A satellite television system is a highly technical and complex system of equipment that includes
a satellite uplink station, the satellite in space orbiting in a geosynchronous
orbits 22,300 miles above Earth’s equator, the small mini-disc receiving unit
located in a house or business and finally the receiver (black box) that connects to
your television and allows you to view satellite programming. Commercial
satellite television programming has been around since the 1990s and today is making
huge gains in the cable TV market as more and more Americans are taking advantage of
better picture and audio quality, lower monthly prices than cable, and free
equipment and installation than major US satellite providers, DISH Network and
DIRECTV provides. But how does satellite TV work? In this article we will take
a detailed look at the various steps involved on the way to producing such a
sharp, reliable picture on your TV.

Satellite television: basics

Satellite television uses a wireless system for transmitting radio signals to deliver its
television programming to the viewer’s home or business. A radio signal can only
travel in a straight line however. Enter the satellite. By placing a
Orbiting a satellite 37,000 km (22,300 miles) above the earth and matching the speed of the earth’s rotation (7,000 miles per hour), the satellite remains in the same place on the earth.
This is known as being in geosynchronous orbit. These orbits are sometimes
also known as Clarke orbits after Arthur C. Clarke, who first appeared
with the idea in an article he wrote in 1945 titled “Extraterrestrial Relays”
published in Wireless World magazine. The orbiting satellite then retransmits the
transmit radio signal back to earth to the receiving satellite dish (mini-dish)
located in your home or business. The signal then travels through coaxial cables.
from the dish to the receiver that is connected to your television, where the signal is
it is then decrypted into viewable programming for your family to enjoy.

uplink station

The satellite television programming you watch at home begins with a transmitting satellite
dish or antenna located in what is known as an uplink station. the parabolic antenna
located in your house is only 18″ in diameter and small compared to the huge satellite
dishes used in uplink stations. These satellite dishes can have from 9 to 12
meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter. The large size of these parabolic transmitters
allows for a much stronger radio signal and better signal targeting when
orbiting satellite. The uplink dish points to a specific satellite and the uplink
Signals are transmitted within a specific radio frequency range, to be received by
one of the transponders tuned to that frequency range on board that satellite. Tea
transponder ‘retransmits’ the signals to Earth but at a different frequency
band (to avoid interference with the uplink signal), typically in the C-band (4-8 GHz)
or Ku band (12-18 GHz) or both. The portion of the satellite signal path that transmits
the signal arriving at the ground station is known as the ‘downlink’. can satellites
have up to 32 transponders for Ku-band and up to 24 for C-band satellites only.
Each of the typical transponders has a bandwidth between 27 MHz and 50 MHz. geostationary
Kc band satellites should be separated by at least 1 degree to avoid signal interference.
For C-band satellites, the separation must be at least 2 degrees.

satellite signal technology

The original satellite broadcasts are converted into a high-quality uncompressed digital broadcast.
stream that contains a large amount of data and sends it at a rate of 270 megabits per second (Mbps)
for each channel. All these data must be compressed however or the satellite
could not receive the information. The compression system used in the US is the MPEG-2 compressed video format. This is similar to the system used to make DVDs. The provider could now reduce the flow from 270 Mbps to about 5 or 10 Mbps, which would allow them to transmit about 200 channels, instead of the 30 they could transmit before compression. These signals are encrypted so that only paid subscribers can receive them.

Mini Dish Technology

Unlike their predecessors, today’s satellite dishes are small, only 18″ in diameter.
and are known as a ‘mini-dish’.

A typical satellite dish consists of two parts: the reflector and the feed horn. the reflector
it is the concave dish-shaped part of the antenna. This is the part of the antenna that
captures and focuses the satellite signal on the feed horn. The power horn is the part
of the antenna that is mounted on an arm that protrudes from the plate of the reader. take the
signal and feeds it through a cable to your satellite receiver (black box).
Newer satellite dish designs feature multiple feed horns. This is
so that the dish can collect signals from several satellites and clearly focus the captured
signal on one of several feed horns.

Something called a power horn has a feature known as low noise.
Down Converter Block (LNB). This provides a clear signal. The LNB does two things:
It amplifies the signal received from the satellite provider and filters out “signal noise”.
radio signals that do not carry the television programming of the satellite provider.

satellite receiver

The satellite receiver is simply the black box that is connected to your television.
place. It receives the signal from your mini dish and then decodes the signal into
Viewable images for your family to see. The receiver does three main things:

Receives and decodes the signal that contains the programming.

Separate the programming on the individual channels that you request as a
channel selector button on your TV or on your remote control.

Tracks your Pay Per View usage and submits your billing information for this
schedule to your provider.

Today, there are several different types
of receivers: standard receivers, DVR receivers and HD receivers to receive
High-definition television (HDTV) programming. DVR (digital video receiver) players
allow viewer to pause and play live TV and to record up to 70
hours on the DISH Network DVR 311 or 322 players. The DISH Network DVR Receiver
is an advanced dual tuner, satellite receiver with two TV outputs and integrated digital
video recorder (DVR). DISH Network DVRs are designed so you never have to
miss another favorite TV show again. It doesn’t matter what your schedule is; with the plate
Network DVR can simply record your favorite shows at the click of a button.
DISH Network offers more than 500 programming channels to choose from and all
DISH Network satellite programming comes in 100% digital video and audio.
So how does satellite TV work? In a word, perfectly.