 Around the World in a Dish
With domestic TV networks obsessed with the politics of personal destruction and cable niche programming plumbing the dregs, this is not the best of times for the medium. If you can't shake the image of a leering Henry Hyde or the pasty-faced Norman Rockwell visage of Ken Starr when you close your eyes, you've been watching too much American television. Maybe it's time to take a vacation from your standard TV fare and tune in to a much broader signal: World TV. You might be surprised to learn how little the rest of the world shares our Springer-esque obsessions.
Forget everything you've ever been told about satellite television. There is a type of digital satellite TV programming which relatively few people in North America have ever seen. It's truly TV with an international flavor. Here you'll span the skies from the arctic north to the arctic south and across Europe, taking in nearly every Earthly culture in-between. If this doesn't at least intrigue you, I recommend another look at Judge Judy.
The digital satellite TV I'm referring to has nothing to do with DirecTV, Primestar or DISH. I'm talking about the hundreds of television signals being sent 24-hours a day on dozens of different satellites parked in a neat orbit 23,000 miles above the equator. I'm talking about inexpensive satellite systems that can receive international programming that costs nothing. Best of all, you don't have to put up a big dish. With a relatively small dish, which can be set up on a townhouse patio, a suburban deck, or a condominium porch, picking up these signals is no harder than programming your VCR.
As I'm writing this, I'm listening to tango music direct from the tango capital of the world, Buenos Aires. And if you stick around this channel long enough, you'll even get tango lessons. It's the ultimate niche programming and there's lots of it available via such a satellite set-up.
On the same sat that offers all tango, all the time (Intelsat 806) there's also Fashion TV direct from Paris: 24-hours a day of the latest fashions from every house of haute couture on the planet. There's no commentary here, just models on runways sashaying to a strange mix of techno-pop and classic jazz.
Intelsat 806 is also home to MCM Europe, the premiere rock music video service with non-stop videos from groups you've probably never heard of this side of the Atlantic. There are French, Spanish, British, even Arabic rock videos, as well as interviews with top celebrities and artists. For fans of Italian pop, there's an entire channel called "Video Italia." There are nearly a dozen channels from Latin America including Gems TV, Tele Uno, Canal Sur, three from Bolivia alone.
Set your dish up on Panamsat 5, and you'll see 24/7 feeds from NHK (Japan), Deutsche Welle (Germany), CCTV (China), RAI (Italy) and BBC World (England). There are numerous Arabic channels, too. Don't speak the language? Don't worry, the channels often feature programs in English or with English subtitles (see www.cctv.com,
www.bbc.co.uk/schedules, or www.dw.gmd.de/english/index.html for schedules). Hispasat is home to satellite broadcasting direct from Spain and here you can tune into seven video channels including their full-time news channel Canal 24 Horas.
Other satellites easily viewable in most parts of the U.S. also offer international programming. Telstar 5 is home to over a dozen Arab regional channels including ones from Egypt, Jordan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. There's one channel from Thailand, an all-India channel, the Maharishi Open University from the guru himself, and a couple of channels from Taiwan.
Tuning into Canada's satellite brings CTV (their commercial network), CBC's Newsworld International (their answer to CNNI and BBC World), The Weather Network and TV Northern Canada (programming for Arctic Canada's native population).
If that's not enough, all of these satellites also transmit separate audio subcarriers, easily tuned in, which rebroadcast national radio networks from many of these same countries. The best part is, because it's all transmitted in MPEG2, the audio is CD quality. There's classical music from Spain, opera from Italy, contemporary Latin music, pop music from China(!), and lest we forget, the Voice of America.
The beauty of digital transmissions is that you don't have to know anything about how any of it works to get the benefit of it. Digital satellite TV is just like having a computer: you hook the gear together, figure out how to navigate the interface and you're ready to roll.
Most of European digital TV is transmitted in what's called the Digital Video
Broadcasting (DVB) standard. The receiving systems themselves are very simple. There are three basic components: The receiver, the dish and the cable which connects the two. The receiver looks just like the ones used in the American small dish systems. The dishes are bigger, because of the need to gather a weaker signal. The cable (RG-6) is the same.
The Prosat P3500 v3
There are several DVB receivers on the market today. I'm using the Prosat 3500 version 3 (around US$385 incl. shipping) because it is the most user-friendly and sensitive receiver of this type that I've seen. In addition, the distributor does the bulk of their sales via the Internet. As a result there is a substantial amount of information available via their website including various tips on hooking up the gear and excellent links to other DVB related sites.
The Prosat receiver is as user-friendly as you can get for something this sophisticated. Once you start playing with it, you appreciate a number of built-in features such as the "surf" button which is a fast way to access the potentially hundreds of channels you may store (the Prosat can handle up to 600 channels and I've stored more than 200). An even quicker way to access your favorite channels is in the "preferred" memory file which is recalled via the remote control. Anytime you change channels, a banner crawls across the bottom of the screen to tell you the name and number of the channel you're watching.
The output of this receiver is not a channel 3/4 modulator like most American VCRs or satellite receivers. Instead, there is the option to output the signal to any UHF-TV channel between 14 and 83 or use the built-in S-video output or the regular RCA video and audio outputs. I use the RCA output option and go straight into my VCR. I then take the audio output of the VCR and put it into my stereo amplifier. Playing the MPEG2 audio through big speakers is very impressive.
The Jonsa 4.5' satellite dish
You'll have to buy the dish separately (the receiver doesn't come with one), but luckily, the distributor has a line of excellent small dishes (such as the Jonas 4.5' for around $180) and the electronics (LNB/feed horn) which work well with this receiver. I've used this receiver with a dish as small as 4.5' and had excellent results tuning in Panamsat 5 and all of the satellites in our region. To receive Intelsat 806 properly, you'll need a larger dish. None of the DVB receivers have the capability to move a dish. If you want to look at other sats, you'll have to move the dish manually unless you buy a dish motor and another receiver which has the power outputs to drive a motor.
Among the things to know about this type of satellite system are that it cannot receive DirecTV, Primestar or DISH network programming; there is no provision for decoding encrypted DVB channels (and there are many). It cannot receive analog satellite video (you need an analog satellite receiver for those), and, if a programmer you enjoy decides to encrypt their programming, you'll no longer be able to watch them. You should also know that you'll need a clear view to the south from east to west at your location (no trees or buildings in the way) for best reception.
That being said, you should also know that, besides the international TV fare available, there are an equal number of domestic TV and radio channels you can receive. The new Pax TV has three time zone feeds offering lots of squeaky-clean family fun. There's also the Florida News Channel, numerous distant learning channels, Z Music (Christian rock videos), The Recovery Network (substance abuse recovery), at least a dozen sports feeds, three soap opera promo channels and a seemingly unending number of Fox channels.
The Prosat 3500 v3 is sold by digiear.com. They also sell the dish and feed horn electronics and cable you'll need. You should also visit their website for analog satellite reception where they sell all the necessary gear for analog-only satellite TV. Digiear/smallear have the best prices I've found on or off the Web for both digital and analog equipment.
- Ken Reitz [2/26/99]
Some of Ken's other Street Tech DIY pieces:
Check out:
Today's Software on Cool Tool of the Day
Today's TV on TV Ultra
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