SCTV DIGITAL plc (In Receivership)

The Cush

Legal notice in Tuesday's Irish Independent.

IN THE MATTER OF

THE COMPANIES ACTS 1963-2009

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT OF RECEIVER AND
MANAGER

SCTV DIGITAL plc
(In Receivership)

Notice is hereby given that on the 20th day of May, 2010, Bank
of Scotland (Ireland) Limited having its registered office at
Bank of Scotland House, 124-127 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2
(‘‘the Bank’’), under the powers contained in a Mortgage
Debenture dated the 3rd day of April, 2007 (‘‘the Mortgage’’)
issued by SCTV Digital plc having its registered office at
Enterprise House, Ballinrea Road, Carrigaline in the County of
Cork (‘‘the Company’’) and under the powers contained in a
Chattel Mortgage also dated the 3rd day of April, 2007 (‘‘the
Chattel Mortgage’’) issued by the Company; appointed Barry
Donohue of KPMG, 90 South Mall, Cork, to be Receiver and
Manager of all the assets referred to and comprised in and
charged by the Mortgage and the Chattel Mortgage and to enter
upon and take possession of the same in the manner specified
in the Mortgage and the Chattel Mortgage.

Dated this 27th day of May, 2010.

Signed: FITZGERALD SOLICITORS,
6 Lapps Quay,
Cork,
Solicitors for the Receiver and Manager.

Source: IRIS OIFIGIÚIL, MAY 28th, 2010

Appointment of Receiver: SCTV Digital Plc
20 May 2010

Barry Donohue of KPMG was appointed Receiver and Manager by Bank of Scotland (Ireland) on 20th May 2010.

Registered address: Enterprise House, Ballinrea Road, Carrigaline, Co Cork

Last accounts filed: 31/12/2008

CRO number: 355627

http://www.insolvencyjournal.ie/news/10-05-20/Appointment_of_Receiver_SCTV_Digital_Plc.aspx

SCTV Digital website still up and running.

watty

No surprise.

The requirement for them to use 12GHz MMDS instead of originally illegal UHF.
The switch off of UHF deflectors due to DTT
The growth of Sky due to PVR and HD and Sky Sport
All the main UK channels now free at better quality on Satellite.

They doomed themselves when they turned down offer to combine with Wireless Broadband. There is no future for small size mediocre quality payTV esp. even when Nationwide pay DTT isn't viable. Turning into a digital MMDS company is a lot of outgoings compared to shoestring couple or 4 analogue UHF rebroadcasting using cheap CATV gear.

I think I suggested this was likely about 2 or 3 years ago.

If anyone else wants to commit financial suicide the 12GHz licence available for all but SCTV area will soon then be nationwide.
Far more channel space than DTT or UPC MMS. About 700MHz? You are allowed to use DVB-s and up to 45cm dish. It's 11.8Ghz to 12.5Ghz band approx so a regular LNB with tone on and regular sat box will work. Probably if you wanted to use DVB-c, Comreg would amend the licence. Some DVB-c boxes will work 950MHz to 1.2GHz direct off the LNB.

Apogee

What frequency range were SCTV licenced to operate over?

It would make sense for the 2.6GHz band to be completely cleared of television channels and prioritised for fixed wireless internet. Then offer a 12GHz licence nationally for MPEG4 only TV, which could provide both SD and HD.

If nothing else, the SCTV experiment would seem to suggest that interference from terrestrial 12GHz transmitters with satellite isn't a huge issue.

The Cush

Apogee wrote: »

What frequency range were SCTV licenced to operate over?

The last information I am aware of they were licenced 8 frequencies in the 11.7 GHz and 12.5 GHz band back in 2006. Each multiplex has a bandwidth of 33 MHz.

Their equipment suppliers - MDS America have an interesting SCTV case study up on their website.

Regarding moving MMDS to the 12 GHz band - can't see it happening, in any case UPC have the use of the existing band until 2019. As watty said it would be financial suicide to operate from there, think of all the equipment that would have to be replaced.

Apogee

The Cush wrote: »

The last information I am aware of they were licenced 8 frequencies in the 11.7 GHz and 12.5 GHz band back in 2006. Each multiplex has a bandwidth of 33 MHz.

Have you a link for this?

Their equipment suppliers - MDS America have an interesting SCTV case study up on their website.

One of the MDS reps posted on a thread on SCTV a few years back AFAIR regarding the interference issue.

Regarding moving MMDS to the 12 GHz band - can't see it happening, in any case UPC have the use of the existing band until 2019. As watty said it would be financial suicide to operate from there, think of all the equipment that would have to be replaced.

We've discussed the licensing thing a few times, but strictly speaking isn't it the case that they have the use of the band until 2012/2014 with the option of it being extended by Comreg for 5 years following the current consultation?

[edit] Found the thread and the docs listing 8 frequencies.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054988973

watty

2.6GHz will bend over small hills to a slight extent, will go through light trees / bushes, it's "Near Line of Sight". The 12GHz is very strictly Line of Sight. The dish alignment has to be nearly 10x more accurate too than the MMDS mesh dish.

Also the SCTV rollout was not big enough nor well enough monitored to tell if there is interference in some cases.

The Cush

Apogee wrote: »

One of the MDS reps posted on a thread on SCTV a few years back AFAIR regarding the interference issue.

[edit] Found the thread and the docs listing 8 frequencies.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054988973

I think the "rep" in that thread was from MDS International, the company that supplied Hypercable equipment to SCTV during testing about 10 years ago. He wasn't a happy camper because SCTV had gone with MDS America for the operational equipment. MDS America started life as a United States licensee for MDS International.

There was a huge debate raging over in Wikipedia about that time over the technology and the companies involved including MDS International. See Wiki links MVDDS dispute and MDS America, their related disussion and discussion archive pages.

MDS International ceased activity in 2007. (today http://www.hypercable.fr/ has a similar address and logo)

Early in 2007 MDS America withdrew support for MDS International. 15 June 2007, MDS International was ordered by the French court to pay $1,000,000 to one of their clients for business related failures.
On the 5th of July 2007, the French court of commerce declared MDS International bankrupt. MDS International stopped its activity on 31 July 2007. Jean Claude Ducasse was the CEO of the company from 2001 to 2004 followed by Corinne Ducasse Sanchez from 2005 to the end. This management team have attempted to form shell companies, MMDS Hypercable, etc.) These companies still have a web presence but are not backed by capital.

http://xingtech.info/

watty

It's not competitive technology to DTT, Cable or Satellite.

It was doomed to failure really, as is MMDS by ever cheaper and higher capacity satellite and HFC DVB-c + DOSCIS 3.0 cable and fibre in cities.

Much poorer coverage than traditional 2GHz to 3.5GHz MMDS, which are dying.

PRIVATE RYAN 16

The Cush wrote: »

Legal notice in Tuesday's Irish Independent.





SCTV Digital website still up and running.

Does this mean SCTV is gone?

nsouth

they currently have a message on screen informing endusers that they have entered receivership. all premium channels have been switched off with the free to air irish and uk channels remaining on until early next week.
ironically the logo at the begining of the on screen message "Corks 1st
choice digital tv provider" and at the end of messages "thank you for your continued support" Technically the system was very stable, picture and sound quality were excellent and comparable with Sky. they were however doomed from the begining because of the use of a technology that was restricted in expansion mainly due to constraints on licensing issues and high premiums payable to the provider .launched with fanfare that promised a wide range of experiences such as broadband internet,
telephony and near instantaneous video on demand it soon became obvious that with no extra bandwidth available these were never going to
come to fruition.
the enduser experience was less from smooth with ongoing problems with the meta data transfer to their epg with some channels having no meta data at all, the epg only updated on the channel you were watching if you changed channel after a live update the registar would have to be re written causing the picture to go black channel update to appear on the screen and then return to the broadcast "usually this was accomponied by a loud popping from the audio output". the conax conditional access system was easily overcome with less than a little knowledge.

mainly its customer base was located outdide cork city and in rural areas where it had advantages over upc mmds system but only in picture quality and in some areas reliability as well.
rain fade was an issue, not only between the subscriber point and local transponder, the main microwave link dissipated as well, (which was handy if you wanted a warning of a heavy shower is on the way)

all in all its sad to see them go, it was at best an innovative company that tried its best to offer a viable alternative to Sky and Upc mmds and keep the legacy of south coast tv going although this might be a glamorized rhetoric for finiancial gain and control over what was the original ethos of a community tv system for the community that were ignored by the cable companies of the day. at worst it was a trial of how landbased 12 gig
technology using the same frequencies as its satellite counterpart could work in harmony. it was also worth the smile when you would hear
that it was akin to a SFN network because of this.

the analogue sysyem which was still working side by side with the digital system is also falling into disrepair with channels missing and i assume this will also be shut down unless it is disbanded from the digital sctv and sold back to a community body etc. originally i think they should have tried harder and gone terrestrial digital via their uhf network, but who knows.

Freddie59

nsouth wrote: »

they currently have a message on screen informing endusers that they have entered receivership. all premium channels have been switched off with the free to air irish and uk channels remaining on until early next week.
ironically the logo at the begining of the on screen message "Corks 1st
choice digital tv provider" and at the end of messages "thank you for your continued support" Technically the system was very stable, picture and sound quality were excellent and comparable with Sky. they were however doomed from the begining because of the use of a technology that was restricted in expansion mainly due to constraints on licensing issues and high premiums payable to the provider .launched with fanfare that promised a wide range of experiences such as broadband internet,
telephony and near instantaneous video on demand it soon became obvious that with no extra bandwidth available these were never going to
come to fruition.
the enduser experience was less from smooth with ongoing problems with the meta data transfer to their epg with some channels having no meta data at all, the epg only updated on the channel you were watching if you changed channel after a live update the registar would have to be re written causing the picture to go black channel update to appear on the screen and then return to the broadcast "usually this was accomponied by a loud popping from the audio output". the conax conditional access system was easily overcome with less than a little knowledge.

mainly its customer base was located outdide cork city and in rural areas where it had advantages over upc mmds system but only in picture quality and in some areas reliability as well.
rain fade was an issue, not only between the subscriber point and local transponder, the main microwave link dissipated as well, (which was handy if you wanted a warning of a heavy shower is on the way)

all in all its sad to see them go, it was at best an innovative company that tried its best to offer a viable alternative to Sky and Upc mmds and keep the legacy of south coast tv going although this might be a glamorized rhetoric for finiancial gain and control over what was the original ethos of a community tv system for the community that were ignored by the cable companies of the day. at worst it was a trial of how landbased 12 gig
technology using the same frequencies as its satellite counterpart could work in harmony. it was also worth the smile when you would hear
that it was akin to a SFN network because of this.

the analogue sysyem which was still working side by side with the digital system is also falling into disrepair with channels missing and i assume this will also be shut down unless it is disbanded from the digital sctv and sold back to a community body etc. originally i think they should have tried harder and gone terrestrial digital via their uhf network, but who knows.

In short - welcome to the 21st Century. If you want to play with the big boys you have to have deep (very deep) pockets. After all, you're trying to compete with News Corp.:rolleyes: Personally, I think the whole deflector issue was a farce. When MMDS started, many people cited it as a health hazard, and that deflectors were 'safer'. What techonolgy did the lads use in the end? Effectively, wireless MMDS.:eek: I ask you. Only in Ireland.:rolleyes:

Sadly, that whole episode probably restricted the development of future broadcast technologies in Ireland as a whole.:(

Sponge Bob

Freddie59 wrote: »

When MMDS started, many people cited it as a health hazard, and that deflectors were 'safer'. What techonolgy did the lads use in the end? Effectively, wireless MMDS.:eek: I ask you. Only in Ireland.:rolleyes:

Sadly, that whole episode probably restricted the development of future broadcast technologies in Ireland as a whole.:(

SCTV were strident in their campaign against 'microwaves' 20 years ago and as you said Freddie they themselves offered the microest waves of the lot in the end...up around 12ghz....5 times microer than Chorus.

Their ultimate legacy is that they helped poison public debate on wireless services of all sorts ever since.

Onthe3rdDay

They offered a very poor digital product for the money they were charging. With a little imagination they might have done better. If you could receive the Irish stations with an aerial, you'd have been far better off getting a FTA sat system.

Generally that what people have been doing.

However, The original UHF system was a noble effort.

socie123

watty wrote: »

No surprise.

The requirement for them to use 12GHz MMDS instead of originally illegal UHF.
The switch off of UHF deflectors due to DTT
The growth of Sky due to PVR and HD and Sky Sport
All the main UK channels now free at better quality on Satellite.

They doomed themselves when they turned down offer to combine with Wireless Broadband. There is no future for small size mediocre quality payTV esp. even when Nationwide pay DTT isn't viable. Turning into a digital MMDS company is a lot of outgoings compared to shoestring couple or 4 analogue UHF rebroadcasting using cheap CATV gear.

I think I suggested this was likely about 2 or 3 years ago.

If anyone else wants to commit financial suicide the 12GHz licence available for all but SCTV area will soon then be nationwide.
Far more channel space than DTT or UPC MMS. About 700MHz? You are allowed to use DVB-s and up to 45cm dish. It's 11.8Ghz to 12.5Ghz band approx so a regular LNB with tone on and regular sat box will work. Probably if you wanted to use DVB-c, Comreg would amend the licence. Some DVB-c boxes will work 950MHz to 1.2GHz direct off the LNB.

I was the original guy that thought about MDS for SCTV.
In 1997 I told Eddie O Gorman from LIT about this great idea and he ran with it ... to SCTV. Just as well I kept my feet on the ground !

socie123

UPC are also under severe pressure from SKY ?
UPC boxes cannot match SKY +

Freddie59

socie123 wrote: »

UPC are also under severe pressure from SKY ?
UPC boxes cannot match SKY +

Freddie59

Sponge Bob wrote: »

SCTV were strident in their campaign against 'microwaves' 20 years ago and as you said Freddie they themselves offered the microest waves of the lot in the end...up around 12ghz....5 times microer than Chorus.

Their ultimate legacy is that they helped poison public debate on wireless services of all sorts ever since.

That's it in a nutshell, SB.

Imagine what MIGHT have been were the wireless networks allowed to flourish, as in other countries. Ah well, only in Ireland.:rolleyes:

paulo_m123

My Dad is living in Fermoy, still getting South Coast on analogue aerial. Does anyone know if this will be turned off, or maybe when? Looks like its doomed.

watty

He needs to get a Freesat system (60cm dish and setbox). Once off cost and then will have ALL BBC, ITV PLUS C4, Five and about 35 other useful TV out of nearly 200 and about 15 decent radio out of about 70.

Analogue "Deflectors" are history.

paulo_m123

Thanks for that. I asked a guy about FreeSat last year. The only difficulty he said was in getting the signal to two TVs. Apparently its a bit awkward with Freesat but it can be done. I'll get onto it this week.

daphil

paulo_m123 wrote: »

Thanks for that. I asked a guy about FreeSat last year. The only difficulty he said was in getting the signal to two TVs. Apparently its a bit awkward with Freesat but it can be done. I'll get onto it this week.

Hi,
You can feed more than one tv from one dish. It just means replacing your single "LNB" with a "multi" one. I use a "Quad". Run 4 cables from it, put a sat receiver on the end of the cable, (cheap ones now about 40 euro), and you can run 4 tv's viewing seperate channels.
dave
Cork

paulo_m123

daphil wrote: »

Hi,
You can feed more than one tv from one dish. It just means replacing your single "LNB" with a "multi" one. I use a "Quad". Run 4 cables from it, put a sat receiver on the end of the cable, (cheap ones now about 40 euro), and you can run 4 tv's viewing seperate channels.
dave
Cork

Thanks Dave, something like that would be great. Appreciate the help.
Paul

watty

You can add an "expansion box" (Multiswitch) and with Quad or Quattro LNB have then 16 receivers. Multiswitches can be fed by distribution system for up to over 1000 TVs from one 65cm dish. Or a 90cm with T bar and 4x Quattros for four satellites.


As has been said, up to 4 TVs is trivial.

nsouth

watty wrote: »

You can add an "expansion box" (Multiswitch) and with Quad or Quattro LNB have then 16 receivers. Multiswitches can be fed by distribution system for up to over 1000 TVs from one 65cm dish. Or a 90cm with T bar and 4x Quattros for four satellites.


As has been said, up to 4 TVs is trivial.

over a 1000 TV's from a 65cm dish!!! love to see the S/N on that one !

watty

you can drive 10 or 11 Trunk taps from a Satellite IF distribution amp.

each of those can drive a distribution amp.

you can drive 10 or 11 Trunk taps from a Satellite IF distribution amp.

that is 100 to 121 feeds.

Each feed can drive a 16 way multiswitch. That's about 1600 receivers or 800 PVrs.

Drive it with an 80cm dish and BER (quality) is similar to 65cm dish and cheap LNB.

Of course you need Quad Trunk Taps and Quad Trunk amplifiers rated to up to 2GHz. I've tested with separate cable TV trunk amps & taps in parallel with Amps and Taps for 4 quattro LNBs and TV fed into TV port on the 16 in (4 sat) 16 out multiswitch.

I didn't connect up 1600!

But I did put loss of a hypothetical 10th tap and several actual quad taps and the two levels of trunks and 4 x quad amps at dish and 4 x quad amps to drive taps driving Multiswitch.

The Amps are for loss of the taps and only add small noise (two in series per path to receiver) , LNB signals are huge and can drive over 50m of cable.

The Multiswitches add slight noise, but only one in path.

The taps don't add any measurable noise. About 1.5dB loss trunk trough port and 11dB loss to tap.

Digital Cable TV can go to 1.2GHz these days and uses trunk amps rated for 110 x 1024QAM channels. So using good gear you could probably have a 3rd level of trunk on the tree, taking it to over 100,000 outlets.

Apartment Dish distribution of four satellite positions should be standard. Make 28.2 = "position one" and then Sky boxes work. FTA boxes can then select 3 other satelitte feeds. You can use toroidal dish, separate dishes or single 96cm dish with 13, 19, 23.5 and 28.2.

Personally I only have 4 sats to 16 feeds:

Nearest dish is 96cm and has 16 coax to 4x Quattro LNBs
The higher dish is single feed motorised.
The far dish is not in use
Multiswitch is in shed and some cables are underground to house
(sky box, fta box, 3 pcs with dual tuners)

watty

nsouth wrote: »

over a 1000 TV's from a 65cm dish!!! love to see the S/N on that one !

65cm in Dublin / Wexford. maybe 80cm in West / North/southwest/Midwest.

You buy pre-made F-connector patch cables even for a small apartment block / hotel / guest house per floor distribution cabinet. The first level of amps drives cables daisy chained trough trunk taps on each floor. The Cabinet per floor has the main trunk's quad tap per Quattro and a quad amp per quattro, driving the trunk taps. You can get a push on Male to Male barrel to "daisy chain" the quad trunk taps without cables. Then patch cables from the 4 taps on side to four ports on multiswitch in.

Sponge Bob

watty wrote: »

Jebus watty what are you growing on the right :eek: ???

watty

Willow.
It gets cut back every year. This year we cut back the ivy too.

Grows about 3m a year!

nsouth

watty wrote: »

65cm in Dublin / Wexford. maybe 80cm in West / North/southwest/Midwest.

You buy pre-made F-connector patch cables even for a small apartment block / hotel / guest house per floor distribution cabinet. The first level of amps drives cables daisy chained trough trunk taps on each floor. The Cabinet per floor has the main trunk's quad tap per Quattro and a quad amp per quattro, driving the trunk taps. You can get a push on Male to Male barrel to "daisy chain" the quad trunk taps without cables. Then patch cables from the 4 taps on side to four ports on multiswitch in.

I quoted the one above its shorter
Firstly i would like to say that my comment was only ment to be mildly humerous a kind of watch out for the noise. I have read your reply with interest and as you appear to be certainly interested in the hiarachy of IF distribution i will just highlight some points that may be of interest to you.


First to the top of the chain, the BER may be similar between a 65 and 80cm dish but only after viterbi prior to that i am affraid they are totally different. plus and this is the important bit the noise margin be it extrapolated or gaussian is totally different between a 65and 80cm dish and its this that makes the difference when driving launch amplifier (or amplifiers depending on the layout) and more importantly any successive cascade amplifiers.


Next to the launch amplifier i will assume you meant QPSK and not QAM because of the obvious,


and yes you can drive the amp at 110dBuV but amps dont magically output their nominal output, and a 65cm dish and Quattro LNB (most LNB's today will have comparable gain, the better ones have better isolation ( which is another problem with driving a 1000 outlet system but that is a more complex situation to try and cover here)) will not drive a launch amp at that level unless you move away from the 20dB gains and up to the 30's and 40's which again brings me back to noise, and yes you can pre launch into the main launch amplifier which is the correct and standard practice but just take a look at your BER before viterbi and your noise margin now! add to that and your launch amplifier is now balance wise cascade and technically the output at top end should be dropped.



Cascade taps are a fantastic piece of kit they look very nice on the spec sheet ( and i would like to deviate away a bit here and say that a 1000 outlet system using taps and amps as you described is in every catalogue from the likes of televes, labgear, triax etc etc all are Sky certified etc and they have lovely spec sheets and in theory it look lovely, and i would like to say as having installed systems on sky and other manufacturers STB production lines and built systems for companies wanting to have their distribution equipment tested for cert, at QEF and just above stated IF threshold if even that, will pass on the last outlet of a 500 outlet system)


the same way as coaxial cable has greater attenuation as frequency increases so do cascade switches, this is even more noticable on the tap spur as opposed to the thru ports because of the way a tap works. So where at 1GHz all might look nice at 2gigs different story, so adding in 1.5dB for thru loss or 13dB for tap loss (for that specific tap, i realise that your tap values would be different in the chain but none lower that ur 13dB) may apply at 1Gig or even close at 1.5GHz but the roll off at 2150 is totally different and can be 3 to 6dB down


On further from the taps are your next distribution line the cascade amp which is in your plan driving more taps. cascade amps again have to be driven by a certain ammount of input to obtain their output plus the gain and output has to be dropped by 5 dB on each successive amplifier in a chain at the high end of sat IF so 3 amps in cascade the last amp has to be 15dB down from the 1st this includes the multiswitch which if using a 16 port switch normally have outputs from 80 to 100 dBuV has no actual useable gain on its output port ( i wont try and explain that one here )


now i can tell you from just doing rough calculations in my head, gain is not going to be your main problem at the “specified” low end, as i originally said noise will be, because at the high end of the sat IF you are not going to be able to maintaine gain, levels or your noise margin and i can guarantee your constellation map is going to look like a sand storm and i havent even added in rain fade, thermal loss, cable loss, isolation and so on. And up to 100,000 outlets on sat IF, I hope not from the 65cm dish or even the 80 or 1.2 there isnt an engineer in the world would even attempt to drive that many outlets on sat IF from a single source, there is a therotical limit on how many times a signal can be processed. Even the 1000 outlet system is a bad idea to be running from a single source regardless of the dish size.


Anyway i hope you find this of some interest to you, the largest sat if system i have installed is 3216 outlets in 536 rooms the system also had an additional 212 unused ports or test points as i like to call them lol


and ....cable up to 1.2GHz for sat IF ? i kwow what you mean.

oh yes while i think of it and there is no real need to answer this but think about it why would you cluster with taps ? its not very efficient

watty

Such a system is specialised and needs careful design and selection of equipment.

In Limerick a 65cm dish is fine for single level distribution, but for more you need better starting SNR, ie a bigger dish, maybe even 110cm for better rain margin.

The Cable amps and 1024QAM and 110chs to 1.2GHz refers to Cable TV systems, not Satellite IF. You can practically drive a City from one headend, though this is not how it's done any more as you want a Hybrid system of fewer users per coax fed by fibre so that Broadband speed is upto 120Mbps.

Anyway i hope you find this of some interest to you, the largest sat if system i have installed is 3216 outlets in 536 rooms the system also had an additional 212 unused ports or test points as i like to call them

I think we can agree that having 1000 PVRS off one dish is not rocket science, just good selection of gear, planning and knowing what you are doing.

I think the Multiswitch I have at home has about 3dB loss with gain set to max. It looks strange on Sky digibox to see lower level and very high quality bars (95cm dish). I have mix of Alps and Triax Quattros and empCentauri 17in 16out multiswitch at home.

Not for typical Sky dish installer that has simple meter and drill.

paulo_m123

Fascinating stuff, guys. I'm always amazed at how much stuff I don't know.
I spoke to someone today who will install an fta system with multi lna etc for my dad. As you said, it should be fairly straight forward. Will probably have to get him a digital recorder box now as well. All in good time I suppose. Thanks for all the help.