Ofcom confirms final plan for Freeview HD
Ofcom has published its plans to overhaul the UK’s digital terrestrial television system in order to permit the carriage of high definition services on Freeview.
Under the plans, all multiplex operators will be required to use the QAM-64 digital transmission mode, which permits a greater number of channels to be broadcast per multiplex. Currently, only the Digital 3&4 and SDN multiplexes use this mode, with the other 4 multiplexes using the more robust but lower capacity QAM-16 mode - a holdover from the establishment of Freeview, when lower transmitter power for digital broadcasts necessitated the use of the lower capacity but more robust standard to ensure good reception.
After multiplex capacity is increased by the mode change, services from multiplex B will be redistributed among the other multiplexes to clear B for the carriage of high definition channels. Three video and ten radio services will move from multiplex B to multiplex 1. ITV and Channel 4 will each forgo one service on their respective halves of multiplex 2, making room for Five on ITV’s half and one BBC service on Channel 4’s.
The reorganisation will take place region by region in tandem with the analogue switch-off process, beginning with Granada next year.
Once multiplex B is cleared, it will be converted to use DVB-T2, an improved version of the existing digital terrestrial transmission specification. The high definition services it will carry will be compressed using MPEG-4, a more efficient version of the MPEG-2 standard currently used across the rest of the platform.
At first, three high definition services will be carried on the multiplex. When digital switchover is complete, Ofcom plans for the multiplex to carry a fourth HD channel.
The regulator will invite the UK’s public service broadcasters to put forward proposals to use multiplex B’s four slots, which it will then award in a “beauty contest”. The broadcasters will, however, have the option to mix HD and SD services if they consider it to be the best use of the capacity.
Viewers will need new receiver equipment to pick up the services on multiplex B. Existing DTT set top boxes will continue to pick up existing Freeview services, but consumers will have to upgrade their equipment to watch the MPEG-4 encoded high definition services.
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said its plan offered “a tremendous opportunity - to begin upgrading DTT by embracing the latest technologies”.
“These have the potential to bring huge increases in capacity to the platform, enabling it to offer richer and more varied services, including high definition,” he said.
“Our proposals describe how this huge prize can be achieved without needing more spectrum, while protecting existing viewers’ access to the existing PSB services.”
Spam blights e-mail 15 years on
Spam continues to blight e-mail exactly 15 years after the term was first coined and almost 30 years since the first spam message was sent.
The term is thought to have been coined by Joel Furr, an administrator on the net discussion system Usenet, to refer to unsolicited bulk messages.
More than 90% of all e-mail is spam, according to anti-spam body Spamhaus.
“Spam is a real life arms race,” said Mark Sunner, chief analyst at online security firm Message Labs.
Billions of spam e-mails are sent each day, blocking mail servers, slowing down networks, infecting people’s computers with viruses, helping hijack machines and generally making the internet a painful experience for many.
Mr Furr told BBC News that the anniversary of his first use of the term was no cause for celebration.
“I prefer commiseration,” he said.
Mr Furr first used the term to refer to bulk postings on discussion boards on the internet but in the years to come spam became associated with e-mail.
“But even today there are many discussion groups that are unusable because of the amount of spamming,” he said.
‘Increasing risk’
Richard Cox, chief information officer of anti-spam body Spamhaus, said: “Spam means there is an increasing risk to e-mail; it cannot become a reliable vehicle for getting messages across.”
Mr Furr said: “In recorded human history as communcation barriers drop and as communication becomes easier civilisation progresses.
“We have this awesome tool to make it possible for people in any part of the planet to exchange ideas with one another and yet people are going out of their way to not use it because of the spammers, because of the jerks.
“It’s holding back innovation.”
“When e-mail was designed the internet was largely used by people you could trust,” said Mr Cox.
“Unfortunately not only did bad people start to use the internet, the gates to the internet were transferred from fairly prudent technologists to people who wanted to make money out of it.
“That’s when spam caught on and ever since it has been a rear-guard action.”
The term spam was inspired by the Monty Python sketch, first shown in 1970, in which a restaurant only serves the processed meat product.
In the sketch, a group of Vikings start singing: “Spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam.”
The term was picked up in internet chat rooms in the early 1970s and used in a variety of contexts until it became best-known as a reference to unsolicited bulk e-mail, according to research carried out by Brad Templeton, who is chairman of the board at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
‘Bulk e-mail’
The first unsolicited bulk e-mail was sent by a marketing representative at computer firm Dec on 3 May 1978, when he e-mailed every West Coast user on the Arpanet, the original building block of the internet.
The e-mail was inviting users to attend an open day in which the firm would be showing off its latest range of computers.
Mr Cox said years had been taken up trying to persuade government to ban spam.
“The Chinese and Russians are a major problem and probably always will be,” he said.
Mr Cox said the two countries’ governments were apathetic about dealing with spam because although it originates in their countries, its effect is felt largely outside their borders.
According to the Spamhaus Project, about 200 spammers worldwide are responsible for about 80% of all spam.
Household computers
Much of spam is sent from ordinary household computers that have been hijacked by hackers, and turned into what is known as botnets, which automatically spew out messages. Mark Sunner said spam was a problem that was constantly evolving.
“The bad guys are at least as technically proficient as the security services trying to stop them.”
He added: “The bad guys at the sharp end are using these botnets to do some really clever stuff.”
In the past, botnets could be taken down by finding the central server controlling the machines. But the latest variants of botnets are using a technique called fast-flux domain name service which shifts the location of servers every three minutes.
“There are still a number of spam factories in the US which are bulk sending spam,” said Mr Cox.
Spamhaus maintains a register of known spammers and spam gangs, many of whom are based in China and Russia.
Minimal activity
The body also maintains a list of internet service providers that are failing to deal with computers that have been hijacked.
Mr Cox said UK service providers like BT, Bulldog, Wanadoo and Tiscali were failing to tackle the problem of botnets.
“There has been minimal activity by many internet service providers, all of whom are blaming the dubious legal situation of spam,” he said.
Mr Cox said the battle against spam was being scuppered due to lack of government and law enforcement co-operation across borders.
“The spam may come from Bulgaria but if its controlled by somebody in Russia and paid for by someone in the US - who do you prosecute, and in which country?
“How do you get the evidence into the right country? We’re building on this but it’s a very slow process.”
Mr Cox said it was unlikely spam would ever be defeated completely.
“I don’t think it’s realistic to believe we will never receive spam,” he said.
PlayStation Store gets revamp
Sony Computer Entertainments Europe and America have made official a redesign of the PlayStation Network’s PlayStation Store. The new-look site will go live in approximately two weeks. Unfortunately, though work is underway on the new-and-improved store experience, the old one won’t be receiving its traditional weekly update.
There will be no more weekly content updates before the relaunch of the new store in mid-April (from today in Europe, from April 3 in North America), although games and content that have already been uploaded–including Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in Europe–will continue to be available. Presumably, the new store will be up and running in time for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s scheduled US release date of April 17.
The revamp of the PlayStation Store comes after the results of an SCEE customer survey last year in which users criticised the navigation and interface. Both will be getting an overhaul, along with “more scope for categorisation,” and a new design.
Once the store reopens for business proper, gamers will be prompted to download a new firmware update to their PlayStation 3 systems that will enable them to access the new PlayStation Store.
Sky commits to £10m for HD dramas
Sky One has announced plans to invest £10 million in UK drama, with a slate of high-definition shows to be broadcast later this year and in 2009.
Sky’s upcoming slate of dramas includes the next Terry Pratchett adaptation, Going Postal; the most recent Pratchett adaptation, The Colour of Magic, will be broadcast over the Easter weekend.
Other upcoming dramas include shows based on the work of authors Chris Ryan and David Almond. Ryan’s novel Strike Back will be turned into a six-part series, while Almond’s children’s book Skellig will be dramatised as a two-hour special. Further dramas will be greenlit in upcoming months.
Wii TV in the pipeline?
Nintendo could be about to join Microsoft and Sony by entering the digital TV market.
Rumours are circulating of Wii TV, an add-on for Nintendo’s Wii game console enabling PVR recording of Freeview channels.
Developed by Nintendo’s Prof. Ollia, the system would use a plug in PVR box for the Wii with two digital tuners and a 40GB hard drive. Users will be able to use the Wii remote to change channels by waving it up and down and fast forward and rewind recordings by twirling it.
An onscreen 7 day EPG will let you schedule recordings and you’ll also be able to assign favourite channel lists and recordings to your ‘Mii’ character.
Nintendo is also thought to be considering launching a Mario-inspired mushroom-shaped motorised satellite dish for the Italian market which can also be operated using the Wii remote.
BBC iPlayer and 4oD launching on Virgin Media
The BBC iPlayer is to move onto TV sets for the first time, with the news that the video on demand service will be available on the Virgin Media platform from April.
Channel 4 is also planning to migrate its VoD service onto Virgin Media, with trade paper Media Week reporting that 4oD will arrive on the platform in May, offering an ad-supported service.
Meanwhile, Five is liaising with Virgin Media, as well as fellow digital TV providers BT Vision and Tiscali over plans to launch an updated version of its Five Download VoD service.
Virgin Media first UK ISP to adopt 3-Strikes-and-out on illegal downloads
Virgin Media looks set to become the first British ISP to crack down on customers who download music and other pirated material, illegally. For some time now, record labels have been lobbying for a “three strikes-and-out” regime that would see persistent offenders kicked off their ISP for downloading pirated music files. BPI, which is a music trade body, is said to be working with Virgin Media on a pilot scheme, which could see customers sent warning letters.
There have been concerns raised about how customers will get tracked and how will Virgin Media be able to tell the difference from a music track that was legally downloaded, from the many sites which allow music downloads for a small fee.
There is also the ugly issue raised yet again about privacy, many thousands of customers are still concerned about the implementation of the targeted ad system by Phorm that Virgin Media has signed a deal with earlier this year.
Phorm has technologies that will be located at the ISP end, this will register a profile based on the internet users surfing habits. We have sinced urged Virgin Media to ditch its deal with Phorm.
So not only will Virgin Media broadband customers have to contend with such issues regarding Phorm, they will now face yet more surveillance. Will ‘innocent’ data get tracked? To check for illegal downloads? Information on how this will be done is still unclear.
It’s estimated around 6 million broadband users are downloading music illegally each year. Record labels are crying out for action as they claim such activity costs them billions in lost revenue.
The government made its stance in February, that it would implement legislation by April 2009, unless ISPs came to a voluntary agreement and to co-operate with the music and film industries.
The BPI is said to have teams of technicians to trace illegal music downloading to individual customer accounts. It will then hand these account numbers over to Virgin Media, which will match them to names and addresses. Virgin Media will then hand out letters warning offenders and threatening them with disconnection.
The trial will apparently be live within a few months as Virgin Media say they are treating the issue of illegal downloading, “seriously”.
News Source:- Telegraph.
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