[mythtvnz] DVB-S Switch to HPol - Major outage expected

[Steven Ellis]

Just had the following from TVNZ. Appears the switch to H-Pol is going to
cause a major outage if you use the TVNZ transponder. Details below.



Urgent Advisory - Change to Previous Notification

This is to update our earlier notification about the transfer of our Free
To Air digital test transmissions from Optus B1 to D1.

Engineers carrying out preparatory work overnight on the uplink at Avalon
have discovered that re-arranging equipment to make the transfer from B1
to D1 will not be as rapid as originally envisaged. Because of the manner
in which the dish was installed as vertical polarity many years ago,
changing it to horizontal will now take longer than planned.

This also means TVNZ=92s test platform will be off the air longer than
anticipated.

Work will begin on schedule, as advised, at 2359 hours on Wednesday 31st
January.  But it could now take some days to complete, with the bouquet o=
f
test channels targeted to return no later than the Saturday 3rd February.

We appreciate this change will affect many in the industry, but there is
no alternative. We must migrate from the ailing B1 just as soon as
possible and at the same time re-align our equipment for the switch to
horizontal.

As was promised in the original plan, an email will be sent out advising
you that the test channels are back just as soon as the work is completed
and the bouquet restored.

As mentioned in the earlier notification, the future of the bouquet of
pass-through test channels (Deutsche Welle, CCTV9 and Bloomberg), is stil=
l
being considered by members of the Freeview consortium and it=92s continu=
ity
is by no means assured as we approach the launch of the service.


For further information email digital@tvnz.co.nz or fax (09) 916 7897 or
phone (09) 916 7658


--------------------------------------------
Steven Ellis - Technical Director
OpenMedia Limited - The Home of myPVR
email   - steven@openmedia.co.nz
sales   - sales@openmedia.co.nz
support - support@openmedia.co.nz
website - http://www.openmedia.co.nz