A little retro-TV technology with this short video describing the IBA's design and build of British Satellite Broadcasting's D2-MAC uplink at Chilworth in 1990. Look out for the squarials!
Pretty incredible that they build all of this without any real idea if people were interested in buying it, and in the face of Murdoch already in full swing with a rival system. Just goes to show how powerful the IBA used to be in UK broadcasting. And all for a whole five channels!
It was similary in France about the same period. But worth : the 2 satellites based on another plateform's model than Marco Polo have encountered many technical problems mainly on their transponders(only 5 for each one). They broke down one after one up to became unusable. The whole project in MAC standard was abandonned quickly after that...
The satellites saw further use in Scandinavia; they've long since been in graveyard orbit (later joined by some of the Astra satellites). The uplink facility at Chilworth was taken over by Sky who still operate it today.
@Colin Everton ETID. I see you misunderstood. This was new technology, that was how much transponders they could fit on the marcopolo satellites. In fact one satellite held 3 channels and the other held the 2 other ones.
@@RyanGonTV I know I was actually joking haha I had sky TV in the very early days.. With screensport, mtv Europe sky channel ect... Was brilliant. Loved it.. With a 16 channel amstrad receiver and 60cm dish
![British Satellite Broadcasting [BSB] D MAC Presentation - August 1988](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9Pn46qmBTW4/mqdefault.jpg)
Pretty incredible that they build all of this without any real idea if people were interested in buying it, and in the face of Murdoch already in full swing with a rival system. Just goes to show how powerful the IBA used to be in UK broadcasting. And all for a whole five channels!
Jim Gardner it was far better than Astra
To be fair. Sky TV was launched a year after this project got under way.
They said same about cell phones now everyone has one.
Only 5 channels we had 100 in USA in 1990
It was similary in France about the same period. But worth : the 2 satellites based on another plateform's model than Marco Polo have encountered many technical problems mainly on their transponders(only 5 for each one). They broke down one after one up to became unusable. The whole project in MAC standard was abandonned quickly after that...
I would have loved to have worked for the IBA
Great stuff. DOS and Windows 2 interfaces. And a building site with no hi-viz.
This was before the imposition of law that mandated the wearing of hi viz clothing by construction workers.
Hate to be a bore - but BSB used D-MAC not D2-MAC (which was the reduced bandwith variant designed for compatibility with European cable systems)
The facility is still in use (and has been expanded) by Sky.
9:07 - Windows 2.0!
£100,s of millions of pounds spent and BSB lasted just over a year. Unbelievable!
All that work and cost for something that was dead in a couple of years.
Sky uses the uplink station to this day,
@@RyanGonTV really is it still used
@@kaw203 Yup! Still in use to this day.
I wonder what happened to all of the gear when BSB merged with Sky and the 2 satellites were sold off
The boxes could be modified to receive D-MAC signals from other satellites. Of course now they are completely obsolete.
The satellites saw further use in Scandinavia; they've long since been in graveyard orbit (later joined by some of the Astra satellites). The uplink facility at Chilworth was taken over by Sky who still operate it today.
Did you show this on engineering announcements
5 channels oooooooo lucky us
Considering you were more than doubling what we had, it was a big jump forward.
Colin Everton ETID Sky offered 5 channels in the beginning, no Sky Sports, but Eurosport was the sport channel
@Colin Everton ETID. I see you misunderstood. This was new technology, that was how much transponders they could fit on the marcopolo satellites. In fact one satellite held 3 channels and the other held the 2 other ones.
@@RyanGonTV I know I was actually joking haha I had sky TV in the very early days.. With screensport, mtv Europe sky channel ect... Was brilliant. Loved it.. With a 16 channel amstrad receiver and 60cm dish
@@SteveInScotland I was joking 👍