Colonius

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Colonius
Image of the object
Tower cage and antenna carrier of the telecommunications tower
Basic data
Place: Cologne
Country : North Rhine-Westphalia
Country: Germany
Altitude : 53  m above sea level NHN
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '49.7 "  N , 6 ° 55' 54.8"  E
Use: Telecommunications tower , broadcasting station
Accessibility: Transmission tower not open to the public
Owner : German radio tower
Tower data
Construction time : 1978-1981
Operating time: since June 3, 1981
Total height : 266  m
Viewing platform: 166  m
Operation room: 166  m
Closure of the viewing platform: 1999
Data on the transmission system
Last modification (antenna) : April 2004
Waveband : FM transmitter
Radio : VHF broadcasting
Send types: DVB-T, DAB , directional radio
Position map
Colonius (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Colonius
Colonius
Localization of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany
View 360 degree panorama of Colonius
as a spherical panorama
View from the Media Park from
Use as advertising space
Construction began in 1978
Construction of the pulpit

Colonius is the telecommunications tower on Innere Kanalstrasse in Cologne , built from 1978 and inaugurated on June 3, 1981, which is no longer accessible to the public. It is the highest in North Rhine-Westphalia and the seventh highest telecommunications tower in Germany. At the time of its completion, the Colonius was 252.9 meters high. In the early 1990s, the spire was changed and replaced by a longer one. The height is now 266 meters. In April 2004 this spire was replaced with the help of a helicopter to enable the broadcasting of digital television in the Cologne-Bonn area. The tower height remained constant. The tower was built by Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG . The name was given to the tower as part of a competition among Cologne citizens.

Building

At a height of 166 meters there is a three-story tower pulpit, the lower floors of which house the cafeteria with a viewing platform (closed since 1999) and a restaurant with a rotating seating area. Telekom's technical systems are housed on the upper floor of the tower pulpit. Until 1994, this floor also a Leitplatz radio was Telekom housed. This had the task of monitoring and controlling various transmitters and radio links.

Two elevators that reach a speed of six meters per second lead to the tower, a third elevator that goes up to 174 meters (technical level) and a staircase with 925 steps. A Telekom neon sign is attached to the outside of the pulpit.

Revolving restaurant and disco

The two-story visitor area is no longer open to the public. Since 1994 there has been no leaseholder for the revolving restaurant and the area above it, which was used at times as a discotheque. The nightclub hit the headlines in the early 1990s when overcrowding panic broke out among guests on New Year's Eve. The viewing platform has been closed since 1999.

New tenants

The radio tower was transformed into a sculpture in 2008 on the occasion of the Plan 08 architecture festival using a light show. The design group of architects planned to revive the tower from 2010 with the Colonius Award , an annually recurring competition between internationally active light artists. To date (2015) this goal has not been realized. There have been two architectural offices in the offices of the entrance building since 2009.

Current programs and frequencies

In the case of directed radiation, the main radiation directions are given in degrees in the antenna diagram.

Analog radio (VHF)

The Colonius is next to the telecommunications office in the Sternengasse ( Radio Cologne on 107.1 MHz with 0.5 kW, Deutschlandfunk on 91.3 MHz with 0.05 kW, Kölncampus on 100.0 MHz with 0.05 kW and Domradio on 101 , 7 MHz with 0.03 kW), the KölnTurm in the Mediapark (WDR 2 Cologne on 98.6 MHz with 0.4 kW, WDR Eins Live on 87.6 MHz with 0.3 kW and Deutschlandradio Kultur on 89.9 MHz with 0.03 kW) and the Pollonius in Poll (Radio Berg on 99.7 MHz with 0.5 kW) one of four VHF transmitter locations in Cologne. Although the Colonius is by far the best VHF location in the Cologne city area, it is currently not used for broadcasting the city of Cologne itself. From a height of 235 m, Radio Erft with a power of 2.0 kW is directed into the Rhein-Erft district on the frequency 105.8 MHz. Despite directional radiation, this transmitter can be received well in the entire Cologne Bay between Bonn and Düsseldorf as far as Aachen.

Frequency  
(MHz) 		program RDS PS RDS PI Regionalization ERP  
(kW) 		Antenna pattern
round (ND) / directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) / vertical (V)
105.8 Radio Erft __ERFT__ D49A - 2 D. H

Digital radio (DAB / DAB +)

DAB or the successor standard DAB + is broadcast in vertical polarization and in single-frequency mode with other transmitters. The nationwide multiplex on DAB channel 11D is broadcast from the WDR location on the Cologne Tower in the Mediapark.

block Programs
(data services) 		ERP  
(kW) 		Antenna diagram
round (ND),
directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) /
vertical (V) 		Single frequency network (SFN)
5C
DR Germany
(D__00188) 		DAB + multiplex of Media Broadcast : 10 D. V

Digital television (DVB-T2 HD)

In addition to the existing DVB-T distribution, Colonius was already broadcasting a program bouquet from May 31, 2016, Das Erste, RTL, ProSieben, SAT.1, VOX and ZDF in the DVB-T2 HD standard with HEVC image coding on channel 43 .

The switch to control mode for all programs was 29 March 2017. The DVB-T2 broadcasts take place in the single-frequency operation (Single Frequency Network) with other sites. The public broadcasters are free to receive ( FTA ), while the private broadcasters are broadcast largely encrypted via the freenet TV platform .

channel Frequency  
(MHz) 		Multiplex Programs in multiplex ERP  
(kW) 		Antenna pattern
round (ND) / directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) /
vertical (V) 		Modulation
method 		FEC Guard
interval 		Bit rate  
(Mbit / s)
26th 514 WDR (West) 19.95 64-QAM 3/5 19/128
29 538 ZDF 19.95 64-QAM 3/5 19/128
35 586 ARD 19.95 64-QAM 1/2 19/128
36 594 Freenet TV Mux 3 19.95 64-QAM 2/3 1/16
40 626 Freenet TV Mux 1 19.95 64-QAM 2/3 1/16
43 650 Freenet TV Mux 2 19.95 64-QAM 2/3 1/16

Previous programs and frequencies

Digital television ( DVB-T )

Regular operation of the old DVB-T standard ended on March 29, 2017 at Colonius
Former offer:

channel Frequency  
(MHz) 		Multiplex Programs in multiplex ERP  
(kW) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) /
vertical (V) 		Modulation
method 		FEC Guard
interval 		Bit rate  
(Mbit / s)
26th 514 ZDFmobil 20th ND V 16 QAM 
(8 k mode) 		2/3 1/4 13.27 Colonius (Cologne-Ehrenfeld) , Bonn (Venusberg), Aachen (Stolberg-Donnerberg), Aachen (Karlshöhe-Mulleklenkes), Gummersbach (Kerberg), Hohe Warte / Engelskirchen (Ründeroth)
29 538 RTL Group 1) 20th ND V 16 QAM 
(8 k mode) 		2/3 1/4 13.27 Colonius (Cologne-Ehrenfeld) , Bonn (Venusberg), Wesel (Büderich) , Düsseldorf (Rheinturm) , Langenberg / Velbert (Hordtberg) , Essen (Holsterhausen-Am Fernmeldeamt), Dortmund (Westfalenpark-Florian)
36 594 Mixed private North Rhine-Westphalia
(T-Systems, BetaDigital 
[Tele 5]) 		20th ND V 16 QAM 
(8 k mode) 		2/3 1/4 13.27 Colonius (Cologne-Ehrenfeld) , Bonn (Venusberg)
49 698 ARD regional (WDR) Cologne / Bonn 50 ND V 64-QAM 1/2 1/4 14.93 Colonius (Cologne-Ehrenfeld) , Bonn (Venusberg), Gummersbach (Kerberg), Hohe Warte / Engelskirchen (Ründeroth)
50 706 ARD Digital (WDR) 50 ND V 16 QAM  
(8 k mode) 		2/3 1/4 13.27 Colonius (Cologne-Ehrenfeld) , Bonn (Venusberg) , Aachen (Stolberg-Donnerberg) , Aachen (Karlshöhe-Mulleklenkes) , Gummersbach (Kerberg), Hohe Warte (Engelskirchen Ründeroth)
53 730 ProSiebenSat.1 Media North Rhine-Westphalia 20th ND V 16 QAM 
(8 k mode) 		2/3 1/4 13.27 Colonius (Cologne-Ehrenfeld) , Bonn (Venusberg)
1) possible shutdown on December 31, 2016

Analog television

Until the changeover to digital television was an analogous ground power stations for the first program of the ARD in operation.

channel Frequency  
(MHz) 		program ERP
(kW) 		Transmission diagram
round (ND) /
directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) /
vertical (V)
11 217.25 Das Erste (WDR) 10 ND H

Other radio services are the directional radio systems from T-Systems .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Colonius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfram Hagspiel, Wirtschaftsarchitektur in Köln, ed. from the city of Cologne, undated
  2. ↑ Colonius on tvprogrammy.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 16, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.tvprogrammy.com  
  3. ↑ LfM / Media Broadcast: Media Broadcast is driving the development of a DVB-T2 platform for the terrestrial broadcast of HD programs. June 3, 2014, accessed December 3, 2014 .