THE MEASAT SATELLITE SYSTEM
| C-band Coverage Map | C-band Frequency Plan |
| Ku-band Coverage Maps
| Ku-band Frequency Plan |
Licensed by the government under the Malaysian Broadcasting Act of 1988 to provide broadcasting services, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd has been exclusively authorised to provide Direct To Home (DTH) satellite broadcast services in Malaysia marketed under the brand name ASTRO: the All Asia Television & Radio Company. ASTRO currently offers twenty television and ten radio channels to Malaysian subscribers. Future plans call for the new digital DTH service to include a wide range of interactive applications such as impulse pay per view, distance learning, home shopping, tele banking and software downloading. What's more, ASTRO also intends to begin providing digital DTH services in India and the Philippines starting in 1997.
MEASAT's All Asia Broadcast Centre (ABC)
The company's All Asia Broadcast Centre (ABC), which is located on a 29 acre site in Buki
Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, has a total floor area of 250,000 square feet, making it one of the
largest all digital broadcast and production complexes in the world. Once completed, the
ABC will serve as a regional broadcasting centre with the ability to send and receive
broadcast signals to and from the East Asian region.
In October of 1996, I had the opportunity to visit MEASAT's All Asia Broadcast Centre while it was still under construction. Two new Ku band uplink antennas for MEASAT 2 were built and raised during my week long visit. These mammoth 13 meter antennas were installed next to the operational units for MEASAT 1. Five smaller C band receive only antennas also were on site to receive program feeds from PAS 2, Palapa C2, and other regional satellites. Eventually, the facility will have eleven receive only C-band antennas for downlinking the various satellite TV programs that are part of the ASTRO DTH programming line-up.
Inside the ABC, a labyrinth of corridors links the various departments needed to make MEASAT Broadcast a complete satellite broadcasting facility. The fully automated Central Technical Facilities (CTF) selects and plays video tapes from MEASAT's 60,000 tape library using video cart machines and a large disc-based server system. Here the ASTRO program schedules are developed, allowing for programming, promotional clips and commercials to be broadcast in the proper sequence.
The Master Control Rooms continuously monitor the various broadcast systems to ensure that a high level of quality is maintained. Each MEASAT satellite has a dedicated Master Control Room that works closely with the MEASAT Satellite Control Centre (MSCC) in Pulau Langkawi. Seven TV Production Studios also are on site. These are used for the in house production of news, entertainment, and variety programs. Also available: a 6,000 square foot studio with the capacity to accommodate an audience of 200 people, as well as facilities for set and lighting design, make up and wardrobe.
The ABC's seventeen TV Post Production Studios support the editing, sub-titling and censorship requirements imposed by the Malaysian government. All downlinked satellite signals are time delayed using digital video server technology to allow preview, censorship editing, replacement of commercials, and subtitling into the four main languages of the region: Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin and Tamil. Four TV Broadcast Audio Dubbing suites also are available to generate multi-lingual audio tracks for selected TV programs.
The Subscriber Management department handles billing, payment, inquiries, and order fulfilment for Malaysian subscribers. Local subscriber management systems will be developed for India, Philippines and other countries eventually to be reached by the MEASAT Broadcast System. These customised systems will be networked into the main database at the ABC.
The ABC's Radio Facilities employ all digital scheduling systems, enabling minimal operator handling and smooth presentation. Studio capacity allows for live broadcasts, or the prerecording of current affairs, talk shows and news programs. There are twenty Radio Facility studios on site: nine for live broadcast, four for news reading, and seven audio production, editing and transfer suites. The ABC also houses a complete Technical Training Facility that provides regular sessions for its personnel covering satellite, broadcasting, and other related technologies.
An MPEG 2 Compliant System
MEASAT Broadcast is using an MPEG 2 digital video compression system that conforms to the
parameters adopted by Europe's Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) group. The DVB standards,
which were first proposed to govern the digital transmission of TV signals in Europe, have
since been adopted by numerous other broadcast entities worldwide, including MEASAT. The
DVB standard sets the basic parameters for digital TV transmissions for satellite, cable
and terrestrial TV broadcasters. DVB compliant satellite transmissions multiplex numerous
video, audio and data signals into a single QPSK (quaternary phase shift keying) modulated
data stream transmitting at a minimum rate of 27 Megasymbols per second (Msym/s) or 55
Megabits per second (Mb/s) when QPSK modulating at 2 bits per symbol is used. After
subtracting the bits required by the Reed Solomon and convolutional Forward Error
Correction (FEC) algorithms, 38.015 Mb/s remain available to carry the video, audio and
data information. MEASAT Broadcast presently transmits a total of eighteen video services
at a data rate of 4.02 Mb/s, as well as two sports services at a higher rate of 6 Mb/s.
Audio services are relayed at 192 kb/s using DVB's modified form of MUSICAM. Within the
MPEG 2 DVB compression system, all data is multiplexed into packets, with each packet
composed of a 1 byte header and a 187 byte message.
DVB has specified a new Service Information and Teletext standard which is used by each DVB compliant broadcaster to transmit their technical system parameters, such as satellite transmission frequencies, channel allocations and modulation parameters, to each associated receiver/decoder. The value of this feature is that any changes to the configuration of a programmer's system remain transparent to the end user. The programmer can reconfigure the software inside each receiver/decoder automatically.
The Service Information and Teletext standard also sets the parameters for the transmission of electronic program guides such as the one used by the MEASAT Broadcast System. These electronic program guides provide a wide variety of information, including service provider and channel name; program name, type, and description; alternate channel program lists; and forthcoming channel program information. The one thing that DVB does not standardise is how the MPEG 2 data stream is encoded. The term MPEG 2 DVB compliant, when applied to satellite receiver/decoders, therefore does NOT indicate compatibility between different satellite programmers using the DVB transmission standard.
A major benefit of the DVB standard is that satellite signals can be seamlessly converted by DVB compliant cable TV systems without modifying the MPEG 2 data stream. Satellite signals are merely demodulated at the cable head end and then remodulated for cable distribution using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), so that the bandwidth of the multiplexed signal is reduced to comply with the narrower bandwidth constraints of cable TV systems.
Receiving System
Hardware
MEASAT Broadcast has selected
Phillips to be the supplier of DTH receiving systems. The Phillips INS 610 integrated
receiver/decoder (IRD) supports all Pay TV structures such as subscription TV, near video
on demand, pay per view, and impulse pay per view (IPPV). The IRDs utilise a smart card
supported by the CryptoWorks conditional access system. To facilitate MEASAT's future IPPV
plans, the IRD can be equipped with an integrated telephone modem to automatically report
pay TV use. Programs can be either selected by direct channel number input via the IRD's
remote control or from an on-screen electronic program guide. The IRD supports both a
conventional TV aspect (picture width to picture height) radio of 4:3 as well as 16:9 for
selected MEASAT Broadcast programs that are transmitted in a wider cinemascopic format.
A menu-based user interface supports initial system set up, where on screen 'fuel gauge' bars indicate relative signal strength and bit error rate. A signal strength audio tone also is generated so that adjustments can be made to the dish without needing to look at the TV screen to ascertain signal level. IRD outputs include: RF modulator, video, stereo audio, and a nine pin RS 232 data port for interfacing to a PC for diagnostics purposes or to support future data services. No on screen diagnostics are supplied by this IRD.
The outdoor portion of the system consists of a 60 or 85cm (depending on location within the footprint) offset fed dish with a gain of 36.1 dBi (or 38.9 dBi in the case of the 85cm dish) and 70 percent efficiency, a matching feedhorn and Ku band LNB. The dish size calculated to provide 99.7% service availability in one of the highest rain rate regions in the world.
At the All Asia Broadcast Centre, the transmission power of the 13 meter uplink antennas can be boosted to 2.2 kW, its full capacity, during a thunderstorm in order to overcome potential rainfade on the uplink side. The power required on a clear day is only 12 watts or just over 0.5 percent of the available capacity.
Measat 1 C-band Downlink Coverage Map
Measat 1 C-band Transponder Frequency Plan
The MEASAT
Satellites
On C band, MEASAT 1 has the
ability to transmit into a medium powered coverage beam that stretches from coastal China
to Indonesia and from Myanmar to the Philippines. The satellite carries a total of twelve
C band transponders, each with a bandwidth of 36 MHz. To date, the only video service
available on C band has been a BMAC encrypted horse racing/gambling channel which
primarily airs on the weekends. The Malaysian TV networks presently carried on Palapa C2
have contracts with the Indonesian satellite operator which run through the end of next
year. Following the expiration of these contracts, the Malaysian broadcasters are expected
to migrate over the MEASAT satellite system.
Measat 1 Ku-band Uplink and Downlink Coverage Maps
The high powered (112 watt) Ku band spot beams of the MEASAT 1 satellite are over Malaysia and other countries in the South and East Asia region, including India and the Philippines. With the recent successful launch of MEASAT 2 (148 degrees east longitude) and planned launch of MEASAT 3 (to collocate with MEASAT 1), additional areas within the region will also be covered, including Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Taiwan and Eastern Australia.
MEASAT-2 carries six C band transponders with a bandwidth of 72 MHz and nine Ku band transponders with a bandwidth of 50 MHz. On Ku band, MEASAT 2 will have the ability to duplicate the coverage of MEASAT 1 as well as switch selected transponders to additional spot beams covering: the Philippines; Taiwan; Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; Eastern Australia; and the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.
Measat 1 Ku-band Transponder Frequency Plan
MEASAT 3 is presently in the final design stage and is tentatively scheduled for launch in early 1998 to 91.5 degrees east longitude, where it will be collocated with MEASAT 1.
Last Updated: 08/11/00