The Amazing Technology Of Consumer Satellite TV
How does satellite TV work? There is a long version that is very scientific and a shorter version that is more interesting. We’ll stick with the shorter version. The very first satellite for TV was shot into orbit in’62. So, there has been a lot of advances made to the technology behind satellites since then. And, we have benefited from all of those advances.
Back then people who wanted satellite for their televisions had to use a nine foot dish that they put in their back yards. They were really big, ugly, and gave an incredible variety of channels from other countries that made them totally worth the effort. Some people still have those dishes in their back yards. When somebody wants to get channels from a different country they call the neighbors to help them move the dish a tad. There were remotes included with the dishes but those were lost years ago.
At that time, and for several years after, no one who owned the dishes really knew which satellites were plugged into which countries. So, you would move the dish until you picked up a country that looked good and watch it for a few days or months until you moved the dish again. Sometimes you landed on your own country, most times you didn’t. But, it was fun and all countries have unique television programs that aren’t seen in other countries.
Once the satellites became more popular, providers started shooting satellites with transponders up regularly. These geostationary satellites orbit at the same speed as the earth so they don’t seem to be moving. This made reception even better and it was lots easier to find channels and countries because the satellites were identified. As people became more knowledgeable about where satellites were located they started creating their own programming guides. Those have now been replaced with the onscreen guides provided by the satellites.
Next, the providers came up with a way for city dwellers who didn’t have nine extra feet in their back yard to use the dishes. The little’” dishes were introduced and as long as a person was pointing it south and it was unobstructed, they got the same great television that the big dish people got. The dish fit anywhere on the building and could be propped up in worse case scenario and still work.
Cities had a problem with the little dishes because hardly anybody has an unblocked south view. That’s when they came up with “spot beams.” So, the satellites shoot a signal to the spot beam, that shoots a signal to the dish, that shoots a signal to a television. Okay, it’s way more scientific than that, but this is the short version, and you get the picture.
The system runs on radio signals that are sent digitally encoded. The guys figured out that they could send more channels through the same bandwidth using this strategies. This is why over five hundred channels are available at any time, twenty-four hours a day. Improvements and advancements continue to be made that are making the dishes smaller and more powerful. It’s actually amazing how the whole system works.
So, for unscientific types that were wondering how does satellite TV work, there you have it. A really complex system that works really well.
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