's for this? There are a few I'm aware of.Firstly Social/family ties with the North West. The transport sytem is closely linked as is the use of Airport's.Most people living here,rely on Manchester or Liverpool John Lennon airport. Retail shopping in Chester,Liverpool,Warrington and Manchester,are favoured. I'm all in favour of both BBC Wales and ITV Wales improving their identities and increasing their own Programme output,but they must also accept that this is not for all viewer's in Wales and those viewer's who prefer to stay with the English region's they are presently viewing should be respected and catered for.In the North Wales coast area,for instance,BBC North West,should be encouraged to cover the major North Wales News stories and ITV Granada should be encouraged to restore the coverage they gave,until the Summer of 2009.
I am not without inside knowledge,as regards the battle to keep ITV Granada covering the North Wales coast. Ultimately,i involved my local MP,who held a meeting with the News Editor's of both,ITV Granada and ITV Wales. The decision to drop North Wales, was made by ITV,as an internal decision. Indeed,Two of our local AM's also wrote to ITV Granad to request re-consideration of their decision.
Ultimately,you can't force viewer's to watch a particular region,if they don't like it's output.
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KMJ,Derby: Thanks for the comments.Feedback from my customer's and the company I now Freelance for,mostly complain of South Wales Bias.Also BBC Wales in particular appears to them,to have a very pro-Nationalist editorial,which doesn't appeal to what is,a very Conservative voting area.
Yes Cardiff is a very long,long way away and so News from there and South Wales in general,is of no interest to viewer's in the North.I guess the same applies to viewer's in the South.
In the Day's of HTV Wales,there was virtually no North Wales News coverage.The reason why,was,quite simply,there was no electronic link between HTV's office in Bangor or Mold. Obviously in the Day before S4C came around,in 1982,most viewer's wanted to avoid the Welsh Language programmes,as they displaced Network programming. The samr could be said now,only that the programming is in English.It still displaces Network programming though and this doesn't go down too well with viewer's. I really hope both BBC Wales and ITV Wales,think very carefully,if they want to increase their own programming hours. Once a viewer is lost,they are very difficult to regain.
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dave williams: Hi Dave,the reverse should happen in this instance. There are plenty of elevated site's above Flint and Holywell,where the exisitng Storeton North West channels could be relayed from,instead of the present Easterly beam from Storeton.
When i used to come to the Wirral,with my old job,i noted that many properties,had aerials directed towards The Wrekin.Would this be a slightly better solution than having to put up with the Welsh services.
The Welsh services from Storeton was a Political solution and it may be productive to make complaints to your local MP and OfCom. I would also consider making a complaint to both ITV Granada and BBC North West,if only to make them aware.
However i can't really see the Freesat satellite system being undone,as far as Regional TV provision goes.
Not sure how effective a 2KW Westerly beamed Bay TV service will be received from Winter Hill,on Merseyside.
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Briantist: In the 1960's,the BBC would never have gone with the idea,of a Popular music Network.It was Government legislation,which not only outlawed offshore Radio,but also pressurised the BBC into filling the void left by the very popular offshore stations. Indeed,the Musician's union,made the job of filling that void,very difficult indeed. It was only in the late 1980's that the BBC,finally relieved themselves of the restrictions imposed on them,by the Musician's union.
It should also be said,that the same could be said for the Irish Republic,in that RTE would never have started a Pop music service,now 2FM. It was the Irish Government who pressurised RTE into setting one up,as the proliferation of pirate station's was getting out of hand and the existing legislation regarding un-licensed broadcasting was woefully inadequate.
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Richard E: The whole Broadcasting arena has evolved to the extent that the BBC no longer has only ITV to compete with.Consequently,as the BBC'S dominance has has diminished,so it's sole reliance on the Licence fee should be terminated,or at least reduced. The BBC is no longer in a position to bid for or retain,the broadcast right's for many sporting event's and BBC 'Staples' such as Test match cricket are long gone and probably never to return to the BBC. ITV has had to,in recent Years,restructure itself,to become more competitive,in a tougher commercial environment,so should the BBC and perhaps,sponsored programmes may be one way to go,if the idea of a fully commercial BBC is too much to bear.
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The Liverpool Local Mux from Winter Hill,on UHF ch56,is being received rather well,in the North Wales Coastal areas. Checks at various addresses i have been called to,have provided signal strength's between 50 - 75%,in my local area,of Colwyn Bay. As if it needed to be said,Winter Hill,is by far the the most watched DVB-T transmitter site,in the North Wales coastal areas,despite the area being dropped by ITV Granada,in the Summer of 2009.
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Anthony: The BBC B Mux,on ch54 from Winter Hill,was also problematic here,in the North Wales coast area. In periods,when high atmospheric pressure is ongoing,The ch54 Mux usually suffer's more reception problems than the others. It should be noted that there is a Mux from the Kippure transmitter,in the Republic of Ireland,rated at 60KW ERP with Horizontal polarisation,also on ch54.Given that in Analogue day's we could receive the 100kw ERP transmissions,in VHF Band 3,with no problem,it may be that the ch54 service from Kippure may cause problem's. Even in 'No-Lift' conditions,the signal strength and quality on ch54 is constantly varying whilst all the other Winter Hill Mux's including the Liverpool local one,are steady!
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Sunday 7 April 2013 10:47AM
It should be pointed out,that the Winter Hill changes,also apply to the estimated 80,000 North Wales viewer's,who depend on Winter Hill,for their Freeview/DTT services.
We in the trade,in the North Wales area,have been trying to get the message out,to viewer's,with no help whatsoever,from Digital UK.
I am expecting a busy Day,on Wednesday 10th April,as we did in November/December,2009.