News and Products of Note for SATCOM

News and Products of Note for SATCOM

News and Products of Note for SATCOM

News and Products of Note for SATCOM

High Throughput Satellites (HTS) are currently an extremely hot topic within the satellite industry. These are Ka-band satellites and are optimized for data applications, using such techniques as multiple spot beams with extensive frequency reuse, which means they achieve significantly greater capacity than that of conventional Ku- or C-band satellites optimized for broadcast applications such as TV.

Tom Cheong leads iDirect’s enterprise VSAT business in the Asia-Pacific region and has P&L responsibilities for its sales, marketing, product development and managed services operations in this theatre. Based at its head office in Singapore, Tom manages iDirect’s go-to-market strategy for this part of the world and works with a team of field sales professionals and an extensive network of channel partners which include tier 1 and 2 satellite service providers and systems integrators

In recent weeks the subject of cyber threats and cyber security related to satellite communications has emerged again. Was it triggered by the recent IOActive report: ‘A Wake-up Call for Satcom Security’ by Ruben Santamarta, or the IntelCrawler report in January 2014 stating that VSAT terminals are open for targeted cyber attacks? Or the request from international space agencies (e.g., ESA) for technology studies on cyber security, to improve the resilience of cyber incidents and reduce the cyber threat? In any case, cyber security for satellite communications is a hot topic. 

BSkyB confirmed on May 12th that the company is in “early talks” with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox about a possible takeover of Fox’s payTV assets in Germany (where Fox owns 54.8 percent of Sky Deutschland) and Sky Italia (which Fox owns 100 percent). 

With news broadcasts recently splitting their time between the two major breaking news events—the situation in Crimea, and the search for flight MH370, the business of moving news reporting from one corner of the globe to another is in full swing.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) search for ways to increase average revenue per user (ARPU), increase the number of subscribers for their services and for ways to increase customer loyalty. To accomplish these goals, MNOs need to implement the optimal network topology, with reliable and proven high availability. The challenges, however, rest in achieving rapid and cost-effective service expansion while keeping up with the newest technological and social trends.

Don Thoma is the President and CEO of the newly formed Aireon LLC, a joint venture between Iridium and NAV CANADA. In this role, he is leading the Iridium NEXT hosted payload initiative to provide a transformational global air traffic surveillance capability by including an ADS-B receiver payload on each Iridium NEXT satellite.

Unlike motor vehicles, which are taken to various facilities for maintenance and repairs, or to petrol stations to refuel, spacecraft do not have such a luxury when some internal or external problems occur. To offset the occurrence of such problems, satellites must be built to the standard that they simply cannot fail during their anticipated lifetime, and they must also carry sufficient fuel for at least, and even beyond, a norm of 15 years of on orbit service.

Over the last five years, the newsgathering (NG) market has experienced strong growth on all fronts. Euroconsult’s latest report on Video Content Management and Distribution highlights the total number of NG terminals in service increased rapidly, from 16,400 in 2008 to approximately 30,000 in 2013 (13 percent CAGR).

Satellite uplink facilities must deliver reliable, uninterrupted service continuity. Broadcasters derive revenue from advertisers that is dependent upon reliable distribution of content. Any interruption in the distribution process results in loss of revenue and market share. Therefore, facility designs include several layers of redundancy; including redundant satellites, backup sites, and backup hardware at each site. 

When it comes to broadband connectivity, all countries were not created equal. The Pacific Ocean covers some 165 million square kilometers, or 64 million square miles, almost one third of the Earth’s surface and contains thousands of small, scattered, sparsely populated islands separated by vast distances.

While carbon nanotube technology (CNT) has generated widespread interest for applications ranging from semiconductors to medical, one area that is a focus of research at TE Connectivity is high-performance electrical cables. TE has been actively researching CNT for wire and cable, including cooperative efforts with universities and industry leaders, and has prototypes samples for evaluation. While there is still much progress to be made before CNT cables become main stream, we believe the technology is sufficiently advanced to meet specific niche applications such as satellites.

I had the opportunity to participate in the second VSAT Latin America event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, so I thought it would be a good idea to share my takeaways from this regional event. 

Priya Patel has been managing some of NSSLGlobal’s largest key client relationships for more than nine years, growing with NSSLGlobal through various sales and marketing positions, with her current position being the General Manager at the company’s Singapore office.

Today High Throughput Satellites (HTS) provide much more capacity than traditional satellite technology, achieved by a high level frequency re-use and spot beam technology which enables frequency re-use across multiple narrowly focused, spot beams (usually in the order of 100s of kilometers).

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