D2-MAC was a reduced bandwidth version of D-MAC to ensure that each channel would fit into the existing raster of cable distribution systems. But it didn't really have any significant impact on picture quality versus D-MAC.

When Sky ditched their analogue service and went over to Sky Digital they were effectively finally giving their surviving BSB customers back what they had enjoyed before. The quality, dish size and technology were on a par with that which had been offered almost an entire decade earlier!

Very sad. I gues you know. But The Marcopolo satellite was sold to Scandinavian Telenor & renamed Tele X & relocated to 5 degrees for Scandinavia. Soon after, she received a high powered spot beam sister satellite, named THOR I & later i believe THOR II. Also located at 5 degrees, for Scandinavia! I live in Denmark. Accually when BSB closed, their unused equipment for UK customers was amongst sold here in Denmark! My satellite dish for TELE X, the BSB logo was printed on the satellite dish, here in Denmark, interesting enough. Not all BSB antennas were squarials. But just normal small 35cm dishes, as mine was parabolic, but still had BSB logo, printed on.

​​@@danishbacon.BSB didn't only use squarials, some standard parabolics were employed too, presumably either due to manufacturing hold ups or for a better reception in some areas.

have to remind myself this whenever i get pissed that sky won in the end...

I probably wouldn't disagree with that. Did you work at BSB at the time?

@@clivecouldwell56 No. But I so wanted it to succeed.

It was actually thanks to the IBA that the MAC standard was developed. They weren't just a regulator, they were a technical pioneer. OK so the IBA did sometimes act like they were a broadcaster themselves such was their intervention in content requirements but that resulted in the golden era of ITV and C4 programming and legendary producer-broadcasters like Thames, LWT and TVS.

And maybe if Ofcom had a modicum of the IBA's prowess we wouldn't have ended up with vacuous crap like Big Brother and Love Island.

True. BSB were hamstrung by regulatory restrictions and launched late. Their problems were compounded by paying too much for programming before having sufficient customers to generate ad revenue. Meanwhile, Sky managed to gain customers with a line-up of low-cost filler crap from the USA combined with a couple of heavily promoted "headline acts".

The Marco Polo House was also the home of the failed ITV Digital Subscription service. Shame The Marco House been demolished.

It was. An amazing production environment.

You and me both. After all our hard work, superior technology and production standards, the first we heard about it was a news item on the evening news of that Friday evening, only to find out we were redundo on the Monday.

Sky's offering was not better for many viewers, far from it. What Sky went for was the lowest common denominator, films and first run american programmes that were exclusive to them, the Simpsons and Alf were just two of them. BSB offered a movie channel but Sky had the bigger or newer offerings. BSB tried to appeal to a classier customer with their arts channel, which backfired. They also had exclusive football contracts for both England and Scotland national team matches, all of this was a couple of years before the advent of The Premier League and subscription league football. The Galaxy Channel was a forerunner of UK Gold, they really were the better offer - not necessarily the most popular one though.

well almost but wont good enough for future sky win the day

Anglo Saxon no, they broadcast in D-MAC. MAC is an abbreviation for Multiplexed Analogue Components

Well it's one of those "hybrid" standards which were popular around that time. Those were often designed to have a compatible upgrade path to HDTV, but when Astra came along with its much cheaper receivers that idea kinda died out.

Not entirely. The sound was digital, the video was analogue but with the picture and colour transmitted separately in time and then reconstructed by the receiver. Was far superior to the traditional analogue standards like PAL and Sécam because the colour saturation problem was resolved and bandwidth per channel was higher.

Goodness me, I can't remember. Yes, they were AFAIK.

@@clivecouldwell56 thank you

Sony BetaCart machines. Started in about 1986 with 30 slots, 4 machines and the Betacam tape format, the original ENG analogue tape. They evolved to more slots, larger long play cassettes, and thence Sony Digital formats. The tapes were managed by printed stick on barcodes on the edge. Tapes cued-up by time-code (low speed data) on an extra audio track, and also coded into the Vertical Interval (VITC). If you're nodding, your question for 10. What or who was Bruch Blanking ?