Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) Liable to interruption.
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The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 homes.
What do the colours on the map mean?
The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.List by multiplex|
List by channel number|
List by channel name|
See terrain plotWhich Freeview channels does the Sutton Coldfield transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this
Freeview reset procedure first.
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
| Mux | Aerial position | Frequency | Height | Mode | Watts |
PSB1
BBCA | horizontal max | C43 (650.0MHz) | 433m | 64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2 | 200,000W |
| 
1 BBC One West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 7 BBC Three, 9 BBC Four, 70 CBBC Channel, 71 CBeebies, 80 BBC News, 81 BBC Parliament, 301 BBC Red Button 1, plus 12 others 200 BBC Red Button, 700 BBC Radio 1, 701 BBC Radio 1Xtra, 702 BBC Radio 2, 703 BBC Radio 3, 704 BBC Radio 4, 705 BBC Radio 5 Live, 706 BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, 707 BBC Radio 6 Music, 708 BBC Radio 4 Extra, 709 BBC Asian Network, 710 BBC World Service,
|
PSB2
D3+4 | horizontal max | C46 (674.0MHz) | 433m | 64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2 | 200,000W |
| 
3 ITV (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5 Part Network ads, 6 ITV 2, 13 Channel 4+1 Midlands ads, 14 More 4, 28 E4, 33 ITV +1 (Central west),
|
PSB3
BBCB | horizontal max | C40+ (626.2MHz) | 433m | 256QAM 32KE 2/3
40.2Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4 | 200,000W |
| 
101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands ads, 303 BBC Red Button HD, plus 1 others 232 The Space,
|
COM4
SDN | horizontal max | C42 (642.0MHz) | 433m | 64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2 | 200,000W |
| 
10 ITV 3, 20 G.O.L.D. (not free), 25 Dave ja vu, 26 Home (not free), 27 ITV 2 +1, 30 5*, 31 5USA, 34 ESPN UK (not free), 38 Quest, 39 The Zone, 44 Channel 5 +1, 72 CITV, plus 21 others Bluebird 1, ADULT Playboy, 16 QVC, 23 Bid TV, 49 The Jewellery Channel, 170 ADULT Section, 171 Television X, 180 XxXpanded TV, 201 Teletext Hols, 202 Rabbit, 203 Gay Rabbit, 204 1-2-1 Dating, 228 Christian, 229 CONNECT 2, 230 VISION2, 234 CONNECT 4, 235 God TV, 236 Sony SAB TV Asia, 724 Capital FM, 727 Absolute Radio, 728 Heart,
|
COM5
ArqA | horizontal max | C45 (666.0MHz) | 403m | 64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2 | 200,000W |
| 
11 PICK TV, 12 Dave, 17 Really, 29 E4+1, 32 Movie Mix, 46 Challenge, 48 Food Network, 82 Sky News, 87 Community Channel, 302 BBC Red Button 2, plus 9 others 36 Create and Craft, 37 Price Drop TV, 43 Gems TV 1, 173 ADULT smileTV3, 175 ADULT PARTY, 176 ADULT Blue, 177 Babestation Xtra, 206 SkyText, 723 talkSPORT,
|
COM6
ArqB | horizontal max | C39+ (618.2MHz) | 433m | 64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2 | 200,000W |
| 
15 Film 4, 18 4Music, 19 Yesterday, 21 VIVA, 24 ITV 4, 41 Sky Sports 1 (not free), 42 Sky Sports 2 (not free), 47 4seven, 83 Al Jazeera English, 85 RT English , plus 22 others heat, 0 Argos TV, 22 Ideal World, 35 QVC Beauty, 40 Rocks and Co 1, 172 ADULT smileTV2, 174 Babestation, 199 ADULT Section, 225 VISION, 226 CCTV, 227 Sports, 231 Racing TV , 306 Channel Zero, 711 The Hits radio, 712 Smash Hits!, 713 Kiss, 714 KISSTORY, 715 Magic, 716 Q, 717 Kerrang!, 718 Smooth radio, 725 Premier Radio,
|
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter?
Are there any self-help relays?
| Burton (shobnall) | Transposer | 1 km W Burton-on-Trent | 60 homes |
| Coalville | Transposer | 18 km NW Leicester | 600 homes |
| Solihull | Transposer | Land Rover building | 400 homes |
How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| years | 1950s~85 | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-18 | |
| aerial group | VHF | B E | B E | E | B E K | B E K | W | |
| C4 | BBCtv | | | | | | | |
| 600 | C33 | | | | | | | com7 | |
| C35 | | | | | | | com8 | |
| C39 | | | | | +ArqB | +ArqB | +ArqB | |
| C40 | | BBC2 | BBC2 | BBC2 | +BBCB | +BBCB | +BBCB | |
| C41 | | | | +1 | | | | |
| C42 | | | | | SDN | SDN | SDN | |
| C43 | | ITV | ITV | ITV | BBCA | BBCA | BBCA | |
| C44 | | | | +2 | | | | |
| C45 | | | | | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | |
| C46 | | BBC1 | BBC1 | BBC1 | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |
| C47 | | | | +A | | | | |
| 700 | C50 | | C4 | C4 | C4 | | | | |
| C51 | | | | +B | | | local | |
| C52 | | | | +C | | | | |
| C55 | | | | D | | | | |
| orange background for multiplexes names more | green background for transmission frequencies | lilac background for power levels in watts | 800MHz band: 4G mobile to start in 2013 | 700MHz band: possible 4G in 2019 more | 600MHz band: new or moved digital TV services more |
Notes:
+ and
- denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as
A B C/D E K WItalics for
analogue, digital switchover was Wednesdays 7th September and 21st September 2011.
- Ofcom have projected that a local television service for Birmingham including Greater Birmingham area, part of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley could use an Interleaved Frequency on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter using C51
- COM7, COM8 projected for 2013-16. COM7 and COM8 to operate as Bromsgrove,Sutton Coldfield, The Wrekin SFN.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 1000kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, com7, com8, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 200kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-21dB) 8kW | |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area
| Feb 1956-Jul 1968 | Associated TeleVision† |
| Feb 1956-Jul 1968 | Associated British Corporation◊ |
| Jul 1968-Dec 1981 | Associated TeleVision |
| Jan 1982-Feb 2004 | Central Independent Television |
| Feb 2004-Dec 2014 | ITV plc |
| | Feb 1983-Dec 1992 | TV-am• |
| Jan 1993-Sep 2010 | GMTV• |
| Sep 2010-Dec 2014 | ITV Daybreak• |
|
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Sutton Coldfield was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.
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T
trewennackMonday 5 December 2011 10:50AM
WarwickP
PeteMonday 5 December 2011 11:28AM
My PVRs are in sync but seem to be struggling to cope with intermittent freezing picture. On the tellys the sound is 1 second ahead of the picture. What is going on. B
BobMonday 5 December 2011 3:21PM
I tried re-tuning the DVD recorder but it makes no difference to them.
First noticed this Friday night - everything was fine until then. I'm in the SW corner of the coverage zone, near Kidderminster.S
SteveMonday 5 December 2011 3:40PM
Leamington Spa
We have just had a range of Pansonic DVD recorders, Samsung TVs and more Toshiba tv's etc into the workshop with these problems.
We have reported this directly to the BBC / Arqiva. They are looking into these problems as we speak B
BobMonday 5 December 2011 3:53PM
Silly thing is, the aerial is wired into the DVD recorder, so all channels come into THAT and FROM that to the TV.... This is some info based on the jobs we've looked at today in Coventry, Nuneaton, Rugby and Kenilworth, all on Sutton Coldfield, using different equipment and with various different signal readings.(Hope it helps)
Customers watching Free-view from the West Midlands (Sutton Coldfieild) Transmitter may be experiencing problems with channels
11 PICK TV, 19 Dave, 20 Really, 29 E4+1, 36 Create and Craft, 37 Price Drop TV, 43 Gems TV 1, 46 Challenge, 49 Food Network, 82 Sky News, 87 Community Channel, 95 ADULT smileTV3, 97 ADULT PARTY, 98 ADULT Blue, 108 SkyText, 190 ADULT Bluekiss, 193 Babestation 2, 723 talkSPORT
The problems seems to be affect sound on these channels causing Lip Sync issue and sound drop out.
Coventry Aerial Services:
Sorry for spelling mistakes in the last post (must check in future) Also have a customer in Leamington spa who has 2 TV's which both have Free-view HD Built in, are different makes but both have having similar problems S
SteveMonday 5 December 2011 4:29PM
Leamington Spa
All of our new stock is ok. Either a mass of firmware needs to be written over night or they need stop transmitting whatever it is thats causing the problems.Yeah I didn't actually go to the job today myself but suspect you are correct. We had problems after the switch over which various older models (2k equipment) S
steveMonday 5 December 2011 4:52PM
Leamington Spa
We just had a return phonecall back from Arqa / BBC and they will be looking into the issues ASAP and will follow up with a phonecall tomorrow. Fingers crossed they find the problem :)
Thanks Steve, will pass the info on D
daveMonday 5 December 2011 5:42PM
E
Eleanor BaileyMonday 5 December 2011 6:33PM
S
Stephen NichollsMonday 5 December 2011 7:24PM
I have tried rescanning a couple of times but there is no change - any ideas?Nothing official I'm afraid, must to some sort of transmitter work going on,I will contact the RDI tomorrow for more information and let people know anything I find out Sorry once again about the spelling, this iPhone has a mind of its own sometimes D
Dave DoubledecksMonday 5 December 2011 10:07PM
I'm also having problems with my freeview reception. It's the MUX with Dave, E4+1, Really, Challenge and Pick TV. I noticed it on Friday night. The sound is intermittent and 'breaks up' momentarily, constantly every second. It's still going on.
My box is a Matsui DTR2.
It's annoying and I hope something can be done soon. :)D
Dave DoubledecksMonday 5 December 2011 11:27PM
W
WrightyTuesday 6 December 2011 7:19AM
S
steveTuesday 6 December 2011 9:13AM
Leamington Spa
This will go one of two ways as we see it here:
1: Transmission problem will be cured at source meaning we dont have to do anything.
2: firmware updates will be required (however the scale of products on the market needing this is vast and only a small minority of products are still supported by the manufacturer)
If we here anything today i shall share it with you all. :)
@Wrighty
You must be near us, Steve's commments above are pretty much spot on.
P
PaulTuesday 6 December 2011 11:09AM
P
picardTuesday 6 December 2011 11:23AM
COM5 ArqA channel are broken ie sound stutter or no sound. Have tried several tvs with built in boxes and stand alone boxes. Problem is on some older tvs and boxes plus some newer tvs and boxes. So it just being a problem with older built in and older stand alone boxes is wrong. This is affecting random models old or new. signal needs to be fixed back to how it was several days ago.S
SteveTuesday 6 December 2011 12:21PM
Stourbridge
See 'This week's commercial multiplex changes'. Has the modification to the "forward error correction" caused lip synchronisation problems.
J
JamieTuesday 6 December 2011 12:53PM
S
SteveTuesday 6 December 2011 1:41PM
Leamington Spa
The times dont match OR the mux from that info. Thats talking about November 1st for Arqa B - No mention of Arqa A
Had another phone call from them this morning saying that last week, monitoring equipment was installed - That is all, no other work was done? . Now passed on to Technical advisor in charge to see what they can do. C
crudgeTuesday 6 December 2011 2:44PM
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EarthedTuesday 6 December 2011 3:09PM
All programs and channels appear to be working now...Sky News etc ...okE
EarthedTuesday 6 December 2011 3:12PM
All programs and channels appear to be working now...Sky News etc ...ok I'm in DerbyS
SteveTuesday 6 December 2011 3:56PM
Leamington Spa
Happy days K
Kevin PorterTuesday 6 December 2011 4:52PM
Dudley
All appears to be sorted now.Have just called customers who were having problems and all seem to be ok now so fingers crossed thats the end of it :-) Thanks again for the info @Steve T
Tony GoodallSaturday 10 December 2011 7:16PM
Stoke-on-trentP
P TrivediWednesday 14 December 2011 6:16PM
D
DavidThursday 15 December 2011 8:10PM
I have the same problem with both of those boxes as follows. However I try to install all Mutexes from Sutton Coldfield, I cannot get the programme numbers to come in correctly. For example, ITV4 should be 24, but appears as 807, and Yesterday is 802, not 12.
If I do a full reinstall, with the aerial in, the boxes tell me they find 88 new TV stations and 22 radio stations, but lock up without saving anything. Clearly some kind of memory overflow. Same if I dont put the aerial in until past MUX 21 which is picked up from Cambridge.
If I do a reinstall without the aerial in and then install individual MUXes I can get all programmes with a few numberings wrong as described. Same if I do MUX by MUX and also delete the programmes I dont need (like the sex rubbish all over the place) between tuning in each MUX.
OK, I have a working system, but the el cheepo third box does everything correctly and so much better.....it is as annoying as hell.S
StephenMonday 19 December 2011 4:16PM
Belper
I live 50 miles away in Belper, Derbyshire.
If you say that the signal strength levels are low where you live, how is it that I can signal strength levels from Sutton Coldfield on my Freeview HD television and DVD recorder on ALL channel, in all weather condition, at about 70% to 75% where I live?
The signal strength levels here are now also a lot higher than they were before the switch over.Stephen: It is not simply the distance from the transmitter that determines strength. One other factor is line of sight.
For example, there are people who live within a few miles of high-power transmitters but cannot get a signal from it because they live behind a hill down in a valley. V
ValerieTuesday 20 December 2011 7:05PM
P
Paul NorrisWednesday 21 December 2011 12:41PM
Navigate to the Internet Page on the Humax and select the connect by Wifi option, select your network from those you can see and put in your Wifi password (should be WPA2 type). It requires the latest Humax Software of June/July 2010 from memory. Mine also seemed to require to download and install an additional file from Humax first.You'll know the stick is working as the green access light will start flashing when you are downloading. Do note that as the Humax is a Linux Box it will not accept a password with spaces in it!
The web offering are not very wide with only the reduced iPlayer being of much use to me. Still no sign of 4OD or ITVPlayer yet! It's a bit clunky and you cannot just connect to your ISP home page or anything like that!R
revsThursday 22 December 2011 9:37AM
Kidderminster
I live just north of Kidderminster.
All other channels are perfect.
I use an amplified 2 way splitter (to split the signal to two separate TV Cards in my PC).
Any ideas? Looks like all MUX have the same power - so if I can get one mux perfectly, should I not be able to get the others too? Or does it not work like this?
My only guess is that the signal is too strong and I should replace the amplified splitter with a non-amplified one?R
revsThursday 22 December 2011 9:59AM
Kidderminster
I'll give that a go tonight and see what happensJ
jb38Thursday 22 December 2011 1:35PM
G
GeeWednesday 28 December 2011 6:15PM
BedworthA
Adam BThursday 29 December 2011 1:34PM
Dunstable
Some things to check.
Do you have nearby trees/tall bushes between you and the Sutton Coldfield transmitter? If they are being blown into line of your signal when windy, this could be the problem. Rain can also cause the problem as it can increase the attenuation of the signal.
Secondly, when windy, is your aerial stable or does it blow about in the wind? Again a possible cause of the problem.
Lastly, a damaged connection between the aerial and the downlead may be allowing rain to enter the downlead and cause shorting, which again affects the signal.
Hope this helps,
Adam. Gee: Like Adam B says, after discounting any issues with your aerial system (might be difficult, particularly high up), then trees would seem to be the logical suspects for poor reception during wind.
The BBC, Ofcom or any helpline is not responsible for removing or pruning trees that affect viewers' reception. It would also not be wise for you to take a chainsaw if the tree(s) aren't yours.
I had a look down your road on Google Streetview and there are a few talls masts and large aerials. One or two are on Waltham.
There are trees in your street that may affect reception of those on one side. There are also trees in the direction of Sutton Coldfield in and around the Weston Hotel. They could be the reason for the larger aerials.
The only solution might be to call in a rigger. Getting excellent signal strength from Sutton Coldfield but on freeview I can't find ITV or BBC i players either on the TV or the Panasonic HDD recorder. both equipped with and connected to internet access.
However BBC i player is OK on Freesat reception.
Are they available on Freeview please?
Bob Loader: BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD and similar services do not come via Freesat or Freeview. They come to you over the internet, either using a wired ethernet cable to your router or wirelessly (wifi) to your router.
Some Freesat and Freeview devices (TVs/boxes) have the capability to show iPlayer type services.
What are the make and model numbers of the TV and the HDD recorder so we might check up on their capabilities and advise as to how you might get it to work? C
Chris Davies Wednesday 4 January 2012 7:04PM
Any suggestions 
06:30
My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+1, has no sound or the channel line up is wrong | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice to the box. 
