Digital terrestrial television in Ireland

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The deployment of digital terrestrial television in Ireland has had a chequered history, with the first tests being carried out in 1998, but no public trials until August 2006. The system is not expected to fully launch until 2008, although the state is committed to a 2012 Digital switchover date.[1]

1 Historical testing
2 Current testing
3 Channels
- 3.1 Multiplex 1
4 External links

[edit] Historical testing

DVB-T has repeatedly been tested from RTÉ Network Limited's Three Rock Mountain transmitter, with relatively long tests in 1998 and 2001, and shorter tests in 2004, with a single multiplex carrying the 4 Irish analogue terrestrial channels, and Tara Television while it was in existence, on both UHF (channel 26) and VHF (channel D). These were under temporary licences for testing, which are regularly awarded.

A contract to run a nationwide system, with 6 multiplexes from main sites, and 4 from relay sites was awarded in 2001 to ITS Digital Limited, trading as "It's TV", who intended to launch a pay TV and broadband service. This failed to materialise, due to lack of funding, and the licence was revoked. A 2-year trial managed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Department for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources was announced in 2005, although what happens when this test ends is unknown. Due to the fact that it is expected to launch in 2008, it is quite possible that a similar situation to that of Italy will happen, whereby the trial ends and official service starts on the same day.

Nine groups applied to run content on the DTT trials as well as potentially run the network in the future. Seven of these were successful:

Channel 6
Chellomedia (owned by the same company as NTL Ireland and Chorus Communications)
Communicorp
eircom and RTÉ (joint bid)
Magnet Networks
Sky Ireland
USP

BT Ireland and TVONE also applied but were not successful.

[edit] Current testing

Trials began again on August 4, 2006, with a high power multiplex ("Mux 1") transmitting on channel 54 (-167 kHz offset) from Three Rock Mountain. Transmission parameters are 16 QAM, 3/4 forward error correction and a 1/32 guard interval, with an 8k FFT. Transmissions from the Clermont Carn transmitter began on August 11 on channel 53, meaning coverage is provided to Dublin city and county as well as most of the north-east of Ireland — approximately 1/3 of the population. The trial officially launched on August 16, 2006, with approximately seven months testing prior to the introduction of extra content.

Additional content began to be added during February 2007, consisting of TV and radio "channels" - either channels provided by the content providers (Extreme Sports Channel from chellomedia, Sky Sports 1 from BSkyB) or blank carriers. These transmissions are on lower power multiplexes from the same sites. Multiplex 2 is carried on channel 61 from Three Rock, unknown from Clermont Carn; and Multiplex 3 is carried on 58 from Three Rock, 60 from Clermont Carn. The channels on these multiplexes are encrypted in Conax, and each carry 6 TV and 6 radio carriers.

Transmissions on Mux 1 are unencrypted and use standard coding modes - most modern set-top boxes designed for Freeview in the UK are fully compatible, and many have purchased Freeview boxes from Northern Ireland to avail of the trial service. The service is however, legally restricted to 1000 selected users, who have received units capable of decoding the Conax-encrypted multiplexes. At least one carrier is broadcasting in MPEG-4.

4 multiplexes were announced for the trial, with Mux 1 reserved for existing nationally licenced television and radio services, Mux 2 and half of Mux 3 reserved for selected "content managers", for which advertisements were placed in the press, and the remainder of Mux 3 retained for future use. Mux 4 will be reserved for "innovative content". Ireland's frequency plans allow for 4 multiplexes nationally (6 on main transmitters) until analogue switchoff, and 9 - 8 UHF, 1 VHF - nationally after switchoff. To date, all of Muxes 1, 2 and 3 have been commissioned, Mux 4 has not.

EPG information is currently provided for approximately one week ahead on most channels.