For residents in care homes, the television is often the central focus of entertainment, companionship and contact with the world outside the home. We know from research that both residents and managers regard it was very important.
Their needs and expectations of a TV service and the demands this puts on care home owners/managers are broad. Whether residents have a TV in their own room or TV services are limited to the provision of one set in a communal area will determine the nature and type of aerial system required to support them.
For the single TV set, a single domestic aerial or satellite dish connected to the TV set may be sufficient to provide the digital TV service required, by use of a digital box or Integrated Digital TV (IDTV).
In homes where residents have TVs in their own rooms as well as access to a communal set, it is likely that all TVs are served by a communal TV aerial system or a distribution service. These are different delivery mechanisms and one could be more appropriate than the other in specific circumstances. Both can be upgraded for digital switchover.
If a care home delivers programmes through a communal TV aerial, then it will have to take some action to continue to offer a full range of TV services after switchover.
The easiest way of adapting an existing analogue system to receive digital is to provide each television with a digital box to convert digital signals to analogue. Provided the aerial is of the correct type and is in good condition, and the system of cables distributing signals to the rooms is adequate, this should allow the full range of digital terrestrial services to be made available.
However the digital box, which needs to be located close to the television set may have to be physically secured, and two remote control handsets are required, one for the TV and one for the digital box (unless the resident has a IDTV).
There may be situations where the use of a distribution box is a more appropriate system for use in a care home setting e.g. residents could be confused or disorientated by a plethora of TV channels; fixed or wall mounted TVs don’t facilitate the attachment of digital box and insufficient funds are available to upgrade all TVs to IDTVs.
This approach involves installing a distribution box centrally containing one digital receiver for each service to be carried - for example, if BBCI, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five are required, then five receivers would be installed.
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