Temporary landmark in West Yorkshire is dismantled following engineering work that affected Freeview transmissions in the region.
- Second structure at Emley Moor has been in place since 2018, standing next to the famous concrete tower.
- In June, Freeview transmissions were taken off air overnight to allow TV services to switch from the temporary structure back to the main Tower.
- The temporary structure facilitated the clearance of the 700MHz frequency band for 5G services.
Transmitter company Arqiva is dismantling the thin temporary mast that has stood beside the Emley Moor Tower for the past five years (shown in the picture above).
The temporary mast carried Freeview services since 2018, maintaining TV services across much of the Yorkshire TV region for a period of time that has included the pandemic lockdowns and the fire at the Bilsdale transmitter in North Yorkshire, which resulted in some households switching over to transmissions from the temporary Emley Moor mast.
During this time, engineers have been able to update equipment on the original TV Tower, which has been in service in 1971. The antenna needed updating to be able to broadcast on new frequencies, a result of a decision to make a chunk of TV spectrum – the 700MHz band – available for mobile services, including 5G.
During the early hours of Thursday 8th June, Freeview services were taken off air for the night, followed by further outages during subsequent nights. However, the work resulted in a number of complaints on social media from viewers in the region, as the outage had not been widely publicised and wasn’t flagged up by Freeview ahead of time.
700MHz Clearance
The 700MHz Clearance Programme was a major infrastructure project mandated by UK Government marking the biggest change to the terrestrial TV network since digital switchover. The programme involved complex technical changes carried out by Arqiva engineers at more than 1,200 television transmitters, which serve around 20m households.
- Arqiva has published a video showing some of the work that has recently taken place.
Marc Thornham