CMS
Survey & Certification Online Course Delivery System

Finding a Site

You can find a local downlink site to provide you with a viewing room for our event(s). You need to find a receive/viewing location that has a steerable C-band satellite dish with a room large enough to hold your potential audience and either monitor(s) or a large screen projection system.

Check with your local:

  • Other government offices/Agencies
  • Community Colleges
  • Junior Colleges
  • Universities
  • V.A. Hospitals
  • Technical Schools
  • Libraries
  • Schools/School District Offices
  • Public Television Stations
  • Fire/Rescue Stations
  • County Health Departments
  • Cinema Houses (those that have a satellite dish on their premises)
  • Restaurants (those that have a satellite dish on their premises)

Be aware, even though you may be with the government, some of these sites may want to charge you. Those of you who are not with the government, there will likely be a fee to use these facilities.

What do I need to say to potential sites when I call them?

Tell them

  • who you are and who you represent
  • that you wonder if they can be a receive/viewing site for a satellite event on the date of the broadcast.
  • that you need the room from the beginning of the test time through to the end of the program.
  • Which satellite(s) it will be on
  • how many folks you expect to have and then ask if they have enough (or large enough) monitors or screens for that many
  • that you need to have easy handicap access, if applicable

What do I need to receive and/or watch the program?

You need a C-band, steerable satellite dish and a TV monitor or large screen projection system.

Will the signal be scrambled?

No. Our signal will be "in the clear."

I have a small dish at my home for getting cable programming. Will I be able to get the program on my dish?

No. That's a different kind of satellite dish. It's digital and is fixed on the satellite that is providing your home entertainment.

What if we don't have a satellite dish?

You can rent a local facility that has satellite access capability. Check with your local community college, university, public television station, fire station/rescue house, Cinema & Draft movie house (those that have a satellite dish on their premises), or even sports bar. The colleges, universities and public television stations may want to charge you, but if you impress them with your cause, perhaps you can get it waived. Certainly if you have some connection to the college or university, use that connection to get the fee waived.

You can also rent a transportable dish for the day. A transportable would pull up to your building and park for the day. You will have to supply a monitor or projector and screen or you can rent one from the same vendor. The dish needs to have an unobstructed southern "look" at the sky. The cost for renting a transportable dish can run between $500 and $1200/day, depending upon your city and what the cable run needs to be. These folks can usually be found under "satellite" in your local yellow pages.

How A Satellite Teleconference Works

The Origination Site

A satellite event originates live from a studio, or some other similarly "outfitted" facility (a place that has cameras and equipment for TV production). From the studio, the video and audio signal either travels via fiber to an uplink antenna located at a "teleport" just outside the city, or to one located on the premises. The uplink transmits the signal to the satellite.

The Satellite

For teleconferences, we use satellites that are in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. This orbit is perfectly matched with the rotation of the earth, making it seem like the satellites are "fixed" above the earth. There are two types of communications satellites: C- and Ku-Band. They each have different frequencies, kind of like the difference between AM and FM radio stations. The satellite you use depends on your network of receiving sites.

Viewing Sites

The audience attends the program at facilities equipped to receive the signal, i.e., they have a "receive-only" satellite dish. The viewing room contains either large screen projection or TV monitors, seats for the audience and, sometimes, a phone or fax machine in the back of the room. The audience sees the picture and hears the audio about a 1/4-second after the speaker actually speaks. This is known as the "satellite delay." That's because it takes approximately 1/4 of a second for the video and audio signal to travel at the speed of light the 44,600-mile round trip from the origination point to the satellite and back down to your location.

For interaction there are several options: Calls, faxes and/or emails may be taken during the program and/or questions faxed or emailed in prior to the program.

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