SMATV / MATV

CATV

CATV stands for Community Access TV. It is a very common TV System in Malaysia, especially for high-rises buildings like condominum apartments and commercial office/hotel buildings. The function of CATV is actually to allow every home/unit in the building able to receive wireless RF TV/FM signals from the air. it is very important when come to high density buildings. CATV Systems use master antennas, shared by all. It has simplified the wiring system and minimized the number of antenna needed.

Nowadays, many of the modern CATV Systems have implemented GPON design into the cabling architecture. GPON is a game changer for CATV industry due to the fibre optic characteristics. The fibre bandwidth capacity is more than enough to cater for the usage of few systems into one single cabling system. For Malaysia projects, usually we integrate Internet Services, Telephone Services and SMATV/MATV/CATV into one. Three separate systems in one single cabling system, it means we able saved a lot of costs from here. The simple system resulted to very low cost maintenance. Also, because of the signals are actually conveying via fibre optics, means it is safe from being lightning attacks.

The only drawback is the GPON Equipment costs. It is relatively higher compare to conventional networking systems. But it still worth to be implemented as more and more manufacturers are joining the market to produce GPON devices and fibre optic accessorries, the prices will come down dramatically very soon. Based on our networking engineers' technology roadmap forecast, implementing GPON will make the architecture last for another 20 years for future upgrades.

In conclusion, GPON CATV/SMATV/MATV TV Systems are recommended to be implemented due to its simplicity in cabling, troubleshooting and maintenance.

SMATV

SMATV stands for Satellite Master Antenna Television. It refers to a system that uses multiple satellite and broadcast signals to create a single integrated cable signal for distribution to a structured cabling network. In other words, with a SMATV system you can become your own in-house cable company. SMATV is the same as MATV in that it only distributes TV (UHF) and Radio signals. The difference is that it will also include facilities at the head of the system to decode certain satellite channels which it will distribute as additional TV channels. SMATV system are typically used in apartments, hotels and hospitals.

MATV

MATV stands for Master Antenna Television. MATV collects RF signals (TV and radio) from one or a small number of aerials and then distributes those signals to a number of receivers. Usuallapartments and offices. In order to accomplish this without a loss of signal quality, these systems must be carefully planned and engineered through the effective use of MATV equipment and techniques.