BBC slow on the uptake

The BBC has a redoubtable news organisation, except that it is often a bit light on facts, and heavy on opinions.

We sit at home watching their output on our TVs, generally together, not individually.

The BBC has realised that they have to combine the TV delivery with internet delivery.

Now to do this they should

- link the TV locally to the iPad, so it looks up pages on the web associated with the program
- have TWO news organisations, one to build a knowledge database, one to produce TV News

and when you watch a program, like Question Time, you can listen the the panel spouting away, but at the same time have charts, tables on your lap to make up your own mind

Greece 0 Germany 4

So the battle is coming to a close. But we need to see that a proper balance is struck between keeping the euro as a common currency and sorting out the Greeks.

There is no doubt in my mind that the euro has to continue, the benefits to the people are huge - one currency in your pocket. It is like free boarders, these have to stay too.

So what is the deal?

- The Germans, and the rest, have to pay the Greeks. Germany especially as it has not paid its war reparations, and it has the most exposed banks at 32:1 leverage!

- The Greeks that got them into this mess have to go to jail.

Simple really

BT Infinity coming to Banbury exchange - but when?

This is my current broadband suppliers offering



And if I run the broadband speed checker I get this



In reality the speed I am currently getting is much lower!!!



Now it seems that finally BT have added the Banbury exchange to their list of Infinity FTTH exchanges



And the pricing they are quoting right now is



The date they say that it will be Ready For Service is 1-9-11



BOTHER!!!

If I had discovered this a few weeks ago I would have waited, tolerated Orange's awful 0.6Mbps speeds and not changed to Plusnet (who gave me 1.2Mbps and who might, I suppose, offer the FTTH themselves when BT installs it...???). Because the latest status from Plusnet is that their broadband speed has now dropped to 0.6Mbos like Orange, now that they have taken over my phone line - or is this a technical fault which can be corrected? And for this I had to pay BT £22 disconnection charge. This is getting ridiculous!!!

The Arts and local events on TV

There is a move to bring us local TV, but this is by broadcasting it on radio waves. Which is entirely the wrong approach. This is ideal for IPTV, transmission over the internet.

The cost of setting up local IPTV servers is small compared to setting up a TV station.

Dream TV

What I dream of is a local channel at my home town of Banbury, with inputs from freelancers and organisations (art clubs, venues like the Mill or concerts from St Mary's) nearby, say within 50miles, which will provide pay per view IPTV. Not live, but watch it when you want it.

It is a huge benefit to the organisations, a huge benefit to artists, a huge benefit to the community. It IS big society in action.

Isn't that a good idea? Who will join me and carry it out?

Apple to kill music reproduction quality - unless

Today Apple iTunes is the leading music store in the world, with very good reason: it is legal, it is comprehensive, it is easy to use.

But it has one major problem, it uses lossy AAC file compression. This, combined with 16bit and 44.1kHz sampling means that the resulting musicality is LESS than the CD.

I thought we were supposed to be moving forwards, not backwards? How can the industry support this move when clearly their way forward is to offer a better, not worse product?

And now we will get iTunes Match, which if I read is right, will take your ripped CD music and make available to you an AAC file for download to any of your devices (iPhone, iPad, etc). This will make the domination of AAC complete. Everyone will start to think that this is it, that this is the quality we can expect to listen to. WRONG.

It ought not to be like this. What I would like to see is iTunes offer

1 AAC 256Kbps as now, suitable for small storage devices like iPad, iPod and iPhone.

2 FLAC 24bit/48kHz files, suitable for terabyte storage like the TimeCapsule, or a NAS

3 FLAC 24bit/96 or even 192kHz files, ditto

With the rapid increase in broadband bandwidth and storage capacity delivering the FLAC files should not present too much problem. Of course the new Apple server complex will have to be much bigger to store the files, and our iPods and iPhone will have to accept and decode FLAC. But this should be the new industry standard.

The Airport Express and Apple TV (which can currently do 16bit/48kHz) should be upgraded to have a decent 24bit/48 or 96kHz DAC, and Airplay should be capable of transporting the FLAC files.

HD Streaming?

And by the way, if Youtube can stream video at HD quality, why is it not possible to stream HD sound? Why do we have to settle for this AAC stuff?

Design and build a HiFi amplifier

What's wrong?

One of the things about HiFi which is universally ignored is the fact that real instruments generate sounds way above human hearing. For example trumpets or cymbals have harmonics up to 90kHz or so.

Now you can argue, and many do, that since we cannot hear sounds above 15-18kHz, and as we get older down to 8-10kHz, that we do not need to record, store or reproduce higher frequencies.

But this is UNTRUE. If the true output sound of the instrument is not recorded then the timbre will be lost.

It is also true that making digital recordings with low sample rates, e.g. the CD at 44.1kHz, limits the upper frequency which can be stored to about half of that, i.e. 20kHz or so. And it is also true that lossy compression techniques, e.g. MP3 or AAC, although designed to use psycho-acoustic sampling, i.e. throwing away those things that humans cannot hear, allows us to make recordings smaller.

But both of these delivery method prevent the true range of the instrument, the phase relationship and stereo image to be delivered.

More over the limit of digital recording on CD and most MP3/AAC songs, means that the dynamic range of the music cannot be recorded. A full orchestra has an SPL range of 30-130dB, whereas a 16bit CD can only store 35-110dB at best. Consequently engineers turn down the loud bits and turn up the soft bits to compensate.

Through all this we have four problems

- Tibre

- Dynamics

- Integrity

- Delivery

Solution?

The recording chain must be upgraded to capture as high a frequency spectrum as possible, this is why studios to day are often using 192kHz sample rates, giving the possibility to record frequencies up to half this, or 96kHz. There is a strong movement to deliver 192kHz or the lesser 96kHz files over the internet today. Moreover these files are usually 24bit not 16bit, thus improving the dynamic range. Lossy compression is also not used, but lossless FLAC files.

Thus almost all the problems are addressed. So what we need is a HiFi systems capable of handling the new frequency spectrum up from the 96kHz recordings. This means a 24bit DAC for conversion, and amplifier with a response to 50kHz or so, and some very good loudspeakers - these are the critical part of the chain.

Amplifier

A good amplifier can be fairly easily constructed, this on uses the Class D modules UcD180 from Hypex.



Here's a photo of the amplifier, using a toroidal transformer and a power supply module from HK.

I can't get more than 0.6Mbps broadband

The up to date status is this

1 I have received numerous pamphlets offering 20Mbps broadband in big letters

2 I have checked out the status of the Banbury, UK BT exchange that I am connected to, it was last updated in 2006 and is capable of only 8Mbps.

3 I have recently given up on Orange broadband as it gave me only 0.6Mbps, and no improvement was forthcoming after numerous complaints to them and BT

4 So I signed up with PlusNet who quoted me 2.0-5.5Mps (estimated 3Mbps. Great, now I can watch BBC iPlayer.

Except that when it was installed it gave me only 1.2Mbps. Again complaingin has got me nowhere, PlusNet say its my line - which is provided by BT... Its too long or something, and they are unwiling to complain to BT to do anything to improve the speed.

5 So today (10-6-11) I get an email and a Text that say that my phone number has now been transferred from Orange to PlusNet.

AND MY BROADBAND SPEED IMMEDIATELY DROPS TO 0.6Mbps!!!!

Back to square one.

This is the text of a note I sent to my MP, Tony Baldry and to Dawn Pettis at Cherwell council...

The government has committed a universal speed of 2Mbps for all of us. But the reality is that BT is frustrating this by slow investment and lack of planning.

For example, the Banbury exchange was last upgraded in 2006 and can provide only up to 8Mbps (don't believe the many advertising claims you get in the post offering 20Mbps). The Banbury exchange does however support broadband supplied by BT or by third party ISPs.

The quality of the BT line to my house is very poor, the result is that Orange were able to provide only 0.6Mbps and my new supplier Plusnet can give only 1.2Mbps.

When I signed up to Plusnet they were also advertising 20Mbps, and they quoted me 2.0-5.5, estimated 3Mbps at my post code. It turns out that these figures were simply copied from BT who also showed on their web site that my post code could achieve these speeds. BT also show on their web site a different figure if my line was with BT, this is 1.5-5.5, estimated 3Mbps!

So have

- Offers from BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet and others of 20Mbps
- A signed up offer of 2-5.5Mbps from Plusnet
- A second figure from BT of 1.5-5.5Mbps
- An actual measured speed of 1.2Mbps since my new Plusnet installation

I have discussed this with Plusnet and they say the problem is the BT line between me and the exchange. And their is nothing they can do about this…

I have tried to contact BT but with little success, they tell me to complain to my ISP, who in turn say contact BT. So this is a dead end.

BT have no published schedule to improve broadband speeds at my location, even though they are promoting their "Infinity" fibre to the cabinet system (FTTC) for high speed internet all around the area.

Cherwell council is very much aware of the problems of people in Oxfordshire to get decent broadband and have a task force trying to find a solution for all of us. Today it is reported that 90% of Oxfordshire is covered by exchanges supplied only by BT (no competitors), and Cherwell have a report showing that more than 55% of Oxfordshire premises have less than the governments committed 2Mbps speeds.

It is clear that BT is entirely responsible for this lack of service in Oxfordshire and that they have no plans of commitments to improve it. It is also clear that all broadband suppliers are making very false claims and offers to provide 20Mbps broadband when they cannot do so.