Northern Ireland "mini multiplex" (NIMM)
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV A special service for 80%-90% of households in Northern Ireland will see three Freeview additional channels being available. These will be:
- TG4 - Irish language television channel - Teilifis Gaeilge
- RTE Television: RTE One
- RTE Television: RTE Two (in HD on Saorview)
Some homes will be able to receive the services directly from the Saorview transmitters in the RoI (see SAORVIEW - Ireland's free digital television service ), and others will, from the digital switchover date of Wednesday 24th October 2012, have a service provided from three Freeview transmitters in Northern Ireland.
- Brougher Mountain at 2kW on C30 (
speculativlyC30) - Black Mountain at 1kW on C39+
(speculativly C48) - Carnmoney Hill 16w on C48 (
speculativlyC48)
However, you will not be able to view these services using a standard-definition Freeview receiver - a Freeview HD box or set will be required. It is not known at this time if the NIMM will carry RTE2 in HD, as per the Saorview service. TG4 and RTE1 are broadcast in standard definition at the moment.
The requirement for a Freeview HD receiver is because the services are being broadcasting in "D-Book Option 11", which uses the DVB-T2 standard ("a new mode, option 11, is being planned for a multiplex in Northern Ireland. Receivers should be able to switch between these automatically", D-Book 7, DTG164 is defined in appendix G as: FFT size 32k, 16QAM modulation, 1/128 guard interval, PP7, FEC 64800). Digital Television - Technical guidance on the availability of TG4 in Northern Ireland after digital switchover says that Option 11 is: DVB-T2 16QAM FEC 1/2.
Update: DVB-T2 16QAM FEC 1/2 provides a bitrate for the multiplex of 12.77Mb/s.
Update: DVB-T2, QPSK modulation, FEC 2/3, 32K carriers, 9.954 Mbit/s.
Help with Freeview, aerials?
In this section
Friday, 17 February 2012
U: There was a bit in the Good Friday Agreement about television:
"...explore urgently with the relevant British authorities, and in co-operation with the Irish broadcasting authorities, the scope for achieving more widespread availability of Teilifis na Gaeilige in Northern Ireland"
http://www.nio.gov.uk/agr….pdf .
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Saturday, 18 February 2012
I
Iderown6:35 PM
Ronan
Are you sure that you can receive Kilkeel relay (500W Vert. group B) at your site in Dn Laoghaire?
Divis main station (Hor. group A) may be a better bet for you for UK freeview after DSO on 24 October.
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U
U8:05 PM
Carl, I have seen excellent reception of RTE 1&2,TV3 with a rooftop aerial,single element in Magherrafelt of Saorview transmissions from Claremont Cairn.TG4 reception was unwatchable.
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Sunday, 19 February 2012
I
Iderown8:58 AM
Hello Ronan
Don't think there is a problem with Kilkeel relay at the moment. The signal path length from Kilkeel to Dn Laoghaire is long and may be quite seriously affected by weather conditions.
Anyway, after DSO in October, UK Freesat would still be available. Here in NI the LIDL chain often do cheap Freesat kits.
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R
Ronan12:46 PM
Ronan: i see in october power goes down to 400 watts . a loss of 1 db...would this make much difference
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U
U6:34 PM
In the early years of what Northern Unionists called the "Free State"BBC Radio broadcasting from Belfast had a huge listership south of the border.This was due to the fact that 2RN(RTE)broadcast for about 3 hours daily.The huge influx of correspondence from the so called FreeState upset the Unionist Government and the BBC was asked if overspill of signals could be preventedWhen Claremont Cairn transmitter broadcasting a tv aerial installion company was asked to erect an aerial at Unionist Party Headquarters to receive Irish tv.
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Peter Henderson8:16 PM
I'm not sure what your point is U ?
Don't forget, the Brougher Mountain transmitter was held up for years because several engineers were killed by an IRA bomb, if I remember correctly.
Still, thankfully we live in changed times and the new RTE mini mux is to be welcomed by everyone, on both sides of the community.
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Monday, 20 February 2012
P
PaulN1:42 PM
Larne
This looks like a resourceful site, with some good techies on board... I had hoped to find more solid information about NIMM. Confusion still reigns for me at least.
The bit that confuses me the most is how to rationalise the notion that Divis will become the main source of DVB-T/T2 content in NI for the vast majority of its population so how then is the RTE content on the NIMM only applicable to Black Mountain, Carnmoney & Brougher.
I don't understand why NIMM doesn't have a place on Divis. What am I missing ?
I work in the IPTV industry so all of these spectral issue and other technical aspects of antennae planning don't really come into my field of knowledge - so please don't bamboozle me with umpteen RF related acronyms - or I'll be forced to retaliate with umpteen instances of IP jargon.
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PaulN's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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