Transmission infrastructure company Arqiva has confirmed that the second stage of digital switchover in Whitehaven, Cumbria, has been a technical success.
Following removal of the BBC Two analogue signal on 17 October, analogue signals for the remaining channels, BBC One, ITV1 and Channel 4, have now been switched off. All three Public Service Broadcast (PSB) multiplexes are now being transmitted via high-power digital TV signals from three relay sites at Whitehaven, Eskdale Green and Gosforth.
The analogue signals were switched off at 02:00 on Wednesday 14 November 2007, and the sequence of switching on the digital signals for Multiplex 2 and Multiplex B at all three sites was completed at 03:27 on Wednesday 14 November 2007.
"We are pleased to confirm that Digital Switch Over in Whitehaven, Cumbria, has been a technical success," said Peter Heslop, DSO Programme Director at Arqiva. "In stage two the analogue signals for BBC One, ITV1 and Channel 4 were switched off, and we replaced them with the remaining two PSB multiplexes carrying these and a number of additional channels."
"Whitehaven has seen the start of the digital switchover process and the engineering team at Arqiva is extremely proud to be involved with what is the largest broadcast engineering project in UK history. We now look to the next stage in the plan and will be working towards digital switchover at Selkirk next November and at all the remaining sites by 2012."
