Sun TV - Anecdote

[BGanesh <BGa@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi Dr. Sriram,

   Thx for the excellent how-to on clock sync.

> ps: if you want a quick check on 'standard' time, use sun tv; the clock
> that comes up on the screen before the 8pm news is good. i compared
> their time with time1.iitm.ac.in and found it matches to the second.
> everyone else is bogus (including dd). wonder how they do it.....

Oh, this story goes a little bit back in time(1997?), when they were
using VSNL to transmit to Singapore and downlink from there. You
would lose a little over second there. (speed of light calcs anyone?
The satellite is ~35kms above the planet. Throw in equipment startup
time)

Oh, and here is the nice part : they used to tape the whole news, ads
and all along with the Time reference in the beginning and then
transmit. I was working with the VSNL folks for some related work,
when a person from SunTV walked over to me and asked me for the time.
It was a few seconds to eight, and I told him so. He then signalled
one of the other chaps standing by a tape player, who then played out
the news, time and all :) so much for accuracy...

Of course, all this must have changed when they started uplink from
India. The ETV uplink station is right next door, and I went there
to find out. Like you said : bogus. Just use a clock on the wall. I'll
try and see if I can find out how SunTV does this (but I would "guess"
it would be something similar). But then I could be surprised :)

One question : how many times have you checked the news clock against
time1.iitm.ac.in ?

Thx
BGa


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