A Satellite contribution link or service is a means to transport video programming by a satellite link from a remote source (such as an

outside broadcast Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes (typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video camera ...

unit) to a broadcaster's studio or from the studio to a

satellite TV Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...

uplink In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...

centre (for onward distribution by DTH,

fibre Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

etc.). Such contribution links are often made by terrestrial connections (

landline A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...

, etc.) but the use of a satellite "

hop A hop is a type of jump. Hop or hops may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hop'' (film), a 2011 film * Hop! Channel, an Israeli TV channel * ''House of Payne'', or ''HOP'', an American sitcom * Lindy Hop, a swing dance of the 1920s and ...

" provides advantages in some situations. Satellite operators and third party agencies provide satellite contribution links for the occasional or regular use of the client broadcasters.

Advantages

In remote locations, using terrestrial links such as fibre is prohibitively expensive whereas satellite can cheaply and easily overcome the " first-mile" connectivity gaps in rural and other remote areas. A comparable fibre service would have to use extremely diverse routing to achieve the same availability. A single satellite link can span a huge distance that would take a terrestrial link through many countries and commercial operators. The satellite operator provides a single point of accountability whereas establishing a link and resolving service interruptions with fibre can prove difficult, especially across national borders and with multiple carriers. Duplication of active components in the transmission and reception sites, and in-orbit backup satellite capacity provides a fully redundant contribution connection. Monitoring of the signal allows for fast and effective changes before problems affect the service. E.g. uplink power may be automatically increased during adverse weather conditions.

SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...

provides an example service that provides permanent delivery of live and recorded TV and radio signals to the company's

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

uplink facility (used for 15 satellites, serving over 120 million viewers) from almost any location across Europe.SES ASTRA ''Ka-band Contribution Service'' (August 2008). Company factsheet

Technology

Whereas satellite contribution links may be provided using transmission in (or even C band) frequencies, it is increasingly common to use the higher frequency

Ka-band The Ka band (pronounced as either "kay-ay band" or "ka band") is a portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum defined as frequencies in the range 26.5–40 gigahertz (GHz), i.e. wavelengths from slightly over one centime ...

uplink and downlink for the contribution feed, as that band is relatively unused. Ka-band provides for a smaller contribution uplink dish size (typically 1.8m compared to a minimum of 2.4m using Ku-band) and it can also be used as a backup for the DTH uplink itself or when a full DTH uplink antenna (typically 9m) cannot be accommodated at the client's studio. Signals at the studio

playout In broadcasting, channel playout is the generation of the source signal of a radio or television channel produced by a broadcaster, coupled with the transmission of this signal for primary distribution or direct-to-audience distribution via any ...

centre or outside broadcast unit are typically

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related tec ...

compressed and transmitted in

DVB-S2 Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite - Second Generation (DVB-S2) is a digital television broadcast standard that has been designed as a successor for the popular DVB-S system. It was developed in 2003 by the Digital Video Broadcasting Proje ...

for turnaround uplink to the DTH satellites, without additional processing, although IP-over-satellite transmission may also be used. In September 2022, satellite operator,

and live video streaming specialists, LiveU, launched an integrated hybrid end-to-end video contribution and distribution system for broadcasting live events using 4G/ 5G to transmit video from the remote venue to SES teleports, as an alternative to an SNG truck, and reach a global audience over SES’s satellite and IP network.

Advanced applications

Whereas a contribution link from a studio to a DTH uplink centre is usually provided within a single satellite

footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. They ...

, the

Astra 4A Astra 4A is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES at the Astra 5°E orbital slot providing digital television and radio broadcasts, data, and interactive services to Nordic countries, eastern Europe and sub-Saharan ...

Sirius 4 Sirius was a constellation of communications satellites operated at 5.0° East in geostationary orbit (GEO) by NSAB (later SES Sirius, and now a non-autonomous part of SES S.A., owner and operator of the Astra satellites). They carried digi ...

satellite provides for an innovative intercontinental contribution link service using a single Ka-band transponder with a European footprint and a Ku-band transponder serving southern Africa. Contribution feeds can be transferred from one region to the other, and in one frequency band to the other, in a single satellite hop.''SIRIUS 4''
Company factsheet. Retrieved on June 29, 2009

References

{{reflist

External links

SES websiteSES Contribution Services site
Satellite television Interactive television Satellite operators

Advantages

Technology

Advanced applications

See also

References

External links