Sattelite Television
Sattelite TV all began with Sputnik the shock of the centuryWhen the Russian sputnik 1957 launch took place the news was full of reports of this basketball-sized object now orbiting the planet. The world was surprised, amazed and just a little frightened by the possibilities it raised.
Sputnik music consisting of continuous beeps beamed from space was heard on radios and TVs everywhere. Who would have thought then that they would someday be watching high quality, high definition, digital TV beamed from a whole network of artificial satellites orbiting high above the earth?
Digital analog TV transition
As I write this the whole business of satellite TV and television in general, is in a state of perpetual change. First we had analog satellite TV that was very similar to terrestrial TV as far as receiver technology goes. It did however give us a lot more channels and the network of satellites in space now give us far more world wide signal coverage than terrestrial methods ever could.
Technology marches on and analog TV has been all but replaced by digital TV signals and receivers that give us superior video and audio. Wide screen TV has been with us for a short time and High Definition TV (HDTV) is about to hit us in a big way.
In a few short years all the satellite and terrestrial analog TV transmissions will cease leaving us with nothing but digital wherever we go. This is great for the advance of technology because it then means we can reclaim the bandwidth that the analog system is taking up and use it for something else. For some however this is going to cause problems. Not everyone has switched to digital receiver equipment and it isn't clear whether digital broadcasts will reach everyone who currently uses the analog system. The transition route from analog to digital satellite TV might be just a little bit bumpy I feel.
Satellite TV for PC
You are no longer restricted to using a TV set to watch satellite TV. It is perfectly possible to watch sattelite TV on PC using USB and I predict that this will become more and more popular as computers evolve.
Watch Free TV on computer over Internet
Another interesting development that is just starting to emerge is the use of the Internet to transmit TV stations. If all TV were delivered this way it would be ideal as there is no satellite dish or receiver involved and as Internet coverage is now widespread, so would be the TV coverage.
The system is being trialed by a few stations throughout the world but unfortunately I believe that we are a long way from replacing satellite TV just yet. The Internet is powerful but it isn't yet powerful enough to meet the demands of every subscriber to satellite TV. How long it will take to get there remains to be seen but for now sattelite TV rocks.