Beitbridge transmission upgrading underway

Beitbridge transmission upgrading underway

By Thupeyo Muleya

Transmedia Corporation has started installing state–of-the-art broadcasting equipment at Beitbridge as the company seeks to improve radio reception at the border town.

Workers were seen setting up the transmitting tower and the transmission room yesterday following the arrival of the equipment from South Africa last week.

The transmitter under construction at Beitbridge has the capacity to cover a radius of 80km and plans to install small transmitters for gray areas are reported to be in the pipeline.

Transmedia Corporation chief operations officer Mr Cloud Nyamundanda, who is also overseeing the setting up of the equipment, yesterday said they had since completed the installation of the transmission hardware and the necessary transmission cables. He said they embarked on the project following the availing of US$800 000 by the Government.

"We received the equipment for Beitbridge by mid last week and have since completed fitting the transmission hardware including the transmission cables. At the moment we are working on the transmitting antenna.

"After that we are going to work on the signal feed system, which we hope to complete by the end of this week. We are very positive that we will be testing the systems by the end of the week and also do tests run for a week after which we expect to start full time broadcasting by the first week of June.

"The new state-of-the-art radio transmitters use professional radios to receive signals," he said.

Mr Nyamundanda said they had installed two radio transmitters for Radio Zimbabwe and Power FM and were awaiting the arrival of television transmission equipment from Europe in 12 weeks.

"At the moment we have made it a priority that we start with two radio stations and a television system due to resource constraints. We expect television installation equipment to arrive in the country in 12 weeks.

"I am very confident that by the beginning of August, we will be setting up the television transmitters. For this year, we are setting up transmission for Radio Zimbabwe, Power FM and ZTV and we will look at other two radio stations that are Spot FM and National FM, " he said.

He said they had acquired TV reception equipment, which was digital compact in line with the Sadc deadline to degitalise broadcasting services by 2015.

He, however, said, at the moment they would use the analog TV transmission facility and switch to the digital system at the optima time.

During a recent visit to the site, Transmedia Corporation Board chairman, Dr Paul Chimedza, said they would need US$15 million for degitalising broadcasting services across the country.

Mr Nyamundanda added they were also waiting for the arrival of similar equipment for Plumtree, Mudzi, St Alberts and Victoria Falls in the next 10 weeks.

published by; The Herald, 10 May 2010
www.herald.co.zw