However, I believe that although I think the new Apple TV due out this summer and the launch of Lenovo’s new K91 Smart TV running Android 4.0 launched at CES 2012 will be a hit and set the ball running for a ‘free for all’ between the worlds largest manufacturers of IT and AV products.

I believe the answer lies not with the TV but with some sort of device that sits central within a home, that can distribute signals round the home in a simple and cheap manner, that allows apple and android devices to unite, to be able to mirror any device on any TV within a house, that is able to store all the families videos, pictures, music, etc without having to pay for storage online, that can be remotely accessed, that will provide paid for content if desired, hd, 3d, etc but provides linear television and vod services.

I think people will get fed up with being forced down one road, they want freedom, they want choice and they want flexibility.

The minuscule unit is the size of a packet of butter and is as handsome a looking a piece of equipment as any of it’s Apple siblings.

It has a HDMI output as well an optical out so you can hook it up to your music system.

The unit definitely looks the part but the initial setup is a bit fiddly especially when trying to turn on AirPlay and connect up to your iPad or iPhone.

The best feature has to be the ability to link your iPad to your television and effectively use your iPad as a remote. I would probably even say the best remote ever invented!

However, because you are limited to the control of only one TV with one unit, with Apple trying force you into buying data space through iCloud and because it is tricky to set up means that unfortunately it takes the shine of this handsome little bit of kit.

I think the idea is brilliant but the execution is lacking.

I think the main problem is that Apple have designed a piece of equipment that is limited in its design (it is designed to fit to a tv at source), it doesn’t cater for real viewing habits I.e. linear television (bbci, itv player and 4OD) and you really need an iPad to fully appreciate the experience.

I am sure that Apple are looking at the overall picture (box shifting and paid for content) but if they are going to successfully reach in and take control of the UK TV market they need to appreciate the quality and demand for linear TV services.

Brian Butterworth from www.ukfree.tv explains:

‘Tonight, the number of homes with digital-only reception in the UK goes from one half (47.3%) to two thirds (62.5%).’

On his website Brian explains the differences between the different service providers and who will be affected.

With so much confusion still associated with the switch to digital it is important that people seek the correct advice.

For anybody aged over 75 years of age or on disabilaity allowance,  contact the Help Scheme on 0800 40 85 900

Quotation taken from www.ukfree.tv 20.09.11

Transmitters in the North East of England will have analogue signals switched off and digital signal powers will be turned up on the 26th September 2012.

This means that Sunderland, Berwick on Tweed, Morpeth and Whitby will have digital signals for teh first time.

Two weeks before on the 12th September, the first stage of teh switchover will be begin, when analogue channel 2 will be swicthed off before the second stage on the 26th, when all analogue chennels will go.

“Freesat has passed the 2 million customer mark”. The Guardian states.
“Freesat’s customer research claims that “a record 47% of its customers have come from Sky households so far in 2011″. The company added that it is continuing to see a “steady increase” in Sky defectors over time.

Freesat managing director, Emma Scott stated:

“We launched three years ago and in that short time have quickly established ourselves as a real challenger and genuine alternative to pay-TV,” Gross retail sales of Freesat are approximately £1bn and it is the fastest-growing UK television platform.

The Emley Moor transmitter, and associated sub transmitters, which serves approximtaely  four million people, will switch to digital in two stages.

Today, 7th September will see analogue channel 2 switched off and other services moved so all people watching television through their aerial (Freeview) will have to do a full retune.

On Wednesday 21 September, the remaining analogue channels will switch to digital and the remaining digital channels will become available. All residents will need to do another retune then.

The remaining analogue channels BBC1, ITV, Channel 4 and where available, Channel5, will be switched off meaning any television that hasnt been converted to digital i.e. set-top box, Tv with built-in digital, SKY, Virgin, etc. will no longer work.

All terrestrial TV services will be off air during the early hours of Wednesday. They are expected to begin being restored from about 06:00 BST.

In areas which are served by relay transmitters, the services are expected to resume by mid-morning.

All Freeview, BT Vision and Top Up TV viewers will need to re-tune their equipment to regain missing channels.

The easiest way to check if a TV is affected is to look for the messages that will appear at the top of your TV screen several times a day.

If you live in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire your digital switchover “ends” tonight, 17th August 2011

^{Published on 16th August 2011 at 18:23 by Brian Butterworth}
Viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire that use the Belmont or Olivers Mount transmitters and their relays will have no analogue television from Wednesday 17th August 2011. Unless you use cable or satellite to watch television, if you don’t use a Freeview box or set, your screen will be blank.

Most people need only perform a “full retune” on their Freeview box or TV, but it would be impossible with 747,300 homes covered by the transmitters, for no-one to have a problem.

From Wednesday 17th August 2011 you MUST have a digital television device to watch TV. If you do not have a digital receiver, from Wednesday will have a blank screen.

Do not expect a terrestrial television service from midnight until 6am – or a late as lunchtime on relay transmitters.

Switchover help scheme

If you are over 75, get (or could get) Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance or mobility supplement; or have lived in a care home for six months or more; or are registered blind or partially sighted and need assistance, please see  The Switchover Help Scheme.

Cable and satellite

Cable (Virgin Media) and satellite (Sky, Freesat, fSfS) viewers are not affected by the changes. Remember, however, that you may be using analogue TV to watch on a second or third set and it might need a Freeview box.

Existing “full” Freeview users

If you already use Freeview, and can receive all the channels now, check your TV or box is not listed here –  TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode. If it is, you will need a new Freeview box.

If you are not on the list, you should scan your box from around 6am.

When you now rescan, you MUST do a “first time installation” or “factory reset” scan (sometimes called “shipping state”), not a simple “add channels”. Do the procedure you did on September 30th 2009.

If you can’t recall what this was, please see  generic clear and rescan procedure.

If you scanned during the first phase of switchover on Wednesday 3rd August 2011 – you will have to do it again on Wednesday 17th August 2011.

Restrictions on Arqiva A and Arqiva B multiplexes at Waltham

Arqiva A and Arqiva B not launch at full power, but will only get a 3dB power increase from the old Multiplex C and D levels. The switchover finally ends for Waltham on 23 November when these two multiplexes increase to 100kW – this date is when C53 and C60 stop clashing with the Tacolneston transmitter.

Using Freeview with Windows Vista

Please see  Switch over and PC-based systems because you need some updates for your system to work.

Boosters and amplifiers

If you live close to the transmitter, you may have to disconnect any “boosters” from your aerial system. The new, more powerful digital signals may overload any amplifiers and result in no reception! When looking for them include a check for distribution amplifiers, loft boxes, set back amplifiers, bypass Amplifiers, hidden masthead amps in a loft space and any dodgy active splitters.

Homes without Freeview now have Freeview Light

If you had no Freeview service before, you will have the BBC channels digitally from Wednesday 6th July 2011. This is a single multiplex of the BBC channels (radio, television and text) for most people.

However, if you were on the fringes of reception from one of the main Freeview transmitters, you will now get all the Freeview channels.

If you didn’t get this limited Freeview service on 3rd August 2011 then you may need a new aerial.

If you are served by a public service (relay) transmitter – Grimsby (by noon), Hunmanby (9am), Lincoln Central (by 9am) or Weaverthorpe (by 6am) relay transmitters – you now need, from lunchtime on 17th August 2011 to rescan, and you will get a second Multiplex with ITV 1, ITV 2, ITV 1 +1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Channel 4+1, E4 and More4. And that’s your lot if you have a standard Freeview receiver, see  Freeview retune – poor public service transmitters.

You may wish to install Freesat for more channels, see  Compare Freeview Light and Freesat TV.

Everyone who has digital-only terrestrial TV now has the ability to receive Freeview HD, see below.

Digital regional overlap

The old analogue TV signals provided lots of nations and regions for the public service channels, and these have large areas of overlap.

The old low power digital TV signals were at very low levels and reception of signals from more than one transmitter was a rare event.

All Freeview boxes automatically scan the available broadcast frequencies looking for channels, and they do this from C21 to C69. Most older Freeview boxes will, if a duplicate version of a channel is found whilst scanning, such as another BBC One region, placed it in the 800-899 channel range.

Some of the latest Freeview boxes will pick the strongest signals for the “primary” number positions, and some will detect the different regions providing a choice when you perform a “scan for channels”.

The 800-899 is easy to access by pressing CH- from 1, and in most programme guides is just a single scroll up.

Freeview HD

Freeview HD will start on Wednesday 20th July 2011 from Belmont, Olivers Mount and all the relay transmitters. You will need a Freeview HD – DVB-T2 receiver to watch the channels.  An HD TV set with Freeview is not enough.

Taken from www.ukfree.tv, 16th September 2011

Then why did one of my clients report that the engineer who came to install 30 set-top boxes in their care turned up in removal van!

Not only this, but when he had problems simply installing set -top boxes and received no digital signals (in an area that uses a sub transmitter and wont switch to digital until September!), he told my client that they needed an IRS system because the signal area was poor and the only way to get consistent signals was via satellite.

So if we were the sort of company to take advantage of this situation I could have installed them a new IRS system for about £6000.00 instead of upgrading they current system for about £600.

My dad said i’d never make a business man!

The price reduction will be 12 per cent below inflation per year and will apply to services provided using BT’s wholesale broadband network – such as high-speed broadband deals.

Ofcom believes around three million homes and businesses across the UK countryside could be set to benefit from lower wholesale prices, including parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Cheaper broadband services may also become available in the south-west of England, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland among other largely rural areas.

“The charge controls could narrow the difference between prices that consumers in rural and urban areas are paying for broadband services,” Ofcom stated.

“This difference is mainly due to the more limited set of offers available which is a result of the higher costs of delivering broadband to customers in rural areas.”

Basically BT has the infrastructure in place and the other ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) do not, so they have to ‘piggy back’ the BT network and add the extra cost to tehir customers. The ruling is hoped to reduce the costs to those in rural areas by making the networks more price competitive.

It is has also been suggested in some articles that it may get rid of the ‘post code lottery’ that dictates the speed and price of broadband available to the end user.

If you consider that Sky for example, give free broadband as part of their standard TV package in ‘ON Net’ areas because they have full control of their own networks, consumers in ‘Off Net’ areas have to pay an extra £17 per month for the equivalent package where Sky are paying BT for the above mentioned.

It is thought that this ruling may encourage ISP’s to invest in bringing a faster broadband to rural areas but given the cost and issues relating to distance and technology available, it seems a long way away.

In theory it is a really good scheme where elderly can get subsidised help to make sure that they aren’t left with snowy screens when analogue channels are switched off.

An example is getting Freesat installed for £40 or even for free: see http://www.helpscheme.co.uk/ for more details. Something that would usually cost around £150 for a standard install!

But, this isn’t the full picture!

Where the Help Scheme definitely fills a void for something which can confuse the best of us, let alone a granny who has been simply pressing on/off, 1,2,3,4 and maybe 5 for the last thirty years, it only really covers over the cracks.

The problem with people in general, is that they get used to working something in a set way and when something extra is added i.e. set-top box and additional remote, it just confuses the situation. Where younger people are in general more tolerant, willing or accepting of the fact they have to learn something new, it can be extremely frustrating for many elderly people.

In a report in 2007 by the then department of culture, media and sport, (http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/research/RNReadinessforDSOBrief.pdf) it highlighted the problems associated with adding another piece of equipment into an elderly persons daily routine as well as the importance that televisions plays ion their lives.

The Help Scheme installs the equipment, shows the person what to do, leaves them with some instructions and a telephone number for a call centre to ring if there are any problems. I know from experience that when the installer leaves their home they have forgotten what to do, they may ring the call centre and will probably get more confused so it is then down to family, friends, care home staff or local companies to fill in the cracks.

Obviosuly this leaves the resident open to all sorts of scenarios dependent on their circumstances.

As a family we bought  my granny a new TV with built-in digital so that she didnt need to add a set-top box but it soon became apparent that because of the many new buttons on the remote she kept pressing the wrong ones and we were constantly going back to get her back on digital. In the end we took the drastic measure of stanley knifing out all the buttons that she didnt need.

This sounds like quite a funny tale but imagine if you are in a care home and staff are the ones constantly going back to sort problems or where an elderly person is at home by themselves without the help of family and friends, they are eventually left without their only source to the outside world.

No ‘Help Scheme’ call centre is going to explain to my granny what button to press to get her back to basic viewing!