Satellite Television

Satellite Television

Satellite Television is a way of delivering signals using an artificial satellite which aids telecommunications by reflecting or relaying a radio signal. The other ways of delivering signal are by terrestrial television which a lot of us still have and cable television which is a distribution system in which station signals, picked up by elevated antennas, are delivered by cable to the receivers of subscribers.

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Satellite television supplements the older terrestrial television by providing a wider range of channels, including subscription only services. This page gives information from whatupay which we hope will explain a little about Satellite Television.

Looking back at the history of Satellite Television, the first signal was relayed from Europe to the Telstar Satellite over North America in 1962. Satellite television, starts with a transmitting antenna located at a facility which creates a transmission path by which radio or other signals are sent to an aircraft or a communications satellite. The dishes using this facility are very large which results in more accurate aiming and increased signal strength.

The dish is pointed towards a specific satellite and the signals are transmitted within a specific frequency range so they are received by one of the transponders tuned to the same frequency range aboard the satellite. The transponder then transmits the signal back to earth on a different frequency (to avoid interference from the other signals). The signals going to the satellite are called the "uplink" and when they return to earth they are called the "downlink".

There are five major components involved in a direct to home (DTH) satellite system:

  • The programming source are the channels that provide programming for broadcast. The provider doesn't create the programming but pays other companies for the rights. Therefore the provider is a "middle man" between you and the programming sources.

  • The broadcast centre is the hub of the system where the provider receives signals from various programming sources and beams a broadcast signal to satellites.

  • The satellites receive signals from the station and return them to the ground

  • The viewer's dish then picks up the signal from the satellite and passes it to the receiver in the viewer's house.

  • The receiver processes the signal which passes on to the television.

    Basically, with satellite television the whole industry has changed. Gone are the days of three or four channels because with a few changes, your living room can be turned into a place of total entertainment at your fingertips.



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