Technology
UHF terrestrial broadcasting using DVB-T MPEG4 (also known as DVB-T HD), and currently covers 86 percent of the country's population. Only two towns with a population over 15,000 do not have terrestrial service – Whakatane and Blenheim (both towns can receive the service from Tauranga and Wellington respectively, but the signal is weak). Freeview's terrestrial transmissions are broadcast from Kordia's and JDA's transmitter towers.
Freeview uses the DVB-T standard for terrestrial transmission, as established in 2001 with NZS6610:2001, to avoid the multipath problem caused by New Zealand's rugged topography. ATSC, a rival standard that uses VSB modulation, which cannot handle multipath well, so it was not chosen.
Terrestrial Freeview|HD is broadcast in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. This meant that people who took part in the Auckland digital trial using terrestrial DVB-T MPEG2 receivers needed to change their receivers to DVB-T MPEG4 in order to receive terrestrial Freeview. DVB-T MPEG4 is also known in some countries as DVB-T HD. MHEG-5 is used for the electronic programming guide.
Freeview Satellite uses the Optus D1 satellite to broadcast, on two transponders, leased from Kordia. The satellite transmissions are in DVB-S MPEG2. Freeview cannot easily move to MPEG4 broadcasting in the future as the codec is unsupported by a large number of the receivers in the installed base of Freeview Satellite receivers. Unlike the terrestrial service, the satellite service broadcasts a traditional EPG alongside the MHEG-5 EPG.
Freeview is discussing with Telecom about the provision of IPTV over ADSL.
Read more about this topic: Freeview (New Zealand)
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“Primitive peoples tried to annul death by portraying the human body—we do it by finding substitutes for the human body. Technology instead of mysticism!”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”
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“The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)