SENTECH is proud to announce two of the four Greenfield sites, Harrismith and Ngqeleni, were switched on at the end of July 2015 as planned. This transmitter site expansion ensures a digital terrestrial population coverage of 84.46% and the geographic coverage of 58.49%.
In March 2015, SENTECH switched on all 178 of its digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration transmitters. In addition to these sites are the four Greenfield sites: namely Harrismith in Free State, Burgersfort in Limpopo, Holy Cross and Ngqeleni in the Eastern Cape, which were built from scratch to ensure maximum digital terrestrial coverage in the far-lying areas of South Africa.
The construction of the Harrismith DTT site, including the mast erection, took approximately 23 months to complete, with some challenges that the SENTECH team experienced accessing the site, as it is located on top of the Platberg Mountain. The team had to build a new road to the site and a lot of blasting activity took place in order to achieve the designed anchor blocks. There was a delay in commissioning all the installed electrical equipment due to the unavailability of electrical power supply until mid-June 2015.
Access to Ngqeleni is fairly good and easily accessible for construction vehicles, and no major problems were encountered during the construction phase of the Ngqeleni site. The mast construction was completed in mid-May 2015. The power lines were installed in the way of a guy rope, which delayed the start date for the construction of the mast. The power lines were relocated at the end of January 2015 and mast construction commenced immediately thereafter.
Various challenges were experienced with electrical reticulation installation, but the team managed to obtain reliable power supply by 25 June 2015.
"It was once again a privilege to achieve the go-live milestone for two new Greenfield sites by end June 2015. Although the two sites are similar, the terrain and circumstances are vastly different and every site posed its own unique challenges. With all the different disciplines that are involved with completing these sites, team work remains the cornerstone for achievement and the dependencies that each have on the final outcome. With all the experience gained over the last 18 months on these two sites, one becomes much more equipped to manage the outstanding Greenfield sites," says Nicolaas Jobse, SENTECH's DTT Project Manager.
Currently, there are 180 DTT sites that are operating throughout South Africa. The last two Greenfield sites are expected to be on air by March 2016, which will increase the population coverage to 85.20% and a geographical coverage to 58.91%. In total, we will have 182 DTT operation sites throughout South Africa.
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