What is Cable TV?

Cable TV is the method of transmission of television signals or radio signals directly to the customer via cable network connected directly to the consumer. Satellite television and cable TV technology is the same. The only difference is the mode of transmission. While satellite TV uses wireless transmission and needs an antennae to receive signals cable TV uses coaxial or optical signals for transmission of television signals. As in the case of radio broadcasting, the use of different frequencies allows many channels to be distributed through the same cable, without separate wires for each. The channel that the viewer ones to see can be selected using a tuner from among the collection of a huge amount of signals.

Basically cable television contain a huge network system of cables by which the signal is transmitted through .Because the signal from the antenna became weaker as it traveled through the length of cable, cable providers had to insert amplifiers at regular intervals to boost the strength of the signal and make it acceptable for viewing. The cable television that reaches your home must have traveled through twenty to thirty amplifiers before it reaches your home.

Normally cable TV systems operated on the principle of tree and branch. It consisted of an antenna for receiving over the air broadcast programs, a building called a head end for combining the programs received and a trunk distribution system of booster amplifiers and coaxial cables for delivery of the programs to customers.

However in the late seventies antenna was replaced with a satellite earth station and the trunk system with microwave links to what are called hub sites. With the introduction of commercially practical fiber optic cables in the late 1980s, a significant advancement in improving the quality and reliability of the cable network became possible.

Whether to use cable television or satellite TV has been a point of debate ever since television came into existence. Cable television is more viable when you are living in a densely populated region .however if you are living in a place which is very sparsely populated satellite TV is the better option as you would need to install hundreds of meters of costly cable wire in order to get a transmission in a sparsely populated place.