What is Satellite TV
You must be hearing a lot of discussion on what satellite TV really is and how does it really benefit the TV viewers. Satellite TV system has broken the shackles of terrestrial and cable TV and has made programming available at low cost to millions of homes.
Not only this, Satellite TV is very versatile, extendable and offers value added services that were not possible with cable. In one way or the other, it is going to touch your life. The fact that you are on this page indicates that it has already begun to!
Before we understand the satellite TV history, it is pertinent to have an understanding of Satellites. Sir Isaac Newton visualized in 1687 that a satellite could orbit the earth in such a way that its orbit period was exactly the time the earth took to rotate once - 24 hrs.
If this happens, the satellite would appear to be fixed over a point on the earth. Such an orbit is called geo-synchronous. A lot of water has flown under our bridges since 1687 and geo-synchronous satellites are taken for granted today.
If such a satellite were to transmit a signal towards the earth, this would be received over a large area - called the footprint. Footprints depend upon the beam width of the satellite and are hundreds of miles across. Since the satellite is in a geo-synchro orbit, once you start receiving its signal you will continue to do so without any further adjustment. Transmitting a TV signal from a satellite, this way is somewhat like wiring tens of thousands of houses and offices to receive TV signals.
We now have satellite TV service providers who buy or lease programs from producers as HBO or ESPN, puts them all together into a beam and send it to their own satellite in the orbit upstairs. The satellite receives this beam; amplifies it and sends it back to the earth.
Only now, millions of satellite TV dishes and receivers at rooftops of homes can receive this signal and millions more can hook on without affecting any one else, therefore the cost of adding new users is very low in the satellite TV system.
When this technology stabilized, it became possible to set up entire satellite TV networks that relied only on this mechanism to get the programs to their viewers. This is how satellite TV started. Naturally enough, satellite TV providers had to rely on some type of encryption to ensure that people did not access these programs free. This requires the user to purchase a satellite TV receiver system that consists of a dish antenna, a receiving system, a decoder and cabling.
All this and much - much is possible with satellite TV. As someone very aptly put it - "the limits are the limits of your imagination!"
Al Falaq Arsendatama (c) 2005
http://www.satellitetv-choice.com
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