Generally speaking 10 - 12 years is the lifespan of a transmitter, if they’re half decent to start with, you can push them out to 15 years +.
Harris/Gates Air make it hard to get spares at about 8 - 10 years.
Nautel support their transmitters until they literally die & will supply spares if it’s possible to do so (if they don’t have stock, they will manufacture if they can be). There’s likely some Nautel AM/FM transmitters around Australia that are over 30 years old & still operational.
NEC only stopped supporting & supplying spares for the DTV transmitters a couple of years ago, which are now around 20 years old & still in operation in parts of Australia, & I think you can still get limited parts for some of the NEC FM transmitters that are about 30 years old & again still in operation in parts of Australia.
It’s not worth wasting their time - anyone who could go online for community TV doesn’t need to go via C31 as an aggregator.
The platform of broadcast television is the only reason for C31’s existence. As we’ve seen by the instant and total failure of all other attempts to ‘move online’.
Maybe keep any studio space and some equipment as a kind of ‘maker space’, so they can help make community programming, but the channel dies the moment the switch is turned off.
Why couldn’t they have just been given a slot on the ABC or SBS spectrum, but remain independently operated, an external program schedule supplier for the spectrum owner?
But there’s only two? of them left, the horse has bolted?
That question probably should’ve been asked back in 2010 when community TV was converting to digital and the public broadcasters were running fewer services on their DVB-T multiplexes than they are today.
Not sure if CTV groups would agree, but I personally think community TV would be in a reasonable position if operated in a similar way to NITV via SBS: Retaining independent local programming, but with the might of a public broadcaster helping to secure them a future on the transmission & funding side of things.
Surely this must be the only realistic alternative to switching to online only then shutting down? Some kind partnership or full merge between the Melbourne CTV Consortium (owners of C31) and the ownership of C44 to run a new “national” CTV channel. Maybe they could rope in contributions from First Nations Broadcasting in Darwin who run a handful of different channels which would surely have general interest content on their secondary channels.
The interesting part would be that it’s unlikely that the ABC or SBS would “give” this new group channel space for free, they would probably have to pay for access or be fully absorbed into either broadcaster.
The federal government could just change the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 and force SBS to make space available for community television, like they forced NITV to merge into SBS. But the government has no interest in community television, so it probably won’t ever happen.
I dispute Shane Dunlop’s claim that the television channels the community stations are using can’t be used for any other purpose until the next re-stack. The commercial stations have used spare channels to do test broadcasts in previous years, and I think the government would probably allow them to do DVB-T2 test broadcasts if it was in preparation for a transition from DVB-T.
Sure, but there’s also the spare sixth-channel allocation (VHF 10 in most capitals).
I find the situation bewildering given rural communities in WA and NT can have HPON services with multi-channels (and even HD services) but a single, SD channel in a metro market must be shut down for… reasons?
Changes to the Antenna Awards - no longer a public event (unless in the event of another licence extension)
As of today the plan for the awards are as follows:
On our final night of broadcast, June 30, we will be holding a special livestream from the C31 studios from 8pm where we will be announcing the nominees and winners. This will not be a public event. We are exploring what options we have to include nominees/winners in this livestream.
In the event Community TV is successful in receiving a renewal to our existing broadcast licences beyond June 30, we will reschedule the event to late August, most likely Saturday 28th, where we will hold the event as planned, safely and at full capacity, with all interstate guests, VIPs and existing ticket holders able to attend.
They ask you how you are, and you just have to say you’re fine when you’re not really fine, but you just can’t get into it, because they would never understand.
31 Digital (Brisbane) was poorly run anyway towards the end with cronies stacked on the board leading to its demise. The uncertainly around the licence extension was just the final nail on the coffin.
C31 (Melbourne) always seemed the most organised and passionate about community broadcasting out of the 5 so it’s no wonder it’s still on air.
WTV (Perth) would charge charity/community organisations airtime for their CSAs to air. $10 per 30 seconds. You may think this is fair but there’s not another community or commercial television station which charges for that.
