TEST REPORT Satellite Dish Installation Software

DishPointer
This is exactly the problem that
Alan recognized. He decided to make
his calculation features compatible

The Apple iPhone

with mobile telephones. But what
mobile phone manufacturer should
he focus on?

Satellite Antenna There was no need to even ask the

question; Alan from the very begin-

Installation Aid ning had opted for the Apple iPhone.

It wasn’t because it has a large dis-
play, a touch screen and the neces-
sary programming interface, but
it also has the advantage that any
Mobile telephones have become part of our everyday associated development costs can be

lives and it is a tool that we can no longer do without. In held to a minimum in that the iTunes
store would be used.
addition to telephony, mobile phones have now become
mini PCs and come with a multitude of other functions The iTunes store is an Apple oper-
such as e-mail, Internet access, an alarm clock, an ated website on which every pro-
MP3 player, a camera, a memo pad, an address book, a grammer can offer their iPhone
applications at a freely settable
calendar, etc.
price. Thanks to the iTunes soft-
■ DishPointer Maps - Road Map These were actually ideal require-
ware and the synchronization inter-
ments, thought Alan, head of the
face between the iPhone and a PC or
www.dishpointer.com website, to
MAC, end users can search for their
make something more of it. Dish-
desired applications, buy them with
Pointer is an exceptionally practical
one click and then load them directly
Internet site that users can use to
into the device.
calculate the azimuth and elevation
settings for any satellite around the
DishPointer currently has two
world. The site also shows approxi-
iPhone applications available in the
mately what direction to point the
iTunes store. One of them is Dish-
antenna with the help of Google Maps.
Pointer Maps, a version of the popu-
TELE-satellite reported in detail on
lar website calculation tool, and the
DishPointer in the 02-03/2008 issue.
other (available in a Pro and Lite ver-
sion) is a completely new application
But there has always been one
that can be used to determine what
disadvantage that has existed from
satellites can be received at a par-
the beginning: it involves an Internet
ticular location before the antenna
site and that means it’s necessary
installation work is even started.
to enter information in a PC in order
to calculate the correct alignment
Before we devote some time to
angles for an antenna. All of the
the DishPointer Maps application, we
required values must be calculated,
wanted to take a closer look at the
printed and brought to the installa-
DishPointer Augmented Reality Pro
tion site before work can even begin.
application.
If there should be any problems or
if data is needed for another satel-
DishPointer
lite, then another trip back to the PC
Augmented
would be necessary.
Reality Pro
Application
Augmented Reality is a technol-
12-01/2010 ogy that Apple first introduced into
DISHPOINTER
IPHONE APPLICATION their iPhone operating system with
It’s never been this easy
to check satellite reception! the version 3.0. It has to do with a

56 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com

www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2010 — TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 57
process in which information is blended in the iPhone 3GS provides information
into the user’s field of view. This could, on the direction the user is looking as
for example, be altitude, speed and well as the horizontal positioning of the
direction in the cockpit of an airplane. iPhone.
In the case of the iPhone the integrated
camera is used to show an image on At this point it is recommended to
top of which additional information hold the iPhone in the direction of due
is blended in to the current camera south. Simply observe the Status bar
image. in the application. If it shows “Heading
180°”, the iPhone is pointing directly
With the help of this technology and south. After only a few seconds needed
the new iPhone integrated 3GS com-
pass, it is now possible through the
DishPointer application to find out
■ DishPointer Augmented Reality - Display of
exactly which satellites can be received Useable Satellites
at a specific location. In this way, for
example, it is easy to identify a tree
that might be too high and block the
field of view of the antenna or if the
satellite is above the tree and find out
that despite a suspected blockage the
satellite can be received.

We put this application immediately

to the test and were pleased with the
results. As soon as the DishPointer Aug-
mented Reality program was started in
the iPhone, the user is taken directly
to the Main Menu. The first step is to
select each satellite that later is to be
blended into the camera image. The
included list covers nearly every satel-
lite between 180° east and 177° west ■ DishPointer Maps - Calculation for
EUTELSAT W2 at 16° east
(including those that instead of satellite
signals transmit weather data such as
METEOSAT 8 at 9.4° east).
■ DishPointer Maps - Hybrid View

Because there are some orbital slots to confirm all the data, the application
where a number of satellites are located
blends into the display on top of the
very close to each other, it makes
camera image all of the satellites in this
sense to reduce the size of this list to
direction that can be received; even the
only those satellites that you are really
Clarke Belt is graphically displayed.
interested in. If the satellite you want
is not in the list, it can easily be added
In this way it can easily be seen if
with one touch of the touch screen. The
houses, trees or other obstacles would
Update button downloads an up-to-date
get in the way of reception or if a satel-
satellite list from the provider’s server.
lite is below the horizon and can’t be

Once all of the necessary satellite received at all. With every vertical or

entries have been marked, the camera horizontal movement the satellite data
can be started that immediately shows and Clarke Belt displayed through the
the targeted area in the display. With DishPointer application is automati-
the help of the GPS receiver in the cally updated. If a particular satellite
iPhone, the current location is con- has been found by vertically adjusting
■ DishPointer Augmented Reality - Manually
firmed while the integrated compass Entering a Satellite the position of the iPhone, the compass

58 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com

 TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/...
Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
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function can be turned off so that the version also gets Farsi ‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/far/dishpointer.pdf
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display doesn’t change due to any unin- the nod when new Hebrew ‫עברית‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/heb/dishpointer.pdf
Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/hel/dishpointer.pdf
tentional movement. features are devel- Croatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/hrv/dishpointer.pdf
Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/ita/dishpointer.pdf
oped. Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/mag/dishpointer.pdf
Mandarin 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/man/dishpointer.pdf
The above-mentioned operation only Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/ned/dishpointer.pdf
Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/pol/dishpointer.pdf
works with the iPhone 3GS since this is The second Dish- Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/por/dishpointer.pdf
Romanian Românesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/rom/dishpointer.pdf
the only one with an integrated com- Pointer application Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/rus/dishpointer.pdf
Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/sve/dishpointer.pdf
pass. But if you have an iPhone 3G carries the name Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/tur/dishpointer.pdf
without a compass, you can still use DishPointer Maps Available online starting from 27 November 2009

this application although you would and has to do with

need to manually control the direction
of the iPhone using an external com-
pass or a previously installed satellite
antenna and enter these values manu-
ally into the DishPointer application.
In our tests, the DishPointer appli-
cation functioned perfectly, displayed
correct values and became a guide
that we could not do without. And it’s
not even just the experienced end
users that would miss it, but it’s also
an invaluable installation aid for pro-
fessional installers. How often do you
have only a few minutes to make a
decision on whether a specific satellite
can or cannot be received because of
local conditions?
The DishPointer Augmented Reality
application provides invaluable
vices. The DishPointer application is
available in the iTunes store in a Pro
version and a standard version. Accord-
ing to the manufacturer, the only differ-
ence between the two versions is that
new satellites can be manually added
in the new version whereas in the stan-
dard version you have to wait for the
next manufacturer’s update. The Pro
the incorporation of the same calcula-
tion functions found on the www.dish-
pointer.com website into the iPhone.
DishPointer Maps
What thousands of professional
installers and nearly every satellite
uplink truck have been using to quickly
align an antenna, can now also be used
by a mass of satellite enthusiasts for
very little money via an iPhone. Since
a PC is no longer necessary to control
the application and since all of the cal-
culations as well as all of the familiar
website features have been integrated,
DishPointer Maps is extremely user
friendly and flexible.
Immediately after starting the appli-
cation, the current location is confirmed
ser- using a GPS signal, UMTS/GPRS Inter-
net connection or WLAN and shown on
Google Maps. Next you simply enter
in the position of the desired satel-
lite in the upper edge of the applica-
tion and the correct values for azimuth,
elevation and skew are automatically
calculated. A thick green line is also
displayed showing the approximate
alignment direction of the antenna.
As we have come to expect from
Google Maps, it is possible
to zoom in or out of
the image for
clarifi-
■ DishPointer Aug-
mented Reality
- Satellite List
cation if necessary. In the blink of an
eye, the correct parameters can be set
up for the antenna and with the help of
the display, the correct position can be
found in just a short time.
If for some reason the automatic loca-
tion function doesn’t work, the current
address can be manually entered by the
user. For a better overview, all of the
map styles from Google Maps are avail-
able (satellite, street maps and hybrid
view). If the position of the antenna
should move slightly, the marker on the
blended-in map can easily be moved to
a different position with a finger on the
touch screen.
This application also functioned during
our tests to our complete satisfaction.
Especially surprising was the fact that
the application managed to calculate all
of the necessary values faster than the
website in a browser. Just keep in mind
that for these calculations the iPhone
needs to have an active Internet con-
nection via UMTS/GPRS or WLAN.
Putting it All Together
With both the DishPointer Maps and
DishPointer Augmented Reality appli-
cations Alan managed to bridge the
gap between professional test equip-
ment costing thousands of dollars and
all the unbelievable possibilities that
the Internet and the Google Maps ser-
vices have to offer. Both applications
are not only an invaluable installation
aid for installers but should also be
added to the iPhone of every hobby
DXer. We had a lot of fun testing both of
these applications and Alan told us that
quite a few satellite friends invested in
an iPhone based solely on these two
applications.

60 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com

■ DishPointer Augmented Reality - Status Bar ■ DishPointer Augmented Reality - Main Menu ■ DishPointer Augmented Reality - Compass
Mode Selection

www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2010 — TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 61