Satellite TV – broadcasting all over the world

Television is in our homes for so long, that it is not even considered a ‘guest' anymore. In fact, television it is so strange to imagine a home without a TV set, even if the members of the household are not watching TV a lot. Many surveys indicate that a large number of people consider the television to be one of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century, if not the most important. And the invention and the expansion of satellite TV only increased the popularity of the television in general. If before this invention the television was mostly local or national, but now we have the ability to watch international TV channels and people in America can watch European TV channels, the Europeans can watch Asian channels etc.

The concept of satellite TV

Every television program that is broadcasted via a communication satellite is considered to be satellite TV . The receiver of the signal is usually an antenna that is located outside, and it commonly called satellite dish. The signal to the TV set is distributed through a special box or a tuner that is installed into the TV set. More recently, watching satellite television is available on computers, as well, usually via a card or a USB stick. In many parts of the globe, the satellite television is the only type of television available since cable or conventional TV signal can't reach the area. There are two ways of distributing the satellite signal to the viewers, digital and analog. And the receivers also bear the respective names – digital receiver and analog receiver. In the past, only the analog television was available, but nowadays the digital television is far more popular. In addition, digital satellite television enables the possibility of watching HD (high definition) television.

The early history of satellite TV

The history of the satellite TV begins long ago, in the year of 1962. This is the year when the first satellite signal was broadcasted from Europe to North America. And Syncom 2 was established the next year. It was the first geosynchronous communication satellite. The first commercial satellite appeared two years later, in 1965, its name was Intelsat I. It can be concluded that the sixties were the years where many novelties in the field of television, in particular satellite television were introduced. In the sixties, the first network of satellite television that operates inside a country was established. The name of the network was Orbita (Orbit) and the country was the Soviet Union. They were using the Molniya (Thunderbolt) satellite. And during the next decade, the seventies, the Direct-To-Home television was established, and the first satellite was named Ekran (Screen).

Few words on satellite TV technology

The technology of the satellite TV is quite sophisticated and complex. The satellites, which are used to emit the signal, have to be very elliptical or they have to be high above the earth. Another necessary element is the uplink facility from where the signal is emitted. The signal that reaches the TV set is called a downlink signal and it's passed through a low-noise block down-converter. The design of the receiver has improved significantly and the ones in use today are much better in catching signals than the older ones.