All posts by Willie Bone
Below are all of Willie Bone's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I reckon 5G wireless broadband is the real future for television and radio carriage! It could be good news for the aerial industry during 5G's pioneering years with customers demand beyond the initial 5G reception areas! A bit like the early colour television era when high gain aerials with amplifiers were attached, high up and well above the chimney pots on many a roof in fringe reception areas!
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MikeP: I live in the sticks of Dumfries & Galloway with no landline broadband services, relying on 4G wireless broadband in the home with a recently installed 4G aerial, located high up on an outside wall at the rear of the cottage! The aerial has stabilised signal speeds well above the 30mbps threshold to allow 4k tv to stream!
Even though, 4G wireless subscriptions are not cheap, it has been a god send to me and the family, even allowing 4G reception for digital radio with fantastic choice and great sound quality!
The Scottish government target of 100% broadband coverage for all by 2022 is a very tough target to meet! However, if the target is not met, it will be nearly achieved with the help of outside aerials on the roof of countryside dwellers!
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The youth audience for television was always a difficult task to reach during the analogue tv era! The BBC endeavoured to reach the youth market as far back as 1980/81, when BBC 2 launched its teatime programmes for the first time! It then took a long, long time to crack that market, until what was the advent and success of youth orientated BBC Three television!
Then after a few years of BBC Three's existence on linear tv, the BBC threw its youth channel away like disposing an oily rag into a bucket; all for the sake of a cost cutting exercise!
The BBC hasonly itself to blame, while the audience they abandoned will have a bigger say in the debate of licence fee retention, as the current BBC Royal Charter ends on Hogmanay 2026!
The BBC has hung itself out to dry on capturing the sympathy of the youth audience who are tomorrow's customers and licence fee payers...
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Jeff Egginton: Definitely agree that tv channels are a bit of a jumbled up mess on electronic programme guides! Surely, the easiest way to combat the issue is for viewers to set up their favourites list of HD channels, including their respective regional output channels in SD, for ease of access?
I live in Border TV country within Scotland with two ITV Border channels. The Carlisle based channel is in HD, while its secondary service is based, north of the border in SD only. The main purpose of the secondary service is relay output for Scottish themed political programmes! Getting to the point, creating my favourites list has the two Border TV versions featured on the same page for easy access!
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Digital Radio Mondiale was supposed to be the saviour of AM radio decline on patronage, but it never left the starting post after years of prototype testing, thus the inevitable never ending wait for DRM tuners to appear on retailer shelves! DRM Consortium dithering allowed the technology to be eclipsed by smart devices piggy-backing radio services and actual stand-alone smart radio units!
The sad thing about DRMs failure in Europe, it incentivised consumers to abandon AM, while the fact remains that radio spectrum cannot be grown!
Outside of Europe, DRM could have been useful for relaying digital AM domestic services to remote areas like the Australian outback, but the Australians have had to rely on the VAST satellite system, unsuitable for reception pickup for listeners on the move, especially in vehicles..
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The terrestrial UK radio and television services are indeed free at the point of delivery, akin to our national health service! The service provided by the BBC alone, has 13 DAB digital radio stations and nine television services in Scotland, that excludes BBC Three television and CBeebies Radio which are online exclusive services.
There is a great hullabaloo in social media about the "excessive" price of the broadcast receiving licence, but the cost of the aforementioned services is no more than the weekly price of a decent pie and pint in your local public bar! That's barely worth arguing about in my book..
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Up here in Scotland, half of the geographical landscape has no reception of a local DAB multiplex, nor DAB reception of regional services of BBC Radio Scotland or Radio Nan Gaidheal! So, migrating services from FM and even AM to DAB is off the table for the next five years, at least!
There might be a part solution to improve BBC regional radio service coverage in the highlands and islands of Scotland! Assuming these outpost transmitters can work in isolation of each other and listeners own up to date DAB+ radios in areas relatively new to DAB reception, BBC National DAB could be reconfigured to include the two Scottish regional services in DAB+! BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Asian service could be upgraded to DAB+, allowing capacity for the Scottish regional services and even allowing stereo for the BBC Asian service, a first for DAB!
The isolated nature of these outpost transmitters should allow local opt out programmes from the main BBC Radio Scotland regional output!
The above solution would not be suitable for Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders, both areas yet to receive a local DAB multiplex, even though these areas have Independent Local Radio services!
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Frank, I reckon, the best way to listen to BBC Radio 3 and other BBC Radio services is bluetoothing BBC Sounds through WiFi or mobile phone to your hifi unit! The data rates per channel on the BBC Sounds app is reproducing CD quality sound for each service!
If your hifi is a tad old and is a non-smart stand-alone "dumb" unit, make it smart by purchasing a Bluetooth device and plug it into the hifi auxiliary slot! Google Chromecast audio plug-ins are priced around 30 quid!
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People on social media are making a fuss about paying a subscription to watch repeats of shows which were first screened years ago on terrestrial television! Despite the fact, tv subscribers have enjoyed watching BBC repeats on the popular UKTV channels through Sky and Virgin services that even carry a wad of adverts and programme trailers!
So what is the fuss all about concerning Britbox? Bearing in mind, audience research figures indicate healthy patronage for UKTV!
Personally, I reckon people are moaning for the sake of moaning and may not actually realise, Britbox is part of the UK defence against an onslaught of media and cultural imperialism from the USA!
The Britbox model is not there as a fun thing, but is there for the sole purpose to maintain a share of the market to keep the flag flying for UK produced programmes! The BBC and ITV services are up against fierce competitors like Netflix with deeper pockets to deliver high budget programming, albeit, the diversity of output won't match the products supplied by our public service broadcasters..
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Wednesday 8 August 2018 9:49AM
Hello Troopers, Wading through channels to get to HD? It may be a good idea to create your favourites channel list page on the EPG!
I live in the Border tv area in Scotland with the offer of an ITV Border HD channel and a sub regional channel called ITV Border Scotland! The Scottish sub channel is only available in SD. Even though the programme variation is in modest supply between the two Border tv versions, creating a favourites channel page allows ease of access to select the version of your choice!