1989: A communications satellite, Marco Polo I, is strapped to the back of a rocket that takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and launched into a geosynchronous orbit. Its mission: to change how couch potatoes across Britain receive television signals and usher in a new era of affordable direct-satellite TV to consumers around the world.
Within two decades of the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, satellites were used to deliver programming to users. But these channels were available only to cable companies. Though Home Box Office started satellite delivery of programming to cable operators in 1976, it did not offer the service to individuals.
That didn’t keep dedicated TV-watchers from buying huge, industrial-size dishes for their backyards and hauling down signals on their own. Most of them got the service for free … after forking over $10,000 or so (think $25K in today’s moolah) for dish and receiver equipment.
The few who actually tried to pay for the signals sometimes had their checks returned. The industry, for the most part, wasn’t interested in selling satellite signals to millions of individual consumers.
Direct broadcast service that would allow the use of small receiving dishes to capture signals for each household could change that. British Satellite Broadcasting in July 1987 asked Hughes Space and Communications (today known as Boeing Satellite Systems) to design and build two satellites for the first television direct-broadcast service in Britain.
The two satellites would travel on the back of U.S.-manufactured Delta rockets. The first of the satellites, Marco Polo I, had three 110-watt channels, each with enough power for signals to be picked up by small and low-cost receiving dishes up to 13.5 inches diameter. The satellite was powered by large solar cells with nickel-cadmium cells as backup. Companion satellite Marco Polo II was launched on Aug. 17, 1990.
BSB eventually went on the air in March 1990, with its own satellite operating on a proprietary standard, beaming five channels of movies, sports, entertainment and news directly into British homes. That was 13 months after rival Sky Television, which shared the SES Astra 1A satellite and used the common European PAL television standard.
The direct-broadcast service would take a little longer to come to the United States. Four large cable companies launched a direct-broadcast satellite system called Primestar in the early 1990s. The Hughes DirecTV Satellite System was launched in 1994. Thanks to these, ‘dish TV’ and ‘direct TV’ became a part of the lexicon in millions of American households.
The original Marco Polo satellites, however, did not find the same level of success. BSB ran into financial problems by the end of 1991 and merged with rival Sky Network. Marco Polo I was acquired in-orbit two years later by the Swedish company Nordiska Satellite. It operated as Sirius 1 until 2001 and was then renamed Sirius W. It was sent up to a higher, non-geosynchronous junk orbit in 2003.
Source: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/0827directtv/
Within two decades of the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, satellites were used to deliver programming to users. But these channels were available only to cable companies. Though Home Box Office started satellite delivery of programming to cable operators in 1976, it did not offer the service to individuals.
That didn’t keep dedicated TV-watchers from buying huge, industrial-size dishes for their backyards and hauling down signals on their own. Most of them got the service for free … after forking over $10,000 or so (think $25K in today’s moolah) for dish and receiver equipment.
The few who actually tried to pay for the signals sometimes had their checks returned. The industry, for the most part, wasn’t interested in selling satellite signals to millions of individual consumers.
Direct broadcast service that would allow the use of small receiving dishes to capture signals for each household could change that. British Satellite Broadcasting in July 1987 asked Hughes Space and Communications (today known as Boeing Satellite Systems) to design and build two satellites for the first television direct-broadcast service in Britain.
The two satellites would travel on the back of U.S.-manufactured Delta rockets. The first of the satellites, Marco Polo I, had three 110-watt channels, each with enough power for signals to be picked up by small and low-cost receiving dishes up to 13.5 inches diameter. The satellite was powered by large solar cells with nickel-cadmium cells as backup. Companion satellite Marco Polo II was launched on Aug. 17, 1990.
BSB eventually went on the air in March 1990, with its own satellite operating on a proprietary standard, beaming five channels of movies, sports, entertainment and news directly into British homes. That was 13 months after rival Sky Television, which shared the SES Astra 1A satellite and used the common European PAL television standard.
The direct-broadcast service would take a little longer to come to the United States. Four large cable companies launched a direct-broadcast satellite system called Primestar in the early 1990s. The Hughes DirecTV Satellite System was launched in 1994. Thanks to these, ‘dish TV’ and ‘direct TV’ became a part of the lexicon in millions of American households.
The original Marco Polo satellites, however, did not find the same level of success. BSB ran into financial problems by the end of 1991 and merged with rival Sky Network. Marco Polo I was acquired in-orbit two years later by the Swedish company Nordiska Satellite. It operated as Sirius 1 until 2001 and was then renamed Sirius W. It was sent up to a higher, non-geosynchronous junk orbit in 2003.
Source: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/0827directtv/
No comments:
Post a Comment