satellitedish
Latest
Sky Q will be available without a satellite dish from 2018
For almost thirty years, Sky has operated first and foremost as a satellite television provider. Sure, the company has expanded its empire to include phone, broadband and, more recently, mobile services, but many of its customers have at some point had to wait home while an engineer fixes a receiver dish to the side of their house. Soon, that won't be the case, at least for Sky Q subscribers, after the provider confirmed it's ditching satellites for some customers in favour of an internet-connected service.
Google looks to plant a field of satellite dishes in Iowa
Iowa. Fertile home to 14 million acres of corn, nine million acres of soybeans, and -- if the FCC looks favorably on a recent application from Farmer Google -- a blooming array of 15-foot satellite dishes too. The request for a "receive only earth station" comes from Google Fiber, and the bands it hopes to receive are typical satellite TV frequencies, hinting that the purpose of the station will be to receive audio and video content that will then be piped through a high-speed fiber data service. First stop, Kansas City!
Eutelsat's Ka-Sat satellite goes into service, provides broadband to 13 million homes across Europe
Europe's already extensive broadband coverage may be expanding even further, now that Eutelsat's Ka-Sat satellite has officially gone into service. The new craft, which launched from Kazakhstan in late December, uses spotbeam technology to generate areas of connectivity that are about 250 kilometers wide, with each beam carrying a total capacity of 900Mbps. Unlike the Hylas 1, its reach will extend far across the continent, providing Tooway's high-bandwidth services to 13 million households in remote locations. Subscribers will have download speeds of up to 10Mbps and upload rates of 4Mbps, though they'll still have to put up with latency on the order of 250ms, making life even more difficult for Eastern European OnLive gamers. Of course, this access won't come for free, but Ka-Sat's 82-beam network structure significantly lowers its operating costs, allowing Eutelsat to offer prices that are on par with market rates. According to company CEO Michel de Rosen, customers should expect to pay around €30 for basic service, in addition to €250 they'd have to spend on a 77cm satellite dish. That's not necessarily a small amount of cash for low-income families to fork over, but at least they'll have an option that didn't exist before. Head past the break for a video about Tooway's Ka-Sat services, along with a full PR.
New satellite receiver design teases a glorious, dish-less future
Satellite dishes have come a long way in terms of design and size over the years, but Marcel van de Burgwal -- a grad student at the Netherlands' University of Twente -- has now invented a way to ditch the dish altogether. Channeling his inner Doc Brown, his invention revolves around an array of virtually flat antennas that receive satellite signals without the help of a concave backing. His design also conveniently eliminates the need to physically aim the receiver for reception -- much to the joy of actuaries everywhere. Instead, this task is performed by a network of small basic processors integrated into a single chip, which then bear the heavy calculation work of electronically aiming the receiver. The obvious impact of this design on consumer technology is that satellite receivers could soon make their way into all manner of handheld devices (read: smartphones). In fact, Marcel has already tested the chip's performance as a digital radio receiver for smartphones with successful results. That sounds like great news to us, but we understand if the branding folks at Dish Network are slightly less thrilled. For more details, hit the source link below.
GATR-com inflatable satellite ball goes where other satellite dishes can't
The hits just keep coming out of Popular Science's Invention Awards -- we already checked out the ring mouse and "slidingly engaging fastener," but Paul Gierow's GATR-com (which stands for "ground antenna transmit and receive) inflatable satellite ball has got to be the most sci-fi invention of the bunch. Designed to provide communications in otherwise inhospitable environments, the six or eight-foot sphere contains a plastic satellite dish that unfolds when the ball is inflated and can be targeted to within one-tenth of a degree. When collapsed, the GATR-com weighs just 70 pounds and fits into two backpacks. The $50,000 ball has already been tested in disaster areas, helping a Red Cross station secure medicine during Hurricane Katrina, and Gierow says he's been inundated with potential clients. We can see why -- not only does this thing dial up a T1 speed connection, it's perfect for exercising your Wookiees. Peep a vid of the ball setting up after the jump.
