Client: Walesi Fiji Ltd and Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC)
Location: Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, Fiji
Timeline: 2019 – ongoing
Services: Network scoping, RF and antenna system design, equipment specification and supply, installation, commissioning, and remote project management
Overview
In 2019, Walesi Fiji Ltd engaged Southern Broadcast to scope the migration of FBC’s national FM radio services from ageing, deteriorating infrastructure to Walesi’s new containerised transmission facilities.
What began as a scoping study has become a multi-year rebuild of Fiji’s main FM transmission network. It covers eight transmission sites across Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, carrying FBC’s six radio services in two regions. Walesi and FBC have worked together on the network throughout, with further sites added from 2023.
The challenge
Our site surveys found a network in poor condition:
- Transmitters were corroded by Fiji’s tropical climate, and N+1 backup switching had failed at most sites.
- Most sites were running at a fraction of their original power.
- Some antenna systems were poorly designed. At Suva, face-mounted antennas shadowed coverage to the west.
- Two sites serving Lautoka, Sabeto and Lololo, were interfering with each other: their frequencies were only 200 kHz apart and their signals arrived at similar strengths, causing problems for listeners.
Our solution
Southern Broadcast carried out the full scope, antenna system design and equipment specification for every site. The design followed Fiji’s national FM band plan.
Transmitters built for the tropics. We logged temperature and humidity inside the transmitter shelters and recorded readings above 90% relative humidity. We then specified Ecreso (WorldCast Systems) transmitters in an N+1 configuration, chosen for their construction and their proven ability to run continuously in high-humidity environments. Systems range from 6+1 configurations of 2 kW and 3 kW transmitters at the Walesi sites to an 8+1 system of 1 kW AIO series transmitters at Dogowale.
Transparent digital programme distribution. Programme audio is carried to every site as uncompressed digital MPX, multicast using APT codecs. The programme is delivered to the sites over the Walesi and FBC microwave networks. What the broadcaster sends from the studio, including RDS data, is exactly what goes to air.
Resilient RF systems. Every site uses SIRA combiners from Italy, and every site except Suva also has a SIRA antenna system. Each antenna system is split-fed through a switch frame. If one half of the antenna fails, the site stays on air using the other half. Forward and reflected power are monitored remotely.
Coverage-led antenna design:
- Nadi and Lautoka (Sabeto): a 12-bay SIRA circularly polarised antenna system to improve reception inside buildings and reduce multipath distortion in built-up areas.
- Lautoka interference: fixed by redesigning the Lololo antenna system, which removed the adjacent-channel problem between Sabeto and Lololo.
- Koro’o: this 1,043 m site had been left bare after Cyclone Winston. We redesigned it to cover the coast and extend coverage out to the Yasawa and Mamanuca island groups and their resorts.
- Suva (Nakobalevu): the tower could not structurally carry the planned circular array, so an interim 8-bay Aldena antenna system was installed to restore service.
Delivered remotely during COVID-19
The first two sites, Nakobalevu (Suva) and Sabeto (Nadi and Lautoka), were delivered while New Zealand’s borders were closed. Southern Broadcast project-managed both installations remotely from New Zealand and brought in engineers from Europe to carry out the on-site work. Both sites were installed and commissioned in December 2021, without our own team being able to travel to Fiji.
On the ground in Fiji
For Koro’o in 2023, and for Lololo, Rakiraki and Dogowale in 2025, Southern Broadcast engineers worked in Fiji alongside local teams, including FBC’s own transmission team, to install and commission each site, from rigging the antennas to bringing the transmitters on air.
Sites and status
| Site | Area served | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Nakobalevu | Suva | Installed and commissioned, December 2021 (interim 8-bay Aldena antenna) |
| Sabeto | Nadi and Lautoka | Installed and commissioned, December 2021 |
| Koro’o | North-west coast and outer islands | Installed and commissioned, June 2023 |
| Delaikoro | Labasa | Installation pending |
| Lololo | Western Viti Levu | Installed and commissioned, November 2025 |
| Rakiraki | Northern Viti Levu | Installed and commissioned, November 2025 |
| Dogowale | Coral Coast, Pacific Harbour area (infill coverage) | Installed and commissioned, November 2025 |
| Naveria | Savusavu | Installation pending |
Southern Broadcast installed and commissioned Koro’o, Lololo, Rakiraki and Dogowale in person in Fiji, and delivered Nakobalevu and Sabeto through remote project management. The final planned site, Vunatovau (Sigatoka), is still to come.
Gallery
Key facts
- Eight FM transmission sites across Fiji’s two main islands
- FBC’s six national radio services in two regional networks, with the FBC sites able to accommodate up to eight services
- Ecreso N+1 transmitters throughout, in 6+1 and 8+1 configurations
- Uncompressed APT digital MPX multicast distribution
- SIRA combiners at every site, and SIRA antenna systems at every site except Suva (interim Aldena antenna)
- Two sites delivered entirely remotely during the COVID-19 border closures
Southern Broadcast Ltd is a New Zealand broadcast engineering company providing RF and transmission design, installation and support to broadcasters across New Zealand and the Pacific.