KEY POINTS:
It has been on the air for around three weeks now, but the Freeview free-to-air satellite TV service seems to have run into problems with one of its two accredited set-top boxes dogged with technical glitches.
The problem is with the Zinwell satellite receiver, which Noel Leeming is selling for $300.
An issue with the radio frequency modulator in some boxes is causing interference that makes some channels unwatchable. A separate fault has left some users unable to receive channels entirely.
Freeview has admitted to the problems, offering an instant replacement if customers return their faulty box to the retailer.
"The reality is there are a few faults with the Zinwell box. Zinwell has recognised that and has people in New Zealand working on it," Freeview's general manager, Steve Browning, told me earlier today.
"It's the RF modulator which affects analogue signal pass through. Not the digital signals coming in and being passed out by RF, but the analogue passed through and out," he added.
A software glitch had stopped users from receiving some channels but that issue could be fixed with an over-the-air upgrade, said Browning. There had also been reports of problems where satellite receivers had been hooked up to existing Sky TV dishes.
"There is some interference on the frequencies that happen to be the Freeview ones. If you don't get the dish installation dead on, you can have a problem. It seems to be existing dishes that have been up there for years and have come out of alignment," said Browning.
Satellite installers and service agents have expressed concern that the radio interference problem wasn't picked up in testing of the Zinwell box.
"Daily, we are almost beseiged by frustrated techs unable to get boxes to function correctly and swearing to never try a Zinwell product again... I cannot stress how urgent all this [is] from the view out here in the field.
"It is compromising the whole initiation of the Freeview platform," wrote one set-top box service agent in a pleading letter to Zinwell management obtained by the Herald.
"How did this unit ever pass accreditation ?" wrote an installer in an email to me.
"Am I honestly expected to install a Zinwell box and then inform the customer that the box I have just installed has a fault and the customer needs to sort it out themselves?" Asked another.
Browning said both the Zinwell and Hill Signalmaster satellite receivers passed Freeview's testing, but that Freeview had relied on the C-tick certification process to test for radio interference.
The C-tick is a special mark that means an electrical or electronic product complies with New Zealand's standards for radio interference.
"That's something we have to put our hand up and say we didn't test because that's what the C tick process is all about. Both accredited boxes passed all of our tests and since we've had the live service up there, we've noticed some things that weren't evident in the testing," said Browning.
"We relied on the C-tick process as much as anyone does for all consumer electronics."
Browning wasn't able to say how many satellite receivers had been returned by customers, but he said the Freeview call centre hadn't been handling an unusually high number of queries about the faults.
However, the problems with the accredited box play into the hands of non-accredited satellite receiver importers who claim the Freeview-approved receivers are too expensive and technically inferior. Many brands were left out of the Freeview camp because Freeview wanted to avoid exactly the sort of problems it is having with Zinwell.
Combime that with the higher than expected cost of the boxes and it hasn't been a great start for Freeview.
"We all have to realise that everyone is learning through this," said Browning.
"This is taking satellite outside of the Sky environment to another level."
