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103-472: Notably, All American Direct was not a DISH Network subsidiary. Subscribers to the company's My Distant Network Package had to pay subscription fees separately and in addition to their monthly DISH Network subscription fees. All American Direct was founded in 1983 as nationwide C-Band satellite service provider and retailer National Programming Service, LLC . According to a company Web site, NPS continues to provide C-Band products and services and claims to be

206-521: A cable network ) is a television network available via cable television. Many of the same channels are distributed through satellite television . Alternative terms include non-broadcast channel or programming service , the latter being mainly used in legal contexts. The abbreviation CATV is used in the US for cable television and originally stood for community antenna television , from cable television's origins in 1948; in areas where over-the-air TV reception

309-413: A 16MB SDRAM memory to buffer four seconds of one of the satellite signals in order to bring it into time coincidence with the other for Maximal-ratio combining . On newer receivers with a "pause" feature, a dual-port PSRAM is employed to store up to 60 minutes of the selected channel. The baseband processor outputs digital audio over a Serial Peripheral Interface, which is fed to a D/A converter to produce

412-438: A Spring 2007 Arbitron report, the five channels most listened to on Sirius based on their average quarterly hour (AQH) share were Howard 100, Howard 101, The Highway (56), Sirius Hits 1, and Octane (37). On October 6, 2004, Sirius announced that it had signed a five-year, US$ 100 million per year agreement with Howard Stern to move his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, to Sirius starting on January 9, 2006. Stern said his move

515-561: A channel-by-channel basis. These fees were paid directly to All American Direct and are separate and in addition to the subscriber's monthly DISH Network bill. In December 2010, National Programming Service announced it would cease providing C-Band programming as of midnight, Dec. 26, 2010. All American Direct ceased operations on February 25, 2014, at 11:59 pm., resulting in the loss of services, including Distant Network channels, for millions of Dish Network subscribers nationwide. Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.

618-592: A classic radio call-in show from the UK discussing all of the days top matches. On September 15, 2008, Chris Russo launched his own show called Mad Dog Unleashed . After the merger between Sirius and XM was completed, Major League Baseball games remained exclusive to XM Radio as a result of an arrangement dispute between MLB and Sirius XM, which prevented Sirius subscribers from listening to games. However, on August 19, 2013, Sirius XM reached an agreement with MLB allowing all customers with both Sirius and XM receivers to hear

721-414: A codec for rack mounting in satellite earth stations. The Sirius signal uses more robust error correction on control channels than on the audio content, trading off error correction and bandwidth differently for separate categories of bits in the signal waveform. The terrestrial carrier is an OFDM QPSK signal, and cousin to WiMax and LTE, with the particular feature that more than one transmitter operates on

824-512: A deal to add UEFA Champions League soccer to their lineup. Sirius had exclusive radio rights to broadcast the ESPN television feed of the Euro 2008 championships. Sirius also aired a soccer talk show called "The Football Show" with former Metrostars GM Charlie Stillitano and former International Italian star Giorgio Chinaglia . On Saturdays and Sundays during premier league season, Sirius aired Radio 606 ,

927-405: A dedicated analog circuit-switched service. Other advantages include better voice quality and integration to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network providing cheap or unlimited nationwide and international calling. In many cases, digital cable telephone service is separate from cable modem service being offered by many cable companies and does not rely on Internet Protocol (IP) traffic or

1030-543: A high elevation. At the outset, cable systems only served smaller communities without television stations of their own, and which could not easily receive signals from stations in cities because of distance or hilly terrain. In Canada, however, communities with their own signals were fertile cable markets, as viewers wanted to receive American signals. Rarely, as in the college town of Alfred, New York , U.S. cable systems retransmitted Canadian channels. Although early ( VHF ) television receivers could receive 12 channels (2–13),

1133-466: A higher rate. At the local headend, the feed signals from the individual television channels are received by dish antennas from communication satellites . Additional local channels, such as local broadcast television stations, educational channels from local colleges, and community access channels devoted to local governments ( PEG channels) are usually included on the cable service. Commercial advertisements for local business are also inserted in

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1236-405: A local VHF television station broadcast. Local broadcast channels were not usable for signals deemed to be a priority, but technology allowed low-priority signals to be placed on such channels by synchronizing their blanking intervals . TVs were unable to reconcile these blanking intervals and the slight changes due to travel through a medium, causing ghosting . The bandwidth of the amplifiers also

1339-474: A medical research foundation, focused on finding a cure for her daughter's illness. Former NASA engineer Robert Briskman, who designed the company's satellite technology, was then appointed Chairman and CEO. Six months later, in November 1992, Rogers Wireless co-founder David Margolese, who had provided financial backing for the venture, acquired control of the company and succeeded Briskman. Margolese renamed

1442-463: A microwave-based system, may be used instead. Coaxial cables are capable of bi-directional carriage of signals as well as the transmission of large amounts of data . Cable television signals use only a portion of the bandwidth available over coaxial lines. This leaves plenty of space available for other digital services such as cable internet , cable telephony and wireless services, using both unlicensed and licensed spectra. Broadband internet access

1545-480: A multi-year contract with DISH Network parent company EchoStar Corporation that saw EchoStar provide NPS with domestic satellite capacity on EchoStar VII at 119° West longitude and on EchoStar X at 110° West longitude. The partnership came after a Florida court ordered EchoStar to cease providing distant-network programming in October 2006 after a 10-year legal battle over whether the satellite TV provider had violated

1648-604: A number of additional channels exclusive to Canada; the other four come from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . After a delay and outcry from Canadian subscribers, Sirius Canada added Howard Stern's Channel 100 to their lineup in early 2006. Channel 101 , Stern's other channel (featuring Bubba the Love Sponge , Scott Ferrall , and other personalities), were made available in late June 2006. Talk radio content recently added onto Sirius Satellite Radio include

1751-553: A rarity, found in an ever-dwindling number of markets. Analog television sets are accommodated, their tuners mostly obsolete and dependent entirely on the set-top box. Cable television is mostly available in North America , Europe , Australia , Asia and South America . Cable television has had little success in Africa , as it is not cost-effective to lay cables in sparsely populated areas. Multichannel multipoint distribution service ,

1854-452: A receiver box. The cable company will provide set-top boxes based on the level of service a customer purchases, from basic set-top boxes with a standard-definition picture connected through the standard coaxial connection on the TV, to high-definition wireless digital video recorder (DVR) receivers connected via HDMI or component . Older analog television sets are cable ready and can receive

1957-732: A series of signal amplifiers and line extenders. These devices carry the signal to customers via passive RF devices called taps. The very first cable networks were operated locally, notably in 1936 by Rediffusion in London in the United Kingdom and the same year in Berlin in Germany, notably for the Olympic Games , and from 1948 onwards in the United States and Switzerland. This type of local cable network

2060-417: A special telephone interface at the customer's premises that converts the analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring into a digital signal, which is then sent on the local loop (replacing the analog last mile , or plain old telephone service (POTS) to the company's switching center, where it is connected to the public switched telephone network ( PSTN ). The biggest obstacle to cable telephone service

2163-573: Is US$ 470 and the aftermarket unit has an MSRP of US$ 299.99. Both were made available in the fourth quarter of 2007. As of 1 January 2016 the service has been discontinued. In June 2005, Sirius signed an agreement with BBC Radio 1 in the UK to rebroadcast the station to an American audience. In August 2011, Sirius dropped BBC Radio 1 , but a week later they announced that the channel would return online. Sirius also had exclusive satellite radio rights to National Public Radio , carrying two separate streams. The Sirius NPR NOW programming did not include

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2266-458: Is a single screen (or a dual screen option in the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan ) for back seat passengers to watch while front seat passengers have the option of simultaneously listening to any normal Sirius radio channel. The service is reported to cost an additional US$ 6.99 per month on top of the standard Sirius subscription price. The MSRP of the factory installed units

2369-404: Is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables , or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables . This contrasts with broadcast television , in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna , or satellite television , in which

2472-422: Is achieved over coaxial cable by using cable modems to convert the network data into a type of digital signal that can be transferred over coaxial cable. One problem with some cable systems is the older amplifiers placed along the cable routes are unidirectional thus in order to allow for uploading of data the customer would need to use an analog telephone modem to provide for the upstream connection. This limited

2575-433: Is an intentional four-second delay between the two satellite carrier signals. This enables the receiver to maintain a large buffer of the audio stream, which, along with forward error correction , helps keep the audio playing in the event that the signal is temporarily lost, such as when driving under an overpass or otherwise losing line-of-sight of any of the satellites or ground repeater stations. A third, separate signal

2678-449: Is designed to mitigate and retain signal quality in hostile signal conditions and the relatively weak signal levels from distant satellites. Because the satellites are not all geostationary they appear and disappear over the horizon. Terrestrial signals are present only in major cities to augment the satellite signals. Approximately five chipset versions were built by Agere and approximately 4 versions were built by STMicroelectronics after

2781-831: Is included as part of the Dish Network satellite television service. Sirius channels are identified by Nielsen Audio with the label "SR" (e.g. "SR120", "SR9", "SR17"). Its business model is to provide pay-for-service radio, analogous to the business model for premium cable television . Music channels are presented without advertising, while its talk channels, such as Howard Stern 's Howard 100 and Howard 101 and Jason Ellis ' Faction Talk , carry commercials. Because all channels are free from FCC content regulation, songs are played unedited for language; talk programs may also feature explicit content if they wish. Subscriptions are prepaid and range in price from US$ 14.99 monthly (US$ 9.99 for each additional receiver) to US$ 699.99 for lifetime (of

2884-460: Is included with the receiver. Antenna placement is crucial to receiving a clear signal. In some locations users have experienced difficulty receiving the Sirius programming because the signal is not consistently strong. For the best reception, antennas should be placed such that they have an unobstructed view of the sky (preferably on rooftops without overhanging eaves or trees). If this is not an option,

2987-425: Is separated into three carriers, one each for the two satellites, and the third for the terrestrial repeater network where available. Sirius receivers decode all three 4 MHz carrier signals at once to achieve signal diversity . This is in contrast to XM which uses six carriers and decodes three 2 MHz carriers to economize on receiver power consumption and complexity at the cost of channel-changing speed. There

3090-482: Is the need for nearly 100% reliable service for emergency calls. One of the standards available for digital cable telephony, PacketCable , seems to be the most promising and able to work with the quality of service (QOS) demands of traditional analog plain old telephone service (POTS) service. The biggest advantage to digital cable telephone service is similar to the advantage of digital cable, namely that data can be compressed, resulting in much less bandwidth used than

3193-457: Is uplinked to the AMC-6 Ku-band satellite and received by 36-inch (910 mm) satellite dishes for the ground repeater network. This third signal is broadcast on a third segment of the signal. The technology for Sirius Satellite Radio receivers as well as some of the uplink equipment, and the studio encoder, originated at Bell Labs in the late 1990s and subsequent years. The studio encoder

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3296-510: The Underground Garage , dedicated to garage rock , and Outlaw Country with its focus on alternative country music . The majority of the company's programming was self-produced exclusively for Sirius. However, there were some shows—especially in the Talk genre—that were originally created for terrestrial radio, but then aired on conventional radio and on Sirius/XM simultaneously; one example

3399-581: The Baseband Integrated Circuit currently the STA240, which is produced by STMicroelectronics. The chip contains embedded ARM7TDMI and ARM946E-S microprocessors synthesized from IP cores . Every baseband has a unique Electronic Serial Number (or Sirius ID). Another major section of a Sirius receiver is the tuner. The tuner is also a custom ASIC , the STA210. The tuner connects to the antenna, and receives

3502-1118: The Copyright Act ; in December 2006 DISH Network ceased all transmission of distant-network programming. Initially, many satellite-TV industry commentators predicted that DISH Network would lose as much as $ 50 million per year in revenue as a result of the Florida decision; they also assumed that many DISH Network customers would abandon the satellite TV provider for competitor DirecTV . However, following its deal with EchoStar, AllAmericanDirect.com began offering distant network channels in connection with EchoStar, allowing DISH Network to defy these forecasts. From December 2006 until February 2014, AllAmericanDirect.com offered ABC , NBC , CBS , and FOX as part of its Distant Network Package subscription service. Distant Network Package channels through All American Direct were accessible to DISH Network subscribers on channel ranges 241 to 248 for standard-definition broadcast networks. On January 30, 2013, Dish began carrying

3605-488: The DVB-C , DVB-C2 stream to IP for distribution of TV over IP network in the home. Many cable companies offer internet access through DOCSIS . In the most common system, multiple television channels (as many as 500, although this varies depending on the provider's available channel capacity) are distributed to subscriber residences through a coaxial cable , which comes from a trunkline supported on utility poles originating at

3708-702: The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament . In August 2004, Sirius launched Sirius NFL Radio , a 24-hour radio stream for covering the NFL. Sirius also had the only national Horse racing talk show, At the Races , hosted by noted racing handicapper, Steve Byk. The Hardcore Poker Show , hosted by Rob Pizzo and Chris Tessaro, was the only syndicated poker talk show in North America. Sirius also broadcast select Premier League matches. On September 27, 2006, Sirius announced

3811-427: The S band between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz. Audio channels are digitally compressed using a proprietary variant of Lucent 's Perceptual Audio Coder compression algorithm and encrypted with a proprietary conditional access system. Sirius has announced that they intend to implement hierarchical modulation technology to economize on bandwidth up to 25%. Each receiver must be connected to an external antenna, which

3914-611: The high band 7–13 of North American television frequencies . Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario , used a dual distribution network with Channels 2–13 on each of the two cables. During the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access (PEG) created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming. As cable penetration increased, numerous cable-only TV stations were launched, many with their own news bureaus that could provide more immediate and more localized content than that provided by

4017-599: The 2005–2006 season, and in 2007 Sirius/XM gained exclusive rights to NHL games. Sirius also had full NASCAR coverage, including a weekly show hosted by now-retired driver Tony Stewart . In 2009, Sirius/XM was the first to carry live coverage of the 24-hour road race from Le Mans . Sirius/XM also had the rights to a number of major college sports teams, including teams in the Big East , Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences , as well as The University of Notre Dame . Beginning in 2005, Sirius also had exclusive radio rights to cover

4120-464: The ABC News and Talk channel 143 (since having ceased operations), including live feeds of Sean Hannity and Larry Elder's syndicated radio shows, Patriot Talk channel 125 (which includes Michael Reagan's syndicated radio show) and Fox News Talk channel 145 (which includes syndicated radio hosts such as Alan Colmes and John Gibson). On March 14, 2006, Sirius added Cosmo Radio , Playboy Radio , and returned

4223-485: The United States have switched to or are in the course of switching to digital cable television since it was first introduced in the late 1990s. Most cable companies require a set-top box ( cable converter box ) or a slot on one's TV set for conditional access module cards to view their cable channels, even on newer televisions with digital cable QAM tuners, because most digital cable channels are now encrypted, or scrambled , to reduce cable service theft . A cable from

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4326-463: The analog audio signal. The front-end of a Sirius receiver is called the head unit , required to display descriptive text (such as the category, channel, artist, and song name) and provide controls to the user. This is implemented by the third-party designers of Sirius-ready receivers, using a microprocessor of their choice. Sirius offers car radios and home entertainment systems, as well as car and home kits for portable use. The Sirius receiver includes

4429-530: The antenna module and the receiver module. The antenna module picks up signals from the ground repeaters or the satellite, amplifies the signal and filters out any interference. The signal is then passed on to the receiver module. Inside the receiver module is a chipset consisting of eight chips. The chipset converts the signals from 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) to a lower intermediate frequency. Sirius also offers an adapter that allows conventional car radios to receive satellite signals. Sirius broadcasts using 12.5 MHz of

4532-565: The antenna should be placed on an exterior wall. When placing on an exterior wall, the antenna should be mounted to a wall which faces the southern continental United States in order to minimize the likelihood of the building itself blocking the signal. Sirius' satellites are named Radiosat because there is already a fleet of satellites named Sirius , launched by Sweden's NSAB (Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget, or Nordic Satellite AB, and known today as SES Sirius ) and used for general telecommunications and satellite television throughout Sweden and

4635-601: The audio programming, the Sirius broadcast stream also carries a Data Services channel that is utilized by capable receivers and graphical display hardware. Some of the data services offered are traffic speed and flow, marine weather, and fuel prices to name just a few. Examples of capable hardware are the Raymarine SR100 Satellite Weather receiver and the Alpine NVE-N872A Satellite Traffic Ready navigation system. The Sirius signal

4738-559: The audio simulcast of the Fox News Channel TV feed, which was previously removed during a contract dispute. The service also added Fox's satellite talk radio channel, Fox News Talk . In April 2003, Sirius launched Sirius OutQ , the first-ever 24/7 talk channel designed for the LGBT audience. Personalities associated with the channel include Frank DeCaro , Michelangelo Signorile , Derek Hartley , and Romaine Patterson . In addition to

4841-404: The basic selection. By subscribing to additional tiers, customers could get specialty channels, movie channels, and foreign channels. Large cable companies used addressable descramblers to limit access to premium channels for customers not subscribing to higher tiers, however the above magazines often published workarounds for that technology as well. During the 1990s, the pressure to accommodate

4944-563: The cable box itself, these midband channels were used for early incarnations of pay TV , e.g. The Z Channel (Los Angeles) and HBO but transmitted in the clear i.e. not scrambled as standard TV sets of the period could not pick up the signal nor could the average consumer de-tune the normal stations to be able to receive it. Once tuners that could receive select mid-band and super-band channels began to be incorporated into standard television sets, broadcasters were forced to either install scrambling circuitry or move these signals further out of

5047-429: The cable company's local distribution facility, called the headend . Many channels can be transmitted through one coaxial cable by a technique called frequency division multiplexing . At the headend, each television channel is translated to a different frequency . By giving each channel a different frequency slot on the cable, the separate television signals do not interfere with each other. At an outdoor cable box on

5150-515: The cable to send data from the customer box to the cable headend, for advanced features such as requesting pay-per-view shows or movies, cable internet access , and cable telephone service . The downstream channels occupy a band of frequencies from approximately 50 MHz to 1 GHz, while the upstream channels occupy frequencies of 5 to 42 MHz. Subscribers pay with a monthly fee. Subscribers can choose from several levels of service, with premium packages including more channels but costing

5253-675: The case of no local CBS or ABC station being available – rebroadcast the programming from a nearby affiliate but fill in with its own news and other community programming to suit its own locale. Many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into today's many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries . Cable specialty channels , starting with channels oriented to show movies and large sporting or performance events, diversified further, and narrowcasting became common. By

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5356-414: The channels in the 907 to 914 range. This was due to them moving the channels to accommodate Dish's new direction of grouping channels by genre. After February 13, the distant networks would disappear from the 241 to 248 range, and they would be found exclusively in the 907 to 914 range. Distant Network Package subscription fees ranged between $ 3.00 and $ 15.00 per month, or between $ 40 and $ 170 per year, on

5459-498: The chosen channel into the TV set on Channel 2, 3 or 4. Initially, UHF broadcast stations were at a disadvantage because the standard TV sets in use at the time were unable to receive their channels. With the passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1964, all new television sets were required to include a UHF tuner, nonetheless, it would still take a few years for UHF stations to become competitive. Before being added to

5562-534: The company CD Radio, and spent the next five years lobbying the FCC to allow satellite radio to be deployed, and the following five years raising $ 1.6 billion, which was used to build and launch three satellites into elliptical orbit from Kazakhstan in July 2000. The company successfully bid $ 83.3 million to purchase their satellite radio license. In 1997, after Margolese had obtained regulatory clearance and "effectively created

5665-402: The core audio content. This architecture has worked remarkably well in avoiding drop out of audio signal when driving under highway overpasses, and when scintillating (very deep and frequent losses in signal strength caused by radio fading from trees) conditions exist. Since Sirius and XM separately entered the market with incompatible waveforms on the satellite, one would logically conclude that

5768-617: The end of his second year on Sirius, from fewer than 700,000 subscribers to 6 million (see graph on the right). Stern now has two channels operating on Sirius, but still retains the right to a third. Sirius/XM's channels carried an array of programming that covered Music, News/Talk, Sports, and Entertainment. Sirius had deals with entertainers and personalities for broadcast streams. Besides Stern, Sirius had deals with Martha Stewart , E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt , Jimmy Buffett , and Eminem to executive-produce streams or channels on Sirius. Van Zandt created two stations for Sirius:

5871-415: The fact that the descrambling circuitry was for a time present in these tuners, depriving the cable operator of much of their revenue, such cable-ready tuners are rarely used now – requiring a return to the set-top boxes used from the 1970s onward. The digital television transition in the United States has put all signals, broadcast and cable, into digital form, rendering analog cable television service

5974-545: The games with a premium subscription. In August 2003, Sirius partnered with Clearwater, Florida -based Applied Media Technologies Corporation , a provider of telephone "on hold" messaging. AMTC provides Sirius service in a package branded as Sirius Music for Business . For US$ 29.95 per month, AMTC provides all of Sirius' streams of commercial-free music, and pays all performance royalties to ASCAP , Broadcast Music Incorporated , and SESAC , so that business owners may legally play Sirius' music in their establishments. Unlike

6077-454: The growing array of offerings resulted in digital transmission that made more efficient use of the VHF signal capacity; fibre optics was common to carry signals into areas near the home, where coax could carry higher frequencies over the short remaining distance. Although for a time in the 1980s and 1990s, television receivers and VCRs were equipped to receive the mid-band and super-band channels. Due to

6180-450: The headend, the electrical signal is translated into an optical signal and sent through the fiber. The fiber trunkline goes to several distribution hubs , from which multiple fibers fan out to carry the signal to boxes called optical nodes in local communities. At the optical node, the optical signal is translated back into an electrical signal and carried by coaxial cable distribution lines on utility poles, from which cables branch out to

6283-413: The incoming satellite and terrestrial signals at 2.315 GHz and downconverts them to intermediate frequency signals at around 75 MHz. The strength of the signals is approximately −50dBm in clear-sky conditions. The IF signals are fed to the STA240, which are digitized, demodulated, error-corrected, de-interleaved, and decrypted using specialized circuits on the chip. The baseband processor utilizes

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6386-424: The industry," the FCC also sold a license to XM Satellite Radio, which followed Sirius's example. In November 1999, Marketing chief Ira Bahr convinced Margolese to again change the name of the company, this time to Sirius Satellite Radio, in order to avoid association with the soon-to-be-outdated CD technology. It had secured installation deals with automakers including Chrysler , Ford and BMW . Sirius launched

6489-464: The initial phase of its service in four cities, with the first receiver sold at Cowboy Maloney's in Jackson, MS on February 14, 2002, expanding to the rest of the contiguous United States on July 1, 2002. In 2001 Margolese stepped down as CEO, remaining as chairman until November 2003, with Sirius issuing a statement thanking him "for his great vision, leadership and dedication in creating both Sirius and

6592-406: The initial prototypes, although all of the early receivers included an Agere chipset known as Northstar. This platform enjoyed the highest volume of chipsets to date, representing the bulk of total production from 2002 to 2010. As of 2010, most of the chipsets are produced by STMicroelectronics. At the heart of a Sirius receiver is a custom application-specific integrated circuit ( ASIC ) chip called

6695-401: The internet to any of its subscribers with a valid user name and password. On July 29, 2008, Sirius formally completed its merger with former competitor XM Satellite Radio . The combined company began operating under the name Sirius XM Satellite Radio . On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups. On January 13, 2011, Sirius Satellite Radio

6798-594: The island of Puerto Rico by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In March 2007, Sirius announced the availability of its first video service called "Backseat TV". In August 2007, the company revealed details of the first receiver, the SCV1, was originally offered exclusively through Chrysler OEM factory units. The service includes streaming video from three "family" television channels: Nickelodeon , Disney Channel and Cartoon Network Mobile. There

6901-456: The jack in the wall is attached to the input of the box, and an output cable from the box is attached to the television, usually the RF-IN or composite input on older TVs. Since the set-top box only decodes the single channel that is being watched, each television in the house requires a separate box. Some unencrypted channels, usually traditional over-the-air broadcast networks, can be displayed without

7004-573: The largest C-Band programming provider in the U.S. NPS first began offering C-Band programming in 1987 and first switched from selling large 7–12 foot-diameter C-Band dish antennae to providing small-dish services and equipment as DISH Network affiliate All American Dish in 2003. In 2006, All American Dish launched AllAmericanDirect.com, which "offer[s] a wide variety of consumer electronic products, such as High Definition televisions, Sirius Satellite Radio , Verizon Wireless , High-Speed Internet, and other related products." In late 2006 NPS entered into

7107-486: The late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, some of which by this time had expanded beyond 35 channels. By the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulators to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above

7210-425: The local utility poles or underground utility lines. Coaxial cable brings the signal to the customer's building through a service drop , an overhead or underground cable. If the subscriber's building does not have a cable service drop, the cable company will install one. The standard cable used in the U.S. is RG-6 , which has a 75 ohm impedance , and connects with a type F connector . The cable company's portion of

7313-423: The maximum number of channels that could be broadcast in one city was 7: channels 2, 4, either 5 or 6, 7, 9, 11 and 13, as receivers at the time were unable to receive strong (local) signals on adjacent channels without distortion. (There were frequency gaps between 4 and 5, and between 6 and 7, which allowed both to be used in the same city). As equipment improved, all twelve channels could be utilized, except where

7416-489: The merged company will eventually evolve the signal format again to take advantage of their size, but this is a speculative statement. The use of a satellite and terrestrial combined service has been adopted by the DVB-SH standard, and companies such as ICO communications who cooperated with Alcatel-Lucent on system design and field trials. ONDAS, a Madrid-based company, also adopted this pioneering system architecture. The receiver

7519-425: The merger in December 2012. On February 19, 2007, Sirius announced a merger deal with competitor XM Satellite Radio . If the pending merger received government approval, which was required because of antitrust considerations, it would combine the two services into a single satellite radio network in the United States and would be named Sirius/XM Radio. On March 24, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice approved

7622-515: The merger of Sirius and XM. Approval from the FCC cleared on July 25, 2008. Conditions of the merger included allowing any third-party company to make satellite radio devices; producing new radios that can receive both XM and Sirius channels within one year; allowing consumers to choose which channels they would like to have; freezing subscription rates for three years; setting aside 8% of its channels for noncommercial programmers; and paying $ 19.7 million in fines for past rule violations. According to

7725-476: The music services Muzak / DMX Music or Music Choice , the SiriusXM for Business service uses the same channels and SDARS delivery platform as the consumer Sirius service. The SDARS delivery platform, on the other hand, is more reliable than any of the other services in that it is not subject to satellite dish rain fade . The highly elliptical orbit of the Sirius satellite constellation can pose difficulties for

7828-402: The nearest network newscast. Such stations may use similar on-air branding as that used by the nearby broadcast network affiliate, but the fact that these stations do not broadcast over the air and are not regulated by the FCC, their call signs are meaningless. These stations evolved partially into today's over-the-air digital subchannels, where a main broadcast TV station e.g. NBC 37* would – in

7931-408: The old analog cable without a set-top box. To receive digital cable channels on an analog television set, even unencrypted ones, requires a different type of box, a digital television adapter supplied by the cable company or purchased by the subscriber. Another new distribution method that takes advantage of the low cost high quality DVB distribution to residential areas, uses TV gateways to convert

8034-399: The popular programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition . With the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005, American listeners gained five Canadian-produced stations including CBC Radio One , CBC Radio Three and Iceberg Radio , and Première Plus , Énergie2 , and Bande à part for French listeners. Iceberg Radio is programmed by Standard Broadcasting , which also provides

8137-504: The programming at the headend (the individual channels, which are distributed nationally, also have their own nationally oriented commercials). Modern cable systems are large, with a single network and headend often serving an entire metropolitan area . Most systems use hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) distribution; this means the trunklines that carry the signal from the headend to local neighborhoods are optical fiber to provide greater bandwidth and also extra capacity for future expansion. At

8240-451: The programming without cost. Later, the cable operators began to carry FM radio stations, and encouraged subscribers to connect their FM stereo sets to cable. Before stereo and bilingual TV sound became common, Pay-TV channel sound was added to the FM stereo cable line-ups. About this time, operators expanded beyond the 12-channel dial to use the midband and superband VHF channels adjacent to

8343-476: The range of reception for early cable-ready TVs and VCRs. However, once consumer sets had the ability to receive all 181 FCC allocated channels, premium broadcasters were left with no choice but to scramble. The descrambling circuitry was often published in electronics hobby magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Electronics allowing anybody with anything more than a rudimentary knowledge of broadcast electronics to be able to build their own and receive

8446-455: The receiver before being decoded. Heavy error correction is applied to the signals. All three signals contain the same audio content on all the channels that the receiver can receive, with the exception of one audio program waveform being transmitted ahead of the other two by approximately four seconds. With this time skew, the signals, once realigned, need to see an 8-second obstruction of overpass fade in order to lose audio content. This increases

8549-487: The receiver equipment ). There is a US$ 15 activation fee for every radio activated. Sirius announced it had achieved its first positive cash flow quarter for the period ending December 2006. Sirius launched its radio service in four states on February 14, 2002, expanding service to the rest of the contiguous U.S. by July of that year. On October 16, 2006, Sirius announced that it would be launching Sirius Internet Radio, with 78 of its 135 channels being available worldwide on

8652-631: The reliable delivery of the signal to stationary antennas in certain parts of the country. To eliminate this potential problem, Sirius launched a new geostationary satellite , FM-5, to improve service to non-mobile customers such as those of SiriusXM for Business. The service can also be accessed online using Sirius' online streaming technology, allowing any business with a broadband Internet connection to overcome any potential reception issues. Additionally, Sirius applied for repeaters in Hawaii and Alaska and has already been granted authority for 20 repeaters covering

8755-640: The rest of Scandinavia . The current primary uplink facility for Sirius, which was formerly used as the uplink site for Western Union 's Westar fleet of communication satellites from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, is located in Glenwood, New Jersey . The original facility was located on the roof of the building housing the Sirius studios in Rockefeller Center in New York City but has since been decommissioned. Cable television Cable television

8858-514: The robustness of the signal delivery in most driving conditions. In order to recover meaningful signal and error-free audio from a signal impaired by interference and fading, the receiver uses concatenated Reed-Solomon block coding and Forward Error Correction encoding and decoding (codec). This technique was proven in the early days of satellite modems in the late 1970s. Linkabit, then run by Irwin Jacobs prior to his involvement with Qualcomm, offered such

8961-427: The same frequency, forming a single frequency network. A number of transmitters can be placed around a city to create coverage that is less subject to fading than if a single transmitter were used. The satellite signal is QPSK. Both satellite and terrestrial signals have hierarchical modulation superposed on the original signal, a measure created to add bandwidth at a small expense in the satellite link budget for decoding

9064-767: The satellite radio industry." The first confirmed music transmission from satellite to radio receiver for Sirius was September 1, 2000, in NYC at the current HQ of SiriusXM. Ten employees were present during the first music transmission. One being Lawrence J. Simon, current VP Business and Ground Ops (Former B2B board member for NASCAR, Director of labs for Lockheed Martin and Grumman), Paul De Lia, current Senior Advisor for BCG (Former CTO for L3-Harris). Joe Clayton, former CEO of Global Crossing , followed as CEO from November 2001 until November 2004. He remained chairman until July 2008. Mel Karmazin , former president of Viacom , became CEO in November 2004 and remained in that position through

9167-418: The signals are typically encrypted on modern digital cable systems, and the set-top box must be activated by an activation code sent by the cable company before it will function, which is only sent after the subscriber signs up. If the subscriber fails to pay their bill, the cable company can send a signal to deactivate the subscriber's box, preventing reception. There are also usually upstream channels on

9270-403: The subscriber's residence, the company's service drop cable is connected to cables distributing the signal to different rooms in the building. At each television, the subscriber's television or a set-top box provided by the cable company translates the desired channel back to its original frequency ( baseband ), and it is displayed onscreen. Due to widespread cable theft in earlier analog systems,

9373-474: The television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite and received by a satellite dish on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet , telephone services , and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A cable channel (sometimes known as

9476-520: The time a spinoff of AT&T. Early prototypes were followed by a number of generations of ASIC custom designed chipsets, supplied at first by Agere Systems and later supplied by Agere Systems and their competitor STMicroelectronics. Three signals from three different sources (satellite, satellite, and terrestrial) are therefore combined in the receiver as radio signals, (not as audio signals). The three signals need to be combined constructively (avoiding situations where bad signals pollute good signals) in

9579-532: The upstream speed to 31.2 Kbp/s and prevented the always-on convenience broadband internet typically provides. Many large cable systems have upgraded or are upgrading their equipment to allow for bi-directional signals, thus allowing for greater upload speed and always-on convenience, though these upgrades are expensive. In North America , Australia and Europe , many cable operators have already introduced cable telephone service, which operates just like existing fixed line operators. This service involves installing

9682-552: The wiring usually ends at a distribution box on the building exterior, and built-in cable wiring in the walls usually distributes the signal to jacks in different rooms to which televisions are connected. Multiple cables to different rooms are split off the incoming cable with a small device called a splitter . There are two standards for cable television; older analog cable, and newer digital cable which can carry data signals used by digital television receivers such as high-definition television (HDTV) equipment. All cable companies in

9785-513: Was a satellite radio ( SDARS ) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings . Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis , Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002. It now provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news, and entertainment to its subscribers. A subset of Sirius music channels

9888-447: Was a result of Bell Labs' efforts in statistical multiplexing of perceptual audio coded signals, a cousin of the MP3 standards. The waveform design for the terrestrial and satellite signals, as well as the early prototype receivers, were implemented in an FPGA logic and tested in the field to verify the performance of the receivers. This work was contracted by Sirius to Lucent Technologies , at

9991-500: Was dissolved as a separate entity and merged into Sirius XM Radio, Inc. Sirius was founded by Martine Rothblatt , who served as the new company's Chairman of the Board. Co-founder David Margolese served as Chief Executive Officer and Robert Briskman served as President and Chief Operating Officer. In 1990, Rothblatt founded Satellite CD Radio, Inc. in Washington, D.C. The company

10094-552: Was forced by the stringent regulations of the FCC whose enforcement was intensified following the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy . In the wake of the announcement of his pending departure, Stern complained that Infinity Broadcasting was making his departure more acrimonious than was necessary. The deal, which gave Sirius exclusive rights to Stern's radio show, also gave Stern the right to build three full-time programming channels. His audience had grown almost tenfold by

10197-444: Was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large community antennas were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. In 1968, 6.4% of Americans had cable television. The number increased to 7.5% in 1978. By 1988, 52.8% of all households were using cable. The number further increased to 62.4% in 1994. To receive cable television at a given location, cable distribution lines must be available on

10300-427: Was limited, meaning frequencies over 250 MHz were difficult to transmit to distant portions of the coaxial network, and UHF channels could not be used at all. To expand beyond 12 channels, non-standard midband channels had to be used, located between the FM band and Channel 7, or superband beyond Channel 13 up to about 300 MHz; these channels initially were only accessible using separate tuner boxes that sent

10403-559: Was mainly used to relay terrestrial channels in geographical areas poorly served by terrestrial television signals. Cable television began in the United States as a commercial business in 1950s. The early systems simply received weak ( broadcast ) channels, amplified them, and sent them over unshielded wires to the subscribers, limited to a community or to adjacent communities. The receiving antenna would be taller than any individual subscriber could afford, thus bringing in stronger signals; in hilly or mountainous terrain it would be placed at

10506-637: Was the Eternal Word Television Network . Among the hosts with Sirius/XM shows were: Sirius also broadcast sports content. It had exclusive satellite radio broadcasting rights to all NFL , CFL and NBA games. In December 2005, Sirius announced a multi-year deal with the NBA. The agreement also created a 24-hour NBA Radio Channel. Sirius aired Full Court Press, an all-NBA show. On November 12, 2008, NBA games switched to XM and were replaced by Sporting News Radio . NHL games were shared with XM for

10609-589: Was the first to petition the FCC to assign unused frequencies for satellite radio broadcast, which "provoked a furor among owners of both large and small [terrestrial] radio stations." Rothblatt had previously helped create the PanAmSat international satellite television system, and helped launch and served as CEO of the Geostar satellite navigation system. In April 1992, she resigned as chairman and CEO of Sirius in order to start

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