Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

The dawn of television in Ireland

2»

Comments

  • #32
    Ulsterman 1690
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭Ulsterman 1690


    Were Marlin and Phoenix not originally a lot of smaller outfits merged.

    I remember someone telling me that in the early 1970's anyone could start a cable company but they were not allowed have more than 250 (or maybe it was 500 :confused: ) subscribers. Sometime around 1974 IIRC (this is all going on what Ive been told -Im not THAT old !) the government brought in a licencing scheme for larger cable networks which lead to the emergence of Marlin, Phoenix and RTE relays which subsequently merged to become Dublin Cablesystems and then Cablelink (now NTL)

    Maybe I have all this completly @r$€;ways but thats what Ive been lead to believe :confused:

    Id love to know who was responsible for coming up with the stupid term "piped TV" though :rolleyes:


  • #33
    watty
    Registered Users Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭watty


    AFAIK piped Tv is an obsolete american term for cable. But I'm probabibily wrong.


  • #34
    rlogue
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,035 ✭✭✭rlogue


    Did Freddie's da's Quad aerial system not feature in an article in Roger Bunney's Long Distance Television column in Television magazine sometime in the late 70's?


  • #35
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    rlogue wrote:
    Did Freddie's da's Quad aerial system not feature in an article in Roger Bunney's Long Distance Television column in Television magazine sometime in the late 70's?

    Not that I know of (and I'm sure I would have heard about it...!!). There were a few of those quads knocking about back then.:)

    I think the guy you're talking about lived in Tramore and is still a dxing enthusiast to this day.


  • #36
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    Ulsterman 1690 wrote:
    Were Marlin and Phoenix not originally a lot of smaller outfits merged.

    I remember someone telling me that in the early 1970's anyone could start a cable company but they were not allowed have more than 250 (or maybe it was 500 :confused: ) subscribers. Sometime around 1974 IIRC (this is all going on what Ive been told -Im not THAT old !) the government brought in a licencing scheme for larger cable networks which lead to the emergence of Marlin, Phoenix and RTE relays which subsequently merged to become Dublin Cablesystems and then Cablelink (now NTL)

    Maybe I have all this completly @r$€;ways but thats what Ive been lead to believe :confused:

    Id love to know who was responsible for coming up with the stupid term "piped TV" though :rolleyes:

    Ah! See where you're coming from now. You're quite correct. The old Department of Posts And Telegraphs had an insane regulation which limited 500 homes to a mast. Luckily someone with a bit of intelligence spotted that , in a city the size of Dublin, you'd end up with DOZENS of the bloody things.:)

    Don't know where that term originated either. A crazy description!

    On the subject of masts a chap told me once that those big red and white Eircom masts built in the 80s (on which now live most of the mobile operators reside) were once ridiculed and called 'Foley's follies' after the man who designed them and implemented their installation. Wasn't he so far ahead of his time?


  • Advertisement
  • #37
    Ulsterman 1690
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭Ulsterman 1690


    Department of Posts And Telegraphs had an insane regulation
    Insane Regulations ?

    Did they ever have any other kind :rolleyes:


  • #38
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    Ulsterman 1690 wrote:
    Insane Regulations ?

    Did they ever have any other kind :rolleyes:

    Very good point!:D


  • #39
    Milktrolley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 388 ✭✭Milktrolley


    My grandad in Kerry got his first TV in 1964.... I'll ask my mam if she knows how much it cost them then.

    If you're looking for info on the long struggle to get TV in Ireland, check out this article which is a part of a series from The TV Room:
    http://tvfeatures.thetvroomplus.com/feature-20.html
    Or this one from Irish TV:
    http://www.irish-tv.com/hist50s.asp (continues into the 1960s via the link at the top of the page)


  • #40
    Ulsterman 1690
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭Ulsterman 1690


    Ah! See where you're coming from now. You're quite correct. The old Department of Posts And Telegraphs had an insane regulation which limited 500 homes to a mast. Luckily someone with a bit of intelligence spotted that , in a city the size of Dublin, you'd end up with DOZENS of the bloody things.

    I was talking to a guy onetime who set up an unlicenced cablesystem in a certain town which shall remain nameless (not sure if hes still in business)

    He had a lot more than 500 subscribes but around that by having additional headends.

    Only thing was these additional "headends" were a pure sham. There was a shed and mast with aerials but the "headends" were actually fed off the main system not the aerials.

    In fact at one of the deacoy "headends" the aerial was damaged during a storm and didnt get replaced for three years


Advertisement