2010 has been a busy and interesting year for Glowlink. Busy, as the company decided to shift into high gear in developing new products and technologies, while remaining focused on customers who have been deploying Glowlink equipment on a global scale. Talk about making do with two hands while basically we needed four!

Interesting, because the vision that guided the company since its founding almost 11 years ago — solving the problem of satellite interferences with innovative, affordable solutions — is finally in step with the somewhat belated realization by key segments of the satellite community — satellite owners, operators, and users — that interference is a serious problem facing the satellite industry, and is getting far worse.

The year started with Glowlink supporting the US Government in activating and transitioning to the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation of satellites. Glowlink monitoring equipment comprises what is known as the WGS Spectrum Monitoring System (WGSMS), a global network of spectrum monitoring and interference detection systems charged with the responsibility of standing sentry over critical military communications going through the WGS satellites.

In addition, the company’s geolocation product, the Model 8000, continues to serve the military in the detection and geolocation of interferences affecting mission-critical traffic going through commercial satellites, in a world-wide network of Model 8000 systems known as Eagle Sentry. This capability continues its successful tract record in a multitude of situations where other similar products on the market either fell short or failed entirely. A good year indeed for hunting down interferences with Glowlink products!

2010 has also been an extraordinarily productive year in terms of the technology and product innovations introduced by Glowlink — a bumper crop in terms of the significance and the sheer multitude of the products introduced.

Early in the year, the company rolled out the Model 1000x2, a dual-channel spectrum monitoring product. This is fundamentally two separate Model 1000 units in one-single chassis, resulting in significant savings in costs, rack space, and logistical support such as maintenance, shipping, and so on.

Closely following the Model 1000x2, the company introduced the Model 1010, an ultra-wide bandwidth spectrum monitoring system that allows customers to instantaneously look at 180 MHz of satellite bandwidth without having to retune. This is at least 3X the capability of other carrier monitoring and spectrum monitoring products on the market.

In April, 2010, the company rolled out the Model 1000 3G, with features such as the simultaneously monitoring of as many as nine (9) separate spectra, enabling the customer to better assess where spectrum problems occur in a carrier along its transmission path. 3G also has the ability to monitor paired-carrier traffic, a new, bandwidth-saving satellite transmission technique that allows two signals to occupy the same bandwidth at the same time, doubling bandwidth efficiency. The Glowlink 3G products are the only one on the market with this monitoring feature. Also significantly, Intelsat, the world’s largest satellite fleet operator, has begun to deploy 3G in its Global Monitoring System (GMS), a world-wide satellite monitoring network built and maintained by Glowlink.

One month after the 3G announcement, Glowlink introduced a 4th generation integrated geolocation and interference detection product, the Model 8000 GEO4. GEO4 incorporates state-of-the-art features that smash the barriers to an effective geolocation product: speed, accuracy and ease of use. With advanced math, extensive automation and built-in smart algorithms, 4G lowers the threshold of operator skill requirements while simultaneously increases speed and accuracy. At the same time, existing features of the Model 8000 that are highly valued by its users, such as the seamless integration of spectrum monitoring, interference detection and geolocation in one single, compact chassis, have been preserved and enhanced.

In the late summer of 2001, the company rolled out an interference-reduction product, the automated VSAT commissioning system, VXCS™. This product is aimed at VSAT service providers, users and installers. VXCS automates the most labor-intensive, interference-prone procedures in deploying VSAT networks, saving considerably time, labor and costs. Most significantly, it dramatically reduces the chance of inadvertently causing satellite interferences during the installation and routine operations of VSAT networks.

During the fourth quarter of the year, the company introduced one of the most, if not the most, significant innovation and technology in its 11-year history: the capability to perform geolocation of interferences using a single satellite. The result of several years of challenging, if not seemingly insurmountable obstacles, this technological break-through re-affirms the company’s reputation — and tradition — of the relentless pursuit of innovations of significance. The single-satellite geolocation capability provides an indispensable tool for customers to deal with an entire category of satellite interference anomalies in ways that no other product on the market can.

Looking ahead to 2011, while the overall economic uncertainly continues to weigh heavily on all of us, and the clarity we try to muster for the satellite industry is less than crystal clear, Glowlink remains cautiously optimistic. In our view, the satellite community’s refreshing focus on the problem of interference is spot on, if not overdue. Even as the satellite operators complete their fleet build-out and replenishment process, satellite based traffic for both developed and developing regions of the world will most certainly continue to grow unabated.

This is good for business, no doubt; but it will also result in more frequent and high-impact incidences of interferences — unintended or otherwise — and the attendant clamor from the user community for better patrolled and more pristine spectrum. These two intersecting strands of industry dynamics should bode well for Glowlink’s suite of interference prevention and mitigation products. In our mind, they are a necessity for ensuring high-quality bandwidth and traffic integrity. Not a luxury.