Arqiva Press Release on Emley Moor and Sutton Coldfield switchovers
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Date: 21 September 2011
"UK digital TV switchover reaches key milestone"
Arqiva's re-engineering of the UK digital terrestrial TV network has reached a key milestone today as two of the largest transmitters complete Digital Switch Over. With the Emley Moor (Yorkshire) and Sutton Coldfield (West Midlands) transmitter groups completing today, along with Fenton (Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme), the cumulative UK population switched to all-digital television has tipped from under 50% to 63%.
Arqiva is investing 700 million pounds and 1,200 man-years of work to implement the task over a five-year period, working in partnership with Digital UK. The Yorkshire region becomes the ninth to complete switchover as the number of switched transmission sites across the UK reaches 873, comprising 48 of the 68 transmitter groups. The Central region completes on 28 September with the Oxford transmitter group.
Peter Heslop, Arqiva Digital Switch Over director, explains: "Each transmitter group is treated as a separate project and with 68 projects in total, all phased over the implementation period, this is project management on a very large scale. 2011 is by far the busiest year for switchovers and having started with some smaller population areas we're now racing towards the 98.5 per cent conclusion next year. I'm delighted to report that we're on time and on budget."
Completion milestones for the end of 2011 include 11 out of the 15 TV regions, 80% of transmitter sites and 65% of the population. The London region alone covers 18% of the UK population from just one transmitter group which will switch in April 2012.
From today all six digital multiplexes are being transmitted at high power from Emley Moor, Idle and Keighley, and from Sutton Coldfield, Brierley Hill, Malvern and Fenton, with - for the first time - the three public-service multiplexes from 81 dependent relays.
Following the analogue switch-off for BBC Two on 7 September, the remaining analogue signals for BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 ceased by 00:02 on Wednesday 21 September. The new digital signals entered official service at Emley Moor at 06:00, Sutton Coldfield at 06:00 and Fenton at 01:30, with the last of the relays completed by 17:26.
9:12 AM
HD Multiplex (40)from Sutton 20% down compared to all the other multiplexes here in WR4.
Similar situation on the HD Multiplex(30) from Bromsgrove.
It seems HD signal is not as resiliant?
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Sid: More likely is that the box reports the DVB-T2 signals in a different way to the DVB-T ones.
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11:56 AM
Worcester
Hello,
We have a LG M197WDP Digital Television which is HD ready but I cannot tune it to the HD channels [we are in the recently digitised Central TV Region].
Having researched this online it looks as if we need another box - is this so?
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Sylvi's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
12:47 AM
Skipton
After having Freeview from Winter Hill in Skipton BD23 1ST following the digital swicthover ive lost channles 58 and 61 and the channels that go with them. Is this temporary I had them before dso.
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David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
7:19 PM
David Painter: Looks like you're seeing co-channel interference from the Keighley relay, which uses UHF channels 58 and 61 (but these were in use for analogue prior to DSO). Analogue power was 10kW for Keighley. Post DSO power is 2kW, which means the digital signal will go "further" than the analogue signals, or cause more interference.
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3:58 AM
i live 10 miles north of ashbourne in derbyshire and have been tuned to sutton and have had a dtv signal with a loft aerial untill they switched over! has the output bieng lowered?
i have put a high gain job up outside on a longer pole and still no luck!
thanks mark
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7:31 AM
mark: Not having supplied a post code for your location means that your reception possibilities cannot be checked on, but what you have mentioned suggests that any re-tune you may have carried out has resulted in you picking a signal up from another station that operates on lower Mux channels.
An alternative reason could be that the signal you are receiving is strong to the extent that it is blocking the tuner on your TV / box.
If the latter does apply then a larger aerial will make the situation worse.
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12:36 PM
Kendal
Location is HD9 6JJ, notoriously poor reception. However pre swichover i was able to get a good digital picture from Emly moor, using an old arial (don't understand the technology, but it is nothing special..)on a high roof-top pole.
Since SO the picture is badly pixelated / drops out / unwatchable on all chanels. (after re-tuning / deleting current listings & re-tuning, etc).
TV is a 3 yr old Samsung HD / DTV.
Any idea why has it got significanly worse since SO?
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Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
4:00 PM
Phil: Fully realising that you have said you are in a bad reception area, but the fact of you being only five miles away from high powered Emley Moor could be causing overload problems in your TV/ boxes tuner, the symptoms of an over powerful signal being exactly the same as one that is too weak.
Although not mentioned, but should you have any form of booster fitted try removing it, or if you have type of set top aerial around try that for a test.
If you have neither, then you will likely have to purchase a simple attenuator to place in line with the aerial socket of your TV, as if you had a reasonable picture before DSO your problem points to the signal being too strong.
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