IDOC'S NEW SATELLITE TV CONTRACT IS A BUST - QUALITY OF SIGNAL ISSUES: Part 3 of 3

What good is it to have 75 television channels when none of them are of a quality that allows you to watch a program? That's the issue at the ISCC since the installation of the of the new satellite television system by A+ Satellite per contract between the Meridian, Idaho company and the Idaho Department of Correction.

Idaho prisoners housed in Arizona, and in facilities in the north of Idaho who are not contracted with A+ Satellite have quality signal and content, while the prisoners housed in the South Boise Complex (SBC) can barely watch a third of program or movie in its entirety due to the lack of a continuous and consistent television signal.

To be fair, the closed circuit television (CCTV) system in the SBC and ISCC which consists of internal TV channels (DVD players and graphics generators), Over-The-Air (OTA) channels and channels sourced from satellite receivers has been screwed up for many years, and the contract between the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) and A+ Satellite did not call for the contractor to replace or rework much of the system that is likely responsible for many of the problems with signal quality at the drop or cable connector.

Include the fact that televisions sold in the prison commissary for $313.56 (with the cost of the TV, remote control, cable and sales tax costing $360.18) are cheap pieces of garbage that can [and have been] picked up at a garage sale for $3, and the problems are compounded. Factor in the fact that the extra cost for the TV (and other outrageously priced commissary goods and services - called "commissions" by the IDOC and the Keefe Commissary Network) actually pay for the CCTV system, and one can start to see why there is so much frustration and animosity when it comes to the TV system.

On the other hand, the equipment that A+ did install are deficient when it comes to providing consistent (and required) television signals.

In an experiment to determine and document problems with the newly installed equipment (and in preparation for this series of articles), several prisoners at the ISCC were asked to time and document the time(s) that TV channels "Froze" over a specific period of time, and the duration of each instance of the problem.

As a "control" for the experiment, one of the experimenters (me) compared signals coming over the CCTV system to the same (OTA) channels on a separate TV using a cheap digital antenna placed in the window of a cell. In approximately 98% of the instances of OTA CCTV signals freezing, the same OTA broadcast station signal experienced no disruption, freezing, signal loss or other problem.

Once all the data was compared, it was discovered that channels on the new system (both OTA and satellite) 'froze', experienced complete signal loss or became extremely pixilated for an average 12.57 minutes per hour over three 12 hour periods between the dates of 4/12/24 and 4/15/24 (some prisoners were on a 3 day lockdown, thus there was ample time to make these observations). To get even more accurate data, the same experiments/observations were made again over two 12 hour periods on May 2 and May 4, 2024, and the freezing, signal loss and pixilation problems increased to more than 14 minutes per hour.

Taking into account solar [flare] activity, undesired solar alignment (where the satellite dish, satellite and sun are in a relatively straight line), weather, signal source [drop] problems and similar factors, a couple instances of signal [strength] loss of the audio and/or video signal are to be expected - maybe a few seconds per hour. That's not what's going on here, and it's getting worse.

At the ISCC, it seems there may be some kind of man-made EMF interference causing the 'freezing' and pixilation based on regularity of events (example, at 5 minutes after the hour for 3.5 minutes, then 2.8 minutes at 12 minutes past the hour.... etc. every hour, advancing approximately 1 minute per day). Further, the freezing issues are often associated with both the OTA and satellite sourced channels at the same time, though there are instances where just one or the other (satellite/OTA) sourced channels freeze independent of the other. Once in awhile, a single channel will freeze, but most often several channels freeze at once.

The ISCC is relatively close to the weather radar tower just north of the prison, as well as the Boise airport and Gowen Field, and each could create signal disruption. There could also be interference from [IDOC] automatic station identification transmitters and/or from the facility RF repeater. Heck, it could be timed alien restroom breaks, but whatever the problem, the issue is certainly one that must be addressed and resolved before any semblance of contract compliance will be a accepted.

Small and easily rectified matters such as aspect ratio settings, AGC (Automatic Gain Control) and Tilt settings on amplifiers should be part of a checklist to get the ISCC issues fixed, and I believe it can all be done quickly and with purpose.

Once the system is corrected and nominal performance in both quality and programming content have been achieved, expect more articles on this site covering all that is going RIGHT, and tales of how A+ Satellite has come to rescue the best babysitter the IDOC has ever had.

Something needs to be done to curb the violence and problems that have cropped up in the SBC/ISCC since October, 2022 when the Dish Network America's 120 Core Package was removed from prisoner televisions. I can personally attest to the fact that one has much to do with the other.