Free London Event 'THE DIGITAL TELEVISION LANDSCAPE IN EUROPE'

Come along to a great Free Royal Television Society Event in London on Wednesday 28th January

It's being held at The London Television Centre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9LT

and it's called 'THE DIGITAL TELEVISION LANDSCAPE IN EUROPE' it'll start at 7:00PM


The Speakers will be : GRAEME PACKMAN, Principal Broadcast Consultant, Futuresource Consulting

and

BILL FOSTER, Senior Technology Consultant, Futuresource Consulting


"The UK has long blown its’ own trumpet as being at the centre of the transition to digital TV, is this really true?

Other European countries have switched off analogue signals and, while the UK is saddled with millions of legacy MPEG-2 boxes, later entrants to DTT have been able to go directly to the latest MPEG-4 technology, allowing for a simpler transition to HD.

Throughout Europe there are a variety of platforms with a mixture of Pay and Public Service Broadcast service models to challenge the consumer electronics and broadcast hardware manufacturers that sell into this market."

e-mail your intention of attending to LondonCentreEvents@rts.org.uk

Nearest Underground and Train Station – Waterloo

Don’t touch that knob (BBC boss pimping for Channel 4?)

The stories of BBC’s current DG Mark Thompson in attempts to broker a deal between Channels Five and Four must be worrying for those who believe in plurality for the UK TV market.
It is likely to raise concerns for Stephen Carter and the DCMS who probably think it’s the sort of thing that is better left to politicians. I’ll be fascinated to see how it pans out and if the BBC can make sure that 100% of the licence fee remains with them.
Nice article covering the story from The Independent here.
I agree somewhat with C4’s Andy Duncan (he's covered here) who doesn’t think the answer at this time is a shotgun wedding between two such different animals. Unlike Duncan though I don’t think that answer is necessarily global deals seems to me that to ensure UK media remains dynamic less consolidation would seem preferable rather than a solution which gives short term succour to the current dinosaurs.

Ealing comedy? The closing of its remaining cinema -

Now many people who don't actually know Ealing have heard of its famous comedies and the link with film is something that's been going for over 75 years - so isn't it rather sad to see the remaining picture palace being demolished to make way for goodness knows what?
The picture on the right was taken on Tuesday no notice explainswhat will replace this fine old building!
Perhaps we (people who value Cinema/Live in Ealing) should lobbby groups like Save Ealing's Centre ?

Did you miss me? (while I was away)

As you'll see I've been away but I'm back now and there'll be an occasional post as we motor in to 2009. Principal concerns will be the resumption of my career and passing judgment on life in general.

Webacam I've got a webcam less than £10.00 seems amazing that when I worked at ITN I was excited about getting hold of a vidicon caption camera and CCU which I hooked up in Prince's Road, West Ealing. It weighed a ton was black and white, my how technology has moved on. You might not be able to see the camera but you can see the 2" helical scanAmpex VTRs I bought from Bob Tebbut. And there's an out of focus Bob on the Moped I sold him in Prince's road playing the giddy goat ..

Anyway if you want to skype me tjbourne is what I'm down as.

IRAN resistance needs your help.
Visitors today from Iran Liberty Association
I sympathise with the cause and feel moved by their plight but note that they wanted a load of money off me and they're not even a charity so I will consider again when I'm a bit flusher. The guys told me that UK sells arm to Iran gov't which I don't think is strictly true either-still things like this are not good.