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Freesat, the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television provider, has today announced the appointment of Matthew Huntington as the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
In his new role, Matthew will drive and deliver Freesat’s future facing technology roadmap. As well as leading the team to ensure smooth running of existing services, Matthew will be responsible for defining ground breaking specifications, selecting innovative technology suppliers, managing manufacturing partners, and the delivery of new broadcast and On Demand launches to the TV service. With an overall aim to deliver the highest quality product and TV service for the Freesat customer, Matthew will work closely alongside Freesat’s Director of Product Development, Dan Chronnell, who holds responsibility for the delivery of Freesat’s product roadmap.
The launch of <free time>, Freesat’s second generation service in September 2012 marked a technological landmark not only for Freesat, but for all UK satellite television delivery; as the first British TV service developed using European open standards for hybrid TV, including elements of OIPF, HbbTV and HTML 5 browser technology. Matthew will build upon Freesat’s technological legacy and drive the next steps of their development.
Matthew is currently Vice President of Product Marketing for NAGRA, where he is responsible for managing the company’s B2B product strategy and positioning. He has more than 18 years of experience in developing solutions, services and products for digital and interactive television, starting with video-on-demand trials in the early ’90s.
Freesat’s Managing Director, Emma Scott commented:
I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Matthew to Freesat and really look forward to working with him. His ability and enthusiasm were clearly apparent throughout the recruitment process. He will be instrumental in shaping and driving the evolution of Freesat’s service and I know he will be an asset to the team.
Matthew Huntington said:
I’m excited to have the opportunity to build upon Freesat’s existing technology and to contribute to their ambitious plans. I’m looking forward to driving the next stage of Freesat’s technological evolution and working with their strong collection of partners.
Matthew will commence his new appointment on 1 May, reporting directly to Emma Scott.
March 20th, 2013 at 9:33 am
More HD channels and no more 4×3 please as I don’t have a 4×3 tube tv anymore. SD and 4×3 is so 20th Century.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 9:53 am
First job 40d demand five
MartinQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Interesting, seems Freesat are investing in some heavyweight industry specialists to help drive the platform forward – just what’s been needed.
NeilQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 1:45 pm
It’s nice to have somebody driving Freesat forward;yes more HD channels would be nice, but we have to realise that many have paid contracts for Sky platform carriage and many of those channels seem to accept a mixture of subscription fee income, commercial breaks and teleshopping make up their income which in part is true, that money pays for programmes and brand new acquisitions/productions made for them by other broadcasters/programme makers and movie studio owned TV company operations in the US. Unless they tell Sky where to get off, or break away from the subscription paywalls of Rupert Murdoch they’ll never ever come to us Freesatians.
AnthonyQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
Because the Tech Officer at a platform provider can decide what a broadcaster will be on air in!
Two very different things indeed.
ianQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 3:04 pm
Agree with Anthony @ 4. There seems to be a preoccupation with people shouting GET MORE HD all the time on JoinFreesat when the truth of the matter is any HD channels we get are unlikely to be worth watching.
I’m holding out for BBC3 HD and BBC4 HD but I think I’ll be waiting a while.
I hope that the new bloke looks at ways of streaming content from Freesat boxes to other devices in your home such as tablets and smartphones. Remote record setting amongst other genuinely useful innovations to enable us to consume our existing channels and recordings would be most welcome. Adding more channels (HD or otherwise) doesn’t differentiate Freesat from the competition.
AndyQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 4:52 pm
slightly off topic, but still on the subject of technology, MoneysavingExpert website have been carrying out a poll of tech in people’s homes:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/19-03-2013/which-gadgets-do-you-own-march2013
28% of those who’ve cast their votes have a FREESAT box.
Al CatrazQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Was tweeted today by Martin Cirrigan
@freesat_tv will launch their remote control app later in the year #MTPlayground
MarkQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 6:02 pm
We want all bbc channels in HD
delphiQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 6:14 pm
Its possible already to stream content to tablets and smartphones.
DegsQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 6:50 pm
maybe from the foxsat-hdr, but not yet from the new hdr-1000s…
Al CatrazQuote
March 20th, 2013 at 8:03 pm
I hope Matthew can make a decent cup of coffee because that’s probably all he will be allowed to do judging by past performances of Freesat personnel.
Soldierboy001Quote
March 20th, 2013 at 9:56 pm
I really don’t think it’s a good idea for Freesat to be “defining ground breaking specifications”.
What they need to do is embrace existing standards and technologies.
Otherwise we’ll be back in the position we were in at the end of 2008 when Freesat had planned and promised on-demand services which none of the manufacturers actually supported.
Freesat take note:
IPTV is not only the future, but already has a European standard for delivery. It’s called HbbTV. Manufacturers can already support this on current and recent hardware.
If Freesat doesn’t endorse this, and encourage providers to usie it, they may as well give up now. Trying to support mutliple delivery mechanisms for IPTV is never going to a recipe for success.
As a long term brand, the only market I see for Freesat is as provider of an aggragate EPG of on-demand services (LoveFilm etc), catch up TV and scheduled broadcasts on satellite, cable and UHF.
Perhaps not always Free and definitely not always Sat.
It’s the gap in the market, which is waiting to be filled.
Brian DamageQuote
March 21st, 2013 at 8:56 am
No DAB radio or standalone internet radio on list.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 21st, 2013 at 9:19 am
Just interestingly looked at the media release relating to this on the freesat website and in the “about freesat” bit at the bottom it says 4OD coming soon but no mention of demand 5?
Mark WhiteQuote
March 21st, 2013 at 2:24 pm
Lets just welcome the chap to Freesat and see what happens, good luck to him.
paulie walnutsQuote
March 21st, 2013 at 5:12 pm
And not officially from either. If you don’t want to use third party firmware then you’re out of luck. It may very well be possible, Degs, and fair enough to point it out however I’m looking for official support.
I hope Mark @ 8 is correct, although I can’t find any mention of it or looking on Twitter can’t find the person he mentions. Oh well. It’s not the end of the world – just a “nice to have”.
AndyQuote
March 21st, 2013 at 7:27 pm
Meanwhile I’m sitting here streaming a documentary to my laptop while my wife watches Emmerdale and my Grandson is streaming Toy story 2 to his tablet. Mega cool or what? To me anyway. When you think I used to dabble in projects like making a tuner to pick up audio only from BBC2 when the new UHF channels started transmission.
DegsQuote
March 22nd, 2013 at 9:48 am
Agreed more HD plus Freesat ought to be thinking about phasing out all SD boxes as HD boxes downscale to SD anyway and SD box sales are very low. SD will need to be phased out so might as well get ahead of the game.
I disagree on IP TV. It’s what many broadcasters would like to see as the future as its cheaper for them as the customer picks up the bandwidth tab.
However, IP TV has 1 big disadvantage that can never be addressed – reliability. Many people’s internet connections go down regularly even if only momentarily because to deliver a signal over the internet involves thousands of nodes and tens of servers. Any single point of failure out of any of those hundreds of points and you’re going to have an interrupted signal or no tv. To me as a consumer, thats unacceptable.
I see satellite as the future. Loads of bandwidth plus only two links, an uplink and a downlink – ultimate reliability.
Finally, Mathew, if you’re reading this, get Freesat 4K ready. Tv’s are out there as are projectors, albeit at a high price at the moment but no worse than HD tv’s when they 1st appeared. I gather from here: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/hd-3d-no-the-future-of-television-is-4k–and-its-brought-to-you-by-some-very-sharp-meerkats-8467820.html
that the BBC have committed to supporting 4K and are already recording some programmes in 4K in anticipation.
Al (Original)Quote
March 22nd, 2013 at 10:19 am
I also wanted to add 4K broadcasts are already happening in Europe as Eutelsat Communications launched the first Ultra HD demo channel in Europe in January 2013, on its EUTELSAT 10A satellite.
South Korea broadcasts Ultra HD on it’s KBS Kwanak Transmitter uses DVB-T2 architecture (the tech behind Freeview HD in the UK) to send an Ultra HD signal compressed using HEVC encoding.
A 6 month trial is scheduled in the US this year and the World Cup in Brazil will be transmitted in 4K in 2014 to Japanese viewers.
All the above is taken from a TechRadar Article.
Al (Original)Quote
March 22nd, 2013 at 5:16 pm
The 4K channel is transmitting on 10E, on hobby kit its split into 4 separate pictures (called top left, bottom left, top right & bottom right!)
RoscoQuote
March 23rd, 2013 at 9:38 am
The Olympics were done in 8K not 4K buy hey we still have 144 ish SD channels on Freesat and probably will have even more in a years time so where will the 4K shows come from? We can’t even get 14 so called HD channels to come to Freesat which would be 10% of channels and would be reasonable for 2013.
Talk of 4k is pie in the $ky and no doubt they (Sky) will be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of charging an extra £20 a month for their inevitable 4K channel or perhaps give it for “free” with their most expensive package.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 23rd, 2013 at 9:53 am
Dear Matthew,
Would you please try hard to get STV HD on Freesat. 3 home grown HD channels and 2 HD foreign news broadcasters is a pretty poor showing. How about lowering the EPG fee for HD channels. Also can you discourage channels from using 4×3 as all TV’s are 16×9 now.
Cheers
Richard.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 23rd, 2013 at 9:54 am
The BBC are commissioning programmes in 4K, from the link I posted above:
I have no doubt Sky will drop on this quickly as a money making opportunity and why not?
It could actually do everyone a favour if they start to phase SD out as a result as it may be the impetus required to force channels to switch to HD as a base line.
With enough content Sky could make HD free and charge for 4K channels as they do for HD now.
Al (Original)Quote
March 23rd, 2013 at 10:02 am
Yeah I read the bit about the BBC making a 4k series but betcha it won’t be shown on FTA TV. It will probably be on Skys 4k channel.
Agree with you about HD being the new SD if 4k happens so it is a good thing. I
Also agree SD should be phased out as obselete technology.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 23rd, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Id hazard a guess that Al Jazeera HD is a good candidate for a UK launch in the not too distant future – AJ have launched 7 channels in HD today across various satellites, so theres no shortage of money there….
RoscoQuote
March 23rd, 2013 at 11:57 pm
Hardly obsolete bud – on Sky’s own figures the MAJORITY of viewers (nearly 60%!) still watch in SD. It’ll be a few years yet till even 75% of viewers are watching in HD!
TV customers 10,358,000
Sky + HD customers 4,561,000
(June 2012 figures)
RoscoQuote
March 24th, 2013 at 12:22 am
At an extra £10 per month for HD, its no wonder nearly 60% still watch in SD!
Derek (Original)Quote
March 24th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Its actually an extra £10 60p per month for HD. I meant technically.
r.crichtonQuote
March 24th, 2013 at 3:28 pm
On Freesat, using Freesat’s figures, 82% of boxes sold are HD: http://www.freesat.co.uk/2m
Given that HD boxes downscale to SD anyway, it makes little sense to continue to vend SD boxes with 4K around the corner. It makes far more sense to get everyone onto HD boxes with a view to SD being switched off in a few years time.
Those with SD tv’s can still watch in SD via a HD box so no need for anyone to change TV but getting everyone onto HD boxes makes sense as its highly unlikely Freesat and broadcasters will be able to support 3 resolution formats, so by getting everyone onto HD boxes, broadcasters can switch to HD and 4K transmissions (2 formats) whilst still supporting SD via downscaling.
Al (Original)Quote
March 24th, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Freesat is the only TV service that does not have English red button commentary on S4C, just a small & simple issue for someone at freesat to sort out!
DanielQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 9:34 am
I thought to change the audio you just change the audio channel using the audio button on the remote..
PhilQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 10:01 am
Switched freetime box on this morning – only option it gives me is to format the hard drive – it self deleted all my recordings – not happy!
GlynQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 10:31 am
Sorry to hear that. Personally I wouldn’t touch Freetime until the box is properly sorted and 40D and D5 are on it as promised last year. Also I would like other maufacturers not just Humax to back the platform with physical products not just vague promises of support and excuses about a fall out with their software developers. How preposterous.
Humax need to get their tech act together as well as releasing pretty colours. It is a premium priced product and we are entitled to premium preformance.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 11:18 am
I agree with most of your post however aren’t their 3 resolution formats on Freesat now. Any channel can come onto Freesat and use less than
the full SD resolution eg the CBS channels, CNN, Bloomberg and many others.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 11:24 am
Forgot to say those figures about how many have Freesat HD are very out of date. They relate to when Freesat reached 2 million sales. Freesat now has 3 million sales so I would be interested to know how many now have HD and how many SD.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
It’s all very well looking for more HD content — I’d certainly welcome More4HD for example, but what’s really needed is more kit to support the platform in the first place. There’s next to no hardware to be had that carries the Freesat logo nowadays, and IMHO, unless that changes then the platform doesn’t have much of a future.
Clem DyeQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
So, we know BBC 2 HD goes live tomorrow, what about Travel Channel? There’s no news yet.
SaltydawgQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
VIVA is currently FTA on 11895 – 27500 – V – 2/3
PQ is disgraceful but its there!
ianQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Actually it’s the majority, as HD boxes (with more HD than Freesat) are the default boxes for new customers not taking the HD sub.
Latest figures show 6.7m subscribers have HD boxes of which 4.468m pay £10.25 for the extra 50 odd HD channels.
West Country GirlQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 10:46 pm
it will be on the Freesat EPG on Tuesday 2nd April on channel 507.
ShaneQuote
March 25th, 2013 at 11:51 pm
The launch date isn’t known… April 2nd is when EPG data for 5 programmes on Travel Channel pops up.
Possibly an announcement on Thursday?
HarryQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 1:13 am
Maybe we’ll be in for a surprise and it be added later on today? There will be some EPG label changes today as BBC HD becomes BBC 2 HD. FS and the individual channels themselves tend not to announce anything in advance of the actual launch day.
NeilQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 8:03 am
Yawn. Is there really any need for yet another pop video channel on Freesat apart from the EPG fee it will pay especially one with the reported abysmal PQ like Viva on 11895.
Now if it launched in HD I would see some merit in that but if it’s just another poor quality video looper it can do one.
Nice to have a second all day BBC HD channel even though much of the output is likely to be upscaled SD at present.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 9:01 am
Any further news on the ‘Horse & Country’ channel joining Freesat?
They had a vote on their website but this closed some time ago.
No further information or results have been released.
Anyone know anything more on this?
JasonQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 10:47 am
Drop them an email to find out. I thought the vote was still open as I cast mine only a couple of weeks back?
Had a look last night and the PQ is poor. I think the important thing here, rather than the channel content as such, is the fact FS is matching DTT in terms of channel line-up and narrows the margin between the two.
NeilQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
VIVA, like it’s MTV parent, is not much of a music channel now. Programmes dominate the schedule from 4pm on weekdays and longer at the weekend.
.
Unfortunately several of the most popular programmes on VIVA such as South Park and Two and a Half Men have recently been removed from the schedule. It could be because the rights expired or maybe there are issues with broadcasting these shows FTA across Europe on satellite, but the channel is weaker as a result. It now depends mostly on old episodes of MTV US series.
CarlQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 1:50 pm
Matching DTT Neil. There are 2 on DTT and 15 on FS so should FS loose 13 to match? I don’t see the need to match an inferior platform.
r.crichtonQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
Yeah you have the same pet hate as me Richard.
I do think there should be minimum broadcasting standards for both resolution and bit rate, and these should be high. I’ going to say native resolution for the broadcast medium (ie no upscaling) and probably around 6mbs for SD, 14mbs for HD, 20mbs for HD 3D and around 40-50mbs for 4K plus more 4K 3D (as yet unquantifiable even by guesstimate).
However, I think its impossible to put in place unless the government steps in and regulates the industry as channels would just leave to go to other broadcasters. What’s needed is a minimum high standard across all platforms ie Sky, Freesat, Virgin and DTT.
Again there’s no will to do this and DTT doesn’t have the room and I think the governments more interested I believe in getting more channels on DTT than on ensuring the best quality.
Whether or not you could exempt DTT I don’t know. Would broadcasters give up Sky, Virgin and Freesat for DTT transmission alone? Again I don’t know.
Depends what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for integrated kit ie TV’s with Freesat built in, then that’s true. However, there’s no shortage of set top boxes. Personally I’d argue you’re better off without integrated kit because if you’re set top box goes wrong, you buy a new one. If your integrated TV goes wrong, you’re forced either to buy a new TV (far more expensive) or pay for what is probably a very expensive repair and be without your tv for a while.
I think he means matching as in getting all the Freeview channels on Freesat rather than Freesat reducing content to match Freeview.
However, as a general comment, the government and the BBC need to stop treating Freeview like god. It’s bandwidth restricted so as I 1st said a long time ago, the time has more than come where each platform should be able to stand on its own strengths, so the BBC on Freesat should be allowed to broadcast at higher quality and use it as a showcase medium. Equally freeview should play to its strengths as a cheaper alternative in terms of equipment investment. Then quite simply the consumer should be allowed to decide which platform suits them, superior quality or cheaper set up costs according to their own viewing habits and preferences.
Al (Original)Quote
March 26th, 2013 at 5:56 pm
Everyone seems to think Freeview is the better de-facto platform, my point was that if freesat matched the channel line-up (and of course betters it with extra of its own) then at least we’re getting closer with all the FV services on FS. I agree though that PQ is poor, it’s probably the only DSAT channel with better PQ on it’s DTT equivalent!
NeilQuote
March 26th, 2013 at 9:43 pm
I wonder if they plan to move it to a spotbeam transponder?? I presume that’s the original reason it was FTV to protect programme rights?
NeilQuote
March 27th, 2013 at 8:24 am
I don’t. Freeview is poor..I have YouView but I hardly ever watch it because the PQ is inferior to Freesats on all the channels.The hard to navigate,dreary blue/black EPG without categorys is no match for Freesats .Also I’m not that interested in any of the UKTV looper channels on Freeview that people seem to rave about. As for Pick etc truly awful barker channels with Sky adverts every 10 minutes. Other people have other views.
Richard CrichtonQuote
March 27th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
I haven’t watched any freeview services in my house for 4yrs, before that I watched off an old Sky STB and used analogue for channels 1-5. Good old PAL, almost looks like HD quality compared to the standard of some DTT SD channels. RT, now it’s widescreen and available in HD, looks absolutely shocking on DTT!
Yep, don’t watch much Pick TV, I put the odd show on Challenge when there’s nothing else on and if Viva joins I might be tempted to watch a couple of old episodes of Dirty Sanchez or Jackass but agree, not to everyone’s taste!
NeilQuote
April 2nd, 2013 at 8:33 pm
The new guy cant do much worse than outgoing guy, who couldnt organise a booze up in a brewary and quite frankly who ever gets the job. Best hope freesat invest in him and the freetime side of their platform more. Otherwise he will be as shafted as the last guy.
Its all about how much money you are willing to invest to get a good service. Which is why Sky, Virgin and even Youview are doing better because their pockets are deeper.
To me also. It seems a complete waste of time any of you venting your frustrations about channels, HD, SD, under par bitrates etc… Who cares as freesat will just do what they do and work with who they can if and when the opportunities present themselves.
If you want extra HD channels or otherwise, stop wasting your time posting about it and go and buy Virgin or Sky as they will give you plenty. Otherwise be happy, that for your hard earned money someone, even if it is freesat is willing to offer you a contract free solution with channels, VOD and potentially a little extra in the future.
It is not there fault that they obviously do not have the money to throw it at all the projects they embark on and I am sure that one day they will be able to add value to their service.
You know what they say “The Best Things Come to Those who Wait”.
Penny CrayonQuote
April 25th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
I lost the will to live half way through the second paragraph’s technobull.
Marky MarkQuote