Jako Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 20111024 --SES S.A. (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG) today announced that its new ASTRA 1N satellite has entered commercial service at the orbital position of 28.2 degrees East.ASTRA 1N was built by Astrium on the Eurostar E3000 platform and is equipped with 52 transponders in the Ku frequency band. The satellite was successfully launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on 6 August 2011. It had a launch mass of 5,325 kg and is the fourth Eurostar satellite in the 49 satellite-strong SES fleet.ASTRA 1N greatly enhances the flexibility of the SES satellite fleet at the orbital slot 28.2 degrees East over Europe. ASTRA 1N is notably being used by Channel 4 and ITV. The new satellite will also allow SES to offer its satellite-based broadband service ASTRA2Connect via 28.2 degrees East and thus complement its service offer from the 23.5 degrees East position. ASTRA2Connect is Europe’s largest satellite broadband network with more than 80,000 end users.------------Channel 4 and ITV will migrate to this new satellite "soon" . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Sounds like good news. I hope it has more output available than Astra 2D's meager 39Watts or whatever it is.Does this mean that we have to do a re-scan of our sat boxes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jako Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 No, the ordinary consumer in or close to the UK will notice nothing. However, the UK beam is supposed to be even more tight to the UK than the Astra2D version. The published footprint does not even reach beyond the north-western half of France. (click)That is why 'everybody' is anxious so see real reception reports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 The published footprints are for 45 and 60 cms dishes. I suspect it will be bad news for Spain, Italy and Greece but given real results versus coverage maps current sats suspect france will remain OK for 80 cms properley aligned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jako Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 I agree, but we need actual reception reports to confirm this theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzer Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 If it is now operational, have any channels migrated? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 [quote user="Jako"]ASTRA 1N is notably being used by Channel 4 and ITV. ------------Channel 4 and ITV will migrate to this new satellite "soon" .[/quote]How will this effect Sky users, will Sky be moving to this new 1N as well?If Sky does not move will it continue to transmit ITV via whatever satellite it currently uses or will it get these channels from one satellite and it's subscription channels from another?I don't know much about satellite TV, I am just a user as possibly are many others, so could we have a bit of a 'Dummies Guide'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Suggest downloading the free E-book - 'Understanding Satellite TV' from SatcureGives a good grounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 [quote user="Anton Redman"]Suggest downloading the free E-book - 'Understanding Satellite TV' from Satcure Gives a good grounding.[/quote]Thanks for that, I will lcate it, download it and have a read. Will it answer my two questions, does the book know about this new satellite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jako Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 As you read it you will find the question is less relevant...The Astra1N has multiple beam capacity, including 2 pan-European beams.However, the freeview channels are transmitted FTA (Free To Air) meaning that everybody inside the footprint is able to watch these channels, not only people living in the UK. But the transmission rights are paid for the UK only, so the footprint has to be as close to the UK borders as is technically feasible. (or as wide as 'Hollywood' will accept) That is why a special UK narrow beam ( aka spotbeam) is used for most FTA channels.As the Sky channels are encrypted they can also use the pan-European beams. Customers inside the UK see no difference, but for Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece etc the pan-European beams are strong where the UK beam is absent. Channel4 migration is confirmed for 1/11/11[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 [quote user="Jako"]As you read it you will find the question is less relevant...The Astra1N has multiple beam capacity, including 2 pan-European beams.However, the freeview channels are transmitted FTA (Free To Air) meaning that everybody inside the footprint is able to watch these channels, not only people living in the UK. But the transmission rights are paid for the UK only, so the footprint has to be as close to the UK borders as is technically feasible. (or as wide as 'Hollywood' will accept) That is why a special UK narrow beam ( aka spotbeam) is used for most FTA channels.As the Sky channels are encrypted they can also use the pan-European beams. Customers inside the UK see no difference, but for Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece etc the pan-European beams are strong where the UK beam is absent. Channel4 migration is confirmed for 1/11/11[:)][/quote]Nope, sorry don't get it. Lets try another way. If you currently watch Channel 4 via a Sky box and you live in the south of France will you still be able to get it after the migration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Assuming your dish is properly well aligned almost certainly yes. Worst case may be you have to increase your dish size.However nobody knows for certain till the change takes place. Sky and freesat boxes should be fine but anybody using other receivers will need to enter new paramaters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 The book has probably not been updated for the new satellite but the information in will enable you to understand the change and therefore understand the steps you may have to take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jako Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 [quote user="Anton Redman"] Sky and freesat boxes should be fine but anybody using other receivers will need to enter new paramaters.[/quote]There are no new parameters. A change of transponder and/or satellite is completely invisible for the customer.Example: the French eutelsat moved 400 channels to its new satellite Atlantic bird 7 in just a couple of hours on 24 october. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Thanks for a posting I am reasonably confident that some but not all of the channels will change parameters when they change satellite. If you want a reasonable bet suggest € 100 from me versus € 500 from you proceeds to Medicin sans Frontiers or Pheonix. You chose somebody who currently watches channels from 28.2 / 28.5 East with a generic receiver and they supply a channel list with parameters before and after Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Jako, when a channel changes transponder the new data addresses are incorporated into a revised version of the EPG (for Sky), so Channel 4 (for example) still appears on Sky 104. However the transponder (and indeed entire satellite) that that listing refers to may be entirely different from one day to the next, although to the Sky customer there is now visible change.I assume branded Freeview boxes have something similar - I can't say not having even seen one. However generic boxes which carry no such proprietary programmme guide either have to be reprogrammed by hand, or require the listing to be updated.I suspect you'd lose you bet with Anton !p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 freeview boxes should cope without further input. Mine went thrpough th last shuffle without reinstalling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 [quote user="Gyn_Paul"]Jako, when a channel changes transponder the new data addresses are incorporated into a revised version of the EPG (for Sky), so Channel 4 (for example) still appears on Sky 104. However the transponder (and indeed entire satellite) that that listing refers to may be entirely different from one day to the next, although to the Sky customer there is now visible change.I assume branded Freeview boxes have something similar - I can't say not having even seen one. However generic boxes which carry no such proprietary programme guide either have to be reprogrammed by hand, or require the listing to be updated.I suspect you'd lose you bet with Anton !p[/quote]Thanks, that I think answers my question. I have a Sky box with a FTA card so I can get the remainder of the encrypted channels (5 US etc unless things have changed). It seems then that an 'early warning' for possibly loosing my UK TV or having to try a bigger dish (I have an 80cm one at present) will be that Channel 4 will disappear on or shortly after 1st November.Am I also right in assuming that radio and the BBC channels will also move to this new satellite?One question just came to mind, after C4 has moved to the new satellite will it continue to work on the old one for a few weeks before being 'switched off' or is it an actual move i.e. disappears from one and appears on the other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 I would have a check of signal strenth and quality now just so you have a pre change reference figures.Services - System Set Up - Signal Test from memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 It probably is possible for Astra to do an instant switch, but I believe there is a finite time needed for Sky to send the new EPG data to the various makes of set-top box, so it seems likely that the two feeds run in parallel until all the boxes have been updated. As for what you will see...I imagine you will either turn on one day and find the signal poor/missing (need a bigger dish) or detect no change at all.Now that I think about it, the 3rd option is that the transponders on the new, tighter, beam will be fine until some huge storm cloud passes SSE of your dish, and then those will be the first ones to break up.My advice is to keep monitoring the LyngSat page (http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html) and when 'N' is listed in the header, you know it is actually in service and not just testing.Add....Looking at the predicted footprint for 1N it won't even serve the Channel Islands, which seems, shall we say, unlikely ! Having read a few other forums, it's equally possible it will NOT have tight footprints as 1N is ultimately destined to join the others at 19.2E which is the pan-european market. It is only expected to do service at 28.2 until the end of 2012 when it will be replaced by 2F (I think). Now that one may well have tighter footprints (on paper, at least). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jako Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 [quote user="Gyn_Paul"]Jako, when a channel changes transponder the new data addresses are incorporated into a revised version of the EPG (for Sky), so Channel 4 (for example) still appears on Sky 104. However the transponder (and indeed entire satellite) that that listing refers to may be entirely different from one day to the next, although to the Sky customer there is now visible change.[/quote] No. There will be absolutely no change whatsoever. That is only the case when a transmission is moved to a different frequency.When the transponder frequency and all other parameters stay the same, but SES-Astra decides to move the transmission to another transponder or even to a different satellite altogether -nothing changes for the customer. Astra can do this in a blip, without anyone noticing-not even Sky. This it is also done in case of a malfunction. That is why spare capacity is built-in. Normally, Astra can even cope with the loss of an entire satellite by spreading the lost capacity over the remaining satellites. Most people will notice nothing next Tuesday whatever receiver they use. Some might just have a better signal and others worse. That is why no information is given by channel4: it is completely irrelevant for all customers.Only the ones living on the edges of the current Astra2D footprint are anxious to see what happens and they are the only people that might notice a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 [quote user="Jako"][quote user="Gyn_Paul"]Jako, when a channel changes transponder the new data addresses are incorporated into a revised version of the EPG (for Sky), so Channel 4 (for example) still appears on Sky 104. However the transponder (and indeed entire satellite) that that listing refers to may be entirely different from one day to the next, although to the Sky customer there is now visible change.[/quote] No. There will be absolutely no change whatsoever. That is only the case when a transmission is moved to a different frequency.When the transponder frequency and all other parameters stay the same, but SES-Astra decides to move the transmission to another transponder or even to a different satellite altogether -nothing changes for the customer. Astra can do this in a blip, without anyone noticing-not even Sky. This it is also done in case of a malfunction. That is why spare capacity is built-in. Normally, Astra can even cope with the loss of an entire satellite by spreading the lost capacity over the remaining satellites. Most people will notice nothing next Tuesday whatever receiver they use. Some might just have a better signal and others worse. That is why no information is given by channel4: it is completely irrelevant for all customers.Only the ones living on the edges of the current Astra2D footprint are anxious to see what happens and they are the only people that might notice a difference.[/quote]Just the one question...What evidence do you have that the transponders on 1N will be the same as any of the existing ones?p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 " That is why no information is given by channel4: it is completely irrelevant for all customers."I was unable to find any of the information essential to set up a satellte receiver, other than a Sky digibox or a freesat receiver on the Channel 4 web site. Viz FrequencyPolarisationFEQ (Think modern boxes may not need this) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jako Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 The Astra2D is almost end-of-life: launched in 2000, 12 year lifespan. They are just replacing the satellite. Imagine a painter going up there and paint "1N" over "2D": no effect on the ground. This is routine, all transponders will simply move to the 1N and then the 2D will retire. As this is 1N 's temporary job, the same will happen again when 1N moves on to 19.2 east. But 1N has more transponders so it will do more than just take over 2D's tasks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 You are all doomedDoomed I tell you!!Doomed to recieve only French television like me[6] [6] [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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