The early days of POST Technologies' satellite activities

POST Technologies' satellite activities began in 1977 with the founding of the European Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (Eutelsat). Eutelsat was initially set up as an intergovernmental organisation (IGO) to develop and operate a European satellite telecommunications infrastructure. POST Group has been a member of this IGO since its foundation and went on to become a shareholder when Eutelsat was transferred to the private company Eutelsat S.A. in July 2001.

Eutelsat's satellite operations began with the launch of its first satellite, ECS-1, in 1983. The first P&T Luxembourg teleport was set up in Dudelange in 1985 and provided an uplink for RTL Plus.

POST Technologies has operated the Cloche d'Or teleport since 1995. Today, the teleport has three 9 m parabolic antennae and four 3.7 m antennae that provide satellite radio broadcasting services in Ku-band. Thanks to this teleport's excellent orbital visibility, uplinks and satellite reception are possible in an arc of around 70° east to 30° west.

A few examples are given below:

Over the past 25 years, POST Technologies has operated the following uplinks to different satellites:

• RTL Plus (1985 - 1990)
• RTL4 (1991 - 2001)
• Canal+ (Netherlands) (1995 - 2001)
• RTL Television for Switzerland (DFS-KOPERNIKUS II)
• Ocean-Cell (uplink for GSM services on a cruise ship)
• Horizon (uplink for the internet service to Saudi Arabia)
• Luxe.TV (2006 - 2010)
• ARTE (1998 - 2012)

Today, the satellite and media services department operates the following uplinks from Cloche d'Or:

• Europe by Satellite: 2 transmissions by DS satellite (European Commission)
• DVB- FM (TDF): satellite broadcasting of French radio stations
• R7 and R8 (TDF): transmission from 2 HD transponders
• Yahsat (Vicus): transmission from 2 transponders (+-10 DS and 5 HD)

In addition to its uplink activities, POST Technologies has operated a headend for its IPTV service, ‘Télé vun der POST', at the Cloche d'Or teleport since 2010. Twelve antennae ranging from 1.2 to 2.4 m have been installed for this service. They currently receive and decode around 80 television channels, including 39 High Definition channels.
From July 2013, all television channels (approximately 250) available through the IPTV service will be processed at Cloche d'Or. The teleport also offers an aggregation service for television channels such as wort.lu, PTPromo, MaCommune, CTIE, Star.lu and Edonys.

A dedicated management and monitoring system has been installed to oversee all these services. It also monitors media services such as the four HD video news channels between Luxembourg-Kirchberg and Brussels for the European Commission.

The facilities at the ground station are fitted with reliable backup electrical systems. These systems ensure that services from the satellites are not interrupted in the event of a local power failure. They guarantee that the various services have maximum availability.

• Two separate connections to Luxembourg City's electricity network
• Three uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems with a total battery capacity of 200 kVA
• Permanent diesel generator
• Connection for mobile diesel equipment.