Imparja has gone from bad to worse! Not only have it axed local news from Alice Springs despite building a new digital ready TV station in Alice Springs, but it has yet to start digital TV transmissions. What is Imparja doing?!
Nowadays it shows National Nine News from Darwin at 6:30 pm EST despite having no news reporters based in Alice Springs as well as National Nine News from Brisbane at 6 pm EST. Imparja showing Darwin based news in remote parts of Victoria is just unbelievable.
http://www.abc.net.a.../07/2618861.htm
MP urges better remote TV coverage
Posted Tue Jul 7, 2009 10:41am AEST
Updated Tue Jul 7, 2009 10:40am AEST
* Map: Warracknabeal 3393
A Nationals' MP is calling on the Federal Government to provide better television reception and access to local news programs for remote towns.
The Member for Mallee, John Forrest, says the move to digital services, starting in Mildura next year, may provide better reception, but no local coverage in some areas.
He says remote communities, including Hopetoun and Warracknabeal, are too far from transmission towers.
"The Government's made it clear they want to try and solve the challenges with satellites, we haven't seen any good outcomes with satellites because it removes localism," he said.
"For example, the people of Murrayville have to watch the news out of Darwin, so there's very little localism."
The Minister for Broadband, Stephen Conroy, did not return the ABC's calls.
William Walker
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Imparja Loses The Plot Again!
Started by
willwalk
, Jul 09 2009 09:09 PM
8 replies to this topic
#2
alanh
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Posted 09 July 2009 - 09:48 PM
William,
Optus Aurora is a free to air system subsidised by the goverment.
The eastern and central footprint has Impaja and Southern Cross Central as commercial stations.
In the western footprint commercials are GWN & WIN. Since the western footprint covers a whole state on a common time zone there is no programming problems.
In the Northern Territory, Darwin is independent of Aurora which has enabled it to get 3 commercial broadcasters.
Elsewhere in the NT all transmitters are satellite fed. I don't know where Impaja programs are played out. If it is in the Alice it is possible to feed the Alice Springs transmitters with a separate program, however this is likely to only be local advertising which would probably be it. It may be that the Alice Springs studios are fitted out as a production studio feeding its output to a playout centre elsewhere. This is how all other commercial stations work. They use playout centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Wollongong.
Viewers who are out of range of the terrestrial transmitters in Victoria, Tasmania, NSW & Qld are allowed to buy an satellite receiver and watch the above programs.
The problem in the Mildura licence area is that where there is currently local council funded low powered translators are not being replaced if the population is too small. Instead it is cheaper for these people to buy a satellite receiver for each dwelling and watch the Aurora free to air programs. Hence the problem of the remote area news instead of Mildura news in this case.
AlanH
Optus Aurora is a free to air system subsidised by the goverment.
The eastern and central footprint has Impaja and Southern Cross Central as commercial stations.
In the western footprint commercials are GWN & WIN. Since the western footprint covers a whole state on a common time zone there is no programming problems.
In the Northern Territory, Darwin is independent of Aurora which has enabled it to get 3 commercial broadcasters.
Elsewhere in the NT all transmitters are satellite fed. I don't know where Impaja programs are played out. If it is in the Alice it is possible to feed the Alice Springs transmitters with a separate program, however this is likely to only be local advertising which would probably be it. It may be that the Alice Springs studios are fitted out as a production studio feeding its output to a playout centre elsewhere. This is how all other commercial stations work. They use playout centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Wollongong.
Viewers who are out of range of the terrestrial transmitters in Victoria, Tasmania, NSW & Qld are allowed to buy an satellite receiver and watch the above programs.
The problem in the Mildura licence area is that where there is currently local council funded low powered translators are not being replaced if the population is too small. Instead it is cheaper for these people to buy a satellite receiver for each dwelling and watch the Aurora free to air programs. Hence the problem of the remote area news instead of Mildura news in this case.
AlanH
#3
GoForMoe
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Posted 09 July 2009 - 10:34 PM
Weren't Imparja going to set up a separate East Coast feed? It'd at least solve part of the time zone issue.
The translators should be replaced, no need for any simulcasting, but just switch the analogue re-transmitters to digital, it is wrong for these communities to be forced onto the remote satellite services.
If they don't replace the translators, they need to allow the local market broadcasters to go on to satellite, not every local variation, but one per state (14 extra feeds). Easily achievable with MPEG-4 DVB-S2, and if the Government are funding it, it makes sense to use the most efficient technology for taxpayers to get their money's worth, and for arguments sake could allow for HD (though HD wouldn't be my first priority if watching Imparja and having no Ten was the option)
The translators should be replaced, no need for any simulcasting, but just switch the analogue re-transmitters to digital, it is wrong for these communities to be forced onto the remote satellite services.
If they don't replace the translators, they need to allow the local market broadcasters to go on to satellite, not every local variation, but one per state (14 extra feeds). Easily achievable with MPEG-4 DVB-S2, and if the Government are funding it, it makes sense to use the most efficient technology for taxpayers to get their money's worth, and for arguments sake could allow for HD (though HD wouldn't be my first priority if watching Imparja and having no Ten was the option)
Edited by GoForMoe, 09 July 2009 - 10:37 PM.
#4
willwalk
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Posted 09 July 2009 - 10:54 PM
GoForMoe, on Jul 9 2009, 11:34 PM, said:
Weren't Imparja going to set up a separate East Coast feed? It'd at least solve part of the time zone issue.
The translators should be replaced, no need for any simulcasting, but just switch the analogue re-transmitters to digital, it is wrong for these communities to be forced onto the remote satellite services.
If they don't replace the translators, they need to allow the local market broadcasters to go on to satellite, not every local variation, but one per state (14 extra feeds). Easily achievable with MPEG-4 DVB-S2, and if the Government are funding it, it makes sense to use the most efficient technology for taxpayers to get their money's worth, and for arguments sake could allow for HD (though HD wouldn't be my first priority if watching Imparja and having no Ten was the option)
The translators should be replaced, no need for any simulcasting, but just switch the analogue re-transmitters to digital, it is wrong for these communities to be forced onto the remote satellite services.
If they don't replace the translators, they need to allow the local market broadcasters to go on to satellite, not every local variation, but one per state (14 extra feeds). Easily achievable with MPEG-4 DVB-S2, and if the Government are funding it, it makes sense to use the most efficient technology for taxpayers to get their money's worth, and for arguments sake could allow for HD (though HD wouldn't be my first priority if watching Imparja and having no Ten was the option)
No I don't think Imparja have any plans to set a eastern feed. Imparja says they have no money. When they (Imparja) cut the local news service from alice springs, they say they have no money to fund it, and when Imparja omitted the Ten shows, it says it cannot afford to fund Ten shows. I'd be very interested to see Imparja's reaction to a joint venture, and even more interested to see whether money really is the excuse when they are in a joint venture. Time will tell. I frankly don't believe money is the real issue. They get ads from alice springs, mount isa, longreach, etc. Now where does the money go? Imparja needs to take a leaf out of WIN's book by providing local news to Mount isa, katherine, alice springs, longreach, etc. Something is very wrong with Imparja somewhere.
Last year Imparja nearly took over Nine Darwin, verey close! Luckily they missed out. They were rumoured to close the Darwin news service, but when Imparja applied for government funding to buy Nine Darwin, the government rejected Imparja's request much to my relief. The nine news service in Darwin still exists in Darwin, thanks goodness - it is widescreen as has been for 5 years.
William Walker
#5
alanh
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Posted 10 July 2009 - 01:15 AM
William,
Using satellite, you cannot send separate signals to the list of towns you mention because they would need half a satellite transponder each wich is hugely expensive for 30 min per night.
The only reason I mentioned Alice Springs is that if the studios are there they can feed the Alice transmitter with a microwave link instead of satellite.
AlanH
Using satellite, you cannot send separate signals to the list of towns you mention because they would need half a satellite transponder each wich is hugely expensive for 30 min per night.
The only reason I mentioned Alice Springs is that if the studios are there they can feed the Alice transmitter with a microwave link instead of satellite.
AlanH
#6
viewer
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Posted 10 July 2009 - 07:36 PM
alanh, on Jul 9 2009, 09:48 PM, said:
The problem in the Mildura licence area is that where there is currently local council funded low powered translators are not being replaced if the population is too small. Instead it is cheaper for these people to buy a satellite receiver for each dwelling and watch the Aurora free to air programs. Hence the problem of the remote area news instead of Mildura news in this case.
AlanH
AlanH
alanh....I was led to believe the new service to Mildura was not to be Aurora, but a new hybrid, requiring HD satellite receivers? Do you have different news?
#7
alanh
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Posted 10 July 2009 - 07:49 PM
Viewer,
There is not a lot of detail around. I would expect a new HD version of Aurora. These will require HD DVB-S2 receivers. These all use MPEG-4 compression.
I expect that they are waiting for Optus D3 satellite to be launched in August and would not be available until the end of the year.
AlanH
There is not a lot of detail around. I would expect a new HD version of Aurora. These will require HD DVB-S2 receivers. These all use MPEG-4 compression.
I expect that they are waiting for Optus D3 satellite to be launched in August and would not be available until the end of the year.
AlanH
#8
viewer
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Posted 10 July 2009 - 07:51 PM
alanh, on Jul 10 2009, 07:49 PM, said:
Viewer,
There is not a lot of detail around. I would expect a new HD version of Aurora. These will require HD DVB-S2 receivers. These all use MPEG-4 compression.
I expect that they are waiting for Optus D3 satellite to be launched in August and would not be available until the end of the year.
AlanH
There is not a lot of detail around. I would expect a new HD version of Aurora. These will require HD DVB-S2 receivers. These all use MPEG-4 compression.
I expect that they are waiting for Optus D3 satellite to be launched in August and would not be available until the end of the year.
AlanH
Thanks alan...maybe us current aurorians will hear something soon?
Edited by viewer, 10 July 2009 - 07:52 PM.
#9
willwalk
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Posted 12 July 2009 - 07:11 PM
alanh, on Jul 10 2009, 08:49 PM, said:
Viewer,
There is not a lot of detail around. I would expect a new HD version of Aurora. These will require HD DVB-S2 receivers. These all use MPEG-4 compression.
I expect that they are waiting for Optus D3 satellite to be launched in August and would not be available until the end of the year.
AlanH
There is not a lot of detail around. I would expect a new HD version of Aurora. These will require HD DVB-S2 receivers. These all use MPEG-4 compression.
I expect that they are waiting for Optus D3 satellite to be launched in August and would not be available until the end of the year.
AlanH
Hopefully they will bring true 7, 9 and 10 from a big capital city to remote parts of Australia without transmission towers. Anything will be better than Imparja. Even Nine Darwin (which in it's own part of DDT is very unreliable about ONE HD) is much better than Imparja will ever be. I suppose I am happier I have Nine Darwin here in Darwin, and lucky I don't have Imparja. Last night I read in some forums horror stories about Imparja. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read those stories. For people wishing to travel in outback with a satillite dish in the car to watch TV, if they want to see Imparja they must pay $55 a year for a card to enable Imparja and if the driver sees the signal drop out, they have to pay an extra $33 to see the signal restored each time the signal drops out. It's the first time I have heard a FTA station acting as a pay tv service. Southern cross centra does not charge a fee at all for it at this stage. If that happens in a big city there will be a big uproar over it. Now reading about Imparja I am warming to the idea of having a true 9, 10 and 7 from a capital city to remote areas.
William Walker
