Perhaps a vertical/horizontal switch?
Then people would need to be told to rotate their antennas, moreso than do a rescan? Again wouldnât fix the input issue.
All channels would need to change polarity as well, but it SEEMS that only NBN is affected by the input issue, other channels at Murrurundi may not necessarily be using an off air feed?
I doubt it. That would require new antennas for transmitter and viewers.
Perhaps an offset to the frequency?
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The Change at Murrurundi is an input feed change due to interference on the current input. The new input is coming from a different transmission site, that has a different set of parameters in the transport stream. Digital receivers will need to be rescanned to pick up these new parameters. The Channel at Murrurundi is still UHF Ch.36, it is the channel parameters that are different.
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Ah thanks for the explanation!
I was meant to be home for Easter, but my carâs alternator died late Friday night, and couldnât get home for Good Friday lunch. So Iâm stuck in Sydney, so I missed out on checking out what theyâve done. Thankfully you guys are on to itâŚ
And can I just say - you either go hard, or go home. If a student of mine presented that to me as an assignment, thatâs a fail.
You either ditch the NBN name and go complete with the 9 NNSW name, AND change the LCN to 9 and 9* with the change, or you recognise the fact you are a regional broadcaster and keep the name, and leave it alone. You can do some good things with the NBN brand if you really think about it and get the right people in.
Saying you are Nine Northern NSW when you are on channel 8 and 8* is confusing - I grew up with grandparents saying they watched Channel 9 programs on Channel 3 on Channel 10 (NBNâs Upper Hunter relay) - that is confusing. That exists when youâre saying youâre watching 9HDNBN on channel 80.
Do it properly. Or just GTFO. Prefer the latter to be honest, and Iâm not just restricting that to Nine Entertainment Company.
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Can they just change the LCN? Who governs what LCN is allowed to be used by each broadcaster?
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Given 7QLD uses the metro LCN of 7 and 70-79 everywhere except the Sunshine Coast (where there is overlap with Brisbane), thereâs no reason why 9NBN similarly couldnât use 9 and 90-99 from the Hunter region to the QLD border.
Actually there is a reason why.
The LCNâs are part of the Australian DVB-T specifications, the metro stations have one set of LCNâs, & the regionals have a different set of LCNâs allocated to them.
The reason why 7QLD uses the metro LCNâs everywhere but the Sunshine Coast, is, that 7QLD is owned by Seven West Media, & is effectively part of the metro 7 Network. Obviously they canât use the metro LCNâs in overlap areas, as it would screw up both signals for viewers.
9NBN on the other hand, while itâs owned by NEC. At the moment itâs still a separate regional broadcaster, & isnât part of the metro Nine Network.
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But regional Australians watch Southern Cross Ten on Channel 5 and Prime7 on Channel 6. They have One on 50 and Eleven on 55. So itâs already all over the place.
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The whole point of separate metro and regional LCNâs is to avoid a broadcaster being automatically allocated channel numbers in the 350-399 range in overlap areas, sending their channels to the bottom of lists and EPGâs. The current allocations allow for all broadcasters to get equal positioning.
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Actually thatâs not totally correct.
Thatâs how/what happens, but the 350-399 range, is part of the Australian DVB-T operational practice standards, that was written into, & allocated as a block/place, for channels with no LCN descriptor transmitted, &/or duplicate channels to be placed.
That block of LCNâs exists as a result of the LCN allocations to each network, for backup purposes.
Australian LCNâs are based on UK standards & agreed to be used by all Australian Free To Air TV Networks.
The Operational Practice standards for Australian LCNâs can be read here. Itâs technical in parts, but describes why they are used the way they are. Australian LCN Operational Practice Standards
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But it shouldnât take much for 9NBN to be restructured into 9 metro given common ownership.
And if the media reach rules are abolished, that could pave the way for Prime7 and SCTEN to follow suit with their metro partners and make regional LCNs a thing of the past (overlap areas excepted).
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NBN is now run by the same lady who runs QTQ.
I would think in the 6 months ahead you will see many similarities, including NBN run like a network O&O the same as QTQ.
This would include consumer facing things like the fully rebadging of NBN as Channel 9, 9 News and the like. And behind the scenes things like ad sales, production, and digital merged under the Nine Network operations.
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It makes sense but the biggest objection is that it would tend to lock in the current affiliation agreements or cause more problems if they were to change. WIN for example can take full ownership of LCN 8 and build that as a brand and come to an agreement to either put programs from 9 or 10 (or elsewhere) on it. If they changed that to 9 now and subsequently change affiliation they are going to have to change their LCNs or end up with 10 programming on LCN 9. Having a different LCN to the metro stations gives the regional flexibility in affiliation.
Re: the LCNs - part of the same bodgy digital TV standards implemented by the feds. Couldnât even do that right.
Time to shut up shop, confiscate the space and sell the spectrum to the telcos. Your kids and I will have the revenue generated from the sale - god knows we need it more than the big boys. Newcastle commercial media and the Knights have one thing in common, and I hate to say it - theyâre run by idiots.
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I also think that by this time next year, NBN will most likely be known as âChannel Nine Northern NSWâ (although the station will probably just be referred to as âChannel Nineâ or âNineâ for the most part) with the same/very similar branding to that used on Nine in Sydney, Brisbane and other metropolitan markets. Maybe you might get some localisation through the use of local VO artists every now and again like what Seven do in some of their smaller markets, but thatâs about it really.
As far as NBN News is concernedâŚeven though some of the graphics have been updated in recent times to make the bulletin look more Nine News-esque, I personally think that any name change will most likely coincide with the next major branding refresh of Nine News in the capital cities.
I was under the impression that the NBN brand was going to be phased out completely by the end of this year.
As for the news, it would probably just mean a name change, new opener, adopting the network theme music but retaining the same set, at least until the network has their next news revamp.
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Perhaps, but itâs been a while since thereâs been any particularly major branding changes to Nine News. Sure, thereâs been noteworthy tweaks like the refreshed national set, slightly different-looking supers which have made it to Nine Newsâ current HD/automation markets and promo graphics which get refreshed every so often, but all are probably just a minor blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things.
When you consider that NBN News recently updated itâs graphics to include more Nine-esque elements while keeping the NBN News name and branding (eg, titlecards and music), you have to wonder whether or not theyâre intentionally waiting for a branding refresh of news across the network at some stage before changing the name. Wouldnât a major name change to the news service make more of an impact with viewers if the change coincided with a new look?
It seems to me that 9NBN are wanting to do things incrementally, hence the current general mish-mash of branding we are seeing now, so a news rebrand to still blend in with the current general look might be the way they are going here too.
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