This is topic screening uk election results coverage? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-28-2015, 04:48 AM:
 
The cinema where I project is part of a town hall and library complex. Last week a member of council staff came up to the box and asked me about the possibility of screening the live television coverage of the general election in the cinema.

There seem to be two issues here. Firstly, is it possible to get a licence to screen this event, if so, who from, and any idea what sort of cost might be involved? I don't know who they're planning to screen this to, but the capacity of the auditorium is 68.

Secondly, how could we technically do it? A HD Freeview box isn't possible because there's no UHF television signal available anywhere in that part of the building. There's also no cable service.

There is a satellite receiver installed, it's a Fortec Star Innovation, but it's never been used during my time there. I've only ever managed to pick up one non-encrypted channel on it; that was some Eastern European pop music station in SD 4:3 with a 16:9 picture letterboxed within it, and various annoying logos in the black bars, and extending into the picture area. Would it be possible to receive the BBC, or other broaccaster's, coverage on this?

An alternative might be to take a feed from the Internet using something like BBC iPlayer either on a laptop or an Apple TV. The problem with that one is that the only Internet connection available at present is a weak and unreliable Wi-Fi one. We've been trying to get the ADSL connection reinstated for some time now, and it should be done before May, or, since it's the council who want this, get an Ethernet cable run up to the box, even if it's just a temporary one run up the fire escape ladder for the one night. We can't do anything ourselves, it has to be done through the council, and then their outsourced I.T. service providers, which can take a long time.

Any thoughts?
 

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Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 02-28-2015, 07:57 AM:
 
For the licensing stuff, you should check if a standard hospitality license is sufficient.

I'm not sure they'd agree that a projector is just a single unit though...

Edit: I've apparently missed the part where you stated that there is no DVB-T reception inside the building.

But why can't you put an antenna outside the building? You probably could reuse the existing coax cable for the satellite dish for this. The other alternative would be Freesat. BBC HD should be on Astra 28.2°E. Get a Freesat compatible receiver and check if your LNB is compatible and point your dish at 28.2°E and you should be good. If you're not good at pointing dishes yourself, get an installer to do it for you.

As for streaming live events over the Internet: Don't do it. Just don't. No matter how big or great your Internet connection is. The chances of those services becoming intermittent are the greatest when everybody is watching. You often see on-line streams collapsing under heavy load.
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-02-2015, 06:09 AM:
 
Thanks for the reply Marcel.

I don't yet know exactly what they're trying to do, but the hall where the counts will take place for the croydon area is very close to the cinema; there's a small bar area between the two, so my guess is that they may be thinking of allowing candidates and their agents to pop in to the cinema to see how things are going elsewhere in the country while they are waiting for their own declarations to come through.

If that's the case, then the licence you posted the link to might do; it's showing something to people who happen to be in the building for some other purpose, rather than bring people into the building, with or without them paying, specifically to see what is being shown. It's more like showing a football match in a bar than a cinema showing Olympic events live for example. I could give them a call and ask about it.

The satellite system installed in the cinema is the standard one used by cinemas which screen live opera, plays etc. Since I can pick up the terrible pop music channel it's working, but I have no idea what satellite it's pointing at; do you know whether it would be likely to be able to receive the standard UK domestic TV channels, preferably in high-def? There are several card slots in the receiver, but no cards installed in any of them. If this is possible then it would obviously be the easiest way to do it.

I'm not sure what you mean by DVB-T; is this just the ordinary digital terrestrial television as you might receive at home? Installing an antenna is not possible. We don't own the cinema, and can do nothing ourselves. Even minor things have to go to the council, who then talk to their outsourced service providers, who might eventually do the work, but it can take months. There's a new person at the council who is good, but he still has do deal with all of the other companies, some of whom are good, and others not so.

Streaming it from the Internet would be a last resort. I've actually had a fair amount of success doing this in the past, for a charity event at another cinema where we were pulling in feeds from all over the world. I've also seen a Skype video call shown on screen at the Bradford Film Festival a few years ago. I've never tried doing this over ADSL, and I wouldn't want to if I could possibly help it; far too unreliable. The charity show was done over a dedicated fibre link, with guaranteed bandwidth, very different to ADSL. I don't know what the main Internet feed to the town hall is.

Due to the nature of the event it's possible that an occasional break-up would be considered acceptable, as it is with things like news feeds from remote parts of the world via satellite 'phones, but if it comes down to that being the only way we could do it then I think I'll try to persuade them to just put a large television set in a room somewhere. The cinema only seems 68, so they can't be planning to show it to a large audience.

I'll try to find out today exactly what they want to do.
 

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Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-02-2015, 06:34 AM:
 
The dishes to cater the usual live event transmissions usually do not carry domestic channels. Can you find out who installed this system? You might call the local TV service companies and let them find out which channels are available. Maybe they are open to some volunteer work. They would just have to switch on the receiver, see which satellite it is pointed at, then look up the available channels on the internet. Maybe there is something available. Readjusting the dish is certainly out of the question.

A live internet-feed is not such a bad idea. Even if a live feed would be somewhat unreliable, you could still switch to a general election page with still images, tables, results etc. I think this is your best option, if an ADSL connection and computer is available.
Unlike live opera, etc, this is not an 'audience event' in the meaning that there has to be an ongoing story driven presentation for a dedicated audience for a full 2hrs or so. Just bring some information on the screen for those interested.

Maybe you can find someone who is willing to sit on that machine during that evening and select and display interesting pages around the elections. E.g. a local journalist or teacher or politics student.

I wouldn't miss this opportunity, as it creates good PR for the place.

- Carsten
 

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Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 03-02-2015, 08:13 AM:
 
DVB-T is what Freeview is using. DVB is the most commonly used homogenized form of digital broadcasting and it generally comes in three flavors: Terrestrial, Cable and Satellite. You may fill in yourself what the -T stands for and how the others are called .

Unless you're actually already beyond the designed reach of your local DVB-T transmitter, you usually only need a very modestly sized outdoor antenna. If you put it on a small pole which you can anchor to something, that would already be sufficient. Also, there is absolutely no way to temporarily run a coaxial cable to somewhere outside?

If breakups are permissible, the live stream might be a workable last resort, but you'd still need a somewhat reliable connection for it. Also make sure nobody else is hogging the same connection when you need it. If that connection is via WiFi, then that's already quite difficult to guarantee. You might want to run a temporary Ethernet cable directly to the modem.

Carsten already mentioned it... Who installed the system? And what system is it? Maybe you can figure out what kind of LNB is or what LNBs are on the dish and figure out at what satellite formation the dish is pointed. Maybe you're lucky and BBC ONE is actually on there and you just need to temporarily hook it up to another sat receiver.

I've done several live events where I had to come up with last-minute hacks and creative solutions. If they don't even allow you to setup some temporary gear to accomplish what they want to achieve, then it's getting rather hard to do anything in the first place.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-02-2015, 12:19 PM:
 
Croydon is right next to Crystal Palace, so you should have a pretty good DVB-T signal where you are (unless it comes from somewhere else now). My mother has a set-top, indoor "rabbit ear" antenna at her home in Wimbledon, with not even a signal booster, and her DVB-T picture is absolutely fine. I've never seen any digital noise on her TV on visits there.

quote: Stephen Furley

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I've also seen a Skype video call shown on screen at the Bradford Film Festival a few years ago.

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