ARD Langenberg, NRW analogue switchoff (20.11.2007, two POVs)

[@dvb-tcombiner6151]

Addition on my last answer: There was one exeption on the local controlling the transmitter: Denmark. That country switched off central coordinated at midnight with a special TV programme showing the switch. In my country Netherlands there were lots of technicians at key transmitter locations. Decoupling and coupling of the DVB-T transmitters needed to be done in one night nationwide. So we had a hard switchover but Denmark had their digital transmitters already on air simultaniously, at least the main one.

[@annaovcharenko9938]

And Ireland also switched off central coordinated at midnight with a special new report showing the switch.

[@dvb-tcombiner6151]

@@annaovcharenko9938 I did not know that since I have never received Ireland. Someone should have found it worthy to pay attention to it? Strangely I seem to have expected it from Denmark because I was recording it but the Netherlands switched off years before but did not scheduled it that night.

[@annaovcharenko9938]

@@dvb-tcombiner6151 I know that some users recorded the switch off and here is the switch-off by lawhec: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWbFZ2aXndOaeK8

[@annaovcharenko9938]

Both Finland and Northern Ireland turned off the analogue transmitters at midnight on the same day, 1 September 2007 and 24 October 2012, respectively.

[@dvb-tcombiner6151]

@@annaovcharenko9938 So Finland switched off 5 years earlier than Ireland! It still amazes me how much audience there is for our analogue legacy! Some other aspects are fully unaware though. When I hear about football matches that are shown at least 5 seconds after the live event I always think about the analogue signal travelling with the speed of light to the homes delivering a real live event instead of this latency crippled picture with all the digital tooling. I also miss the analogue transmitters themselves, the video modulators and cavity tuned klystron tube power amplifier. I was lucky to visit Svendborg transmission location in 2008 whith DVB-T and analogue simultaniously on air. The technician let me feel the water cooling of the klystron, it was alive. The digital equipment is 100% solid state with automatic distorsion alignment and control. This whole manual signal quality adjustment of an analogue transmitter is gone. Of course a huge economic advantage but the idea is gone. To compensate; I still use a professional Barco CRT from 1982 to watch DVB-T2 DX converted to RGB in the 625 line resolution. I also like to watch old skool teletext on that CRT which is my luck receiving scrambled Denmark or German commercial broadcast.

[@eforoyal]

How unceremoniously

[@annaovcharenko9938]

They turned off the analogue transmitters.

[@eforoyal]

@@annaovcharenko9938 Still... I wouldn't have expected that it just ends in the middle of the episode

[@annaovcharenko9938]

@@eforoyal i don't know the television series that aired before turning the analogue transmitters off

[@annaovcharenko9938]

I think that the last program broadcast in analogue on this transmitter was Dittsche.

[@dvb-tcombiner6151]

@@eforoyal The control over the transmitter is in hands of the local technicians at that moment. They act how this suits their timescheme. There are two options: The transmitter only needs to be turned and digital replacement is already on air. I don't remember very accurate if this was the case at Langenberg but channel 9 in Band 3 did not need to be replaced so DVB-T went on air only in UHF. The other option is the transmitter needs to be decoupled from the transmitting antennas and the DVB-T needs to be coupled instead. In that case there is a time scheme to be fulfilled so a technician will choose the best moment to get the work done.