Satellite TV access - Update

In March 2009 I wrote a post about accessing French TV.
Here is an up-date about renewing cards.  It is what I send in a word doc to anyone who asks how we get satellite TV.. a mixture of services / advice from various fora.  Hope it helps someone!  (Thanks to David who is my in-house adviser!)

TotalSat UK

197 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8QX
WORKING HOURS: MON > FRI : 9AM TO 6PM | SAT 9AM TO 1PM
Customer Service & Sales:
+44 (0) 20 8133 9898     +44 (0) 20 3080 0726

http://www.totalsat.co.uk/fransat-tnt-pack-p-163.html

The New Fransat TNT pack as alternative to the French Freesat TNT SAT, it allows you access to all the French TNT channels (18 channels) from the Atlantic Bird 3 Satellite at 5 West.

Book an Engineer with TotalSat to upgrade your current system to FranSat TNT

We can upgrade the following systems anywhere UK Wide for just £115 inc VAT
Any Hotbird System
French Analogue Systems (or French Terrestrial System)
French Atlantic Bird Digital System
Any SKY UK System (no longer used)

French Channels

Installing French satellite tv in the Uk

07756 482 669 info@satellitetveurope.co.uk
http://frenchchannels.co.uk/tag/fransat/

Viewing the set top box suppliers websites it is not immediately clear how long the encryption cards supplied with TNT and FranSat boxes will last. So I took a look at the TNTsat and FranSat websites to get to the facts:

The FranSat cards do not have a limit. Simple!

The TNT cards are initially guaranteed for 4 years. The broadcaster will turn on a reminder screen about 3 months before the card expires. You can update the card for 15Euro on the TNTsat.tv website or via a telephone number to be provided nearer the date the first cards expire.

The reason given for the approach that TNT have taken is that the programmes broadcasters only have rights within French territory , wheras the satellites used to broadcast the programmes, can be received throughout Europe.

http://www.tntsat.tv/Vos-questions.htm

 

11  Pourquoi a-t-on besoin d’une carte ?

Les satellites ASTRA couvrent l'Europe entière. Or pour les détenteurs de droits sur les programmes,

il est important que ceux-ci soient reçus uniquement sur le territoire français.

C'est pour cette raison que les chaînes de la TNT diffusées par satellite sont cryptées.

C'est également la raison pour laquelle les terminaux TNTSAT sont uniquement commercialisés en France. 

12  Quelle est la durée de validité de la carte TNTSAT ?

 

La carte TNTSAT a une durée de validité initiale garantie de 4 ans. Cette durée a été établie pour garantir

les détenteurs de droits sur les programmes contre un piratage éventuel.

Cette période commence à partir de la première utilisation de votre terminal TNTSAT.

 Les modalités de renouvellement des droits au dela des 4 ans ou de renouvellement des cartes TNTSAT seront

publiées sur le site www.tntsat.tv avant l'échéance de la période initiale de 4 ans. Les modalités exactes dépendront

de la mise à niveau éventuellement nécessaire du système de cryptage, sur la base des principes suivants:            

-En l'absence de piratage avéré, les droits de la carte seront automatiquement prolongés d'un an.

-En cas de piratage avéré, il sera nécessaire de procéder au changement de carte en suivant les modalités

indiquées sur le site Internet, ou en vous adressant au magasin qui vous a vendu le terminal TNTSAT.

Dans tous les cas, votre terminal TNTSAT restera compatible et vous n’aurez pas besoin de changer de terminal.

De même, le service TNTSAT restera un service sans abonnement. 

13  Peut-on acheter la carte seule ?

Le label TNTSAT garantit que le terminal et sa carte permettent de décrypter les chaînes de la TNT.

Il est apposé sur la face avant de tous les terminaux compatibles. Un terminal TNTSAT est donc indissociable

de sa carte d’accès. Les cartes TNTSAT ne sont pas vendues séparément.

Plus Belle la Vie

Plus belle la vie (PBLV)

Why?
I make no secret of the fact that I am addicted to the French soap opera ‘Plus Belle la Vie’. It is broadcast every week day on France 3, 2015 – 2040 French time. I record it from our satellite TV and watch an episode every evening when eating my dinner. I could claim that I watch it purely for the linguistic and cultural benefits it offers a French teacher and learner as it naturally covers topics and issues which appeal to at least 6 million viewers of all ages, and presents current language in a ‘context’, in both audio and, thanks to subtitling for the hard of hearing, text. However, I am going to be honest and tell you that I watch it for the story lines, the human interest, and the quality of the acting. I just love it! I know that it is common to make fun of soaps and people who watch them, but I will defend my passion to the last! (Incidentally, I often find that people who disapprove have not actually watched the programme)

How?
I got into the series via access to satellite TV, (see my separate blogposts - my March 2009 one which I have just remembered  is here, and an updated one is here) subscribing to a regular TV magazine (Telecablesat), reading the books which go with the series and helped to ‘fill in’ the storylines and the character profiles, and looking in detail at the website which gives a text summary of every episode if you have missed them (and if you are resident in France, lets you watch them).

My highlight
My summer holiday in 2012 had ‘Plus Belle La Vie’ as its leitmotif.
I drove down to Marseille (stopping off at St Flour), stayed there for 5 days, and just soaked up the atmosphere which is captured so well in the opening sequence of every programme .. sun, scenery, transport, emotions, to the accompaniment of Eva's song
I was a bit disappointed that the official 'tours' whch were advertised on the Internet no longer run (the walk and the boat trip), however I was still able to work out where scenes were filmed (tourner).
My hotel room looked across the vieux port; every morning I woke up to a ‘real’ version of the soap’s setting, but fortunately without any meddling from Mirta, the owner of the soap's 'Select Hotel'!
The tourist office’s walking tour included the ‘Panier’ district and a stop in the ‘Place des 13 cantons’ which was the inspiration for the fictional ‘Place Mistral’, the hub of all activity in the series.
I later went back and spent ages in the PBLV Boutique, talking with the delightful assistants who told me all sorts of ‘feel-good’ stories about fans who had told them how the soap had helped them in bad times or inspired them. I bought lots of ‘merchandise’ .. in particular, I cannot wait to read the ‘Lettre à Johanna’ .. the book written by Blanche Marci to her estranged daughter.
I sat outside the ‘Le bar des 3 coins' and imagined that it was my favourite waiter Thomas who was serving me. And perhaps I caught sight of Roland and Mélanie inside ...
Opposite the PBLV shop, there is a little cinema where I watched a short film which gave an open, honest and compelling background to the series, sharing the concerns of the early days when the ratings were low, and the challenge of producing a soap which combines so many genres (hospital, police, school, café neighbourhood .. they are all there!).
I went by bus to Le Parc Borely (where many outside scenes are filmed) and may be that was Blanche pushing Noé on a swing.  Rudy and Ninon were definitely nowhere near the bushes!
I went on a boat trip aroud the Calanques, and I think I spotted Vincent Chaumette engaged in conversation with some shady characters ...
I did not contract any illness, so sadly had no excuse to go and see my very favourte character, the  laid-back, cool Guillaume who seems to have a knack for understanding people (including his son, Nathan, who I was surprised to learn is real life brother to real life Ninon!) .. but I saw several police cars.  No sign of Boher or Samia though; they are probably taking a break to relieve the tension of impending parenthood!

I can't wait to go back during 2013 when Marseille will be cultural city of Europe and ....who knows ...  perhaps they could reinstate the PBLV tours?!
Teaching
I have already used the occasional episode in my lessons to give my pupils the flavour of ‘French TV’ and I was pleasantly surprised at the success. The pure quality of a TV production somehow seems to engage people (hence why I regret the passing of up-dated BBC language learning programmes) – and the clear visual support helps understanding of the story line.

So, what next?
I have now joined the Facebook PBLV page
I’m going to put together a simple ‘family tree’ to help people ‘get into’ the story.
I will compile a list of links for anyone who would like to join my addiction – initially they are here at the end of this post and I will add to them … but eventually I will perhaps put it onto the mflresources wiki
I appeal to anyone who is already in the PBLV camp to contact me and tell me about any groups there are for fans (Dominic, you don’t know how happy I was to read that I was not the only one!)
I am going to write to the PBLV team and see if there is any way at all that I could get to see the studios or the actors. That’s what I really really want ..!!!

Some links
My Flickr set for Plus Belle la Vie
Wikipedia article – an excellent introduction
France 3 Plus Belle la Vie website
Plus Belle La Vie website

Facebook groups: (I'll try to work ou tthe differences some other time . I think the first one is the official one!)
One Facebook group
Another Facebooko group
Yet another Facebook group

Graham Davies

Graham Davies / Groovy Winkler  /GroovyGuzi / Daisybundle

My tribute

Graham Davies just seems to have been ‘always there’ in my professional life.

I have found two ‘tributes’ which I have already written, one on his LinkedIn  profile and one on my Second Life blog, (copied below) but I’d like to bring things together here.

He devised ‘Fun With Texts’ and this was one of the first programs I ever used for teaching languages.  I still find it to be one of the most flexible, effective and efficient ways of using ICT, especially with the option of adding sound and video.  Thank you for the program Graham.

I like to use Graham’s company ‘Camsoft Partners’ for advice about what digital resources to buy.  I so appreciated the time Graham would give to talking through products and his absolute honesty about what was likely to ‘work’ and what may not.  Thank you for your advice on software Graham.

Graham was a prolific contributor to many of the electronic fora to which I belong (for example Linguanet, mflresources, TES forum, Twitter, Facebook, the Avalon Ning, Eurocall Ning), always offering prompt, informed and helpful information especially with regard to any queries about using ICT with languages.  I’ve just done a search and there are literally thousands of postings which will continue to help and support us.  Thank you for your advice and support GroovyGuzi.

It was Graham who introduced me to Second Life through a posting to the Linguanet forum inviting us to a Virtual International Teacher’s Conference called ‘Slanguages’.  In the form of his avatar ‘Groovy Winkler’ he patiently helped me as I (literally) ‘found my feet’ there (it is so easy to lose body parts there!) and we have both been promoting its merits, while being fully aware of its drawbacks.  I so enjoy teaching and learning in Second Life, based on Edunation, an island where he also had his home and where we are planning to hold a celebration of his life, probably on Sunday 1st July.  Thank you for your patience and enthusiasm Groovy Winkler!

Graham has conscientiously and selflessly maintained, stored, and shared his knowledge of the use of ICT in language learning via the ICT4LT site which is an excellent repository of information.  Graham seems to have ‘tried out’ any new tools / systems available (he is one of the first people with whom I ever skyped!) and he is always honest and open in his analysis of their effectiveness.  In particular, he has been willing to change his mind if his experience has changed.  “When I find new information I change my mind; What do you do?”  (A quote often attributed to Keynes). Thank you for your integrity Graham.

I am sure that I met Graham without realising it when I visited Ealing college in my early days as a language teacher, and I have had the pleasure of meeting him several times since: he came to our school for an ICT workshop, I heard him speak at the ‘Digital Kitchen’ event and we met at a conference in Oxford.  However, the occasion I remember most and when we spent longer together was in Bordeaux for the 2010 Eurocall Conference which had a strand on Virtual Worlds.  I attended particularly on his recommendation, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  He gave a superb keynote presentation, summarising the history of ICT, he led the ‘special interest group’ for virtual worlds, and I enjoyed his company at the various social events.  Thank you for your friendship and company Graham.

Graham has shared with us all what a rich and rewarding personal life he has led .. how jealous I have been when he went off to the slopes and sent us pictures when we were back at school; how delighted when he has shared photos of his daughters and grandchildren.  It has been lovely to meet his wife Sally both in her Second Life persona as the fashion-conscious ‘Flopsy Bookmite’ and in real life where we did manage a bit of dancing in Bordeaux.  My thoughts and prayers are very much with her and her family at this time.  I am sure that they will draw comfort from the hundreds of tributes posted in on all the fora.

Thanks for everything, Graham.  I will miss you.

**************

LinkedIn profile recommendation:
Dec 12th 2009
“I have always been impressed with Graham's work in the field of languages and ICT. I have been using and recommending to others his program 'Fun With Texts' for many years, and was delighted when a version came out which allowed the combination of text, audio and video. He has an extremely comprehensive knowledge of IT, and is keen to seek out and promote good practice in this area. Most recently I have been very appreciative of the guidance and help he has given me as I have entered Second Life. Thanks Graham!”December 12, 2009

Edunation Hero excerpt from my Second Life Blog.:
Groovy Winkler aka Graham Davies keeps up to date with all things related to IT and languages. Government initiatives may come and go but Graham continues voluntarily to maintain the most comprehensive and up-to-date website I know related to these topics and his knowledge was translated into a succinct, reflective and entertaining overview of the history of IT and languages at the recent Eurocall conference in Bordeaux. Through his contributions to various fora, I learnt about Second Life and hurriedly entered it in time for a conference back on October 2007. Despite the initial frustration of getting stuck in pink bushes [I always forget their name .. help, Gwen! . you know, the ones you get in the centre of dual carriageways in Italy …] and falling into deep waters, I was fascinated, and stayed.

ALL London June Event 2012 - Thanks!

ALL London had another lovely morning together on 16th June 2012.

I have uploaded a short description to the website here: and if you click on the photo (featuring our own, our very own Prim interacting with her heroine, Rachel Hawkes!) this will take you to the Flickr stream of all the photos taken yesterday by Richard.

Thanks to:

• The Language Centre of the LSE (and in particular Nick Byrne) who subsidised the cost of hiring the lovely accommodation - and a great helpful reception
• Our sponsors Vocabexpress, Sanako, OUP and Network for Languages - all coordinated by Stephane Derone of Linguascope
• The European Commission for all of the freebies!
• Our fantastic speakers, James Stubbs, Jeremy Harmer and Rachel Hawkes [Click on their names for a link to their online 'presence' and relevant resources)
• The national President of our Association, Bernadette Holmes who came to support and give us an up-date
• The committee and other friends who all 'roll their sleeves up' to set it all up
• The quality 'audience' who got up early on a Saturday morning and comfortably listened and interacted.. you were wonderful!

MY RESPONSE

Personally I found the morning really interesting. Because we had three plenaries I got to hear more of the talks than I usually do (as I usually flit around checking all is OK in parallel rooms!). The speakers had not ‘collaborated' beforehand, but there was a clear link between all talks, and they cleverly drew attention to these links. (I always feel that is a real skill .. to be able to listen the weave a link and a response into what you have planned to say).

After hearing James Stubbs for about the fourth time, I am now DETERMINED to do more about getting more target language into my classroom .. it makes so much sense. So often we hear about the importance of being ‘immersed’ in language for it to ‘fix’ .. and what better immersive experience to exploit than the actual classroom routines and experiences which can all contain core structures which can subsequently be applied to other scenarios. I will never ever forget the difference between ‘why’ and ‘because’ in Spanish now, having had James thow me a pig in two halves (why are you late?) which I then had to Velcro together to answer ‘why’. This reminded me of the key reference sheet I produced some years ago and I have forgotten to issue recently ( I attach it!). And as for songs . . I have absolutely NO DOUBT of the power of song to fix language! When I am retired, perhaps I will devote the rest of my life to a scheme of work through song!!! I already have the publications James has already released, I’ve bought the new DVDs and look forward to getting a further ‘fix’ of his ideas, presented in such an engaging way. Here is the presentation he gave Do explore his blog – it’s wonderful!

I was absolutely delighted that Jeremy Harmer agreed to come and speak to us. I found his talk extremely thought-provoking … (if you go to his blog here you will see the questions he was addressing) ) and the way in which he presented the ideas was entertaining, stimulating and memorable. I will continue to debate the questions internally. I hope it is not simplifying my response too much to say that it reminded me that it really is worth taking time to reflect critically on the nature of learning and what sort of learning takes place in various different types of activities…and I agreed with Rachel’s observation in the lively debate that there is no ‘single answer’. (For what it’s worth, my own feeling is that variety is essential when you are teaching a class of 30 individuals... not all learners suit all activity-types .... but at the same time we must not be afraid of doing what may seem boring / repetitive exercises .. good pronunciation and understanding lots of ‘words’ are key to using language!) Jeremy’s air-bowing of the viola part to Elgar’sSerenade for Strings led to several comparisons between music and language training .. it would be great to have a separate thread to discuss this.  

Finally, it was as always an absolute delight to hear Rachel Hawkes who came along even though she is very very very busy at the moment! Lots of great ideas for methods which will keep pupils on board and learning within the constraints of our heavily assessed regime. Her site is an incredibly rich resource for all language teachers and I cannot recommend it highly enough: Go to the ‘presentation and training’ section and specifically the power point for our event is top right. And true to form, she is so thorough that you can actually read her ‘script’ in the notes layout ., thanks SO much Rachel! She also made reference to resources on the TES .. it is great that she is now overseeing the organisation of these great resources contributed by teachers. The area which particularly ‘spoke’ to me was that of listening. I love her ideas for making listening less ‘threatening.... more of a ‘collaborative learning experience’ than a ‘testing ’ exercise… one example of doing this was to assign ‘odd questions’ to some pairs and 'even questions’ to others before getting their responses . and guiding the repsone to be ‘we think that the answer is …’

COMMITTEE
And finally, many thanks to the All London committee who give up time to come to meetings during the year and just know what to do when they turn up at the venues! If anyone fancies joining us, just let us know!

NEXT EVENTS
Looking forward already to seeing people at our next events: Saturday October 20th 2012 (a social after the Language Show)' Saturday January 19th 2013 for 'The January Event' and Saturday June 15th 2013 for the next 'June Event' organised with Linguascope. (Follow the great page Linguascope has already set up!)

ALL London June Event 2012

I do hope that you have all been saving Saturday morning 16th June 2012 for ALL London’s June Event! (that’s in 2 weeks’ time)

We are really excited about it for several reasons:

• We have another fantastic line-up of speakers: two regular favourites: James Stubbs (all the way from Spain) and Rachel Hawkes (all the way from Cambridgeshire); a new speaker for us but an extremely well known speaker in the world of TESOL  - Jeremy Harmer . so we hope that we’ll attract some TESOL friends along as well
• We are in a lovely central venue – the London School of Economics . really easy to reach . so we hope people will consider coming even if they are not London-based (please check website mid-week to get exact room location and I will post info here too)
• We have nice friendly sponsors – Vocab Express, Sanako and Network for languages(the first 100 of you get exciting pens and notepads form Network for Languages!) (and by the way, if anyone else out there wishes to sponsor our event and bring along publicity, please get in touch with me
• The European Commission brings along lots of freebies for us to take away and use with our classes
• We have a stand to try to encourage you to join ALL if you are not already a member
• We always appreciate meeting up with ‘regulars’ but know that we will also meet new people
• We get to wear our ALL London Committee T shirts in a range of complementary colours (!)

And lots of other reasons.

So please please come along … if at all possible, let us know beforehand so that we order enough refreshments.

As always we keep costs to a minimum for you so that as many people can come come along as possible .

The invitation is pasted after my signature and attached and downloadable from this page:
http://www.all-london.org.uk/2012_june_event.htm

Please pass this invitation on to as many people as you can!

Many thanks!

Helen
Helen Myers
ALL London Chair

 

 

 

Goethe Institute May 2012

Goethe Institute open day May 2012, a set on Flickr.

I am so pleased that Karl Pfeiffer reminded me about the open invitation to celebrate 50 years of the Goethe Institute and its re-opening in London today. It was a lovely, friendly and lively event!


When I saw the pictures on the website beforehand I thought that the walls had perhaps been 'photo-shopped' (!) but to my delight, they really *are* multi-coloured and bright! It was a real privilege to hear the artist commissioned to do the work (Gloria Zein) explain the rationale for her decisions about the paintwork and the sculptures.


The website has lovely pictures but here are some I took today.

French Vocabulary Film on YouTube: How to ...

I have just published a French Vocabulary film on YouTube on behalf of Mr Tunmore and myself.
I hope that we'll be making some more.

So that I don't forget how we did it, and so that others can do the same if they want to, here's the timeline:

1. CHOOSE YOUR WORDS - Select 32 words

2. MAKE THE BACKING TRACK
Make an audio track (intro 32 segments of 4 seconds for French, 4 seconds for English end)
Import track into Audacity
Plug in integrated microphone and headset (external microphone had time delay when processing)
Do sound test for appropriate volume (check recording level of input device)
Play track and record separate French-only track using integrated microphone
Play tracks and record English-only audio track

If you know a clever man like Mr Tunmore, leave it to him from now on . he will export the tracks separately and mix them with his fancy equipment. . otherwise, read on ..


Play all and adjust individual volume level of tracks to get the balance right between voice and music
Save the project
Export as an mp3

3. CREATE PICTURES OF TEXT
Write words in a word document or notepad - a word per line
Set list to 'level 1' text (view / outline / select 'level 1' from drop-down [default usually 'body text']
Send to PowerPoint (File / send to ... / Powerpoint)
Edit master slide so that word appears large in centre (View / master / slide master / drag title to middle and adjust font)
Add background / frame (choice available at www.freeppt.net) - (insert / picture from file .. then browse to select .. adjust size, right click / order / send to back)
Save each slide as an image (file / save as type / scroll to for example png portable network graphics / in response to prompt, export every slide)

4. CREATE VIDEO

Select your favorite video maker e.g. Windows (Live) Movie Maker
I use Roxio VideoWave. Principles the same but Roxio costs and allows for finer editing.

Open new project
Import images (the png files)
Import the audio
Apply transitions (I selected 'pot luck')
Set the time for each slide (for me it was 2:40 without transitions, 3:04 with transitions .... don't ask me why!!!)
Play through and trim slides for timing to fit with the beat
(this took ages and I need advice on how to do it more efficiently .. surely with a constant midi-generated beat it should have been possible to do it more automatically?!)
Save the project

5. CHECK IT
Get critical friend to look at it all!

6. Render the video (Export it )
Roxio gives loads of options for rendering the video. I chose 'play on another PC' and for some reason it did not work (mpeg1). I then chose 'TV' and it did. (mpeg2)

7. PUBLISH IT
I use my YouTube Channel. I have created a playlist ready to load up future videos so that learners can start the playlist and carry on listening to loads and loads and loads of vocabulary on a loop.

That's the idea, anyway!

Watch this space for how the videos will be made into Apps from The Ashcombe Website.

Credits:
Mr Tunmore - inspiring idea over lunch and wonderful musicianship and sense of fun!
@joedale + @dominic_mcg - both helped on how to send text to a Powerpoint
@taskmaginc + @bellaale - moral support and making me laugh early on a Sunday morning
Flight of the Conchords - model for Mr T