What is the latest on Nimiq 4?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bent But
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Not to mention that they need one fully functional satellite at 82. Nimiq 2 has plenty of life but five or six of its transponders are faulty and can't be used. The other (Nimiq 4iR - which makes up for the faulty transponders on Nimiq 2) is near its end of life, and will have to be de-orbited soon. So they need Nimiq 4 at 82, and soon.

I think MPEG4 and 8PSK is a much better solution to the immediate space crunch.

-Mike
 
If Bell moves nimiq4 (82) to 8PSK (and eventually to MPEG4), that will give more capacity so there is no need for the expenditure of an additional satellite spot at 72 and all the repoints it would imply.
 
Is it that hard to lock onto the 82 sat in the west? i can understand wehy dish did there eastern arc system cause people in the eastern U.S had no way to get the 129 sat if they wanted HDTV and depending where you lived in the U.S some people had it hard locking onto 199/110 too.
 
Here in Nashville, I found this evening that some of the even transponders are now coming in. I have the regular dish that comes with Bell and the strengths are around 45.

The transponders that I can now get include

2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 28, 32
 
I totally agree that it will be expensive. However, as we already know inflation has a way of making things more expensive over the years. You have to agree with me though on the fact that there will be a satellite at 73 at some point in time regardless of whether it is Nimiq 4 or Nimiq 5. Bell would not have to move existing channels to Nimiq 4 at 73 right away. It could be used to supply additional HD channels. For example there are a whole bunch of channels such as TLC HD, History HD, Space HD, Spike HD, (to name a few) that as far as I know Bell has not added yet. By initially only using Nimiq 4 to add new channels, they would not be forcing many people (i.e. people happy with their existing HD line-up - whether they have an 8PSK/MPEG-4 capable box or not) to make the hardware upgrade and thus have to send a tech out to upgrade that many dishes.

Also, I do aggree that when Nimiq 4iR runs out of fuel that will be a problem but like scrooloose said "Nimiq 2 has plenty of life" and the channels on the few transponders that are down on Nimiq 2 can at that point in time be moved to Nimiq 4 at 73. Just look what Bell did with the HPI-1,2 channels. Were on Nimiq 1, now on Nimiq 2. If you still want them then you will have to upgrade. I would still suggest they go ahead with the transition to a 3 orbital location now before the recruit too many new customers as HDTV prices are only falling lower and lower as the years go by. Like you said granduncle "...every customer using this satellite would need a tech visit" but only if they didn't have a setup that included 73.
 
I won't pretent to know the full scope of the N4 operation. I certainly don't.

From what I am reading, not all has been moved to N4 based on the odd transponders disappearing on you and others.

I am not sure how accurate real time sat tracking is, but it looks like the two sats are just a few miles apart.

What part of Minnesota are you in? I agree that the spot beam looks to be tight depending on where you are.
 
what about the majority of the US?

is there anyone today in the southern part of the US or any part of California getting a 82-Nimiq 4 signal lock and how big is your Dish antenna---and also where exactly is your location so we can map this thing?
 
I recorded all my transponders on 82 and 91.. I dont understand why 91, I have 27 TP over 75%,, but on 82 only 4 are over 75%. Most TP on 91 is 80% or higher.. theres a few in the lower 70's.. but on 82.. the majority is all 70% and a couple being as low as 60%. This was recorded on a clear sunny day. I hope Nimiq 4 helps out. I've tried ajusting the skew,, but its just not doing a whole lot.
 
2010 is still far away... meanwhile, Cope may decide to sell the Expressvu division, and it will be a whole different story.
 
TP 2 and TP 3 you should be getting regardless because it is Nimiq 2.

What size dish in nashville are you getting the other TPs? I read somewhere someone else in TN (said they were in a higher elevation) was getting it on a 24inch.
 
BEV currently has 4 satellites, all with less than stellar health. Should one (or more) of the existing sats fail, N5 would become nothing more than a replacement.
I also am willing to be that N5 (as long as it makes it to 72.5) will be 100% MPEG4 from day 1.
 
Lets be clear. We don't know for certain that this has or has not happened yet. We also don't know the future of Nimiq 2. For all we know, they dont intend to use it as an in-orbit spare for the 82w orbital and instead plan to move it/sell it.

I know one American DBS company *cough* Echostar *cough*, who would be glad to have another DBS bird under their control.
 
Not true. N4 will be the satellite for 82. N2 will become an inorbit spare backup for 82/91

There will be no increase in bandwidth by these moves. For Bell to increase HD PQ; they will have to move to MPEG4 and/or 8PSK. Present Bell receivers are not DVB-S2 compatible.

Bell has no announced plans to use N5
 
That is exactly what I believe to be happening as well.

Although I do think we will see MPEG4 pretty soon, just not sure how they will implement it.
 
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