Dateline Asia
2010: Satellite Odyssey II?
A "crystal ball" view of satellite- delivered multimedia in the new millennium
by Mark Long
Editor's Note: First published in late 1997, the predictions that appeared in my article 2001: A Satellite Odyssey did not live up to the ambitious schedule that had previously been announced by various satellite operators during the late 1990s. However, the game is not yet over.
The first Spaceway multimedia satellite will finally be ready to roll in late 2003. So perhaps I will have better luck by lifting the title page from another Arthur C. Clarke offering and retitle this 2010: A Satellite Odyssey II. See my Ka-band satellie Technology Report for the latest news on the personal multimedia aspects that HNS has in mind for its next-generation Ka-band Broadband Satellite Technology
January 1, 2001. Chiang Mai, Thailand. My last night in the Twentieth Century started in the midst of a rowdy party at Chiang Mai's effervescent Bubble Disco and ended on a nearby mountain summit where I joined thousands of other celebrants to watch the "official" dawn of the new millennium, at least according to the Gregorian calendar. I have it all on digital video tape too, from the chanting monks in their flowing saffron robes, to the dancing hill tribe people and awe-struck tourists who were treated to a dazzling sunrise that lit the golden spires of Chiang Mai's mountain-top temple of Doi Sutep. Now that I'm back home, I'll need to transfer today's video onto my computer system.
Like most people who work at home these days, I have a "living office" instead of separate living and office rooms. Why duplicate video, stereo audio, and Internet delivery systems in both the office and the living room when a single streamlined system can do the job?
In the 21st Century, the distinction between satellite TV receivers and personal computers has all but disappeared. The on-going global switch from telephone modem to satellite dish for data downloads off the World Wide Web is making the Internet a viable home entertainment medium. The expansion slots in my new Pentium IV computer are filled with MPEG video, satellite tuner, and smart card reader boards for receiving more than 500 digital DTH channels from various satellites. I can also download Web sites at dizzying speeds and even access pay per view video programs directly from my favorite satellite-based Internet server. Best of all, I can view everything on a new high definition digital TV monitor which serves as the heart of my integrated work/play environment.
All of this was made possible by the global telecom deregulation that occurred at the end of the Twentieth Century. Several of the newly privatized national telcos, as well as their multinational competitors, now offer high-speed satellite access to the Internet with data downloads at dizzying speeds that are thousands of times faster than what the average telephone modem link used to deliver. I still shudder when I recall the days when my typical Internet download made a Bangkok traffic jam look like the Indianapolis 500!
In light of the region's limited ground-based infrastructure, it was inevitable that certain Asian countries with protective media access policies would eventually be forced to allow individuals to connect their computers to satellite dishes. Each nation's new generation of cyber-cops continues to control the satellites, of course, so that no unwanted visitors get through the front door.
Digital Convergence
In case you've been marooned on a desert island for the past year, let me be the first to tell you that on January 1, 2000, a group of university students in Seoul, Korea founded the Virtual Channel. An endowment from a couple of the Ka-band satellite operators made it possible for "Virtual [C]" to establish an Internet server onto which anyone can now upload their own digital TV programs. If you have a video camcorder and an Internet/MPEG capable multimedia computer system you too can become a satellite TV programmer!"Asia's Weirdest Home Videos" was the first Virtual [C] program to attain widespread popularity. More recently, "Eyewitless News" has been in vogue. Amateur videographers now carry their digital pocket camcorders virtually everywhere in the hope that they will encounter something zany that's also newsworthy so they can get their footage aired on both programs. Several cable TV operators even carry Virtual [C] programming these days. They use satellite dishes to download program fare off the Internet and then play out selections according to their own scheduling needs.
If the region's new Ka-band satellite operators have their way, the distinction between a digital DTH program bouquet and a satellite-based Internet download may soon be history. Why just last month, Hughes moved one of its new Ka-band Spaceway satellites to an orbital assignment over the Andaman Sea. The hot news is that for a limited promotional period, Hughes is providing dirt cheap satellite uplink time. The new Ka-band personal earth station (PES) that I bought over the Christmas holidays transmits as well as receives satellite signals. It may have been a bit dear at US$ 4,000, but then again I paid more than that for my first satellite TV system back in 1981.
Spaceway is just one of the many new Ka-band satellites which will soon be offering "bandwidth on demand" services, which means that I only have to pay for the satellite capacity that I use and the amount of time that I actually use it. The Spaceway satellite footprint produces a network of cellular beams, one of which covers Chiang Mai province quite nicely. To uplink my video I merely have to tell the computer to find an open Spaceway transponder frequency and command the satellite to route my program contribution to the Virtual [C] via Spaceway's Seoul, Korea downlink spot beam. My new video is on its way at the touch of the keyboard. Now all we need to do is make the popcorn, kick back and enjoy. ###
Waking Up to the Multimedia Revolution
If the speculations outlined above seem a bit farfetched, they shouldn't. The technologies and trends needed to make this crystal ball vision of the future a reality are already present and accounted for. Of course not every technological wonder is an instantaneous hit among consumers: witness the long time lag between the initial development of HDTV in the mid-1980s and its formal adoption by the International Telecommunication Union in 1997. The Internet's ever-increasing demand for additional bandwidth, however, coupled with Asia's inadequate landline infrastructure, appear to make the marriage of Internet and satellite technologies as close to a sure thing as I can imagine. In Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, or even a sprawling metropolis like Bangkok, fiber-optic cable is one answer to the Internet's voracious appetite for bandwidth. For those of us who live outside the region's major metropolitan areas, however, satellites are the only feasible solution on the horizon.In today's operating environment, it is as if every local Internet service provider (ISP) is trying to drink the entire Mekong River through a soda straw. Satellites are the perfect choice for the implementation of asymmetrical communications networks where the receiving site uploads information requests at low data rates using a telephone line and the transmit site downloads the requested information to a PC at a very high data rate.
Satellite-based Internet servers have been operating in the USA and Europe for a while already. In September of 1997, Zak-Net inaugurated a regional C-band Internet using the AsiaSat 2 satellite. what's more, DirecTV Japan expects to launch its high-speed "DirecPC" Internet service on the new Superbird C satellite beginning this December. The new DirecPC service for Japan will offer three different types of service: a periodic, on-demand service; a real-time multimedia data pipe delivering MPEG-based video programs; and a high-speed Turbot Internet/Intranet service for business use. DirecPC customers will be able to receive the new service throughout Japan using antennas ranging from 45 to 60cm in diameter.
The new "World-wide Satellite Web" coming our way can even send TV programs directly to the computer desktop or "living office." Today's international pay-TV programmers use automated video servers to format their program line-up at the satellite uplink. These servers consist of bar-coded tape libraries and automated cart machines that insert the tapes in the correct order and at the proper time. In the 21st Century, the Internet will also be a video server, but one which the viewer rather than the programmer controls.
Turn On, Plug In and Play Out
Zak-Net, DirecPC and many of the other Internet service providers coming soon to a satellite near you intend to build their satellite data receivers onto PC cards that can plug into the expansion ports on any IBM PC compatible computer system. The installation is similar in all respects to that of a regular satellite TV receiving system, except that instead of connecting the coaxial cable from the outdoor dish and LNB to a stand-alone receiver, the cable connects to the back of the computer terminal. In some cases, however, the operators of certain national satellite systems will require that the Internet interface be built into the nationally approved digital IRD. This will allow restrictions to be placed on access to the World-wide Web and offer indigenous DTH operators a measure of protection from satellite-based Internet video servers.Several new satellite TV products are already targeting the computer's "plug and play" operating environment. Germany's Galaxis currently offers a complete satellite TV receiver on a PC card, which plugs into a computer expansion slot. Called the Sat-Surfer PCI, the new product displays PAL or SECAM satellite TV signals in an enhanced resolution, 800 x 600 pixel format that is superior to what most conventional TV sets currently deliver. Sat-Surfer can also display teletext from satellite TV sources or even capture individual frames of video from a satellite TV program so that they can be printed at leisure. Meanwhile, Hitachi and Pace Microsystems have announced plans to jointly develop an MPEG-2, DVB-compliant PC card which will allow computer operators to download video, audio and data from a wide variety of sources.
I Want My DTV
In the Summer of 1997, the ITU formally defined a new universal digital TV standard which combines features from separate digital HDTV standards which America's Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) and Europe's DVB Group have already adopted. The result is a single compatible system that will soon be implemented by TV set manufacturers worldwide to produce wide screen TV pictures with a resolution equal to, or even exceeding, the clarity of 35mm film. The new standard also will offer sixteen sound channels for multilingual broadcasting and support a variety of picture formats including a wide-screen display comprised of 1080 x 1920 pixels.The new all-digital TV sets are slated to appear in the marketplace before the end of next year, when digital terrestrial TV is scheduled to begin in Europe and the USA. Leading TV set manufacturers already have agreed on a common interface that will allow consumers to connect their new digital TV sets to terrestrial, cable and satellite signals. The new digital TV sets also will support a wide range of Conditional Access (CA) systems and software applications. Best of all, there will be no proprietary designs to prevent the new digital TV sets from interacting with any of the available digital program streams. With its high-resolution video monitor, CD player, and stereo sound system, today's multimedia computer system has become a state of the art home entertainment system. Once the digital TV sets begin arriving next year, there should be little incentive for individuals working at home to duplicate in the living room what they already have in their home office. Hence my earlier coinage of the term "living office" to describe the integrated work/play environment in the year 2001.
Asia's Communications Satellite Explosion
One important economic limitation to downloading TV programs off the Internet is the current high cost of satellite capacity. At today's prices, a C-band satellite transponder can be leased for as low as 1.5 million U.S. dollars per year. This translates into a transponder cost of about US$ 170 per hour. A single wide-band (54 MHz or greater) satellite transponder could theoretically carry approximately thirty simultaneous movie transmissions at 1.28 Megabits/sec. which translates into a raw cost of $8.5 per 90 minute download. With royalty payments, overhead and profit factored in, the cost of delivering pay TV movies on demand over an Internet/Satellite link is quite high in comparison to other delivery options. But that's about to change.The good news is that transponder pricing should soon come down dramatically. Between now and the year 2001, more than thirty new geostationary satellites will be launched to cover the Asia/Pacific region. The total number of available C-band transponders in the region will grow by over 33 percent, while the number of available Ku-band transponders will increase by a staggering 85 percent.By the year 2001, the region's available satellite capacity will be expanding at a rate that far surpasses the projected economic growth for most nations of the region. The transformation of the Asia/Pacific from a seller's to a buyer's market will come about through the intense competition for hard western currencies as the region's satellite system operators scramble to compensate for lower than expected growth in their local markets.
New spacecraft construction technologies are also helping to lower the cost of satellite capacity. Given the high reliability of today's electronic circuitry, a communication satellite's life in orbit is predominantly a function of the amount of on-board station keeping fuel which it carries into space. Until now, every communication satellite has had to carry tanks filled with a heavy hydrazine gas that is used for spacecraft station keeping while in orbit.
Propulsion systems using new xenon ion technology, however, use the impulses generated by pairs of thrusters that eject electrically charged particles at a speed of 30 kilometers per second or nearly ten times the velocity of conventional hydrazine thrusters. Fuel weight can therefore be reduced by up to 90 percent, which gives manufacturers several attractive options: launching a lighter spacecraft at a lower cost; installing a more complex, heavier communications payload which can lower the cost per transponder; extending the mission lifetime of the spacecraft; or any combination of these options.
Above: illustration courtesy of Hughes Space and Communications Group
A $300 million investment typically was required in the mid-1990s to put a twenty-four transponder C-band satellite into geostationary orbit for a ten year mission lifetime. By 2001, a $300 million investment will be able to produce a thirty-six transponder satellite which achieves a mission lifetime of fifteen years.
Multi-Media Satellites
In December of 1996, PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara of Indonesia contracted with Space Systems/Loral to build a high-powered multimedia satellite and deliver it to orbit at either 134 degrees east or 118 degrees east in early 1999. The agreement also calls for the construction of long lead parts for a second spacecraft as well as options for the constructions of five additional satellites.PT Pasifik's M2A satellite, the most powerful C-band spacecraft ever, will generate more than 11 kilowatts of electrical power and transmit more than 4 kilowatts of radiated power. The spacecraft will have the ability to operate 54 transponders in the standard C-band, extended C-band and the X-band. M2A will also be the first C-band satellite to provide direct broadcast services to small terminals with apertures comparable to what are currently used for reception of Ku-band DTH services.
The M2A spacecraft will provide a total of seven shaped spot beams and one regional beam. The high power, the frequencies selected and the broad coverage of the satellite will enable customers to use small, inexpensive terminals to access video, audio, Internet content, VSAT data services and telephony and even have the option of transmitting as well as receiving data and voice signals. With an approximate project cost of $350 million, the 54 transponder M2A satellite is on track to deliver more "bang per buck" over its twelve year mission lifetime than any other satellite to date: a raw transponder cost of only $ 540 thousand per year.
The World Above 18 Gigahertz
Several international satellite operators have already announced their plans to begin serving the Asia/Pacific region through a new series of Ka-band satellites operating in the 19.2 to 20.2 Gigahertz frequency range. A single geostationary Ka-band satellite will be able to simultaneous reuse the available Ka-band frequency spectrum dozens of times by dividing the earth into a honeycomb of highly focused spot beams, each no more than 400 miles in diameter. An on-board processor will allow users to automatically route their transmissions between any two spot beams or retransmit within the same beam.A single Ka-band Spaceway satellite will be able to form a virtual Internet in the sky by simultaneously carrying up to 11,520 duplex circuits operating at a data rate of 384 kilobit/sec. Hughes estimates that a single Ka-band satellite will be able to support hundreds of thousands of subscribers because most subscribers will only need access on an occasional-use basis. What's more, consumers will be able to directly uplink as well as downlink Ka-band satellite signals. Because Ka-band satellites use super high frequencies, the beam width produced by each personal uplink antenna will be so narrow that the interference problems which plague satellites operating in the lower satellite frequency bands will be almost non-existent, even when small dishes are used down on the ground.
Putting the uplink under the personal control of each subscriber also helps to cut down on operational costs; the subscriber does not have to pay to send the signal to an uplink or bear the cost of supporting the facility. If you thought that the Ka-band represented the new satellite frontier you'd better hold onto your hat. U.S. based PanAmSat recently filed an application with the FCC to construct, launch and operate a series of twelve V-band geostationary satellites downlinking in the 40 Gigahertz frequency spectrum. At least one of these new V-band satellites is slated to provide service in the Asia/Pacific region. To reach fruition, all the technological wonders described above will ultimately depend on what the regulatory environment is like in the year 2001. Fortunately deregulation is THE "buzz word" for the global telecom industry this year. Recent international agreements guarantee that previously isolated national markets throughout the Asia/Pacific region and elsewhere will be much more open by the early 21st Century.
Information Resources for the New Millennium
Back in 1994, I realized that I needed to make a dramatic change in the way that I provided technical information to my readers if I was going to retain a competitive edge in the 21st Century. With today's information overload, technical almanacs, annuals, encyclopaedias and other printed reference materials struggle to keep pace with the latest changes and are inevitably out of date the day they roll of the presses. The question in my mind was how to create a dynamic publication that could be accessed by virtually everyone and easily updated. The first time that I sat down to use an Internet browser I knew that I had found the answer. The HTML software used to create web pages is a universal language that bridges the gaps between otherwise mutually incompatible computer systems. Moreover, web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator are freely available, either in trial versions that can be downloaded off the worldwide web or on diskettes that are given away by the major computer magazines. Even better, you don't need an Internet connection to use an HTML based software product. You can store an HTML program on your computer's hard disk, browse its contents at your leisure, and use the available hyper links to quickly track down the information you need.Best of all, you can download the latest information updates from the Internet while sipping coffee at your local cyber cafe. The Asia/Pacific Satellites on Disk Library is the first in a new series of HTML-based satellite technology software resources that I am developing for satellite TV enthusiasts and professionals worldwide. Further information on this product appears elsewhere in this issue of SatFACTS. Moreover, a demo version of this exciting new product is now available at my web site at http://www.mlesat.com. Through the conversion of Internet and satellite technologies, users of this information resource will be able to instantaneously download the information that they need to stay abreast with the rapid fire changes that are slated to take place between now and dawn of the new millennium.
