Digital Switchover
Digital switchover took place at Sutton Coldfield in September 2011. In preparation for this, major engineering works took place at the station. The mast height was increased from 245.0 metres (804 ft) to 270.5 metres (887 ft) and the UHF television antennas were replaced. This was accomplished through the use of a temporary 240.2 metres (788 ft) mast constructed to broadcast all the area's services so that the main mast could be worked on 'cold'.
As at other stations, the digital switchover took place in two stages:
In the first stage (7 September 2011):
- BBC Two analogue (Channel 40) closed down
- Low-power BBC multiplex (Mux 1) on channel 41 closed down
- Low-power SDN multiplex (Mux A) moved from channel 47 to channel 41 (until stage 2)
- ITV1 analogue moved from channel 43 to channel 40 (until stage 2)
- High-power multiplex BBC A started on channel 43
In the second stage (21 September 2011):
- BBC One analogue (Channel 46) closed down
- ITV1 analogue (Channel 40) closed down
- Channel 4 analogue (Channel 50) closed down
- Mux 1 (C41), Mux 2 (C44), Mux A (C47), Mux B (C51), Mux C (C52) and Mux D (C55) closed down
- All multiplexes increased in power to 200,000 watts (200 kW)
- New multiplexes came on air: SDN on C42, Arqiva A on C45, Arqiva B on C39, Digital 3&4 on C46 and BBC B on C40.
HD broadcasts were moved from the Lichfield transmitter to Sutton Coldfield on the BBC B multiplex (C40, 626.2 MHz). The Lichfield transmitter ceased the broadcast of all television services (Analogue Channel 5 and Digital BBC B (Mux HD)), with all six multiplexes being broadcast from Sutton Coldfield.
Read more about this topic: Sutton Coldfield Transmitting Station