Iconic Sandy Heath Transmitter gets VIP visitors for its 60th birthday

National World - Other Local Sites

Sandy Heath transmitter, a key part of the UK’s broadcast network, has marked 60 years of continuous service with a visit from the local MP and Town Mayor of Sandy.  The site, which delivers television and radio services to more than one million people across the South East, is one of the most significant transmission facilities in the country.

Transcript

00:00So today we're in Sandy Heath which is in North Bedfordshire and it's the 60th anniversary of

00:05this site and today we've had the Mayor from Sandy and also joined by the local MP. Today

00:10was an opportunity to take them on a full site tour and explain how signals come into this site

00:17and then how it's broadcast to more than a million people in the local area. We also talked to them

00:21about resilience, these services are critical for the safety and communications of the UK.

00:28The good people at Akiba have taken me around and we've seen today the different generations

00:32of technologies. We're very lucky to have the Sandy Heath transmitter. It is something that

00:37people can spot and see and know where they're at but it also does deliver great services around

00:41this part of the country. A lot of people do not realise what the Sandy transmitter is for

00:48and how important it is to the national technology scene because without it there are thousands of

00:55people who would not be able to access television and the radio is really really important because

01:01if in the case of a national crisis television would disappear most likely if you only have to look at

01:06Spain recently and you've got this mast would provide them with access to radio to gather really

01:13important information so it's a vital piece of equipment. The Mayor and the MP were both really interested

01:18with what we had to show them today. They were very curious about how things worked as both locals in

01:25the community these services are services they use and they'd never really thought about how they are

01:30provided so it was a real eye-opener to them. For 60 years this site has been in great service to the

01:36community here an absolutely key part of communications and services. It's going to play an important part in

01:42the future with new technologies and new services for the community.

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