D12... I want everyone's feelings on this.

[Zellio2008]

Okay, D12 is gonna launch at some point this year, and apparantly its a newer satellite with alot more transponders, so it can fit alot more channels.

Let's get theoritical, which hell, is gonna happen unless alot of national hd get added...

Say D12 launches, 6 months later is active, their starting their advertising blitz about 200 hd channels, and you turn on your D* receiver to find... 200 hd ppv channels you gotta scroll thru.

I'm asking this because D* doesn't seem to understand why people would be pissed, and not call PPV a 'channel'.

Ignoring rather or not they would add hd, if this happened, how would you feel?

Directv has this ridiculous idea that not only is filling all the transponder spaces with PPV a good thing, but their channels as well and they can call them that.

This is not a well thought out plan, esp. going forward, and esp. not for consumers. So how would you feel if one day you turned on D* to find more ppv hd then hd channels?

 

[harshness]

D12 will probably replace one of the Spaceway birds for the spotbeam part of the deal. Because it is going to have to share a slot with a sister satellite (D10, D11 and D12 are thought to be mostly identical), forecasting how much CONUS capacity it might add may be difficult.

 

[Zellio2008]

Well, I'm just going by the Directv PR. I can't really make too much of a guess after that.

Either way though, if all they do is add the same number they added this time, they'd have enough to make hd ppv a larger amount then regular hd channels.

No matter if they add channels or not, I personally think if they do this, their will be a particularly horrible backlash from consumers.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

It is identical to D10 and D11, with a mix of national and spot beams. Conceivably it could be modified to use the same frequency scheme (Ka-high) as the Spaceways, which would probably enable more national channels, but I haven't seen anything other than speculation on this. It also might be possible to colocate both Spaceways at one orbital slot (with D12 at the other slot). Caveat--I am just throwing these ideas out and have no knowledge of Directv's plans.

 

[HDRoberts]

I've struggled with how this one is going to add capacity. It is another Ka Low sat. There is more room in Ka High, but it is my understanding that Ka low is maxed out.

Because of this, I've come to a theory: D12 is more of an in orbit backup than anything. Not to day it's going to sit idle. But I think DirecTV is too nervous about something blowing up on D10 or D11, and having all those HD subs run to dish in the year it would take to get an on ground spare into space. Heck, maybe they had an extra launch slot due to the cancellation of D13, and figured they would launch a sat rather then lose some kind of deposit. Also, I find it odd that DirecTV would go to the expense ordering a sat to backup 2 satellites, yet they haven't ordered a "D14" sat to be a backup to 3 satellites.

Even the DBStalk gurus couldn't really explain to me how DirecTV12 could expand capacity, other than a bunch of platitudes about DirecTV being smarter than us, and maybe they can shuffle around some spots and free up some TPs.

Maybe like the poster above said they figured out a way to swap out the Ka Low for a Ka High payload.

But what do I know, I'm a Dish sub.

 

[GeorgeLV]

^^ I don't know. Maybe the addition of D12 will allow DirecTV to boost the power output on their existing Ka low transponder licenses and they can increase bandwidth through modulation changes (i.e. 8PSK).

 

[Smith P.]

DTV Ka tpns already using DVB-S2 with 8PSK.

 

[AntDogg65]

All they would do is take a page from Dish, this would be horrible. On the other hand, that wouldn't make any sense, as they already have more than enough HD PPV's. I highly doubt they would do something that stupid, I left from Dish two weeks ago, and trust me, Direct is not as dumb as Charlie.

 

[SandraC]

DTV Ka tpns already using DVB-S2 with 8PSK.

Does this post come with subtitles?


Sandra

 

[jcrandall]

They would not have to stop using a spaceway sat to use D12.

It will give them more locals capacity (and more spotbeams to aim) as well as room for another 50 national HD (which I hope do not include PPV).

They haven't announced what location they plan to place it, but it could complement the current setup at 99 or 103, or so I have been told.

 

[harshness]

They would not have to stop using a spaceway sat to use D12.

They may not need to, but I think that is the plan.

 

[Smthkd]

Why?

 

[shibby191]

They may not need to, but I think that is the plan.

The plan is to put it up there to expand capacity and use as an in orbit spare. It's not "replacing" anything. At least this is what they have talked about in several conference calls. D12 was a "ground spare" all this time and since it was fully build they figured they might as well launch it for an in orbit spare and they can also use it for current use as well. Also by spreading out channels across 2 sats they can increase the power of any spotbeams on both of them as both won't be using all the power they could, thus allowing the transponders they do use to be at great power to expand spotbeams or to withstand rain fade better.

D13 was planned to do the same thing at the other slot but it's been canceled along with many other capital projects to save costs. But they could certainly bring that back to the table any time to launch another one. Then they would have 2 at each spot (99 and 103) along with a Spaceway at each spot. This would then fill up available space they could use at both slots and provide a backup at each slot.

 

[HDRoberts]

D13 was planned to do the same thing at the other slot but it's been canceled along with many other capital projects to save costs. But they could certainly bring that back to the table any time to launch another one. Then they would have 2 at each spot (99 and 103) along with a Spaceway at each spot. This would then fill up available space they could use at both slots and provide a backup at each slot.

No, D13 was a replacement for D5 at 110. But I guess they decided to want worth hundreds of millions to cover 3 TPs with the latest and greatest.

Still, Spaceways are Ka High, D10-12 are Ka Low. No reason to stop using the Spaceways for D12

 

[HDRoberts]

Looks like D12 has a launch date, or at least a time frame.

Late September 2009

Space exploration in 2009

 

[harshness]

Looks like D12 has a launch date, or at least a time frame.

Good catch!

Nobody at nasaspaceflight has stepped up yet. I did a search there and the result was an end of September 2006 Baikonur launch.

 

[Rey]

Looks like D12 has a launch date, or at least a time frame.

Late September 2009

Space exploration in 2009

thanks for the link :up

 

[HDRoberts]

Good catch!

Nobody at nasaspaceflight has stepped up yet. I did a search there and the result was an end of September 2006 Baikonur launch.

Last I looked, anik had it listed in the forum there as well.

Plan of Russian space launches

Check post 838.

Looks like Dish has the previous launch with Nimiq 5

 

[jtwex]

I doubt we will ever be as unsatisfied as the HD Mpeg-2 days & will count on them to eventually add more Premium's movie channels in HD...not to mention Travel, AMC, ESPNU & maybe TCM. I've been with them too long & while I don't like all the HDPPV fillers will keep on waiting as competition dictates advances.

 

[digiblur]

I've struggled with how this one is going to add capacity. It is another Ka Low sat. There is more room in Ka High, but it is my understanding that Ka low is maxed out.

Because of this, I've come to a theory: D12 is more of an in orbit backup than anything. Not to day it's going to sit idle. But I think DirecTV is too nervous about something blowing up on D10 or D11, and having all those HD subs run to dish in the year it would take to get an on ground spare into space. Heck, maybe they had an extra launch slot due to the cancellation of D13, and figured they would launch a sat rather then lose some kind of deposit. Also, I find it odd that DirecTV would go to the expense ordering a sat to backup 2 satellites, yet they haven't ordered a "D14" sat to be a backup to 3 satellites.

Even the DBStalk gurus couldn't really explain to me how DirecTV12 could expand capacity, other than a bunch of platitudes about DirecTV being smarter than us, and maybe they can shuffle around some spots and free up some TPs.

Maybe like the poster above said they figured out a way to swap out the Ka Low for a Ka High payload.

But what do I know, I'm a Dish sub.

I was thinking of the same thing. You can pack a ton of satellites at one location but you still only have some many licenses on the uplink and downlink side. I was thinking it might go to another slot but then there would be another LNB swap.

I'm still waiting on the solid details on how this is going to provide extra capacity myself.