21-06-2017, 08:38 PM
Obviously, cable networks in different countries - or even within the same country - operate in different ways.
In the UK the cable companies traditionally have always supplied the subscriber equipment.
There were very good reasons for this from the start of cable as our 625-line TVs have only ever been fitted with UHF tuners, VHF being reserved for the obsolete 405-line system. So, with early networks being limited to about 450MHz, no cable channels were directly receivable. Later advances to 500, 550 & 600MHz only allowed direct reception of a few channels.
Contrast this with Belgium where sets were fitted with both VHF and UHF tuners. As all the channels originally carried were simply the national broadcasts of Belgium itself - both Flanders and Wallonia - plus Britain, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Germany - plus one satellite channel, RAI Uno, to cater for a large number of Italian immigrants - there was no need for any channels to be scrambled. There was one subscription film channel which required the use of a special decoder but this was the exception to the rule.
Prior to the introduction of cable, massive aerial installations were common in Belgium. On the coast, for example, aerials pointed across the North Sea to Dover, north to the Netherlands, south to France and inland to the local Flemish and French language transmissions. Most sets were multi-standard PAL/SECAM multi-system sets which were very expensive plus the cost of all that hardware on the roof (plus the insurance!). TV reception on that scale wasn't cheap!
When cable arrived, it was a no-brainer. Cheaper single standard sets could be used, all the hardware quickly came down from the rooftops and multi-channel TV became cheap!
Initially, converter boxes were supplied to allow reception of the out of band channels between Bands I and III plus the Hyperband which extended to 300MHz but so quick was the uptake that receiver manufacturers quickly developed multi-band tuners for their TVs and all the converters disappeared.
In the UK, the emphasis was on the new satellite channels from Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting, subscription film channels and so on, so the special set tops weren't simple converters but also complex descramblers with two-way communications back to the headend and all owned by the cable operator.
In the UK the cable companies traditionally have always supplied the subscriber equipment.
There were very good reasons for this from the start of cable as our 625-line TVs have only ever been fitted with UHF tuners, VHF being reserved for the obsolete 405-line system. So, with early networks being limited to about 450MHz, no cable channels were directly receivable. Later advances to 500, 550 & 600MHz only allowed direct reception of a few channels.
Contrast this with Belgium where sets were fitted with both VHF and UHF tuners. As all the channels originally carried were simply the national broadcasts of Belgium itself - both Flanders and Wallonia - plus Britain, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Germany - plus one satellite channel, RAI Uno, to cater for a large number of Italian immigrants - there was no need for any channels to be scrambled. There was one subscription film channel which required the use of a special decoder but this was the exception to the rule.
Prior to the introduction of cable, massive aerial installations were common in Belgium. On the coast, for example, aerials pointed across the North Sea to Dover, north to the Netherlands, south to France and inland to the local Flemish and French language transmissions. Most sets were multi-standard PAL/SECAM multi-system sets which were very expensive plus the cost of all that hardware on the roof (plus the insurance!). TV reception on that scale wasn't cheap!
When cable arrived, it was a no-brainer. Cheaper single standard sets could be used, all the hardware quickly came down from the rooftops and multi-channel TV became cheap!
Initially, converter boxes were supplied to allow reception of the out of band channels between Bands I and III plus the Hyperband which extended to 300MHz but so quick was the uptake that receiver manufacturers quickly developed multi-band tuners for their TVs and all the converters disappeared.
In the UK, the emphasis was on the new satellite channels from Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting, subscription film channels and so on, so the special set tops weren't simple converters but also complex descramblers with two-way communications back to the headend and all owned by the cable operator.
