Broadcast Facilities

You could be right. The article only mentions sales which can be based in any location really. But with their Newcastle facility being sold, who knows? Pres for NBN could very well come out of Canberra soon.

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Traffic generally refers to the scheduling of ads. This is somewhat related to sales as the needs of clients need to be taken into account, so I would assume that’s why SCA are taking over that operation.
I would expect all technical processes to still be done in Newcastle for the time being.

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NBN pres moved to French’s Forest after the metro markets I’m pretty sure.

Nine handles traffic (scheduling of commercials) locally in all markets

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As do WIN and maybe Imparja.

WIN’s is centralised out of Wollongong I believe.

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Don’t they use Media Hub at Ingleburn, Sydney?

That’s for normal playout.

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Correct. MediaHub (which WIN and the ABC own) does playout, but the remainder of their network operations are still done out of Wollongong.

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There is still a large traffic component for Win out of Ballarat.

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From beneath the BTQ tower

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Heads up for those in Brizvegas.

All backup TV services have now been moved from the BTQ 7 site, to the QTQ 9 site on Mt Coot-tah, & in the coming weeks rather than months, the top of the BTQ tower will be removed (likely permanently), due to it’s structural integrity being severely degraded. I believe it will be removed in 1, possibly 2 pieces using a helicopter.

Get up there & take photo’s of the tower as it stands now, because it won’t be like it for much longer.

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Core structual upgrades completed in the 80’s left hollow sections in the mid range open at the top and closed at the bottom as I understand it. Over time, these hollow tubes filled with water and rusted.

The structual integrity of the tower is at risk and has been deemed unsafe to continue operation.

It most likely will not be replaced, with the QTQ site also being owned by TX Australia and adequate for digital transmission.

Interestingly, while all conmercial services are currently using TVQ and QTQ sites, ABQ and SBS use the ABQ tower as primary and TVQ as backup.

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Thanks, that’ very interesting.

The QTQ tower, being a much newer structure, would be the obvious solution, however, it might cause some problems for a small number of viewers. I am guessing that the BTQ site was originally chosen as the back up because it is closest to the TVQ tower and would have the closest radiation pattern. QTQ being further away would potentially deliver different signal strengths in some areas. For example many areas of the The Gap cannot see the QTQ tower and in some other areas of hilly Brisbane the signal strength might drop below the digital cliff for an antenna installation designed for TVQ, so they would lose all commercial TV reception when the back up site is operating.

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What about the FM stack for B105 and MMM on the side of the BTQ tower? Will it remain?

All OTA services in Brisbane originate from TVQ. The entire BTQ tower is being decommissioned as I understand it, so I would assume all equipment has moved to QTQ.

As for the signal strength, digital is much more forgiving than analogue was… there are apparently no forseen issues with QTQ as a backup from what I understand.

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Correct, it has been tested rigourously some years ago.

It’s great the QTQ site is being utilised more. I remember asking the question around 2013 and being told by those on the hill that its day would come.

In analogue days, the QTQ signal was usually the best towards the Gold Coast and Toowoomba. (Redlands too)

Viable maintenance is ever increasingly at the hands of the beancounters.

Thanks to @RFBurns @lexington @TV.Cynic @NRN11 for contributing to such an interesting discussion.

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QTQ was the primary analogue transmitter while TVQ handled digital… when analogue was switched off five years ago QTQ fell into disuse… all it’s compatible equipment moved into BTQ to beef that site up given how much was now relyig on two transmitters.

Now, she’s back up and running.

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What is the latest with the Ten part of TXA? Has Ten still got there share after the court hearing?

No. But TEN are fighting it.

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From what I’ve been told it will remain for the time being, as the Q-Site will need an FM antenna installing first.

Both stations will likely move to the Q-Site in time, but the FM move is more complex than the DTV move was, & the room where the TX’s will go needs cleaning out, it’s still full of old unused Analogue TV stuff.

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