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‚ Ireland's RTE is now officiallly on the new Eutelsat KA-SAT at 9 degrees east
You can only receive this if you have a completely different "special" Ka Band LNB and if you are in or near Ireland
This article would not have been possible without the hard work of 'Watty' here at‚ Tech Tir
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This is the new Eutelsat KA-SAT Satellite located at 9 degrees east which officially came into service on May 31st 2011
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So let's get the bad news out of the way first, If you are living outside of Ireland and you are hoping to be able to receive Irish Tv and Radio from the new Eutelsat KA-SAT Satellite which is now in service at 9 degrees east, It's very probable that you are going to be disappointed.
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Now take a look at this coverage map, this is the future‚
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This coverage map has the beams of the new KA - SAT satellite which was launched not so long ago and officially became operational on 31st May 2011, it is positioned at 9 degrees east and has 80 different very narrow beams, This satellite is to be used for two way internet mainly, but it can also carry TV and Radio services.‚
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So why is it of interest to us? answer is because last year (2010) RTE Ireland announced that it would be launching a service called SAORSAT using the Ireland spotbeam on this satellite, this service would include the public service channels RTE 1 and RTE 2 free to air starting in the second quarter of 2011.‚
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This is currently on the SAORVIEW website‚
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"By October 2012 SAORVIEW will be accessible to 98% of the poulation. Due to topography it is not possible for the SAORVIEW service to reach 100% of the poulation.
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Approximately 2% of the population will not be able to receive the SAORVIEW service.
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RTENL is currently in the process of developing and testing a free-to-air satellite service, SAORSAT, which will make it possible for 100% of the population be able to access the Irish free-to-air digital television channels and services. This will provide coverage to the homes not covered by SAORVIEW.
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RTENL expects to be able to make more information publicly avalable about this new service in late 2011."
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What is SAORSAT? ‚ to know this firstly you need to know what SAORVIEW is, put simply SAORVIEW is the Irish equivalent of the UK's FREEVIEW, DTT (Digital Terrestrial Tramsmissions,) now because the DTT network in Ireland won't cover the whole of Ireland, RTE will be utilizing this new satellite with it's very narrow spot beams to provide digital television coverage to the parts of Ireland that can't receive DTT, basically some small areas on the west coast of Ireland, also RTE would use this satelite either as the main or back up "feed" signal to the DTT transmitters.
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What do you need? most certainly a new different type of LNB (these are not available anywhere at the moment), probably a new dish too as combining the signals from 28 degrees east and 9 degrees east on one dish will be difficult mainly because of the higher frequencies and the spot beams used by KA - SAT., as for the receiver? it is probable that a HD receiver along the lines of the Humax Foxsat will do the job, but at the moment it's wait and see time, wait and see time with everything, there are so many unknowns at this time, and the first thing we must wait for is the true spot beams that are going to be used, the rumours are that outside of Ireland only people living on the west coast of Wales, people in Northern ireland and a small part of Scotland will be able to receive the Ireland beam, and it's because of two things, the narrow/small spot beams and the fact that some beams with the same colour could be using the same frequencies and polarization.
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Take a look at this, this is a my 'zoomed up' image of the previous coverage map with the two spot beams (in yellow) of interest to us on it, one over Ireland and one over Northers France, because KA - SAT has 80 different beams and because of the way things have been calculated, these two beams could be using the same frequency range and polarization.
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What all this means is that if you are within the beam you will be ok, if you are outside the beam then problems.
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The beam we in the UK are interested in is the Ireland beam, look at this map, take a look at where your location is on the map.‚
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So if you think you will have no problem getting free to air Irish Television in the UK, Then think again.‚
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A good rule of thumb will be that if your location is nearer the French beam than the irish beam then you are unlikely to receive the Irish Tv and Radio services.For example if you live in London you might get stronger signals from the French beam and not the Irish beam, and because both beams may be using the same frequency range/polarization then reception will not be possible. Even if your location is in the middle somewhere between Ireland and London it's quite possible that all you end up getting is interference only, a bigger dish won't improve things, if you increase the size of your dish you will increase the signals received from both satellites.
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This satellite is now operational (since 31/05/11), RTE is now officially broadcasting on this satellite
Please Note that you can only receive this if you have a completely different "special" Ka Band LNB and if your location is in or near Ireland, anywhere else will not get RTE from Eutelsat Ka-Sat at 9 degrees east
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So what channels will it have? Initially only these plus the RTE Aertel Digital Text service too and also all the RTE radio stations, both the regular services and the new digital services, probably more will be added at a later date once the service is up and running.
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This is currently on the SAORVIEW website but please be aware that TV3 and 3e are currently NOT broadcasting on Eutelsat Ka-Sat at 9 degrees east, only RTE TV and Radio channels are currently broadcasting/available
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"By October 2012 SAORVIEW will be accessible to 98% of the poulation. Due to topography it is not possible for the SAORVIEW service to reach 100% of the poulation.
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Approximately 2% of the population will not be able to receive the SAORVIEW service.
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RTENL is currently in the process of developing and testing a free-to-air satellite service, SAORSAT, which will make it possible for 100% of the population be able to access the Irish free-to-air digital television channels and services. This will provide coverage to the homes not covered by SAORVIEW.
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RTENL expects to be able to make more information publicly avalable about this new service in late 2011."
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So there you have it, we must wait a little longer .
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This article would not have been possible without the hard work of 'Watty' here at‚ Tech Tir
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COPYRIGHT ROB'S SATELLITE TV 2012
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