Thread: VOD The future for linear TV channels
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Old 04-01-2016, 09:53   #516
OLD BOY
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Re: The future for linear TV channels
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris View Post
Old Boy, News discussing the power demands of the UK's internet infrastructure is here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-10222638.html

I'm pretty sure that's the same link that was previously contributed to this thread.

Ignore the slightly hysterical tone of the piece and concentrate on the one, cold, hard, unavoidable fact: At its current rate of expansion, the UK part of the Internet would soak up the entire national electricity generating capacity (as at 2015), within 20 years from now. Say what you like about how quickly ISPs can lay fibre; lack of electricity generating capacity is a far harder nut to crack. It is simply inconceivable that enough extra generating capacity could be brought on stream to power the size of Internet needed to support your vision of a 100% streamed on-demand news and entertainment system. By the time the new Hinkley Point nuclear power station comes on stream, for example, it will have taken at least 15 years from the time the project was first approved, to the first few megawatts being sent to the Grid. Other, smaller, conventional plants could be brought on stream more quickly, but enough to generate the 70 Terawatt-Hours per annum that the Internet is projected to require by 2035, at current rates of expansion? Absolutely no chance whatsoever.

Even if everyone wanted to consume their news and entertainment from a variety of on-demand, streamed platforms, it is simply not possible for that to be achieved within 20 years. The economics don't add up. The practicalities don't add up. It-will-not-happen.
Thank you, Chris, that has thrown some light on why you believe that the future I have described cannot come about.

However, as with so many arguments on this thread, there is an assumption that we will still have the same problems in the future as we have now. New technologies will see us through in the end and there are innovations that no-one has yet thought of that will overcome issues that some believe will mean that ideas expressed on here can never come about.

For example, a quick look at the internet this morning revealed this interesting piece. Took me 3 minutes to find it.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-tech...dio-waves.html

This may or may not be how the problem is eventually overcome. The issues may alternatively be resolved by a system of demand dispatch or a whole host of other methods that are currently being investigated to resolve problems such as these.

To say that 'it will never happen' based on what we have and what we know now is not a credible position to take on its own. Sure, there's work to do, but we are talking about 20 years' time. Hell, we didn't have broadband 20 years' ago!

The problem you identify is a real one, but it will be overcome in the fairly near future.
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