In a hotel, how does 41 directv channels in analog work

[cypherstream]

I’m in a hotel for Labor Day weekend for a beach vacation with my family. They have channels 2-42 in analog (looks terrible). The aspect ratio looks correct but it’s washed out and fuzzy due to being analog. At check in one other guest said some of the channels had no sound. The guy said ok we’ll have to contact the company to reset the box. The hotel documentation says TV powered by DirecTV and there’s an abundance of directv commercials.

Now how is a system like this wired up? 41 channels in analog, no guide or anything, just cable ready TV. Aspect ratio correct but obviously SD. Just curious what the other end looks like.

 

[dishdude]

41 receivers running through 41 modulators pushing the analog signal through crappy daisy chained RG-59 with a gazillion splitters throughout the property. Owners are probably too cheap to rewire and upgrade the equipment properly. There are some weird requirements like Pro Idium that add a ton of expense for hotel operators if they upgrade to HD.

 

[cypherstream]

I should say that one channel is just a black screen and another is static even though on the card it’s listed as a hotel info channel.

There’s ghosting and fuzz, but I don’t know how they got the AR right. Cspan is letterboxed on a 16:9 display though).

 

[Howard Simmons]

I’m in a hotel for Labor Day weekend for a beach vacation with my family. They have channels 2-42 in analog (looks terrible). The aspect ratio looks correct but it’s washed out and fuzzy due to being analog. At check in one other guest said some of the channels had no sound. The guy said ok we’ll have to contact the company to reset the box. The hotel documentation says TV powered by DirecTV and there’s an abundance of directv commercials.

Now how is a system like this wired up? 41 channels in analog, no guide or anything, just cable ready TV. Aspect ratio correct but obviously SD. Just curious what the other end looks like.

 

[cypherstream]

I know right, with only about a 400 MHz coax distribution.

 

[cypherstream]

So probably something like this, minus the Harmonic NSG9000 (theres no QAM - its all analog)


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xmts37o0AU

 

[Don in CT]

41 receivers running through 41 modulators pushing the analog signal through crappy daisy chained RG-59 with a gazillion splitters throughout the property. Owners are probably too cheap to rewire and upgrade the equipment properly. There are some weird requirements like Pro Idium that add a ton of expense for hotel operators if they upgrade to HD.

I see a lot of hospitals with the same setup. Analog crap signal.

 

[cypherstream]

I see a lot of hospitals with the same setup. Analog crap signal.

Yeah here they use Comcast and two mDTAs. Cable is split between two Vecima Terrace TC600E’s. 6 cable cards with 6 streams of decoding per card - 36 channel output. Two 1U rack mount units offer 72 analog channels. Terrace TC600E – Vecima

I’m more familiar with that system from working in IT with partners using it.

 

[Don in CT]

Yeah here they use Comcast and two mDTAs. Cable is split between two Vecima Terrace TC600E’s. 6 cable cards with 6 streams of decoding per card - 36 channel output. Two 1U rack mount units offer 72 analog channels. Terrace TC600E – Vecima

I’m more familiar with that system from working in IT with partners using it.

Why can't they keep the signal digital from end to end?

 

[cypherstream]

Why can't they keep the signal digital from end to end?

The hospital has thousands of tv's. Every room has them on walls and many rooms have PDI hospital flat screen TV's on adjustable arms that can be positioned over the hospital bed. These have integrated nurse call buttons and speakers in the corded remote. Some of the systems are linux based and use an analog usb tv tuner for tv, where as other parts of the menu do ip on-demand type stuff from the hospital (some movies, some information about having a baby, or other conditions, etc..). There are also suites with just regular tv's and you can call in and type in certain numbers on the phone to queue up a vod title and it will tell you which analog channel to tune (like channels 82-90). Technically you can watch whatever instructional video (again like how to care for a newborn) that anyone in the facility is watching on those channels using the older system. The newer system has ethernet, or wifi in addition to analog coax input. Some rooms have keyboards and theres games and web browsing. Those are the nice rooms like Maternety ward. My youngest son was born 5 years ago and we had those bells and whistles, but analog tv was junk.

Because of the number of tvs and the proprietary system, thousands of DTAs just don't work. Now in the outpatient surgery center recovery area, each private room bed has a TV on an arm but a Comcast DTA that goes to the TV via RF Ch 3/4. There are not as many screens there... maybe 20 or so. Much cheaper than outfitting a hospital with 1000-2000 screens.

 

[Don in CT]

The hospital has thousands of tv's. Every room has them on walls and many rooms have PDI hospital flat screen TV's on adjustable arms that can be positioned over the hospital bed. These have integrated nurse call buttons and speakers in the corded remote. Some of the systems are linux based and use an analog usb tv tuner for tv, where as other parts of the menu do ip on-demand type stuff from the hospital (some movies, some information about having a baby, or other conditions, etc..). There are also suites with just regular tv's and you can call in and type in certain numbers on the phone to queue up a vod title and it will tell you which analog channel to tune (like channels 82-90). Technically you can watch whatever instructional video (again like carying for a newborn) anyone in the facility is watching on those channels.

Because of the number of tvs and the proprietary system, thousands of DTAs just don't work. Now in the outpatient surgery center recovery area, each private room bed has a TV on an arm but a Comcast DTA that goes to the TV via RF Ch 3/4. There are not as many screens there... maybe 20 or so. Much cheaper than outfitting a hospital with 1000-2000 screens.

So many channels look like utter crap. There should be a way to improve the signal, either add more amps or spend more money.

 

[cypherstream]

So many channels look like utter crap. There should be a way to improve the signal, either add more amps or spend more money.

Yeah and I work for a company that has an office in the hospital. We needed connectivity for voice and data and at first Comcast screwed it up. They connected the eMTA modem AFTER the hospital's integrated mDTA setup, so there was no return path or digital. Took a few weeks to run hardline cable from their demarcation point BEFORE the hospital's system to our suite. There's a few places in the hospital that may need a split run for cable modem... food places, pharmacies, stores and financial institutions. The hospital is like a mini-mall almost.

 

[Don in CT]

Yeah and I work for a company that has an office in the hospital. We needed connectivity for voice and data and at first Comcast screwed it up. They connected the eMTA modem AFTER the hospital's integrated mDTA setup, so there was no return path or digital. Took a few weeks to run hardline cable from their demarcation point BEFORE the hospital's system to our suite. There's a few places in the hospital that may need a split run for cable modem... food places, pharmacies, stores and financial institutions. The hospital is like a mini-mall almost.

Would it make sense for multiple demarcs to feed these systems. That would at least take some of the load off.

 

[dishdude]

Why can't they keep the signal digital from end to end?

They can but it's expensive. They need to encrypt the signal...as if anyone wants it.

 

[slice1900]

Why can't they keep the signal digital from end to end?

A hospital's core mission isn't "quality TV signals", and if it has so much equipment of different types like cypherstream indicates they can't possibly upgrade it all to digital - especially stuff where the TV reception is built in that may cost thousands or higher to replace. They aren't going to spend all that money just to upgrade PQ!

They will probably drop TV entirely (as most patients already have their own devices capable of streaming) before they upgrade that analog system.

 

[Don in CT]

A hospital's core mission isn't "quality TV signals", and if it has so much equipment of different types like cypherstream indicates they can't possibly upgrade it all to digital - especially stuff where the TV reception is built in that may cost thousands or higher to replace. They aren't going to spend all that money just to upgrade PQ!

They will probably drop TV entirely (as most patients already have their own devices capable of streaming) before they upgrade that analog system.

How do these places that run DirectTV avoid rain fade? I could imagine a whole building losing a signal when it rains to be full of complaints.

 

[slice1900]

How do these places that run DirectTV avoid rain fade? I could imagine a whole building losing a signal when it rains to be full of complaints.

How could a place that uses cable TV avoid building wide outages when cable TV has an outage? How could a place that used streaming avoid an outage when the internet has an outage?

Its a hospital fer chrissake, people aren't going to get their bypass done someone else because they might lose their TV for 10 minutes when a storm passes through. In other words, the hospital doesn't care and neither do the patients.

 

[cypherstream]

The hotel I stayed at had a oversized white dish on the roof. Could that have used with the proper lnb’s to make it receive signal stronger since the dish is bigger? If it’s not used for that, who knows what it’s there for. There was a larger tower as well and i couldn’t see that roof.

Hospitals have multiple redundant ISP’s. The network is run “mission critical”, multiple paths in and out to the world and sattelite offices.

 

[slice1900]

The hotel I stayed at had a oversized white dish on the roof. Could that have used with the proper lnb’s to make it receive signal stronger since the dish is bigger? If it’s not used for that, who knows what it’s there for. There was a larger tower as well and i couldn’t see that roof.

Hospitals have multiple redundant ISP’s. The network is run “mission critical”, multiple paths in and out to the world and sattelite offices.

You can use the Alaska/Hawaii dish and get about 3-4 db stronger signal. Rain fade hits the signal by up to 50 db and sometimes more, so unless a hotel is putting one of those monster dishes like NASA uses on their roof they're going to have rain fade.

They might still use the bigger dish figuring it would delay the onset of rain fade for a few seconds here and get back the signal a few seconds quicker, but it is probably not worth the hassle.

 

[cypherstream]

You can use the Alaska/Hawaii dish and get about 3-4 db stronger signal. Rain fade hits the signal by up to 50 db and sometimes more, so unless a hotel is putting one of those monster dishes like NASA uses on their roof they're going to have rain fade.

They might still use the bigger dish figuring it would delay the onset of rain fade for a few seconds here and get back the signal a few seconds quicker, but it is probably not worth the hassle.

The cable company in our area has about 11 or 12 huge dishes in its back fenced in lot. D&H they say on it, I think.