Satellite Technology

Satellite Technology Overview

In the traditional analogue broadcast environment, broadcasters like the SABC, e tv, M-Net and radio stations use South Africa's signal distributor Sentech's terrestrial network of transmitter towers scattered around the country. The broadcasters would channel this analogue signal to the transmitter towers which would, in turn, broadcast it to homes where it is received o­n a standard wire aerial. It proved an expensive exercise to channel signals from the broadcaster to these transmitter stations using landlines and microwave links. Sentech introduced satellite broadcast technology to feed these towers.

Broadcasters convert their signals to a new format, MPEG the international standard for digital broadcast in the new age. Signals are sent from the broadcaster to the uplink station, up to the satellite and back down to the terrestrial transmitter, which converts the digital signal back to analogue and broadcasts it to our homes. The latest satellite technology allows for high power direct-to-home transmissions in the form of pay TV as we know today. By adding a computer at the consumer's home and a data gateway that allows us to take data in an IP format and convert it to MPEG, we can now broadcast multimedia, data files and radio or TV directly to the consumers PC. This is called data-casting.

Traditionally, in order to connect to the Internet, a consumer needed to purchase a modem, a contract with an Internet Service Provider and then dial the ISP's local POP - for a really slow connection.

Sentech takes their data gateway, uplink station and fast broadcast via satellite to the consumer's home and connects this together by placing a proxy at the data gateway, which is connected to the Internet. Using the proxy, the information is redirected to the user back via the satellite, giving him a much faster return path for incoming data.

Everything from web browsing and FTP downloads through to email collection is dramatically speeded up using satellite.

Using this advanced satellite communication technology, Sentech makes the Internet accessible to all, cost effectively and at high speeds, delivering the promise of the Internet without the wait.