Ka-band contribution

High performance, point-to-point contribution applications

ASTRA’s Ka-band contribution service is an inherently reliable and fully-managed contribution solution supporting a growing range of point-to-point applications.

These include the permanent delivery of live and recorded TV and radio signals to our DTH uplink locations from almost anywhere in Europe.

Ideal for primary contribution and back-up

Signals are MPEG compressed and transmitted in DVB-S2 for turnaround uplink to our DTH satellites, without the need for additional processing.

The small antenna size (typically 1.8m compared to a minimum of 2.4m in Ku) removes the need for planning permission where such regulations exist.

Ka-band contribution can also be used as a back-up for DTH uplink services at the SES teleport, when space or budgetary restrictions prevent the deployment of a second DTH uplink antenna (typically 9m) at customer locations.

Features and benefits

Uplink power control to achieve over 99.9% availability
Scalable resources, throughput and bandwidth: up to 1GHz of spectrum
End-to-end service management, including 24/7 remote link management and monitoring
Automatic terminal redundancy
Redundant satellite capacity
Cost-effective DVB-S2 optimized link
PAL, SDI, AES, DVB and IP interfaces

More cost effective, resilient and flexible than fibre.

In remote locations, where fibre would be prohibitively expensive, our Ka-band contribution can be used to overcome first-mile connectivity gaps in rural and other remote areas.
The active components in the transmission and centralized reception sites are duplicated, and in-orbit back-up satellite capacity completes the fully redundant contribution path.
A comparable fibre service would have to use diverse routing to achieve the same availability and so increase costs.
We can scale throughput up or down within the 1 GHz of spectrum to reflect changing customer requirements.
Broadcasters using fibre could experience congestion when reaching their agreed capacity limit.
Single point of accountability
- resolving service interruptions with fibre can often prove difficult, particularly when services cross national borders and involve multiple carriers. We offer a single point of accountability for the entire service.
- continuous monitoring and control allows us to act quickly, before problems affect your service. For example, uplink power is automatically increased during adverse weather conditions.