Freeview signal problems traced to Kaka Hill transmitter

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/87068973/freeview-signal-pr...

Freeview aerial service is back to normal after customers reported signal issues.

A replacement television transmitter for Nelson is on its way after signal problems were detected with the city's Kaka Hill tower.

Darren Richards of Nelson TV & Video Services said his company had fielded calls at the start of the week regarding the Freeview aerial service as some channels where " breaking up", due to poor signal quality.

He in turn had contacted Johnston, Dick and Associates (JDA), who operate the Freeview terrestrial platform for the Nelson region.

Subsequent tests by the company revealed an issue with the signal at the Nelson infill location, near the Centre of New Zealand.

"Our guy had a look at the transmissions in Nelson and found a slightly reduced quality signal coming from one of the transmitters on Kaka Hill," JDA's Warren Harding said.

Harding said a replacement transmitter was being sent to Nelson today and should be installed soon after.

Channels likely to be affected were Prime, Maori TV, Te Reo, Choice, The Shopping Channel and the Radio New Zealand Concert Program.

However, the issue would only affect some television as most of the region's television signal is sourced from Mt Campbell, west of Motueka.

Richards said another problem emerging in the last couple of weeks was the low noise booster on the front of satellite dishes starting to fail.

This also caused pixelation and breaking up of the picture on either Sky or the Freeview satellite service.

The issue was a common one at this time of year due to the better weather and hotter days, he said.