Will MPEG4 change spotbeam service area?

[C McB]

Once the changeover is complete, will the spotbeams have the same footprint (if that's the right word) as they do with the soon-to-be-retired system?

[TyroneShoes]

Seeing as how the spot beam footprints were engineered to get the best optimum coverage for the areas they were designed for, there seems to be no reason, technical or otherwise, why this would change. True, the freqs involved are slightly different, but the sats are also somewhat advanced. I would suspect a modest increase in reception fade margin, if anything. This will only really affect those just on the fringes of the spots.

One of the things that DTV may be skimping on in their quest for bandwidth is in FEC. Once they feel they have more bandwidth to work with, they may increase that, which would also help fade margins.

And define "soon-".

[JimSpence]

If you are talking about the Ku satellite spot beams on 101 and 119, I would say they will stay the same (those are used for SD locals). However, the Ka sats for HD locals will most likely have different spot beam coverage. Probably a larger area since they can handle more channels on each TP.