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A New Technology

Until now broadcasters, such as the SABC, eTV, MNET and our many radio stations, have relied o­n Sentech’s terrestrial network of transmitter towers, located at strategic positions around the country. Their signal, in analogue form, would be channelled to the transmitter towers, from where it would in turn be broadcast and received via standard wire antennae in millions of homes across South Africa. The process of channelling the signal from broadcaster to transmitter by means of landlines and microwave link, however, has historically proven expensive.

A solution was needed, and Sentech introduced satellite technology to feed these towers Under the new technology, broadcasters convert their signal to a new format, namely MPEG (the international standard for digital broadcast). Signals are now sent directly from the broadcaster to the uplink station, and then up to the satellite and back down to the terrestrial transmitter, which converts the digital signal back to analogue for re-broadcast – allowing for high power direct-to-home transmissions in the form of pay TV as we know it today. 

Data Casting

By adding a computer at the point of reception, coupled with a data gateway that is capable of interpreting data in IP format for conversion to MPEG, it is now possible to broadcast multimedia, data files, radio and TV directly to a PC. This is what is known as data-casting. 

The Waiting is Over

The frustrations of the web are familiar to all of us. Sentech makes this a thing of the past. By connecting the data gateway to the uplink station, information is redirected back to the user via the satellite, giving him a much faster return path for incoming data. Consequently, everything from normal web browsing and FTP traffic, to email collection is dramatically sped up, delivering the promise of the Internet without the wait.