UK to make White Space devices legal The feedback from Ofcom's consultation on White Space has convinced the regulator to push ahead of Europe and get deployments by 2013 – if the technology can be shown to work. Ofcom received 25 non-confidential responses to its consultation, which was published in November last year. Based on those comments the regulator is to …
Why do you want the UK to go its own way again?
Your approach has got us DAB (useless) vs DAB+ (still has some potential, allegedly).
Your approach has got us DVB-S (everywhere except the UK) vs Murdoch (the UK).
Your approach gave the UK a licenced national wireless broadband access network who refuses to do anything with their licences (PCCW/Netvigator/Now).
And so on.
Before you were invented, there were international standards for techy things like DSL. On the whole they (and the associated equipment) work reasonably compatibly, wouldn't you say?
What, exactly, is your aim in promoting these UK-specific implementations, and why?
DAB came before DAB+, we were the first to deploy, the issue is that the broadcasters don't want to break everyone's existing DAB radios. They should, it will improve quality and reliability (assuming they don't just use the improved compression to pack more in). You don't actually have to convert a whole DAB ensemble at once, you can convert a service at a time as it's backwards-compatible.
Sky largely resell other people's transmissions, which all use compliant DVB-S and DVB-S2 transmissions. The subscription channels are encrypted with Sky's propietary VideoGuard encryption scheme, which is a barrier to entry, but all the channels on Freesat - which make up some 73-odd percent of viewing via all platforms - are free-to-air. No encryption, you can use any DVB-S compliant box to receive them. You now need a DVB-S2 box for BBC One HD and BBC HD - notice that here they *weren't* bothered about breaking compatibility. Freesat does use the truly-open MHEG5 UK Profile for interactivity (e.g. BBC Red Button text) rather than Sky's 'OpenTV', which isn't - which means that FTA channels have to carry both systems.
'White Space' broadband will no doubt use something like LTE or WiMAX for the actual implementation, the difference will be that it can be tuned to operate between 470 and 800 MHz rather than having to operate at multiple GHz. The lower the frequency, the less power is required to provide the same coverage, and the better it refracts over terrain and penetrates into buildings. The US is also offering 'white space' licensing using exactly the same frequencies.
...that model aircraft are also now increasingly using the 2.4Ghz band.
And model aircraft nowadays are no longer tissue and balsa wood. They are composite constructions with powerful motors, up to and including jet turbines. Such aircaft have no problem travelling at 200 mph - indeed, the model glider speed record is higher than this...
Just tought it was worth mentioning...
(fire for the inevitable result of interference...)
I;m happy with much of what you say, but not so sure about the DVB-S stuff. Encryption is one issue, then there's the EPG.
Afaik there is a non-proprietary DVB-S EPG standard used across much of Europe.
Afaik both Sky and Freesat have their own proprietary EPGs, neither of which are compliant with the DVB-S standard.
How useful is a DVB box without an EPG?
For now, I stand by what I said, unless you have something more definitive to say.
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