Training for iProfessionals by iProfessionals
Web examples :: Digital Switchover Database
Database :: Web Service using SOAP
ATSF's Andy Finney, working with the BBC and providers of location data for the UK, programmed and manages the web service that underpins recepion predictions for UK digital TV switchover.
If you look up your reception prediction on web sites from Digital UK, Freeview and BT Vision (amongst others) you will be accessing this web service. It's known as the PCD, the Predictive Coverage Database, or more popularly as the 'Postcode Checker', and currently this runs at over a million enquiries a month.
The service uses the open XML-based standard SOAP for its API and is programmed in PHP using MySQL for the database. Reception prediction data is provided by the BBC on behalf of the UK switchover planning team.
This is a very large database; we access over 28 million UK addresses and 330 individual digital reception predictions in producing the result, which has run smoothly since 2007. This built on a smaller system devised for the Digital TV Group which ran from 1998 until the new system took over.
Other clients for location-based data and coverage predictions include Freesat and BT Vision.
Contact
Andy Finney ::