Hellas Sat, the satellite operator, is to carry out a technical adjustment in the early hours of Tuesday aimed at simplifying reception of its new television signal, following weeks of difficulties for viewers since the shutdown of the Velister platform, company officials have said.
Reports suggest the Velister system had been on the verge of collapse, having been designed to operate for 15 years without receiving a single upgrade in that time.
Officials concede that the scale of the reception problems had been underestimated, but attributed most of the difficulties to ageing household antenna installations rather than any fault with the broadcast signal itself.
Cyprus encountered greater difficulties than the countries examined during the transition’s planning phase — among them Germany, Britain, Italy and Finland — because so many domestic aerials had gone unserviced or unupgraded since 2011. The initial rollout had adopted DVB-T2 specifications in order to keep local stations competitive against international streaming platforms through to 2040.
Hellas Sat will take delivery of new transmitters in the coming days, which would restore coverage to more than 30 communities that have gone without service since 2010.
For viewers still experiencing problems, the public are advised connecting directly to their antenna system, opening the television’s menu, and selecting manual channel tuning — a process that should, once properly aligned, produce a clearer picture.
