Digital TV
Sarah Jane Grey has been working for Digital UK on the ground in Whitehaven since December 2006 – a full 10 months before switch over.
She points out that it’s wrong to assume that older people are less able to cope with analogue/digital switch over – many of the older people in Whitehaven were highly qualified engineers working at the nearby Sellafield, nuclear power plant.
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Mary Bradly is the regional director of Age Concern, a charity that works with the over-50s.
As you may have read/heard in our interview with Ford Ennals, Digital UK see partner organisation vital for the smooth switch over from analogue TV to digital.
Age concern has been working with Digital UK as one of their strategic partners for 18 months, to the point of locating the Whitehaven Digital UK office within Age Concerns.
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We caught up with Ford Ennals, Chief Exec of Digital UK, underneath the relay aerial that was going to be the first to switch off analogue and turn on digital TV – Digital switchover in Whitehaven.
He and his team have been spending huge amounts of time in Whitehaven to ensure the transition would be a smooth as possible.
Ford details how the process has gone to date and how, in particular, they’ve been working together with local voluntary organisations in an effort to get the message out to the public.
We touch on Sky’s proposal for Digital TV service in the UK received through an aerial, rather than there current satellite based system; what does he see the relevance of MPEG-4 and HD services.
Audio after the jump
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Official timings of the Switch Over last night for the Whitehaven relay.
02:00 – BBC2 switched off after the snooker had finished.
02:10 – ITV switched off
02:17 – ITV back on previous BBC2 channel
02:37 – First digital Mux came up delivering five channels on the old BBC2 analogue frequency.
Each of the other two relays Eskdale Green and Gosforth followed step by step in quick succession, synchronised via mobile phone.
We’ve dragged ourself out of bed to have a quick check that the Whitehaven Switch Over was a success.
You’ll be aware of the considerable build up to this pivotal event for UK TV.
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Tonight at 2am THIS SWITCH is going to be turned off, ending the BBC 2 transmission and marking the start of the UK turning off it’s analogue TV service.
As you can see, the jolly wag engineers have wished it a fond goodbye, by draping bunting over it and the BBC analogue rack that is being decommissioned.
The two shiny new racks (see below) replacing it, will, after some swapping of rather large coax cables, take over pumping five digital channels in the space that is left by the analogue channel going dark.
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The services of the local Town Crier were brought in today to ring out the message that Analogue is ending in Whitehaven today and Digital TV is coming.
Standing in the beautiful grounds of St Nicholas church, dressed in his fine robes, he regaled us and those standing around with a fine demonstration.
Just a bit of fun we thought you’d all appreciate.
Audio after the click.
The Jericho Primary School in Whitehaven today held a ‘Goodbye analogue’ assembly on the eve of tomorrow’s digital switchover, where analogue TV transmissions will be turned off for the first time in the UK.
The headteacher and staff couldn’t have been more helpful, as members of the press from around the world converged on the school for the morning.
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I suspect that you’re not going to be surprised to hear that the local paper for Whitehaven is called the Whitehaven News.
It may surprise you that they’ve has been knocking out news stories since 1852 – making it all the more incredible that it’s now at the leading the charge for digital Switchover in this fair town.
I picked up the paper today and thought it would be worth having a dissection of its Digital TV coverage and advertising.
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I was knocking around Whitehaven yesterday afternoon after a journey that started for me on Sunday evening when I left the Isle of Wight.
As I’ve come nearly the full length of the country to cover something that could, if we were a less caring publication, be done from behind a desk with a hot drink in our hands, I thought it would be worthwhile giving a break down of why Whitehaven has been chosen for Analogue switch off/ Digital switchover/whatever you want to call it.
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