Yoel Gat, the focus of this interview, is the Chairman and CEO of RaySat Broadcasting Corporation. This company was formed to work with AT&T to bring AT&T CruiseCastSM to market.Yoel is a well known executive in the satellite industry, having spent more than 16 years as co-founder and CEO of Gilat Satellite Networks, a leader in very small aperture terminal satellite (VSAT) communications. During Yoel’s tenure, Gilat experienced sales of more than $500 million in 2000 and held significant market share. Yoel also won recognition as an industry mover and shaker as one of Time Magazine’s “Digital Dozen” for 2001 by providing the capability of Internet-over-satellite technology on a mass-market scale. RaySat, Inc., is a leading manufacturer and supplier for the vehicle, bus, and train markets for cost-effective, low-profile, in-motion satellite antennas that enable communication on the move.
SM
Please give us a little biographical information on yourself.
Yoel Gat
I completed my BScEE in the Technion in Israel in 1974 and worked for 13 years in the Israeli MOD (Ministry of Defense). I left my unit with three others and we founded Gilat Satellite Networks in 1987, where I was the Chairman and CEO — employee number 001 — until the company reached $500M in annual sales and employed 2,500 people. When Gilat underwent restructuring and a change in ownership in 2001-2002, I departed and joined RaySat as Chairman and CEO and led the company’s activities. Since 2009, I’ve also assumed the role of Chairman and CEO of RaySat Broadcasting Corporation, the company that provides the AT&T CruiseCast(sm) service.
SM
Yoel, would you please describe AT&T CruiseCast? What was the genesis of this product?
Yoel Gat
RaySat has been building antennas for mobile satellite reception since 2005. The Raysat SpeedRay-1000 is a 40-inch diameter product with a height of 6-inches and a weight of close to 50 pounds. These antennas receive both Dish and DIRECTV services. Through experience, our Company realized these products were too big (as they required most of the SUV/Minivan roof as a footprint), too expensive (more than $3,000 installed), and are prone to LoS (Line-of-Site) blockages. We decided to develop products that would overcome such obstacles.
SM
How is AT&T CruiseCast different from what is in the market today, such as products that enable DirecTV and Dish?
Yoel Gat
The RaySat T7 antenna is less than 9-inches in diameter, and 4-inches high, with a weight of 3 pounds. There is an immediate, noticeable difference due to the much smaller form-factor required on the consumer’s vehicle to receive satellite TV service; the unit is also completely quiet in operation. Secondly, we developed unique blockage protection technology based on a video memory buffer in the receiver (Set-Top Box). As long as you can receive one minute of reception for every three minutes of TV viewing, you will be able to watch uninterrupted video in the car. The existing products and services on the market today supporting both Dish and DIRECTV suffer from video interruptions. We feel these two key differentiations make our product and service a far superior offering and will provide a much more satisfying consumer experience.
SM
Who is this product geared toward and when will consumers be able to obtain it?
Yoel Gat
The product is targeted toward car owners and truckers. Consumers will be able to obtain CruiseCast when they purchasing a new car from the car dealer (including the financing) or in the aftermarket from retail chains, 12V dealers, or providers who can install the system on existing cars.
SM
How will the consumer subscribe to the service, and what is the cost for the hardware and the subscription?
Yoel Gat
The consumer will purchase the product (antenna and in-car receiver) from the car dealer or 12V dealer (or retailer) and it has an MSRP of $1,299. In order to subscribe to the service, the consumer can sign up online (www.cruisecast.com ) or call a call center which will essentially complete the form for them. The monthly fee for this service will be $27.95.
SM
Who are your partners in terms of satellite and content providers?
Yoel Gat
Our satellite partner is Intelsat and we lease a substantial amount of capacity from them. We plan to provide a 22 video channel and 20 radio channel package. We will have many channels for children (geared toward the “customer” in the back seat), several sports channels, some news channels as well as family programming. We already have deals with MTVN for five channels (MTV Mobile, Nickelodeon Mobile, Comedy Central Mobile, the N and Noggin), NBC (for MSNBC, CNBC, and USA Network) and several others. We will have our full package ready in time for our launch by the end of March 2009.
SM
How long will the installation take?
Yoel Gat
The installation time is typically between an hour to an hour and a half.
SM
Will you add channels and what is the channel capacity?
Yoel Gat
Since we use regular Ku-band capacity (FSS or BSS) we can add unlimited channels. It is only a matter of economics. We are currently leasing what we need for the initial channel line up at launch time. We will be adding channels and packages all the time. I believe in three to four years we will carry more than 100 channels.
SM
Yoel, would you please describe the technology that enables users to have the continuity of signal wherever they go?
Yoel Gat
The problem with existing solutions for satellite TV in the car is they suffer from the fact they are receiving standard DBS signals. The transmission assumes there is an antenna on the roof of your home where the installer has ensured no trees or other obstacles block the view of the sky. A moving vehicle does not have that luxury — there are overpasses, trees, buildings, and so on, that get in the way of an automobile’s view of the satellite.
A lot of error correction is required. The bits need to be transmitted redundantly to mitigate the blockage that is naturally going to occur while driving. The DBS providers don’t send data redundantly as their market focus is on in-home — they need all the capacity they can obtain to hold their own in the high definition wars with cable and IPTV providers. As the target display in the car is much smaller than the home, and as you have to account for the antenna not being able to see the satellite 100 percent of the time, we send at a lower bit rate that affords a perfectly acceptable standard definition (SD) experience for the seven to 12-inch display that’s common in most cars. We send each pixel numerous times and out of time sequence, keeping the data received in a three minute buffer on the receiver.
If the vehicle is blocked by a building when a pixel is sent the first time, chances are quite good the vehicle will have visibility to the satellite when that pixel is sent the second, third, or fourth time. We have found in testing that most of our users’ antennas can see the satellite about 60 to 65 percent of the time while driving. During a normal satellite transmission, the customer would obtain a poor viewing experience. However, our transmission technique takes that 65 percent and makes the video available 95 to 99 percent of the time for our customers. Add to this the fact we use a phased-array tracking antenna, which can always locate the satellite(s) while in motion, and you have a very powerful technical solution to a complex problem.
SM
Is the programming exactly what someone would see through cable or satellite?
Yoel Gat
We carry the linear channel exactly as you see it from cable or satellite providers for most content, or, in the case of some channels, the mobile adapted version.
SM
Does the service also offer data, or is that service in the plans?
Yoel Gat
Data service will not be available at product launch, but we will eventually. Our first priority is a customized, local weather and traffic data service. Since we have a GPS in the unit in the antenna, we can geo-filter the data according to the locations.
SM
Do you have plans for licensing this technology or product directly to auto manufacturers?
Yoel Gat
We certainly do. We are in discussions with all of the manufacturers and most have equipped a number of demo vehicles.
SM
Joel, what is the impact of AT&T CruiseCast on the Satellite Industry?
Yoel Gat
This service will create a lot of demand for capacity and will extend satellite life into inclined orbit mode (meaning the satellite’s orbit is off-station, and is essentially in a decaying orbit, which makes it unusable by commercial satellite TV home-based services).
From a satellite operator’s perspective, they can make more use of the satellite — even after it has been fully depreciated. Also, no satellite operator I’m aware of works at 100 percent capacity. The beauty of our service is that, even in a case of satellite failure, we can move to another satellite at a moment’s notice as all of our antennas are of the tracking variety.
CruiseCast will create demand for additional capacity, more inclined orbit capacity in particular, and even use of capacity not sold yet. When this capacity is sold, we will transfer the service to another satellite that has capacity that was not sold yet. Altogether, we can increase the percentage of use of an operator fleet quite dramatically.
SM
The technology for AT&T CruiseCast... is it identical to that used in your company’s satellite for TV for vehicles? If not, please explain. How do the antennas differ in both cases?
Yoel Gat
Both antennas are using the same technology our Company have been selling in our larger version. The aperture is smaller — we “own” the whole infrastructure. The receiver technology, especially the blockage protection, is new and was developed by us with our partners.
SM
Beam lock that is mobile-enhanced must become quite complex for vehicles, ships, railroads and so on... are there minimum OEM training standards employed to ensure customer satisfaction “after sale”?
Yoel Gat
We are trying to make it easy for the installer to have a good “out-of-the-box” experience and the end user to be highly satisifed. There will be an installation manual as well as online installation training and certification for installers. As for the consumers, we plan to give a single page quick operation guide and we assume most people will not even read the material. The system is so intuitive we can state that with confidence.
SM
Thanks for your insight into AT&T CruiseCast, Yoel.
