DIRECTV is one of the leading satellite TV service provider companies in the United States serving millions of households with TV entertainment. Nonetheless, DIRECTV does not use a physical dish antenna like that of a cable or over-the-air antenna television. This often leads new customers to ask: This means that despite offering cable services, DIRECTV will not require a dish in the following way.
This is easily explained by a satellite-based network and transmission system that is employed by DIRECTV. It is not a prerequisite for customers to have an outdoor dish at their home though satellites in space are used by the DIRECTV to transmit its signals across the continental United States.
How DIRECTV Satellites Work
DIRECTV has its network of satellites and the satellites used are positioned in geostationary orbit at 35 225 km above the surface of the earth. Here the satellites are also as fast as the motion of the Earth around its axis. This makes it possible for the satellites to maintain relative positions about a particular point on the surface of the earth meaning that there is reliability and consistency in the coverage wherever it is required within the country.
The DIRECTV satellite comprises high-power Ku-band transponders, which could be described as a signal retransmission system. They get their program from many content suppliers and broadcast stations on the field; they retransmit these signals and direct them back to the earth with a narrow coverage area that encompasses particular areas within the country. It is possible to transmit several hundreds of channels as digital compression technology enables the satellite to accommodate many channels.
Most of the groundwork and signal transmission are provided below:
However, in the same way that satellites are a crucial component of the communication process, DIRECTV also relies on an extensive ground network that encompasses broadcast centers, uplink stations, and local repeater towers to bring the signals to subscribers’ homes.
Any subscriber who wishes to access the services of DIRECTV is linked to the nearest repeater tower through coaxial cables or fiber optic links. The repeater tower captures the signals from the DIRECTV satellites that are orbiting above and then it relays the signals that it has received while boosting the signal strength before transmitting to the customer’s homes within the area. This ground distribution network reduces the requirement for consumers to install outdoor satellite dishes at their premises.
The DIRECTV receiver, which is located on the customer’s TV shelf or is incorporated into the customer’s TV set, then demodulates the signal and descrambles the channels that are permitted by the viewer’s programming package. The result is an indoor ability to receive hundreds of perfectly crisp and clear television stations and no outdoor satellite dish.
Advantages of Dishless DIRECTV
DIRECTV's satellite and infrastructure technology provides several advantages over traditional dish-based satellite systems:
- Easier self-installation: They do not like having to climb on the roof to fix a large and cumbersome satellite dish. Capturing and setup is done where cables are connected between the DIRECTV receiver and TV.
- Better aesthetics: It means that no satellite eyesore is physically visible on the homes hence the clean sight lines. It makes it easier to adhere to the rules that apply to Housing Associations.
- Signal reliability: The signal provided by repeater towers is more consistent, and less likely interrupted by rain fade or other interferences.
- Flexible positioning: A major advantage of Hopper is that the TV and receiver can be installed in any part of the home without worrying about the alignments of the dishes.
- Future-proofing: One of the major strengths of Directv is that the company’s system design thus guarantees its clients that they are getting the best available technology in TV.
While the inner workings of this powerful technology involve several satellites orbiting thousands of miles above the earth, DIRECTV’s end-to-end architecture allows it to provide satellite TV service without customers having to install a physical dish antenna at their homes. Satellite-based platforms and ground-based signal distribution network provides customers with the best picture quality and discretion to choose the program they want without any botheration – which is almost equivalent to having a satellite dish inside the house.
