Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 History  





2 Technology  





3 See also  





4 References  














AlphaStar (satellite broadcasting service)







Add links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


AlphaStar Digital Television was a direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service for the United States market developed by Canadian firm Tee-Comm Electronics. It was the first direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service in the United States to use the internationally accepted DVB-S broadcasting standard and used 39" satellite dish receivers.[1] Its service launched in July 1996, but was discontinued completely by September 1997 with 40,000 subscribers as the company went through bankruptcy proceedings.[2] The American assets of AlphaStar was used under the auspices of the Champion Telecom Platform which used to own the AlphaStar brand.[3] AlphaStar would also have alleviated a shortage of Canadian satellite capacity by using foreign (US) satellite capacity to fill Canadian needs—indeed this was a requirement for the Canadian company to obtain its license from Canada to commence broadcasting. Tee-Comm, the parent company of AlphaStar had originally co-founded the partnership that created ExpressVu (later Bell Satellite TV) as technology supplier but later divested all interest in ExpressVu.

History

[edit]

In March 1995, AlphaStar leases 12 transponders on satellite Telstar 402R for a capacity of 110 video and 20 audio channels.

On 1 July 1996, AlphaStar service launches using 12 transponders on satellite Telstar 402R at 89°W in the Ku-band.

In 1996, AlphaStar obtained $102 million in a debt offering, but analysts claim it could have claimed double that sum.

In late 1996, AlphaStar's corporate parent Tee-Comm, owned by Alvin Bahnman, divested itself from the partnership it co-founded that created the Canadian ExpressVu DBS service, known today as Bell Satellite TV. As a result, ExpressVu obtained equipment and technology from EchoStar.

In 1997, AlphaStar was in the process of transitioning to the newly launched Telstar 5 satellite with the capacity for 200 video channels and 40 audio channels.

On 3 March 1997, AlphaStar announced AlphaStar Canada service with 75 channels of service (in reality only 35 were full-time video).[4] The Canadian service never launched as the company went bankrupt and ceased broadcasting operations by September of that same year.

On 27 May 1997, the company initiated bankruptcy proceedings.

In August 1997 the operator of the Telstar 5 satellite, then named Loral Skynet, terminated its contract with AlphaStar after asking to be released from the contract earlier that year.

At 03:00 on 7 August 1997 the company ceased broadcasting operations, stranding 40,000 subscribers. Competitors quickly offered trade-in deals.

In 1998, an Egyptian tycoon named Mahmoud Wahba was reported by the Investor's Business Daily to have bought the assets of the failed AlphaStar for $4.65 million.

Champion Telecom Platform company was launched using the facilities of AlphaStar, providing uplink facilities as well as direct-to-home satellite internet broadband services.[5]

On 19 September 2003, the Telstar 402R satellite used by AlphaStar from 1996-1997, renamed Telstar 4, experienced a circuit failure in its primary power bus and was declared a total loss.

Technology

[edit]

Originally broadcasting on Telstar 402R in the Ku-band, AlphaStar was in the process of transitioning to the newly launched Telstar 5 satellite and 120 channel service when the company initiated bankruptcy proceedings.

A satellite uplink facility in Oxford, Connecticut was used to uplink the AlphaStar service. The facility was one of the assets of the company now owned by Champion Telecom Platform. The communications teleport was originally built for the United States government for the Strategic Defense Initiative, according to Champion, and can allegedly withstand nuclear attack. Another uplink facility was in Milton, Ontario, Canada.

Dish receiving equipment for AlphaStar were large, 36-39" elliptical reflectors designed to receive medium-powered, linear-polarized Ku-band signals in the Fixed Service Satellite band in the area of 11.7 GHz from Telstar 402 and, eventually Telstar 5 (now named Galaxy 25). By comparison, direct competitors DirecTV and Dish Network offered 18" dishes. The AlphaStar dishes were originally sold by Canadian firm Tee-Comm, an electronics outfit and builder of satellite dishes that was the parent company of AlphaStar.

Set-top boxes for AlphaStar were manufactured by Samsung and Hyundai. The service used DVB-S signalling and MPEG-2 video compression called Compression NetWORKS developed by a firm named TV/COM International. It was the first United States direct-to-home broadcaster to use what became known as DVB-S.[6] While pricey and inconvenient to use these receivers can be used to receive unencrypted satellite transmissions known as FTA.

As AlphaStar liquidated its inventory the expensive AlphaStar dishes were resold to customers who wished to receive ethnic programming. An Egyptian broadcasting service which formerly broadcast several channels on AlphaStar offered assistance in refitting AlphaStar systems to receive their channels from another satellite, Intelsat Americas 5, which, ironically, was the new name of the very same Telstar 5 satellite that AlphaStar was in the process of migrating to. Though exceedingly rare, refitted AlphaStar dishes can still be found on rooftops in larger urban ethnic communities and their large size offers great signal quality.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Reports/fcc96496.txt FCC report on DTH with dish size and launch information
  • ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-09-07. Retrieved 2006-08-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) SkyReport.com report on AlphaStar's ongoing demise
  • ^ http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/980127.MBX Egyptian businessman buys assets of AlphaStar, and some 1996 debt offering information
  • ^ http://www.sat-net.com/listserver/ts-news/msg00469.html Announcement of AlphaStar Canada service
  • ^ http://www.alphastar.com/ Current Champion Telecom Platform web site, the new name of that which was once AlphaStar, including a picture gallery of the site
  • ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1995_Sept_26/ai_17505429 Mentions Compression NetWORKS technology used by AlphaStar and even more AlphaStar corporate information

  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=AlphaStar_(satellite_broadcasting_service)&oldid=1176340945"

    Categories: 
    Direct broadcast satellite services
    1995 establishments in the United States
    1997 disestablishments in the United States
    Oxford, Connecticut
    Hidden categories: 
    CS1 maint: archived copy as title
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
     



    This page was last edited on 21 September 2023, at 02:18 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki