(24-06-2022, 02:47 PM)Brekkie Wrote:(24-06-2022, 02:34 PM)Markymark Wrote: I don't quite follow your logic, you can easily upgrade a mux and all of its transmitters from T1 to T2 virtually instantaneously . Hardware upgrades and replacements at the broadcaster end can be done over a period of time, you do the standby kit first, then the main, run it all at T1 then when you're ready flip the whole lot over at once, overnight.
In fact exactly that was done with the 1000 or so small relays at DSO. The transposers were exchanged months and years in advance for dual standard analogue/DVB kit, and run in analogue mode until the relevant DSO in each region, then switched on DSO day. It was the only way to do it in fact !
What is the challenge is all the millions of bits of receiving equipment.
If that's the case then there is no excuse not to do it (My theory was only based on how long PSB3 was out of action in 2010 between the 2nd BBC SD mux closing and the HD mux launching as it was withdrawn before the Winter Olympics but didn't launch in HD till closer to the World Cup).
There was indeed a gap, but I don't recall it had anything to do with conversion work per se, it was a case that BBC B had been cleared out of SD services, and the transmitters (and it was only those that at the time (2009) had already been DSO'd, which wasn't that many) were just transmitting null packets until the T2 version of the mux was ready to launch with actual services. CP, Lichfield, Emley, Pontop, and Black Hill where DSO wasn't due until 2011/12 actually carried a low power pre DSO version of PSB 3 from 2009/10.
Confused yet !!?