Supporting DSO

Blog Author — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Switch Over was recently completed at the Winter Hill transmitter - arguably the first site serving a large urban area to do so. The city of Manchester is home to a diverse range of PMSE users, including large TV studios, numerous concert venues & theatres, sports venues, and all number of community users; all sitting in Winter Hill's coverage area.

As the analogue signals in area were being switched off, myself & Principle Engineer Simon Eley visited the city in JFMG's survey vehicle. We were able to conduct signal measurements in and around some of the key venues in the area to help us better understand the availabilty of spectrum in Manchester. And a trip west along the M62 allowed us to do more of the same on Merseyside.

Now DSO has completed, the six analogue services serving the city have closed whilst the digital services have moved frequency and gone up in power. These changes have been fully refelected on the UHF Mic Location Planner on JFMG's Web Site. As a result users of microphone frequencies above 742 MHz will notice improved availability of useable spectrum in this range in and around the city.

Keeping It Clean

Blog Author — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A wet & windy winter doesn't mean I've retreated to the comfort of Alfred Place. I recently joined one of our customers on location, where they were filming a popular weekly TV show. There had been some on-site problems with wireless microphone performance, and I offered to help out by investigating as to whether the issue was spectrum related. With the studio nestled amongst small industrial premises, there was scope for all manner of electrical noise in the area.

I was able to check there were no signals from external sources, such as local TV transmitters, unlicensed users, arc welders ( ! ) etc, - as well as other equipment on the set. Using one of our RF Analysers I could look across a range of mic frequencies - and in time domain too. This device would show up short bursts of interfering signals and even glitches in the mic signal.

It is so sensitive that it could detect one of the microphone frequencies after a presenter had left the set for a crafty ciggy break. The mic receiver rack had muted, my spectrum display had fallen into the noise, but a thin line remained on the screen’s waterfall display – it’s the second line from the left of the display in the picture below.

At the end of the visit I was confident the spectrum at the location was clean. The earlier problems haven’t re-occurred, and filming has continued since unhindered – so the problem has been attributed to a rogue event. However, it was, as always, great to meet some of our end users on the ground and provide some support during their busy schedule. My only regret was, me being so organised, I’d packed some sandwiches, so had to decline the offer of some legendary location catering. Maybe next time.

Site visits

Supporting DSO

Keeping It Clean