I wrote a digital switch over diary for when ITV Border Scotland DSO'd last November. From my point of view technically it was a huge success - the Arquiva engineers got the Selkirk main transmitter and the 11 relays up and running with no obvious problems.
Publicity wise it was a complete bloody shambles. (This comment was cut from my article
) The twin switch over dates (BBC 2 off on Nov 6th the rest on Nov 20th) caused major confusion. Both myself and the 3 retailers interviewed agree that people knew DSO was coming, but didnt UNDERSTAND what it actually meant to them, and that was a critical failing.
The local radio station adverts were dreadful - being worded "Digital Switch over happens on November 6th" and were still being aired on November 19th which to me would just make people think of sloppy timetabling for the playouts. After BBC 2 had gone the adverts should have been changed to "The second phase of DSO etc...."
The captions played out over the analogues were also worse than useless - and could be interpreted in many ways - most of them wrongly. They also were far too infrequent and could easily be missed - I looked hard for them in the days before final DSO - and when I eventually found one was appalled by it.
The retailers interviewed inGalashiels Selkirk & Kelso were left to pick up the pieces of the confusion. After DSO Digital UK rapidly disappeared from the region and left the installers to sort out the mess.
Digital UK have to sharpen up their act before DSO hits a heavily populated area - ITV Borders DSO only affected 52000 households, god help the people of a heavily populated area if they dont.
