karlpejera

Miyerkules, Mayo 2, 2012

Freeview homes face digital TV interference due to new mobile services

Broadcasters say proposed �180m help scheme is insufficient, urging government to use proceeds from 4G auction

Nearly two million homes face disruption to their digital TV signal because of interference from new mobile services, with fears that a government help scheme to combat the problem will prove inadequate.

About 1.9 million households ? all with digital terrestrial TV service Freeview ? will suffer interference from the next generation of mobile services (4G) which could come online by the end of this year.

Of these, about 900,000 homes rely solely on Freeview to receive digital TV ? the rest also have satellite from Freesat or Sky, or cable from Virgin Media. Satellite and cable TV services will be unaffected by 4G signals.

Up to 10,000 homes will no longer be able to receive Freeview at all and will have to get cable or satellite TV if they do not already have it.

TV signals will be affected because the spectrum being used by the new 4G services (800 MHz) is next to spectrum used for TV services provided by Freeview. Households within 2km of a 4G mast are expected to be disrupted.

Broadcasters are urging the government to use money from the auctioning of 4G spectrum to telecoms companies to pay for solving the problem, arguing that a proposed �180m help scheme will not be enough.

The auction of the high-speed 4G spectrum is expected to raise between �2bn and �3bn for the government.

John Tate, the BBC's director of policy and strategy said: "4G is a great development but should not be allowed to interfere with people's TV reception.

"There are plans in place that aim to reduce this interference but we believe that sufficient money should be deducted from the 4G auction proceeds to prevent it altogether. This is based on the established principle that the polluter pays."

The government has announced details of a �180m help scheme to fit digital TV sets with a filter to cut out the interference, with extra support for the over-75s and disabled.

But critics of the scheme said it failed to take into account the complexity of filter installation in many homes and the number of people watching with indoor and shared aerials.

A joint submission to media regulator Ofcom by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva and SDN, the ITV-owned digital TV multiplex owner, said there was a "significant gap" in the government's policy decisions "with the potential for many households, particularly in communal dwellings, to be left behind".

"Consumers will incur significant costs as a result of the government's decisions ? with our estimates ... suggesting that consumers could face additional costs in excess of �100m to solve interference issues on primary sets only, with potential additional costs incurred in relation to secondary sets," the submission added.

Ilse Howling, managing director of Freeview, said: "We remain concerned that there are a number of issues to be resolved in particular that many households are likely to need professional help installing filters to protect their TVs from interference.

"Ofcom doesn't appear to have taken that into account and we will be raising that as a matter of urgency with government ministers."

A separate submission to Ofcom by TV transmitter mast operator Arqiva, a shareholder in Freeview, said it was "clear that the proposed protection regime and funding are inadequate" and estimated the costs to the consumer to be even higher.

Arqiva added that the shortcomings of the government's proposals represented an "unacceptable outcome in terms of their likely negative impact on the future prospects" of Freeview.

Arqiva said viewers might have to bear "potential additional costs in excess of �161m when the total installation costs of filters for non standard aerial installations and the purchase of filters for non-primary sets are combined".

It added: "We remain very concerned that disruptions to secondary set users and households that depend on set-top or loft mounted aerials for their reception have been completely ignored".

The help scheme will be overseen by a company which will be managed by mobile network operators that buy the spectrum. The mobile operators will also foot the cost of the scheme.

Of the 2.3 million homes forecast to be affected, around 900,000 watch their main TV via Freeview, with the rest having the DTT service on sets elsewhere around the house.

The help scheme will focus on the 900,000 Freeview-only homes, with free installation support given only to the over-75s and disabled people.

Digital UK, the body that is overseeing digital TV switchover in the UK, told Ofcom the concentration on "main sets" would give rise to "unnecessary inequalities and difficulties in implementation".

It said "ignoring interference to set top aerials will also give rise to substantial difficulties in implementation" and warned that the government "appeared to ignore" the special attention required by people living in flats and other communal dwellings.

A small number of homes will not be able to receive any TV, via free to air, cable or satellite, as a result of the changes. In these cases up to �10,000 will be made available to each home to find a solution.

Sylvia Harvey, visiting professor of communications studies at the University of Leeds, said the disruption to TV services of people who had switched to digital was "almost analogous to a kind of mis-selling".

"They transferred from analogue to digital in good faith and they will find that their digital signal won't work," she told the Voice of the Listener and Viewer conference in central London on Monday.

Labour's shadow media minister, Helen Goodman, told the conference: "What is needed is some certainty who is going to be responsible for helping and supporting these people. What is needed is clarity."

? To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

? To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

John Plunkett

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/02/millions-face-digital-tv-blackout-mobile-phone-service

Nick Barmby Opera ITV Fulham Ryan Babel Endangered species

Gareth Williams inquest: coroner rules out 'unlawful killing' verdict

Dr Fiona Wilcox is expected to deliver a narrative verdict after saying evidence is not available for a ruling of unlawful killing

The coroner investigating the death of the MI6 officer Gareth Williams has ruled out a formal "unlawful killing" verdict as she retired to consider her findings.

Dr Fiona Wilcox agreed with lawyers for Williams's family, the Secret Intelligence Service and the Metropolitan police that the evidence available was not of the criminal standard needed for such a verdict.

She has indicated she will deliver a narrative verdict at the conclusion of the eight-day hearing on Wednesday.

A barrister for Williams's family, Anthony O'Toole, said: "We would invite you to say that, on the balance of probability, there was an unlawful killing in this case."

Wilcox, who heard legal submissions before retiring, said an "open verdict would not do justice to the positive findings I can make".

A narrative verdict, where no firm conclusions are drawn, would allow her to make findings and recommendations.

The naked body of the 31-year-old codes and ciphers expert was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London, on 23 August 2010.

Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham, was due to return to Cheltenham the week after he died.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has told the inquest the police investigation was never classed as a "murder inquiry" but an investigation into a suspicious unexplained death. She said she had believed from the start that a "third party" was involved either in the death or in locking Williams into the holdall.

The coroner is expected to begin her verdict shortly before midday on Wednesday.

Caroline Davies

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/02/gareth-williams-inquest-coroner-verdict

Children Social care Belarus The US embassy cables Andrew Cole Liverpool

Extra staff to help manage borders during Olympic Games

�2.5m plan includes return of hundreds of immigration staff who recently left or retired because of budget cuts

Nearly 600 civil servants and former immigration workers are to be drafted in to help staff Britain's borders during the Olympics, at a cost of more than �2.5m, in an effort to fulfil the government's pledge to check all passports at peak periods during the Games.

Briefing documents for the UK Border Agency staff show plans to employ Home Office and Revenue and Customs civil servants who volunteer for the role, and hundreds of immigration staff who have recently left or retired because of budget cuts.

The volunteers who are to provide "critical incident coverage" at borders are to receive four days' training, including one day of mentoring, and there will be 800 training slots available from the end of June.

They will be stationed at passport control desks at Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Bristol and Stansted, but also across northern France at Coquelles, Calais, Dunkirk and Paris.

The 585 extra staff, who will be made available every week to work on the passport desks, will be paid and their travel and accommodation costs reimbursed.

A further 100 short-term staff are to be sent abroad to carry out passport control work at British consulates.

The Home Office's contingency plan comes on top of severe restrictions on UK Border Force and other immigration staff taking leave this summer, especially during the Olympics and Paralympics.

Airport authorities are also drawing up a plan to levy higher landing fees to fund more border staff, in a move that is believed to have the backing of David Cameron.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of International Airlines Group, which includes British Airways, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the airlines were prepared to pay the higher landing fees as long as the charges led to a competent service. But he warned: "We are not prepared to pay a government that wastes money."

Walsh said ministerial claims that nobody had waited longer than one and a half hours to get into Britain were untrue, and the continuing passport queue chaos at Heathrow and other airports meant Britain was not open for business. "We need urgent action," he said.

A dedicated fast-track immigration lane is to be set up at Heathrow and other major airports to ensure the 70,000 members of the "Olympic family", including competitors, officials and overseas media, can bypass passport queues.

Immigration worker unions have criticised the plan, including the restrictions on leave, as excessive and unnecessary. The immigration minister, Damian Green, made a hurriedly arranged visit to Heathrow to announce the establishment of "flying squad" mobile teams to respond to peaks in arrivals at the airport, and plans to make 80 extra staff available on the busiest days.

"We recognise the need to minimise disruption while we secure the border, which is why from today our preparations for managing summer traffic at airports come into effect," Green said.

Cameron was reported to have told ministers to admit there was a problem at Heathrow after a update meeting with the home secretary Theresa May on Tuesday morning. "We've got to grip this," he is reported to have said.

Unions described the promise of immediate extra staff being drafted in from other parts of UKBA as "putting a sticking plaster on a serious injury".

BAA already levies more than �1bn in annual landing charges at Heathrow, with some of the money paying for new technology, including the automatic e-passport gates. A major issue in the argument over delays at passport checks is the government's decision to cut UK Border Force staff by 18% over the next three years, a reduction critics say is beginning to bite.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, published leaked management figures showing that about 880 posts had been cut from the UK Border Force since 2010, reducing numbers to 7,988 in March 2012, and a further 1,550 could go by 2014-15 as a result of budget cuts.

Alan Travis

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/01/extra-staff-borders-olympic-games

Economic policy Cheltenham festival Internet Savings Alexander Litvinenko Equality

Martes, Mayo 1, 2012

Ben Jennings on security at the Olympics ? cartoon

Missiles are to be installed on flats during the Games and snipers will patrol the skies

Ben Jennings

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2012/may/01/london-olympics-2012

United Nations Arsène Wenger Financial crisis Manufacturing data Entertainment US Congress

Anti-GM activists urged not to trash wheat field

Rothamsted biologists try to prevent raid on genetically altered plants with a video plea to enviromental protesters

Crop scientists have appealed to anti-GM protesters not to trash a field trial of genetically modified wheat at a day of action later this month.

Researchers wrote to campaigners on Tuesday and also recorded a video plea, making a move to address the concern of campaigners and thus save their experiments. The plant biologists at Rothamsted Research, the government-funded agricultural centre in Hertfordshire, invited protesters to discuss their objections instead of uprooting the crops on 27 May.

They took the unusual step of filming an appeal after campaigners, with the slogan "Take back the flour", pledged to pull up the wheat plants. One welcomed the offer to meet, but said the scientists had already made their position clear by planting the crops in the first place. The group had no plan to cancel the raid, she said.

On the video, Gia Aradottir, a biologist specialising in insects, said: "We know we cannot stop you taking the action you are planning to take, but please reconsider before it's too late, and before several years of work to which we have been devoting our lives will be destroyed forever."

Lucy Harrap, involved with the mass action Take back the flour, said it was preparing a response.

"We are really pleased they want to engage in a discussion. But we know that talking to them is not going to change their minds. They've declared their position because they have already put the plants in the ground."

The campaigners fear genes from the GM wheat will escape and contaminate conventional wheat. Wheat self-pollinates, so it cannot cross with other plants. To prevent stray pollen the Rothamsted scientists have surrounded the trial plots with 10 metres of barley and three metres of conventional wheat.

No cereals or grasses are grown within 20 metres of the border. Wheat pollen is heavy and travels at most 12 metres.

This new variety of GM wheat has a gene making it release an odour given off by aphids when under attack. The odour warns other aphids to flee.

The same pheromone is released by more than 400 plant species. Scientists hope the GM crop will repel aphids and so not require insecticide. The plants, grown on eight Rothamsted plots, are to be harvested at the end of July and then destroyed.

Toby Bruce, research team leader, said:"We're deeply concerned that our field experiment has come under threat like this. "We hope this video might get the message across, because there is probably more common ground between us and these campaigners than they realise. We both want more environmentally friendly agriculture, we just see different ways of getting there." "The trial will compare two versions of wheat that release high and low levels of the aphid alarm pheromone. Scientists will check the plants to see which have more aphids on them, and whether those aphids are killed by insect predators and parasites that are attracted by the pheromone."

The trials are close to another plot of land where plants have been grown in an experiment that dates back to 1843, raising concerns that protesters might trample those if they invade the site.

In the video appeal, Lesley Smart, a field entomologist at Rothamsted, urged the campaigners to allow the trial to continue.

"You seem to think, even before we've had a chance to test it, that our GM wheat variety is bad. How can you know this? It's clearly not through scientific investigation, because we've not even had the chance to do any tests."

In lab trials at Rothamsted, the GM wheat crops were covered in fewer aphids, and more insects that kill the pests, suggesting the crops might fare better on farms. But without the field trials, it is impossible to know how the crop will grow outside.

Previous work by Jonathan Gershenzon, director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, found that plants modified to carry the odour gene did not repel aphids, perhaps because the scent was released continuously instead of in bursts as happens when aphids are attacked.

But Gershenzon added that the Rothamsted experiments could answer valuable questions his own work could not.

"The plants may well attract the aphids' enemies and that is an exciting reason to look at this further," he said.

Gershenzon backed the scientists' appeal to the campaigners and said he hoped the crops would not be uprooted. "Many of the campaigners are well meaning and engaging with them is the right thing to do.

"We should encourage this kind of innovation, but we should also encourage discussion with people and be open with them."

Ian Sample

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/01/anti-gm-activists-wheat-rothamsted

Lake District Financial sector Strictly Come Dancing Italy Soap opera Rob Brydon

Five things Roy Hodgson must do

Unity: With the start of Euro 2012 just over a month away, Hodgson needs to immediately ensure the England side have a real sense of togetherness.
At the 2010 World Cup, John Terry led a scathing attack on team spirit during a routine press conference leading to ’clear the air’ talks with England management.
Hodgson needs to ensure there is harmony in his squad following the fall-out of Capello’s departure.

Strong leadership: Hodgson has to use his international experience to select a strong captain for the European Championships and finally put an end the controversy surrounding the armband. With John Terry’s yo-yo spell in possession now seemingly over, questions remain over who his permanent successor will be. Scott Parker led the side out last time out, but it remains to be seen if he would be Hodgson’s man.

Mentality: One of the qualities cited in Harry Redknapp – previously the favourite for the job – was his motivational ability and his man-management skills. With the national team constantly under the microscope, Capello’s players often looked weighed down by expectation. Hodgson would need to find a way to make them embrace playing for their country again.

Youth: England have not won any international honours for 46 years and Hodgson needs to inject some freshness into an ageing squad – something Capello realised before his demise. Arguably only Joe Hart, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole are players of the highest class, and Hodgson has to be bold and look toward the future.Working alongside England Under-21 coach Stuart Pearce would no doubt help this process, but Hodgson will have to pick a Euro 2012 squad that is not entirely conservative.

Discipline: Wayne Rooney will miss England’s first two Euro 2012 games against France and Sweden after he was sent off for kicking Miodrag Dzudovic during a 2-2 draw with Montenegro in October. The Manchester United striker’s absence could prove to be crucial during the tournament following the unnecessary sending off.
While building the team’s confidence, Hodgson would also need to work on their discipline to try to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/GOLO3yzwEpA/post.aspx

La Liga Norway Peter Crouch The X Factor Economic policy Cheltenham festival

Leicester Mercury commented Your chance to be king for a day

Five lucky Leicester City fans are being offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play on the hallowed turf normally reserved...

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503348/s/1ee42105/l/0L0Sthisisleicestershire0O0Cchance0Eking0Eday0Cstory0E159687540Edetail0Cstory0Bhtml/story01.htm

Restaurants Dimitar Berbatov South Korea Blackpool Nick Barmby Opera