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03-04/2014 —
TELE-audiovision International —
全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志
one is 110cm wide. The range of the an-
tennas reaches from 75 east to 34 west.“
What makes Daniel Rank‘s satellite sys-
tem so unique is how all of the compo-
nents are connected together and how all
the cables are routed: it‘s all highly pro-
fessional! Thanks to his electrical installa-
tion experience, he knows exactly how to
professionally install cable and also what
to look out for. He doesn‘t use the stand-
ard white installation cable that is actu-
ally meant to be used indoors, instead
he uses better-protected cable designed
to be used outdoors. He even considered
things like potential equalization; some-
thing that your average private antenna
builder wouldn‘t even think about.
The highlight of his system is the home-
made PC that he uses to control every-
thing. „My Home Theater consists of six
satellite tuners and eight 1.5 GB hard
drives that are switched using RAID.“
The signals from all of his LNBs end up
in his PC and he can use the PC‘s mouse
to switch between channels. If, while I‘m
watching a TV channel, I decide I want to
check my e-mails or surf the Internet, I
can do that with a simple mouse click.“ In-
stead of a remote control that he now only
needs to adjust the speaker volume on his
7.1 HiFi system, the only device he uses
while watching satellite TV is the mouse.
„When I want to adjust the settings on
my system, I use the Android programs
on my Smartphone to remotely control
the DVB channels.“ Daniel Rank has op-
timally set up the available software and
is already prepared for new technologies
such as the Ka-band and SatIP. „My ca-
bling is already prepared for it, I‘m just
waiting for less expensive hardware to
become available.“
Daniel Rank is not totally satisfied with
his system: „I‘m planning to reconstruct
the Toroidal antenna‘s LNB mounting rail
in order to be able to adjust the height of
the LNB installation.“ Not all of the satel-
lites sit perfectly on the orbital belt, some
of them are in inclined orbits. Daniel Rank
is a perfectionist; his philosophy men-
tioned at the beginning should not only
be understood like this: that the hardware
has to be the best, the installation itself
has to be the best it could possibly be.
Daniel Rank managed to get it done:
his satellite reception system is without a
doubt the best private professionally in-
stalled system there is!
From the side you can see the 12 LNBs
on his Toroidal antenna. This antenna is
shaped in such a way that all of the 12
LNBs sit in the focal point of the antenna.
All 12 satellites can therefore be equally
received depending on the footprints. The
box on the wall provides a WLAN signal.
Why? "My WLAN signal is attenuated
quite a bit when it goes through the wall,
that's why I installed a WLAN repeater so
that whenever I'm working on my system
out in the yard, I'll have an excellent WLAN
signal."
