 | Issue: | Global-ICT 2003 |
| Article no.: | 10 | |
| Topic: | Satellites for Digital TV in Russia | |
| Author: | N.N. Sevastianov | |
| Title: | Director General | |
| Organisation: | Gascom | |
| PDF size: | 80KB |
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Article abstract
The Yamal-100, the first modern Russian telecommunications satellite, is being followed by the Yamal-200 series, which uses new technology to expand capacity. It includes transponders for both C and Ku bands. Digital TV broadcasting, multimedia services and Internet access, fuel the demand for the new satellites that have a footprint that bridges east to west covering Russia, the other CIS countries and parts of Europe and Asia as well. Ku band transmission permits the use of small inexpensive antennas.
Full Article
Within the last few years, digital satellite TV broadcasting technology has been developed locally and extensively tested in the Russian Federation and is now in use by the country’s TV and radio networks. Our own experience with digital satellite broadcasting, our project that began in 1999 can be cited as an example. In the beginning, the digital satellite TV broadcast system consisted of the TV transmission center built in Moscow and a network of receiving stations spread throughout the many regions of the Russian Federation. Initially, these broadcasts used the “Express” satellite located in the 80º E orbital position. The entire television network was switched over to the Yamal-100 (90º E) satellite shortly after its launch in 1999. The “Yamal-100” satellite not only provided high quality TV signal transmission, but also noticeably reduced the cost of implementing new TV networks and cut the cost of signal transmission. These economies resulted from the use of the digital technologies used in the design of the TV equipment coupled with better transponder performance. As a result, both government and commercial TV companies can economically broadcast throughout the Russian Federation. Before these technological advances, many broadcasting companies could not afford to transmit throughout the whole of the federation due to the high costs. Currently, our broadcasting center transmits 12 TV channels. Among them are commercial channels such as NTV, TNT, V, ORT-International, STS, DTV, SGU-TV, among others, and the Russian Government’s “Culture” and “Sport” TV channels. Since 2000, several regions in Russia expressed interest in developing their own TV systems. Between 2000 and 2003, 12 tenders for regional TV system development have been realized. The winner of these tenders for 10 regions of the Russian Federation decided to develop and use digital satellite systems based on the Yamal-100 satellite. These systems consist of a transmission center, a receive satellite network and, as well, a cable retransmission network. Networks of this type were developed in Tumen, Sverdlovsk, Rostov, Tver, Omsk, Tchelyabinsk, Archangelsk, Chita regions, Komi Republic, Khabarovsk territory and others. Also, 3 of the Republic of Turkmenistan’s channels are transmitted via the same Yamal-100 satellite. Currently, a total of 27 Russian central and regional TV channels, as well as 16 digital radio channels, are transmitted via the Yamal-100 satellite. Owing to the growth in the use of information technologies throughout Russia, the number of customers with satellite TV broadcasting projects is growing. Interestingly, a number of foreign companies have shown as much interest as Russian users in developing broadcast projects for the Russian market. The increased interest in TV broadcasting has spurred the development of higher capacity satellites better equipped to serve Russia’s market. In view of the Yamal-200, a new generation of satellites that was developed to handle the increasing demand and the first such satellites will soon be launched. In October 2003, the first two satellites will be launched and the next two will go into orbit in 2005. The Yamal-200 satellites were designed to satisfy all of today’s international requirements. The manufacturing process for the Yamal-200 satellite utilizes the best of modern technology. Much of this technology took advantage of the research, development, and in-use testing that the Yamal-100 project framework provided. Included among the many advances developed this way are ‘unpressurized’ compartments, contour antenna, ‘linearized’ transponders and the like. The experience with modern production and testing techniques that the Yalal-100 provided was also applied to the project for the Yamal-200. During the creation of payloads for the satellites the components from universally recognized companies such as Alcatel (France), Alenia Aerospazio (Italy) and NEC (Japan) were used. The first Yamal-200 satellite is expected to occupy an orbital position near to the Yamal-100 90º E satellite. The satellite will be equipped with powerful C- and Ku-band transponders. The performance of the C-band transponders is expected to be practically identical, in terms of power and coverage zone, to those of theYamal-100 satellite. The additional transponders in the same band will provide greater capacity and flexibility for TV and radio channel transmission and, as needed, can provide backup for satellite transponders in the same orbital position. Currently, C-band is used for TV broadcasting throughout Russia because it works well in the environment and is convenient for the globalization of TV broadcasting. Russia is vast and the climate varies greatly between regions; ?-band is the satellite band least affected by the weather. Nevertheless, we believe that Ku-band broadcasting will develop briskly. Yamal-200 satellites have high-energy linearized Ku-band transponders. One such beam can envelope almost all of Russia and the CIS countries. This means that small, 0,6 m to 1,2 m, dish antennas can be used for reception throughout the territory. This works well for companies which plan, in parallel with broadcast TV, to offer services such as Internet access and multimedia, all of which can now be handled by the same satellite. The second Yamal-200 satellite, 49º E orbits, will cover all of Europe, part of Africa, all of Asia, among other areas. This is of interest to TV and radio companies engaged in international broadcasting. Currently, Russia is experiencing remarkable growth in satellite communications for both national and local digital television, multimedia services and for the Internet.
