DIRECT TO HOME

What is DTH ???

 DTH stands for Direct-To-Home television.

 DTH is defined as the reception of satellite

programmes with a personal dish in an
individual home.

 A DTH network consists of a broadcasting

centre, satellites, encoders, multiplexers,
modulators and DTH receivers.
• The DTH utilizes a technology which enables a
home to receive high speed internet broadband
access data communication, voice over internet
protocol (IP) telephony and much more using
an open standard Digital Video Broadcasting
(DVB) technology.

• The video channels are received with a suitable

set top box capable of demodulating Moving
Picture Experts Group (MPEG-2) standard
videos. Hardware compatible with DVB-RCS
technology is readily available in the market in
both Ku-band and C-band.
• DVB-RCS is an international open standard for
multimedia satellite network where the return
data rates in access of 2 Mbps are possible using
low cost user terminals.

• The forward ink is usually at 40 Mbps.

• A DTH service provider has to lease Ku-band

transponders from the satellite. The encoder
converts the audio, video and data signals into the
digital format and the multiplexer mixes these
signals. At the user end, there will be a small dish
antenna and set-top boxes to decode and view
numerous channels.
• DTH does away with the need for the local cable
operator and puts the broadcaster directly in
touch with the consumer.

• DTH is an encrypted transmission that travels to

the consumer directly through a satellite.

• DTH transmission is received directly by the

consumer at his end through the small dish
antenna.

• A set-top box, unlike the regular cable

connection, decodes the encrypted transmission.
How does DTH really differ
from Cable TV ?
• The way DTH reaches a consumer's home is
different from the way cable TV does.

• In DTH, TV channels would be transmitted

from the satellite to a small dish antenna
mounted on the window available at the
rooftop of the subscriber's home.
• So the broadcaster directly connects to the user
and the middlemen like local cable operators
are not there in the picture.

• DTH can also reach the remotest of areas since

it does away with the intermediate step of a
cable operator and the wires (cables) that come
from the cable operator to your house.

• Also, with DTH, a user can scan nearly 700

channels which is about seven times than that
in Cable TV.
Is DTH superior to Cable TV ?

• Yes. DTH offers better quality picture than

cable TV.

• This is because cable TV in India is analog.

Despite digital transmission and reception, the
cable transmission is still analog.

• DTH offers stereophonic sound effects.

• It can also reach remote areas where terrestrial
transmission and cable TV have failed to
penetrate.

• Apart from enhanced picture quality, DTH has

also allows for interactive TV services such as
movie-on-demand, Internet access ,video
conferencing and e-mail.

• In DTH, the payments can be made directly by

the subscriber to the satellite company offering
the service.
• A big problem that broadcasters face in India is
the issue of underreporting of subscribers by
cable operators.

• Consider the cable operators pyramid. Right at

the top is the broadcaster. Next comes the
Multi Service Cable Operator (MSOs) like
Siticable, InCable, etc.

• Below them are the Access Cable Operators

(ACOs) or your local cable guy who actually
lays the wires to your house.
• The local cable operators or the ACOs then
allegedly under-report the number of
subscribers they have bagged because they
have to pay the MSOs something like Rs 30-45
per household.

• Showing a lesser number of households

benefits ACOs.

• With no way to actually cross check, the MSOs

and the broadcasters lose a lot.
• Broadcasters do not earn much in subscription
fees and are mostly dependent on
advertisement revenue to cover their costs,
which is not sustainable and does not offer
high growth in revenues for broadcasters.

• The way out of this is to use a set-top box so

that it will be clear how many households are
actually using cable or going for DTH where
broadcasters directly connect to consumers and
can actually grow revenues with a growth in
the subscriber base.
 What is the history of
DTH in India ?
• DTH services were first proposed in India in
1996. But they did not pass approval because
there were concerns over national security and
a cultural invasion.

• In 1997, the government even imposed a ban

when the Rupert Murdoch-owned Indian Sky
Broadcasting (ISkyB) was about to launch its
DTH services in India.
• Finally in 2000, DTH was allowed. The new
policy requires all operators to set up earth
stations in India within 12 months of getting a
license.

• DTH licenses in India will cost $2.14 million and

will be valid for 10 years.

• The companies offering DTH service will have to

have an Indian chief and foreign equity has been
capped at 49 per cent.

• There is no limit on the number of companies

that can apply for the DTH license.
Current Scenario
 SATELLITE TV SOLUTION

 Satellite television system transmit and receive

radio signals using special antennas called
satellite dishes.

 Satellites are higher in the sky than TV antennas

so they have much larger ‘line of sight’ range.
 GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE

• Positioned at exact height above the earth

(36000km).
• Rotate around the earth at the same speed
as the earth rotates.
• Has circular orbit.
 FUNCTIONING OF DTH

• Channels are first multiplexed.

• QPSK modulated before transmission.

• Dish receives the signal.

• LNBC converts KU band signals to

intermediate frequency based on the local IF.

• Set top box receives signals and performs

demodulation and D to A conversion and gives
the RF output to TV.
 Basic DTH Network Concepts

• The DTH network consists of two parts :

1. Compression and Encoding

2. Encryption and Transmission

3. Communication Channel

4. Receiver Terminal
 Compression and Encoding
• Currently, most of the service providers use the
MPEG-2 compressed video format - the same
format used to store movies on DVDs.

• With MPEG-2 compression, the provider can

reduce the 270- Mbps stream to about 5 or 10
Mbps (depending on the type of programming).

• With digital compression, a typical satellite can

transmit about 200 channels whereas without
digital compression, it can transmit about 30
channels.
• At the broadcast center, the high-quality digital
stream of video goes through an MPEG-2
encoder, which converts the programming to
MPEG-2 video of the correct size and format for
the satellite receiver in your house.

• The MPEG encoder analyzes each frame and

decides how to encode it.

• The encoder eliminates redundant or irrelevant

data, and extrapolates information from other
frames to reduce the overall size of the file.
 Each frame can be encoded in one of three ways:

1. As an Intraframe - An Intraframe contains the

complete image data for that frame. This method
of encoding provides the least compression.

2. As a Predicted frame - A Predicted frame

contains just enough information to tell the
satellite receiver how to display the frame based
on the most recently displayed intra frame or
predicted frame.

3. As a Bidirectional frame - To display

Bidirectional frame, the receiver must have the
information from the surrounding intraframe or
predicted frames.
• The rate of compression depends on the nature
of the programming.

• If the encoder is converting a newscast, it can

use a lot more predicted frames because most of
the scene stays the same from one frame to the
next.

• In other sorts of programming, such as action

movies and music videos, things change very
quickly from one frame to the next, so the
encoder has to create more intraframes.As a
result, something like a newscast generally
compresses to a much smaller size than
something like an action movie.
 Encryption and Transmission
• After the video is compressed, the provider
needs to encrypt it in order to keep people from
accessing it for free.

• Encryption is an electronic method of securing

the video and audio of any TV program so that
satellite, cable, and broadcast TV services can
maintain control over the distribution of their
signals.

• Encryption scrambles the digital data in such a

way that it can only accessed be if the receiver
has the correct decryption algorithm.
 Bit Rate:
• The amount of data information being
transmitted in one second of time is called the bit
rate, expressed in bits per second (b/s).

• A bit rate of one thousand bits per second is

called a kilobit per second (kb/s); one million
bits per second a megabit per second (Mb/s);
and one billion bits per second a gigabit per
second (Gb/s).

• A bit rate of more than 200 Mb/s would be

required to digitize a broadcast quality video
service without any signal impairment.
• This would require the use of several satellite
transponders to relay just one uncompressed
digital video signal.

• It therefore is essential that some form of signal

compression be used to dramatically reduce the
number of bits required for digital TV
transmissions.
 Communication Channel
• In a communications system, the part that
connects a data source to a data sink is known as
channel.

• Bandwidth refers to the data transmission

capacity of a communications channel.

• The greater a channel's bandwidth, the

more information it can carry per unit of time.
• The required bandwidth can vary greatly
according to the type of application.

• For example, the transmission of simple ASCII

text messages requires relatively little
bandwidth, whereas the transmission of high
resolution video images requires a large
amount of bandwidth.

• For DTH system, communication channel is air

and Band-Width is :
Ku Band Up link : 13.75 to 14.5 GHz
Ku Band Down links : 10.95 to 11.2 GHz
11.45 to 11.70 GHz
12.50 to 12.75 GHz
 Receiver Terminal

• The receiver terminals are basically for the

reception of the signals being beamed from the
transmission station.

• The terminal consists of the following :

1. • Receive type solid offset antenna

2. • LNB feed system
3. • Interface cables & Set top box
• The terminal can be placed outside the window
of a high rise building, on the ground or a roof
mount.

• The terminals can be used as per the contents

being beamed by the transmission stations.

• DTH can also reach the remotest of areas since

it does away with the intermediate step of a
cable operator and the wires (cables) that come
from the cable operator to your house.
 Receiver Antenna

The selection of the appropriate antenna size is

based on the following:

• Satellite EIRP at the particular location.

• Rain attenuation at the location.
• Adequate Eb/No for reception of excellent
picture quality.
SATELLITE RECEIVING ANTENNA

The parabolic curve has the property of reflecting

all incident rays arriving along the antenna
reflector’s axis of symmetry to a common focus
located to the front and centre.
 Parabolic Reflector

• The parabolic reflector receives externally

generated noise along with the desired signal.

• When the satellite dish tilts up towards

the "cold" sky, the antenna noise temperature is
at its lowest level.
• The actual amount of noise increase in this case
is a function of antenna f/D ratio and
diameter.

• Minimum antenna elevation angles of 5

degrees, for C band, and 10 degrees, for Ku-
band, above the site location's horizon usually
are recommended.

• If the antenna must tilt downward to receive a

low-elevation satellite, however, the antenna's
noise temperature will increase dramatically
because it is now able to intercept the "hot"
noise temperature of the Earth.
 Antenna f/D Ratio
• The f/D ratio of the antenna is the ratio of
focal length to dish diameter, measured in the
same units.

• The f/D ratio selected by the antenna designer

also determines the depth of the dish itself,
that is, the amount of contour or
"wraparound" of the paraboloid within its
fixed diameter.

• The deepest reflectors have a f/D ratio of 0.25.

• A long-focus (high f/D) paraboloid reflector
will have a shallow contour, while a short-focus
paraboloid reflector resembles a deep bowl.

• This places the focal point directly in the plane

of the antenna aperture.

• An antenna design with a large value of f/D

requires a feed horn that has a narrower beam
width, so that the edge illumination of
the antenna can be maintained.

• This typically is between 10 and 15 dB below

the value produced at the center of the reflector.
 DISH MATERIALS AND
CONSTRUCTION
• The reflector's surface material must be
constructed out of metal in order to reflect the
incoming microwave signals.

• Some antenna reflectors appear to be

manufactured out of plastic or fiberglass;
however, these dishes actually have an
embedded metal mesh material that reflects the
incoming satellite signals to the front and center
of the dish.
• One oval dish design that is the antenna of
choice for most digital DTH satellite TV service
providers is called the offset-fed antenna.

• The offset paraboloid eliminates aperture

blockage, reduces antenna noise temperature,
and resists the accumulation of ice and snow by
placing the feed below the reflector and angling
it upwards.

• The offset-fed antenna can achieve higher

efficiency levels than prime focus antennas
normally attain, usually in the 70 percent range.
 Antenna Specifications
1. Reflector Size - 65cm
2. Type – Offset Feed
3. Frequency - 10.7 to 12.75 GHz
4. Antenna Gain - > 36.75dB @12.75 GHz
5. 3dB Beam width - < 3.2 degree
6. 10dB Beam width - < 5.2 degree
7. Aperture efficiency - >70%
8. Surface Accuracy - < 0.01"
9. Noise Temperature - < 35 Kelvin
10. Offset Angle - 25 degree
11. F/d ratio - 0.6
 Low Noise Blocker
• A low-noise block converter is the antenna of what
is commonly called the parabolic satellite dish
commonly used for satellite TV reception.

• It is functionally equivalent to the dipole antenna

used for most other TV reception purposes,
although it is actually waveguide based.

• The purpose of the LNB is to use the super-

heterodyne principle to take a wide block of
relatively high frequencies, amplify and convert
them to similar signals carried at a much lower
frequency.
• These lower frequencies travel through cables
with much less attenuation of the signal, so there
is much more signal left on the satellite receiver
end of the cable.

LNB Specifications:

1. I/P Range - 1O.7 GHz to 12.75 GHz

2. Local Oscillator - 9.75 GHz or 10.6 GHz
3. Noise Figure - 0.5 dB
4. Noise Temperature - 35 Kelvin @ 290 degree
5. Gain - 55dB
 Set Top Box
• The set top box accepts the entire down
converted band and separates out the individual
transponder frequency.

• Then signals are first converted to fixed IF and

then QPSK demodulated.

• The bandwidth of QPSK signals is 27.5 MHz as

the bit rate is 27.5 Mb/s.

• It is observed that 11 digital channels

are multiplexed in 27.5 MHz bandwidth.
• The power supply for LNB, polarization
selection signals as well as LO setting signals are
send by the set top box itself by using the same
cable between the LNB and set top box.

• After the QPSK demodulation, the digital bit

stream obtained contains several multiplexed
channels as well as error control bits.

• The bit stream is processed to correct and detect

errors, deinterleaved , and decrypted.

• A digital demultiplexer then extracts the bits for

wanted channel, and sends them to MPEG
decoder.
Block Diagram of Set Top Box
 DTH BENEFITS
• Cost effective communication , information and
entertainment to all.

• Small size terminals can provide upto 4000 TV

channels and 2000 radio channels through a click
of a button and thus brings world’s altest
information , news , entertainment to your home.

• DTH services bypasses mediators and thus

content provider comes with customer directly.

• DTH services are transparent providing digital

quality to all at equal prices.
 CONCLUSION

• DTH has made the hopes of the people of rural

areas to come true.

• It helps to develop and explore the ignited

mind of people of India to think beyond the
scope of imagination.

• It also helps to develop the economic

conditions of a country.