Since 2005 the television industry has undergone a technical transformation, including the migration from analogue services and the introduction of DVB-T2 transmission technology.
In parallel, demand for spectrum has increased at pace resulting in a range of new technologies and services operating at frequencies in and around those utilised by digital television, which previously has not been the case.
These developments in spectrum allocation have continued with the change of use of the 700 MHz band.
In order to provide guidance on how these changes could impact digital television reception, the DTG and CAI have worked in partnership to bring the R-Book up to date. As such R-Book 6 was published in 2015 with the aim to support and prepare the installation industry for future spectrum changes, including how to deal with the impact they could have on working practices.
It also contained practical advice on interference mitigation as well as advice on the latest industry guidelines.
R-Book 7 was then published in 2017 to add to version 6 with details of the Radio Equipment Directive introduction as well as information on satellite distribution using wideband and single cable solutions as used by platforms such as Sky Q.
The latest version R-Book 8, published in 2022, adds to version 7 with details of 700 MHz clearance and its impact such as the removal of COM7 and COM8 TV multiplexes. It also includes information on the European IRS Certification Scheme (EICS) run by CAI and DTG which is a new scheme to verify the performance of satellite and DTT distribution systems.
