Welcome to the annual YEAR IN REVIEW issue of SatMagazine. The companies who participate in this annual edition provide readers with their particular takes on their challenges and successes encountered during 2009 and, in some cases, offer us a preview of 2010 as far as their intents and purposes are concerned.

Yes, the offerings presented herein are of a most positive nature. This is a company’s chance to enlighten and inform others as to the highlights of their past year’s activities. What we have noticed, and appreciate, in this industry is the resilience of our counterparts. When challenges come in the form of a difficult economy, you have been quite innovative at solutions — that is admirable!

Some companies prefer to submit their YEAR IN REVIEW material in a question and answer format, others in a narrative form, and still others use bullet points and a presentation format. We do our best to ensure all materials are true to their original form we recognize each submission as an important messenger for each represented Company. These are the words of those who lead the included Companies, whether off-the-cuff or massaged by a firm’s marketing and public relations professionals. We believe our readers understand the method of delivery as being true to form for each YEAR IN REVIEW entry. To ensure a method of control for these entries, the YEAR IN REVIEW profiles are offered in alphabetical order.

There are a variety of lengths involved with the YEAR IN REVIEW offerings. Such is not indicative of our personal likes or dislikes of any company. The material, in many cases, had to be severely edited to meet editorial space requirements. In some cases, the articles required additional content generation to fill their page. All of the articles are direct from the companies involved and reflect their pride of accomplishment and, in many cases, a peek forward to 2010. The graphics within a company article, whether a photo, logo, or other element, are hot links directly to that company’s site, which we hope is a convenience for readers wishing additional information about what has been read.

Success?
As we close out 2009 and prepare to continue our professional lives in 2010, we feel this is an appropriate time to discuss our view of what we engage in — our attitudes and our ethics — to continue to drive the SATCOM industry.

What makes a company successful? Publications, no matter their form, are a channel for subject-matter experts’ views and an interesting receptacle for content of relevance to the industry to be addressed — editors play the important role of content aggregation and rely upon those who know, rather than as those who bestow.

Inasmuch as editors cannot know everything about any industry, especially the breadth and scope of SATCOM and all if its vagaries, those with experience working within professional worlds can recognize a few factors that do, indeed, help make a company successful. These are our personal judgements and are based upon years and years of observation and discussion and are served up as simply an adjunct to a reader’s own views and experiences. As the environments surrounding an individual’s life, family, friends and associates are of an extremely personal nature, the following notes relate only to our experiences in the workaday world.

In Appreciation Of Lessons Learned
There are many who have more than we have... and there are many more who have less. We are thankful for the present state of affairs that allows us to be gainfully employed. In our past, we have had occasion to experience the frustrations of being in a less than positive environment, yet we have always taken away something that is useful later in a different situation. For those lessons learned, we are grateful. Professional growth is personal growth that results in the delight and satisfaction of a job well done, whether we actually received that pat on the back, or not.


The Resiliency of the Spirit
Within the global satellite and associated industries, we have witnessed a year of change and successes, the greatest being the ability to continue the drive forward in spite of economic doldrums. The movement of the markets, of monetary systems, of poor political decisions, whether to the left or the right, in various countries, has remained but a backdrop to an industry that has the ability to complete missions of (literally!) a higher note.

From the commercial to the military sides of the industry, advances far outweigh the disappointments, and nothing is perfect, perfection being a state of grace few businesses — or individuals — can attain without stressing the positives.

What we do possesses is a continuing and stable industry that affords millions of talented individuals employment, the opportunity to truly make a difference in the lives of our citizens, and a sustainable pride derived from success. We remind ourselves that the positive perspective is definitely the most productive and rewarding.

A Job Well Done
As we continue to work harder and complete more than is expected of ourselves — we have found the delight of accomplishment, especially when finished with good grace and above expectation, is a sure reward. Feeding one’s soul is as necessary as feeding one’s stomach, and with the former, you will never want — you will eventually be recognized by others as having a work ethic and professional demeanor worthy of attainment by anyone.

It’s important to be pleased with the opportunities given you to prove your better works by making certain your life is filled with happiness and the knowledge of a job well done, especially when you have completed a project you never thought possible to finish.

Some Business Matters...
We’d also like to bring to your attention some of the policies we operate within at SatNews Publishers regarding news items and articles.

• We do reserve the right to edit all submitted materials to meet our content guidelines, as well as for grammar and spelling consistencies.
• Articles may be moved to an alternative issue to accommodate publication space requirements.
• Submission of content does not constitute acceptance of said material by SatNews Publishers.
• Edited materials may, or may not, be returned to the author and/or Company for review prior to publication.
• The views expressed in our various publications do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of SatNews Publishers.

Don’t forget... if you TWITTER, SatNews daily offers tweeks from SatBoy. Whenever news is being published at the SatNews website, rest assured a brief is also being placed on TWITTER to help speed your knowledge of what’s cooking in SATCOM, MILSATCOM and SatBroadcasting. We hope you find this service worthwhile.

Following these editorial comments, we have assembled a list of the most viewed SATCOM news stories from SatNews for the past year. These are the articles that generated the most reader views on our news website.

The number of “views” are collected and a tally generated as to which news stories attracted the most attention. Many of these stories were pre-cursors of cool and awesome events, from satellite launches to teleports, antennas to UAVs, and much more.

As is the case with most of the content within these pages, a graphic will usually be a hot link to a website URL that will offer additional information regarding the subject matter at hand. Simply click on the graphic and you’ll be moved as swiftly (as your connection) to the target page and further details.

This is especially helpful when reading through an article and you wish more technical details or contact information, reading about a trade show for which you wish to register, or an advertisement that has generated your interest and you would like to know more about that particular product.

Some have asked why we do not (currently) offer audio or video content — as an international publication group, many of our readers are located in areas of the world where broadband connections are rather immature. To burden thousands of readers with extremely slow loading pages does not further the cause of information dissemination, especially if those good folk get tired of waiting for that particular page to load. We are always examining and testing a variety of audio and video codecs that enable smoother and high-quality data compression — we may be engaged in such activities in the not-too-distant future.


SatNews Publishers wishes a most prosperous and personally fulfilling year to all — enjoy the successes of our industry!