Local TV stations remote telecast

[RT-Cat]

We all are aware of our TV stations and their remote trucks reporting the news. One time I was able to talk for a short time with one of the workers at one of these trucks. He made the statement it was Mpeg2 they were using but would not mention sats, xponders, SR, etc.
I was wondering if these stations are licensed to operate on certain satellites, certain frequencies that a person could find out thru the freedon of information act or do they use so many, you would never be able to find them when in use?
The reason is watching them setup and get the reporter all primped up just before they go on is sometimes a real giggle.

RT.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Fixed station uplinkers are usually assigned a specific frequency for permanent full time or occasional use.

Outside of the usual network backhaul feed locations, ENG, "occasional use" and mobile uplink satellite time is booked through a coordinator / broker. You call the broker and provide the sat preference / bandwidth / power and the coordinator books the segment. Often these slots are booked back to back so you will see a feed terminate during the middle of the feed. Often you will see an assistant frantically negotiating to extend a slot for a production or live event that goes long.

It is not unusual to see a specific truck or network team consistently book the same sat and transponder. This makes it easy and quick for the team to establish the backhaul link to the studio.

 

[Anole]

Around here, the remote trucks crank up a helical antenna (if I remember rightly) around 20 feet in the air, and shoot to the mountain top where all the TV broadcast antennas serve the area.
From there, it's relayed via microwave down to the studio, mixed with the outgoing news, and then sent back up to the mountain for you and I to see.

There frequencies aren't secret, but they're line of sight between the truck and the hill-top.
No satellites were harmed in the telling of this story.

 

[Mr Tony]

It is not unusual to see a specific truck or network team consistently book the same sat and transponder. This makes it easy and quick for the team to establish the backhaul link to the studio.

sports feeds are like that. It is usually the same TP all the time

 

[rv1pop]

Our Master Control used to book a particular Sat. Tp. etc on a regular basis on an oddball sat, that was cheaper, and had a poorer footprint, but worked for our uplink areas. Because of that it was the last link rented to someone else. We lost it only one time - for a presidential election night, but we got 15 or 20 minute slots between the network uplinks. -- analog.

 

[RT-Cat]

Interesting list of information on that. Thanks guys.

RT.