Sky is gradually switching from DVB-S technology to the DVB-S2 system, which guarantees higher video quality
Big (technical) maneuvers in Sky, with possible inconvenience for a small segment of its users and advantages for another segment: the digital satellite TV platform has in fact decided to switch to the new DVB-S2 transmission standard (Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite – Second Generation). This was reported by Dday.it, which received news of the decision during a technical seminar in which Sky Italia also took part.
Already today, many channels are transmitted with this standard (certainly all those in HD) which is equivalent, in terms of technical characteristics, to that of the second generation digital terrestrial television (DVB-T2). Those still broadcasting in DVB-S of the previous generation, on the other hand, will be progressively brought onto the new technology. The new standard is more efficient because it uses the MPEG 4 compression algorithm instead of the old MPEG 2 and can transmit more channels in the same bandwidth. The Sky decoders present today in Italian homes are almost all already compatible, there should be no problems even with centralized condominium systems, but very old systems may not work.
Remember that Sky is also available via the Internet, along with many other TV streaming services, such as the following:
Sky on DVB-S2: what changes
The DVB-S2 standard has significantly better performance than the previous one, because it allows an increase in the available bitrate on the same bandwidth as the satellite transponder. The measured gain of DVB-S2 compared to DVB-S is about 30% at the same bandwidth of the transponder, with the same power of the emitted signal. If we add to this the improvement resulting from the new MPEG-4 AVC compression, we obtain another advantage of this standard: the possibility of transmitting more channels with the same transponder, or of using fewer transponders for the same channels. This, for Sky, will mean reducing transmission costs: from 24 to 23 active transponders (which will drop further if some channels are closed).
Sky on DVB-S2: what users have to do
The transition to the new DVB-S2 standard on Sky will be painless for the vast majority of users. Almost all the systems present in Italy today, in fact, are already compatible. The old analogue systems (if they still exist) will most likely not be able to process the signal. In this case the user will be forced to change system and Sky, for this, has already contacted its users with SD decoders. Those who have centralized systems in condominiums, however, could gain: decreasing the transponders occupied to transmit the same channels, in fact, it will free one that could be used to receive the transmissions of other satellite platforms, such as Tivùsat.