IBA Engineering Announcements BSB Startup - D-MAC DMAC - 27 March 1990 

There were some problems when BBC NICAM started - the picture would look like you'd pulled your aerial out, a click then the aerial would be plugged in again! It happened repeatedly for several days. I don't know what they were up to... I have another Engineering Announcements video here where NICAM is discussed.

The first Engineering Announcements in NICAM Stereo was plagued with problems in the Yorkshire area as the Emley Moor transmission kept dropping from stereo to mono and back to stereo again, but the Crystal Palace transmission was flawless with no technical problems and sounded good.

Robert Hellier This is the one I remember when I was a kid... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BvD5wPI0oNE.html

Another one... either never officially used or I was too young to remember it - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2tcJF_IckEo.html

I did record but seem to have lost the next episode which covered the data part of the broadcast and the alternating 'digital sync' pulses and the final part which wasn't really about D-Mac as a system, it dealt with BSB's conditional access system (Eurocypher as far as I know). I didn't see all of that one, but it showed an engineer with what looked like a prototype circuit. The colour image of the ship used in this episode was then shown scrambled, then the picture cleared back to the ship.

+Ronnie MacLennan Baird A real shame, too. I think it was down to BSB's management decisions rather than any problem with the D-MAC format itself. Just think, if things had gone the other way Sky could've ditched PAL and adopted it... I'd love to see a live side-by-side comparison of PAL vs D-MAC. Grainy, compressed RU-vid videos can't really capture it...

Actually Beta wasn't technically better. it was just the same as VHS.

@@sheldonspock5566 Yes. Did you watch Technology Connections comparison? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_oJs8-I9WtA.html

DMAC and D2MAC lived on for many years in Scandinavia.

By the time it took off DVB-S was around the corner, which was digital. With 4.4 dB C/N ratio it offered a single 1080i HD channel even with MPEG-2 with the same bandwidth. An equivalent analog signal would be grainy and full of spikes.

An 0800 (free) or 0345 (local rate) telephone number.

More info here: www.btplc.com/Thegroup/BTsHistory/1984onwards/1985.htm

Component wasn't RGB tho, but YPbPr or something similar.

​@@fungo6631The cameras used for bsb studio and video tape productions were coupled up in component for the studio broadcasts and recording direct to tape to give the high quality pictures.

@@fungo6631 Technically that's correct but in everyday practical use they're very much the same and both far superior over the composite system used in PAL. The first time is saw digital television over SCART-RGB on a 50Hz CRT set without any picture manipulation I was quite stunned what a difference that made. So much clearer, sharper and much better colors. 50hz CRTs could really shine with digital feeds via RGB and SCART.

@@notsorandumusername Can confirm. Cheaper TVs benefited the most. I had some no name brand Soundcolor CRT TV and switching to RGB SCART made a BIG difference in image quality, it was much sharper!

That looks interesting, but I don't understand it!

He's referring to the brief section from 2:07 to 2:15 which show's a number of film distributors logos