DIRECTV Transponder Map ~ Data 5/15/2024

[KyL416]

Yep, there is no 100% protection against having a major link severed, even cable and telco operators get hit by things like that because of construction crews, car accidents, severe weather, etc.

You can have redundancy as a backup, but there is always an origin point where it all has to come together, or on the reverse end where you're past the point where it branches out for local distribution. (i.e. the lines on your local telephone polls or underground utility conduits)

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

Yep, there is no 100% protection against having a major link severed, even cable and telco operators get hit by things like that because of construction crews, car accidents, severe weather, etc.

You can have redundancy as a backup, but there is always an origin point where it all has to come together, or on the reverse end where you're past the point where it branches out for local distribution. (i.e. the lines on your local telephone polls or underground utility conduits)

I live about 30 miles NW of you, so we get pretty much the same severe weather. And I don’t even know where the local Comcast headend here is aside from a store/service center in Dickson City and an office in Duryea, but during every severe weather incident here in the past 6 years, my internet has never gone out because of something like this. I would guess they’re using redundancy as a backup like you said, given it’s part of one of the 3 biggest providers.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

They're not back on DIRECTV yet though because they still need to fix the fiber link to their Minneapolis receive facility.

What about their Sioux Falls LRF?

 

[KyL416]

The Sioux Falls DMA's KSMN Worthington is a simulcast of KWCM Appleton with no seperate studio presence, both stations originate from Pioneer PBS's headquarters in Granite Falls MN. The fiber cut was outside of that building, so both stations went dead.

Minneapolis's Local Receive facility is the Midwest Uplink Facility in Oakdale, so I wouldn't be surprised if Pioneer just has DIRECTV duplicate KWCM there instead of sending a seperate fiber feed to be ingested at the Sioux Falls LRF.

 

[dishrich]

They are far from the only PBS station that has been off air for an extended period:

You should add that in my DMA, DirecTV has lost TWO out of our 3 PBS's for several years now...allegedly because of both WSEC & WEIU having issue's getting their fiber feeds back online to (only) DirecTV's POP - even though they continue to work just fine on DISH & all our local cable providers. (though WSEC was also lost on Uverse TV at the same time & is still missing as well)
The bizarre thing with WSEC, is the fact that their feed actually originates from WSIU, & also feeds WUIS, WMEC & WQEC with the very same signal...which ARE currently being carried by DirecTV with no issues.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

What does POP mean? Is it different from an LRF?

 

[KyL416]

The interesting thing, their joint statement didn't blame DIRECTV or AT&T for the issue, it says it was caused by an issue with the service contact of a 3rd party company, and it's usually on the stations to provide the fiber link if their OTA signal isn't strong enough at their market's local receive facility. DIRECTV's receive facility for the Champaign-Springfield-Decatur DMA is an AT&T exchange building in Decatur and is out of range of WSEC's signal and in the fringes of WEIU's signal. Dish's local receive facility for the DMA is at WCIA's studio in Decatur, but it has a link to WCIX's studio in Springifeld who can probably relay the western signals to them. (n/m, the address on Dish's website is outdated, WCIA/WCIX hasn't been there in years)

If they aren't using direct fiber feeds, the cable providers can just ingest it OTA at whatever headend/hub is in range and distribute it internally, and in many cases the fringe ones don't have DMA wide cable carriage. i.e. in NYC, NJ PBS doesn't have carriage on Optimum's Long Island systems, and WLIW doesn't have carriage on their Hudson Valley and New Jersey systems, and in the Boston DMA, NH PBS and GBH struck an in state only agreement, so New Hampshire cable systems no longer carry WGBH and WGBX and Massachusetts systems no longer carry WENH.

At least for DIRECTV, WSIU, WUSI and WQEC are being ingested seperately as their thumbnail timestamps are out of sync, and WQEC has a completely different station ID and interstitial content, so even though WSIU/WUSI tookover their operations in 2018, the WSEC/WQEC/WMEC trio is still not a 100% simulcast. (DIRECTV doesn't carry WMEC Macomb as it is in the same DMA as WQEC Quincy) If it's like some other multimarket PBS stations, there might also be variations in what EAS warnings/tests each signal passes.

 

[Tom Speer]

What does POP mean? Is it different from an LRF?

POP = Point of Presence. A standard telecommunications term. These are usually in buildings housing terminations of multiple telecom companies. In the case of DirecTV this would be the same thing as their Local Receive Facility. In DMAs without significant urban centers, DirecTV LRFs are sometimes in rented space at one of the TV studios in town.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

In DMAs without significant urban centers, DirecTV LRFs are sometimes in rented space at one of the TV studios in town.

That's the case here, as my LRF is at WVIA's studios in Pittston (Luzerne County).

 

[dishrich]

so even though WSIU/WUSI tookover their operations in 2018, the WSEC/WQEC/WMEC trio is still not a 100% simulcast.

Actually it has been since 6/4/22, per a post on their own website; unfortunately while that link no longer exists, here is where I posted that info the following month & what it said verbatim:

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/champaign-il-hdtv.195213/page-268#post-61890711

Beginning June 4, 2022, the TV Schedule for WSIU, WUSI, WSEC, WMEC, and WQEC will be identical.

edit: if you go to their schedules link here, you can see for yourself where prior to June 2022, they used to publish separate monthly schedules for WSIU & WSEC (main channels), while all the schedules starting in June 2022 there is now only 1 for all 5 stations.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1veYzQnwGjYWPzbOkN7TmzbuWdLAZ9T8c

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

Dish's LRF for here is at WNEP's studios, I live just 5 minutes away from there and even stayed at a Hampton Inn right next to them over a year ago (who ironically had Dish as their provider for the TV channels in the rooms)

 

[KyL416]

Actually it has been since 6/4/22, per a post on their own website; unfortunately while that link no longer exists, here is where I posted that info the following month & what it said verbatim:

The images I posted were their Top of the Hour IDs from 6pm CT today via the thumbnail server for DIRECTV's streams. The images on WSIU's thumbnails is several seconds behind WUSI's so DIRECTV is not ingesting them from the same source. Stations that are ingested from the same source have identical images, like their stream for WEDW in NYC actually originates from WEDH Hartford, so its thumbnail images are identical, while the thumbnails for WNJN in NYC and WNJS in Philly have slightly different images.

WQEC on the otherhand had a completely different top of the hour ID graphic and different interstitial content. So even though the WSEC/WMEC/WQEC trio are now running the same schedule, they are still produced seperately at the master control. Like an hour prior WSIU/WUSI at 5pm had the frog in a pond station ID, while WQEC had a bug on a flower, and the final thing before the 6pm airing of Newshour was a Rick Steve's promo on WQEC and a John A Logan College promo on WSIU/WUSI. I couldn't find a thumbnail with it, but other things like EAS warnings/tests can be unique to each station, along with Nielsen's encoding.

Back in the day if the spotbeams allowed it, DIRECTV did just use remaps for statewide and multimarket PBS stations, but a few years ago they started uplinking the actual local feeds. i.e. until Feburay 2019, NYC's WNJN was just a remap of Philly's WNJS and there used to be a voiceover saying "WNJS Camden" as the top of the hour ID during the NJN days.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

The Private Network channel numbers have changed. New lineup:
9700 HD
9701 HD
9703 HD
9704 SD
9705 HD
9706 HD (labeled AE 2020)
9706 SD (labeled PTNW)
9707 HD
9708 HD
9709 HD

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

When will NFL RedZone channel 211 go live? Asking for a friend, but I'm guessing Monday or Tuesday next week since I understand they cover select preseason nights.

 

[KyL416]

Several FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) channels recently appeared on the thumbnail server, if satellite were to get them too, they will probably be streaming Genie channels similar to Tastemade, i24 and Cheddar.

FOX Soul
SportsGrid
Fuel TV (basically the founders still owned the European version that stuck to the original extreme sports format, got the domestic and Australian trademarks back from FOX, and relaunched it as a global streaming channel)
VSiN

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

I remember seeing SportsGrid on a subchannel of WAVY/10 when I was in Williamsburg, VA. Didn't know it was a FAST channel and not a subchannel network until now though.

 

[KyL416]

Several Nexstar stations started carrying it in September 2021 after their contracts for the Katz/Scripps diginets expired, but they dropped it last October. In our market only Bounce and Grit left Nexstar for the Ion station, and they replaced them with Twist and Rewind.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

Several FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) channels recently appeared on the thumbnail server, if satellite were to get them too, they will probably be streaming Genie channels similar to Tastemade, i24 and Cheddar.

FOX Soul
SportsGrid
Fuel TV (basically the founders still owned the European version that stuck to the original extreme sports format, got the domestic and Australian trademarks back from FOX, and relaunched it as a global streaming channel)
VSiN

I'm guessing these are what the channel numbers for all those will be:
FOX Soul - 334
SportsGrid - 601
Fuel TV - 607
VSiN - 615

 

[KyL416]

The stream API has Sportsgrid 613, Fuel 614, VSiN 616, don't know FOX Soul yet, its stream only went up today so it's not in the API yet.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

The thumbnails only go back to September 2022.

They now only go back to October 31, 2022.