What’s the easiest way of converting a care home to digital?
The easiest way of converting an existing analogue system to receive digital television is to provide each television with a digital box. This will work providing that the aerial is in good condition, and the system of cables distributing signals to the rooms is adequate. A qualified digital installer will be able to check this is for you.
An issue with a digital box is that an additional remote control would be needed: one for the TV and one for the digital box. The alternatives are to replace an existing analogue TV with Integrated Digital TV (IDTV) or to install a distribution box centrally for each television chanel to be carried.
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 lots 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. However, in this situation the number of programmes are limited and there is no access to interactive services such as subtitling and audio description.
