How do we receive our tv channels?

I think there is a misconception out there about where the tv channels on the village MATV system come from. Judging by the comments that I receive, a lot of residents believe that our channels 2-22, are supplied by Charter Communications.

All of the channels on our lineup, channels 2-22, 98, 99, and the FM radio lineup are received right here on the Heritage Village property through a combination of technologies.

Most of our channels are received through over the air broadcasts which we pick up via antennas on our tv tower. At it's very basic, think rabbit ears or an antenna on your roof. Instead of rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna, we have individual antennas, cut to frequency, on our 150' tower and aimed directly at the desired station, but the technology is still the same. The transmitting station broadcasts their signal over the public airwaves and we receive them here at our tower location.

Several of our channels are received from satellite dishes. C Span, Home Shopping Network and QVC, all are received with a large C Band satellite dish. C Span 2 recently switched to a new satellite and encrypted their signal preventing us from carrying that channel.

Channel 14 originates at the management office with a computer and a bank of networked DVD and VHS players. When we have a live presentation from Sarah Cooke Hall, we switch over to dedicated cable from the hall up to our tower for insertion on channel 14.

We also have three FM antennas on our tower, one for Connecticut, one for New York and also one aimed up towards Massachusetts in order to receive WFCR from Amherst. We recently lost WQXR as the station was sold to WNYC which has a low power transmitter which cannot send a signal to this area. I,ve replaced the off air signal with one originating from a computer web stream, then modulated it on a carrier and inserted on our FM lineup. Sometimes, it's problematic because of inconsistancies from the internet, but for the most part, works well. Hopefully, we can integrate more of this technology in the future.

All of these signals are received and in the case of the tv signals, are converted from digital to analog, processed and combined with the FM radio and several high definition feeds from WFSB and WLIW and sent to Charters headquarters in Newtown over fiber optic cables.

There, Charter adds their lineup including internet, telephone and digital services and sent back to HV over fiber optic cables and distributed throughout the village.

I,m always asked why we dont just run our own cable system here in the village. We have tried that, but that is another story that I will explain on a future post.