Promax TV Explorer - TELE
Contents
1. TEST REPORT Promax TV Explorer Small All in One Unit Large Heavy and Expensive these are words that most of you have up until now used whenever the subject signal analyzer comes up The fact that it doesn t always have to be this way was demon strated by the Spanish company Promax Not long ago we were told about their newest model Prodig 5 TV Explorer so naturally we wanted to have a test i Ad AOR OT MIT As expected from Promax this unit s workmanship left us with a very good impression The chassis is surrounded by rubber to help protect it from damage while at the same time allowing it to be easily stood up Also included in the package was a plastic carrying case to help pro tect it from moisture and dirt a power supply a charger cable for a vehicle as well as a variety of adapter plugs and a user manual written in English French and Spanish Despite its light weight the built in Li battery can power the Prodig 5 for up to 3 5 hours This is an exceptionally long time compared to some of its larger brothers The front panel sports a 5 inch TFT color display four status LED s a set of up down left right arrow buttons plus a set of 12 pushbuttons to con trol the analyzers various func tions Naturally the buttons are designed so that moisture and dirt cannot get behind them An adjustment knob is used for varying the frequency and is also used as the on off switch The antenna connector2. at a reduced speed with an overall picture generated at a slower measure ment speed that may not show every weak signal In the Align Mode the spectrum display is initially generated and then kept up to date at a much faster pace thereby making it ideal for pre cise adjustments Additionally in this mode the signal strength can also be presented audibly The arrow buttons can be used to zoom in on individual frequency ranges or reposition the y axis of the signal strength display Once the initial settings have been taken care of the first fre quency can be selected that can later be looked at much more closely Frequency selection is handled either by the control knob or by direct entry using the integrated 10 button keypad The frequency entered can be either the downlink frequency or the transponder IF With terres trial signals it can be as simple as entering in the correct channel number In digital mode a push of the Scan button is enough for the TV Explorer to attempt to find more information on the selected transponder frequency If it s an analog signal the unit will recognize this and indicate this by lighting the correspond ing status LED Since there is no integrated analog satellite tuner picture and sound can only be displayed in terrestrial mode In satellite mode only measurement data is displayed If it s a digital trans ponder the automatic scan func tion of the TV Explorer comes into pla
3. can be found on the top of the unit and can be used not only for satellite signals but also for terrestrial and cable signals The manufacturer even thought to include a Scart con nector on the left side of the box through which the output of the actual display signal is available and also external signals can be connected An RS 232 port on the rear panel for sending meas urement results to a PC and for uploading new software is also included Unfortunately the included user manual seemed somewhat lean and only gave 14 TELE satellite International www JTELe satellite com sample sent to us right away The package we were waiting for arrived just a few days ago We quickly unpacked everything and placed the 23x16x7 6 cm analyzer on the table We were used to seeing ana lyzers that were twice the size and at a weight of only 1 9 kg it was a true featherweight a brief description of the unit s more important features Everyday Use Promax wanted to take advan tage of the increasing digitali zation and thus paid very close attention to the receiver s digital DVB S DVB C and DVB T com patibility An analog terrestrial tuner is also included that hap pens to support the PAL NTSC and SECAM TV standards The OSD on screen display is avail able in English German Span ish French and Italian while an integrated light sensor automati cally controls the displays con trast and brightness for optimum readabil
4. RYING CURRENT DVB S CONFIG _CANCEL ea Automatic recognition of symbolrate and FEC TECHNIC DATA Promax Electronica S A Barcelona Spain E mail promax promax es Tel 34 93 260 20 02 Fax 34 93 338 11 26 Model Prodig 5 TV Explorer Function Professional Digital Analog TV Satellite Cable Signal Analyzer Frequency Range Band 1 45 865 MHz Band 2 950 2150 MHz Measurement Range Terrestrial 10 120 dBuV Accuracy Satellite 30 120 dBuV Terrestrial 1 5 dB Monitor Satellite 2 5 dB 5 TFT Color Screen Color Systems PAL NTSC SECAM TV Standards M N B G I D K and L QPSK Symbolrates 2 45 Msps Power Supply Li lon 7 2V 11Ah 3 5 hours Operation without Recharge 3 0 hours Recharging Time Operating Temperature 5 40 C Thomas Haring TELE satellite Test Center Austria help The TV Explorer would not only be a tool for the professional it would also be an excellent addition to the test equipment rack of any satellite hobbyist The user manual only provides a general overview of the TV Explorer s basic functions The manufacturer should consider making some improvements here www TELE satellite com Measurement Anteni ligt Mode Terrestrial ioomHe a2 Satelite SCS s2mmz oas so Fu m Sampling rates of the
5. TV Explorer spectrum analyzer TELE satellite International ZAE EM
6. ity After looking over the hand book for a short time every user should become familiar with the elementary functions of the Digital Analog TV Satellite and Cable Signal Analyzer easy to read and _ self explana tory buttons If you want to take advantage of all of the TV Explor er s functions you will have to do plenty of learn by doing since the user manual won t be able to answer too many detailed ques tions Of course the first step would be to select the type of signal you would like to measure From there you go to the spectrum analyzer display With analog terrestrial signals as well as with DVB T and DVB C signals active channels would immediately be visible aS peaks on the display In satellite reception mode the correct switching voltage must first be selected as does the proper band and any DiSEqC parameters must also be chosen The TV Explorer can supply 5V 13V 15V 18V 24V as well as 13V and 18V in combination with a 22 kHz signal If necessary the analyzer can switch to an exter nal source of power The TV Explorer can display the actual power usage of the LNB or multiswitch an especially interesting feature The DiSEqC 1 0 protocol is included for mul tifeed systems as DiSEqC 1 2 for motorized antennas DiSEqC 1 1 and 1 3 USALS are unfortu nately not supported The spectrum display of the TV Explorer is available in two dif ferent modes In the first mode the display acts
7. n this We also have to give praise to the manufacturer s competent and quick to respond technical Support team After posing a technical question anonymously we are happy to say that we got the desired and above all cor rect answer within 24 hours There s no doubt the TV Explorer will be the tool of choice in the TELE satellite test center in the future The TV Explorer is an exceptionally handy lightweight and compact analyzer that comes with everything you d expect in a modern piece of test It has no trouble handling any kind of digital signal and can also deal with analog terres trial signals as well It is easy and logical to operate and should there ever be a problem the manufac turer s first class technical support team is there to equipment CHANNEL ASTRA HL L DVB 5 i TW NETW 13E NetMed VIDEO 2326 kbit s DTW VPID S516 APIID 650 chi MP ML Me 7 Gi 4 3 25Hz 1568 47 113184 4 Component SID 355 NID 3 FREE WHE Signal display in DVB S modes Manufacturer m LNB POWER o y yo DVB S QPSK Et 30 50 70 90 110 130 FREQ ESRIMHz C N gt 12 3 dB 4 kHz POWER 53 5 dByVv DL 11318 4 MHz MER 10 7 dB CBER VBER CH GEE MHz POWER 56 9 dBpV Ea Snapshot of Hotbird 13 east horizontal high band AUTO ID FREQ 1453 46 MHz DL 11203 4MHz STARTING TESTING DVB S LNB H Lo POWER OK 57 0 gt 25 0 dBpV T
8. y In just a short time the symbolrate FEC and other critical data of the transponder is identified With a push of the TV button the PMT s are read the channel list is displayed and the first receivable channel is pre sented The TV Explorer uses an easy to read Info bar to dis play not only information such as PID s and resolution but also the actual measured datarate the service provider as well as any encryption used by the channel This makes it easy to iden tify what satellite you happened to land on while adjusting the antenna Otherwise it would also help to have a quick look at a fre quency list such as can be found at www satcodx com The TV Explorer supports the measurements of VBER C N Signal strength MER and CBER to help with any fine tuning adjust ments The VBER measurement indicates the number of error bits after Viterbi error correction while the C N carrier to noise ratio indicates the noise figure MER is the modulation error rate and CBER is the number of error bits after error correction All of this data can be displayed in an easy to read graphic while the other values are minimized and placed near the bottom of the display To help make things even easier the user can set up a number of different satellite pro files several are already pre programmed into the unit This takes some of the guesswork out of setting up a multifeed system on multiple connectors since the TV Explorer b
9. y using the stored profiles will automatically adjust for the correct DiSEqC polariza tion and band settings In addition to this box being used as an analyzer the TV Explorer would also make an interesting tool for the diehard feedhunter Thanks to the spec trum display new signals can be found as soon as they appear and with the help of the Auto scan function can be recognized and identified Aside from pic ture and audio all of the signal s critical data such as PID s FEC symbolrate resolution datarate TV standard etc are displayed on the screen Unfortunately the display of MPEG 4 2 2 signals is not possible The handling of DVB T and DVB C signals as well as analog terrestrial signals is just as simple and profession ally done The capabilities of the small TV Explorer seem to be unlimited here as well To properly test the TV Explorer we hooked it up to a USALS antenna and were very much amazed Through its light weight and small size and also its handy carrying case this unit contrary to its larger cousins is perfect for antenna alignment in hard to reach localities Since the analyzer is not DiSEqC 1 3 com patible we simply used an FTA receiver with integrated USALS and routed the video signal to the analyzer through the built in Scart connector With a push of a button we were able to switch back and forth between our measurement results and the FTA receiver It doesn t get any easier tha
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search