Satellite TV Glossary

Satellite TV seems to have a language all of its own (all those acronyms), and although this page could go on forever I’ve tried to whittle it down to 20 or so terms which crop up pretty regularly but you might be a little unsure of.

Amplifier – forget sound, this refers to an amplifier which boosts the signal strength.

Antenna – this is what transmits and receives the radio waves. Sometimes an antenna is nothing more than a simple bit of wire but others are far more complicated.

Aperture – this is the bit of the antenna which is exposed to the signal from the satellite.

Attitude Control – this would be very useful for your average teenager wouldn’t it? But when we’re talking satellite TV it refers to the orientation of the satellite and its relationship to the sun and the earth.

Bandwidth – this is how the amount of frequency being used or capacity is measured.  A telephone needs about 3KHz, which is a bandwidth of 3000 cycles per second, a terrestrial TV channel needs around 6 MHz, which is 6 million cycles per second, and satellite TV needs anywhere from 17.5 to 72 MHz. It takes a lot of bandwidth to get the latest news to your TV you know.

Bird – haha, is it a bird, is it a plane, no and it’s not Superman either. It’s actually the slang (yes, Satellite TV engineers do use slang you know) for a communications satellite which is whizzing around in geosynchronous orbit.

Bit - is a single “bit” of digital info.

Bit Rate – is the speed that those “bits” of digital information are transmitted, in bits per second.

Broad Beam – no, it’s nothing to do with “does my bum look big in this?” It’s simply a singular, broad circular beam which covers quite a large geographical area.

Channel – we all know about “changing channels” to find out favorite programs don’t we? Well then, what did you think it was?

Codec – a coder and decoder system which is used in digital transmission.

DBS – Direct Broadband Satellite - is the service which uses satellites to broadcast multiple channels of television programming directly towards your home mounted small-dish antenna.

Decoder – this is a television set-top device which enables a home subscriber to convert the electronically scrambled television picture into a viewable signal so that they can watch the TV. Do not confuse this with a digital coder/decoder known as a CODEC, because that’s something different about digital transmissions.

Delay – refers to the time it takes for a signal to go all the way from the sending station through the satellite and land at the receiving station.  This delay for a one hop satellite connection is actually very close to one-quarter of a second, wow that’s fast, no wonder we hadn’t noticed.

Eclipse – when your satellite passes through the line directly between the earth and the moon, or alternatively the earth and the sun.

Eclipse Protected – Hmmmm, is it a book, is it a film, something to do with Twilight maybe? No, it’s nothing to do with that, but think about it. It’s a type of transponder which allows you to still watch TV even if there’s an eclipse, it doesn’t lose power.

FCC – Federal Communications Commission – this is the US federal governing body regulating interstate communications under the 1934 Communications Act.

Hub – just one question – who’s the Daddy? The hub that’s who. This is the master station from which all satellite communications must pass, at the moment, but watch out hubs, they’ll be able to do away with you soon and satellites will have their own on-board processing – I know it’s harsh but it’s progress.

Transmitter – transmits the electromagnetic wave signals for radio or television into the atmosphere with an antenna.

TVRO – this is probably what you’ve got at home in your house, even if you didn’ t know it. It’s a Television Receive Only Terminal which uses antenna reflectors and other electronically wizardry type stuff to receive the signals and turn them into programs on your TV set.