RTÉ ONE, 2, Junior, and Player

RTE online has posted a feature in their 'RTE 100' retrospective, the Gerry Ryan interview from March 2001, 25 years ago this week when he was top jock in the JLNR figures. Cover page of that RTE Guide shows him in Laddish pose as Neo from the Matrix, there was definitly a prototype Andrew Tate there. What's strange is that the interview then follows, but only a badly taken image of the two pages from that RTE Guide, with advice to click on it and blow up the image to read it. Has RTE lost the technical capacity to scan, copy, paste and format an archived document for legible Web text publication? A schoolchild could do it. 0 out of 10.

https://www.rte.ie/history/100/2026/0227/1560850-rte-guide-flashback-being-gerry-ryan/

Nothing changed then from the time that Video Tapes with Great Wanderly wagon episodes were casually written over because, well, erm there were'nt any spare blank video cassette tapes.

There weren't any video cassettes in the Wanderly Wagon era. Early video taping was done on huge 14" reels of 2 inch wide tape, (Though the outdoor intro sequence in the Pheonix park, I think, was most likely shot on 16mm film). They were still using these 2" reels in 1978, and were transitioning to Ampex VR 1" machines, more versatile for editing. They had some ENG cameras by the 80s, Betacam pro I think. There were U Matic ¾" cassettes knocking around also, but I think the Wagon was all recorded on 2 inch tape. This ran at 15 inches per second, so the enormous 14" diameter reels could only record 60 minutes or thereabouts. I forget what a single reel cost, probably a weeks wages, but it was too expensive to archive on, hence reused. Several of my former colleagues jumped ship from the DoD signal corp same time I did, many ended up in the big editing suites of Ampex machines, where I'd hang out some times, but I stayed more hard core audio engineering wise,

As well as the radio centre audio team I was part of, I had sole responsibility for a Storno diversity rx/tx system used by the newsroom reporter/cameramen, a duplex fm two way radio system thar could communicate from a handheld walkytalkie to a bigger newscar transceiver, from there to receivers in the main TV masts (Kippure etc), and back down the microwave links to the news room. The first nationwide mobile phone as it were. It worked well, when it worked, if you know what I mean. I was thrown in the deepend because of my military FM experience, but this stuff was head wreckingly difficult. Happy memories though.

Was it on Sky sport? Then itvwoyld be encrypted. RTE2 via the Astra satellite is also encrypted and only available with a basic Sky sub, but the match may have been geoblocked on Sky UK receivers, even with a Sky sub, so you'd need a Sky sport sub in NI to watch it, assuming it was on Sky sport or Premier. RTE2 ON RTE Player had it, but it might have been geoblocked to non Irish ip addresses.

I vaguely remember something about that. More because there were no unionist protests when it was proposed, so it came in with a whimper, not a bang. 2013 seems a long time ago, Can barely remember what was going on then. 3 mux channels on the main NI masts must cost a bit, I presume govt pay the bill, or Rte, which is the same thing, taxpayers money.

Saorsat still operating, again, afaik. The TVTrade shop which I browse down in Portatlington, or Freetv.ie as its now known, still have the Dishes and KA band Lnbs for sale, and the combined arms that give saorsat and astra off the same dish, which is handy if you've two sat inputs in your box or telly, as RTE is encrypted on astra. It means you can set up a single EPG on a manual box or telly that allows building a combined source epg. No VM channels though, but they're all on Play. I wonder what the uptake is, and the cost to RTE. I'd say its days are numbered, Eutelsat 9B is end of life in 2031, but will plod on if still needed i guess.

The NIMux also carries RnaG.

The UK government covers the annual cost of TG4 (and RnaG?) on the mux under the Good Friday Agreement. RTÉ covers the carriage cost of RTE 1/2. (Digital Switchover - UTV Region (DigitalUK) - Page 5 — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin')

The mux uses robust transmission parameters to give best coverage for low power transmitters, DVB-T2 FEC 2/3 Mux Bitrate 9.8 Mbps.

Ofcom Licence: Northern Ireland Multiplex WT Act licence (renewal 2024)

From the Competition Authority Determination on the JV at the time

M/11/038 - RTÉ / TG4 - CCPC Business

27. The UK Government agreed to fund TG4’s costs in relation to the JV.
RTÉ will fund its own part of the JV.

On restricted rights

43. … In addition, the programmes to be broadcast by the JV will be subject to rights issues (i.e., its parents will have to black out programmes for which they do not have UK broadcasting rights). This will further diminish any direct impact of the JV on viewers and advertisers in Northern Ireland and any indirect impact on television advertising in the State.

Great info. I hadn't looked that far into it, ir probably have just forgotten. but KaSat a physically different satellite than 9B, and much older, nominal end of life this year, it's mostly internet/comms, RTE uniquely its only DVB client. Easy to confuse with 9B on the combined listings. So is Saorsat toast if its switched off? Some sources say Ka bands on 9B are not configured/available for spot DvB broadcasting, though it has Ka capacity. There's some reference to "off footprint" coverage on some 9B Ku DVB listings, they have dual Ka/Ku colour codes on the charts. Does it mean a switch to Ku and a change of LNB for continued Saorsat reception? I can't see that happening, the 2% served (though not necessarily supplied) by Saorsat are easily accommodated by broadband TV providers and players these days. FTA non subscription players are just not seamless yet for the end user, but they're working on it.

I had often meant to stick a Ka band LNB dual up for the fun, but it all seems redundant now. The astra FTA are not even watched here, my sat receiver died and is scrapped but the TVs have Sat inputs and are connected. I did have to replace the quad LNB a few years ago, but the rusting dish is 25 yo. I probably have installed my last astra dish for family recently, New house doesn't even have a chimney, so a back corner wall job was just about line of sight. Ladders and roof tiles not a great place to be anymore, for me at any rate. You sense TV from satellite is a dying format, though not for some time yet.

Yes, footprint too big. Ka was focused and directable to just the island.