Two types of television are available for boats standard Terrestrial and Satellite.  

Terrestrial is designed for land based television, where an antenna is not moving and is aligned with the broadcast transmitter.  Boats are always moving so an Antenna cannot be perfectly aligned to the transmitter, and also boats are at sea level surrounded by hilly areas and cliffs.  Have a look at houses on the water, many have antennas up to 20 to 30m above their roof to get a signal. This can only be done on a yacht by placing the antenna at the top of the mast, but this is still not successful, as when the yachts rocks or moves the antenna swings many metres at a time. Terrestrial Television is not designed or suitable for boats.

Satellite is transmitted thousands of kilometres to earth from a gyro stationary Satellite located close to the equator.   Australia's TV Satellites are located above New Guinea, 33,000km in the sky.  Ocean TV Marine Satellite Antennas are designed to be used on boats to track these TV Satellites and will the aid of gyro stabilisation, will lock onto the Satellite whether the boat is rocking, turning, swinging on a mooring, or travelling at speed.  As long as the antenna is not blocked by cliff or mountain, which is very rare, a perfect digital TV picture will be received.

Therefore the advantage of satellite television is the choice of either Pay or FTA TV, high quality HD Digital Signal no matter where you are located on the water within the Satellites shadow.  For example in Sydney, Terrestrial TV reception is poor in Sydney Harbour and non existent in Broken Bay, Pittwater and Hawkesbury River, a Ocean TV Antenna will give you access to hundreds of Pay TV Stations, or perfect Digital FTA TV.

Many customers find they use their boat more often when they have access to quality Television, with the ability to watch News, Movies and Sport were and when they want to.

1. Where your vessel is located.
2. Where you intend to spend your time cruising.
3. Whether you wish to watch Pay/Subscription TV,  Free to Air TV, or both.

Below is a map of areas that can be expected for Pay TV for OCEAN TV Antennas.

	Dish Size Required
	Ocean O32 HD	Yellow - Special Order
	Ocean O37HD	Yellow - No Longer Available
	Ocean O45HD	Red    -  3 Axis Stabilisation
	Ocean O60HD	Purple - 3 Axis Stabilisation
	Ocean O75HD-W	Blue    -  Special Order
	The Map at left gives a general idea of the areas each size Ocean TV Antenna will operate with a Pay/Subscription Satellite Receiver on Optus D3 Satellite.   Free to Air Television on the Optus Satellite C3 has a smaller coverage area.  Please contact Ocean TV for FTA coverage areas. These areas are for reference only and not guaranteed, satellite TV is subject to a number of conditions out of our control, including climatic weather conditions.

* Map provided by oceantv.com.au

Of course it depends on the size of the Satellite TV Antenna (the bigger the antenna the less drop out during rain), and also whether you are watching Pay TV or Free to Air TV.  FTA will drop out sooner then Pay TV as it uses the older and less powerful Optus C1 Satellite.  Pay TV will rarely drop out.

But in saying this, the actual Satellite TV antenna will keep tracking all the time, it is more a function of the type of Satellite Receiver used (Pay or FTA) and which satellite is being used at the time.

1. Connect the supplied Antenna Cable from the Ocean TV Antenna to the Control Box.
2. Connect the control box to 12/24vdc or use a AC 240v to 24vdc Adapter.  Optional Extra
3. Connect the control box to a Satellite Receiver box with the supplied Cable.
4. Connect the Satellite Receiver Box to a Television, via a HDMI Cable.  Optional Extra
5. Switch on the Control Box and Satellite Receiver Box, and within 20 seconds the antenna will be tracking the correct satellite for Australia.
6. The Satellite Receiver Box will now scan for channels and install them automatically for the area you are registered in.

Of course the hardest part of the install is normally the running of the cables, Ocean TV can supply names of professional approved Installers if required, who will have the experience with running cables and installing Ocean TV Antennas.

There are many choices a customer has when installing the Satellite TV System, some are below

1. One Satellite TV Receiver (Pay or FTA) repeated to all TV's in the boat, but only one channel can be watched at a time.
2. Separate Satellite Receivers (Pay or FTA) for each TV, different channels can be watched on each TV.
3. Pay TV Receiver in Main Cabin repeated to each TV in Boat, then a FTA Receiver for each TV.  Allows Pay TV to be viewed on each TV, only one channel at a time, but each TV also has access to FTA Channels which can be different at each TV.

If you have any doubts about where to fit the antenna see our links pages for businesses that can help, For example, hundreds of Ocean TV Antennas have been installed, and chances are a successful installation has already been done on boat the same or very similar to yours.  Ocean TV will advise the ideal location an antenna on your vessel, and possibly have a photo of an antenna installed on a similar boat.

The LNB (Low Noise Block) is the device on the front of a satellite dish that receives the very low level microwave signal from the satellite, amplifies it, changes the signals to a lower frequency band and sends them down the cable to the indoor receiver.  As antenna on the vessel moves further east or west, the angle from which it receives the signal from the satellite gets skewed.  The inbuilt GPS plots the location of the antenna, and send the information to the Ocean TV Satellite Database.  From this database the Antenna automatically calculates how much it needs to turn the LNB to allow for the changing angle to the Satellite.  This allows the antenna to be finely tuned continually while the vessel is moving.

The old Antenna cable that is already in the boat running from your existing Terrestrial Antenna should also be replaced Ocean TV Antennas use the newer RG6 Coaxial Cable that is Quad Shielded, and also has more copper in the cable.  The shielding will be more resistant to other devices in the boat , and the extra copper will have less voltage drop.

Sometimes the existing AV Cables can be used if the TV is an older non HDMI equipped TV, or can be used to connect the Satellite Receiver to the on board Stereo System.