Spotting Squarials

Malpass93 · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 12.32

On a recent visit to York, I spotted an old British Satellite Broadcasting 'Squarial' attached to the chimney of a disused pub (The Phoenix, I think). It got me thinking that there has got to be more of them stuck to buildings, looking for a signal which no longer exists.

Anyway, have you spotted any, and where have you spotted them?

Gavin Scott · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 12.48

My parents still have theirs - but that was down to me.

At the time Sky took over BSB, they were offering £90 as a rebate to collect the squarial and replace with a Sky analogue dish. As BSB used the superior DMAC system I felt sure that it was a matter of time before someone else would use the system, so suggested that if he didn't really need the £90 then he'd be better leaving it up and taking the Sky dish too.

Turns out I was wrong, but there you go.

It still looks cool on the side of the house.

Stuart* · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 12.59

Gavin Scott wrote:...so suggested that if he didn't really need the £90 then he'd be better leaving it up and taking the Sky dish too.

I bet you were popular in the following years for that bit of advice. £90 was a tidy sum in 1989...in fact it still is!

iSon · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 13.25

My parents house also sports an old squarial on the side of their garage. Similar to Gavin's situation really, my dad (a TV and video engineer) left it up because he believed that DMAC would eventually rule the world with it's superior picture quality and sound.

Alas it was not to be and it never made it big in the UK due to Sky eating up the market. Shame really. The system provided true 16:9 and just by the time BSB closed, the MAC system was capable of broadcasting in HD. Amazing that we're only now catching on 15 years later!

Gavin Scott · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 13.30

Stuart* wrote:
Gavin Scott wrote:...so suggested that if he didn't really need the £90 then he'd be better leaving it up and taking the Sky dish too.
I bet you were popular in the following years for that bit of advice. £90 was a tidy sum in 1989...in fact it still is!

He's never been short of a bob or two; and agreed it was worth the punt - considering buying a new DMAC system and having it installed would have cost considerably more.

Malpass93 · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 13.41

Isonstine wrote:My parents house also sports an old squarial on the side of their garage. Similar to Gavin's situation really, my dad (a TV and video engineer) left it up because he believed that DMAC would eventually rule the world with it's superior picture quality and sound.

Alas it was not to be and it never made it big in the UK due to Sky eating up the market. Shame really. The system provided true 16:9 and just by the time BSB closed, the MAC system was capable of broadcasting in HD. Amazing that we're only now catching on 15 years later!

Ridiculous really. Also a shame. I can't help but think how different things could have been if BSB took Sky over. Those 'squarial' logos, I feel, would have stood the test of time, just like the Channel 4 logo.

Inspector Sands · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 13.51

Isonstine wrote:Alas it was not to be and it never made it big in the UK due to Sky eating up the market. Shame really. The system provided true 16:9 and just by the time BSB closed, the MAC system was capable of broadcasting in HD. Amazing that we're only now catching on 15 years later!

It would have been quite bandwidth heavy HD though. Also remember that there were/are other analogue HD systems. The closure of BSB and the loss of D-MAC was just pre-empting the inevitable. MAC would have been replaced by digital eventually, DVB wasn't that far away.

It does make me wonder what would have happened had BSB survived to go digital. They could have squeezed far more channels out of it's meague satellite capacity but it still wouldn't have been enough to beat Sky Digital

Malpass93 · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 13.54

Inspector Sands wrote:
Isonstine wrote:Alas it was not to be and it never made it big in the UK due to Sky eating up the market. Shame really. The system provided true 16:9 and just by the time BSB closed, the MAC system was capable of broadcasting in HD. Amazing that we're only now catching on 15 years later!
It would have been quite bandwidth heavy HD though. Also remember that there were/are other analogue HD systems. The closure of BSB and the loss of D-MAC was just pre-empting the inevitable. MAC would have been replaced by digital eventually, DVB wasn't that far away.

It does make me wonder what would have happened had BSB survived to go digital. They could have squeezed far more channels out of it's meague satellite capacity but it still wouldn't have been enough to beat Sky Digital

Surely they would have just launched more Marcopolo satellites. Costly, but would probably end up paying for itself, assuming enough people signed up.

Inspector Sands · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 13.56

Malpass93 wrote: Ridiculous really. Also a shame. I can't help but think how different things could have been if BSB took Sky over. Those 'squarial' logos, I feel, would have stood the test of time, just like the Channel 4 logo.

Maybe, although they did have many problems getting the squarials to work initially. I suppose there is a reason why satellite aerials are still dishes after all these years!

Even if the merger had gone more in BSB's favour they would probably still have ditched MAC and Marcopolo and gone to PAL and Astra. Satellite wouldn't have been as successful without the capacity provided by Astra - There'd have been no room for MTV, UK Gold, VH1 and all the extensions to the sports and movies channels

Inspector Sands · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 14.07

Malpass93 wrote: Surely they would have just launched more Marcopolo satellites. Costly, but would probably end up paying for itself, assuming enough people signed up.

I don;t think it would have been that easy, remember that it was the official UK satellite service using the UK's allocated position and frequencies, they might not have been able to launch more.

BSB had to build and launch those 2 satellites themselves as a condition of their license, I can't imagine that they'd be able to afford to build and launch more when all their rivals are just hiring space cheaply on a foreign one.

If the original 5 BSB channels survived to 1998 and were pulling the the audience I suspect that they'd have just turfed them over to Astra and operated them as just another set of channels like UKTV do today.... it'd be far less hassle

iSon · Sun 04 Jan, 2009 14.52

Inspector Sands wrote:
Malpass93 wrote: Surely they would have just launched more Marcopolo satellites. Costly, but would probably end up paying for itself, assuming enough people signed up.

I don;t think it would have been that easy, remember that it was the official UK satellite service using the UK's allocated position and frequencies, they might not have been able to launch more.

BSB had to build and launch those 2 satellites themselves as a condition of their license, I can't imagine that they'd be able to afford to build and launch more when all their rivals are just hiring space cheaply on a foreign one.

If the original 5 BSB channels survived to 1998 and were pulling the the audience I suspect that they'd have just turfed them over to Astra and operated them as just another set of channels like UKTV do today.... it'd be far less hassle

Yes the cost of launching the service was massive and it's no wonder it ran into trouble as quickly as it did. PAL after all was more than acceptable and cheaper to run, especially with Sky just renting the space.

It's a shame the service did end but it was inevitable even from the offset that it couldn't survive long term. And as you say, with DVB just a couple of years away, there probably would have been a rationalisation in the system anyway.