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How Cable Works
Here is some basic information about cable technology. Our goal here is to help explain how cable works its magic. Because television stations are brought into your home through miles of high-technology cable, your television reception is uninterrupted by trees, buildings and other surface obstacles.
Here is how these channels are received:
1. Individual television programs are produced in many locations around the world.
2. These programs are transmitted to communication satellites that orbit the earth. These satellites stay in a fixed position 22,300 miles above the earth, allowing them to transmit signals to your community.
3. Local satellite receivers receive these signals.
4. The cable television control center – what people in the industry call the “head-end” – processes these satellite signals, along with the signals from your local television stations and other sources, so they can be transmitted over our cable system to your home.
5. These television programs – along with High-Speed Internet and phone services – are brought to your home by way of hundreds of miles of cable, either strung on poles or buried underground. You can find a much richer explanation at the CableLabs web site. There is another explanation, and a short video, at http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cable-tv.htm And here are some more resources. Please note we cannot verify the accuracy of all information at external sites. But here are some other external sites that explain other aspects of cable technology in helpful terms: How video features work:
How Internet features work:More technical: How cable modems work
How phone features work:Other topics:How cable will keep up with the changing demands of consumers. How competitive is the video industry? Why channels are generally available in packages and not individually. Why upstream speeds are different than downstream speeds Whoops. Wrong kind of cable entirely. Not only are these different kinds of cable, but the word's not even spelled right |
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