London DSO

So the new 6-way combiners are feeding the aerials and the 4 old analogue txs are plugged into them in place of the new DTT transmitters, I assume with some sort of terminators on the 2 spare inputs)?


Ahhh, so essentially it's the same transmitter just retuned to a different frequency?

I suppose now it's all Arqiva the differences between ex-BBC and ex-IBA facilities will largely disappear which must make things a lot simpler. I know at CP, and I suppose all stations, the 2 had different parts of the same building and everything was totally seperate up until 1/2 and ITV/4 were combined just before going to the aerials.

Yes, I saw a few dummy loads, which look like oil filled portable room heaters (and they double as that ! ) in those roles.



Yes, and at some sites different buildings. However, the legacy 'landlord' provided access to the legacy 'tenant' for a common area, or building, where the 'BBC' and 'IBA' outputs were combined, before going up the mast.

At some sites (Rowridge, Oxford for example) all four services were radiated by the same antennas. At others (CP, Mendip, Sudbury) the BBC and IBA had their own separate aerials, though the site landlord still looked after both sets.

At Selkirk, the first high-power site to complete DSO back in 2008, the new digital transmission equipment was located in what was the ITV analogue "room"....latterly, prior to DSO, the ITV analogue gear was in a portacabin.

Quick question. When the switchover happens, will the digital signal be boosted, because the only analogue telly we have, is in the kitchen and the signal strength with the aerial is horrible.

Yes, it will be boosted. For Crystal Palace by a factor of 10, which by happy co-incidence is 10dB.

I hope once the whole UK is converted to digital the signal will be boosted enough to provide a decent watchable signal on portable digital TVs that come with their own aerial - otherwise the only option is to have them connected to a rooftop aerial which kind of defeats the purpose of them being portable!

TV reception is the UK has always been planned around proper outdoor roof top aerials being employed.

The post DSO power levels have been set with that still in mind, there is no guarantee that set top aerials will work effectively, but of course for some they will, and probably for more viewers than could usefully receive analogue on set top aerials.

However, once DSO is complete, there will be no further power increases. Indeed, if anything I'd expect power reductions. Stations like Belmont and Moel-y-Parc are causing havoc in their overlap areas, with some receivers locking on to the wrong regional versions.

Indeed it does get boosted I found that the BBC and ITV/C4 MUXes benefited the best from the boost especially if you're in a bad signal area or using an indoor aerial.

Special Switchover cover on tonight's Evening Standard - and Digital UK will be on London Tonight shortly.

How regional is Channel 4 HD on Freeview HD? I saw an advert today telling me to retune sometime in April. I live in the Meridian region so I don't need to retune. Surely these kind of adverts should be limited to the correct region to avoid adding confusing the very people the adverts are aimed at.

I think there's only one version of Channel 4 HD. I know there's definitely more than one version for anaalogue and digital satellite - in fact there are six.

They used to (and may still do) refer to the C4 regions as LEMNUS

L ondon
E ast/South
M idlands
N orth
U lster
S cotland

It's not that great an issue, though, is it? What's the worst that can happen if you've already gone through DSO? You do a re-tune and make sure you have the latest selection of channels. I imagine the vast majority of the population haven't re-tuned since their own region's DSO, so another re-tune now could actually work out better for them by giving them some new channels.