How the Super Bowl Will Reach US Submarines

Velcroman1 writes "Ever wonder how troops serving abroad in remote locations and even underwater might get to watch the Super Bowl? The very same highly advanced technology used to pass classified drone video feeds will be deployed this Sunday to ensure U.S. troops can see the Super Bowl — - no matter how far away from home they are. The broadcast is the result of a unique media, government and technology partnership with the American Forces Radio and Television Service, Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force. The Global Broadcast Service (GBS) may be normally used to disseminate video, images and other data, but major sporting events have been broadcast over it as well. The system will be 'as small as a laptop, and [equipment] the size of a shoebox and umbrella' yet 'in other places will be projected onto large screens in hangers' like aircraft carriers out at sea, explained Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems' chief innovation officer Mark Bigham."

Comments

Bogus title

[DrJimbo]

How the Super Bowl Will Reach US Submarines

The actual answer is that the submarines have an antenna that reaches into the air. The title implies that the video signals are sent through sea water to submerged submarines. That is still impossible to do in real-time. The bandwidth (either acoustic or electro-magnetic) is just not available. The acoustic bandwidth is greater than the electro-magnetic but it is still many orders of magnitude lower than what is required for real-time video.

Re:Bogus title

[DerekLyons]

Right. And on top of that, no submarine is going to hang about at periscope depth for the duration of the game. PD is a dangerous place as you have limited visibility and you're shallow enough for surface vessels to potentially get a piece of the 'scope or even the sail... Stealth also goes down when you have a 'scope and antennas making a wake on the surface. (On top of how exhausting it is for the control room party to maintain PD and a scope watch...)

Unless they're in port or on surface transit, boats will probably get the game and the score the same way they have for decades... fasties and non-alert boomers will pick it up when they next grab a sked or a satellite pass, alert boomers will pick up whatever gets sent across the wire (VLF).

Been there done that, got the t-shirt. Though back in the day it was something of a tradition to send the score of important games (especially the Army-Navy game) out as FLASH priority traffic. (I.E. went to the head of the queue and had transmission priority over pretty much everything but nuclear launch orders.)

Re:Sounds like a movie plot

[milkmage]

periscope depth?

"The game will be received by a small antenna on masts, transferred to a receiver and then relayed to flat panel screens throughout the ship or submarine."

Re:Yes, god forbid they should want any entertainm

[Anonymous Coward]

Soldiers are human, and they need recreation just like everyone else. Now maybe watching football isn't your choice for that, it's not mine either, but you are in no position to judge others for what they like.

Televised sport is useful for one purpose: keeping the populace inert, content and lazy. It is not something upon which should be encouraging our Forces to waste their time.

The old saying goes "the only good sport is the one you're playing"

Hangers

[Hognoxious]

Do they dangle the aircraft from the roof? No. The word is "hangars".

Hangers are what you put shirts and coats on, you wrist-tapping gibbons.

Re:Go Niners!

[jd2112]

Fifty-minus-oners (see the Samsung Super B,, I mean Big Game commercial. )
Go Baltimore Black Birds!

Re:Sounds like a fantastic idea

[AK Marc]

That, and you could always generate a one-time key for the game, then transmit that (encrypted) and encrypt the system with a one-time pad, but without all the regular secure treatment of the OTP, since cracking it will let you see a game that'll be shown everywhere for free.