Transmission upgrades bring sharper image, more channels to regional West Aussies

Regional West Australian communities will now be able to enjoy more high definition free-to-air programming on their televisions after a Channel 7-led upgrade project. Over the past five months, 47 transmission sites have been upgraded which allow TV viewers across the regions to tune into the full suite of Channel 7 programming. The upgrades began in March in the Wheatbelt town of Moora before finishing in July at Newman. Channels now available to the regions include 7HD, 7two and 7mateHD. Seven Network media transmission operations manager Graham Willcox said the rollout would bring regional WA customers some of their favourite channels in high definition. “Previous to the rollout all the decoders in regional Western Australia were ... a bit of an inferior product and not what we do as Seven for the rest of the country,” he said. “So what we’ve done is rolled out new decoders and they’re on the hilltops at every site, in total 47 sites have been done.” Two teams were deployed to do the job with one tackling the area south of Perth to as far east as Kalgoorlie while the other worked north of the metro area all the way up to Kununurra. The boost comes in time for a bumper finish to the AFL season, with finals just around the corner. Mr Willcox said the upgrades would let communities see one of the country’s biggest sporting events clearer than ever. “The great thing is that they’ll be able to watch the upcoming AFL finals series in full HD and not a transcoded version,” he said. “So for the viewer experience, rather than standard definition, and a poor standard definition, they’ll have a proper high definition.” The upgrades are a win for free-to-air television as a whole with WIN also helping with the upgrades allowing for a crisper transmission of the 9 Regional channel.