1. TEST REPORT Multiswitch Amplifier for DirecTV
SPAUN Switch for USA
larger apartment buildings.
Here the commercial end
users want to provide inde-
pendent satellite TV signals
Ron Roessel to each hotel room or apart-
ment with all of this being
accomplished using a single
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 multiswitch
■ (Fig.2) Closeup of feedhorn with LNBs
with an integrated power supply. Since satellite antenna. Obviously,
those in private homes. But
then they have continuously added to the truth is DirecTV also pro- a standard DirecTV satellite
vides service to commercial system can’t handle this all
their product line such that today their end users such as hotels and by itself. That’s where SPAUN
product range consists of more than 300 comes in.
SPAUN has developed an
products. array of products exclusively
for the DirecTV SlimLine dish
antenna system (Fig.1) that
allows the incoming satellite
Recently, SPAUN ventured ers! In 2007 DirecTV began
signals from five different
into a new arena by begin- offering 70 HD channels and
satellites to be distributed to
ning to offer amplifier and today that number has risen
multiple receivers using only
multiswitch products for use to over 130 HD channels.
the one satellite dish.
exclusively with the DirecTV When you talk to most
The SlimLine LNB (Fig.2)
satellite PayTV system in the people about DirecTV, they
comes with four indepen-
USA. DirecTV itself came into think of DirecTV as merely
dent outputs that when used
existence back in 1990 and a provider of TV services to
normally allow the end user
launched their satellite TV individual end users such as
to connect up to four satel-
lite receivers. But when used
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
with the SPAUN components,
16 and more receivers can be
connected.If you take a close
look at the SlimLine LNB, you
service in June of 1994. The might say to yourself: “I only
idea of watching TV via satel- see three LNB’s”. And, yes,
lite instead of through a cable ■ (Fig.1) The that’s exactly what it looks
DirecTV dish
TV service provider became setup we used for like from the outside. On the
so popular that in just a little this test inside however, much more is
over a year, they reached one going on.
million subscribers. The LNB on the right is
Just ten years later in 2005 actually three LNB’s in one
they had 15 million subscrib- that together with the other
40 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

2. two add up to five. Then you
might 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
■ (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.
dently access all of the satel- In this way, all of the avail-
lite signals from the DirecTV able satellite IF bands from
antenna as if each receiver the SlimLine LNB are deliv-
were connected to its own ered to the SMS 41609 WBP
antenna. multiswitch at the same
How does this work? The time. The switch then routes
concept is actually quite the desired band/polarization
simple. The receiver has the to the connected receivers
ability to send four different based on the control signals
control signals (14V, 18V, received by the switch from
14V + 22 KHz and 18V + 22 each of the receivers.
KHz) via the coax cable to the As mentioned earlier, one
LNB so that the proper band/ of these bands is the 250
■ (Fig.3) SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP switch polarization is selected. But to 750 MHz frequency band.
when the SPAUN compo- Depending on the DirecTV
converted to the 250 to 750 The number of receivers that nents are used in between receiver model, an internal
MHz range. Through a vari- need to be serviced will dic- the receiver and the SlimLine or external BBC (base band
ety of switching functions tate what SPAUN components LNB, the sequence of events converter) module is used
within the LNB, the 250 to will be used and how many of unfolds with a slight differ- to upconvert this frequency
750 MHz range and the 950 them will be needed. ence. The receiver still sends band to the standard satellite
to 2150 MHz range are both The most basic set up will out the proper control signal IF band so that the receiver
made available at each of the provide outputs for as many depending on the band/polar- can access these signals.
four outputs on the SlimLine as 16 receivers. For exam- ization it wants to receive If the satellite system to be
LNB. The receiver chooses ple, the four LNB outputs but, instead of this finding its installed involves the use of
which band and polarization can be connected directly way to the receiver, it ends more than 16 receivers, then
it wants simply by switching to a SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP up sent to a SPAUN multi- additional multiswitches need
between 14 or 18 volts and switch (Fig.3) without the switch. As far as the receiver to be used.
also whether or not to include need for any amplifier com- is concerned, it thinks it’s In some cases, this system
a 22 KHz signal along with ponents. connected to an LNB. must also be capable of han-
the proper voltage. This switch already comes The SPAUN SMS 41609 WBP dling terrestrial TV signals as
We found the idea of using with the 16 outputs needed multiswitch comes with four well. The SPAUN SMS 41609
SPAUN switches in this appli- for 16 different receivers. satellite signal inputs. Each WBP multiswitch does not
cation very intriguing so we Just plug the included power of these inputs sends its own have a terrestrial input so
decided to taker a closer supply into a wall outlet, con- unique control signal to the for applications like this the
look at how all of this works. nect the other end into the SlimLine LNB: GMS 51609 WBP can be used.
SPAUN was kind enough to proper jack on the switch Input 1 – 14V Also, now that we are deal-
provide us with a number of and it’s ready to go (Fig.4). Input 2 – 18V ing with more than one multi-
their components so that we All of the receivers connected Input 3 – 14V + 22 KHz switch, it becomes necessary
could put them to the test. to this switch can indepen- Input 4 – 18V + 22 KHz to include signal amplifiers
42 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

3. and signal taps to the SPAUN test we used the following These components were before the cables went into
set up as well. SPAUN components: connected to each other as the house. This was a con-
For the first part of our test 1xGBK 5500 WBP Wide- shown in the diagram in Fig.5. venient point to connect the
we wanted to set a baseline band Launch Amplifier The actual connected compo- SPAUN components.
measurement from which a 1xGTS 525 WB Penta Split- nents can be seen in Fig.6. The four IF cables were
comparison could be made ter In the normal setup, the four removed from the ground-
when the SPAUN components 1xGZR 5550/15 WB Penta cables from the SlimLine LNB ing block and connected to
were added. So, before any Tap with Directional Coupler were routed to a ground- the four inputs on the SPAUN
SPAUN components were put 2xGMS 51609 WBP Com- ing block (Fig.7) at a loca- Launch Amplifier. This partic-
in place, we measured and pact 16-Output Multiswitch tion outside of the house just 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
recorded all the active tran- ■ (Fig.6) Our actual setup for this
test. Now up to 32 receivers
sponders on the five satel- could be connected
lites using the signal strength
display that is included in Grounding block conveniently ■
the DirecTV receiver setup located for us to change the
cables: the black colored cables
menu.
are the ones coming from dish.
For the second part of our
www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/2009 — TELE-satellite & Broadband 43

4. (Fig.8) DirecTV Satellite at 101 west Ohm terminations. The MP’s differences between the
Transponder# Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12 were also terminated with measured signal strengths at
1 96 96 96 94 96 89 89 89 85 75-Ohm terminations when
2 96 92 92 87 92 74 72 74 72
MP09 to MP12 and the normal
3 96 94 94 96 96 87 87 85 87 they were not connected to setup. In this case the mea-
4 96 94 96 94 94 89 87 89 89
5 94 96 96 94 94 85 85 85 87 a receiver. sured signal strengths were
6 100 98 98 98 98 94 94 94 94 As with the first part of the somewhat lower at these
7 96 94 94 94 94 89 89 89 89
8 100 98 98 98 98 94 94 94 92 test, all the active transpon- four MP’s than those of the
9 96 94 94 94 94 85 85 85 87
ders for the five satellites normal setup. Although the
10 98 94 90 94 94 74 74 74 72
11 96 96 96 94 94 87 89 87 87 were measured and recorded signal strengths were lower, it
12 96 96 96 94 96 87 87 87 87
13 96 94 94 94 94 81 83 83 83 for each of the MP’s (MP05 to did not interfere with any of
14 100 98 98 98 98 85 85 87 83 MP12) using the same DirecTV the available TV channels. All
15 94 94 94 94 92 72 74 72 72
16 100 98 98 98 98 78 76 78 74 receiver menu display. All of of the available TV channels
17 94 94 92 94 89 65 67 67 67
18 100 100 100 100 100 94 94 94 92
the collected data was orga- (SD and HD) could be viewed
19 92 94 94 94 94 58 63 63 61 nized and tabulated in seven
20 89 89 87 87 87 49 49 56 50 through any of the four MP
21 96 94 94 94 94 56 60 63 60 different tables (one for each
outputs.
22 98 96 96 96 96 52 50 54 49 satellite) so that each MP
Conclusion
23 96 94 94 92 94 70 72 72 70
24 98 94 94 94 94 60 58 61 54 output could easily be com-
25 94 94 94 96 96 69 70 70 69
26 98 94 94 94 94 58 58 58 52
pared with the other outputs
So, is the number of receiver
27 94 94 94 94 94 63 65 65 63 as well as with the results
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 outputs using these SPAUN
29 96 94 94 94 94 70 72 72 72 of the first part of the test.
30 100 96 96 96 96 72 72 72 70 components limited to 32?
These results can be seen in
31 90 90 90 92 92 74 76 74 74 Absolutely not. If you need
32 100 98 96 96 98 78 78 78 74 Fig.8 thru 14.
more than 32 outputs for
Looking closely at each of
(Fig.9) DirecTV Satellite at 110 west your specific DirecTV setup,
Transponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12
the tables you can see that the
simply add additional SPAUN
... measured signal strengths at
9 96 94 94 94 94 83 81 78 78
MP05 to MP08 compared very components! The possibilities
...
11 94 92 94 94 90 78 76 74 74 nicely to the normal setup. In are endless. In the end all of
... the SPAUN components func-
13 96 96 96 96 96 89 89 85 85 fact there was very little dif-
... ference between any of the tioned exactly as they should.
(Fig.10) DirecTV Satellite at 119 west measurements and in some Does this surprise you?
Transponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12 cases there was no difference It shouldn’t. SPAUN has
…
at all. And as far as watch- been around since 1969 and
22 92 94 96 94 96 74 72 67 65
23 100 100 100 100 100 94 94 94 94 ing TV goes, all of the chan- in that time has built up quite
24 94 89 94 92 89 76 74 72 67
25 98 98 98 98 98 90 92 92 94 nels available with the normal a bit of experience when it
26 96 96 96 96 96 76 74 69 67 setup (SD and HD) were also comes to manufacturing sat-
27 98 98 98 98 98 89 90 89 92
28 96 94 94 94 94 72 69 63 63 available at the four MP out- ellite components. They make
29 100 98 98 96 98 94 96 94 96
puts. quality products that fully live
30 96 96 96 96 94 89 87 85 83
31 96 96 96 96 96 94 94 94 94 There was, however, some up to expectations.
32 98 98 98 98 98 94 94 92 90
(Fig.11) DirecTV Satellite at 99a west (Fig.13) DirecTV Satellite at 103a west
Transponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12 Transponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12
1 94 67 69 72 70 0 20 0 20 1 100 100 100 100 100 98 98 98 100
2 94 87 87 87 87 70 70 69 67 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 92 72 72 74 72 27 36 27 34 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 92 87 87 87 87 72 72 72 72 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 94 81 81 83 81 45 52 45 52 5 100 100 100 100 100 0 100 100 0
6 94 87 87 87 87 72 72 72 70 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 92 83 83 85 85 56 61 54 60 …
8 92 87 87 87 85 67 67 65 63 15 92 89 89 90 90 0 85 87 89
9 94 89 89 89 89 67 72 67 72 16 96 94 94 94 94 83 83 81 81
10 94 87 87 87 87 65 63 63 63 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
11 92 87 87 89 89 70 72 70 72 18 98 98 0 98 98 94 94 96 0
12 92 85 85 85 85 60 60 58 58 19 94 94 94 94 96 85 85 97 87
13 96 94 94 94 96 76 78 76 78 20 100 98 98 96 98 90 89 97 87
14 94 87 89 87 87 65 65 63 61 21 76 76 76 76 76 70 69 70 70
… 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
23 83 80 81 81 81 76 76 78 76
(Fig.12) DirecTV Satellite at 99b west 24 100 100 100 100 100 96 96 96 96
…
Transponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (Fig.14) DirecTV Satellite at 103b west
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Transponder # Normal MP05 MP06 MP07 MP08 MP09 MP10 MP11 MP12
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 94 94 94 94 94 81 85 83 85
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 94 90 90 90 90 0 76 69 72
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 94 92 92 92 92 78 81 78 81
… 4 92 89 89 89 89 54 78 72 74
15 52 58 54 60 58 47 47 52 49 5 92 92 92 92 92 80 83 81 83
16 98 96 96 96 96 87 87 87 85 6 92 89 89 89 89 74 78 74 76
17 72 72 72 69 72 58 60 56 56 7 92 90 90 90 90 78 81 80 83
18 81 80 81 78 80 65 65 65 63 8 94 89 89 89 89 74 76 72 72
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 92 92 92 92 92 78 80 78 81
20 100 98 98 98 98 94 94 94 94 10 90 87 87 87 87 72 74 70 72
21 74 70 70 70 72 60 61 60 61 11 94 92 92 92 92 78 81 81 83
22 76 72 72 72 74 61 60 60 60 12 94 89 89 89 89 76 76 72 74
23 40 43 34 38 38 36 34 34 34 13 94 92 92 92 92 81 81 81 83
24 40 43 36 41 41 41 34 38 34 14 92 89 89 89 89 74 76 72 72
… …
44 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 02-03/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com