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1www.satellite-evolution.com | January/February 2017

Editor’s View....

It’s 2017 and it’s make or breakAmy Saunders

Editor

“However, despite thedoom and gloom, therewill always be companiesthat rise from nowhere,technologies that....”

It’s the start of a brand-new year, a new 12 months to move forwards and improve upon 2016. Here in the UK, the mornings are darker thanever, but each day is lighter with the promise of future possibilities.

Of course, with each new year comes a whole host of events to look forward to. In the next three months alone we’ve got PTC’17, theSmallSat Symposium, Satellite 2017 and CABSAT 2017. It’s going to be a busy time for anyone inthe communications sector, but it’s also going to be a time of fantastic opportunities, for makingnew contacts, discovering new technologies, and widening horizons.

With so much going on in the satellite industry right now, events such as these are a goodmarker for which new technologies are finding their place in the market, and which are a flash inthe pan. I for one expect to see 4K/8K/HDR having an even larger presence at events this year, inaddition to virtual reality. However, that’s not to say that these technologies are growing as ex-pected. The harsh economic environment means that consumers are less able to invest, and 4K,in particular, is growing much slower than believed even a short time ago, despite content becom-ing increasingly available. Meanwhile, much as virtual reality has won me over since my exten-sive trial at IBC 2016, there is still very little content available, despite the record numbers ofheadsets received as gifts over Christmas. Even I’m still holding off on such a purchase.

In other news, there are yet more whispers about new takeovers and consolidations, and it’sset to be a year of financial uncertainty for many given the political instability in much of the world. Between ‘Brexit,’ elections and referen-dums throughout Europe, a new controversial President of the USA, and ongoing military activities in the Middle East, it’s going to be abumpy year. Given the circumstances, it won’t take much for some companies teetering on the edge to be forced into an action they didn’tplan for.

However, despite the doom and gloom, there will always be companies that rise from nowhere, technologies that stand strong in theface of adversity, and influential individuals who will have a massive effect on industries at large. It will be those companies and people whocan adapt the fastest to new circumstances who stand to achieve the most during these turbulent times, and some will even gain thanks tothe new market conditions.

In many ways, 2017 stands to be a make or break year for many in the satellite sector.

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Contents - volume 15 - issue 1

Regulars4 Satellite News Review

8 Bert Sadtler’s Business Column

14 Modems for the future

18 Earth observation

24 Q&A Rockwell Collins

28 Accelerating into the future with the IoT

32 Q&A Eutelsat

36 SNG: Reporting from the heart of disaster

38 Maritime telemedicine evolves

42 Marketing the satellite industry

Front cover: Photo courtesy SESCOVER STORY - 10

Delivering specialised value

SES was established in 1985 as Europe’s first private satelliteoperator, and it’s come a long way since then. Today, it operatesmore than 50 geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites and 12medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites, through its subsidiary O3bNetworks. SES’s satellite fleet covers more than 99 per cent ofthe world’s population, and provides services to its four verticalmarkets; video, enterprise, mobility and government. AmySaunders spoke with SES’s Deepak Mathur, Senior Vice Presi-dent of Commercial, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, to talk aboutthe company’s recent developments and emerging market trends.

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4 www.satellite-evolution.com | January/February 2017

....News & Analysis

ABS issued Operator Licenses for Papua New GuineaABS announced it has been granted the Network,Applications and Gateway Operator licenses to servePapua New Guinea (PNG) from the National Informationand Communications Technology Authority (NICTA). Thelicenses awarded will allow ABS to operate as a telecomoperator as well as a satellite service provider.

ABS is the first international satellite operator toincorporate a company in PNG, known as ABS GlobalSatell ite Limited (AGSL) to provide informationcommunication technology (ICT) services, registered withthe Investment Promotions Authority. ABS has been inpartnership with NICTA since 2008, which has resultedin a number of orbital slot positions around the worldbrought into use by ABS by deploying several satellitescurrently at such orbital locations. AGSL has met all duediligence requirements and its license applications wereapproved by the NICTA Board on December 16, 2016.The three Individual Operator Licenses granted by NICTAare technology neutral and now give AGSL the rights toprovide ICT services in accordance with NICT (OperatorLicensing) Regulation 2010.

ABS initially plans to set up a major teleport in PortMoresby to provide connectivity from its Asian gatewaythough the ABS-6 satellite which will bring cost effectiveinternet connectivity and VSAT services into the country.From the gateway hub, it will also offer more affordableinternet access to remotes in underserved rural regionsand outlying islands transforming the market withaccessible and reliable services.

ABS will be primarily engaged in satellite-based orsatellite support telecom infrastructure, but wherenecessary will deploy fibre or microwave to complementthe connectivity requirements. Cellular mobile serviceis also allowed under the license and may becontemplated in the future.

“The approval of the telecommunication licenses isan important milestone and development for ABS in theSouth Pacific region. The challenge in the Pacific hasbeen to deliver high quality resilient and cost effectivevoice and data solutions. Improvement in connectivitypaves an opportunity for sustainable growth in PNG andis central to bridging the gap with its rural areas andneighbouring countries,” said Tom Choi, CEO of ABS.

“PNG is the land of the unexpected, and we at ABS arehappy to bring competition into the market place toenable the provision of more affordable telecom servicesto the ultimate benefit of the PNG populace.”

Mr. Charles Punaha, CEO of NICTA, commented,“PNG internet penetration remains below 10 percent,which is very low on a global scale. This is mainlybecause the cost of rolling out a network in PNG is veryexpensive, compounded by the topographical conditionsof the country, with isolated communities. We arepleased at the entry of the first satellite operator into thecountry to bring competition for the provision of ICTservices which will result in more economical pricing.This will in turn trigger a higher demand for servicessupporting the development of the country.”

exactEarth announces successful initial launch forits second-generation real-time constellationexactEarth has announced the successful launch of fourhosted payloads for its next generation constellation,exactView™ RT powered by Harris. Launched aboardan Iridium NEXT satellite on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocketfrom Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, thesehosted maritime payloads are now being commissionedand are expected to be brought into service within thenext four months. The exactView RT system is the resultof the agreement signed with Harris Corporation in June2015 under which Harris deploys and operates thehosted payloads and exactEarth performs the ground-based data processing and has exclusive distributionrights for the data for all markets except the USGovernment.

exactView RT will offer for the first time a continuous,global real-time ship tracking capability, providing anunprecedented view of the world’s maritime domain toexactEarth customers. Designed to provide significantimprovements to current and future customers, the RTsatellites will deliver best-in-class vessel detection ratesas well as instantaneous downlinking of AIS information.This will enable average global revisit rates of under oneminute with the company’s customers receiving data inreal time. exactView RT will consist of more than 60payloads (including in-orbit spares) aboard the IridiumNEXT constellation, which is scheduled for completionin 2018.

“These launches will enhance our service level andopen-up the potential for new revenue streams from abroader range of market applications,” said PeterMabson, CEO of exactEarth. “As the various satellitesbecome operational, it will mark the beginning of ourmove towards a continuous real-time global vessel-tracking service capability. As a result, these initiallaunches represent a major milestone on this path underour alliance with Harris, which we believe will be one ofthe Company’s key long-term growth drivers.”

CASBAA warns Indian TV regulations threateninvestmentCASBAA, the Association of Asia’s pay-TV Industry, haswarmly applauded the judicial review now underway inIndia of proposed extension and tightening of India’s pay-TV rate regulations.

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News & Analysis....

The Madras High Court is currently reviewing theclash between the rights of copyright owners around theworld and new tariff regulations proposed by the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The court hasordered the TRAI not to give effect to the rules until theunderlying issues are considered.

CASBAA CEO Christopher Slaughter observed thatthe new rules would be a major negative factor for thebusiness environment in the $17 billion Indian mediaindustry. “India’s pay-TV regulations have long beenamong the strictest in the world”, he said. “The proposednew rules are highly intrusive and would make theenvironment much worse. Such a heavy-handedregulatory regime will inevitably hit foreign companies’interest in investing in India.”

Indian law gives copyright owners the ability to priceand sell their creative works. In filing the Madras suit,the petitioner broadcasting organizations denounced theTRAI regulation as contrary to these principles asenshrined in the law, and in international treaties to whichIndia is a signatory. (The TRAI rules would establish acontrolled price regime by mandating a la carte channelsupply, setting the ceiling, by specific genres, thatbroadcasting organizations can charge to multichannelprogram distributors, limiting discounts, prescribingcarriage fees, and stipulating a compulsory distributionfee to be paid by Broadcasting Organizations tomultichannel program distributors.

CASBAA has long expressed concern about India’sprevious rate regulations, which included a cable retailprice freeze imposed in 2004 “until the market becamemore competitive” and never revoked.

“Today, India’s television content market is amongthe most competitive in the world,” said Slaughter.“Modern cable MSOs, six different DTH platforms andnow online OTT television are all giving Indianconsumers a wide range of viewing options.”

CASBAA’s Chief Policy Officer John Medeirosobserved that: “As convergence and greater competitionsweep the TV economy, other governments around theworld are eliminating rate controls, to give more scopeto competition among traditional and new onlineproviders. In the last few years, Korea and Taiwan haveboth undertaken to liberalize their pay-TV price controls,leaving India as the last market economy in Asia with ahyper-regulatory regime. The proposed new rules wouldtake India in the opposite direction from the rest of theworld.”

Santander Teleport selected as one of the WTA TopOperators of 2016Santander Teleport, a leading European teleportoperator, has been selected as one of the World TeleportAssociation’s (WTA) Top Teleport Operators of 2016.

Each year, WTA publishes the world’s only rankingsof companies that operate teleports for commercialpurposes, including independents, satellite carriers, fibrecarriers and technology providers. Rankings are basedon total revenue from all sources and on year-over-yeargrowth. They recognize that, to some extent, everyteleport operator competes in the same marketplace –the biggest with the smallest – but that like all

marketplaces, the teleport sector has segments in whicheven the smallest players can compete effectively andachieve strong growth.

Santander Teleport appears strong in the list of TheFast Twenty, which is based on year-over-year revenuegrowth in their most recent complete fiscal years, andincludes all operators.

“Santander Teleport is pleased to appear once morein this prestigious list, competing in the same league assome of the largest companies in the satellite industryand showing a healthy growth year-on-year. This pastyear 2016 has been an exciting year for us and we expectto achieve even better results next year,” said CarlosRaba, Managing Director of Santander Teleport.

C-COM and NSERC to invest $6.1 million into R&D ofnext generation intelligent mobile antennatechnologyC-COM Satellite Systems has announced that it is co-funding an Industrial Research Chair in IntelligentAntenna and Radio Systems for the next GenerationMillimetre Wave Mobile Communications at the Universityof Waterloo.

The five-year project, co-funded by Natural Sciencesand Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)and C-COM, goes to the Industrial Research Chair heldby Professor Safieddin (Ali) Safavi-Naeini, who leads ateam of researchers at the University of Waterloo, facultyof Engineering in the department of Electrical andComputer Engineering. The primary goal of the researchwill be the development of a new modular, low-cost,intelligent antenna for next generation of mobile satellitecommunications. C-COM will provide total cash fundingof $3,055,000 payable in installments until the end of2020 which will be matched by NSERC.

C-COM will also provide $751,000 of in-kind supportto the project. Under the terms of the agreement relatingto the project, C-COM will own the intellectual propertyresulting from the research conducted.

“Our main objective has always been to deliver thevery best in Canadian-made satellite communicationstechnology to the world,” said Dr. Leslie Klein, President& CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. “C-COM andthe University of Waterloo have had a long-standingpartnership to fulfill these goals and we look forward toworking with them to create the most advanced nextgeneration antenna systems for the global satellitemarketplace.”

“Digital technologies are playing a major role in whatmany have referred to as the fourth industrial revolution,”said B. Mario Pinto, President of NSERC. “NSERC isproud to fur ther dr ive innovation in wirelesscommunications by supporting this research partnershipin advanced satellite antenna systems. Dynamiccollaborations between industry and academia are vitalto transformative advances and breakthroughs in thisfield.”

Professor Safavi-Naeini is also the Director of the Centrefor Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems, and haspartnered with C-COM in the patenting of modular scalablemillimetre-wave phased array technology. “Once you havea low-cost, ultra-thin, light-weight, smart, and highly modular

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....News & Analysis

active antenna (intelligent radiating skin), you can havemobile high performance internet connection everywhere,”said Safavi-Naeini. “We have the potential to make thistechnology affordable and bring it to many parts of the worldthat have been left behind.”

Thuraya SeaStar brings full accessibility to maritimesatellite communicationsThuraya Telecommunications Company has announcedthe launch of Thuraya SeaStar, the new circuit switchedvoice terminal that brings full and affordable accessibilityto maritime communications.

Thuraya SeaStar meets the evolving needs of themodern fishing market, introducing the power of modernsatellite communications capability to small scaleoperators. Thuraya’s new terminal is ideal for smallerand regional owner operator fishing vessels, althoughits appeal also extends to other operators looking forsupport systems.

With affordability a driving factor in key maritimemarket sectors, Thuraya SeaStar will be available at acost of ownership that lowers the barrier to providingonboard satellite communications. Thuraya SeaStarprovides unrivalled functionality and levels of valuepreviously unseen at its price point.

Bilal Hamoui, Thuraya Chief Commercial Officer, said:“Because the maritime market itself includes operatorsof varying scale and requirements, Thuraya needs tooffer a comprehensive portfolio of products at a clearand distinctive range of price points. Maritime satellitecommunications should be available to everyone at sea,and Thuraya SeaStar is a high quality, accessible andaffordable voice terminal that meets the needs of arapidly expanding modern market. Expectations arechanging and new legislation and safety requirementsare being introduced around the world, but we have madeit possible for smaller scale operators to meet thesechanging demands.”

Thuraya’s new terminal offers voice, SMS, data andtracking, on an easy and intuitive interface that is basedon Android operating systems. Users can make satellitevoice calls to normal PSTN phones, mobile phones andother satellite phones through the Thuraya satellitenetwork.

Thuraya SeaStar’s ability to connect a standardanalogue phone or private branch exchange (PBX)delivers further flexibility in taking calls on board vessels.A standard cordless telephone can be connected, givingusers the freedom to make calls while away from thehandset, and Thuraya SeaStar also features an externalspeaker.

GmPRS data connection is included too, for simplee-mails, weather forecasts, and access to mobilewebsites and social media. The user defined geofencingfunction, which enables automatic tracking of vesselsfor enhanced fleet management, can be set and lockedfor specific geographies before delivery. An alert buttonoffers additional reassurance, should anything go wrongwhile on board that may require emergency contact forexternal support.

The Thuraya SeaStar unit comes with acomprehensive pack that includes support materials,

including an antenna, a below decks unit, 25m standardcables, mounting brackets and bolts. The installationprocess is quick and easy, with the flexibility of cableruns of up to 75m if required.

With increasing safety and legislation demands, thefishing market needs greater levels of connectivity.Thuraya SeaStar offers an effective solution for catchreporting; and an accessible emergency calls andnotification capability. It meets cabin crew welfarerequirements, in line with MLC 2006, and can be readilyinstalled as a dedicated crew phone in the mess. Onlarger merchant vessels, Thuraya SeaStar can alsoserve as a complement to existing Orion and Atlas IPterminals.

While Thuraya SeaStar will have considerable appealfor smaller scale and regional owner operator fishingvessels, the reach of Thuraya’s network is extensive.According to data from the Western & Central PacificFisheries Commission (WCPFC), 80 percent of theworld’s fishing regions lie within Thuraya’s footprint.Japan, Philippines, Indonesian, Cambodia and Chinaare key countries, and Thuraya SeaStar will also appealto regional merchants looking for a back-up systemalternative to VHF and GSM.

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....Bert Sadtler’s Business Column

The best tricky interview questions for2017Have you started reading this expecting to find great secretsfrom the viewpoint of a professional recruiter? Are you lookingforward to uncovering the best tricky interview questions andthe magical ways to get them to work?

Ber t Sadtler is the President ofBoxwood Strategies and is a thought-leader for best practices recruiting,performance-based compensation andthe shift in the changing paradigmtoward acquiring critical senior leveltalent.

Bert can be reached at:[email protected] andat BoxwoodSearch.com

What if I told you that the headlineitself was a trick? Would you feel angryor disappointed to learn that this columnwill not be offering any great trickyinterview questions? Would you feelmisled? Will I have lost some of yourtrust?

Please step back and think aboutyour response. It is hard to imagine thatyou would enjoy being tricked. It is justas hard to imagine that anyone beinginterviewed would enjoy being tricked.

Asking tricky interview questions isNOT a best practice in recruiting

Tricky interview questions establishthe following:

• They demonstrate that the hiringmanager may be a weak or insecureleader if they need to resort to trickyinterview questions.

• If the hiring manager has delegatedtricky questions to be asked by anadministrator it may also suggestweak leadership.

• If a hiring manager asks trickyinterview questions during the hiringprocess, what will the hiringmanager be like to work with if youare hired? Things can only beexpected to get worse, not better.

• Tricky questions suggest the needfor the hiring manager to establisha dominant position over thecandidate. Highly qualified talentedprofessionals do not want to joincompanies with that type of a toxicenvironment.

Best practice hir ing is aboutattracting and hiring the best talent.Poor hiring processes quickly turn offhighly talented candidates.

Let’s keep in mind that our changingsociety has also made it a moretransparent society. Therefore, yousimply need to Google “Interview TrickyQuestions” to have access to all of the“Greatest” ones. Here are twoexamples:

• What would you do if you won $5

million tomorrow?• Can you name three of your

strengths and weaknesses?

These types of questions fall underthe larger category of being totallyuseless hiring questions that can bepracticed and rehearsed by candidates.Maybe back in the dark ages there wasa place for them when hiring managerswould share their secret handbook ofhiring questions and dinosaurs wereroaming the earth.

While it is easy to Google for theinterview tricky questions, it is just aseasy to Google the ideal responses tothe tr icky questions. In doing so,candidates can demonstrate their abilityto polish answers to predictedquestions.

Does someone who has wellrehearsed and polished answers topredicted interview questions make agreat hire? Hell No !

The purpose of hiring critical talentshould be to solve a critical businesschallenge. Responding to tr ickyquestions or predicted questions hasnothing to do with demonstrating thenecessary qualifications for solving acritical business challenge. Many hiringefforts have lost their way when theyresor t to using predictable, stalequestions. Best practice hiring takeseffort and work to get it right. Trickyinterview questions and predictableinterview questions requires zeroimagination and very little effort.

Short cut approaches that includetricky interview questions have causedtoday’s hiring models to be broken.

Where should we be going?Since hiring is being done to solve acritical business challenge, wouldn’t itbe logical to make the hiring event abusiness event? Shouldn’t the format bea business discussion vs. aninterrogatory? What if the conversationinvolved discussing in more detail thebusiness challenge and then having thecandidate discuss their or iginal

thoughts and ideas to solve the criticalbusiness challenge?

Change is a constant component ofbusiness. Haven’t we arrived at theplace where it is time to retire the wornout weak interview questions and moveforward with a fresher and morerelevant approach?

Good hunting.

Photos courtesy KP Photograph/Shutterstock

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....Q&A SES

Question: Can you provide an outlineof the development of SES over theyears?Deepak Mathur: SES began as asatellite operator targeting Europe, withsmall arcs into the Middle East andAfrica. As the millennium approached,SES began its transformation tobecome a global satellite operator,offering multiple services in multiplemarkets. Through the acquisition of GEAmericom in 2001, we gained a footholdin the North American market, and withthe acquisition of New Skies, we

Delivering specialised valueSES was established in 1985 as Europe’s first private satelliteoperator, and it’s come a long way since then. Today, it operatesmore than 50 geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites and 12medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites, through its subsidiary O3bNetworks. SES’s satellite fleet covers more than 99 per cent ofthe world’s population, and provides services to its four verticalmarkets; video, enterprise, mobility and government. AmySaunders spoke with SES’s Deepak Mathur, Senior VicePresident of Commercial, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, totalk about the company’s recent developments and emergingmarket trends.

expanded our geography further tocover 99 per cent of the Earth’s surface.

In recent years, we have continuedto expand our capabilities and range ofofferings. Last July, we acquired RRMedia, which was merged with oursubsidiary SES Platform Services toform MX1, broadening our suite ofdigital video and media services. Mostrecently, we brought O3b Networks,which operates a fleet of next-generation, low-latency MEO satellites,into our fold to enhance our dataofferings and delivery of differentiated

and scalable solutions to customersworldwide. Today, SES is the largestsatellite operator in the world with over50 GEO and 12 MEO satellites in orbit,and another seven satellites to belaunched.

Question: Which markets does SESfocus on, and how is this changing?Deepak Mathur: Video is an importantpart of our business and forms around70 per cent of our revenue globally. Itwill continue to be a strong driver forour business, but data is also becomingan increasingly larger part of what wedo, and can be divided into three sub-ver ticals: Enterprise, mobility andgovernment.

On the enterprise side, we servetelecommunications companies thatprovide connectivity to remotegeographies, mobile network operatorswho use satellites for cellular backhaul,and banks and enterprises with largenational or global networks. These aremajor parts of our business.

The mobility sphere is one of themost rapidly growing areas in ourindustry right now. In the aviation sector,in-flight connectivity has gone from anice-to-have to a must-have. Around

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Q&A SES....

one and a half years ago, commercialaircraft typically had low connectivityrates shared among all the on-boardpassengers, but today, many aircraft areconnected with speeds of up to 10-20Mbps. Our customers are telling usthat airlines now want up to 200Mbpsper aircraft going forwards, which wouldallow passengers to stream HD videoat an affordable price. Another goodexample of a rapidly growing area inmobility is the maritime sector; largecruise ships have traditionally had verylow connectivity rates, and with 3,000to 4,000 passengers on board, theexperience was poor. In a highly-connected world, this was clearly aproblem that needed a solution. That’schanging rapidly today, helped along bynew technologies and services. Forinstance, SES has teamed up with VT

iDirect, coupling our satellite capacitywith their latest technology to offer ahigh-speed connectivity service,Maritime+, to vessels traversing theseas worldwide.

The government sector alsocomprises a significant part of our databusiness. Today we serve 57governments and institutions worldwide.Our network enables civilian, securityand defence applications, informationgathering, but also serves humanitarianpurposes such as e-health, e-learning,e-elections and e-emergency. Ourservices are also key to suppor tgovernments and institutions in theirvarious digital inclusion projects.

Question: How does SES differ-entiate itself from its competitors?Deepak Mathur: Within the video

sector, we’ve got a legacy now thatdates back around 30 years of bringingvideo content to TV homes, and wehave recently expanded our videocapabilities for customers. Beyondcapacity, our customers can access afull range of video distribution serviceswithin SES. Through our subsidiaryMX1, we’re able to offer full turnkeysolutions along the complete mediavalue chain for broadcasters, includingcontent management or distributionservices delivered over satellite, fibreand the Internet.

We have also been at the forefrontof the movement towards higher qualityvideo as the first satellite operator tobroadcast a commercial Ultra HDchannel, Fashion One 4K, in September2015. Today, we broadcast more than20 commercial UHD TV channelsworldwide, more than any other satelliteoperator.

In the data space, we’vedifferentiated ourselves from ourcompetitors in several key ways.

The first is our acquisition of O3bNetworks, which operates a global next-generation constellation of MEOsatellites. O3b’s satellites are locatedabout 8,000km above the Earth, whichenables us to provide low cost permegabit, low-latency connectivity atfibre-like speeds. The round-trip datatransmission time is reduced to lessthan 150ms for MEO systems like O3b,compared to more than 500ms for GEOsystems, which has a material impactfor latency sensitive data transmissions.O3b not only expands the range of ourdata capabilities, the flexibility it enablesis also important; the ability of O3b tomove its beams to new areas as cellularnetworks grow out is a crucialadvantage from our perspective. It’s anenormous growth opportunity becausethe roll-out of cellular networks tendedto be largely urban and semi-urban,which meant that rural areas such asthe Pacific Islands had almost noconnectivity. O3b is able to bridge theconnectivity gap for island nationstoday, as it does for Papua New Guinea,enabling the roll-out of high throughput,low latency broadband services in thecountry. This is a critical differentiatorthat I believe the other satell iteoperators are now recognising.

The next development that helps usdifferentiate from our competitors is inthe HTS sphere. HTS is fundamentallyabout establishing lots of small, high-powered spot beams and being able toreuse spectrum several times, making

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....Q&A SES

i t more cost efficient. Our keydifferentiator is our hybrid approach:three of our upcoming HTS satellites –SES-12, SES-14 and SES-15 –combine a high throughout payload withwidebeam coverage on the samesatellite, offering more flexibility andcustomized solutions. For example, abank in Indonesia with 4,000 ATMs andbranches across the 17,000 islandscould cover the entire territory with 15spot beams. This is great when a branchwants to communicate back to the headoffice, but when the head office wantsto send the same message to everybranch, the signal would have to be sent15 times, making it very uneconomical.That’s when our hybrid approach bringssignificant advantages: This means thatcustomers can benefit from the lowercost per bit of HTS for someapplications, and switch to thewidebeam for others, depending onwhich is most cost-efficient.

What it all boils down to isspecialised capabilities. For a long time,the satellite industry has operated on aone-size-fits-all model, but today we’reincreasingly developing specialisedsatell ites, and more impor tantlycustomized services, enabling us todeliver a specific set of solutions tovideo and data customers.

Question: In which regions is therethe most opportunity for growth?Deepak Mathur: About two or threeyears ago, there was a belief that themature video markets, namely Europe,North America, Japan and Korea, wouldno longer show significant growth dueto the rise of OTT services and other

competing technologies. Peoplethought that all the growth would stemfrom the emerging markets like India,Indonesia and Brazil.

To our surprise and delight, capacitydemands over North America andEurope continue to be strong andcontinue to grow. They’re growing by 2-3 percent, which is significant from sucha large base.

A major factor for this growth is theincreasing demand for better picturequality – both HD and UHD. In addition,we’re also observing growth in theemerging markets of Asia, LatinAmerica and Afr ica. In Asia, inparticular, we see growth due to risingeconomic growth, and a hunger forhigh-quality video content among theseyoung populations, as well as localisedcontent in different languages anddialects.

Question: What major emergingtrends and challenges have youobserved in the satellite sector?Deepak Mathur: It’s a very positivetrend that video continues to be a strongdriver, both in developed and emergingmarkets, and we’re going to start to seea sustained move towards higherpicture quality, be it HD or Ultra HD.Probably the most important trend is themove away from one-size-fits-allcapacity to highly specialised solutionsdepending on the customer.

We have also seen a surge in thedemand for connectivity in the maritimeand aeronautical sectors. In Asia andbeyond, passengers’ increasingdemands for connectivity-on-the-go areboosting the adoption of maritime andaeronautical connectivity. At the sametime, the uptick in demand is alsocoming from ship, r ig and air l ineoperators who recognise theoperational efficiencies that connectivitybrings.

Quite a few challenges reside on theregulatory front, where the relaxation ofregulatory constraints is still proceedingat a very slow pace. It is unfortunatewhen we see how satellite connectivitycan bring Internet to a school, or to afarmer who does not know how to dealwith a new pest, and can then researcha solution online. I would like to see thischange in the coming years. Satellite isa key infrastructure for connecting theunconnected and is an enormousenabler for the economy.

Question: With video contributingmost SES’ revenue, how important isthe uptake of UHD?Deepak Mathur: UHD is very importantfor a couple of reasons. One satellite

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Q&A SES....

transponder used to carry one channel,which was enormously expensive.When we moved into the digital era, westarted to be able to carry four channelsper transponder. This was not thedownfall of satellite operators, becauseas costs came down, more channelsemerged. SES has now moved from aposition where we had a couple ofhundred channels globally, to onewhere we have more than 7,000channels. The reason for that is the costof distribution and production havefallen significantly. Today you can fit asmany as 30 SD channels on a singletransponder, and there continues to bestrong growth and demand.

UHD, offer ing four times theresolution of HD, provides a trulyimmersive experience. While it willprobably not be used to deliver localnews in a small Chinese province, forexample, we see that it has alreadybegun to be used for major sportingevents and for films, and we expect theadoption and popularity of UHD tocontinue on the uptrend.

The benefit of UHD is that it enablesour customers, the pay-TV operators,to create a differentiated and superioroffering while also helping to tackle thepiracy threat that a lot of them are

facing. The clarity and picture quality ofUHD delivered through TV isunparalleled, particularly for live sportsand events. For pay-TV operators andas an industry, UHD brings animmersive and dynamic viewingexperience to TV audiences worldwide,and is surely a vital part of the futurevideo landscape.

Question: SES plans to launch SES-12, SES-14 and SES-15 in 2017, whichwill provide HTS capacity to the Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Can youprovide an outline of the project, andwill SES be launching HTS capacityin other world regions?Deepak Mathur: We ordered SES-12,SES-14 and SES-15 as a key extensionof our HTS strategy, which started withour investment in O3b’s MEOconstellation. SES-12 is a massivehybrid satellite targeting the Asia-Pacificregion, and will be launched near theend of 2017. SES-14 and SES-15, alsohybrid satellites, will provide coverageover the Americas and trans-Atlanticroutes.

We are constantly on the lookout forbusiness and growth opportunitiesworldwide, but so far there have been afew challenges when it comes to

deploying HTS capacity for Europe,Middle East and Africa regions. The firstis that Europe has not had as much ofa data market as North America, andthere’s a significant amount of fibreconnectivity there already. That beingsaid, in Europe, where 56 percent of thepopulation lives in rural areas, only 79percent of households have access tobroadband Internet – satellite certainlyhas an important role to play here. Inaddition, the innovations for connectedair l ines are now star ting to gainmomentum in Europe and the MiddleEast. Secondly, the HTS systemsalready present over Africa have hadsome economic challenges; thedemand that was expected to fill thiscapacity has not emerged yet. Certaincountries in Africa have had fits andstarts with their GDP developmentunfortunately, and that’s part of thereason why demand has not picked up.However, today 400 million Africans liveoutside the user reach of fibreconnectivity, and 80 per cent still livewithout a mobile broadband connection.The region has enormous potential forconnectivity. As economic andinfrastructure development reaches asustained level of progress, the demandfor connectivity will most probably thenbe realised.

Question: In 2016, we saw a fair bitof industry consolidation. Do youexpect to see a lot more goingforward?Deepak Mathur: The last year or so hasbeen a challenging period for thesatellite industry, but much of this hasbeen exaggerated. Various industryexperts have also signalled that thisperiod is now approaching its end, andthere are plenty of reasons for optimism.

In the year ahead, we do seepockets of growth and opportunities inour four key verticals – video, mobility,enterprise and government. Theadoption of UHD, demand for maritimeand aeronautical connectivity, growth inconnected devices creating newopportunities to tap on the Internet ofThings, the easing up of governments’budget sequestration pressures – allthese, among other industry trends, arepicking up at an ever-quickening pace.

As we move forward, I believesatellite operators that can deliverspecialised value to their customers arein a better place than the operators thatare selling capacity as a commodity. AtSES, we recognised this change earlyand acted on it.

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....Modem Technology

Advantech Wireless is one of the world-leaders when itcomes to satellite technology, consistently pushing above andbeyond with the latest innovations in terminals, amplifiers,antennas, block up convertors and hubs, not forgetting itssizeable range of modems.

April 2016 saw Advantech Wireless launch a new familyof AMT-50/50X SCPC modems, complete with bi-directionalthroughputs of 10Kbps to 850Mbps, in addition to carrier echocancellation technology. The modems provide improvementsof spectral efficiency of up to 60 percent with the latest DVB-S2X modulation and coding from BPSK up to 256APSK. Thenew AMT-50 supports bandwidths as high as 36Mbps assuitable for a 36MHz transponder, and includes the DVB-S2X time slice number concept. Meanwhile, the AMT-50Xcan reach 80Mbps for a 72MHz transponder, or up to an80MHz DVB-S2X time slice. Both models support multiplewaveforms like DVB-S/S2/S2X, carrier echo cancellation andother features such as ASI inputs/outputs to support video,

L2/L3 switch/router with a built-in QoS/PEP and CID asmandated by the FCC.

Meanwhile, in June 2016, Advantech Wireless releasedthe military-grade AMT-83L modem, a follow-on from its AMT-73L line, which was the first to be certified by DISA with MIL-STD-188-165A. These modems were designed to fulfil two-way satellite gateway communication requirements inDefence Satellite Communications Systems (DSCS). TheAMT-83L modem includes several additional featurescompared to the AMT-73L, including DVB-S2 with LDPCcoding and adaptive coding and modulation (ACM), IP datainterface, GSE encapsulation, direct sequence spreadspectrum (DSSS) and AES 128/256 encryption. The AMT-83L has proved popular since its launch, with sizeable ordersbeing reported from NATO country members and other keycustomers.

Advantech Wireless launched its most recent modem inSeptember 2016. The Ka-8200, an interactive VSAT

Modems for the future

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It seems like almost once a week I read about the latest development in the satellite modem field,and it’s hardly surprising. With the recent surge in technological advancements such as highthroughput satellites (HTS) and the ever-increasing bandwidth they provide, as well as the newservices that are becoming increasingly in-reach for an expanding number of companies andorganisations, modem technology has got to keep pace. The major players in the modem sectorknow that they’ve got to stay at the head of the pack to save themselves from becoming irrelevantin today’s hyper-competitive environment.

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Modem Technology....

Transceiver-Router for A-SAT-II multi-waveform and multi-access SATCOM systems, is an ultra-compact, all-outdoorunit with SDR, direct modulation, and transceiver-routercapabilities. Potential applications include M2M, IoT, andSCADA/telemetry low data rate random access applicationsover Ka-band HTS. The Ku-8200, the Ku-band version, wasalso launched for the VoD, interactive TV, programme ratingand other broadcast-related applications.

“Our new Ka-8200 and Ku-8200 ultra-compact all-outdoorVSAT transceiver-router represents a breakthrough enablingM2M, SCADA and IoT over satellite for areas where othershort-haul wireless communication means are unavailable.Recent market reports forecast that the IoT will overtakemobile phones by 2018, reaching 16 billion connecteddevices by the end of 2021, and we expect a large growth insatellite connectivity for such applications, complimenting 4G/LTE and 5G with IoT, M2M and SCADA deployments,” saidOscar Glottman, CMO Satellite Business Unit at AdvantechWireless.

Enhancing the functionality of SKYWAN 5G with virtualchannel group upgradesND Satcom is another key player in the satellite modem androuter industry. Its latest addition, SKYWAN 5G, is an all-in-one compact unit incorporating a DVB-S2 receiver with anMD-TDMA modem. SKYWAN 5G was designed for star, multi-star, hybrid or full mesh topologies, supports switching toanother topology over time, and provides cost savings withdynamic bandwidth allocations.

“We consider mesh networks over HTS a task to pass onthe HTS benefits to its customers,” said ND SatCom. “Thehybrid architecture of SKYWAN 5G with integrated DVB-S2and MF-TDMA is our base for such adaptations in the nearfuture: the scalable terminal architecture of 5G increasinglyaddresses HTS multi-spot beam designs by handling muchmore channels concurrently; with its hubless design and useof secure access protocols and upcoming open linkencryption feature, it will fit the security concerns ofenterprises and governments and even military users in thenear future.”

In the area of enterprise and government applications,secure satcom networks adher ing to the GVFrecommendations or Common Criteria are attractingincreasingly more attention. Chief Technology Officers arerequesting rooftop-to-rooftop connectivity more and moreinstead of teleport-based solutions in the fight against cyber-threats, making solutions that support a wide range oftopologies a popular choice.

SKYWAN 5G’s virtual routing and forwarding function(VRF) was enhanced with the virtual channel group (VCGr)

upgrade in June 2016, enabling customers to increasebandwidth efficiency while maintaining service guarantees.Bandwidth management is a challenging issue as the growthin traffic from new services and the rising number ofapplications and users with higher bandwidth and/or lowestjitter requirements like HD/UHD video or 3G/LTE mobile trafficare stretching network capabilities. All data packets on themulti-service network use the same resource pool, and whencongestion occurs, any packet can be dropped or delayed.

The VCGr upgrade enhances the capability of SKYWAN5G to provide easy methods to manage network resourcesand link characteristics, giving precedence to selected traffic,thus delivering a better service for an end-to-end businesssolution. Each SKYWAN 5G router can be set up with severalVRF instances, each utilizing independent IP address plans,networking stacks, network interfaces, routing protocols andindividual QoS forwarding rules. VRFs segment the SKYWAN5G satellite network into virtual private networks for varioususer or application groups using the same platform. The newVCGr ensures that a committed bandwidth threshold is neverviolated by other user groups’ traffic, while operator-definedtraffic profiles are enforced with the committed threshold.Whether a user group network can access shared bandwidthis easily controlled by configuration. With the VCGr upgrade,service providers can offer their customers virtual SCPC linksin one SKYWAN network.

“The benefit for both user and application groups is thatindividual service guarantees (CIR) given per group arecomplemented by excess speed from the commonly sharedbandwidth resource. Each group in its VRF experiences itsown MF-TDMA network, but will benefit from sharing somesatellite bandwidth as an extra bonus,” said Helmut Jäckle,SKYWAN Product Manager. “Another VCGr advantage is thatit further increases the SKYWAN 5G VSAT platform efficiencyin bandwidth utilization at reduced OPEX and setup timesfor the operator.”

Newtec expands on strong history to provide industry-leading technologyWhen it comes to considering the latest developments inmodem technology, Newtec cannot be ignored. The companyconsistently releases first-of-their-kind products for a varietyof applications within the communications technology sphere,and modems are at the heart of that.

Newtec launched the world’s first satellite modem tosupport wideband DVB-S2X, the latest standard on themarket, in February 2016. The MDM5000 modem receivesforwarding carriers of up to 140MHz and processes morethan 200Mbps. On the return channel, its supports SCPC,TDMA and Newtec’s own Mx-DMA up to 75Mbps. The high




....Modem Technology

efficiency afforded by Newtec’s Mx-DMA provides gains ofmore than 50 percent, making the modem perfect for mid tohigh-end applications like oil rigs, cruise ships, super yachtsand cellular backhaul. The MDM5000 has forward symbolrates from 1-133Mbaud and coding up to 256APSK, and canhandle a variety of IP services including Internet and Intranetaccess, VoIP, mobile backhaul and trunking, and videocontribution and multicasting. It incorporates Layer-3 routing,advanced QoS, TCP acceleration, pre-fetching, compressionand encryption, as well as the new Layer-2 protocols likeMPLS and BGP. The MDM5000 also comes with dualdemodulators for seamless beam switching on the HTSnetworks.

At the end of the first quarter of 2016, Newtec launchedthe MDM9000 satellite modem, which was designed for avariety of government and defence applications includingintell igence gather ing, fixed and mobile milsatcomdeployments on WGS and commercial installations. TheMDM9000 is typically installed at both ends of a point-to-point satellite link, or at the remote sites of a star network,integrating seamlessly with terrestrial networks. It provideshigh data rate, beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) airbornecommunications between the airborne platform and the DNDground network. Compliant with DO-160 and MIL-STD 810Estandards, the MDM9000 is equipped with DVB-S2X and S2waveforms and Newtec’s end-to-end FlexACM technologyto provide fast link acquisition and top performance.

Most recently, November 2016 saw Newtec andPanasonic Avionics team up to unveil a new, high bandwidthsatellite modem, which ‘offers Panasonic customers 20 timesthe bandwidth of Panasonic’s current solution.’ Differentversions of the new AMC5001 modem will be availablethroughout Panasonic’s mobility markets, including maritime,cruise ships, mega yachts, air transport and businessaviation, among others. The AMC5001 can exceed 400Mbps,and will scale to meet the changing needs of airlines andpassengers in the wake of the increasing bandwidth madeavailable with the new HTS and extreme throughput satellites(XTS) planned or coming online, which will be layered overPanasonic’s existing network. This is expected to increasenetwork capacity from 2,300MHz to more than 15,000MHzby 2017.

The AMC5001 modem is part of the Newtec Dialogmultiservice platform, which supports a range of verticalapplications, including aviation and maritime. With its threemodulators, seamless beam switching and simultaneous dataand video reception will be enabled. The modem featuresthe dynamic bandwidth allocation capabilities of Mx-DMA,which combines the efficiency of SCPC with the dynamicbandwidth allocation capabilities of TDMA to provide as muchas 300 percent more data than traditional TDMA systems. Inaddition, the AMC5001 is optimised for HTS and small VSATapplications by supporting very low signal to noise ratiomodulation and coding (VL-SNR MODCODS) and DVB-S2X.

“As we continue to optimise our second-generation globalcommunications network, we are constantly looking for newpieces of critical technology that will enable our customersto take full advantage of HTS and XTS technology,” said PaulMargis, Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic AvionicsCorporation. “Newtec’s broadband modem, which is basedon the innovative DVB-S2X standard and customised to ourrequirements, allows us to access much larger blocks offrequency and better support high bandwidth platformsacross all of our vertical markets.”

NASA explores integrated photonics modemsEstablished in 1958, NASA has explored all things space formore than 50 years; spacecraft developments, missions todistant planets and new satellite applications have all playedtheir part in the association’s history. Breakthroughs in newmaterials have held a key role in NASA’s ability to pushbeyond what is possible today on Earth.

NASA was tasked with producing a new type ofcommunications modem from revolutionary technology thatmight one day transform telecommunications, medicalimaging, advanced manufacturing and national defence inJanuary 2016. Indeed, the first-ever integrated photonicsmodem is expected to be tested on the International SpaceStation in 2020 as par t of NASA’s multi-year LaserCommunications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). The ground-breaking modem will incorporate optics-based functions likelasers, witches and wires, into a microchip. The LCRD lowEarth orbit (LEO) User Modem and Amplifier (ILLUMA) willact as a LEO terminal for NASA’s LCRD, demonstratingadditional applications for high-speed, laser-basedcommunications. While the ILLUMA is expected to use someoptic fibre, it will be the first step towards demonstrating anintegrated photonics circuit. The project will flight-qualify thetechnology for future advancements and applications,including enabling satellite communications with groundstation, and satellite-to-satellite communications.

NASA believes that the need for LCRD has become evermore critical with missions requiring higher data rates thanever before. It hopes that lasers will be able to encode andtransmit data at rates as much as 10-100 times faster thantoday, vastly reducing the power and mass of communicationsequipment. LCRD operations are expected to start in 2019and will involve a hosted payload and two specially-equippedEarth stations.

“We’ve pushed this for a long time,” said Mike Krainak,team leader of the modem’s development at NASA’s GoddardSpace Flight Centre in Maryland. “The technology will simplifyoptical system design. It will reduce the size and powerconsumption of optical devices, and improve reliability, allwhile enabling new functions from a lower-cost system. It isclear that our strategy to leverage integrated photonic circuitrywill lead to a revolution in Earth and planetary-spacecommunications as well as in science instruments.”

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....Earth Observation

Our satellite-based Earth observation industry isundergoing a major era of change. In previous decades, itwas common to pay for every single satellite image, no matterthe application: After all, it costs a lot of money to design,build, launch and operate those satellites in the depths ofspace, and the funds must come from somewhere.Nevertheless, a great deal of satellite imagery can now beobtained for free from any number of sources; the USGS EarthExplorer, ESA’s Sentinel, NOAA’s Class, NASA’s Reverb, andthe Earth Observation Link (EOLi), to name just a few. This

is great news for researchers at academic institutions, withthe only downside being the lack of control over revisit ratesand image resolution.

According to Fast Market Research’s report: ‘GlobalSatellite-based Earth Observation Market 2016-2020,’ theglobal market for Earth observation satellites is expected togrow at a CAGR of 14.11 percent in 2016-2020. While somein the satellite industry are concerned with the potential supplyglut as vast numbers of Earth observation satellites comeonline, others expect demand to explode in a time when

From strength to strength: Newtechnologies in the Earthobservation industry

Built by Lockheed Martin, the WorldView-4 satellite will expand DigitalGlobe’s industry-leading constellation of high-accuracy,high-resolution satellites, and double the availability of 30 cm resolution imagery for commercial and government customersaround the globe. Credit Lockheed Martin

Earth observation has today become so ubiquitous that, to the general public, it is by and largeunseen. From weather forecasts, disaster management systems, infrastructure monitoring andagriculture, to name just a few, Earth observation satellites play a fundamental role in everydaylife. One of the major points of focus today is the collection of ‘big data.’ Satellites withincreasingly sophisticated payloads capable of observing the intricate chemistry taking place inthe atmosphere, or the movement of winds at the surface of the ocean, are becomingincreasingly advanced, and everyone from commercial companies through to research anddevelopment institutions wants a part of the action.

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Earth Observation....

algorithms to extract insights from the collected ‘big data’ arebecoming increasingly capable and sophisticated. Demandfrom defence and intelligence, weather, agriculture, naturalresources, engineering and construction, media andentertainment, and the tourism industries will be major playerswhen it comes to the Earth observation market goingforwards.

DigitalGlobe: Pushing the boundaries of EarthobservationDigitalGlobe is the commercial market leader when it comesto Earth observation. ‘The first and only company to delivertrue 30cm resolution imagery’ has built up its capabilities overthe years with the launch of WorldView-1, GeoEye-1,WorldView-2 and WorldView-3, which annually collect morethan one billion square kilometres of imagery.

Continually advancing its capabilities, November 2016saw DigitalGlobe launch its latest Earth observation satellite,WorldView-4, after two months of delays due to a wildfirethat threatened Vandenberg Air Force Base in the USA. Builtby Lockheed Martin, WorldView-4 orbits the Earth every 90minutes and captures up to 680,000 square kilometres ofthe Earth’s surface every day with 30cm resolution imagery.Kevin Bulloch, DigitalGlobe’s spokesman, stated that withWorldView-4, DigitalGlobe’s 30cm collection capacity hasmore than doubled, which is ‘by far and away the best in theindustry.’ Like DigitalGlobe’s other Earth observationsatellites, WorldView-4 imagery will be used in the energy,

commodities, transportation, and financial services sectors.Combined, the entire constellation will visit a spot on Earthon average 4.5 times each day.

Moving ever forwards in the Earth observation field, inAugust 2016 DigitalGlobe, CosmiQ Works and NVIDIAlaunched SpaceNet, an online repository of satellite imageryand labelled training data that will advance the developmentof machine learning and deep learning algorithms thatleverage remote sensing data. The imagery is freely availableon Amazon Web Services (AWS).

GPU-accelerated deep learning has afforded significantbreakthroughs in computer vision, mainly through researchenabled by ImageNet, a database of 14 million photographslabelled in more than 20,000 categories. SpaceNet aims tofacilitate similar advances in automating the detection andextraction of features in satellite imagery with data collectedby DigitalGlobe and other commercial Earth observationsatellites. SpaceNet will, for the first time, open access to alarge collection of high-resolution satellite imagery to enablealgorithm development. DigitalGlobe will contribute the initialsatellite imagery and 200,000 curated building footprintsacross Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which will provide the necessarydata to create new algorithms to automate the extraction offeatures like buildings in dense urban environments. Intime, DigitalGlobe, CosmiQ Works, NVIDIA, and AWS planto make more than 60 million labelled satellite imagesaccessible to the public via SpaceNet.

“Each minute something is happening in the world. While

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commercial constellations are poised to collect imagery atglobal scale, we must advance our ability to analyse data torealize its full potential,” said Tony Frazier, Senior VicePresident at DigitalGlobe. “SpaceNet is key to unlocking ahuge explosion of new AI-driven applications that ultimatelywill help us better respond to natural disasters, counter globalsecurity threats, improve population health outcomes, andmuch more. The industry is coming together to power smarteralgorithms so we can see and learn things from imagery aboutour planet that we simply cannot know today through manualtechniques.”

Small satellites for Earth observationThe concept of using small satellites for Earth observationapplications is gaining traction throughout the sector. Inaddition to being cheaper to build and launch, when placedin low Earth orbit (LEO), small satellites can achieve manymore revolutions of the Earth each day, and transmit databack to Earth more rapidly.

In February 2016, DigitalGlobe joined forces with TAQNIASpace and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology(KACST) to develop a constellation of at least six smallsatellites capable of capturing images at resolutions of lessthan one metre. KACST will construct and launch thesatellites, and will own 50 percent of the imaging capacityinside of its communication cone, which includes Saudi Arabiaand the surrounding region. DigitalGlobe will have the rightsto the remaining 50 percent of capacity in this region and100 percent of the capacity outside of it. TAQNIA will beresponsible for marketing KACST’s 50 percent share of theimagery, while DigitalGlobe will market its own capacity. Thesmall satellites are expected to be launched in late 2018 orearly 2019, and will complement the next-generation satellitesthat DigitalGlobe is developing to replace WorldView-1 andWorldView-2.

“The satellites developed under this partnership will allow

us to uniquely unlock new value in emerging use cases bycombining high-resolution, high-accuracy imagery and high-revisit imagery,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, DigitalGlobe’s Presidentand Chief Executive Officer. “This innovative, capital-efficientbusiness model leverages DigitalGlobe’s extensiveinvestment in an industry-leading ground infrastructure andour customer relationships to the mutual benefit of bothparties.”

Meanwhile, leading Earth observation association NASAlaunched the first of its next-generation small satellites forEarth observation in November 2016. Ultimately, NASA plansto launch six satellites, ranging up to 400 pounds in weight,as secondary payloads. The small satellites will feature arange of next-generation technology, and will test newmethods to measure hurricanes, Earth’s energy budget,aerosols and weather patterns.

The first of the six to launch, the Radiometer Assessmentusing Vertically Aligned Nanotubes satellite (RAVAN), willdemonstrate new technology for detecting slight energychanges at the top of the atmosphere; such measurementsare critical for understanding greenhouse gas effects onclimate. In the Spring of 2017, two more small satellites,IceCube and the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter(HARP), will be launched to improve understanding of cloudsand their role in climate and weather. These will be followedby the Microwave Radiometer Technology Accelerationmission (MiRaTA), an advanced weather satellite.

The six-satellite mission is being funded and managedby NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO). “Theaffordability and rapid build times of these CubeSat projectsallow for more risk to be taken, and the more risk we takenow the more capable and reliable the instruments will be inthe future,” said Pamela Millar, ESTO’s Flight Validation Lead.“These small satellites are changing the way we think aboutmaking instruments and measurements. The cube hasinspired us to think more outside the box.”

In addition to the six-satellite project, NASA has twofurther small satellite Earth observation missions ongoing.The Cyclone, Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS)is NASA’s first small satellite Earth science constellation, andwas launched in December 2016. Once fully operational, eightidentical satellites will fly in formation to measure windintensity over the sea, providing new insight to tropicalcyclones. The technology uses reflections from GPS signalsoff the ocean surface to monitor winds and air-sea interactionsin rapidly-evolving cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons.

The second of NASA’s small satellite constellations isthe Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structureand storm intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats(TROPICS). Using radiometer instruments based on theMiRaTA satellite, 12 small satellites in three LEO planes willmake frequent measurements of temperature and watervapour profiles throughout the lifecycle of storms. Thelaunches are expected to take place in 2018-2019.

Advancing Australia’s national interestsWhen we move from industries and technologies to nations,Australia has been one of the most active with regards tosatellite-based Earth observation developments over the lastyear. The country is highly active in the Earth observationindustry, with government, commercial, and research andeducation sectors all contributing to the supply chain. WhileAustralia does not operate its own Earth observationsatellites, through long-standing partnerships with other

The RAVAN CubeSat will demonstrate new technologies formeasuring Earth’s energy balance, a key factor in climatestudies. Credits: The Johns Hopkins University Applied PhysicsLaboratory

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countries, its Earth observation community has gainedaccess to satellite imagery by sharing ground stationcapabilities, personnel, analytic and distribution infrastructure.However, the nation is keen to advance its capabilities toincrease efficiency and knowledge across all sectors.

In April 2016, Australia’s Earth observation capabilitieswere augmented when DigitalGlobe completed the first phaseof a continent-scale mapping initiative that will enableGeoscape, a new information product from PSMA Australia,to support the country’s digital economy. PSMA Australiaprovides national geospatial datasets to support public andprivate business solutions. Through this initiative, PSMAAustralia will extract building and land cover information whichwill capture Australia’s natural and built environment.

Using its Geospatial Big Data platform (GBDX),DigitalGlobe will create geospatial content and locationinformation from more than 7.6 million square kilometres ofhigh-resolution satellite imagery, partner technologies andcrowdsourced data. The structural information collected willinclude features such as building heights and footprints,rooftop materials, solar panels and swimming pools.Geoscape will incorporate DigitalGlobe’s derived geospatialdatasets with PSMA’s Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF), land parcel data, digital elevation models,transportation network information, and other data.

The first phase saw DigitalGlobe complete coverage overa large area of South Australia that includes Adelaide. In thesecond phase, DigitalGlobe will widen its coverage to themore than 15 million structures across Australia. Whencompleted, Geoscape will provide insights that can be appliedbroadly for applications such as insurance risk modelling,urban planning and services delivery, emergency planningand management, business intelligence, policy development,and many research activities.

“Geoscape is a significant innovation that will provideessential infrastructure for Australia’s digital economy,”said Dan Paull, PSMA’s Chief Executive Officer. “By linkingtogether many different attributes and data types, Geoscapewill provide a greater understanding of what exists at anaddress - buildings, features, and land cover - for everyaddress in Australia.”

Later in October-November 2016, the Committee on EarthObservation Satellites (CEOS) held its annual plenary inBrisbane to coordinate short and long-term planning for theinvestment of funds for designing and operating satelliteimaging systems. The result of the meeting was the launchof the ‘Australian Earth Observation Community Plan,’ aroadmap for the 2016-2026 period.

The 24-page plan includes government, industry,research, education and not-for-profit Earth observationactivities. Ultimately, the plan will help the community to deliverhigh-quality Earth observation information, infrastructure andservices that can be widely used by industry, government,research and the community in Australia and internationally.The plan details five priority areas of action:

• Connection and coordination: Establishing a consistentvision within the Australian Earth observation community,and delivering processes for internal coordination toensure effective collaboration, resource use, andadvocacy for Earth observation in Australia andinternationally.

• Securing Australia’s role in the international Earthobservation community: Australia must be an essential

component of the international Earth observationcapability, delivering benefits to the internationalcommunity and securing our access to and involvementin international Earth observation programmes.

• Infrastructure and people: Developing, supporting andsustaining a wealth of trained professionals and qualityinfrastructure to enable world-leading Earth observationresearch, innovation and application development.

• Access to Earth observation data and services: Ensuringall Australian Earth observation producers and users caneasily and reliably access the data and services theyneed.

• Generating value: Strengthening end-user engagementto enable delivery of high quality Earth Observationproducts and services suited to user needs, andsupporting commercial development of Earth observationapplications.

Opening up the marketOne belief that is widely agreed upon is that no one singleEarth observation system will be able to meet every demand,since different satellites collect different data. By combiningdata collected from variety of sources, and utilising the latestalgorithms and technology for analysis, the big picture cantruly be revealed. Accordingly, we can expect to see the majorplayers like DigitalGlobe, NASA and NOAA be joined by newmarket entrants looking to make their mark in a rapidly-growing area within the satellite sector.

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....Q&A Rockwell Collins

Question: Can you provide an outlineof Rockwell Collins’ development,from its founding through to whereit stands today?Brad Haselhorst: While RockwellCollins has come a long way from amail-order short-wave radio companyoperating out of an attic in CedarRapids, Iowa, even today we follow thesame spirit of innovation and dedicationto quality that Art Collins did when hestarted the business in 1933.

We also share a dedication todelivering the right information at theright time. We first proved ourselves bysupplying the equipment that linked theAntarctic expedition of Rear AdmiralRichard Byrd with the United States in1933. And you can trace our evolutionthrough the years following that sameprinciple. We developed the autotunetechnology that prevented Japaneseintelligence from eavesdropping on USpilot communication during World WarII. At the height of the space race, it was

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our equipment that provided the voicecommunication for every Americanastronaut travelling through space – notto mention using Rockwell Collinstechnology to transmit Neil Armstrong’sfirst steps on the moon in 1968. And inthe late 1970s and early 1980s, wewere instrumental in pioneering the firstGlobal Positioning System.

Rockwell International acquiredCollins Radio in 1973, and in 2001 spunus off a gain into Rockwell Collins,trading on the New York StockExchange under the symbol ‘COL.’

Today, Rockwell Collins designs,produces, markets and suppor tselectronic communications, avionics, in-flight entertainment systems, simulationand training solutions, and informationmanagement services for commercial,military and government customersworldwide. Our aircraft electronics areinstalled in the cockpits of nearly everyair l ine in the wor ld and ourcommunication systems transmit nearly

70 percent of US and allied militaryairborne communications.

And through it all, we are dedicatedto keeping people safe, connected andinformed, and to strive to be the mosttrusted source of aviation and high-integrity solutions in the world.

Question: What services andsolutions does Rockwell Collinsprovide to the military andgovernment sectors, and how arethese complemented by its com-mercial arm?Brad Haselhorst: Rockwell Collinsdelivers smart military and governmentsolutions to customers worldwide tosafely and successfully complete theirmission. Our solutions include portfoliosfocused on avionics, communications,displays and controls, navigation,targeting systems, electronic warfareand intelligence and simulation andtraining – all supported by a globalservice network. And because we also

A history of market presenceRockwell Collins was established in 1933 under the name Collins Radio, originally specialising inshortwave radio equipment. Over the years, the company expanded its competencies to include ahost of communications solutions and equipment, and today it has become a market leader in itsfield. Its electronic equipment is installed in almost every airline in the world, while itscommunications systems transmit almost 70 percent of US and allied military airborne content.Indeed, Rockwell Collins provides a large portfolio of solutions developed with military andgovernment applications in mind. Amy Saunders spoke with Brad Haselhorst, Vice President,Strategy and Business Development, Government Systems at Rockwell Collins to find out moreabout the company’s capabilities, market presence and outlook for the future.

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have a strong presence in thecommercial market, we are able to offera unique ability to engineer solutionsand architectures to migrate easilybetween commercial and militarymarket segments. This business modelnot only br ings next-generationtechnology to the warfighter morequickly, but at significantly lower costthrough open systems and commercial-off-the-shelf technology.

For example, Rockwell Collins’ ProLine Fusion® integrated avionicssystem was originally developed forbusiness aircraft, but its power and

flexibility make it a natural choice forgovernment applications as well,including Embraer’s KC-390 tankertransport and AugustaWestland’s AW-609 tilt-rotor aircraft.

Our work on C-130 upgrade isanother example. For more than 60years, the C-130 has served as aniconic workhorse for governmentsworldwide. Today, those governmentsare turning to Rockwell Collins to keeptheir aircraft flying while meetingmodern communications needs andairspace access requirements andproviding enhanced safety andfunctionality. Our C-130 head-updisplays (HUDs) – first developed forcommercial air transport aircraft –enhance situational awareness bygiving pilots access to critical flightinformation while maintaining a head-up, eyes-forward position, even whilewearing night-vision goggles.

Question: How does Rockwell Collinsdifferentiate itself from its comp-etitors?Brad Haselhorst: We really different-iate from competition on three differentbut interconnected areas. First, as Imentioned before, our strong presencein the commercial and military marketsmakes us uniquely capable inleveraging technologies across boththose areas. Second, our legacy of

quality means our customers know theycan count on our solutions to worktoday, tomorrow and far into the future.And finally, our spirit of innovation,which has driven us to newtechnological heights, makes us the go-to company for defense organizationsand governments around the world whoare looking for rock-solid leading-edgesolutions. In fact, we invest about US$1billion in R&D each year to ensure we’relooking forward to best address ourcustomers’ needs.

Question: Rockwell Collinscollaborates with partner companieson a regular basis to provideinnovative new solutions for complexchallenges. How do these collab-orations improve the experiences ofsoldiers on the battlefield?Brad Haselhorst: Par tnering withcompanies with similar, but uniquecompetencies bring forth the mostholistic solution to our customers. Forexample, we recently signed anagreement with Bluedrop Training andSimulation Inc. (BTSI) to create morecohesive solutions utilizing real-timesimulation devices and learningtechnologies. This is a uniqueagreement for us because the twocompanies will share complementaryIntellectual Property while offering acomplete training solution from a single

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resource, from requirements analysisthrough instructional execution.

Question: In August 2016, RockwellCollins successfully demonstratedthe viability of wideband highfrequency (WBHF) data transfers.How will this affect the future ofmilitary communications solutions?Brad Haselhorst: WBHF is a low-costreplacement to legacy HF systems thatleverages the platform’s currentinfrastructure to create an HF solutionwith performance never beforeavailable.

Military commanders, tankeroperators, agencies and Department ofDefense services will be able to receiveuninterrupted, large file transfers withspeeds comparable to narrowbandSATCOM systems – as well asenhanced voice capabilit ies withcellular quality communications – evenin satell ite-limited or deniedenvironments.

Question: In September 2016,Rockwell Collins launched itscombat helmet-mounted IntegratedDigital Vision System (IDVS) forwarfighters – how will this improvecapabilities in the battlefield?Brad Haselhorst: IDVS allowswarfighters to stay focused on theirsurroundings at all times. The IDVS isthe first hands-free helmet-mounteddisplay system that fuses incoming datafrom various sources, such as acommand centre, other warfighters orUAS, with multispectral vision, givingthem unprecedented situationalawareness in potentially lethalenvironments. The system does thiswhile automatically transitioning fromdark to light environments in real time,

allowing users to have a complete viewof everything that is happening aroundthem.

Question: What are the biggestchallenges today faced by defenceforces, and how might they be met?Brad Haselhorst: A major challenge inthe coming year is reducing costs whiledelivering the most technologicallyadvanced solution. Governmentsaround the globe are turning tocommercial technologies to maximizevalue while ensuring efficiency,functionality and extensibility. And we’rehappy to serve as a resource to helpthem achieve that goal.

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Question: What’s on the horizon forRockwell Collins in 2017 and theyears to come?Brad Haselhorst: Rockwell Collinsplans to continue its journey intransforming technology to stay aheadof our customers changing needs. Fromcommercial and business aviation todefense and government, customerneeds and technological innovationsare driving transformational changes inhow pilots, passengers and warfightersconnect and relate to the world aroundthem – and how OEMs, owners andcountries procure and manage theirassets.

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....Internet of Things

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and theInternet of Things (IoT) are one of today’s hottest topics. Whilethe terminology is often used interchangeably, there are keydifferences between them in terms of networks andapplications:

• M2M systems typically rely on point-to-pointcommunications using cellular or wired networks andprovide single-serve solutions, such as the remotemonitoring of equipment.

• IoT solutions utilise IP-based networks to interface witha cloud or middleware platform and collect massiveamounts of data from numerous sensors, knowncolloquially as big data, to analyse with external data toevolve processes and improve performance.

Put simply, M2M might alert a user to the malfunction ofa water sensor; an IoT system could establish the cause of

the malfunction, find previous similar incidents, calculate theresulting financial impact and establish how it might beavoided in future.

IoT solutions rely on a host of different connectivitysolutions depending on their application. Terrestrial networkslike Wi-Fi and Bluetooth provide a comparably low-costalternative to satellite connectivity, although the latter ofcourse delivers always-on connectivity to areas with noterrestrial options. Of the millions of new IoT devices comingonline, only a fraction, some 5.8 million by 2023, are expectedto rely entirely on satellite connectivity. NSR expects that ofthose, 93 percent will use L-band, 5.2 percent will use Ku-band, and less than one percent will use C-band and highthroughput satellites (HTS). Indeed, the majority of new IoTdevices will rely on terrestrial networks due to the lower costof capacity and hardware. Only specialised devices, forexample, personal safety hardware like Globalstar’s SPOTrange and DeLorme’s inReach products, and vehicles that

At the end of 2015, Kymeta demonstrated its mTenna during an 8,000 mile trip across the US, during which the antennaautomatically acquired and tracked Intelsat’s Ku-band satellite signals from the roof of a Toyota 4Runner car.

Accelerating into the future with theIoTThe Internet of Things (IoT) has come on in leaps and bounds since technology finally caught upwith the theoretical. Originally theorised in the 20th Century, today the IoT is providing Smartsolutions in many areas of life, including security systems, remote sensors, industrial equipment,medical implants, homes, vehicles, and buildings, to name just a few. The number of connecteddevices is expected to grow exponentially to anywhere between 25-50 billion by 2020, making theIoT a topic all of us need to keep on top of.

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range beyond terrestrial network connectivity, will use satellitewith any regularity.

Market developmentsAccording to Berg Insight, mobile operator revenues fromthe IoT reached 11 billion euros in 2016. In the third quarterof the year, Vodafone and Verizon each generated around200 million euros in direct sales from IoT connectivity,solutions and applications. In 2017, Berg Insight predicts thatsome operators will generate more than one billion eurosdirectly from the IoT.

“Until recently, the principal financial metrics for IoT hasbeen projected, not actual, revenues. Now the market hasentered a new phase in which hard business facts takeprecedent over lofty projections,” said Tobias Ryberg, SeniorAnalyst at Berg Insight and author of the report. “Wirelessconnectivity is now near ubiquitous, and there will be half abillion cellular IoT connections in 2017, but revenues are stillrelatively small.”

Identifying and implementing successful strategies formoving up the value-chain is considered the biggestchallenge for mobile operators in the IoT sphere. Theautomotive market has been a natural starting point for many,and major players like AT&T, Vodafone, Verizon and DeutscheTelekom have established practices to support automotiveoriginal equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the developmentof connected car solutions. For smaller mobile operators, BergInsight asserts that developing a broad ecosystem and sellingIoT solutions from preferred partners through existing B2Bchannels is a better-suited strategy. That way, the operatorscan provide the best possible products to their enterprisecustomers without investing in product developmentthemselves.

Connecting carsConnected cars will benefit greatly from the rapiddevelopment of IoT solutions. From Smart navigation systemsthat offer alternative routes, peer-to-peer car sharingconcepts, real-time security, on-board and remote analysisof operating systems, high-speed Internet and, eventually,driverless cars, it seems like anything will be possible in amatter of time.

When it comes to connected cars, IoT technology will berolled out in increments as it becomes available. Self-drivingcars remain several years into the future and are dependentupon the fine tuning of interpreting sensors and driving logic.When they do come to market, self-driving cars will have amassive impact on society, increasing road safety andefficiency, reducing accidents and fatalities, and making amassive difference to the lives of people unable to drivethemselves. Ford, Volvo and Toyota are expected to lead thepack in being amongst the first automotive manufacturers tobring self-driving cars to consumers.

The first autonomous cars are expected to debut in 2020,when 200,000 units are forecast to be registered. From then,the number of registered autonomous cars is expected togrow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 62 percentto reach 24 million in 2030. While some manufacturers arefocusing on a step-by-step approach to development, withnewer models harnessing greater autonomous capabilities,others are planning to develop self-driving cars from scratchimmediately. “These pathways do not contradict each otheras different autonomous systems are suitable in different usecases. We will continue to see development from both sides

for still some years before the two approaches converge,”said Ludvig Barrehag, M2M/IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

Kymeta is one of the leaders when it comes to innovatingnew land-mobile connectivity technology, with the connectedcar well in its sights. The company has developed ‘the world’sfirst metamaterials-based, slim, electronically steerableantenna,’ which, through satellite bandwidth, ensuresconnectivity regardless of location and travel speed. As wellas providing a new hardware option for connectivity in the airor at sea, the mTenna is set to be a game-changer in theconnected car world.

At the end of 2015, Kymeta demonstrated its mTennaduring an 8,000 mile trip across the US, during which theantenna automatically acquired and tracked Intelsat’s Ku-band satellite signals from the roof of a Toyota 4Runner car.This was a major milestone for the global autonomous carsector. According to Kymeta, the new technology is expectedto address critical connected car requirements such asreliable and consistent service availability, economic multicastdistribution, and global ubiquity of service levels.

“Satellite connectivity can best address the capacity,coverage and security concerns of conventional solutions tocar connectivity. Better yet, these assets are available now.We don’t have to wait 10 years for a next generation cellularnetwork to be invented and deployed,” said Nathan Kundtz,Chief Executive Officer of Kymeta. “This will be crucialbecause five years from now, every car that comes off aproduction line should be connected. In fact, we should stopcalling it the ‘connected car,’ and just call it ‘the car,’ becausethis is the future of automotive.”

There has been some delay in its market launch as thedesign of the mTenna has evolved during the testing period

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....Internet of Things

to enhance its capabilities, with new shapes and interfacesbeing employed. Kymeta now plans to launch the first mTennaunits to market at the end of 2017 following two final betacycles due to take place this year. The company isn’t justfocusing on the land, air and sea mobility markets either; itplans to market the mTenna to the oil and gas, construction,mining, and agriculture industries for a whole host of IoTapplications.

Streamlining logisticsOne of the greatest IoT success stories, and one that is stillbeing developed today, is logistics. With the IoT, many aspectsof logistics can be automated, including warehouse sorting,tracking, in-transit vehicular monitoring and delivery. Forcompanies willing to invest in modernisation, impressive costreductions and efficiency improvements are there for thetaking.

Berg Insight reported that that the number of activetracking devices for cargo loading units including trailers,intermodal containers, air cargo containers, cargo boxes andpallets reached 2.9 million worldwide in 2015. Growing at acompound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.2 percent, thisnumber is expected to reach 8.1 million by 2020. The NorthAmerican trailer telematics market is the most developedsegment, followed by intermodal container tracking, whichhas achieved considerable growth in the past few years.

Market adoption of IoT solutions is being affected by anumber of factors. “Battery life is a challenge, especially forcontainer tracking applications, and breakthroughs withinbattery technology can help drive adoption on the market,”said Rickard Andersson, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight. Headded that the emerging area of Low-Power Wide-Area(LPWA) network technologies such as Sigfox, NB-IoT andLoRaWAN can have a positive effect on this market segment.“LPWA technologies’ promise of long battery life and lowhardware cost can be especially beneficial for dry containers,which are inherently more power-starved compared withreefer containers and trailers, at the same time as thebusiness case for tracking is less obvious than for refrigeratedtransports.”

Seizing on the promising mobile IoT market opportunity,Thuraya Telecommunications Company joined the LoRa

Alliance in November 2016 to support its mission tostandardise LPWANs deployed around the world. The LoRaAlliance was established in 2015 to define and promote alow power, secure, carrier grade standard for LPWA IoTconnectivity to enable IoT, M2M, Smart city and industrialapplications. As a result of its new membership, end userswill now be able to implement LoRaWAN technology overThuraya’s network.

“We want to take every opportunity to grow our M2M/IoTpresence, so we are pleased to join the LoRa Alliance,” saidThuraya’s M2M Product Manager, Marwan Joudeh.“Membership gives us access to an excellent ecosystem ofdevelopers and solution providers. This way of working willencourage the mass adoption of low cost, long range IoT/M2M connectivity, while extending the range of such solutionsthrough our robust satellite network into remote and ruralareas. This is a key advantage for applications covering theenergy and utilities, logistics, agriculture and security sectors.The Thuraya team is looking forward to exploring the breadthof opportunities this will generate, and we also want to offerour own expertise to help foster further innovation.”

LoRa Alliance members share knowledge and experienceto deliver end-to-end IoT solutions including sensors,gateways, connectivity and applications. This collaborationis designed to drive the global success of LoRaWAN, aprotocol that offers bi-directionality, security, mobility for assettracking, and accurate localisation. The LoRaWAN standardfor secure, carrier grade LPWA networks is the first LPWANprotocol for LPWAN solutions developers. It offersinteroperability and security for network operators deployinglarge multi-tenanted open networks running multipleapplications, as well as private networks. Entire cities orcountries can be covered with a few base stations, no longerrequiring the upfront rollout and maintenance of thousandsof nodes as in traditional mesh networking, minimisinginvestment.

Thuraya’s membership of the LoRa Alliance followed its2016 launch of its dedicated IoT/M2M service and terminal.The Thuraya FT2225 fixed terminal works on the Thurayanetwork and on ViaSat’s mobile satellite services network,using ViaSat’s L-band high capacity satellite system. Theterminal provides efficient bandwidth usage, low-latency IPnetworking, and high levels of security, supported by a 99.9percent service level agreement.

Rapid entryAs the IoT takes hold throughout industries across the globe,innovators such as Globalstar and Skyworks Solutions areresponding with new products that will enable faster adoptionof the new technology available to them.

November 2016 saw Globalstar launch its new STINGRsatellite chipset to the EMEA market, which integratesGlobalstar’s STX3 simplex satellite transmitter with a high-performance GPS receiver and a dual band antenna, makingit easy for value added resellers (VARs) and OEMs to developIoT-based solutions for remote sensing, tracking andmonitoring of assets including rail cars, trucks and ships.

Using Globalstar’s simplex satellite network, STINGR willprovide an affordable way to transmit rich IoT data from small,low cost devices, even when beyond the reach of mobilecoverage. The 45x47x6.3mm STINGR unit’s small size andaffordability gives VARs and OEMs the flexibility to easilyintegrate the module into a wide range of mobile assettracking solutions for monitoring a broad array of items and

The Thuraya FT2225 fixed terminal works on the Thurayanetwork and on ViaSat’s mobile satellite services network,

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cargo, including liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tanks, rail cars,trucks and boats. The STX3 chip increases the reliability ofmessage delivery by transmitting each message at intervals,so there is an increased likelihood of reaching multiplesatellites.

“STINGR allows us to offer a complete tracking solutionin a single module, dramatically reducing the design effortinvolved in building compact and efficient satell itecommunications devices,” said Corry Brennan, SimplexRegional Sales Manager at Globalstar. “We look forward toworking with our highly creative VAR and OEM partnersacross EMEA to develop satellite solutions based on STINGRthat help organisations of all kinds leverage the power of IoT,especially those in the multi-modal space.”

Meanwhile, in January 2017, Skyworks Solutionslaunched its next-generation LTE Category M-1 and NB-1front-end solutions targeting M2M and IoT applicationsrequiring embedded cellular connectivity. The new multibandmodules leverage half-duplex RF operation to deliver anintegrated, turnkey solution that addresses Release 13specifications of the 3GPP LTE standard, providingdependable, secure, low power connectivity. These productshelp OEMs to simplify the design process, shor tendevelopment time, meet operator requirements worldwide andsignificantly accelerate time to market.

“With leading cellular network operators announcing plansto enable the latest IoT standards on their networks in 2017,Skyworks is pleased to be pushing the performance envelopeand offering our customers a single SKU, low-cost LTEsolution that operates over multiple frequency bands andsupports migration from 2G. Skyworks’ modules are poweringwireless cellular communications for applications such aswearables, action cameras, Smart meters and otherconsumer IoT devices requiring LTE connectivity, as well aspaving the way for 5G M2M communication networks,” saidCarlos Bori, Vice President of Sales and Marketing forSkyworks.

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....Q&A Eutelsat

Delivering customer solutions

Question: What can you tell us aboutEutelsat’s business developmentover the years?Jean-François Fenech: Eutelsat wasoriginally developed as a regionalsatellite operator, and has grownprogressively into one of the world-leading operators. Our focus used to beprimarily in Europe.

While that region is still importantfor us, today it represents less than halfof our business. We have a growingpresence in the Americas, Sub-Saharan

Africa, Asia, the Middle East and NorthAfrica.

The company has a fleet of 39satellites operating around the world,which serve video, data, broadband andgovernment markets. We have arevenue backlog of almost four years,mainly from our video customers whofrequently have long term contracts withus. About 16 percent of our revenuecomes from data. Broadband servicescomprise about seven percent of ourbusiness, but this is growing through

fixed and mobile connectivity initiativeswe are driving in Europe, Africa, Russiaand the Asia-Pacific.

Question: Can you outline Eutelsat’spresence in Asia?Jean-François Fenech: Our develop-ment in Asia is mainly centred at twosatellite positions: 70.5 degrees Easthosted by the EUTELSAT 70B satellite,and 172 degrees East currently hostedby EUTELSAT 172A. Both positionsaddress the Asia-Pacific region, and the

Eutelsat was established in 1977 to operate satellites over Europe, and its business has come onin leaps and bounds ever since. Today, the company’s fleet has grown to provide coveragethroughout the world, serving video, data and telecommunications services to commercialcustomers, government and enterprise. Amy Saunders met with Jean-François Fenech, CEOEutelsat Asia, to find out more about the company’s activities in Asia, and discuss recent marketdevelopments.

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combination of the two footprintsprovides complete coverage of theregion. EUTELSAT 70B is a bridgebetween Europe, Africa and Asia, whileEUTELSAT 172A is the bridge betweenthe Americas and Asia. Both areparticularly solicited for data andmobility applications.

Going forward, we will leverage ourposition even further with a new satelliteat 172 degrees East that will replaceEUTELSAT 172A before the end of itslife. EUTELSAT 172B, that will belaunched in the second quarter of thisyear and go into service in Autumn willimprove our coverage over China andthe Pacific Islands, enhance our Ku-band coverage for the Direct-to-Home(DTH) market, and build morecomprehensive coverage for maritimeusers. It wil l also include highthroughput coverage over the NorthPacific Rim to serve aircraft travellingbetween the USA and Asia. PanasonicAvionics Corporation, one of the fastestgrowing providers of in-fl ightentertainment and communications,has signed a long-term agreement withEutelsat for this capacity. Thisagreement will make Panasonic theanchor client for the satellite’s highthroughput payload for broadbandservices, as well as a user of its regularKu-band capacity for live TV.

Question: What are Eutelsat’s keymarkets in Asia?Jean-François Fenech: In Asia, mostof our current business is in data. Weplan to leverage the improvedperformance and coverage of theEUTELSAT 172B to boost our offer toour existing clients and extend it to new

prospects. We believe there is a verygood outlook for satellite as long as theindustry provides services that arecompatible with certain price points.That’s exactly what we’ve been workingon with our high throughput satellites(HTS) and payloads for consumers,which operate using the concept offrequency reuse, just like a cellularnetwork.

We’re building HTS with multi beamcoverage for different regions. This isbringing down the cost of capacity to apoint where we can provide services toend users at pr ices which arecompetitive with terrestr ialtelecommunications networks. InEurope, service providers using ourinfrastructure are proposingconnectivity for around Euro30/month,in line with the price of terrestrialalternatives.

This has allowed us to capture agreat deal of the unserved areas. Weare now replicating this model in otherregions of the world, notably in Russia,Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

When it comes to serving Asia, wecan go beyond services in connectingAsian countries to intercontinentalconnectivity. More than 200 Asianchannels are broadcast through oursatellites around the world.

This is one of the benefits of beinga global player; we’re able to bringsolutions to our customers, wheneverand wherever they want to expand theirbusiness. We have very strong activitieswith Chinese customers in Africa, for

instance, who are now consideringfurther expansion to Latin America withus.

Question: How is the Asian marketchanging, and where is there themost room for growth?Jean-François Fenech: In the Asianvideo market, we’re observing themigration from SD to HD, and in tandem,we’re also seeing projects for Ultra HD.We believe this progressive evolution ofsignal quality will be an importantgrowth driver over the coming years.With Ultra HD, you get a sense of depth,and a new perception of the image.

Within the data business in Asia,there is less IP trunking, but morecellular backhaul. Today, there is littlesatellite broadband for consumers, sothere is a lot of room for growth in thisarea. In the mobility industry, demandis growing, especially for high-speedbroadband for superyachts or big cruiseliners. People want to have the samelevel of connectivity at sea that theyhave at home or in the office. I think thatthis will be a big demand driver in thefuture. We’re also in the infancy of airlineconnectivity in terms of Internet speeds,and I believe we’ll see a lot of growththere too. Each of those markets willrequire the right amount of capacity atan appropriate price.

Indonesia, because of itsgeography, is a very promising market,making satellite an excellent tool toprovide connectivity to the islands.Elsewhere in Southeast Asia there are

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a lot of regulatory hurdles to overcome.Without them, I think there would be amassive influx of capacity over the area.The market demands a lot of capacity,but we are not able to serve it. Somecountries have relatively open markets,such as in Northeast Asia (South Koreaand Japan for instance), but still, in myopinion, there are some applicationswhere satellite should play a bigger partin the future, such as disaster recoveryand broadband services. Terrestrialnetworks there are very good, but thosewho have no connectivity are frustratedand penalised.

Question: HTS are well on their wayto becoming an establishedtechnology in the satellite sector. IsEutelsat exploring other newtechnologies, such as Extreme HTS?Jean-François Fenech: We’re lookingat all possible solutions including HTS,very HTS, or Extreme HTS. We need tobe able to bring as much capacity aspossible in a relatively flexible manner.Flexibility is a key success factor for us.

We try to find the optimal solutionby focusing the right amount of capacitywhere it’s needed with in-built flexibility,in such a way that we reach optimalprice points. Having a 1Tbps satelliteover the Earth sounds great, but itneeds to be in the right location, andhave sufficient flexibility to adapt tochanging market requirements.

Question: Do you think that withmore and more HTS coming onlinethat overcapacity will be a majorproblem going forwards?Jean-François Fenech: I think that theevolution to HTS is a good thing ingeneral for the satellite industry, andeach of the main operators has adoptedthe technology with different models.

We’re confident about the future ofHTS, and of course we need to adaptto the evolution of the market, whichruns in cycles. There are downwardcycles which are caused by slowdownsin the global economy and slowdownsin individual markets like the oil and gassector that we’re seeing now. This cycleis currently impacting the data business.However, since data is only a smallamount of our activities, we’re not overexposed.

Question: We’re hearing a lot aboutin-orbit beam shaping capabilities.What’s Eutelsat’s take on thistechnology?Jean-François Fenech: Eutelsat is apioneering company in this field with theEutelsat Quantum satellite. We are trail-blazing new technology that will allowbeams to be completely re-shaped inthe air, including both frequency andcoverage. We will launch the firstsatellite with in-orbit beam shapingcapabilities in 2019. This software-based design has been developed with

Airbus Defence and Space, theEuropean Space Agency and the UKSpace Agency.

Demand for this new concept iscoming from customers that need to beable to refocus capacity over time tomatch the evolution of their markets.This is particularly important for themobility and military sectors; once amilitary mission is completed, capacityrequirements in a specific area arevastly reduced and can move to a newzone.

With in-orbit beam-shaping, we canalso eliminate deliberate jamming,since we can reshape the beam to nullover the jammer.

Question: Are you making anypreparations for 8K?Jean-François Fenech: One thing ata time! We’re concentrating on Ultra HD4K that is now taking hold in manymarkets. 8K is currently very specific toJapan.

4K has been adopted by the Koreanmanufacturers, thereby creating agrowing installed base of displays inviewer homes and encouragingprogrammers to generate 4K content.

I believe that satellite will be the keyenabler for the introduction of Ultra HD.It is very easy to star t a newtransmission scheme, which is not thecase for terrestrial.

And frankly, how many people havea high-speed Internet connection, at24Mbps, that is capable of streaming4K? Satellite is the way forward for sure.We’re in discussions with many of theAsian channels that wish to broadcastin 4K over our fleet, so promoting thatis obviously of great interest to us. 8Kwill come, but is not on the agenda justyet.

Question: What are your plans for2017?Jean-François Fenech: In Asia, thekey milestone will be the arrival of ournew satellite at 172 degrees East. Inaddition to transforming the in-flightconnectivity and live TV markets fortrans-Pacific fl ights, we intend toleverage EUTELSAT 172B to offerimproved performance and coverage tofixed and mobile customers We will alsoleverage our capacity and teleportconnectivity to take clients in Asiawherever they need to go around theworld and make the best of ourknowledge and competence availablefor our community of users andpartners.

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....Satellite News Gathering

Disasters make news. Whether the catastrophe is an actof nature or humanity, we want to see it with our own eyesand share the experience of the people whose lives are turnedupside down. We watch with a horrified fascination that ispart curiosity and part compassion. Through the miracle ofmoving pictures, we are connected to the lives of people wehave never met and may be moved to help them.

How exactly do disasters become news? That is, howdoes video coverage get from disaster zones to yourtelevision, your computer or your phone? In hurricanes andfloods, warfare and terrorism, one of the first things to collapseis communications. Sometimes the networks themselves aredamaged – as when the 2011 Japanese tsunami wiped outwired and wireless communications in the Sendai region –and sometimes they are simply overwhelmed by the number

Reporting from the heart of disaster

of people trying to use them. Some catastrophes take placefar from any broadband connection or optical fibre line.

Since the 1980s, the solution to bringing news from theworst places in the world has been satellite. It was in 1984that an entrepreneur named Stanley Hubbard, a TV stationowner and member of SSPI’s Hall of Fame, assembled ateam to create the world’s first ‘satellite truck’ to deliver livenews from the field.

That innovation created a global industry, worth anestimated US$1.2 billion today, now referred to as digitalnewsgathering (DNG). It uses a mix of satellite, cellulartelephone, microwave and wired broadband to transmit newsfrom the field to the news center, where it is edited into storiesor put live on the air. The equipment rides on trucks or cars,in suitcases or backpacks, and it makes reporters, wherever

Whether it’s a national disaster, major music or sporting event, or everyday news, satellite newsgathering (SNG) has become a major part in everyday life. Throughout the decades, technologyhas developed and evolved so that today, our satellite broadcast equipment is advanced enoughthat we can broadcast live HD footage from around the world. With it, viewers in every corner ofthe Earth can stay up to date on the latest events, and get a glimpse of worlds they’ll neverexperience from themselves. When it comes to humanitarian disasters, such as wars or weatherevents, SNG enables us to be at the heart of what’s going on. Robert Bell, Executive Director ofthe Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI), talks about how SNG has changed ourworld for the better.

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Satellite News Gathering....

in the world they may be, into integrated members of thenews team.

Trying to give contextBringing us live coverage of terrible events is a tough job. OnSeptember 11, 2001, executive producer Susan Zireinsky,of the CBS news program “48 Hours,” was tasked withproducing the primetime coverage of the first day and nightafter the fall of the World Trade Center in New York City.“Especially on that day,” she recalls, “you were just going towhomever had a piece of information. You were gettingcameras up, you were putting people in place, you were tryingto wrap your brain around it. You wanted to step back andsynthesize some of the information, which is what we weretrying to do. At that point, we thought there were many moredead, and it was still a search-and-rescue mission. It was avery, very complicated day to try to give context to.”

When the infamous Capiapo mine collapsed in Chile, NHKof Japan arrived early and stayed until after the rescue. RogerHawkins, President of the satellite services company DisasterTruck, recalls working for the network. “When the rescuerscompleted a hole about 18 inches in diameter to send downfood and water, NHK sent down a video camera. We showedthe miners how to use it and for two and a half weeks, theywere able to interview each other and record messages fortheir loved ones, who were waiting for them to be rescued.”The same video footage, transmitted by satellite, transfixedpeople the world over.

Mr. Hawkins was also present after a 7.0 magnitudeearthquake struck Haiti in 2010. CBS did not have anyequipment of its own close enough to Haiti to rush to thescene, so Disaster Truck got the call. After putting theirportable satellite terminal into place, however, they could notfind a generator to power it. The stakes were high. Americanstar journalist Katie Courec was due to arrive to handle thereporting assignment, so Hawkins’ team wired up two Haitiantaxi cabs to produce enough power for the satellite terminaland the camera. The coverage went live on schedule.

Uniting the worldReporting live from the field does more than satisfy the idlecuriosity of viewers. In many terrible situations, it provides

the first reliable information from the field. It marshals theconcern and support of millions of people, who are moved todonate online. Red Cross officials reported that they raisedUS$488 million from the public for disaster relief in Haiti. Whenthe tsunami struck Japan in 2011, donations to the Red Crossadded $700 million to the massive disaster relief effort of theJapanese government.

It also brings the realities of war, terrorism and disasterinto the homes of those lucky enough to be ignorant of allthree. That can make us feel less safe – but can also unite usin powerful ways.

When the United States pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwaitin 2003, the world saw live coverage from the Bloommobile,a satellite-equipped vehicle that NBC News put into the field.It was named for correspondent David Bloom, who becamea household name by reporting on the move as tanks andtrucks rolled across the desert. Sadly, Mr. Bloom died of apulmonary embolism in Bagdad soon after those broadcasts.

America’s Iraqi mission began with live TV coverage andended the same way. NBC News put the Bloommobile backin action in 2010 to cover the last US combat brigade as itpulled out of Iraq. The motivation then was the same as itwas in 2003, according to David Verdi, Vice President of NBCNews. “We asked ourselves what our audience expected fromus in our coverage of the conflict. The unanimous answerwas that our audience expects to see this war live.”

The digital newsgathering toolkit has an ever-expandingrange of technologies to capture and deliver news to yourTV, computer or phone. When journalists need to bring youthat news from some of the worst places in the world, however,only satellite is up to the task.

Sources: “A NORSAT ‘Case In Point’ Disaster Truck,”MilSatMagazine, September 2014. “Electronic New-Gathering,” Wikipedia, September 23, 2016. “For the Pullout,NBC Dusts Off the Bloommobile,” by Brian Stelter, The NewYork Times, August 18, 2010. “The SNG Market,” by VirgilLabrador, Satellite Markets & Research.

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....Telemedicine

According to an article published in International MaritimeHealth[1], the average direct and indirect cost of a staff memberevacuation due to a medical emergency is approximatelyUS$180,000. But through the use of satcom telemedicinetechnology, unnecessary helicopter evacuations or diversionscould be avoided by treating crew illnesses and injuries onboard with frequent follow-up by a remote doctor. In fact, it’sestimated that as many as one in two vessel evacuations orre-routings could be avoided with better medical data.

While the need to re-route a ship due to a medicalemergency is relatively rare, the costs should it happenunnecessarily are somewhat prohibitive. This is especiallyrelevant considering today’s challenging maritime businessclimate, which is born out of the crisis in the energy marketsand low freight rates in the merchant markets.

It’s interesting to note, that at least on the satcom side,there continues to be significant investment by the globalshipping business even in the face of challenging times. Thisis in part driven by satcom’s potential to enable operationalefficiencies through the smart use of new technology anddigitalisation. Additionally, and despite the current financialsituation, smart shipping companies continue to be committedto the welfare and sustainability of their most preciousresource – their people.

While satcom has long played the role of the seafarer’slink to friends and family on shore, today it is also being usedto ensure the health of crew members on board. Of course,the use of telemedicine at sea is not completely new, orindeed totally altruistic on the part of shipping companies,considering the cost of a vessel re-routing or downtime ofcrew members. However, it can help to improve comfort for asick or injured person on board, so it is a significant benefitto persuade trained and professional crew members to eitherjoin a company or stay with it.

Another key driver for the further development and uptakeof maritime telemedicine is helping shipping companies tomeet the recent Manila Amendments to the InternationalConvention on Standards of Training, Certification andWatchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) by IMO and the MaritimeLabour Convention (MLC) by ILO. The latter states thatemployers “must ensure that seafarers are given healthprotection and medical care as comparable as possible tothat which is generally available to workers ashore, includingprompt access to the necessary medicines, medicalequipment and facilities for diagnosis and treatment and tomedical information and expertise.” It is widely expected thatflag states and other regulatory bodies will soon enactlegislation mandating telemedicine explicitly.

Maritimetelemedicine

evolves

Keeping crew and passengers healthy and safe at sea is no simple task. When an emergency orcomplex illness takes place at sea, medical experts are miles away, making treatment achallenging task. Telemedicine has been practiced in one form or another for many years, but it isonly relatively recently that satellite solutions have become more popular for delivering medicalservices at sea. Ghani Behloul, CMO at Marlink, outlines the complexities of delivering highquality medical services at sea, and explains how Marlink’s new Xchange Telemed service canbring medical treatment to the next level.

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Telemedicine....

New approach to telemedicineWithout telemedicine, the standard process when a personfalls ill on board is for the Health Officer to call either an in-house or external Medical Assistance Center (e.g. publicservice TMAS like CIRM or private providers). The doctorwould ask for medical information to establish a diagnosisand advise a treatment based on limited information. Totransfer relevant medical data on the patient, the HealthOfficer would have two options:

1) Dictate the medical readings and describe theobservations vocally, which can be imprecise and leadto misunderstandings considering the potential for limitedmedical vocabulary and the accents of non-native Englishspeakers; and

2) Send an email with the data as an attachment – which iscommon practice today although not legally permitted,as it does not secure patient data. Moreover, this optionmight not be available as most medical devices on boardmight not be digital or could be unable to export medicalfiles to be transferred.

In the case of emergencies, doctors would be asked toadvise upon single observations and non-medicaldescriptions provided by officers with only basic medicaltraining. Hence doctors may easily recommend evacuation,which might turn out unnecessary in hindsight. In this respect,providing the ability for doctors to see live video of the patient,receive live data from medical instruments and have directaccess to secure medical records is a strong argument forthe use of telemedicine at sea.

All of these needs have driven the development of a newtype of telemedicine solution from maritime satcom serviceprovider Marlink. The company is already established as thelargest global maritime VSAT provider[2] but its work extendsinto the development of solutions to support all areas of vesseloperations and life on board, including crew welfare. Marlink’sXChange Telemed service was launched at 2016’s biggestinternational maritime exhibition, SMM 2016. It is a fullyintegrated solution that integrates on-board medicalequipment, the communications carrier, secure patient datastorage and a flexible web portal to be used with the medicalexperts chosen by the customer. The system consists of thefollowing elements:

1) On-board Telemedical Station with fully connected CEcertified medical equipment, intuitive touch-screen userinterface and an HD camera. Equipment provided includeselectro cardiograph, blood pressure monitor, pulseoximeter and one or several of the following options:Otoscope, dermascope, stethoscope, ultrasound, eye

analyser, dental examination camera, glucometer andthermometer. All medical devices are fully connected withautomatic data transfer. Marlink has established a long-term partnership with a European CE Medical certifiedTelemedicine equipment manufacturer to create aproduct specifically for the Maritime market. For example,rather than using ECG lead stickers which are commonin hospitals, considering the humid climate on boardships, ECG clips are used instead. Other criteria werethe resistance to the vessel environment (vibrations,power cuts) and the avoidance of consumables.

2) Marlink Satellite and Service Management: Marlink hasoptimised the efficiency and security of the patient datatransfer and live video conference over broadband VSATsatellite. Video is the key improvement for remoteconsultation at sea. In order to replicate a face-to-facemeeting with the doctor, the live video consultation featureis very easy to access via the provided tablet computer.Managed though the XChange service delivery platform,the Telemed service is configured to take precedence overother applications, to ensure high availability. Moreover,XChange Telemed is supported by Marlink’s 24/7Customer Care and Global Logistics organisation.

3) Shore Medical Portal: Via the full secure web portal,doctors access the patient medical data transferred fromthe vessel and participate in the live video conferences.The portal includes a patient file management system,which can include information from pre-boardinginterviews (e.g. allergies, family history) and medicalbackgrounds. All patient medical data is stored accordingto the strictest European medical authority standards. Thedoctor responding to an urgent call can view both thecurrent medical data as well as the patient file includingprevious examinations on one central platform. TheMedical Portal can be associated to the MedicalAssistance Center chosen by the customer; for instance,a compatible public Telemedical Maritime AssistanceService (TMAS) centre, or an appointed doctor or aprivate medical organisation ship owners may alreadyhave a long medical relationship with. The service is alsofully flexible should the Customer wish to change medicalassistance provider at a later stage.

Meeting maritime requirementsWith XChange Telemed, the Health Officer would first usethe on-board station to establish medical measurements. Allmedical data is then automatically synchronised to the WebPortal and associated to the patient file. By the time the HealthOfficer has called the Medical Assistance Centre, the doctorwould have already looked at both the transmitted data andthe patient file, including medical history. The doctor may be




....Telemedicine

able to advise a treatment right away or ask pertinentquestions in order to establish a diagnosis quickly.Additionally, the doctor can establish at any time a live videoconsultation with the vessel to see the patient first hand. Thevideo connection can also be used to guide the Health Officerin his examination for instance, if he needs help to operateone of the instruments.

The benefits of telemedicine at sea are quite clear. Withlive video, medical professionals can act and advise almostas if they were on board, ultimately securing the health andsafety of sick and injured crew members or passengers.However, the maritime industry faces its own uniquechallenges.

In regards to the economics of telemedicine at sea,Marlink has developed a business model tailored to thepreferences of the maritime community. There is no upfrontinvestment on XChange Telemed and the monthlysubscription fee includes all components: On-boardequipment leasing, maintenance, 24/7 customer caresupport, patient data hosting, web portal access for theonshore doctors and the live video consultation platform.

During 2016, XChange Telemed was beta tested onseveral vessels of different types, operating in differentregions, with a public medical centre. The overall feedbackfrom the doctors and vessel crew was very positive and hasallowed Marlink to understand how the service would benefitits customers and meet their business requirements. TheXChange Telemed service launching now includesadaptations and evolutions which were directly inspired byMarlink’s customers’ and doctors’ feedback.

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[1]”The Business Case for Telemedecine”; Int Marit Health2013; 64, 3: 129–135; C.Henny, K. Hartington, S.Scott,A.Tveiten, L.Canals[2] Marlink has been rated the No.1 in maritime VSAT revenuemarket share in the COMSYS Maritime VSAT Report.



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....Marketing the Satellite Industry

Satellite is amazing: It helps usdeliver TV, even from the remotestcorner of the world, it powers transportsystems and retail payments, enablescellular backhaul, helps drivers find theright route, and connects ruralcommunities to the Internet, to namejust a few of the many use cases. In themidst of disasters, it is often the onlymeans of communication which canwork, and enables the emergency

services to do their job and get topeople in need.

Satellite is used by people acrossthe globe every single day. The problemis that, for the most part, they haveabsolutely no idea that the technologythey are using is powered by satellite.In many cases, perhaps that doesn’tmatter, however recent challenges suchas the World RadiocommunicationConference 2015 (WRC-15), where

valuable satellite spectrum was at threatof being given to the mobile industry,makes me think that perhaps it isimportant after all.

As an industry, we are often guiltyof preaching to the converted. Thesatellite industry publications are full offantastic case studies and articles citingthe brilliance of satellite, and I am byno means saying that should stop.Indeed, it is certainly important for those

Why we need to market the satelliteindustryThe satellite industry is extremely effective in marketing itself internally. Satellite operators arewell-practiced at spreading awareness of their operations to end users, while technologymanufacturers know exactly how to raise awareness of new products and their capabilities tothose who would use them. However, when it comes to the satellite sector marketing itself to theoutside the world, there is a major shortcoming, which provides opportunities to competingtechnologies to enhance their position in the market. Helen Weedon, PR Consultant at RadicalMoves PR, highlights the capabilities that satellite can offer to the world at large, and how wemight better market the industry to consumers on a global scale.

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Marketing the Satellite Industry....

within the industry to hear about andshare these success stories. However,telling the industry that satellite isfantastic will almost certainly get anoverwhelming agreement from theentire audience. Telling Joe Public thatsatellite is amazing is a whole differentball game altogether.

Why bother?WRC-15 saw the entire satellite industryhold its breath waiting to see its fate. Alot of work had gone into ensuring thestory of satellite was told well. However,imagine how much it could have helpedour case if, for example, the generalmedia had been full of stories aboutservices enabled by satell itetechnology, particularly C-band. I wouldalso have liked to have seen the mobileindustry publications full of stories aboutsatellite technology. Okay, so they mayhave been somewhat reticent to help usmake a case, but I believe that weshould be making more of an effort towork with the mobile industry, asultimately we need a resolution that willwork for both. Making our case withthem seems to be a valuable way for usto easily explain why we need thespectrum, but at the same time we needto recognise their challenges too.

Of course, WRC is not the onlychallenge facing the satellite industry.As other communications networks areimproving, satellite is more and morebeing considered the poor relation. Takethe world of Internet connectivity, forexample. People in rural communitiestold that satellite is their only optionoften feel that they are being given araw deal. Working for a client that

delivers satellite broadband, I haveseen many a push back from peoplewho genuinely think that satellite issimply not good enough for Internet. Ofcourse, a few years ago, they wouldhave probably had a good argument,but high throughput satellites (HTS) canprovide fast, or even superfastbroadband across the globe. Indeed,my client has many a happy customernow getting a good service which isenabling them to do their job, even inthe middle of nowhere. These storiesneed to be told. This perception isechoed across the globe and in anynumber of applications where we knowsatellite truly does have an importantrole to play. The more it is seen as thepoor relation, the more people andcompanies will be looking to other waysof staying connected.

Telling the storiesThe SSPI has started the ball rollingwith its Better Satellite World initiative.If companies from across the world andfrom any part of the chain were to getinvolved, supplying interesting casestudies about how satellite has indeedcreated a better world, that would surelybe a good starting point. However, wethen need to ensure that the messageand stories are getting out past thesatellite community. Getting out to thegeneral public to convince them of thebenefit of satellite could be tricky, but itis important. One method would be touse one of the biggest users of satelliteto help – the broadcasters. I genuinelybelieve that programming aboutsatellites and what they enable couldbe fascinating if made and presentedwell. With input from some of the majorplayers in the satellite community,perhaps we could make that happen.

Getting the amazing stories beingcollated out to the general media isabout finding the r ight angle. Atechnology focused magazine, forexample, could well be interested in theway in which satellite works. Thesepublications would generally also needto see technology in action, such as ademo of satellite broadband or a speedtest. In other cases, it may be a case ofleading with the human element of thestory, such as schools in Africa beingconnected thanks to satellite.

Of course, social media can alsohave a huge place to play here, but itrequires the stories being told fromplayers across the industry to reallycapture the interest across the globe,as well as a great deal of effort to build

that community.Coming back to the challenge of

WRC, we need to be thinking about itnow and be nicely ahead of ourselves.I would love to see honest roundtablediscussions between key players in thesatellite industry and their counterpartsin mobile. This could be done inconjunction with both a satellite and amobile publication for write-up andperhaps even streamed as a webinar.Not only would this strengthen relationsbetween the two camps, but also giveus an opportunity to put our pointsacross way before the next meeting isdue. Who knows, with the right expertsin the room, there may even be somegreat ideas to get to a suitableresolution for all parties.

Inspiring the next generationI have heard a great deal of talk aboutthe need to inspire the next generation.That is absolutely crucial andsomething that will make a hugedifference to the long-term growth andsurvival of the industry, both in terms ofattracting new talent and of makingpeople entering other industries wantto use satellite technology.

The point I have made many timesabout inspiring the young generation isthat we very much need a hands-onapproach. Yes, we should inspire themwith stories of what satellite can do, butthey will be far more inspired if they getto press buttons and see things happen,and that is true of primary schoolchildren r ight up to universityundergraduates. One possibility is thatthe satell ite industry could hostexhibitions aimed at that generation,featuring exciting and thought-provoking exhibits. Another vision couldsee an old London double decker bus,with satellite dishes on top and a wholehost of demos inside, be driven fromschool to school to get pupils inspired.

Sharing the loadOf course, although some satellite newsdoes make it out into the more generaldomain, very little has been done in aconcerted effort, and marketing beyondour industry is something that is waydown on the list of priorities for mostpeople. That’s understandable as thereare always more immediate things toaction. Add to that the fact that it is anenormous task and one that will not besimple. However, if every satellitecompany did a little, we would soonmake a massive collective noise andmaybe start to change perceptions.

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Visit our extensive archive of back issues @ www.satellite-evolution.com

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