Curious about long haul Sat TV

[delta_charlie]

Hi all, I have been curious about how long haul satellite TV is done. Take for example Russia Today on 97W. How does it get all the way over to this satellite from Moscow?

Are there satellite to satellite relay links or is all the long range stuff done by sending up to a satellite then down to a ground station then back up to another satellite?

Thanks, DC

 

[Anole]

There is no satellite-to-satellite linking.
It's all ground-to-satellite, then down to the ground again, but far away.

If you pick a satellite pretty far down on the horizon to your east, and uplink to it, then someone downlinks from that same satellite, which is low on their western horizon, you can get pretty far around the planet in that one hop.

In reality, getting across the Atlantic or the Pacific is not much of a challenge, in one hop (good thing, eh?)

 

[voomvoom]

I don't think "Russia Today" comes from Russia. When I watch and listen, those people sound like they come straight from Number 10 Downing Street, in London....? Maybe they can hit 97.0w from London..? Most likely, whoever is uplinking it to 97.0w is re-uplinking it from another Sat, from somewhere over the Atlantic...?

 

[brentb636]

Funny, I thought many of the hosts on Russia Today sounded like "Aussies ".
I'm partial to Aussies, my mom is one.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Most services are distributed via fiber to the uplink centers. Russia Today on Galaxy 25, 97W is an example.

 

[ACRadio]

Globecast brings it across on NSS806...

 

[Tron]

The Globecast stuff (97w) is all re-uplinked, like Dish re-uplinks NASA. These channels are meant for direct-to-home audiences.