Astra 1N - made it to geostationary orbit, now the fun starts

[DragonSat]

I really do hope the 1N transmissions are stronger than the 2D ones. Here in Naples we will be pretty hacked off if we loose stuff from 2A and B. Come on Astra/Sky give us ExPats a break.

 

[PaulR]

Come on Astra/Sky give us ExPats a break.

Fat chance - it's all about money.

Money to be made by selling the same transmission rights many times over across the EU and money to be made by reusing the same frequencies from a single satellite position by using multiple tightly focused beams on different regions.

 

[Analoguesat]

Yup - and its already started to happen . Look at the specs for Eutelsat 9B which will slot at 9E in 2014. FOUR none overlapping spotbeams with frequency reuse between them

Its the way forward and its going to increase rapidly over the next few years.

 

[M60]

Do you envisage all TP's at 28.2E will one day go spotbeam including Sky's as this will mean loads of Expats loosing Sky which will be a substantial revenue loss. Makes you wonder whether Sky's clout as one of their biggest customers would force a u-turn in the respect?

 

[PaulR]

Again, it's down to money. SES might keep some TPs with a wide beam that $ly would want to use, if they paid enough. They might then have a series of multiple steerable beams for other customers that could be rented out two or three times over. Some customers (BBC, ITV, C4 etc) would prefer the spot beams anyway.

I agree with your analysis of $ly's nod-and-wink approach to ex-pat subscriptions. They only cancel them when it's brought to their attention it seems.

 

[timo_w2s]

I think we still some years away from all transponders being spot beams as I believe some of the newer satellites coming online will still have some Europe wide capacity.

 

[BLUEPLATINUM]

I agree with your analysis of $ly's nod-and-wink approach to ex-pat subscriptions. They only cancel them when it's brought to their attention it seems.

I am surprised Sky have not migrated all their channels to South beam TPs to quietly take advantage of the expat market. The North beams do not cover most of the Spanish costas or the Canary Islands. If challenged by the rights holders they can always quote NDS.

 

[Analoguesat]

Do you envisage all TP's at 28.2E will one day go spotbeam including Sky's as this will mean loads of Expats loosing Sky which will be a substantial revenue loss. Makes you wonder whether Sky's clout as one of their biggest customers would force a u-turn in the respect?

The next generation of 28E birds is 20 years away yet. By then the whole idea of satellite delivery might be looked upon as terrribly quaint

Anyway in even 5 years the whole idea of tv rights restricted by geography is going to seem ludicrous.

 

[archive10]

The next generation of 28E birds is 20 years away yet. By then the whole idea of satellite delivery might be looked upon as terrribly quaint

Anyway in even 5 years the whole idea of tv rights restricted by geography is going to seem ludicrous.

(Sound if soap box being pulled out)

Going off thread for a minute:

Yeah - the ridiculous thing about it is that I just like watching select stuff off the main British channels.
However, I happen not to be in the UK, so I am not supposed to receive these things.

But I'd happily pay for it on a subscription basis if I could get it over my fibre-to-the-home internet connection.
I'd even pay content producers (like the BBC) to receive what is otherwise free-to-air TV.
(I'll even go as far as to admit that I could probably be talked into NOT having a 180 cm dish in my back-yard if I could get the same things from a network connection).
Even with sat reception, I'm sure there's loads of people in Spain and southern Europe that would pay plentiful to watch select stuff (as they do today).

What really matters is the absolute amount of eyeballs for a given piece of content.
For the content providers, competition of delivery services should be a good thing, as you'd just get the content to as many eyeballs as possible of all of those who want to watch.
The more paths to the viewers, the more viewes, and the more money content providers would make!

I hope we have some swift "tear-down-the-walls" disruptive tech or services now on-line movie services are gaining.

...down from soap box, back on thread.

 

[solly]

astra 1n pass localtion 21.5e

 

[M60]

I am surprised Sky have not migrated all their channels to South beam TPs to quietly take advantage of the expat market. The North beams do not cover most of the Spanish costas or the Canary Islands. If challenged by the rights holders they can always quote NDS.

I was chatting to my relatives who live on the Canaries last week regarding dish sizes and he was asking for costs for a 2.4m dish so he can receive 2D services. I've warned them that they are about to loose a whole bouquet of services from their Sky STB due to 1N migrations shortly. Can I ask (being in Gran Canaria), what is the rainfade margin like from 2D on a 2.4m dish and do you not have issues with RF overload from other 2A/B south beam services? Also, can you get EB1 services with the dish at 28.2E considering the acceptance angle will be pretty tight? In particular my Uncle has asked about using the Humax HDR PVR over there from their house in the UK. Obviously they'll need decent EB1 reception at 28.5E for this as that's where the Freesat Home transponder is located.

astra 1n pass localtion 21.5e

1N is now moving nicely, not long until she passed 23.5E

 

[dvdfilm]

I was chatting to my relatives who live on the Canaries last week regarding dish sizes and he was asking for costs for a 2.4m dish so he can receive 2D services. I've warned them that they are about to loose a whole bouquet of services from their Sky STB due to 1N migrations shortly. Can I ask (being in Gran Canaria), what is the rainfade margin like from 2D on a 2.4m dish and do you not have issues with RF overload from other 2A/B south beam services? Also, can you get EB1 services with the dish at 28.2E considering the acceptance angle will be pretty tight? In particular my Uncle has asked about using the Humax HDR PVR over there from their house in the UK. Obviously they'll need decent EB1 reception at 28.5E for this as that's where the Freesat Home transponder is located.

I don't know about the Canaries,BLUEPLATINUM will be able to help you on that,but generally speaking i think it might be better to put on hold any new installation until we know more about 1N reception

 

[M60]

That's what I'm also concerned about and did warn him that spending £2.5k on a dish and installation might result in misery after 2/3yrs if everything goes spotbeam with frequency reuse.

 

[Huevos]

a 2.4m dish so he can receive 2D services.

A 2.4m is not big enough. Maybe 3.1m.

what is the rainfade margin like from 2D

Much better than an offset dish, because the LNB is facing down so it doesn't get rain across the cover.

do you not have issues with RF overload from other 2A/B south beam services?

Not on 2D because there are no high power adjacent signals in lo-band. Here we use 2.4m dishes a lot and there are problems sometimes with the the North beam transponders where they are between two South beam transponders. For example I can get Eurosport 2 on my 1.8m dish but a few of my neighbours with 2.4m dishes can't. Same with Sky channels 301-312.

 

[DishDick]

Most of the 2.4M offset brigade here struggle to get 24/7 signal on the desired channels, go a bit larger - 2.7M. Now True Movies etc have changed transponders, most of the good EB1 channels are easily received.

 

[andrewcrawford]

astra 1n at 22.8e now.

_http://www.satellite-calculations.com/TLETracker/SatTracker.htm using this site suggests it will be in orbit on 19th october at 3am but i it doesnt take into account it slowing as it says it will be 28.5e at this time on 19th

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[M60]

astra 1n at 22.8e now.

_http://www.satellite-calculations.com/TLETracker/SatTracker.htm using this site suggests it will be in orbit on 19th october at 3am but i it doesnt take into account it slowing as it says it will be 28.5e at this time on 19th

Presumably when they do an orbit raising burn to lift it back to GSO this is within the final half orbit of the satellites current rotation around the Earth (say 12hrs before)? This will somewhat slow down quickly as it lifts up to it's true GSO again so from the final 12hrs when it's expected to arrive, according to TLE and calculations, it could actually then take a day or so to then slow down and get in to it's final position?? Not too clued up on this sort of thing so maybe someone else can fill me in?

 

[Topper]

The burn has to achieve two things, the first being to increase the speed of the sat relative to the rotating earth, the second to raise it to the higher orbit. The further out the satellite is from the surface of the earth the faster it has to travel to keep a geostationary position above the earth.

 

[BLUEPLATINUM]

Regarding the Canaries discussion ....

First thing to remember is there are major differences between the islands - I can only comment on my experiences in Gran Canaria South.

I have a 2.4m Andrews/Channel Master offset dish with Inverto Black Ultra Quad LNB. Other 2.4m dishes do not perform adequately here. Many people here have 3.1m prime focus dishes. My setup pulls in all of Astra 2D (HORIZONTAL only - no one here get the Verticals as far as I know) and there is rarely any problem (since I got the new LN except for the Channel 4 channels which break up in the evening. I think there is one of the North beams (2A/2B not sure which one) that doesn't come in but I'll have to check. We get EB Steerable in the mornings and EB Fixed all the time - again there may be some TPs missing I haven't done a proper analysis but will try to do so over the next few days and report back.

Sorry to be a bit vague, but we just tend to be grateful for what we can get. I will try to present a details list of what channels I am getting and will also post reports once 1N lights up (assuming I have anything to report from here).

Oh forgot to say. Someone mentioned "rain" ... that means nothing to me sorry.

 

[DishDick]

Blueplatinum, cast your mind back to February, I think we had a bit of the wet stuff then.