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IBC 2005 :: European move to HD TV looks unstoppable

by Bob Crabtree on 10 September 2005, 00:00

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IBC 2005One of the loudest messages from the IBC show in Amsterdam is that High Definition TV is coming to Europe and the move looks unstoppable.

It’s clear that broadcasters, equipment makers and everyone else involved in the TV production chain are gearing up for the roll out of HD TV, with some transmissions beamed via Astra’s satellites and others via Eutelsat's birds.

BBC Broadcast – Auntie’s media subsidiary but recently bought for £166m by Australian consortium Macquarie – got in on the act by showing a live HD transmission beamed up via Eutelsat from London.

Late on the first day of the show we arrived on the company’s stand (330) eager to check out the test images and grab some stills but were disappointed. The demo screen had been turned off temporarily. Image quality had suddenly become dire and too embarrassing to show.

A couple of lady staff members initially tried to stop us taking shots of the blank screen – by putting their bodies in the way (ooh, madam) - but relented when told that the quality problem was over and that we’d also be taking shots of the working demo.

According to John Pink - the company’s director of marketing, sales and client services – this ultimate salesman’s dilemma had been the result of non-stop torrential rain affecting the uplink from London.



On the plus side we’d turned up a few minutes before the deluge ended and so did, soon after, get to see the transmission. This looked fine and was far better than suggested by the grotty photo we took.

Roll on HDTV (and lots of fine weather).





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