TEST REPORT

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02-03/2009

SPAUN USA SWITCH Innovative solution to connect more than 4

receivers to a DirecTV system - best to use in small and large apartment buildings

40 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

SPAUN Switch for USA Ron Roessel

One of the biggest names in the industry when it comes to multiswitches would undoubtedly have to be SPAUN. The company was founded back in October of 1969 and began by manufacturing OEM terrestrial antenna products. In 1991 they began distributing products under their own name and shortly after that introduced the first multiswitchwith an integrated power supply. Since then they have continuously added to their product line such that today their product range consists of more than 300 products.

Multiswitch Amplifier for DirecTV

(Fig.1) The DirecTV dish setup we used for this test

Recently, SPAUN ventured into a new arena by begin-ning to offer amplifier andmultiswitch products for use exclusively with the DirecTV satellite PayTV system in the USA. DirecTV itself came into existence back in 1990 and launched their satellite TV

satellite antenna. Obviously, a standard DirecTV satellite system can’t handle this all by itself. That’s where SPAUN comes in.

SPAUN has developed an array of products exclusively for the DirecTV SlimLine dish antenna system (Fig.1) that allows the incoming satellite signals from five differentsatellites to be distributed to multiple receivers using only the one satellite dish.

The SlimLine LNB (Fig.2) comes with four indepen-dent outputs that when used normally allow the end user to connect up to four satel-lite receivers. But when used

with the SPAUN components, 16 and more receivers can be connected.If you take a close look at the SlimLine LNB, you might say to yourself: “I only see three LNB’s”. And, yes, that’s exactly what it looks like from the outside. On the inside however, much more is going on.

The LNB on the right is actually three LNB’s in one that together with the other

larger apartment buildings. Here the commercial end users want to provide inde-pendent satellite TV signals to each hotel room or apart-ment with all of this being accomplished using a single

service in June of 1994. The idea of watching TV via satel-lite instead of through a cable TV service provider became so popular that in just a little over a year, they reached one million subscribers.

Just ten years later in 2005 they had 15 million subscrib-

ers! In 2007 DirecTV began offering 70 HD channels and today that number has risen to over 130 HD channels.

When you talk to most people about DirecTV, they think of DirecTV as merely a provider of TV services to individual end users such as

(Fig.2) Closeup of feedhorn with LNBs

those in private homes. But the truth is DirecTV also pro-vides service to commercial end users such as hotels and

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42 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

two add up to five. Then youmight be asking yourself how it can be possible to switch between five different sat-ellites and at the same time give all the connected receiv-ers access to these satellites independent of each other.

The answer again lies in the SlimLine LNB. A typical LNB converts the incoming satel-lite signals to the 950 to 2150 MHz range and sends these signals via the coax cable to the receiver.

The SlimLine LNB does this and more. A portion of the incoming satellite signals are

converted to the 250 to 750 MHz range. Through a vari-ety of switching functions within the LNB, the 250 to 750 MHz range and the 950 to 2150 MHz range are both made available at each of the four outputs on the SlimLine LNB. The receiver chooses which band and polarization it wants simply by switching between 14 or 18 volts and also whether or not to include a 22 KHz signal along with the proper voltage.

We found the idea of using SPAUN switches in this appli-cation very intriguing so we decided to taker a closer look at how all of this works. SPAUN was kind enough to provide us with a number of their components so that we could put them to the test.

The number of receivers that need to be serviced will dic-tate what SPAUN components will be used and how many of them will be needed.

The most basic set up will provide outputs for as many as 16 receivers. For exam-ple, the four LNB outputs can be connected directly to a SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP switch (Fig.3) without the need for any amplifier com-ponents.

This switch already comes with the 16 outputs needed for 16 different receivers. Just plug the included power supply into a wall outlet, con-nect the other end into the proper jack on the switch and it’s ready to go (Fig.4). All of the receivers connected to this switch can indepen-

dently access all of the satel-lite signals from the DirecTV antenna as if each receiver were connected to its own antenna.

How does this work? The concept is actually quite simple. The receiver has the ability to send four different control signals (14V, 18V, 14V + 22 KHz and 18V + 22 KHz) via the coax cable to the LNB so that the proper band/polarization is selected. But when the SPAUN compo-nents are used in between the receiver and the SlimLine LNB, the sequence of events unfolds with a slight differ-ence. The receiver still sends out the proper control signal depending on the band/polar-ization it wants to receive but, instead of this finding itsway to the receiver, it ends up sent to a SPAUN multi-switch. As far as the receiver is concerned, it thinks it’s connected to an LNB.

The SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP multiswitch comes with four satellite signal inputs. Each of these inputs sends its own unique control signal to the SlimLine LNB:

Input 1 – 14VInput 2 – 18VInput 3 – 14V + 22 KHzInput 4 – 18V + 22 KHz

In this way, all of the avail-able satellite IF bands from the SlimLine LNB are deliv-ered to the SMS 41609 WBP multiswitch at the same time. The switch then routes the desired band/polarization to the connected receivers based on the control signals received by the switch from each of the receivers.

As mentioned earlier, one of these bands is the 250 to 750 MHz frequency band. Depending on the DirecTV receiver model, an internal or external BBC (base band converter) module is used to upconvert this frequency band to the standard satellite IF band so that the receiver can access these signals.

If the satellite system to be installed involves the use of more than 16 receivers, then additional multiswitches need to be used.

In some cases, this system must also be capable of han-dling terrestrial TV signals as well. The SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP multiswitch does not have a terrestrial input so for applications like this the GMS 51609 WBP can be used. Also, now that we are deal-ing with more than one multi-switch, it becomes necessary to include signal amplifiers

(Fig.3) SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP switch

(Fig.4) We removed the 4 black colored coax cables from grounding block and connected them to the SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP. Now we could connect up to 16 receivers.

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43www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/2009 — TELE-satellite & Broadband

and signal taps to the SPAUN set up as well.

For the first part of our testwe wanted to set a baseline measurement from which a comparison could be made when the SPAUN components were added. So, before any SPAUN components were put in place, we measured and

recorded all the active tran-sponders on the five satel-lites using the signal strength display that is included in the DirecTV receiver setup menu.

For the second part of our

test we used the following SPAUN components:

1xGBK 5500 WBP Wide-band Launch Amplifier

1xGTS 525 WB Penta Split-ter

1xGZR 5550/15 WB Penta Tap with Directional Coupler

2xGMS 51609 WBP Com-pact 16-Output Multiswitch

These components were connected to each other as shown in the diagram in Fig.5. The actual connected compo-nents can be seen in Fig.6. In the normal setup, the four cables from the SlimLine LNB were routed to a ground-ing block (Fig.7) at a loca-tion outside of the house just

before the cables went into the house. This was a con-venient point to connect the SPAUN components.

The four IF cables were removed from the ground-ing block and connected to the four inputs on the SPAUN Launch Amplifier. This partic-ular setup has the capability to provide independent satel-lite signal outputs for up to 32 receivers.

For the purpose of our tests we opted to measure the outputs at the eight Measur-ing Points (MP) highlighted in Fig.5. The unused outputs were terminated with 75

(Fig.5) Connection diagram provided by Spaun

(Fig.6) Our actual setup for this test. Now up to 32 receivers could be connected

Grounding block conveniently located for us to change the

cables: the black colored cables are the ones coming from dish.

(Fig.8) DirecTV Satellite at 101 westTransponder# Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

1 96 96 96 94 96 89 89 89 852 96 92 92 87 92 74 72 74 723 96 94 94 96 96 87 87 85 874 96 94 96 94 94 89 87 89 895 94 96 96 94 94 85 85 85 876 100 98 98 98 98 94 94 94 947 96 94 94 94 94 89 89 89 898 100 98 98 98 98 94 94 94 929 96 94 94 94 94 85 85 85 8710 98 94 90 94 94 74 74 74 7211 96 96 96 94 94 87 89 87 8712 96 96 96 94 96 87 87 87 8713 96 94 94 94 94 81 83 83 8314 100 98 98 98 98 85 85 87 8315 94 94 94 94 92 72 74 72 7216 100 98 98 98 98 78 76 78 7417 94 94 92 94 89 65 67 67 6718 100 100 100 100 100 94 94 94 9219 92 94 94 94 94 58 63 63 6120 89 89 87 87 87 49 49 56 5021 96 94 94 94 94 56 60 63 6022 98 96 96 96 96 52 50 54 4923 96 94 94 92 94 70 72 72 7024 98 94 94 94 94 60 58 61 5425 94 94 94 96 96 69 70 70 6926 98 94 94 94 94 58 58 58 5227 94 94 94 94 94 63 65 65 6328 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 029 96 94 94 94 94 70 72 72 7230 100 96 96 96 96 72 72 72 7031 90 90 90 92 92 74 76 74 7432 100 98 96 96 98 78 78 78 74

(Fig.9) DirecTV Satellite at 110 westTransponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

...9 96 94 94 94 94 83 81 78 78...11 94 92 94 94 90 78 76 74 74...13 96 96 96 96 96 89 89 85 85...

(Fig.10) DirecTV Satellite at 119 westTransponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

…22 92 94 96 94 96 74 72 67 6523 100 100 100 100 100 94 94 94 9424 94 89 94 92 89 76 74 72 6725 98 98 98 98 98 90 92 92 9426 96 96 96 96 96 76 74 69 6727 98 98 98 98 98 89 90 89 9228 96 94 94 94 94 72 69 63 6329 100 98 98 96 98 94 96 94 9630 96 96 96 96 94 89 87 85 8331 96 96 96 96 96 94 94 94 9432 98 98 98 98 98 94 94 92 90

(Fig.11) DirecTV Satellite at 99a westTransponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

1 94 67 69 72 70 0 20 0 202 94 87 87 87 87 70 70 69 673 92 72 72 74 72 27 36 27 344 92 87 87 87 87 72 72 72 725 94 81 81 83 81 45 52 45 526 94 87 87 87 87 72 72 72 707 92 83 83 85 85 56 61 54 608 92 87 87 87 85 67 67 65 639 94 89 89 89 89 67 72 67 7210 94 87 87 87 87 65 63 63 6311 92 87 87 89 89 70 72 70 7212 92 85 85 85 85 60 60 58 5813 96 94 94 94 96 76 78 76 7814 94 87 89 87 87 65 65 63 61…

(Fig.12) DirecTV Satellite at 99b westTransponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 02 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 03 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 06 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0…15 52 58 54 60 58 47 47 52 4916 98 96 96 96 96 87 87 87 8517 72 72 72 69 72 58 60 56 5618 81 80 81 78 80 65 65 65 6319 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 020 100 98 98 98 98 94 94 94 9421 74 70 70 70 72 60 61 60 6122 76 72 72 72 74 61 60 60 6023 40 43 34 38 38 36 34 34 3424 40 43 36 41 41 41 34 38 34…

(Fig.13) DirecTV Satellite at 103a westTransponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

1 100 100 100 100 100 98 98 98 1002 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 03 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 100 100 100 100 100 0 100 100 06 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0…15 92 89 89 90 90 0 85 87 8916 96 94 94 94 94 83 83 81 8117 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 018 98 98 0 98 98 94 94 96 019 94 94 94 94 96 85 85 97 8720 100 98 98 96 98 90 89 97 8721 76 76 76 76 76 70 69 70 7022 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 023 83 80 81 81 81 76 76 78 7624 100 100 100 100 100 96 96 96 96…

(Fig.14) DirecTV Satellite at 103b westTransponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12

1 94 94 94 94 94 81 85 83 852 94 90 90 90 90 0 76 69 723 94 92 92 92 92 78 81 78 814 92 89 89 89 89 54 78 72 745 92 92 92 92 92 80 83 81 836 92 89 89 89 89 74 78 74 767 92 90 90 90 90 78 81 80 838 94 89 89 89 89 74 76 72 729 92 92 92 92 92 78 80 78 8110 90 87 87 87 87 72 74 70 7211 94 92 92 92 92 78 81 81 8312 94 89 89 89 89 76 76 72 7413 94 92 92 92 92 81 81 81 8314 92 89 89 89 89 74 76 72 72…

44 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

Ohm terminations. The MP’s were also terminated with 75-Ohm terminations when they were not connected to a receiver.

As with the first part of thetest, all the active transpon-ders for the five satelliteswere measured and recorded for each of the MP’s (MP05 to MP12) using the same DirecTV receiver menu display. All of the collected data was orga-nized and tabulated in seven different tables (one for each satellite) so that each MP output could easily be com-pared with the other outputs as well as with the results of the first part of the test.These results can be seen in Fig.8 thru 14.

Looking closely at each of the tables you can see that the measured signal strengths at MP05 to MP08 compared very nicely to the normal setup. In fact there was very little dif-ference between any of the measurements and in some cases there was no difference at all. And as far as watch-ing TV goes, all of the chan-nels available with the normal setup (SD and HD) were also available at the four MP out-puts.

There was, however, some

differences between the measured signal strengths at MP09 to MP12 and the normal setup. In this case the mea-sured signal strengths were somewhat lower at these four MP’s than those of the normal setup. Although the signal strengths were lower, it did not interfere with any of the available TV channels. All of the available TV channels (SD and HD) could be viewed through any of the four MP outputs.

ConclusionSo, is the number of receiver

outputs using these SPAUN components limited to 32? Absolutely not. If you need more than 32 outputs for your specific DirecTV setup,simply add additional SPAUN components! The possibilities are endless. In the end all of the SPAUN components func-tioned exactly as they should. Does this surprise you?

It shouldn’t. SPAUN has been around since 1969 and in that time has built up quite a bit of experience when it comes to manufacturing sat-ellite components. They make quality products that fully live up to expectations.