Dr. Dave Roscoe joined ORBCOMM in 2015 and is EVP and GM of Satellite IoT. As a key member of ORBCOMM’s senior leadership team, Dr. Roscoe oversees the technical development and commercial strategy of ORBCOMM’s OGx, IDP, OG2 and AIS satellite networks in addition to their comprehensive satellite IoT device portfolio. He has over 25 years of experience in engineering, executive and technical management roles in the high-tech telecommunications sector and research environments. Prior to ORBCOMM, he held technical and executive positions at SkyWave Mobile Communications, as well as senior engineering positions at Communications Research Centre Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with specializations in antennas and electromagnetics from the University of Manitoba and has served as a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Roscoe, thank you for taking the time to chat with SatMagazine readers. How did you become interested, and then involved, in the world of IoT?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
Dr. Dave Roscoe
Originally, I became interested in the satellite industry before this evolved into the world of IoT. My father was a satellite engineer and a founder of Telesat Mobile, Inc. (TMI) in Ottawa. I was keen to learn about his career.
I graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and ultimately went on to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering with specializations in antennas and electromagnetics from the University of Manitoba. Early in my career I worked at a federal government research laboratory, Communications Research Centre, Canada, where I focused on phased array antennas for everything from satellite to military applications. At that time, my father worked for a startup called Vistar Telecommunications that was focused on delivering a satellite-based tracking system. I wanted to leave the government side of the industry and move to private industry. The opportunity to work with my father presented itself and I jumped at the chance to work with my father in an industry that inspired me.
I worked for that company and its various iterations for 27 years, which is now part of ORBCOMM. IoT was the basis of that startup company, but they didn’t call it that back then. IoT has been known by several different terms over the years starting with telematics, then machine-to-machine (M2M) and eventually IoT.
The original dedicated IoT network was founded in 1997 and deployed on the North America MSAT satellite constellation owned and operated by TMI (Telesat Mobile, Inc.) and AMSC (American Mobile Satellite Corporation), long before IoT was a common term.
Vistar Communications was eventually acquired by TransCore and became TransCore GlobalWave which was ultimately purchased by SkyWave which was finally acquired by ORBCOMM, bringing us to today.
What knowledge did you attain at SkyWave Mobile Communications that has served you well at ORBCOMM?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
It was at SkyWave that we rolled out the next generation IoT network called IsatData Pro (IDP). Interestingly, satellite IoT has always had demand. There were companies that were looking to track and monitor their assets. You didn’t need to sell them on it because the need was so great.
The core applications included tracking assets, the location and current operating conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, etc.) which were central to the demand for satellite IoT. Back then, you could send small messages, perhaps a few hundred bytes of data, to satisfy this basic requirement.
Over the years, the demand for more information evolved requiring a more capable network. The IDP network provided that needed increased capacity and has continuously improved with the focus on driving down the cost of satellite-enabled connectivity hardware and services.
My time at SkyWave Mobile gave me experience in developing a full hardware and services solution. In 2015, SkyWave and the IDP network were bought by ORBCOMM. The experience with IDP at SkyWave was incredibly valuable as we rolled out our new OGx satellite IoT service this past June.
How did you decide to further your career at ORBCOMM? What enticed you to that company?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
Today, the use of IoT has expanded exponentially. You don’t need to be a company looking for a solution. Now everyone knows what IoT is and the value it can deliver.
At ORBCOMM, I have had the opportunity to drive initiatives that completely redefine IoT technologies and capabilities. One example of this is ORBCOMM’s new OGx satellite IoT service, which we started developing from a big picture perspective. We wanted to drive down the cost of network devices, provide significantly improved services and decrease the cost of adopting satellite IoT so more companies can take advantage of the benefits of keeping remote assets connected.
The opportunity to lead the concept, development and deployment of OGx and the advanced hardware that goes with it has been a career highlight.
Given your experience in the SATCOM industry, when you review your career to date, what project or projects truly bring a smile of satisfaction to you?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
The great thing about being in this industry is that we constantly innovate. We put out a new satellite product portfolio every five years or so. We look at speed, cost, security, flexibility and reliability as levers for improvement and advancement.
What has given me the greatest satisfaction is participating in the development of all the satellite terminals throughout my career. I have been involved in over a dozen satellite terminal development projects over the years, including the development of an ASIC to drive cost out of the terminals.
Most recently, the roll out of the ORBCOMM OGx satellite IoT service is an achievement I am particularly satisfied with. It required persistence over a period of about four years going from concept to financing, development, and deployment.
Would you offer our readers a rundown of what ORBCOMM offers today?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
At ORBCOMM, we provide businesses data that drives informed decisions about their operations. As a pioneer in IoT technology, we are empowering customers with insights that help them optimize their operations, maximize profitability and build a more sustainable future. We were one of the initiators of industrial digitalization using satellite-enabled IoT. For the last 30 years, we have developed one of the most comprehensive solution portfolios in the industry. We are proud to enable the management of over a million assets worldwide for a diverse customer base spanning transportation, agriculture, heavy equipment, maritime, natural resources and government.
ORBCOMM provides a full complement of cellular, satellite, and dual mode satellite-cellular IoT services and devices that ensure reliable, secure and customizable connectivity that supports data-driven decision making. Why do customers select ORBCOMM to be their satellite IoT technology provider?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
At ORBCOMM, we seek to make IoT solutions more accessible, easier to deploy and use and better performing so users can connect their assets and get the information that matters most to their businesses quickly and dependably. We have been providing industrial IoT technology and support for more than three decades now. In fact, our ecosystem of VARs, system integrators and OEM partners have deployed ORBCOMM solutions that are connecting over 2.4 million subscribers and delivering over 37 billion messages annually in 160 countries around the world. This broad experience means we deliver solutions that are straightforward for solution providers to customize and extend and users find easy to deploy and use. ORBCOMM has become known for reliability that can be counted on. We also offer a level of support and service that we believe is the best in the industry. From multilingual 24/7 customer support to professional services and consulting to help our partners ideate, build and launch new solutions in their markets, we are committed to supporting our customers end-to-end. This is part of our larger mission of bringing satellite IoT to more industries in more countries around the world so our key global industries can be more productive, safer, and more environmentally friendly.
Can you give us a couple of examples of your customers and how they leverage ORBCOMM’s satellite IoT technology?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
One great example is Berlin-based mining technology company, Kuchera. The team at Kuchera identified numerous areas where mining operations could improve and developed a mining operations platform called teamUP that tracks trucks and equipment across a mine site.
One of their biggest challenges was black periods where data wasn’t delivered for five to eight hours due to unavailable cellular coverage. With ORBCOMM’s technology, Kuchera’s teamUP can do what it does best: help customers improve mining operations and boost employee collaboration, all while reducing negative environmental impacts. What Kuchera valued about ORBCOMM was the flexible programming environment we provide with our devices that includes a development kit and offers open APIs for easy integration of our dual-mode satellite and cellular services and terminals into the teamUP solution. Plus, installation of ORBCOMM terminals takes 20 minutes or less and doesn’t impact vehicle warranties.
This was especially important for Kuchera’s customers. Yet, it is the results Kuchera customers realize that stand out. For example, accurate distance reporting up to 100 meters led to corrected invoicing for a mining contractor billing one kilometer per trip to a dump site which turned out to be 1.4 kilometers away. This resulted in a 40% revenue increase during the next billing cycle.
In addition, Kuchera helped a mining operation reduce its vehicle idling time. They went from an average of three hours of idling time per shift to less than 30 minutes. Kuchera also helped optimize fuel consumption for a mining operation reducing average fuel consumption from 1,300 liters to less than 900 liters across a fleet of ten dump trucks.
Another example is Ranchbot. Together, Ranchbot and ORBCOMM are helping to provide remote water management solutions for a more sustainable future in ranching through 24/7 satellite connectivity. Water management is a critical concern and cost for ranchers, according to Andrew Coppin, Founder and CEO of Ranchbot, and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Farmbot. Delayed inspections, water leaks, equipment failure and poor water flow and pressure can all lead to wasted water or a lack of availability of water for livestock. Through ORBCOMM satellite IoT communications technology, Ranchbot enables ranchers to check their water anytime, anywhere, regardless of their property’s cellular coverage. Ranchers see their water availability and check for issues in near real-time as well as actuate or shut off water supplies, open or close valves and start or stop generators and pumps—all remotely.
Ranchbot customers are responsible for managing more than 10 million cattle and 15 million sheep. There are over 20,000 sensors in the field on more than 4,000 ranches with over 8,000 users around the world. Some of the ranches supported by Ranchbot span millions of acres. Deploying the satellite-enabled solutions provides a better quality of life for the ranchers and livestock alike. It’s not only the cost and operational benefits, but the confidence that the ranchers’ livelihoods are looked after as well.
There are many additional examples in a variety of sectors including agriculture, heavy equipment, maritime, mining, oil and gas, utilities and more.
What is ORBCOMM’s satellite IoT strategy?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
ORBCOMM is focused on supporting and enabling IoT solution providers and system integrators with reliable, flexible and customizable technology and connectivity services, along with the supporting tools that make it easy for them to build and deploy winning solutions in their markets. Our strategy to achieve that is to narrow our focus to what we believe matters the most. First, we’re always focused on innovation. We listen to our customers and come up with new ways to help them grow by pushing our technology forward. Second, we are committed to increasing the value of satellite IoT technology to make it more accessible to more industries around the world.
Third, we believe that the convergence of satellite and cellular connectivity is a win-win-win for satellite network operators, cellular network operators and IoT solution providers, so we are embracing this change fully. Ubiquitous connectivity at the lowest cost should be everyone’s goal. Finally, we are committed to delivering highly reliable devices and a feature-rich network service with high availability. We also believe that supporting our partners is key to both our success and theirs. That’s why we provide a full set of tools that make it easier and more cost effective for system integrators and IoT solution providers to deliver increasingly capable IoT services for their customers.
Can you talk about some of ORBCOMM’s key strategic partnerships? What brought you together and what are you working towards?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
ORBCOMM’s partnerships with IoT solution providers and system integrators are central to our business. We seek to provide them with everything they need to simplify industrial IoT solution development. Today, we have over 400 partners around the globe. Our solutions allow them to track, monitor and control assets in some of the world’s most remote locations in the world, all while solving key business challenges for their customers.
Rolling out a new IoT solution isn’t easy. ORBCOMM works closely with our partners to lower the barriers to making new industrial IoT solutions available to a broad range of industries.
We also listen to our customers and innovate around their needs. For example, our OGx satellite service was born out of recognizing the opportunity to improve upon IDP and meet customer needs that weren’t being met with our previous generation service. What we’re working toward is to make the world’s key industries more productive, safer and more environmentally friendly by connecting assets and delivering key data that drive business decisions. And we want to drive the adoption of IoT technology alongside our partners to reach more industries in more places around the world. That’s our main goal, and we couldn’t do it without the partnerships we’ve built and continue to build with some of the most innovative companies in the world.
The integration of IoT technologies and services has grown quickly over the past 5-10 years. How has ORBCOMM continued to grow its position as a leader in satellite and dual mode satellite-cellular communications technology and services for the commercial and military/agency/government (MAG) markets given the increasing competition?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
At ORBCOMM, we are always innovating. We are constantly looking at how we can improve our hardware and services while continuing to lower the costs associated with satellite and dual mode satellite-cellular IoT solutions. This focus on innovation has led to several substantial advancements for ORBCOMM services and hardware recently. In fact, to drive down the cost of hardware, we developed an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that combines 400 discrete components into a single chip, and this leads to substantial cost savings. With the new OGx network design, we provide faster message delivery, lower latency, and the ability to send bigger messages while decreasing power consumption.
These advancements have allowed ORBCOMM to remain a leader in always-connected industrial IoT solutions, in growing satellite-enabled technologies, in supporting IoT solution providers and integrators in growing their businesses and in providing end users with the most innovative capabilities and solutions through our partner community.
How is ORBCOMM supporting solution providers and system integrators with advanced technologies that support increasingly complex requirements? How have you seen the demands from clients change over time, particularly recently?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
The most important set of advancements has come with the launch of OGx, and those advancements were driven by changing demands from our partners. They wanted more data, larger message sizes, faster message speeds and better power consumption.
We listened to them, and that’s exactly what we’ve delivered. We have evolved our services to open new applications and opportunities for our extended solution provider and system integrator community. In addition, we provide an open development environment and programmable devices that make the process of offering new applications streamlined for our partners.
Going back a generation, it is easy to see the giant step forward OGx presents for partners and users alike. Our partners are looking for enhanced capabilities that don’t necessarily change simply because they operate in remote locations. They’re also looking for technology and services at price points that allow them to build successful commercial solutions that provide positive ROI to their end customers. Our mission is to provide seamless access to assets regardless of where they are operating.
What are some of the major technological and service level advancements that are allowing ORBCOMM to support a broader set of customers and use cases?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
OGx can support hundreds of thousands of bytes (megabytes); bigger message sizes, images, more sophisticated solutions and now it is actionable information instead of just data. With OGx more IoT applications can be supported than could previously be supported due to OGx’s increased capabilities compared to our previous generation IDP service, all at price points that make this technology commercially viable for more applications in more industries.
We have also focused on the power consumption side in our hardware devices, both with OGx’s unique network design that reduces power consumption, and in investing in solar battery technology to create satellite IoT devices that do not need external power sources. Our SC 1000 solar-powered satellite tracker is the first example of this, and we’re already seeing adoption for IoT applications like tracking small maritime vessels that don’t have power sources on board.
What key trends are happening in industrial IoT today?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
One of the main trends we’re seeing is that the demand for industrial IoT solutions continues to grow exponentially. Now that IoT technology is coming down in price, it is more broadly utilized and there is more demand to manage, monitor and control assets and devices in the field. Our sales have continued to grow as this demand continues to grow. In the early days, sales volumes of 10,000 units of our IoT devices in a year was considered excellent performance. Today, we can see 10,000-unit sales in a week or even a day. The drivers for IoT have changed dramatically over the last couple of decades. We have seen IoT change from simply collecting data points to now autonomously using applications to analyze those data points and turn them into actionable business insights, sometimes even on the edge of the network on programmable terminals.
The convergence of terrestrial and satellite is another noteworthy trend along with direct-to-device (D2D). The integration of satellite connectivity has revolutionized the way IoT is used to effectively manage operations for numerous industries. Instead of needing to wait for an asset to be in range of a cell tower which can mean hours, days or even weeks of blind spots. Now, businesses with operations in remote areas have the information they need immediately. This has been a game-changing advancement that decreases downtime, costs and maintenance while increasing asset utilization and production outputs.
What are some of the top industries that your customers serve and why do these vertical markets value IoT solutions in their operations?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
Today, ORBCOMM supports a broad range of customers from transportation, supply chain, mining, and heavy equipment to agriculture, maritime, natural resources and government to name just a few. ORBCOMM provides a clear path to continuous, reliable, and secure monitoring, management and control of assets and devices operating nearly anywhere in the world.
These markets often operate in places where connectivity is limited or completely unavailable via terrestrial networks. With ORBCOMM’s integrated IoT solutions and streamlined deployment, solution providers and users alike can stand up always-connected IoT environments quickly and cost efficiently.
Can you offer readers a rundown of what is on the horizon for ORBCOMM?
Dr. Dave Roscoe
OGx was four years in the making. The roll out of OGx demonstrated our team’s persistence over time to develop and hone this solution. The team’s commitment and focus were the major contributing factors to our success. As we went into the development of OGx, the team had two satellite networks under their belts. OGx represents our third satellite network. I would estimate that if any other team was doing it without this level of experience, it would take twice as long to roll out. In addition, the related launch of the SC 1000 satellite IoT tracking device is the first terminal developed for our next-generation OGx satellite service. Our team specifically focused on making the SC 1000 easy to install while maintaining its affordability, compact footprint and ruggedness. We also made the SC 1000 solar powered to serve a broader range of satellite IoT applications. The SC 1000 is designed to give IoT solution providers the opportunity to drive new revenue streams and growth in high-value industrial markets.
As for what’s next, we are working on developing more dual-mode satellite and cellular modules and devices to continue driving towards a network-agnostic IoT connectivity landscape.
We’re also looking at what we can do on the software side, both in terms of our platforms and on the software applications that run directly on our programmable terminals. Lastly, we’re working with our partners to continue to build new business models and ways of working together to ensure mutual growth.
We’re excited about what’s to come and I don’t believe there’s a better time than today to be working in this industry.
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