700MHz clearance

Today there were a couple of momentary outages of our fibre broadband internet connection. We're not sure whether the BT Infinity service was at fault, or whether the Draytek Vigor 2860 router just had a senior moment.

Co-incidentally when we turned the TV on later in the day there were none of the terrestrial channels available. Streaming channels and satellite were still working, but nothing from the transmitter in the Gorge.

I checked the BBC's reception service which reported the transmitter was working fine.

But following the link it appears the transmitter had been through some maintenance earlier in the day. Exactly what maintenance is left to the reader's imagination.

After a quick check with an alternative aerial, the only thing left to do was re-tune the BT TV box. Sure enough, the maintenance activity has changed the frequencies that the channel multiplexes were transmitted on.

Delving a little deeper into the need to update the transmitter, it is due to a process called the "700MHz clearance". According to OFCOM: "In November 2014 we decided to make valuable spectrum in the 700MHz band available for mobile data as soon as practicably possible." As terrestrial TV is broadcast between 474MHz and 786MHz, this means that some of the spectrum currently used for TV is being reallocated for mobile data. Note that the Digital Switch Over (DSO) from terrestrial analogue to terrestrial digital TV was only completed in 2012.

So Digital UK, the body behind terrestrial TV in the UK, have come up with a plan to overhaul the multiplexes and frequencies that each transmitter broadcasts, with a view to freeing up the 700MHz band by the end of 2020.

"Following a decision by Ofcom, spectrum in the 700MHz UHF band currently used for digital terrestrial television (DTT) is being reallocated for the development of future mobile services. Some DTT multiplexes will be moving to new broadcast frequencies as a result of this change. Engineering work for the 700MHz Clearance Programme will take place at transmitters across the UK between 2017 - 2020. Freeview viewers (and those with other services that use Freeview channels, such as YouView) will need to retune their TV equipment when changes take place in their area."

Today was the day that the Ironbridge transmitter was scheduled in the clearance programme. Digital UK considers the Ironbridge transmitter to be a part of the Sutton Coldfield transmitter group, rather than The Wrekin group. On page 11 of their January 2018 update for the Central area are the details of the Ironbridge transmitter changes:

RF channel 49 is right on the 700MHz upper limit, and channel 58 finishes at over 770MHz, so all of the previous multiplexes were being transmitted in the band that OFCOM wants to clear. Our current aerial is a Wolsey/Triax HG5 yagi, which is good for receiving channels 21 to 60 (T group), up to the previous 800MHz upper limit on TV transmissions. At the end of the 700MHz clearance in 2020 this aerial is going to be picking up mobile data transmissions as well as terrestrial TV, so will need to changed to one that only picks up channels 21 to 48 (K group).

Additionally we have a Triax TFMV 22W masthead triplexer and amplifier that works up to 862MHz. In theory if the aerial isn't supplying it any signal above 700MHz, then the fact that it can amplify signals up to 862MHz isn't an issue. But no aerial has a perfect frequency response, so it might be worth changing the TFMV for an amplifier with a 700MHz maximum frequency, or put an inline filter between the aerial and the amplifier.

Strangely Digital UK's coverage checker reports that the previous aerial group was K (21 to 48), not CD (48 to 68).

This is incorrect, as a K group aerial is limited to channel 48, and therefore could not pick up the D3&4 multiplex previously being transmitted on channel 58. It also states that the aerial polarisation was, and will be, vertical, whereas the current aerial is definitely horizontal. I think I'll take what it says with a pinch of salt.

IGMP and WiFi

Since the arrival of BT TV we noticed an interesting/annoying behaviour with our WiFi. All of the non-FreeView channels are streamed to the YouView box over the internet. As mentioned in the last post, to get this to happen I needed to enable an IGMP proxy on our DrayTek Vigor 2860ac router. This lets the YouView box join the multicast group for the channel we want to watch. Initially this appeared to be all that we needed to do. However we found that when watching an HD channel delivered this way all WiFi traffic ground to a halt. Wired computers and gadgets didn't have a problem, but anything connected via WiFi would essentially see their data connection time out. The WiFi itself was still up and broadcasting, and our phones and tablets could see the signal, but with no data traffic. Switching to a streamed SD channel got the WiFi working again, so initially I thought this was a bandwidth issue, with the YouView box commandeering all the available broadband bandwidth. However according to the router's traffic graph an HD channel is only about 6.5Mbps, leaving more than enough bandwidth for other devices. And all the wired computers were able to use the internet just fine, so bandwidth wasn't the issue.

A knowledge base article from DrayTek states that only the IGMP proxy on their routers "need typically be enabled on a home network". However the router offers two optimisation settings for IGMP; Snooping (the ability to only forward multicast packets to LAN sockets that have devices that have subscribed to that multicast group) and Fast Leave (the ability to stop forwarding multicast packets when it detects there are no more multicast group subscribers). These two options "could be useful on larger networks or networks with a large quantity of IGMP packets that could limit normal LAN throughput".

I guess we have one of those networks then, although DrayTek don't specifically mention WiFi in their article. Our YouView box was already connected to a different LAN socket on the router to the other wired devices, and by enabling both IGMP Snooping and Fast Leave the ability to simultaneously watch streamed HD channels and surf the internet on our phones and tablets was restored. My best guess is that previously when the YouView box subscribed to a multicast group, the multicast packets for that channel were sent to all connected wired and wireless devices, which swamped the WiFi. Now they're not even going to the other wired connections let alone the wireless connections.

BT fibre shambles

Fibre has arrived in our neck of the woods! Wohoo!

Now, let the fun and games begin. So, off to the BT website I go and look at the packages available. First a bit of a speed check:

So given that I'm currently paying £45.99 per month for my copper broadband and BT Sport (for the MotoGP) via an app, when I see that I could go to fibre, get BT Sport in 4K UHD, and 100-odd other TV channels with a PVR for £54.99 per month I'm definitely up for it. Even though it appears I could get the 76Mbps service, it is £10 a month more expensive than the 52Mbps deal, and a quick reality check shows that 52Mbps is more than sufficient.

And this is where the disappointment begins. So first of all, this deal is only available to new BT customers. If you're an existing customer, then you have to pay more. I'm not sure why you'd penalise your existing customers and incentivise them to check out the competition, but there you go.

As an existing customer I can get fibre for £44.99 per month, and BT TV with all the channels for £19.99 per month, for a total of £64.98. And these two deals are only available if you phone BT, rather than use their website, which are about £1 per month more expensive. I found this out when I phoned them up to find out why I couldn't get the banner deal on the website. Eventually I managed to get the bad taste out of my mouth, and Sky is even more expensive, so phoned back and placed the order.

Six days later ParcelForce arrive with the VDSL2 router (which I'm not going to be using) and the PVR (which I am). But the PVR is the YouView+ box, rather than the YouView Ultra HD box.

Given how much money this is all costing, I definitely want the full monty PVR, so I get back on the phone with BT. The first person on the line puts me through to someone who can check the status of my order, and confirms my fear that the order has placed incorrectly. But their job is only to report on the status of orders, not do anything about issues, and I'm informed that there are two options. Let the order proceed and then upgrade to the UHD box, or cancel the order and start again. As they can't confirm whether I'd be charged for upgrading to UHD from HD, I decide that cancelling and starting again is the way forward, so I'm transferred to the cancellation department. There's a brief glimmer of hope when they realise that this should be easy to sort out, but after a chat with the manager I'm told that cancelling is the only option. And... I have to wait for 24 hours to make sure the entrails of this order have fully passed through BT's system before I try and place an order again.

So I arrange for ParcelForce to come back and take the YouView+ box away, take the Smart Hub to the Post Office, and two days later start the whole process again. This time I see that the website is offering an upgrade for £34.99 per month, which given the BT TV Max bundle is £20 per month, means we're back to £54.99 all in. Confused? Me too.

This time I decide to take things one step at a time. Get the fibre broadband first, then add the TV package. So I placed the broadband order online and got my confirmation email, with further details to come.

Then... nothing.

A week later I phone back to find out what has happened to my order, and they can't find it in the system. I'm transferred to the Customer Options team, who start the order process again, for the 4th time. This time the chap on the phone offers me fibre for £34.99 and the Max bundle for £15, the cheapest combination yet. After a couple of explicit queries to confirm this includes the Ultra HD box, I went ahead with the order. Just as the chap was completing the order his system wanted to boost the price of the fibre up to £49.99, so I was back on hold while he talked to his manager. The manager agreed to apply an In Flight Save, to bring the monthly cost of the fibre back down to £34.99, but I'm warned that the confirmation email will reflect the higher price.

Over the next few days some confirmation emails come in from BT. They confirm the activation date for both the fibre and the TV, and inform me that the kit will arrive the day before the activation date. Which, of course, it doesn't. This isn't a major issue, as the DrayTek router is set up to automatically switch to the cellular modem when the copper broadband is disconnected, and then switch back to the fibre as soon as that is connected. BT were helpfully imprecise with letting us know how long the switchover would take, and when during the day it would happen: "anytime up until midnight". But if you were a regular domestic broadband customer, you'd be left without any internet while you waited for ParcelForce to deliver the new Smart Hub.

To give BT some credit, the service did actually switch over on the day they predicted, and the switchover took about 15 minutes from ADSL disconnection to VDSL connection. The cellular modem kicked in as predicted, albeit it did drop the VoIP phone mid-call, but all in all the switchover was about as smooth as I could have hoped for.

Everyone I had spoken to at BT had gone to great pains to let me know that the fibre speed would fluctuate over the first 10 days of use, so if I didn't get the contracted speed immediately I shouldn't worry. But also, if it wasn't up to speed after 10 days to get in contact so they could troubleshoot it. Given that I had asked for the 52Mbps service I was surprised to see that the modem initially connected at 80Mbps, with a 20Mbps upload rate!

However the DrayTek diagnostics page was even more optimistic, with an "Attainable Rate" of over 100Mbps for downloads and over 30Mbps for uploads! Given that previously the router was connecting to ADSL kit in the exchange over a mile from house, whereas now the router is connected to VDSL kit in the cabinet less than a quarter of a mile away, it is no surprise to see much lower SNR on the line, so those speeds are entirely believable. I'm sure that at some point in the next 10 days BT will artificially cap the connection speed, once they're happy that the line is trouble free.

Later in the day ParcelForce did turn up with the YouView Ultra HD PVR, but not the Smart Hub. The PVR was fairly straightforward to set up. I did my usual thing of binding the PVR's MAC address to a predefined IP address, and also enabled the router's IGMP proxy. Outside of the FreeView channels coming in via the terrestrial aerial, the other channels are streamed in via IPTV. This means the PVR needs to be able to join IP Multicast groups, which by default the DrayTek router does not pass through from WAN to LAN. But with one click the proxy can be enabled, and the full channel lineup become available.

Now I'm left to wonder if/when the Smart Hub will arrive.

(Edit on 27-Nov-2017: Having given it a couple of weeks and no Smart Hub I called BT. Somehow the hub had been missed off the fibre broadband order, so a new order was created and a couple of days later the Smart Hub arrived.)

(Edit on 1-Dec-2017: The first bill from BT since placing the order has arrived, and sure enough the In Flight Save I was promised when placing the order has gone missing in action. Instead there's a £3 "special offer discount", bringing the monthly broadband fee down from £49.99 to £46.99. Additionally the router is still connecting at the 80Mbps/20Mbps speeds of Infinity 2 rather than the 52Mbps/10Mbps speeds of Infinity 1. I fire up the chat window with BT and get talking with Aparna, who just confirms what my bill has already told me, and so she connects me to the Retention Team. Another chat with a manager ensues and I'm promised that the original £34.99 deal will be honoured and my bill updated.)

(Edit on 7-Dec-2017: Money has now left my account and the £46.99 for Infinity has been taken. Started a chat window with Robin and asked him to transfer me to the Retention Team. Yet another conflab with a manager, and I'm told that there isn't the option on their system to charge me £34.99 per month for 18 months anymore, so by way of an apology I'm going to be put on a £30.99 tariff for 12 months. If I'm automatically bumped up to the £49.99 tariff after 12 months then I'm going to about £50 worse off over 18 months. But I guess I'll have the option to depart BT after 12 months and go elsewhere if there isn't a better deal available.)

Formula 1 and MotoGP

Watching motorsport on free-to-air TV in the UK has turned out to be a bit of a challenge in 2014. Formula 1 has gone to Sky for half the season, and MotoGP has gone to BT Sport. However the Germans are broadcasting both on free-to-air satellite TV.

Find Formula 1 on RTL, on Astra 1L at 19.2E (12187.5MHz, Horizontal). BBC Radio 5 Live provides audio commentary for all races during the season.

And find MotoGP on Sport 1, on Astra 1M at 19.2E (12480.0Mhz, Vertical). Unfortunately audio commentary in English is harder to find. I've resorted to the Dorna MotoGP Live Experience smartphone app for audio commentary.

Both RTL and Sport 1 are commercial channels, so are supported by advertising. RTL especially seem to be able to schedule advert breaks whenever there's on-track action, rather than during safety car periods. Reminds me of the bad-old ITV days.

Use websites such as LyngSat, TrackSat and KingOfSat to find satellite channel details.

Terrestrial TV - Stage 2

Being in the Gorge itself is a bit of a problem, as there's no line of sight to the transmitter on the Wrekin, which is the local main broadcast point for digital TV and radio. However we're not alone in this situation, so there is a re-broadcast mast in the Gorge, which we do have sight of from the house. It is likely to have a reduced service, maybe only the core 3 TV MUXes rather than the full set of 6 that the Wrekin broadcasts. But we should get a good signal, being only 500 metres from the mast.

First thing to do was put up a pole to mount the antennae on. I used a pair of T and K brackets to get a 20cm standoff from the workshop wall, and mounted a 180cm pole of 3.75cm diameter and 16 gauge alloy. At the top I've put a Wolsey HG5 T-group (wideband) Yagi antenna for TV. I've also put up a Triax FM omni antenna, and a Triax DAB dipole antenna. The three antenna feeds are combined in a masthead triplexer, and then connected to the terrestrial input of the multiswitch.

Each output of the multiswitch is now carrying FM at 87Mhz to 108Mhz, DAB at 217Mhz to 240Mhz, terrestrial TV at 474MHz to 786MHz, and satellite IF at 950Mhz to 2150Mhz. So by using screened quad-outlets in the house I'll have FM and DAB on one socket, TV on another, and 2 satellite feeds (for twin-tuner recorders).

Satellite TV - Stage 1

When we moved into the Gorge the new house had a little minidish on it, but as the Spring drew on and the massive tree next to the house grew leaves, the satellite signal dropped off and suddenly we were without telly. As I wanted to inject a bit of technology into the house during the renovation, I quickly put together a plan for an über tv system.

Firstly the only, and the highest, place on the property with a reasonably uncluttered view of the sky is the workshop, which is a good 30 metres from the house. So the dish and antennae have been mounted there, and cabling run down to the house. Eventually I'll have to dig a trench and lay a protective pipe with the cabling inside. It'll also give me the opportunity to route some networking cable as well, but that's for another time.

Secondly I wanted the widest possible range of free-to-air tv channels available. So that means tapping into FreeView, FreeSat, and a handful of European satellites as well. I chose Eutelsat Hotbird at 13E and SES Astra at 19E as they transmit a wide variety of European channels, as well as SES Astra at 28E which provides FreeSat.

Lastly I wanted tv points in 5 rooms in the house, and maybe a couple in the workshop. I want at least a single satellite and a terrestrial point in most rooms, and a double satellite point in the lounge, master bedroom and cinema room (aka the 3rd bedroom) to cater for twin-tuner recorders. So that would be about 10 satellite points and 7 terrestrial points in total. And I wanted any point to be able to view any channel, so each point is effectively independent of the others.

As I wanted to pick up multiple satellites the bigger the dish the better. Anything up to 1 metre diameter doesn't require planning permission in the UK, and I settled on a 90cm Triax TD88 as Triax also produce a multi-LNB holder for their dishes. I mounted this as high as I could on the workshop wall, using a heavy duty pole mount.

There are two main options for distributing satellite tv to multiple rooms, DiSEqC switches and multi-output LNBs, or a multiswitch and quatro LNBs. Multi-output LNBs generally have 1, 2, 4 or 8 outputs so wouldn't be able to meet my need for 10 satellite points. I therefore went the multiswitch route and bought 3 Inverto Black Ultra quatro LNBs and a Triax TMS 17x12T multiswitch. For a bit of stretch capacity the 17x12T supports up to 4 satellites via quatro LNBs and provides 12 independent outputs. It also has a terrestrial TV/DAB/FM input, which is combined and piped down all of the 12 outputs.

I mounted the multiswitch on the wall inside the workshop so that it remains dry, and knocked out a brick in the wall in order to route cables from the dish. I cut 4 sections of 32mm poly plumbing pipe, and mortared these into the hole left by the removed brick. I then connected the LNBs to the multiswitch using Primesat Hamburg quad 7mm cabling with waterproof Cablecon UltraEase 5.1 F-connectors. These cables loop down from the LNBs before entering the poly pipes, so that any rain drips off the cables outside, rather than running inside and onto the multiswitch.

Finally as a test I've run a Webro WF100 7mm cable from the multiswitch across the garden, through the flower beds, into the lounge and into the back of my Humax FoxSat HDR set top box. A quick (not!) retune of the STB to pick up the channels from all 3 satellites and we now have over 1000 free-to-air tv channels on hand. Just in time for 24 hour coverage of the Le Mans endurance race on Eurosport Deutschland. Sweet!

That's stage 1 complete. For stage 2 I'll be adding antennae for terrestrial tv, DAB and FM to the workshop wall, and feeding those into the multiswitch as well. Stage 3 will see me digging a trench and burying a lot of WF100 in the ground. And finally stage 4 will be installing the tv points into each room, before the plasterers come to redo our walls. (There's a possible stage 5 as well, which is installing a second dish on a motorised mount so that we can tune in to any other other satellites that are up there...)