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SCTV Digital

  • 17-10-2014 8:51pm
    #1
    Antenna
    Registered Users Posts: 2,302 ✭✭✭


    Someone I know came across a 2004 brochure seeking investment for the short-lived digital multichannel 'MDS' service which covered areas of Co. Cork and Cork city called SCTV Digital, setup by the long-running Carrigaline based UHF analogue 'deflector' service South Coast Community TV, originally set up to provide the main UK TV channels . Investment was sought from existing supporters of the UHF/analogue service - with an obvious incentives to invest up to 900 Euro (3 shares of 300 Euro each would get free installation and one year 'free' viewing.). Some who invested never got to even receive the service. It was said that mainly elderly people did so, who had already been loyal supporters financially of the UHF analogue service (the latter service couldn't force anyone to pay and relied on the goodwill of a dwindling number of financial supporters/members to keep it going)

    The Digital service was highly controversial technically (just look through old threads on boards.ie ! ) and failed for a number of reasons, not least the traditional UK channels becoming FTA on satellite

    It has to be said the original UHF service provided a great service to many people, in the days before FTA satellite availability of the 4 main UK channels, but there were serious questions about proceeding with this 'digital' service, about which some bizarre technical claims had been made - such as it would have achieved over the horizon/non-line-of-sight coverage (at 11GHz).

    see attached pictures of the brochure... dating from 2004 (continued in the next post). The service launched in late 2006 and closed in 2010.


Comments

  • #2
    Antenna
    Registered Users Posts: 2,302 ✭✭✭Antenna


    And the remaining 3 pictures which I couldn't fit on the first post are attached...


  • #3
    watty
    Registered Users Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭watty


    12GHz band.
    They were offered ability to have Broadband on same mast/consumer dish using existing 10GHz tech (working well throughout Ireland to the present day).

    They stupidly turned this down.

    Comreg licensed them the 12GHz with no public consultation or offering to anyone else! So when this was revealed there where complaints and Comreg had to invent a Licence application. But the SCTV area excluded.

    That to me means that if SCTV had been successful they would have been vulnerable to an injunction as their "licence" broke EU & Irish competition law.

    It also could have interfered with people North east of any SCTV transmitter sites using Sky / Freesat as it used the upper part of satellite band. It used DVBs which is a huge spectrum waste terrestrially. Should have been mandated to use DVB-c (DVB-t isn't needed for Microwave LOS) which ex NTL UPC MMDS uses. The Digiweb Metro downstream data is also Microwave DVB-c essentially.


  • #4
    7upfree
    Registered Users Posts: 2,124 ✭✭✭7upfree


    watty wrote: »
    12GHz band.
    They were offered ability to have Broadband on same mast/consumer dish using existing 10GHz tech (working well throughout Ireland to the present day).

    They stupidly turned this down.

    Comreg licensed them the 12GHz with no public consultation or offering to anyone else! So when this was revealed there where complaints and Comreg had to invent a Licence application. But the SCTV area excluded.

    That to me means that if SCTV had been successful they would have been vulnerable to an injunction as their "licence" broke EU & Irish competition law.

    It also could have interfered with people North east of any SCTV transmitter sites using Sky / Freesat as it used the upper part of satellite band. It used DVBs which is a huge spectrum waste terrestrially. Should have been mandated to use DVB-c (DVB-t isn't needed for Microwave LOS) which ex NTL UPC MMDS uses. The Digiweb Metro downstream data is also Microwave DVB-c essentially.

    And there was that little nugget where many deflector operators classed MMDS as a 'Health Hazard"..........:D


  • #5
    marno21
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,341 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    There's a SCTV digital dish in the Milford Grange house estate in Castletroy, Limerick.

    Wonder how that ended up there.


  • #6
    marno21
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,341 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    Their website from ~2002 is still up: http://homepage.eircom.net/~sctv/index.htm


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