Granada to start losing analog telly tomorrow
BBC 2 first, all the rest later
The Granada TV region will lose part of its analog signal tomorrow, paving the way for stronger Freeview digital broadcasts.
The region, which stretches North of Lancaster down to into Cheshire, taking in Manchester and Liverpool on the way, is served by the Winter Hill transmitter.
A mountainous neck of the woods, the Granada region requires 70 relay transmitters, most of which will turn off the analog signal at 6am. Others will be switched during the morning, some later, but all will have gone digital-only for BBC 2 by teatime.
BBC 2 will be lost first, followed by the other analogue channels a month later on 2 December.
Switchover, region by regio
Tomorrow will also see analog BBC 2 dropped from Wales' Long Mountain transmitter, with the remaining channels again being switched off in early December. Two further Welsh transmitters, Blaenplwyf on the west coast and Wenvoe near Cardiff, will begin their switchover in February-March 2010.
The West Country region and the Scottish Borders have already completed their switchover.
The West region, which covers Bristol, north Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, will start switching in March 2010 as will the north of Scotland, though this larger area will be switched in stages on a transmitter-by-transmitter basis through to October 2010 - the month that will see the Central Scotland region begin a switch that won't be completed until 2011.
Central, Yorkshire and Anglia switch over that year, with London, Meridian and Tyne Tees finally catching up nearly three years from now. Does it really have to take that long? ®
COMMENTS
It was 12.25am
From the main winter hill transmitter anyway. Was watching ye olde analogue to see it die.
Transmissions are now at 5* the power they were, and should be receivable in areas previously unable to get it, and with a loop aerial etc.
Of course today I lost the remote to my Humax so can't retune it... typical..
its off before 6am here in south manchester.
"Granada region requires 70 relay transmitters, most of which will turn off the analog signal at 6am."
wel it sems they already tuned it off ,at least before 1.45am, BBC 1 is also off at this time, along with poorer DVB, but that is most likely a side effect of switching out and replacing some new gear i assume.
@JasonW
Half right.
I'd call the guys that do the final switchovers technicians, but we've got the Engineers who designed the antenna systems (currently Caldbeck, Emley Moor, Black Hill and several others) up the masts doing installation checking and tuning.
All of the sites have to be completed in a certain order so that all regions get continuous coverage.
Meanwhile, us Structural Engineers have to make sure that the masts can take the new antennas without collapsing in a heap under the load.
It's a big job and there's only a handful of companies doing the work so it can't be done overnight.
@Simon Hobson
Emley Moor has recently been giving me major headaches with the new antennas. There's some great history of the site at http://tx.mb21.co.uk/emley/index.php
They Yanks did it all at once......
They did postpone it from February to June, so that people wouldn't fall off their ice-covered roofs when trying to tweak their antennas, and the individual broadcasters were responsible for their own kit, but all in all, it went reasonably well.
"Analog"?
What's this "analog" of which you speak? El Reg was still a UK-based site last I looked.
