LifeChurch.tv Satellite Broadcasting FAQ Part 2
This information may be a bit technical, but I (or our team) continue to get several questions about this topic so I will do my best to post the answers here so that it can benefit others of you. This is a continuation of the previous post on the topic.
Q: What equipment is needed to start broadcasting via satellite?
A: We built what is called an “uplink” at our broadcast campus. An uplink is used to encode, amplify and transmit the signal to a satellite. It can vary in design, but ours consists of redundant encoders, a modulator, transceiver(amplifier) and a 3.7 meter antenna(dish). Additionally we have multiple satellite receivers, audio/video monitors and a spectrum analyzer to confirm that the transmission is going well. Each of our campuses has a “downlink” which consists of a 1.2 meter dish and satellite receiver. This is only the equipment that you would need to the satellite broadcast function…you would also need cameras, switchers, etc. to produce the actually video you would transmit.
Q: How do you staff your satellite broadcast technology?
A: With some fairly basic initial training, we used a very capable volunteer initially and now use part of a staff person who monitors the sat equipment and feed coming back at our uplink location. We do not have any additional staff or volunteers at our receive locations for the satellite feed other than the person who already operated the video switcher at each campus.
Q: Where can I buy the equipment? Can you help us choose what receivers/dishes we need?
A: I can do better than that…here is the contact info of the vendor that helped us design and install our first uplink. We currently use them to purchase sat equipment, but do all of the installation ourselves. They are happy to help answer questions for any of you that might be interested in doing live satellite video.
Q: Do you use a backup? If so, what do you use?
A: We actually have two uplinks at separate locations just in case of a natural disaster or something that might disrupt our regular broadcast campus. Additionally we distribute a DVD (image file) of our Saturday night experiences over the Internet to each of the campuses. They play this file using a portable hard drive (LaCie) behind the live satellite feed on Sunday. For campuses that have Saturday night experiences, we have consumer DVD/HDD recorders that capture the first Saturday night experience from the satellite feed and then play back behind the second live experience on Saturday night. This system provides not just a backup for a satellite transmission problem, but also for any human errors that might happen with a live experience.
I can expand any of this further for you if it would be helpful…just let me know.
Visit 
Bobby,
We’re also working with TBC Integration right now to build our satellite system. I can attest that Sean Busby and the entire team at TBC is great to work with. They absolutely “get it” when it comes to expanding the Kingdom. Sean attends Saddleback, so he also understands the impact of the local church. We’re at the “design” phase right now and hope to go live by the end of the year. It is exciting and intimidating, but Sean has the ability to talk fluently to geeks and dummys when it comes to this technology.
Jason
Thanks for sharing this stuff. The geek is me gets really excited to learn and know about this type of stuff. I hope someday I can work around and with this kind of technology.
Thanks for sharing, I’d been wondering about all this stuff for a while.
Thanks for the info…I will be in contact with TBC next week.
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