A counter point to streaming Robert Sydee FSCTE, Technical Director Whyte Technologies
The journey from DTH (Direct-To-Home) to IRS (Integrated Reception Systems) February 1989 Sky Television launched in the UK. BSB launched early 1990 and some of you may still remember the Squarial. Sky and BSB merged in November of 1990. In the analogue days satellite TV was very much DTH (Direct- To-Home) experience and owning a dish was considered a status symbol. In March 1997 Channel 5 is the last of the terrestrial analogue channels to join the party (after you retuned your video recorder away from channel 37). On to 1998 when Sky Digital and OnDigital launch. The early 2000’s is where we start to see the development of familiar distribution systems that eventually become IRS. Sky Q was released in February 2016 giving rise to the dSCR and Hybrid IRS. Fibre IRS completes the journey enabling extensive distribution negating coaxial losses. A new challenger IRS is now facing the challenge from the growth of streaming providers that offer a wide choice of programming to the casual viewer who now get their content through mobile, tablet and connected TVs. It is easy to forget that most viewers in the UK still get their TV through conventional satellite dishes, terrestrial antennas, or cable providers. Streaming is making some impact and a big noise, but should we abandon IRS?
No this would be foolhardy. In the rush to adopt new streaming only platforms we forget the UK ISP infrastructure often has insufficient capacity to meet the demands of the modern multi-device, multi-screen home. In many instances, they will need to return to IRS reception to avoid this streaming bottleneck. Moving in day Let us say you have just moved into your new apartment; you have unpacked your TV and set top box, but there is nowhere to connect them! This is extremely inconvenient as you need to sort out your own dish or antenna and at ten floors up that is going to be tricky. Not to mention somehow bringing the feeds in to the apartment. Now you are stuck with streaming as an option, and if the available bandwidth from your ISP is not up to scratch, then the family is not going to be happy. The question With all these streaming platforms available should IRS be planned for new builds? IRS guaranteed bandwidth paths for digital satellite, television, and radio services with unparalleled uptime. Could the same be said for ISPs that the streaming services rely upon? The availability of good ISP bandwidth across the UK can be patchy even within the same town, or street. Considering the volume of connected devices that can be found in modern homes gigabit fibre is necessary just to sustain good provides The answer Absolutely,
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