Some UK Free upgrades

There have been some upgrades to UK Free TV to deal with new information. This includes various maps, the analogue and DAB radio pages, and fixes for the transmitter information system.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 16th December 2012 at 13:52}

Over the last week I have installed a number of fixes to UK Free TV. Some of these are in the "backend" and should make the site run faster.

Automatic map area selection

When you select an map of multiple transmitters, such as Details of 12D/Leeds DAB multiplex or BBC West the map now automatically zooms to show all the transmitters.

Radio and DAB pages

Pages such as List of all DAB multiplexes now show the lists of transmitters or multiplexes in multiple columns, making the pages much easier to read. There are two new colours for the new DAB "blocks" of 05A and 10C.

Also, the import of radio and DAB pages is now set to happen daily, rather than manually. This means new services (such as 05A Oxfordshire service) will appear automatically.

Faster conversion of URLs

I have improved the way that the automatic conversion of posted links in comments are changed to actual links - for "trusted" sites these are displayed much quicker than before.

Better HTML

A number of issues relating the HTML on each page have been corrected, so the pages now always "validate", and there is always the correct tags for text-to-speech software.

Better email notifications

The pages used to select email notifications have been updated to the current "style".

Faster pages

The UK Free TV site uses the "APC" system to improve performance. By eliminating various bits of very old PHP3 and PHP4 code from the site, the pages compute and load faster.

Updates to transmitter engineering

I have created a list of "alternative transmitter names" to match the output of the BBC engineering system to the names used on UK Free TV. Pages such as BBC Transmitter Engineeering information link directly to all transmitters.

The list of alternative names is:

Barnstaple (Barnstaple Uhf), Beddgelert (Beddgelert Link), Berwick (Berwick-Upon-Tweed), Bexhill (Bexhill Uhf), Bleach Green (Bleachgreen), Brecon (Brecon Uhf), Brighton (Central) (Brighton Central), Bristol Kings Weston (Bristol Kings Weston Hill), Bury St Edmunds (Bury St. Edmunds), Cannongate (Canongate), Cefn Mawr A (Cefn-Mawr), Clacton (Clacton-on-Sea), Coniston (Coniston High Man), Corsham (Corsham Uhf), Craig Cefn Parc (Craig-Cefn-Parc), Cwm Twrch (Cwm-Twrch), Cwmafon (Cwmafan), Derby (Derby Uhf), Dunoon Forest Row (Dunoon), Eastbourne (Old Town) (Eastbourne Old Town), Exeter St Thomas (St. Thomas Exeter), Gartley Moor (Gartly Moor), Glencoyne (Glenridding Link) (Glencoyne), Gorleston on Sea (Gorleston), Grantown Link (Grantown), Ham Street (Hamstreet), Hastings (Old Town) (Hastings Old Town), Hythe Marina (Hythe), Kilbride South Uist (Kilbride), Kirkoswald VP (Kirkoswald), Leicester (Leicester City), Llangollen (Llangollen Uhf), Llangurig (Llangurig Uhf), Lowestoft (Lowestoft Uhf), Manchester Hulme (Hulme), Moel y Sant (Moel-y-Sant), Mynydd Pencareg (Mynydd Pencarreg), Nant Y Moel (Nant-y-Moel), Nottingham (Nottingham Uhf), Ogbourne St George (Ogbourne St. George), Olivers Mount (Oliver'S Mount), Penaligon Down (Penaligon Downs), Perth (Perth Uhf), Peterlee (Peterlee (Horden)), Plymouth North Rd (Plymouth North Road), Plymouth Weston Mill (Weston Mill), Preseli (Presely), Preston (Preston (Weymouth)), Rampisham (Rampisham Uhf), Rhondda (Rhondda B), Ross on Wye (Ross-on-Wye), Rouncefall (new) (Rouncefall), Skriaig (Skye) (Skriaig), St Albans (St. Albans), St Anthony-in-Roseland (St. Anthony in Roseland), St Austell (St. Austell), St Bees (St. Bees), St Briavels (St. Briavels), St Davids (St. Davids), St Dogmaels (St. Dogmaels), St Fillans (St. Fillans), St Just (St. Just), St Marks (St. Marks), St Neot (St. Neot), Stavely In Cartmel (Staveley-in-Cartmel), Tarbert (Tarbert Loch Fyne), Tarbert (Harris) (Tarbert Harris), Trefor B (Trefor), Walton Le Dale (Walton-le-Dale), Washford (Washford Uhf), Wells next the Sea (Wells-next-the-Sea), Whitehaven (Whitehaven Uhf), Worlds End (World'S End), Wrexham Rhos (Wrexham-Rhos), Ynysowen (Ynys Owen), and Lochgoilhead AD (Lochgoilhead Link).