Patent ID: 7580708

Claim:
A system for monitoring signal quality of signals to be broadcast to a satellite and broadcast in spot beams to a service area outside of a broadcast area comprising: a broadcast site within a predefined broadcast area, the broadcast site transmits the signals to the satellite and the satellite transmits the signals to the service area foreign to the broadcast; a network monitoring operations located at the broadcast site for monitoring signal quality of the signals before the signals are transmitted to a satellite; at least one remote site in the service area that receives the signals broadcast by the satellite; a signal strength meter at said at least one remote site for measuring a strength of signals to detect problems with the satellite transmission to the foreign service area; and means for collecting and monitoring the signal strength measurements at the network monitoring operations; wherein the satellite transmits spot beams and the broadcast site further comprises: a radio frequency (RF) multiplexer coupled to an unlink antenna transmitting the signals to the satellite; a signal converter, coupled to the RF multiplexer to downconvert the signals to frequencies bands upon which the signals are received by customer receivers at the remote site; a combiner, coupled to the signal converter, for combining the downconverted signals into groups to simulate the signals received by the customer receivers in the spot beams, further comprising a signal router disposed between the combiner and the network monitoring operations.