By Dennis Jackson

Satellite TV was first launched in the market in the early 1960s. Since then it has undergone numerous alterations. The usage of the satellite TV has risen in popularity since the launch of the "Early Bird" which is the first commercial satellite TV. It was plagued with poor quality of the picture unlike the clear delivery that is experienced today's satellite television transmitted straight to the consumer's home.

The satellite TV's functioning depends on communication from three components; the global communication satellite, the satellite dish and a set-top-box. Communication is by means of signals transmitted by an elliptical geostationary orbit that is positioned 37,000 km from the earth's surface.

The cycle of the satellite TV communication is a two part process. First, an uplink station sends powerful signals to the satellite geostationary orbit via a dish network antenna. The surface of the uplink station dish is large because this increases the preciseness of transmissions to the orbiting stations. After this, the transponder relays signals back to earth which are then seen in the satellite TV.

Due to the evolving technologies and new ideas, the quality of satellite TV reception has tremendously improved over the years. Initially, the images were of low quality and were largely affected by atmospheric conditions. As newer technology remedies were invented, there came such equipments as parabolic receiving dishes which were a solution to weak satellite signals. Earlier, the sound was not in fine resonance with the images. However, later on satellite TV experts came up with low noise amplifier to tune in the sound-image accompaniment.

As an added bonus, the costs of installation and the costs of the satellite TV equipment has also gone down thereby making it more accessible. This has been made possible by cheaper alternatives that have been introduced on a technological basis. A good example is the move from C-Band systems to the modern satellite TV systems which allowed for cheaper connectivity to the UHF TVs. Viewers can also watch more than one channel via the same connection line. This translated to mass production of satellite equipment and commercial connections.

As the digital quality technology has gained publicity, the satellite TV has also gone digital. This is a great improvement as compared to the old PAL and NTSC technologies. These improvements have made many people to subscribe to the satellite TV systems, therefore moving always from the traditional analog TVs. As opposed to those days when people thought that those who had satellite TV were rich, these days all people from all walks of life can have the connection as well.

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