Satellite Instructional Television Experiment

The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment or SITE was an experimental satellite communications project launched in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

in 1975, designed jointly by NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The project made available informational television programmes to rural India. The main objectives of the experiment were to educate the poor people of India on various issues via satellite broadcasting, and also to help India gain technical experience in the field of satellite communications.

The experiment ran for one year from 1 August 1975 to 31 July 1976, covering more than 2500 villages in six Indian states and territories

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

. The television programmes were produced by All India Radio

All India Radio

All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

and broadcast by NASA's ATS-6

ATS-6

ATS-6 was a NASA experimental satellite, built by Fairchild Space and Electronics Division It has been called the world's first educational satellite as well as world's first experimental Direct Broadcast Satellite as part of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment between NASA and ISRO...

satellite stationed above India for the duration of the project. The project was supported by various international agencies such as the UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...

, UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

, UNICEF

United Nations Children's Fund

United Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...

and ITU

International Telecommunication Union

The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

. The experiment was successful, as it played a major role in helping develop India's own satellite program, INSAT

Indian National Satellite System

INSAT or the Indian National Satellite System is a series of multipurpose Geo-stationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy the telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations....

. The project showed that India could use advanced technology to fulfill the socio-economic needs of the country. SITE was followed by similar experiments in various countries, which showed the important role satellite TV could play in providing education.

Background

As part of its Applications Technology Satellites

Applications Technology Satellites

The Applications Technology Satellites were a series of experimental satellites launched by NASA. The program was launched in 1966 to test the feasibility of placing a satellite into the geosynchronous orbit. The satellites were primarily designed to act as communication satellites, but also...

program in the 1960s, NASA sought to field test the direct broadcast of television programs to terrestrial

Terrestrial television

Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...

receivers via satellite and shortlisted India, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

and the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

as potential sites to stage the test. The country which would receive these broadcasts would have to be large enough and also close to the equator for testing a direct-broadcast satellite. While the communist regime of China was not recognised at the time by the U.S., Brazil was also ruled out as its population was concentrated in the cities, affecting the outreach of the broadcast across the country. As a consequence, India emerged as the only suitable candidate; however, its strained relationship with the U.S. prevented the U.S. government from directly asking for its assistance, preferring India to make the first request for assistance for its own nascent space program.

At the same time, India was trying to launch its national space program under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was an Indian physicist. He is considered to be the father of the Indian space program; legendary Homi Bhabha’s successor as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission; and was as at home in the world of the arts as in his favourite laboratory. His interests were vast and...

. India was interested in the role of satellites for the purpose of communication and asked UNESCO to undertake a feasibility study for a project in that field. Between 18 November 1967 and 8 December 1967, UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

sent an expert mission to India to prepare a report on a pilot project in the use of satellite communication. The expert panel concluded that the such a project would be feasible. Following the report, a study team of three engineers from India visited USA and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

in June 1967, and came to the conclusion that India could meet the technical requirements for the project. Following this, the Indian government set up the National Satellite Communications Group SATCOM

SATCOM

SATCOM or Satcom may refer to:* Short for Satellite Communications and used frequently in the context of VSAT * Communications satellites or comsats...

in 1968 to look into the possible uses of a synchronous communications satellite for India. This group consisted of representatives from various cabinet ministries, ISRO and All India Radio

All India Radio

(AIR) And Doordarshan

DoorDarshan

Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...

. The group recommended that India should use the ATS-6

ATS-6

satellite– a second generation satellite developed by NASA– for an experiment in educational television.

Arnold Frutkin

Arnold Frutkin

Arnold Frutkin was the Deputy Director of the NASA international programs office between 1957 and 1978, and later, the associate administrator for external relations...

, then NASA's director of international programs, arranged to have the Vikram Sarabhai approach NASA for help. Sarabhai saw this as a great opportunity for India to expand its space program and to train Indian scientists and engineers. Consequently, the Indian Department of Atomic Energy

Department of Atomic Energy (India)

The Department of Atomic Energy is a department directly under the Prime Minister of India with headquartered in Mumbai. The department is responsible for nuclear technology, including nuclear power and research....

and NASA signed an agreement regarding SITE in 1969. The experiment was launched on 1 August 1975.

Objectives

As per the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries, the objectives of the project were divided into two parts—general objectives and specific objectives. The general objectives of the project were to:

gain experience in the development, testing and management of a satellite-based instructional television system particularly in rural areas and to determine optimal system parameters;
demonstrate the potential value of satellite technology in the rapid development of effective mass communications in developing countries;
demonstrate the potential value of satellite broadcast TV in the practical instruction of village inhabitants; and
stimulate national development in India, with important managerial, economic, technological and social implications.

The primary social objectives from an Indian perspective were to educate the populace about issues related to family planning, agricultural practices and national integration. The secondary objectives were to impart general school and adult education, train teachers, improve other occupational skills and to improve general health and hygiene through the medium of satellite broadcasts. Besides these social objectives, India also wanted to gain experience in all the technical aspects of the system, including broadcast and reception facilities and TV program material.

The primary US objective was to test the design and functioning of an efficient, medium-power, wide bandspace-borne FM transmitter, operating in the 800–900 MHz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

band and gain experience on the utilisation of this space application.

International collaboration

A joint ISRO-NASA working group was established even before the Memorandum of Understanding was signed. This working group studied the possibility of using a communications satellite for TV broadcast in India. After the MoU was signed, many review meetings were held between NASA and ISRO scientists. Indian scientists visited NASA to study front-end converters and earth station operations. On India's request, the INTELSAT

Intelsat

Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...

organisation agreed to provide free satellite time for pre-SITE testing.

The United Nations Development Programme

United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) provided assistance of $500,000 for setting up the Experimental Satellite Communications Earth Station (ESCES) at Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

and nominated the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as the executing agency for this project. The UNDP provided another $1.5 million, for setting up a TV studio at Ahmedabad and a TV transmitter at Pij in Kheda district

Kheda district

Kheda district is one of the 26 districts of Gujarat state in western India. Kheda city is the administrative headquarters of the district.-History:...

. It also gave assistance for setting up a TV Training Institute to train many of the programme production staff who would join All India Radio

All India Radio

to work on SITE. UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

was the executing agency for this project. UNICEF contributed to SITE by sponsoring 21 film modules produced by Shyam Benegal

Shyam Benegal

Shyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur , Nishant Manthan and Bhumika he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India although he himself has expressed dislike in the term preferring his work to...

, a noted Indian film-maker. This resulted in a lot of interaction between film-makers and folk-artists. Shyam Benegal went on to include many of these artists in his children's feature film Charandas Chor
Charandas Chor
Charandas Chor is 1975 children's film made by noted director Shyam Benegal, based on the famous play by Habib Tanvir, which itself was an adaptation of a classical Rajasthani folktale by Vijaydan Detha...

(1975).

Technical details

The production of the television programmes was decentralised, with three Base Production Centres located at Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, Cuttack

Cuttack

Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...

and Hyderabad, and an ISRO studio located in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

. Each of the centres had a production studio, three IVC

International Video Corporation

International Video Corporation, or IVC, was a California company that manufactured several models of low to middle-end videotape recorders, or VTRs, for industrial and professional use. Their products were quite popular in the industrial and institutional markets.- IVC 800 series 1 Inch VTR :IVC...

tape recorders, two 16 mm. projectors, a slide Projector in Telecine

Telecine

Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....

and audio equipment like tape desks and turntables. Each centre also had 2–3 full fledged synchronised sound camera units, an editing table (Delhi had two) and a film processing plant. There was also a sound dubbing studio equipped with a pilot tone recording plant and an audio mixing console.

The television programmes prepared by the Indian government at the four studios were transmitted at 6 GHz

Hertz

to ATS 6 from one of two ground stations located in Delhi and Ahmedabad. These signals were then re-transmitted at 860 MHz by the satellite, which were directly received in 2000 villages by community television

Community television

Australia's Community Television is a form of Citizen media much like Public Access Television in the United States and the Community Channel in Canada...

receivers with 3 m parabolic antenna

Parabolic antenna

A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or parabolic dish...

s. Regular television stations also received the signals and broadcast them to another 3000 villages in the standard VHF

Very high frequency

Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...

television band. Each television signal had two audio channels to carry audio in two major languages of each cluster. This setup was called the Direct Reception System (DRS). Apart from the direct broadcasts, the earth station at Ahmedabad was micro-wave linked to the TV transmitter built in the village of Pij. The Delhi studio was linked to the terrestrial TV transmitters of AIR. A receive-only station was built in Amritsar and linked to the local TV transmitter.

The DRS undertook terrestrial broadcasting for large cities and direct broadcasting to SITE television sets for remote villages. However, it did not provide for small towns where the TV set density was higher than in the villages while not as much as in a city. The concept of a low-power

Low-power broadcasting

Low-power broadcasting is electronic broadcasting at very low power and low cost, to a small community area.The terms "low-power broadcasting" and "micropower broadcasting" should not be used interchangeably, because the markets are not the same...

limited rebroadcast (LRB) TV transmitter system was evolved to overcome such situations. The LRB consisted of a simple receiver system having a 4.5 m chicken-mesh parabolic antenna with a low-noise block converter

Low-noise block converter

A low-noise block downconverter is the receiving device of a parabolic satellite dish antenna of the type commonly used for satellite TV reception...

, that served as the front-end for a low-power TV transmitter at the same location. Two suitable locations, Sambalpur

Sambalpur

Sambalpur is a city in Sambalpur district in the Indian state of Orissa.It lies at a distance of 321 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar. In the year 1876, Sambalpur was established as a municipality. It is currently the headquarters and the largest city of Sambalpur district. It is also...

in Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

(75 villages) and Muzaffarpur

Muzaffarpur

Muzaffarpur Town is a town in Muzaffarpur district in the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of Muzaffarpur district and Tirhut division....

in Bihar

Bihar

Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

(110 villages), were tentatively identified for implementing LRB transmitter systems. This experiment was expected to provide useful data on the trade-off between DRS and LRB. However, due to financial constraints, these two LRBs had to be shelved, and instead an LRB was set up at SHAR, Sriharikota

Satish Dhawan Space Centre

The Satish Dhawan Space Centre is the launch centre for the Indian Space Research Organisation . It is located in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India, north of Chennai in South India. It was originally called Sriharikota High Altitude Range , and was sometime known as Sriharikota Launching Range...

Village selection

As the broadcasting time was limited, it was decided that the direct reception receivers would only be installed in 2400 villages in six regions spread across the country. Technical and social criteria were used to select suitable areas to conduct this experiment. A computer program was specially designed at ISRO to help make this selection. As one of the aims of the experiment was to study the potential of TV as a medium of development, the villages were chosen specifically for their backwardness. According to the 1971 census of India, the states having the most number of backward districts in the country were Orissa

Orissa

, Bihar

Bihar

, Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

, Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

, West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

and Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

. Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were eventually left out, as they were slated to get terrestrial television by the time SITE would end. SITE was launched in twenty districts spread across the other six states. Each of the states thus selected was called a "cluster". In each cluster, 3–4 districts, each containing around 1000 villages, were identified. Finally, around 400 villages were chosen in each cluster. Close to 80% villages selected for SITE did not have electricity in the buildings where the SITE TV sets would be installed. A special project called Operation Electricity was launched to urgently electrify the villages before the start of SITE. 150 villages would have television sets running on solar cells and batteries. These sets were specially designed by Indian engineers with help from NASA.

Clusters selected for SITE
Cluster	District	Maintenance centers
Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...	Hyderabad Hyderabad District, India Hyderabad District , is a district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India that contains a part of the metropolitan area of Hyderabad. It is headed by a district collector who is drawn from the IAS cadre and is appointed by the state government.-History:...	Hyderabad
	Kurnool Kurnool district Kurnool District is a district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, located in the west-central part of the state on the southern banks of the Tungabhadra and Handri rivers. The town of Kurnool is currently the headquarters of the district...	Nandyal Nandyal Nandyal or Nandyala is a town in Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is a major centre of trade, commerce, education and industries in the region and is also important because of its religious significance and Rich water resources. The town derives its name from Nandi, the vehicle of...
	Medak Medak district Medak District is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Sangareddy is the district headquarters of Medak. The district had a population of 2,670,097, of which 14.36% were urban as of 2001...	Sangareddy
	Mahbubnagar Mahbubnagar district Mahabubnagar or Mahboobnagar , also known as Palamooru is a district in the Andhra Pradesh state of India, in the Telangana region. It is named after its largest city and district headquarters, Mahabubnagar.It is the second largest district in the state in terms of area...	Nagarkurnool Nagarkurnool Nagarkurnool or Nagar Kurnool is a city in Mahbubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the business and education center for the surrounding villages and towns. Nagarkurnool is located in between 16.48 degrees northern longitude and 78.32 eastern latitude. The town is situated approximately...
Karnataka Karnataka Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...	Gulbarga Gulbarga District Gulbarga district is one of the 30 districts of Karnataka state in southern India. Gulbarga city is the administrative headquarters of the district...	Gulbarga Gulbarga Gulbarga is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Gulbarga District. It was formerly part of Nizam's Hyderabad state... , Bagalkot Bagalkot Bagalkot or Bagalkote is a town in the Indian state of Karnataka. Bagalkot is the district headquarters of the Bagalkot district. It is one of the major towns in North Karnataka.-History:...
	Raichur Raichur district Raichur District is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in the northeast part of the state and is bounded by Yadgir district in the north, Bijapur and Bagalkot district in the northwest, Koppal district in the west, Bellary district in the south, Anantapur...	Raichur Raichur Raichur , is a city municipal council in Raichur district in the Indian state of Karnataka. Raichur, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, is the headquarters of Raichur district. It was in the princely state of Mysore during the rule of Tipu Sultan...
	Bijapur	Bijapur Bijapur, Karnataka Bijapur Urdu:بیجاپور city is the district headquarters of Bijapur District of Karnataka state. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural importance built during the rule of Adil Shahi dynasty...
Bihar Bihar Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....	Muzaffarpur Muzaffarpur District Muzaffarpur District is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India, and Muzaffarpur town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Muzaffarpur district is a part of Tirhut Division....	Muzaffarpur Muzaffarpur Muzaffarpur Town is a town in Muzaffarpur district in the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of Muzaffarpur district and Tirhut division....
	Champaran	Motihari Motihari Motihari is the headquarters of East Champaran district in the Indian state of Bihar.-History:In 1866 Champaran was made into a district with Motihari as its headquarters. On 1 December 1977 the Champaran district was divided into two districts, and Motihari became the headquarters of East...
	Saharsa Saharsa District Saharsa is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar, India. Saharsa town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Saharsa district is a part of a larger territory, the Kosi Division and it became a district on 1 April 1954 and subsequently has become smaller with other districts being...	Saharsa Saharsa Saharsa is a city and a municipality in the Saharsa district in the Indian state of Bihar in north India, east of the Kosi River. It is the administrative headquarters of the Saharsa District, and is in the Kosi Division. Sahrasa is also the name of the Parliamentary constituency, which contains...
	Darbhanga Darbhanga District Darbhanga district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state in eastern India, and Darbhanga town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Darbhanga district is a part of Darbhanga Division...	Darbhanga Darbhanga Darbhangā is a twin city and a municipal corporation and the capital city of the Darbhanga district and Darbhanga Division in the state of Bihar, India. It is one of the most important districts of North Bihar situated in the very heart of Mithilanchal. According to the latest 2011 census, the... , Samastipur Samastipur Samastipur is a city and a municipality in Samastipur district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is headquarters of the Samastipur district.It is situated on the banks of Burhi Gandak River.-Demographics:...
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....	Raipur Raipur District Raipur district is a district in the Chhattisgarh state of India. Raipur is the administrative headquarter of the district. The district is rich in mineral resources. There are many wild life sanctuaries and sight seeing places worth visiting... *	Raipur, Mahasamund Mahasamund Mahasamund is a city and a municipality in Mahasamund District in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. It is the administrative headquarters of Mahasamund District.The present Mayor is Dr. Vimal Chopra....
	Bilaspur Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh Bilaspur district is a district of the Chhattisgarh state of India. Bilaspur city is the headquarters of the district. As of 2011 it is the third most populous district of Chhattisgarh , after Raipur and Durg.- Etymology :... *	Bilaspur Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh Bilaspur is a city in Bilaspur District in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, situated 111 km north of state capital, Raipur. It is the second-largest city in the state. It is the administrative headquarter of Bilaspur district...
	Durg Durg District Durg District is situated in Chattisgarh state of India. Until 2000 it formed part of Madhya Pradesh. District headquarters is Durg. The district covers an area of 8,537 km². The population in 1991 was 2, 397,134 of which 12.4% were members of scheduled tribes... *	Rajnandgaon Rajnandgaon Rajnandgaon is the primary town of Rajnandgaon District, in the state of Chhattisgarh, India. The population of the city is 143,727 . It came into existence on 26th Jan' 1973, by way of division of district Durg. The District headquarters of Rajnandgaon is on the Bombay - Howrah line of...
Orissa Orissa Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...	Sambalpur Sambalpur District Sambalpur District is a district in the western part of state of Orissa, India. The historic city of Sambalpur is the district headquarters.The district is located in the Mahanadi River basin. It has a total area of 6,702 square kilometers, of which almost 60% of the district is covered in dense...	Sambalpur Sambalpur Sambalpur is a city in Sambalpur district in the Indian state of Orissa.It lies at a distance of 321 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar. In the year 1876, Sambalpur was established as a municipality. It is currently the headquarters and the largest city of Sambalpur district. It is also...
	Dhenkanal Dhenkanal District Dhenkanal District is an administrative division of Orissa, India. It is bordered by Kendujhar in the north, Jajpur in the east, Cuttack in the south and Anugul in the west. Dhenkanal town, the district headquarters has a cluster of temples, archaeological remains and a mediaeval fort. A former...	Dhenkanal Dhenkanal, India Dhenkanal is a city and a municipality in Dhenkanal district in the state of Orissa, India.-Geography:Dhenkanal is located at . It has an average elevation of 80 metres .-Demographics:... , Angul Angul Angul may refer to:* Angul, town in India* Angul district, India...
	Baudh Khandmals Boudh District Boudh District, also called Bauda District, is an administrative district of Orissa state in eastern India. The city of Boudh is the district headquarters. As of 2011 it is the second least populous district of Orissa , after Debagarh....	Baudh
Rajasthan Rajasthan Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...	Jaipur Jaipur district Jaipur District is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. The city of Jaipur, which is Rajasthan's capital and largest city, is the district headquarters. It is the tenth most populous district in India .-Geography:...	Jaipur Jaipur Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million.... , Chomu Chomu Chomu is a city and a municipality in Jaipur district in the state of Rajasthan, India.-Geography:Chomu is located at .It is 33 km far in north from Jaipur . Chomu is having a good tourist and filmmakers destination in its nearby village named Samod. It has also a good class of hotels such as...
	Kota Kota district Kota District is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. The city of Kota is the administrative headquarters of the district.During the period around 12th century AD, Rao Deva,a Hada Chieftain conquered the territory and founded Bundi and Hadoti...	Kota Kota, Rajasthan Kota , formerly known as Kotah, is a city in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located south of state capital, Jaipur. Situated on the banks of Chambal River, the city is the trade centre for an area in which millet, wheat, rice, pulses, coriander and oilseeds are grown; industries...
	Sawai Madhopur Sawai Madhopur district Sawai Madhopur District is a district of Rajasthan state in western India. Sawai Madhopur is the chief town and district headquarters. The district has an area of 4500 km², and a population of 1,116,031 with a population density of 248 persons per km²...	Gangapur Gangapur Gangapur is a city and a municipal council in Aurangabad district in the state of Maharashtra, India.-Geography:Gangapur is located on west side of Aurangabad-Ahmednagar Highway, 38 km from Aurangabad. Gangapur is Taluka place in Historical District Aurangabad...

* These districts are now located in the state of Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh is a state in Central India, formed when the 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking South-Eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained separate statehood on 1 November 2000....

Programming

All India Radio had the main responsibility for programme generation and the programmes were made in consultation with the government. Special committees on education, agriculture, health and family planning identified their own programme priorities and conveyed it to AIR.

Two types of programmes were prepared for broadcasting: educational television

Educational television

Educational television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable television in the United States as Public, educational, and government access ...

(ETV) and instructional television

Instructional television

Instructional television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. Educational television programs on instructional television may be less than one half hour long to help their integration into the classroom setting...

(ITV). ETV programmes were meant for school children and focussed on interesting and creative educational programmes. These programmes were broadcast for 1.5 hours during school hours. During holidays, this time was used to broadcast Teacher Training Programmes designed to train almost 100,000 primary school teachers during the duration of the SITE. The ITV programmes were meant for adult audiences, mainly to those who were illiterate. They were broadcast for 2.5 hours during the evenings. The programmes covered health, hygiene, family planning, nutrition, improved practices in agriculture and events of national importance. Thus, the programmes were beamed for four hours daily in two transmissions. The targeted audience was categorised into four linguistic groups—Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

, Oriya

Oriya language

Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...

, Telugu

Telugu language

Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

and Kannada—and programmes were produced according to the language spoken in the cluster.

Due to linguistic and cultural differences, it was agreed that all core programmes would be cluster-specific, and would be in the primary language of the region. A brief commentary giving the gist of the programme would be available on the second audio channel, to keep up the interest of the audience in other language regions. All clusters would also receive 30 minutes of common programmes, including news, which would be broadcast only in Hindi

Hindi

An example of a schedule for evening transmission: schedule for 1 November – 31 March
	6:00	7:00		7:30		7:50-8:30
Mins.	Bihar/Madhya Pradesh/Rajasthan	Common Programme	Mins.	Orissa	Mins.	Andhra Pradesh/Karnataka
10	Agriculture (MP)	News (all clusters)	10	Agriculture	10	Agriculture (AP)
20	Cultural		10	Cultural	10	Cultural (Urdu)
10	Health				10	Cultural (Karnataka)
15	General Education/Information (Film)				10	General Education Community Matters (Karnataka)
5	Short Film

Evaluation

The social research and evaluation of SITE was done by ISRO's special SITE Research and Evaluation Cell (REC). The REC consisted of around 100 persons who were located in each of the SITE clusters, at the SITE studio in Bombay

Mumbai

, and at the headquarters of the REC in Ahmedabad. The research design was finalized by the SITE Social Science Research Co-ordination Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. M. S. Gore, Director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Tata Institute of Social Sciences is a social sciences institute based in Deonar, Mumbai, India.-History:TISS was established in 1936, as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work, the first school of social work in India. In 1944 the school was renamed to its current name...

in Bombay. Impact on primary school children was studied under a joint project involving ISRO and the National Council of Educational Research and Training

National Council of Educational Research and Training

The National Council of Educational Research and Training is an apex resource organization set up by the Government of India, with headquarters at New Delhi, to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on academic matters related to school education.it was Established in the year of...

(NCERT). The overall evaluation design was divided into three stages. The first stage, the formative or input research, was a detailed study of the potential audience. The second stage, process evaluation, was the evaluation carried out during the life-time of SITE. This evaluation provided information about the reaction of the villagers to different programmes. The third stage, the summative evaluation, involved a number of different studies to measure the impact of SITE. These included the Impact Survey (Adults) to measure the impact on adults, SITE Impact Survey Children (SIS-C) to measure the impact on school children, and the qualitative anthropology study to measure, at a macro-level, the change brought by TV in rural society.

Besides the social evaluation, a technical evaluation was also carried out to help India develop future systems. All major sub-systems of the earth station were tested and evaluated before SITE was launched. This was done firstly using a spacecraft simulator from NASA, then using the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

INTELSAT

Intelsat

satellite and finally using the ATS-6

ATS-6

satellite. All the components of the Direct Reception System were also thoroughly tested. The TV set was tested by the British Aircraft Corporation

British Aircraft Corporation

The British Aircraft Corporation was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs , the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with...

. The 3-meter antenna was tested thoroughly before deciding on the final design. Data on failure rates was collected and analysis of the first 1800 failures was carried out to help design future DRS systems.

Impact

As decided in the original agreement, the SITE program ended in July, 1976 and NASA shifted its ATS satellite away from India, despite demands from Indian villagers, journalists and others such as noted writer Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...

(who was presented with a SITE television set in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

) for NASA to continue the experiment.

The SITE transmissions had a very significant impact in the Indian villages. For the entire year, thousands of villagers gathered around the TV set and watched the shows. Studies were conducted on the social impact of the experiment and on viewership trends. It was found that general interest and viewership were highest in the first few months of the program (200 to 600 people per TV set) and then declined gradually (60 to 80 people per TV set). This decline was due to several factors, including faults developing in the television equipment, failure in electricity supply, and hardware defects, as also the villagers' pre-occupation with domestic or agricultural work. Impact on the rural population was highest in the fields of agriculture and family planning. Nearly 52% of viewers reported themselves amenable to applying the new knowledge gained by them.

Similar experiments were conducted in the Appalachian region

Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

, Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, China and Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

in the mid-seventies and early eighties. These experiments demonstrated that satellite TV could play a very important role in providing education.

Before SITE, the focus was on the use of terrestrial transmission for television signals. But SITE showed that India could make use of advanced technology to fulfill the socio-economic needs of the country. This led to an increased focus on satellite broadcasting in India. ISRO began preparations for a country-wide satellite system. After conducting several technical experiments, the Indian National Satellite System

Indian National Satellite System

was launched by ISRO in 1982. The Indian space program remained committed to the goal of using satellites for educational purposes. In September 2004, India launched EDUSAT, which was the first satellite in the world built exclusively to serve the educational sector. EDUSAT is used to meet the demand for an interactive satellite-based distance education system for India.

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