History of Dth
DTH Satellite TV: Timelines to the Future
While today's hot DTH marketplace makes for an exciting story, this is an industry with a history unknown to most. It is a story of an industry which was never supposed to exist. An industry born out of the genius of a Stanford University college professor and publicized by ham radio conversations. An industry that defied all odds to grow from the backyards of techies and early adapters to today's multi-billion dollar first-line competitor to the cable monopoly in America. And, it is the story of an industry comprised of thousands of entrepreneurs who kept the dream alive during long periods of traumatic political and marketplace upheaval.
Come with us now as we look at the people, the events, and the evolution of the technology.
1945 Arthur C. Clark's Dream
The entire satellite communications industry -- not just the DTH segment -- can trace its common heritage to one man. That man is the noted futurist and author Arthur C. Clark. Long before Clark was to take us to the farthest reaches of the universe in his legendary epic "2001: A Space Odyssey," he penned a paper entitled, "Extraterrestrial Relays." Published in October 1945 by "Wireless World Magazine," this article advanced a theory that world-wide communications could be accomplished by placing three space platforms into special orbits 22,300 miles above the equator. Clark explained that at this altitude, the platforms would orbit the earth at exactly the same speed as the earth turned -- thus they would appear to remain motionless in space when viewed from the ground.
Obviously, Clark's paper was far ahead of its time. The world had yet to see the widespread development of TV -- let alone the ability to place any object, much less a large communications platform, into orbit. The world would have to wait a dozen years before the first man-made object, Sputnik, found its way into orbit. This basketball-sized satellite carried a transmitter which delivered a
While today's hot DTH marketplace makes for an exciting story, this is an industry with a history unknown to most. It is a story of an industry which was never supposed to exist. An industry born out of the genius of a Stanford University college professor and publicized by ham radio conversations. An industry that defied all odds to grow from the backyards of techies and early adapters to today's multi-billion dollar first-line competitor to the cable monopoly in America. And, it is the story of an industry comprised of thousands of entrepreneurs who kept the dream alive during long periods of traumatic political and marketplace upheaval.
Come with us now as we look at the people, the events, and the evolution of the technology.
1945 Arthur C. Clark's Dream
The entire satellite communications industry -- not just the DTH segment -- can trace its common heritage to one man. That man is the noted futurist and author Arthur C. Clark. Long before Clark was to take us to the farthest reaches of the universe in his legendary epic "2001: A Space Odyssey," he penned a paper entitled, "Extraterrestrial Relays." Published in October 1945 by "Wireless World Magazine," this article advanced a theory that world-wide communications could be accomplished by placing three space platforms into special orbits 22,300 miles above the equator. Clark explained that at this altitude, the platforms would orbit the earth at exactly the same speed as the earth turned -- thus they would appear to remain motionless in space when viewed from the ground.
Obviously, Clark's paper was far ahead of its time. The world had yet to see the widespread development of TV -- let alone the ability to place any object, much less a large communications platform, into orbit. The world would have to wait a dozen years before the first man-made object, Sputnik, found its way into orbit. This basketball-sized satellite carried a transmitter which delivered a