Switch to digital TV goes into effect today: are you ready?

A recent decision made by the federal government and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) means that as of today, Wednesday, August 31, all local Canadian television stations will now broadcast over-the-air using digital signals.

How will this affect you?

If you subscribe to cable or satellite to watch TV - as is the case with 93 per cent of Canadians today - the switch to digital over-the-air transmission will not affect you. However, the switch might affect television viewers who receive their TV signals using an outdoor antenna or "rabbit ears." Once the switch occurs, those users will need a digital converter box or a television with a built-in digital tuner in order to continue watching over-the-air television.

As Ronald Handfield, programming manager at TVCOGECO in Hawkesbury, explains, the station has been already recording and transmitting in digital format for a number of years.

"Persons who receive their TV signals off-air, that is with antenna, will need to have a digital conversion box, available at local electronics stores such as Thériault or Séguin," he noted. "Otherwise they will no longer be able to receive their signals."

The switch has generated a few inquiries in at least one local electronics store, according to Yvon Séguin, owner of Dumoulin/Séguin Electronic in Hawkesbury.

"Some customers already do have digital TV, some will buy a new digital TV, and some will buy the decoder," he noted.

The switch will affect anyone with an analogue television set or a digital set without a built-in tuner, Séguin added. A digital tuner is being sold at his store for $99.95.

Local over-the-air stations, including CBC stations broadcasting from Ottawa-Gatineau or Montreal, are among the stations that fit the criteria to make the switch, as they are considered "mandatory markets" by the CRTC - meaning they are either capital cities or areas with a population greater than 300,000.

This switch directly affects residents living along the Grenville-Hawkesbury-Cornwall corridor, as they receive their signals from one or both of these areas. However, as the corridor lies directly between the CBC transmitters in Montreal and Ottawa, there is a chance these residents may lose their signal (see graphic).

"That's because digital signals do not travel as far as analogue ones do," a page on the CBC website explains. "You may need to subscribe to a cable or satellite service in order to continue receiving a CBC television signal."

That statement is more or less correct, but it depends on the strength of a customer's antenna, explains Don Dashney, a retired broadcast engineer. "We're in a poor zone but not an absolutely dead zone," he said. "It depends entirely on their antenna; if the up-gain is high enough, they will be able to pick up signals."

He explained, for example, that because of the height advantage in Vankleek Hill, there would be quite an advantage in picking up the signal - particularly toward Ottawa, as this region is "shadowed" from Montreal because of hills in Rigaud and Hudson.

"With analogue transmission of any kind, as you get farther away the signal gets weaker, until you're out of range - like driving away in a car from an FM radio station," Dashney explained. "This is not what happens with digital. The signal is absolutely perfect until it shuts off completely. So you either get it, and get it perfectly, or you don't get it at all.

"You have to be in the perfect region, not the fringe area... and here, we're in the fringe region."

Nevertheless, he added, the transmission towers of most stations in Ottawa - located at Camp Fortune, about 1000 feet above sea level - will continue to provide customers with "good signals with relatively good receptions."

Dashney said he purchased and connected a digital converter to his 30-foot antenna in 2009 and has been watching the digital signal from Camp Fortune since that time. Most broadcasts, including CBC, CTV and Global, "are all up there and they have a good shot into here."

The concern, he said, are other stations which transmit from a shorter tower located south of Greely (including CityTV, Omni 1 and Omni 2). "I don't know whether they will continue to transmit from there or move to Camp Fortune. If not, it might be a little harder to receive."

Back at TVCOGECO, Handfield highlights another point: as "broadcasters have to invest heavily in their transmission equipment," another change happening now is that some are converting to high definition (HD).

"Again, our clients who subscribe to the basic package will not lose their channels, but will notice black bars at the top and bottom of their TV screen," he said. "Already, a number of channels already display this way, such as cable channels 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 18, 21, 23, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, etc."

The technical explanation is that broadcasters are switching from a 4x3 "full-frame" format to a 16x9 "widescreen" format, Handfield noted. "There is no loss of picture quality, sound quality or channel content. It is the broadcaster who decides whether the signal is in 4x3 format or widescreen format."