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A new species of human,"HOMO COUCH POTATIOUS", appeared for the
first time.
In the picture to the left Dr. Cable lectures on one of the
exclusive features of cable programming.
HBO® program content (mostly movies at that time) was
originally sent to cable TV companies all over the country on tape.
The cable companies then played back the tapes onto their cable at
the frequency of an unused (locally by broadcast TV stations) TV
channel. By tuning their TV set to the same channel the customers
could view the programs.
Filters which removed the jamming signal were installed at each
home where the pay channel was to be received so only those who
paid for it could receive it.
The tv set on the left has the picture which has the jamming
signal component active. The TV set on the right has the same
picture information with the jamming signal filtered out.
Pay-TV proved to be a very popular concept.
Pictured to the right is Telstar I, the first
"active" satellite used to relay TV
programs across the Atlantic Ocean. Telstar was launched into a
polar orbit because our technology at the time had not developed
far enough to attempt a geosynchronous orbit. Telstar's success did
convince executives in the communications field that satellite
communications were feasible. Pictured to the left is a
rendering of one of the early "SATCOM" satellites. This type
satellite was made by RCA.
At this time network TV was still being distributed across the
country by
coaxial cable. The networks were considering what use if any
satellites could be to their operations.
At about the same time Robert Coleman, Clyde Washburn, Jr., Nelson
Ethier, and others also constructed pioneering TVRO systems.
By 1978
an entrepreneur and electronic whiz named Robert Cooper had been in
contact with these other pioneers creating a communications
grapevine of "how to" tips. Cooper had recently established
Satellite Television Technology (STT) as a consulting firm. STT and
others published instruction books and manuals on subjects from
construction to how to aim a dish for the best signal.
All this activity attracted commercial electronics firms and caused
new ones to be formed to get in on the new technology. There is a
separate article on the large dish
satellite system for those who desire more information.
When scrambling did finally get under way ( a few years later)
there was a group of disgruntled satellite TVRO system designers
and marketers who decided to, rather than cooperate and buy the
programming, develop a way to get around paying by using altered
descramblers to receive scrambled programs. "Hackers" started
trying to find ways around the scrambling and after a time were
successful.They began to sell "altered" descramblers which would
deliver the programs without subscription fees being paid. Even
after law enforcement organizations began to make arrests they were
bold enough to continue.
This could have been a give and take situation with the TVRO
industry and owners being willing to pay some lesser amount for the
programming than cable subscribers, while the programmers could
have been willing to sell to the TVRO users at the the reduced
price. Business probably would have continued to be good
for the TVRO industry while definitely being better for the cable
programmers. However, cooler heads did not prevail.
The cost has sort of taken care of itself, too. Now a large dish
satellite user can get such programming bargains as 5 HBO®
channels, or 3 Cinemax® channels, or Multichannel Showtime for
a lower price than that paid by a cable subscriber for 1 HBO®
channel, one Cinemax channel, or one Showtime channel.
Another less tangible benefit has been better programs since the
program providers are making enough money to be able to afford to
supply them.
Showtime (E & W, The Movie Channel E & W, Flix, and Sundance),
Starz
(E & W, Encore, Westerns), and Cinemax MultimaxTM (E &
W and
MoreMax) are others which offer several services when you subscribe
to them as well.
HBO, HBO Plus, USA, MTV, Nickelodeon, Lifetime, Discovery Channel,
Comedy Central, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, and The Movie Channel all
have East and West feeds. You get two time slots three hours apart
in which the same programs are rebroadcast.
How one might use having two available feeds for the same
program is as follows: Suppose he/she has subscriptions to HBO and
Showtime and there are movies on both at 7:00PM (East Feeds) that
he/she would like to view.
He/She could watch the one on HBO on the East feed at 7:00 PM and
the other one on Showtime on the West feed at 10:00 PM .
YOURS IS VISIT NUMBER 
CABLE: THE BEGINNING
Pay television was a new concept.
Cable
TV had started out in the 1950's in many outlying areas as
"community antenna" systems where local TV station broadcasts and
those from larger cities were received on high tower receiver
systems and sent by cable to the subscribers. The customers paid
a monthly fee to the cable company which brought the
programming into their homes. The TV programs themselves
were free to the viewer because they were supported by
commercial advertisements.
ALONG CAME HBO®
Then along came Home Box Office®. HBO® was conceived as a
"for pay" service which cable TV companies could include along with
the programming from the community antenna system.
HBO BEGAN PAY TV
Customers who wished to receive HBO® paid extra for it. They
didn't mind because this was "commercial free" television. The
viewer could watch a whole movie or other program without a
commercial break.
LESS PROGRAMMING RESTRICTIONS
The customers also
liked the program content. The pay channel programmers, because
these channels were not carried on regular TV channels and were not
governed by the restrictions placed on network TV channels by the
FCC, could broadcast "R" rated movies,comedy routines with "adult"
content, and sexually oriented program material which could not be
carried by the networks.
EXCLUSIVE FOR PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY
To keep
non-subscribers from getting the pay channel, a jamming
signal component was added to the TV signal on the pay TV channel
to make the programs unwatchable.
COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES
During this same time communications satellites were just beginning
to be a feasible means of carrying broadband communications. 
By the
early 1970's there were several communications satellites in
geosynchronous orbit in our
hemisphere, but because of an economic recession many transponders
were going unused.
SATELLITE TV BEGINS
CABLE TV VIA SATELLITE
In 1975 HBO® conducted a feasibility test to see if the new
communications satellites could be used to transmit pay TV. The
test which used a downlink
receiver set up at a motel in Jackson, Mississippi was a success.
(One reason Jackson, Mississippi was chosen for the HBO®
satellite TV test may have been because the N/S and E/W coaxial
cables which carried network TV crossed at Jackson.) Downlinks were
soon installed at many cable TV sites, often close by the old
community antenna. It became a common sight to see large satellite
receiver dishes at the cable TV "headends".ANTENNA FARMS
Soon there were other pay cable networks using satellites to beam
their programming to the cable headends. Some of them used the
same satellite as HBO®. Others used different ones. Before long
there were groups of satellite
antennas around the cable TV
buildings. There had to be one receiver dish for each satellite
they were using. The antennas became so numerous these sites were
dubbed "antenna farms". The antenna farm pictured here has several
TVRO antennas which appear to be aimed towards the satellite belt
and a large uplink dish which is
apparantly not in use since it is pointing the wrong direction.
EXTENSIVE USE OF SATELLITES FOR TV
Since the 1980's practically all networks, pay and commercial
based, have used satellites to spread their programming across this
country and even around the world. There are hundreds of
transponders in use. TV stations now have their own mobile uplink
equipment so they can carry a live story or event and send it by
satellite to their network to be rebroadcast to the whole nation
and world.
THE HOME TVRO SYSTEM
Shortly after HBO® began broadcasting over their satellite
link, so
the story goes, some microwave engineers working in Antarctica
accidentally picked up the HBO® signal and were able to watch
entertainment programming from their base camp. That story may be
mythical, but about this time experimentation did begin which led
to the development of the home TVRO system.
HOME SATELLITE TV PIONEERS
It is known as historical fact that Taylor Howard, Professor of
Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, decided
to 
construct his own backyard
satellite TV (TVRO) earth
station as an experiment in microwave engineering. He has been
singled out by many to have been the first to have done so. Mr.
Howard has
continued to be a leader in the satellite industry, having been
Chairman of SBCA and founder of Chaparral Communications.
THE SCRAMBLING WARS
When the first large dish satellite systems began to appear they
were sold largely "to get free cable TV programming" rather than on
their own merits as the best way to receive all types of TV
programming. At that time there were no laws on the books dealing
with a
situation like this. It had been considered the right of any person
who had the equipment to receive any signal transmitted by wireless
means to receive and use that signal.
THE WAR BEGAN
But looking at it from the TV program suppliers' viewpoint these
new home satellite receiver users were "stealing" their signal.
Because the program suppliers were (1)spending large amounts of
money to purchase
and
broadcast their programming, (2)were losing business, and
(3)anticipating losing more, they began to lash out at the TVRO
industry. The term "pirates" began to be used to describe
those who
were using the new TVRO systems. Unfortunately, at this time the
management of HBO® and others, but especially HBO®, could
not envision the TVRO owner as a potential source of revenue.
SCRAMBLING
The program providers began to seek a way to incorporate the
scrambling of their signals to try to stop satellite dish owners
from tuning in. Because scrambling, and the loss of program
material, could have destroyed the entire home satellite antenna
industry, laws were passed which insured that satellite TV system
owners could purchase the scrambled "for cable" programming and
that descramblers would be made available for the home dish market.
SCRAMBLING BECAME A REALITY
It took several years to design a scrambling/descrambling system
which could be used by the cable companies and those TVRO owners
who were willing to pay subscription fees to continue to receive
the scrambled programming. Those not willing to purchase a
descrambler and pay subscription fees would be left
"in the dark".
PIRATES
The defeat of the scrambling scheme added credence to the cries of
the pay TV programmers who once more branded satellite TV users as
"pirates", especially those with bogus descramblers.
Unfortunately
they had a point. To make matters worse the news media made more
than necessary noise about the ensuing battles and the public got
the idea that satellite TV reception was somehow illegal. Many
potential customers were lost to the TVRO industry.
THE PROGRAMMERS HAD THE FINAL WORD
The scrambler/descrambler designers finally arrived at a new design
like the one pictured here. This one is equipped with "renewable
security" which means if the hackers manage to get around the new
method of scrambling, owners will be supplied with "smart card"
circuit or program modifications to reestablish the integrity of
the system. This new design has not proved to be easily defeated
and it has come to the point that if one wants to keep using a
large dish satellite system to receive scrambled channels he will
just have to pay for subscriptions to them. With
the new scrambling system in place Derelict TVRO dishes began to
dot the landscape. One could tell they weren't being used by the
way they looked and the odd directions they were pointing.
THERE COULD HAVE BEEN A
BETTER WAY
Wouldn't it have been better to have gotten together with the
programmers and worked out a better solution? It might have been if
the programmers could have imagined what is now common knowledge,
that the satellite TV customers were to become a very important
part of their customer base. There are still quite a few who
elected to pay the subscription costs as soon as descramblers
became available getting very satisfactory results at a fair price.
ADVANTAGES OF SCRAMBLING FOR THE
CONSUMER
For the TVRO owners who decided to "go with the programmers"
probably the greatest advantage derived from scrambling is the CD
quality digital sound reproduction that comes with it.
Return to the Large Dish
Satellite
System writeup.
THE SMALL DISH TVRO
In 1994 the first of the small dish satellite receivers became
available. They have enjoyed a great deal of popularity having sold
in the millions of units. Because of their importance to the
satellite industry there is a special article devoted to them.
WAYS SATELLITE TV IS SUPERIOR TO CABLE
FURTHER EXPLANATION
The last item might need a little more explanation for those not
familiar with satellite TV. For example, when a satellite
customer subscribes to HBO, he/she is actually subscribing to HBO
The WorksTM. There are five HBO channels included.
These areHBO East, HBO West, HBO Plus East, HBO Plus West, and HBO
Signature.
HOW CABLE COMPARES
In the metropolitan area where NELPI Electronics is based, the
Jackson, Mississippi area, cable offers only one feed of
each. If you subscribe to HBO you get only the HBO East feed.
Showtime, Cinemax and all the basic cable channels are similar.
WAYS CABLE TV IS BETTER THAN SATELLITE TV
* * * *
Copyright 7-15-1999 by Neil L. Pipkin. All rights
reserved.
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