Could have been an opportunity for ACMA to make a bit of coin- put it out to tender and highest bidders win.
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Whatâs the deal with Imparja/7 Central?
Obviously they just ignore it on VAST with just having the two feeds - but year round the feed is 30 minutes too early for their NT/SA based retransmissions.
I assume they donât have the tech/capacity to actually supply timeshifted versions of those services.
Iâve read that the satellite services get an exemption from needing to comply with the classification hours.
Thatâs correct, but not the whole story. I donât know why NRTV never put transmitters at all the sites in the beginning analogue days, the digital installations were done after SCA took over, & it came down to them essentially being cheap with the TV division.
All the infrastructure is there but no transmitters, when WIN took over, they planned to install transmitters at both Gosford & Bouddi, thereâs a program feed for WIN at both sites (not off air, but via DDA microwave/Telstra DVN networks), & the antenna infrastructure has always been there, combiner filters etc. since BAI have taken over maintenance from WIN/BTS, this has been put on hold.
Next part is for the general conversation, not in relation to @Radioheadâs comments.
Iâm not sure the point of this whole LCN conversation has been, itâs a non-issue & I canât see why itâs a mind blowing problem for some?
If you live in metro channels are 7, 9 & 1, if you live regionally theyâre 6, 8 & 5, respectively, if you live in one or the other you know what channel you need to tune to to see what you want (except when they do a stupid network swap), if you live in one of the overlap areas, it doesnât really matter what channel you chose, just depends if you want to watch metro ads or regional ads?
Itâs a bit more difficult for me at home talking regional channels, & at work talking metro channel numbers, but then I donât have a problem or issue with it. One thing that does trip me up sometimes is 10 Peach & 10 Bold are swapped with each other as far as channel numbers from Sydney to Newcastle.
It doesnât really matter that some of the regional networks are owned by the metro ones, theyâre still separate companies, & as spectrum is hard to come by, no one gives it up unless forced to, if you were to cut out 3 channels in overlap areas, what ones would they be, the metroâs arenât going to give it up & they wonât give up the regional channels either.
Changing the market what are you going to do NSW Central Coast & Gold Coast as examples, you canât just make them a separate market al by themselves, sure you can split it into 1 market, but whatâs it going to be metro or regional, who gets control? Also where are you going to split/differentiate it? Central Coast as an example, parts of the Central Coast are shaded from all the local translators, some places at the South end get their TV from Sydney (Artarmon), some in the North end get their TV from Newcastle (Mt Sugarloaf), itâs a bit unfair if you split it one way or the other, & while you need to get your TV from the North or South, your neighbours 3 doors down gets thereâs locally & it differs from yours, hey down the road watches metro TV, Iâm stuck with regional TV or I can only get metro TV, but Iâm more interested in regional ads, I never go to the city to spend any money.
While Gosford & Wyong/Forresters Beach sites have identical transmission parameters for both metro & regional, the Bouddi site has different antennas, so the regional stations canât broadcast into the Northern Beaches area & the Sydney (proper) market. At the Southern Central Coast site, the metroâs are equal in all directions, but the regionals are restricted to the South sending most of their signals North from the site.
And when youâre really picking at things like the LCN differences, thereâs actually nowhere metro & very few places regionally where Ch.7 is actually on channel 7, Ch.9 is on Ch.9 & Ch.10 is on Ch.10, really what difference does it make, why not make your complaint that the 7 network should become the 6 network, 9 network should become the 8 network & 10 network should become the 11 network?
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I vaguely recall it was part practicality but also a recognition that the satellite reciever had classification lockouts (which obviously doesnt help terrestrial retransmit sites)
The pre-launch loop has started for 7Baravo LCN 75 in ,etro areas. Time to check the allocation of bits across 7âs multiplex.
Surprisingly the new channel has the highest allocation for it picture of all of 7âs channels - tha audio is though only running at 52 kBps compared to 383 for the maqin HD channel. This has resulted in some very low bit rate SD channels plus the main channel starved for resources at the moment.
| 7 and 71 | 1.6 |
| 70 | 3.7 |
| 72 | 2.1 |
| 74 | 5.4 |
| 75 | 5.4 |
| 76 | 1.9 |
| 78 | 1.5 |
Update after one hour
| 7 and 71 | 1.9 |
| 70 HD | 4.3 |
| 72 Two | 2.0 |
| 74 Mate | 4.4 |
| 75 Bravo | 5.3 |
| 76 Flix | 1.7 |
| 78 Race | 1.7 |
Update - Regional Qld (where 7HD is MPEG 2 and there is 7Two HD)
| 7, 70 HD and 71 | 6.3 |
| 72 Two HD | 3.7 |
| 74 Mate | 3.5 |
| 75 Bravo | 5.0 |
| 76 Flix | 1.7 |
| 78 Race | 1.7 |
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After commencement of broadcast, not much change. 7Bravo audio still running at 50kbps (AAC) compared to 7HD and 7Mate with 422 - and 260 for 7SD (Mpeg 1)
| 7 71 | 2.2 |
| 7HD | 4.6 |
| 7Two | 1.9 |
| 7Mate | 5.1 |
| 7Bravo | 4.9 |
| 7Flix | 1.5 |
| 7Race | 2.2 |
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Surely 128 kbps is enough for TV audio unless itâs 5.1 channel sound?
9HD uses 470, 9Gem HD 422, 10HD and 10 Bold 400, ABC HD, SBS HD and Viceland HD use 272
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The sound on 7 seems to vary quite a bit from market to market.
On Digitalbitrate they got Perth, Melbourne and Brsibane.
In Perth they seem to use 384kbps AC3 on all MPEG4 channels, even on Racing.com.
In Brisbane 7bravo and Racing use 50kbps AAC while 7flix is using MP2 at 128kbps, 7HD and 7mate HD use 385kbps AC3.
And in Melbourne there are even differences between VHF and UHF. On VHF only 7mate has AC3, all other MPEG4 channels (except Racing) use 256kbps MP2. On VHF itâs the same as in Brisbane, just 7bravo has 64kbps AAC insted of 48kpbs.
Itâs all over the place.
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I donât know where theyâre getting the VHF & UHF data for Melbourne from, but I can tell you 100% one of them is incorrect if they differ. All the Melbourne DTV transmitters come under my control, & TXA monitor the data streams running through all of them. All the Melbourne UHF translator sites are child sites, fed off air from the main VHF site at Mt Dandenong, itâs impossible for any of the UHF sites to have different data to Mt D. VHF site.
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The HD channels were intended to be AC3 surround capable (and 384 kbit/s + overhead is typical) - but the SD channels were originally MP2, not MP3, and 192-256 kbit/s was the standard [MP2 was also used for standard DAB radio].
If you were using AAC (standard or plus) you could bring that down to 128 if not less for a similar noticeable quality.
It definitely sounds like itâs being kept in the stock-standard, 2001-style as a compatibility format - they used to be required to do that, but surely in 2023 youâd wonder how much longer itâs necessary⌠on the other hand, if they were to remove that and MPEG-2 entirely you may need a reasonable campaign before removing those SD primary channels.
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Small Queensland town of Eidsvold loses free-to-air TV signal as council closes transmission tower
The North Burnett Regional Council decided in April 2021 to close the tower today [Friday 27th January 2023].
It means Eidsvold and some surrounding properties will lose access to all commercial television stations and SBS, but will continue to receive ABC services through a separate tower.
The closure has angered residents, who say TV is a crucial lifeline for the isolated community.
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Imagine how much better this situation wouldâve been if FTTP was widely available for IPTV services slowly replaced the need for towers. Instead, these small towns probably have Fixed Wireless.
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Eidsvold Digital TV Channels â Broadcast Australia Site Hospital Hill Reservoir Road Eidsvold transmitter site, these are the Eidsvold channels according to ozdigitaltv.
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I still think terrestrial reception is the best way of delivering free to air.
If they canât have local towers, then VAST but acknowledging that there is no or very little HD on VAST.
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Iâm sure the council had their reasons to discontinue the rebroadcast service, but not an ideal outcome. Going from 7QLD, WIN and SCA to the SCA/Imparja combo on VAST Remote/Central/Eastern not only means no main channels in HD, but less secondary channels too⌠a bit backwards for 2023
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I f you look on Google street view some places look to have been set up for reception from Wide Bay in the past; so it would theoretically be possible with a large antenna.
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the wide bay transmitter is more than 100 kms from eidsvold
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I realise the distance, but Mt Goonaneman seems to have been used at the source for TV in the past. Many houses can be seen that still have the band III vertically polarised antennas which are still suitable for that site.
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