Satellite TV - What is it and How Does it Work?

You may have already seen several households all around the United States, especially in rural areas, with compact satellite dishes hovering on their rooftops. That means these households have satellite TV and are enjoying the services of satellite TV companies.

Satellite TV is another way of delivering television programming to the viewers. Satellite TV is a lot similar to broadcast television. Both of them transmit programming with the use of radio signals. However, there are some limitations to broadcast television.

Broadcast TV vs. Satellite TV

Broadcast stations make use of a powerful antenna to transmit radio waves to the surrounding area within a specific range. The viewers of broadcast TV have a smaller antenna to pick up these signals transmitted by the station.

However, the smaller antenna should be in the direct line of sight of the station's antenna to be able to receive a good signal. The signal received is also often distorted unless the receiver is very near the transmitting station.

Satellite TV companies, on the other hand, have a solution to the range and distortion problems of broadcast TV. Satellite TV transmits broadcast signals through satellites orbiting the Earth. Since these satellites are situated high in the sky, there are definitely more receivers in the line of sight of the transmitted signal.

How Satellite TV Works?

Satellite TV systems make use of satellite dishes which are specialized antennas to transmit and receive radio signals.

The communication satellites used in satellite TV are launched into space at about 37,000 km above the Earth's surface at the speed of around 11,000 kph. With this speed and altitude, the satellite can keep pace with the Earth’s movement exactly which means it revolves around the Earth once every 24 hours.

The satellites are also in geosynchronous orbit which means they stay in a single location in the sky relative to the earth. Thus, the satellite dish needs to be directed at the satellite once as long as everything works fine.

Satellite TV starts with a transmitting antenna situated at an uplink facility. The uplink satellite dishes are directed at the satellite to transmit signals to as much as 9 to 12 meters in diameter. The bigger the diameter, the more improved the reception will be at the satellite. The signal is transmitted to transponders on-board the satellite, which retransmit the signal back to the Earth using a different frequency.

The satellite TV signal is quite weak due to travel in space. However, this signal, once collected by the parabolic satellite dish, is down-converted to a lower frequency band then amplified using a low-noise block down-converter, or LNB.

Types of Satellite TV Distribution

There are two primary kinds of satellite TV distribution, namely television receive-only (TVRO) and direct broadcast satellite (DBS).

Television receive-only satellite is a satellite TV reception device based on open standards equipment. This type is often referred to as the big dish satellite TV. TVRO systems more often use larger satellite dishes since a C-band setup is more common to owners of this system, although it is designed to receive signals both from C-band and K u-band satellite TV signals.

Direct broadband satellite TV is also known as "direct to home". DBS systems are also referred to as the "minidish" systems as it uses the small satellite dish that we commonly see around. This system uses the upper portion of the K u-band.

Satellite TV is getting more popular nowadays. It can be a good alternative to the regular broadcast TV or the more common cable TV.