Thrane & Thrane have launched the new Sailor 90 Satellite TV World, an upgraded version of its satellite TV antenna designed to provide satellite TV reception for vessels sailing globally without the need for reconfiguration or manual intervention.
"A key challenge for maritime satellite TV has always been the differing signal and polarisation types used around the world," explains Casper Jensen, VP Maritime Business Unit, Thrane & Thrane. "The various signals require different hardware and software, and the costs associated with this mean that generally, vessels sailing globally have not provided satellite TV for crew welfare purposes."
Ku-band satellite TV transmits in either circular polarisation or linear polarisation. Circular polarisation is mainly used in the USA, parts of Central and South America and parts of Asia. Linear polarisation is the standard in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. As the two polarisation forms are incompatible, an antenna has to be manually configured by substituting the feedhorn or LNB to receive either one or the other.
The new automatic depolarisor developed for the Sailor 90 allows automatic switching between polarisations in a matter of seconds. There is no loss of bandwidth or signal strength, or requirement to change parts, and the system does not use extra motors or actuators. The patent-pending solution is fully automatic and users do not need to know whether the desired satellite is linear or circular because this information is already in the antenna's satellite library.
Another critical challenge that the Sailor 90 overcomes is the use of different broadcast standards in different regions. DVB-S and DVB-S2 are used in most parts of the world, but there are regions where alternative standards such as ATSC and ISDB are used. The Sailor 90 has a built-in DVB-S2 decoder so all SD and HD programming can be viewed. However, the new 'Adjacent Lock Function' enables the viewing of content from satellites using alternative broadcast standards. It enables the antenna to lock on to an adjacent DVB-S or DVB-S2 satellite and then turn 'X' degrees to receive a signal from the non DVB-S or DVB-S2 satellite, because it knows how the two satellites are placed relative to each other. This function essentially makes the antenna independent of broadcast standards and is a key factor for a global satellite TV solution.
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