dB Broadcast has won a major contract from Arqiva to supply and install the Programme Input Equipment (PIE) at 90 transmitter sites as part of digital switchover.
The first full switchover was at the Selkirk transmitter group in November 2008 and this was followed by the West Country. The next region to stop analogue transmission and become fully digital is Wales in late 2009.
Currently more than two thirds of UK homes have digital television, but by 2012 DSO will deliver full-power digital television signals from all transmission sites across the country.
dB is supplying more than 550 bays across the 90 key sites. Prefabrication and testing is being done at dB’s factory and installation carried out by dB’s in-house technicians. The project includes approximately 500 Hawkeye frames with 3000 modules, which include B080 series and B049 ASI monitor/switch modules and B102 DVB-T COFDM receivers.
dB Broadcast is also responsible for the onsite cabling from the sites’ incoming programme feeds to the inputs of the transmitters and the installation of the IT network, remote alarm and RF monitoring infrastructure. This includes RF, ASI and Ethernet cabling, some of which is fibre.
