What is this all about?
Visualise a cable headend in its existing form with a control room and cables exiting in various directions to service the last mile operators in the territory. Then visualize the same headend, but instead of cables, it works wirelessly …. And instead of being on the ground, the signals are received by the LCOs from satellite.
That is the HITS service; well almost.
Essentially, all of the signals of say 200 television channels are received from the various satellites at a single location called the Control Center. This also doubles up as an uplink site.
These channels are then compressed and uplinked to a single selected satellite on C-Band, to be downlinked across the footprint area.
The cable operator then receives these signals using a C-Band dish antenna, and retransmits the same through his cable network. Only difference is, the cable operator rebroadcasts the signals in their entirety, as scrambled signals without any alterations or additions.
Each subscriber is provided with a set-top box, which then decodes the channels for viewing in the subscriber home.
While this may not make much of a difference to subscribers in the Metro cities, it will lead to an explosion of availability of channels in the smaller areas, where it was too expensive for small networks to provide all of the channels to their subscribers.
Now, suddenly, all of the small cable networks will be able to offer over 200 television channels to their subscribers…. For a cost of course.
It’s the equivalent of a DTH service for cable operators.
Which incidentally also seems to be one of the thoughts of the powers in I&B corridors. There was a move to permit cable networks to receive signals from the DTH services and retransmit these to their subscribers, with the activation-deactivation being in the hands of the DTH provider. Thankfully these were shot down amidst protests from several of the players, including some of the DTH platforms themselves.
The HITS service will be able to provide multiple channels to networks all over the footprint area without having to incur the high costs of digital CATV headends in each location. The digitally compressed signals are passed thru straight to the subscriber home and directly to the set-top box, thus enabling the HITS platform to exercise direct control over the viewers.
The local cable operator provides the services for billing, collections and as an interface between the HITS service and the consumer.
Hits Block Diagram
BANE or BOON?
There are two schools of thought on how beneficial this will be. Of course a lot depends on who you talk to.
One opinion is that the subscribers will benefit with the increase of channels, as well as digital television services – a quantum leap in picture quality. Also, the local operator will benefit from the volumes of channels available, thus being ale to retain customers and, in fact, increase numbers of subscribers.
Another opinion is that the LCO will lose his identity, will be relegated to being merely a bill collector and local technician in case of delivery problems.
Whatever the viewpoint, the universal opinion is that the HITS services will provide for radical change in the way the industry functions.
From a fragmented, unorganized, widely dispersed number of networks, all of the small operators will be brought into the fold of a professionally operated service, grouped together under a single brand and presenting a more ‘industry’ image.
It remains to be seen how the networks owned by undesirable elements will react to this move. They may not take too readily to it, as it increases accountability and transparency in financial transactions pertaining to subscription collections. It is widely accepted that the theft of signals as well as of Taxes collected will diminish rapidly.
TECHNOLOGY & PLAYERS
While earlier platforms had envisaged the use of MPEG 2 compression technology, it is now almost certain that any serious player will use MPEG 4 compression, thus enabling them to double the number of channels being offered from a single transponder. This will reduce operating costs by almost half. While the costs of MPEG 4 STBs may be higher, it is a one-time cost, and will be reduced drastically with the huge numbers required.
The newer DTH players using this technology are faced with the same prospects and have managed to bring down STB costs for MPEG 4 satellite decoders to less than US$60 per unit. That works out to a cost of less than Rs.2400/- per box, comparable to the MPEG 2 STBs being used on digital CATV headends today.
There are several players in the fray.
Siticable, now rechristened Wire & Wireless India Limited (WWIL) was one of the first to publicise their plans two years back. InCableNet has also made its intentions clear and Hathways will almost certainly follow suit.
Others in the fray seem to include YOU Telecom (formerly BG), Videocon, GE-Motorola, and a few of the regional MSOs from various parts of the country.
The easy availability of transmodulators has also made it cheaper to offer upto 40 free-to-air channels for a cost of less than Rs.1 lakh. Though it remains to be seen how many business models will want to scramble all channels and how many of them will keep some of the channels as FTA.
….and as is usual … the first group to laugh all the way to the bank, will be the government, with the increased declared connectivity and collections from Service Tax and Entertainment Tax. n
Visualise a cable headend in its existing form with a control room and cables exiting in various directions to service the last mile operators in the territory. Then visualize the same headend, but instead of cables, it works wirelessly …. And instead of being on the ground, the signals are received by the LCOs from satellite.
That is the HITS service; well almost.
Essentially, all of the signals of say 200 television channels are received from the various satellites at a single location called the Control Center. This also doubles up as an uplink site.
These channels are then compressed and uplinked to a single selected satellite on C-Band, to be downlinked across the footprint area.
The cable operator then receives these signals using a C-Band dish antenna, and retransmits the same through his cable network. Only difference is, the cable operator rebroadcasts the signals in their entirety, as scrambled signals without any alterations or additions.
Each subscriber is provided with a set-top box, which then decodes the channels for viewing in the subscriber home.
While this may not make much of a difference to subscribers in the Metro cities, it will lead to an explosion of availability of channels in the smaller areas, where it was too expensive for small networks to provide all of the channels to their subscribers.
Now, suddenly, all of the small cable networks will be able to offer over 200 television channels to their subscribers…. For a cost of course.
It’s the equivalent of a DTH service for cable operators.
Which incidentally also seems to be one of the thoughts of the powers in I&B corridors. There was a move to permit cable networks to receive signals from the DTH services and retransmit these to their subscribers, with the activation-deactivation being in the hands of the DTH provider. Thankfully these were shot down amidst protests from several of the players, including some of the DTH platforms themselves.
The HITS service will be able to provide multiple channels to networks all over the footprint area without having to incur the high costs of digital CATV headends in each location. The digitally compressed signals are passed thru straight to the subscriber home and directly to the set-top box, thus enabling the HITS platform to exercise direct control over the viewers.
The local cable operator provides the services for billing, collections and as an interface between the HITS service and the consumer.
Hits Block Diagram
BANE or BOON?
There are two schools of thought on how beneficial this will be. Of course a lot depends on who you talk to.
One opinion is that the subscribers will benefit with the increase of channels, as well as digital television services – a quantum leap in picture quality. Also, the local operator will benefit from the volumes of channels available, thus being ale to retain customers and, in fact, increase numbers of subscribers.
Another opinion is that the LCO will lose his identity, will be relegated to being merely a bill collector and local technician in case of delivery problems.
Whatever the viewpoint, the universal opinion is that the HITS services will provide for radical change in the way the industry functions.
From a fragmented, unorganized, widely dispersed number of networks, all of the small operators will be brought into the fold of a professionally operated service, grouped together under a single brand and presenting a more ‘industry’ image.
It remains to be seen how the networks owned by undesirable elements will react to this move. They may not take too readily to it, as it increases accountability and transparency in financial transactions pertaining to subscription collections. It is widely accepted that the theft of signals as well as of Taxes collected will diminish rapidly.
TECHNOLOGY & PLAYERS
While earlier platforms had envisaged the use of MPEG 2 compression technology, it is now almost certain that any serious player will use MPEG 4 compression, thus enabling them to double the number of channels being offered from a single transponder. This will reduce operating costs by almost half. While the costs of MPEG 4 STBs may be higher, it is a one-time cost, and will be reduced drastically with the huge numbers required.
The newer DTH players using this technology are faced with the same prospects and have managed to bring down STB costs for MPEG 4 satellite decoders to less than US$60 per unit. That works out to a cost of less than Rs.2400/- per box, comparable to the MPEG 2 STBs being used on digital CATV headends today.
There are several players in the fray.
Siticable, now rechristened Wire & Wireless India Limited (WWIL) was one of the first to publicise their plans two years back. InCableNet has also made its intentions clear and Hathways will almost certainly follow suit.
Others in the fray seem to include YOU Telecom (formerly BG), Videocon, GE-Motorola, and a few of the regional MSOs from various parts of the country.
The easy availability of transmodulators has also made it cheaper to offer upto 40 free-to-air channels for a cost of less than Rs.1 lakh. Though it remains to be seen how many business models will want to scramble all channels and how many of them will keep some of the channels as FTA.
….and as is usual … the first group to laugh all the way to the bank, will be the government, with the increased declared connectivity and collections from Service Tax and Entertainment Tax. n
