Telent Provides DSO Implemetation Services For Arqiva At Remote Scottish Transmission Sites

Telent has announced that Alan Campbell (ACG), a telent company, has been selected by Arqiva to install new antennas and associated equipment at three Scottish transmission sites - Eitshal (Isle of Lewis), Keelylang Hill (Orkney Islands) and Rosemarkie (near Inverness) - as TV services switch over to digital.
In a project worth around £1.5 million, ACG are proving project management services, material handling and logistics and supply of steelwork to deploy new digital transmission equipment and antennas, in what are very remote areas with challenging weather.
ACG is one of a number of specialist companies in the UK supporting Arqiva with the whole process of upgrading transmission equipment throughout the country.
ACG is upgrading main and reserve antennas at all three locations along with other systems like combiners and feeders.
At the Eitshal and Rosemarkie sites, antenna mast strengthening and re-tensioning is also being carried out as more load is being put upon the masts, with some construction underway at Keelylang Hill to upgrade the transmitter building itself.
All sites are scheduled to be completed by the summer, well before the 2010 deadline for the STV North region.
The Eitshal transmitter covers 9,900 homes and is the main regional mast on the Isle of Lewis, with the Keelylang Hill station on the Orkney Islands catering for 9,400 homes and Rosemarkie covering 63,000 houses in the Inverness area.
Explaining the challenges of working in areas where the weather is so changeable, Jon Turton, ACG's Broadcast Project Manager, said: "Masts are typically put in high places which are exposed, as is the case at Eitshal which is 732 metres above sea level, and where wind from the Atlantic Ocean often reaches speeds of 95mph."
ACG has also had to work around planning restrictions in place at Eitshal to protect peat land and adapt to nesting birds at Keelylang Hill.
A nationally important site for upland breeding birds and a variety of birds of prey, Keelylang Hill is an area of moorland and home to Hen Harriers, Merlin and Short-Eared Owl.
Jon Turton continued: "We're not allowed to work between April and June as noise could disturb the birds, so this has had to be carefully managed so we meet project delivery goals."
ACG has deployed its considerable Scottish resources at each site, which include a five or six man rigging team working alongside a site supervisor, commissioning engineer, quantity surveyor and project manager.
As the locations are in far flung places, logistics and preparation has had to be thorough so that the field teams have all the tools and equipment required to hand.
Further information is available at: www.telent.com.
(KMcA/BMcC)