© 2010 Rapid TV News
Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 02-12-2009
Rapid TV News has been following with interest the on-line debate between various BBC staffers and concerned viewers over the BBC's transmission quality - or lack of! The latest contribution from a senior BBC interested party is interesting.
Emma Scott, who now runs the BBC Freesat digital terrestrial joint-venture, says the 40% reduction in HDTV transmission bit-rate is a problem only for "geeks".
Ms Scott spent 10 years at the BBC prior to getting the Freesat job, starting off in 1997 as an advisor within the BBC's Policy and Planning directorate and the broadcaster's corporate strategy. She also led the BBC's bid for a DTT licence.
"I don't think that regular punters really recognise a recognisable dip. And as [the head of BBC HD] said, it's down to the particular programmes that you are watching and how it is optimised for different types of programmes. On satellite, it's a pretty high picture quality. Ultimately, it's about the overall effect of HD, whether it's the surround sound you get with it or how they have shot it. And I think they are right to be experimenting with it to see which things work out. I just don't think it's an issue, I really don't. "
Ms Scott, quoted by UK web-site Digital Spy, said she had no complaints about the picture quality of BBC HD.
The UK's main network broadcasters, and regulator Ofcom, are committed to ultimately broadcasting all four (and perhaps even 5) of the main networks onto a digital terrestrial HD service.
This has to happen within a fixed bandwidth of a 36 Mb/s multiplex. Without statistical multiplexing this would allocate around 8.5 Mb/s for each channel (allowing a small overhead for audio, metadata, etc). If all five channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CH4 and ‘five') were in time carried then the amount allocated tumbles to less than 7 Mb/s per channel. Statistical multiplexing, and use of DVB-T2 transmission, would help supply some elbow room, but nothing like the bandwidth employed by BSkyB (and easily available to the BBC) of typically 15-16Mb/s for sports transmissions and 10-12Mb/s for its movie channels.
This debate will run for some time.
© Rapid TV News 2009
