All the clients who uplink their TV channels on the satellite through a dedicated teleport situated in the city or even nearby. The TV channel is monitored by clients in their studio using a small dish. The size of dish may be 65 cm or 1.0 Meter. They down link TV channel from the satellite with the details provided by the Teleport.
If the client will not get his TV channel’s audio/video in the studio immediately he calls Teleport and complaint for this. Though teleport will give him reply that at teleport your TV channels are getting fine in down link from satellite. They will ask then why we are not getting. Teleport tech politely reply check your dish, cable and connector etc. fix it if have broken or disconnected. Check orientation of the dish is not changed. After that they will attend the problem with their dish related and get TV service running in the studio.
They will get response from Teleport then start fixing the problem which is lying in their premises. They consider that problem would be at teleport. Client thinks that at their premises all are ok. No one thinks that problem may be at their end.
Sometime, commercial IRD gets hanged at the client’s end. They must restart IRD and service get normal on their TV screen.
Sometime clients are not satisfied with behavior of tech at teleport and the way they reply them. If the duration of service outage is greater say 15 to 20 minutes, and matter is escalated to higher up from the client’s end. This is causing problem to tech on duty. Teleport manager may issue warning or maximum fire tech to keep client happy.
This will give details scenario what failure could be there for a TV service in down link. It is explained considering different scenarios.
Down links of all uplink from the teleport are extended for 24X7 monitoring through commercial receiver and 1 M dish or smaller at Teleport MCR. This is monitored by technical staff on duty.
1. One service in down link failed on MCPC platform.
2. Total TS services in down link failed
3. Degradation observed on all services
4. Intermittent service with varying BER
5. CXR lock but no A/V
6. Miscellaneous problem
Check the source of service
A. On Fiber if it is on fiber from client’s studio
B. Play out if it is from teleport.
C. IRD if turnaround service
D. IRD if service on MPLS link
E. Check your commercial receiver.
A. If service is on Fiber.
If service is not present on both the fibers.
Action: Call client and report that your TV service not available on primary and secondary both the fibers. Please check.
Cause: There may be some problem in the client’s studio such as power problem, cabling or other.
- If service is running on one fiber say secondary but not on primary
Action: Immediately switch the service to secondary restore the service. Report service is not available on primary to client.
- If more services on that route is not running report problem to fiber team.
- Send hazardous notification to all clients whose services running on that fiber.
B. If service is from Teleport Play out failed.
Cause: play out automation is hanged. Or it is stopped.
Action: restart play out restored the service.
C. Service is from Turn around failed
Causes: 1. Service is not available on down link from satellite.
2. Subscription is overdue and stopped.
3. May be CXR interference in down link or low power label of signal.
Action: check and identify cause. Take appropriate action to sat operator to restore the service.
- Informed client about this exact problem.
D. Service is not on MPLS link.
Cause: May be subscription is overdue and stopped.
- IRD hanged need restart
- Service not running of the link may be some problem at distant end.
Action: Contact service provider, report problem and restore the service.
- Informed local client of problem.
E. If service is not running in your MCR check and restart receiver to resume service.
- Also check down link on Spectrum Analyzer about down link level, CXR interference etc.
Multiplex System problem
Check encoder for alarm on it, status of Audio and Video.
Cause: If no input to encoder
Action: Check fiber switch output, if signal present.
Check router output,
Check cables for disconnection or fault which is rare.
- If Signal present at input to encoder switch to back up encoder to restore the service.
- Check TS ASI from Teleport Multiplex
- Check TS ASI from client’s multiples.
- Check TS on TS analyzer, DV station or Dektek for error in TS 101 290 priority 1 and 2.
- If error is present on main check Back up also.
If TS is not ok on both tell clients on problem.
If TS is ok switch it and restore services.
Check Antenna controller is peaked properly if not peak it manually.
Check modulator if showing alarm error. Fix the error and then-
Check IF switch for any alarm /error.
Check IF is ok to up convertor
Check HPA for fault, displaying correct power if not adjust it. In case of fault switch it to back up HPA.
Cause: This may be due heavy rain on teleport causing uplink carrier power variation to satellite, as well as down link carrier power variation to LNA/ LNB. Hence IRD is showing BER variation and unlocking occasionally. Thus TV services are degraded occasionally. It causes freezing to lot more blocking on videos.
Cause: carrier interference on transponder.
Carrier in carrier present causing BER variation and intermittent black; blocking in the service.
Cause: Encryption system is failed or not active.
Action: check for BISS or RAS encryption code and re-entered to get Audio and video ok.
If you are using Cam card in IRD, remove and re-insert to resume service. If not resumed talk to service provider if they have some encryption problem.
Remarks:
Many occasions I have come across that in hurry technicians get panic and start diagnosis of the fault wrongly. This happens to reduce outage time to a minimum. In such cases outage time go more to get on problem and resolved the issues.
Manager calls tech and become angry, so start shouting on him. What to say to client on the duration of outage? You do not know how to proceed? What to check first? You checked so many things but in the last you checked source, while fault was from client and duration gone more. You cannot tell now that service was not present from client.
Note: everyone wants to save himself. When problem you locate is from client side. The person at clients studio will say do not send outage report on this. Or ask you to keep duration for two to three minutes. It will save him from their higher ups.
At the same time if outage is longer duration due to teleport, he may argue you on duration that outage was for 20 minutes and you send 15 minutes in the report. Thus tech at teleport has to prove duration. This is possible where teleport monitoring services on software based monitoring system.
Teleport and clients are already agree and have signed agreement that outage duration if exceeds from 15 minutes teleport will compensate it by paying an amount @ 5 dolls per minutes.
Thus teleport tech comes under umbrella on this fault. He was scolded and asked explanation from manage-ment. This shows technicians capability and knowledge on the teleport system. He may be asked to learn more on the system. I have seen staff at teleport demoralized due to this when scolded in the front of other staffs.
I had asked tech in such cases to see me in the office. When he visits me, I explained him process how to check and proceed on the fault finding. Do not be panic keep calm. Check source if service is present or not. If service is not present on primary path or both. If say not present on primary but ok on secondary then switch to secondary manually restore the service and report client that your service was not available in primary path. Duration of outage would me minimum say two minutes due to switching problem at teleport. No one shout on you.
Tech staffs get knowledge if log book is maintained properly. Please write it in the log book so that other tech come cross such problem get it fixed in minimum duration.
Nut cell: in the event of outage occurred check source first before digging more in the system. Generally problem occurs from source itself.
Teleport equipment is redundant so they will take care of them self if one fails. This is configured either chain redundancy or equipment redundancy.
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