Patent ID: 8792336

Claim:
A method for broadcasting television signals using a ground segment system comprising: generating a first channel signal for a first television signal at a first receiver decoder circuit; generating a second channel signal at a second receiver decoder circuit for the first television signal different than the first channel signal; coupling the first channel signal and the second channel signal to a transfer switch; communicating the first channel signal and the second channel signal to a monitoring system; generating a display comprising the first channel signal and the second channel signal by a broadcast control operator module; monitoring, at a broadcast control operator module, the first channel signal by determining whether the first channel signal generated by the first receiver decoder circuit has been lost and generating a monitoring signal when the first channel signal has been lost; controlling the switching of the transfer switch from the first channel signal to the second channel signal using the broadcast control operator module in response to the monitoring signal, said transfer switch forming a switch output signal; communicating the switch output signal to an encoder to form an encoder signal; and broadcasting the encoder signal to a plurality of user devices.