2001: RTS Best Engineering Innovation Award

The team from Spectrum Planning Group recognised for their work on digital television.

A team from Spectrum Planning Group, BBC Research & Development were recognised for their work on digital television on Saturday, 20 October at the RTS Southern Centre Awards.

The team, based at Kingswood Warren, shared the Best Engineering Innovation award with their partners in the Joint Frequency Planning Project. The award recognised the work put into 'multiplex coverage equalisation', a vast piece of work which attempts to re-plan the frequencies used by digital terrestrial television, with the goal of improving the coverage of the UK network without using any more sites.

The JPP Project Team - a partnership between BBC R&D, the ITC and the transmission providers Crown Castle and ntl - prepared plans and proposals for nearly forty stations, which together will add nearly four-and-a-half million households into the core coverage area of the network.

BBC R&D was involved at every level of the project. As the lead planner for the south-east, the team developed proposals, from initial idea to final documentation, for eleven stations between London and the south coast. The team have also been solely responsible for the modelling and calculation of the coverage possible at each stage of the plan.

Dave Darlington, Principal R&D Engineer for Television Spectrum Planning, said: "Is a great credit to the entire team that the RTS decided frequency planning was even a candidate for an innovation award, let alone the winner."