October 2006 SATMAGAZINE · 2006-10-06 · Back to Contents 2 October 2006 SATMAGAZINE.COM Vol. 4...
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Transcript of October 2006 SATMAGAZINE · 2006-10-06 · Back to Contents 2 October 2006 SATMAGAZINE.COM Vol. 4...
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
Vol. 4 No. 6, October 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTSClick on the title to go
directly to the story
COVER STORY
.
REGULAR DEPARTMENTS
By Virgil Labrador By Chris Forrester
Amsterdam’s giant IBCbroadcasting showseemingly gets biggerevery year. This year’sevent attracted athumping 45,000visitors, up 5% on 2005.
by BernardoSchneiderman
3 / Notes from the
Editor
4 / Calendar of Events
5 / Featured Events:
ISIS NYC ‘06
SATCON 2006
11 / Industry News
15 / Executive Moves
18 / New Products and
Services
33 / Vital Statistics
34 / Market Intelligence
37 / Advertisers’ Index/
Stock Quotes
FEATURES
29 / APSCC 2006Highlight S-DMBDevelopmentsin Asia
25 / IBC, theGreatest Showon Earth?
21 / The GroundEquipmentMarket
The ground equipmentmarket is poised forgrowth with the influx ofnew services.
Mobile satelliteservices showing greatpromise in Asia.
31 / LeveragingSatelliteTechnology toImproveEmployeeProductivity
CASE STUDY
EndIIEndCommunications helpconstruction firm M.A.Mortenson increaseemployee productivityby leveraging satellitetechnology.
SATMAGAZINE.COM
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October 2006
Satnews Publishers is the leadingprovider of information on theworldwide satellite industry. Foremore information, go towww.satnews.com
Cover Design by: Simon Payne
Published monthly bySatnews Publishers800 Siesta Way,Sonoma, CA 95476 USAPhone (707) 939-9306Fax (707) 939-9235E-mail: [email protected]: www.satmagazine.com
Baden WoodfordContributing Writer, Africa
Jill Durfee([email protected])Advertising Sales
Joyce Schneider([email protected])Advertising Sales
Copyright © 2006Satnews PublishersAll rights reserved.
EDITORIALSilvano PaynePublisher
Virgil LabradorManaging Editorand Editor, North America
Chris ForresterEditor, Europe, Middle Eastand Africa
Bernardo SchneidermanEditor, Latin America
Peter GalaceEditor, Asia-Pacific
John Puetz, Bruce ElbertDan Freyer, Howard GreenfieldContributing Writers,The Americas
David Hartshorn, Martin JarroldContributing Writers, Europe
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
C-Band Interference from TerrestrialWireless Deployments
The Global VSAT Forum (GVF) has raised the alarm onthe possibility of fixed and mobile satellite services
being disrupted by interference from new services such asWi-Mx and Broadband Wireless Access in the extended C-Band frequencies of 3.4 to 3.7 GHz.
According to the GVF, if national and inter-governmentalorganizations fail to address this trend, the satellite
industry may be prevented from delivering users with FSS and MSSservices for voice, data and video services in developed and developingcountries.
GVF said that there is an effort by the terrestrial wireless community fora global allocation from the International Telecommunication Union(ITU) to put future mobile phone networks like IMT advanced and 4Gservices in “standard” C band frequencies of 3.4 – 4.2 GHz. Thesefrequencies, according to GVF, are a primary means by which thesatellite industry provides millions of users with mission-criticalcommunications solutions for distance learning, tele-medicine, universalaccess, disaster recovery, and many other vital applications.
The ‘extended’ C band frequencies of 3.4 to 3.7 GHz have already beenidentified by national administrations for use by new services likeBroadband Wireless Access (BWA) and WiMax, GVF said. It fears that ifWiMax services are introduced, it will cause interference in the satelliteservices community for FSS services, feeder links and MSS services.GVF said interference in satellite ground stations and their relatedservices are already occurring in Bolivia, in Caribbean, China, Russia,throughout Africa and in Hong Kong, Australia, Fiji and Indonesia..To tackle the issue, GVF and other satellite groups are now asking theirtelecom regulatory authorities to prevent the reassignment of the C bandfrequencies to WiMax and IMT 2000 services.
This certainly is a very serious issue that demands action and attentionfrom the satellite industry. With the growing popularity of wirelessservices and emerging hybrid services using both satellite and wirelesstechnologies --both should be able to coexist and flourish withoutinterference..
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
If you have an event that you wish to submit to this list, please email it to: [email protected]
Oct. 10-13, Qwest Center, Omaha, USAStrategic Space and Defense 2006Tel: 719.576.8000 Fax: 719.576.8801Web: http://www.StratSpace.org
Oct. 10-13, Kiev, UkraineInformation Communication Technology 2006Valentyna PodgorodetskaTel.: +44 (0) 207 596 5089 (direct) / 5000Fax: +44 (0) 207 596 5117 (direct)/5111E-mail: [email protected]: www.ukraine-telecom.com
Oct. 18-20, International Exhibition CentreKyiv, UkraineEastern Europe Broadband Convention(EEBC) 2006Phone: +380 (44) 50-164-50Fax: +380 (44) 50-164-51Web: www.eebc.net.ua/eng/
Oct. 19 - 21, World Trade Centre, Mumbai, India.Broadcast India 2006 Exhibition & SymposiumKavita MeerTel: 91 22 2215 1396/2215 2721Fax: 91 22 2215 1269Mobile: 98200 56060Email: [email protected]: www.broadcastindiashow.com
Oct. 24 - 27, Wanchai, Hong Kong, ChinaCASBAA ConventionRebecca Kennedy - CASBAATel: +(852) 2854 9913Fax: +(852) 2167 8168Email: [email protected]: www.casbaaconvention.com/
Oct. 31-Nov. 2, Abuja, Nigeria2nd West Africa Satellite Communications SummitGlobal VSAT ForumMartin JarroldTel.: + 44 1727 884 739 / Fax: + 44 1727 884 739Email: [email protected]: www.gvf-events.org/1.html
Nov. 7- 9, Houston, TX, USAOffshore Communications 2006Tel: 1 (772) 221 7720Fax: 1 (772) 221 7715Email: [email protected]: www.offshorecoms.com.
Nov. 13-15, London, UKGlobal MilSatCom 2006Tel: +44 (0) 20 7827 6000Fax: +44 (0) 20 7827 6001Email: [email protected] Web: www.globalmilsatcom.com
Nov. 16, London, UKPersonal TV ConferenceChris ForresterTel: +44 20 8948 8561Fax: +44 20 8940 6009E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.tvconferences.com
Nov. 28, New York, NY, USAISCe Satellite InvestmentSymposium NYC ‘06David BrossTel: +1-301-916-2236 E-mail: [email protected]: www.isis-nyc.com
Nov. 28, New York, NY, USAThe SSPI Future Leaders DinnerLongbottom CommunicationsTel: 1-703-534-0885 [email protected]: www.sspi.org Nov. 29-30New York, NY, USASATCON 2006Tel.: [email protected]: www.satconexpo.com
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September 2006
FEATURED EVENTS
• Mobile Satellite Services and the New CustomerMarkets
• WTA Translating the Trends Workshop
• Consolidation and Market Shares Projections forFixed Satellite Services Operators
• The Broadband Game: How Does Satellite Enter theFray?
• Defining the Continued Battles Between Broadcastersand Satellite Companies
“The conference is different from other events in the satelliteindustry as it is the only financial seminar, held annually in NewYork, to focus solely on the $85 billion business of financing andinvesting in commercial satellite-based concerns. It will be a
unique blend of panel sessions andexecutive interviews exclusivelyfeaturing executives at the chief financialofficer (CFO) level and higher,” addedBross.
The one-day conference is not just allbusiness, though, with opportunities fornetworking as well. The organizers ofISIS also encourage participants toattend the new SSPI Future LeadersDinner at the conclusion of ISIS at ThePrinceton Club in Manhattan. Thisannual fundraising reception and dinneris the premier social networking event of
“Satellite Week in NYC,” featuring ISIS NYC ’06 and other majorindustry events. This dinner will honor future leaders who arecurrently making a difference in our industry and an executivewho is recognized for his or her success in mentoring industryprofessionals. ISIS NYC ’06 attendees as well as SSPI and SIAmembers are eligible for a 10 percent discount to this dinner.
For more information on ISCe 2006 Conference and Expo contactthe Conference Chairman, David Bross at +1-301-916-2236 ore-mail at: [email protected] or go to www.isis-nyc.com
ISCe Satellite Investment Symposium
ISIS NYC ‘06
November 28, 2006, New York City
With the high profile takeover of private investments firms ofmajor satellite companies in the last few years, the
investment community has given a much needed boost to thesatellite industry. To fill a void in the industry for a qualityconference on the investment side of the satellite business,leading industry conference organizer Hannover Fairs USA, Inc.announced the launch of its inaugural ISCe Satellite InvestmentSymposium NYC ’06 (ISIS NYC ’06), which will take placeNovember 28, 2006, at co-host Jones Day’s law office in midtownManhattan, New York City.
ISIS NYC ’06 will bring together high-profile executives in thesatellite television (DBS), satellite radio (DARS), mobile satellite(MSS), fixed satellite services (FSS), IPTV, Broadcasters, DigitalTV/SyndEx and Mobile Video sectors of the satellite industrywith leading New York financiers and members of the Wall Streetcommunity.
“Since the cancellation of the SkyFORUMevent two years ago, the satellite industryhas not had a true satellite finance event inNew York City. I am pleased to announcethe launch of this new executive-level oneday program, which will focus on thefinancial foundations of the multi-billiondollar satellite communicationsmarketplace,” said Art Paredes, presidentand CEO of Hannover Fairs USA, Inc.
“Given the increasing role of private equityplayers in the commercial satellitecommunications sector, the financialaspects of this great industry have taken front and center stageover the last few years,” said David Bross, chairman of ISIS NYCchairman and the ISCe Conference & Expo. “We and ouresteemed industry and media partners believe there is a need fora venue that fosters dialogue and debate between leadingmembers of the financial community and executives representingthe multi-faceted satellite services sector,” he added.
Key sessions at ISIS NYC’06 include:
• The Future and Growth of Satellite Television
• Satellite Radio: Will the Rapid Pace of GrowthContinue?
SM
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
FEATURED EVENTS
ISIS NYC ’06 Conference Program
PROGRAM: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2006
As of September 22, 2006; subject to change withoutnotice.
Venue: Jones Day · 222 East 41st Street · New York, NY ·www.jonesday.com
8:00–8:30 am ISIS NYC ’06 Networking Breakfast
Sponsored by:
8:30–8:45 am Welcome Remarks and Introductions
Art Paredes, President and CEO, Hannover FairsUSA, Inc.David Bross, Chairman - ISIS NYC ’06Delbert Smith, Co-chair, ISIS NYC ’06, Senior Telecommu-nications Counsel - Jones Day
Welcome:
8:45–9:45 am Satellite CEO Interview #1“DBS: 1/4 of U.S. TV Households Can’t BeWrong, Or...”
The consumer satellite business blew the socks off of thecable operators for about a decade post-1994, yet todaythe future presents bigger challenges. Cable is in place asthe only true provider of a large scale “bundle” of telephone,video and Internet services, but the telephone companiesare getting their offerings together fast. Without control overthe different pieces of its own bundle, can U.S. DBSoperators continue long-term subscriber gains, cash flowand Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) growth? How muchbandwidth and resources are required to deliver the best oflocal and national HDTV signals into the largestpercentage of American homes? What about the otheradvanced services? How do they resonate? What are themost topical legal and regulatory issues? What aboutpiracy? And how far off are program access anddifferentiation solutions? This showcase panel promises toprovide the answers.
9:50–10:50 am Satellite Finance Session #1“Analyst’s Corner: Cutting the Hype and Makingthe Grade”
Jimmy Schaeffler, Esq., Chairman & CSO -The Carmel Group
Moderator:
Michael Palkovic, CFO - DirecTV (Invited)Mary Frost, CEO - GlobeCast America
Panelists
Craig Moffett, Senior Analyst for U.S. Cable and SatelliteBroadcasting - Sanford Bernstein
Analyst:
One of the most difficult decisions that people involved inthe satellite industry have to make is deciding whichindustry sectors and companies are going to succeed andwhich will fail. This decision-making process involvescutting through the hype and (on occasion) misinformationwhile, at the same time, taking a “best guess” as to whatcompanies likely are to succeed. These industry analystswill offer their opinions and views on what they have learnedduring the past five years, where we are today and wherewe are likely to be in the next three years. Want to know“what’s in” and “what’s not?” They will tell you. What will bethe dominant long-term satellite consumer play: telephony,video or radio? How do the FSS players fit in? What aboutthe bundle-battle being fought within DBS today? Cansatellite radio turn the financial corner and finally makemoney? Which metrics stick when it comes to ARPU,SAC, churn and bandwidth?
10:50–11:15 am Coffee Break
Sponsored by:
11:15 am–12:15 pm Satellite CEO Interview #2“Mobile Satellite Services: The Re-Infusion ofCapital”
The mobile satellite services (MSS) market is on the vergeof a breakout, as new services and technologies stimulaterenewed investor interest in this once troubled sector.Mobile voice, video and data satellite services are now in
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
FEATURED EVENTS
high demand. Go figure? Both commercial and governmentmarkets and investors are starting to seriously reconsiderthe MSS value proposition. Well-funded ventures such asATC are a clear sign the MSS sector is again becoming acore financial focus. This group of MSS CEOs will explorethe emerging market opportunities and determine wherevalue truly lies within this remarkable, re-emerging sector.
Christopher Baugh, President - NSR
Moderator:
Michael Butler, Chief Operating Officer - InmarsatMatthew Desch, Chairman and CEO - Iridium SatelliteLLCAlexander Good, CEO - Mobile Satellite Ventures(MSV)Jay Monroe, Chairman and CEO - Globalstar, Inc.
Panelists
12:15–1:45 pm ISIS NYC ’06 LeadershipLuncheon
Sponsored by
John Kealey, President & CEO - iDirect Tech-nologies
State-of-the-Industry Address:
The Hon. Jonathan Adelstein, Commissioner - FCC | FCCwebsite
Keynote:
Because there truly is a close connection between whatWall Street does and what Washington, D.C. says, it ismost appropriate that the inaugural ISCe Satellite InvestorSymposium (ISIS NYC ’06) event ties the two together.This luncheon keynote interview is intended to bring adialogue to industry and government players, both bent onbuilding and/or protecting their turfs and constituencies.What will the FCC do with new spectrum bands, especiallythose trying to meld terrestrial with space-basedinfrastructures? What’s hot on the DBS and satellite radiosides of the ledger? What has been the effect of the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Wall Street and its constituents?How is the FCC working vis-à-vis Congress? These are buta handful of questions and issues that will be addressedduring a luncheon designed to bring government officials,Wall Street financiers and industry attendees into thesame networking forum.
1:45–2:45 pm Satellite Finance Session #2“FSS: The Satellite Trunk Called FixedServices”
Lead in the United States by SES Americom, Intelsat andLoral Skynet, the Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) playershave huge businesses, yet face big challenges in theirdrives to assure mid- and long-term financial success. Howwill consolidation impact customers and the industry?What new spectrum can be developed to expandresources, especially in the United States? What’s thenext Killer App? How does a strong business get builtaround services versus bandwidth? How can thegovernment expand the access to bandwidth resourcesthrough its commitment to commercial operators? What’sthe role of satellites in delivering entertainment tohandhelds and mobile? These and a whole fleet ofadditional Qs and answers promise to result from this hour-long panel session.
David Bross, Chairman - ISIS NYC ‘06
Moderator:
Edward Horowitz, CEO - SES AmericomPradman Kaul, President and CEO - HughesJohn Kealey, President & CEO - iDirect TechnologiesDavid McGlade, CEO - Intelsat (Invited)Stephen T. O’Neill, President - Boeing Satellite SystemsInternational, Inc.Michael B. Targoff, CEO - Loral Space & Communica-tions (Invited)
Panelists:
Analyst:
Armand Musey, President and Partner - Near Earth LLC
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
FEATURED EVENTS
2:50–3:50 pm Satellite CEO Interview #3“Satellite Radio: A Struggling Giant orContinuing High-Flyer?”
Satellite-delivered consumer services remain a darling (orpotential darling) of Wall Street and the consumerelectronics marketplaces. However, there are formidablecompetitors already in place or lurking in the shadows,each looking to challenge the status of XM Radio, SiriusSatellite Radio and WorldSpace. New devices andinfrastructures, such as MP3 players and the Internet, areinvading the moving vehicle. Terrestrial radio also isramping up, offering new digital services with fewer ads—and potentially new content. What truce will be realizedlong term within the terrestrial radio camp? Is satellite radioreally still all about subscriber growth in these earlyyears—like it was for DBS—or is free cash flow the earlymetric? With home, vehicle and mobile offerings, what isthe true size of the potential sat radio subscriber base?Content-wise, what’s beyond Stern, Oprah, Dylan andElvis? Will the government entertain another spectrum and/or another potential player to upset the sat radio duopoly?These and a bunch of other topics should crackle thesenot-to-be-missed audio bits.
Andy Pasztor, Senior Special Writer - The Wall StreetJournal
Moderator:
Panelists
Mel Karmazin, CEO - Sirius Satellite Radio (Invited)Hugh Panero, CEO - XM Satellite Radio (Invited)Noah Samara, CEO - WorldSpace (Invited)
3:50–4:15 pm Afternoon Refreshment Break
Sponsored by
4:15–5:15 pm Satellite Finance Session #3“Broadcasters and Satellite: How Long CanThe Romance Last?”
Satellite is the backbone of the television business, andit’s probably not too much of a stretch to say thattelevision is the backbone of satellite business. They havehelped each other prosper for three decades. The TVnetworks still rely heavily on the fixed satellite services tocover remote events and deliver programming to affiliatesscattered across the nation. And TV stations count on theservice to import timely syndicated shows and capturepictures of news, no matter where it happens. Now,terrestrial fiber is once again threatening to break up thepartnership. To make sure that doesn’t happen, FSS ispromising greater flexibility, reliability, economy andcapacity. Will it be enough to sate TV’s ever-increasingdemands? Will TV and satellite grow old together? Thispanel of broadcast veterans and satellite executives hasthe answers.
Moderator:
Harry Jessell, Editor and Publisher - TVNEWSDAY.com
Panelists:
Patrick Brant, CEO - Loral SkynetBryan McGuirk, President of Media Solutions - SESAmericomRobert Ross, Vice President, East Coast Operations -CBS Corp.Ron Samuel, Chief Operating Officer - Eutelsat Inc.Andy Setos, President, Engineering - Fox GroupPhil Spector, Executive Vice President and GeneralCounsel - Intelsat
Analyst:
April Horace, Analyst - Hoefer and Arnett Inc.
5:15 pm Adjournment
Remarks
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
The 5th Annual SATCON - Satellite and Content Delivery
Conference & Expo
(www.satconexpo.com)
to be held in New York
City from November 29-
30, 2006 in New York
City will be tackling key
industry isues. The
two-day conference and
expo will include
keynote presentations
from veteran journalist
Dan Rather, Global
Correspondent for
HDNet, and David Hill,
Chairman and CEO for
Fox Sports Television Group and President of Entertainment for
DirecTV Inc., SATCON is one of the fastest-growing events of
its kind that explores applications for satellite and content
delivery over satellite, fiber and hybrid networks and this year
will be held in conjunction with the HD World Conference &
Exposition (www.hdworldshow.com).
Additional industry leaders will be on hand to discuss critical
issues involved in satellite and content applications and
advances. Speakers and topics currently confirmed for this
years industry keynote presentations include:
SATCON 2006 To Address Key IndustryIssues
• Michael Butler, COO,
Inmarsat
• Ed Horowitz, President &
CEO, SES Americom
• Pradman Kaul, CEO,
Hughes Network Systems
• David McGlade, CEO,
Intelsat
• Ron Samuel, COO, Eutelsat
Inc. Moderator:
• Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch,
PEO for SATCOM, Teleport
and Services, Defense
Information Systems
Agency (DISA)
“SATCON has the largest end-user audience of any satellite
show. SATCON features over 70 end-user speakers which is
over four times that of any other satellite show and also more
than any other IT or communications conference in the country.
SATCON is the only show to focus exclusively on satellite and
communications applications for end-users, as opposed to
other events that include satellite industry issues like satellite
launch, telemetry, satellite manufacturing, among others,” said
Michael Driscoll, SATCON Event Director.
FEATURED EVENTS
SATCON 2006New York City, November 29-30, 2006
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
Approximately 120 speakers will discuss real-world issues and
solutions during a variety of conference sessions covering
applications for industries such as media and entertainment;
broadcast and cable; military, defense and Homeland Security;
federal, state and local government; retail and hospitality;
financial, banking and insurance; energy, oil and gas; manufac-
turing and automotive; and healthcare and pharmaceuticals,
among many others. SATCON also features an expo that has
increased by at least 50% in size and scope each year, and that
highlights a wide variety of communications, network-
ing and content delivery solutions.
Sample topics to be addressed at the 2006 SATCON
Conference include:
• Think Tank 2006: A Discussion of Industry &
Military Cooperation
• Fundamentals of Satellite Communications
Systems - Part 1 and 2
• Challenges of Changing Technology: Real and
Perceived
• The Next Generation Content Distribution
Backbone: Will it be Satellite?
• Dual Use of Commercial Technologies to Meet
Military and Government Requirements
“We live in a society in which new information andcommunications solutions are introduced almost dailywith the potential to impact every aspect of our lives.”said Susan Irwin, conference chair for SATCON andpresident of Irwin Communications. “Over the last fiveyears, SATCON has become THE place to go to keep upwith the emerging trends in satellite communicationsthat will continue to help shape the content deliveryand telecom requirements of the government, media andenterprise sectors. SATCON is a one-of-a-kind eventsaturated with top industry leaders, extensive network-ing opportunities and breakthrough education.”
A complete speaker roster, session details and event /registration information can be found athttp://www.satconexpo.com/default.asp.
FEATURED EVENTS
SATCON is also sponsoring two unique pre-show events: theTriple Play/IP Communications Technology & InvestmentSummit, and the Satellite-Based Disaster Recovery Summit, bothon November 28, the day before SATCON opens.
Complimentary Expo Only passes are available atwww.satconexpo.com. 20% discount full conference passes areavailable for members of the following industry associations:GVF, WTA, SSPI, MSUA, CMMA, SUIRG, and the GovernmentAlliance for Training & Education. Use source code 26SG522when registering for the discount. SM
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
INDUSTRY NEWS
NASA Selects Lockheed Martinas Prime Contractor for Orion CrewExploration Vehicle
WASHINGTON ̄NASA has selectedLockheed Martin Corp.,based in Bethesda, Md.,as the prime contractorto design, develop, andbuild Orion, America’sspacecraft for a newgeneration of explorers. Orion will be capable oftransporting fourcrewmembers for lunarmissions and latersupporting crewtransfers for Marsmissions. Orion couldalso carry up to six crewmembers to and from theInternational SpaceStation.
NASA said the first Orion launch with humans onboard isplanned for no later than 2014, and for a human moon landingno later than 2020. Orion will form a key element of extending asustained human presence beyond low-Earth orbit to advancecommerce, science and national leadership. The contract with Lockheed Martin is the conclusion of a two-phase selection process. NASA began working with the twocontractor teams, Northrop Grumman/Boeing and LockheedMartin, in July 2005 to perform concept refinement, tradestudies, analysis of requirements and preliminary designoptions. Lockheed Martin will be responsible for the design,development, testing, and evaluation (DDT&E) of the newspacecraft. Manufacturing and integration of the vehicle components willtake place at contractorfacilities across the country. Lockheed Martin will perform themajority of the Orion vehicle engineering work at NASA’sJohnson Space Center, Houston, and complete final assemblyof the vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. All 10 NASAcenters will provide technical and engineering support to theOrion project.
In partnership with NASA, Lockheed Martin will lead a world-class industry team that includes Honeywell, Orbital SciencesCorporation, United Space Alliance and Hamilton Sundstrand,supporting NASA in the design, test, build, integration andoperational capability of Orion. The contract is structured into separate schedules for DDT&Ewith options for production of additional spacecraft andsustaining engineering. During DDT&E, NASA will use an end-item cost-plus-award-fee incentive contract. This makes theaward fee subject to final determination after the contractor hasdemonstrated that it meets the technical, cost, and schedulerequirements of the contract. According to NASA, DDT&E work is estimated to occur fromSept. 8, 2006, through Sept. 7, 2013 with an estimated value of$3.9 billion. Production and sustaining engineering activities are contractoptions that will allow NASA to obtain additional vehicles asneeded. Delivery orders over and above those in the DDT&Eportion will specify the number of spacecraft to be producedand the schedule on which they should be delivered. Post-development spacecraft delivery orders may begin as earlyas Sept. 8, 2009, through Sept. 7, 2019, if all options are exer-cised. The estimated value of these orders is negotiated basedon future manifest requirements and knowledge gained throughthe DDT&E process and is estimated not to exceed $3.5 billion.
Army Awards Six Vendors$5-B Satellite Contract WASHINGTON, D.C. ̄ The U.S. Army has awarded its five-year $5 billion Worldwide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract toBoeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp. and to four smallbusinesses: DataPath of Duluth, Ga.; D&SCI of Eatontown,N.J.; Globecomm Systems of Hauppauge, N.Y.; andTeleCommunications Systems of Annapolis, Md.
Under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, eachvendor is required to bring turnkey commercial satellite systemsand associated support services for satellite terminals, includingall hardware, software, services and data to operate the termi-nals.
Army officials said both Defense and non-DOD agencies canorder from the contract. They explained WWSS products andservices will support all federal communications missions,
The vehicle is Orion will be amulti-purpose capsule to carryastronauts back to the moonand later to Mars. The first flightwith astronauts aboard isplanned for no later than 2014.Orion’s first flight to the moonis planned for no later than2020. (NASA photo)
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
INDUSTRY NEWS
including disaster relief and homeland security initiatives.
Under the five-year program, WWSS will bring turnkey commer-cial satellite systems and associated support services forsatellite terminals, including all hardware, software, services anddata to operate the terminals.
The terminal types include: Combat Support Service Very SmallAperture Terminals (VSATs), Fixed-station satellite terminals,Flyaway VSATs, Military-certified satellite terminals, and Primemover/trailer-mounted satellite terminals and Deployablesatellite Earth terminals. The program will also acquire six commercial satellite terminals,and will use a minimum of four or a maximum of six primecontractors, including at least two small businesses that meetthe full requirements of the program.
U.S. Air Force SuccessfullyLaunches New GPS Satellite CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. — A modern-ized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellitebuilt by Lockheed Martin was launched successfully on Sept.25 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The satellite, designated GPS IIR-15(M), is the second in aseries of eight modernized GPS Block IIR spacecraft thatLockheed Martin Navigation Systems is developing for itscustomer, the Global Positioning Systems Wing, Space andMissile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. A Boeing Delta II rocket carrying the GPS IIR-15 (M) spacecraftlifted off from Space Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral AirForce Station, Fla., at 2:50 p.m. EDT, Sept. 24. Following a
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INDUSTRY NEWS
nominal 68-minute flight,the rocket deployed thesatellite to a transferorbit. The spacecraft are themost technologicallyadvanced GPS satellitesever developed and aredesigned to providesignificantly improvednavigation performancefor U.S. military andcivilian users worldwide.The satellite will join thefirst modernized IIRsatellite, GPS IIR-14(M),successfully launchedand declared operationallast year and 12 otheroperational Block IIRsatellites currently on-orbit within the overall29-spacecraft constella-tion. The Air Forcededicated today’smission to honorAmerican POW/MIAspast and present.
The GPS IIR-M spacecraft offer a variety of enhanced featuresfor GPS users, such as a modernized antenna panel that pro-vides increased signal power to receivers on the ground, twonew military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryp-tion and anti-jamming capabilities for the military, and a secondcivil signal that will provide users with an open access signal ona different frequency. Alcatel Alenia Space Wins Contractfor German Armed Forces’ SatcomBW Satellites PARIS — EADS Astrium has awarded Alcatel Alenia Space asatellite contract for the next step of the German Armed Forces’satellite communications program Satcom BW Stufe 2. AlcatelAlenia said the contract calls for the design, manufacture andthe integration of two military satellites.
Based on the Spacebus 3000B architecture from Alcatel Alenia
Space, Satcom BW geostationary multi-missions satellites willbe fitted with payloads including Super-High-Frequency (SHF),Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) and Ku-band transponders fromEADS Space. With a launch mass of approximately 2.5 tons anda power of 3.5 kW, the Satcom BW satellites are scheduled fordelivery end of 2008, and due to start services early 2009 withan operational lifetime of 15 years.
Alcatel said Satcom BW military communications satellites arekey to the effectiveness of the German Armed Forces, and willprovide the Bundeswehr with a secured multimedia network,ensuring continuous links between the political and militaryauthorities and deployed units around the world. Satcom BWsatellites will provide services over a region stretching from theAmericas to Eastern Asia.
Pascale Sourisse, president and CEO of Alcatel Alenia Space,said his company was strongly involved in the bid right fromthe beginning, together with EADS Astrium. DirecTV-Liberty Media DealStill Many Weeks Away LOS ANGELES, CA ̄ A proposed deal involving RupertMurdoch’s sale of New Corp’s 38 percent stake in DirecTV toLiberty Media, which is controlled by fellow billionaire mediamogul John Malone is still weeks and weeks away, according toan executive familiar with the talks. Reports say the timing of the reports on the talks seems to bedictated by the approach of the Oct. 20 News Corp. sharehold-ers meeting, where one of the items on the agenda is a vote torenew poison pill provisions adopted last year to block Libertyand Malone from making a run at the company. The unnamedexecutive said there are a lot of complicated terms that have tobe worked out. Under the deal that is still in the works, in return for the NewsCorp’s stakes, Malone would sell his 19 percent stake in thevoting shares of News Corp., letting Murdoch’s company buyback the shares. The deal, if consummated, could be worth wellover $10 billion. News Corp. has a market cap of $74 billion, anda 19 percent stake of the publicly traded stock would be worth$14 billion. DirecTV has a market cap of $22.8 billion giving theNews Corp. stake a current market value of about $8.7 billion. Susan Kalla, an independent media and telecom analyst, saysDirecTV’s sales of $12.2 billion last year could be a basis for
vA Boeing Delta II rocketcarrying the GPS IIR-15 (M)spacecraft lifts off from SpaceLaunch Complex 17A at CapeCanaveral Air Force Station,Fla., at 2:50 p.m. EDT, Sept.24, successfully deploying thesatellite to a transfer orbit.(Carleton Bailie - Boeing photo)
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INDUSTRY NEWS
setting a price for the DirecTV stake. She pegs the price at around one-and-a-half times revenue but not much higher. The proposed sale is once again shaking the satellite, Internet and mediaindustry. Barely three years after Murdoch acquired a 34 percent stake inHughes Electronics, operator of the largest American satellite TV systemDirecTV from General Motors for $6 billion, now he wants out apparently toremake his media empire in a digital and Internet marketplace governed bynew rules. The reason for the proposed sale is big media companies feel they no longerneed even TV to watch TV programs anymore. Anyone with a computer and abroadband connection, including Apple’s new iPod, can watch full lengthvideos. Boeing Receives $278-M NASAPayload Processing Option ST. LOUIS ¯ The Boeing heckout, Assembly and Payload ProcessingServices (CAPPS) contract has been extended for three years by NASA’sKennedy Space Center. Valued at $278.5 million, the contract extension and modification covers Oct. 1,2006, through Sept. 30, 2009, according to NASA. The total contract valueincluding exercised and unexercised options is approximately $846 million. Mark Jager, Boeing Florida Operations CAPPS program manager, said, “TheInternational Space Station (ISS) elements and robotic vehicles we willprocess during the contract term will serve our nation and the world commu-nity for years.” To date, the CAPPS team has processed more than 404,000 pounds of on-orbitISS spaceflight hardware. This represents almost half of the space station’seventual 925,000 pounds of hardware that will fly in space when NASAcompletes assembly in 2010. During the next three years, the CAPPS team willprocess numerous ISS payloads, including the P5 truss segment for NASA’snext shuttle mission, STS-116, and international segments, including theItalian Columbus Module and the Japanese Experiment Module. The contract is a performance-based, cost-plus-award-fee contract to providecheckout, assembly and payload processing services at Kennedy SpaceCenter, Fla., Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air ForceBase, Calif. Under the contract, Boeing provides management and technicalsupport of payload processing for the space shuttle, ISS and expendablelaunch vehicle programs. Services and support include the planning for andreceiving of payloads, maintenance of associated ground support systems,integration of payloads with the space shuttle, launch support and spaceshuttle post-landing payload activities.
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New Skies’ Daniel S. Goldberg Movesto Telesat as President and CEO
OTTAWA, Ontario — TelesatCanada and its shareholder BCEInc. has named Daniel S.Goldberg as its president andCEO. Goldberg, formerlypresident and CEO of SES NewSkies, succeeds Larry Boisvertwho has decided to retire afternearly 34 years of service, thelast 13 years as president andCEO.
Goldberg, a graduate of the Harvard Law School, has beenworking in the communications sector for the past 15 years andin satellite operating companies since 1998, most recently atNew Skies - an owner operator of a global satellite communica-tions network that provides satellite capacity and other servicesfor the transmission of video, data, internet and voice servicesto corporate and government entities around the world. During his tenure at New Skies, Goldberg led a team that took asmall start-up created through the partial privatization of anintergovernmental satellite system and built a pre-eminentglobal player in a highly competitive industry. He also helpedlaunch two successful Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) andconcluded two private sales between 2000 and 2006. Boisvert will remain a senior advisor at Telesat, on loan to BCEfor the upcoming months.
EchoStar Names New President,CFO; Vogel, Han and Rayner toAssume New Duties ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — EchoStar Communications Corporationhas appointed Carl Vogel as president, overseeing day-to-dayoperations for Dish Network. Vogel will continue to serve asvice chairman of EchoStar’s board of directors. The company also announced the appointment of Bernard L.Han as chief financial officer, effective September 28, 2006,succeeding David J. Rayner who will assume the new role ofexecutive vice president in charge of the Company’s nationalinstallation and service network.
Vogel has most recently focused on the company’s financial andstrategic initiatives, and will retain responsibility for them. Hereturned to EchoStar in May, 2005 after serving as president andchief executive officer of Charter Communications. Beforejoining Charter, Vogel held various senior executive positionswith companies affiliated with Liberty Media Corporation andwas responsible for portfolio investments in subscriptiontelevision, content distribution, broadband, telecommunicationsand satellite sectors worldwide. He was also chairman and CEO of Primestar and CEO ofStarChoice until each company was sold or merged with othersatellite operators. Vogel served as EchoStar’s president from1994 to 1997, and was a key member of the executive team thatcreated and launched DISH Network in 1996.
Marshall Byrd Succeeds Ted Gavrilisas Head of Lockheed MartinCommercial Space Systems NEWTOWN, Pa. ̄ Lockheed Martin has named Marshall Byrdas vice president and general manager of its Commercial SpaceSystems line of business, effective September 1. Byrd succeedsTed Gavrilis, who is retiring after 36 years at Lockheed Martin. Byrd currently serves as vice president and general manager ofLockheed Martin Michoud Operations in New Orleans. Thefacility is the focus of External Tank design and productionoperations for NASA’s Space Shuttle program. He joined thecompany in 1978 and has served in a series of progressivelyresponsible positions focusing on plant and productionoperations, manufacturing and supply chain management. Gavrilis has led Commercial Space Systems since 2000, provid-ing executive leadership for the marketing, design, development,production and on-orbit delivery of satellites and relatedsystems for commercial and government customers worldwide.He joined Lockheed Martin in 1970 as a design engineer androse through a series of senior positions in engineering andmanagement. The Pennsylvania-based Commercial Space Systems buildsupon the expertise of several heritage Lockheed Martin compa-nies and has manufactured, launched, deployed and maintainedmore space platforms than any other company.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Dan Goldberg
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Orbital Executive Promotions:G. David Low, Gregg Burgess,John Pullen and Sally Richardsonto Assume New Roles DULLES, Va. — Orbital Sciences Corporation has promotedfour of its executives to new positions within the company. G. David Low, currently vice president and head of thecompany’s Technical Services Division (TSD), is being pro-moted to senior vice president and program manager for theCommercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.Replacing Low at the helm of TSD will be John Pullen, an 18-year veteran of the division. Gregg Burgess, program managerof Orbital’s MiTEx satellite program, is being advanced to vicepresident of Special Programs, and Sally Richardson, who mostrecently served in the company’s Advanced Programs Group, is
EXECUTIVE MOVES
being promoted to the position of vice president and deputydirector of Technical Operations, overseeing the engineeringactivities at the company’s facilities in the Eastern UnitedStates. Low has been with Orbital for 10 years and has served invarious roles with the company, including leading the LaunchSystems Group’s successful ISO certification effort and itsquality and mission assurance function. Most recently, heheaded Orbital’s TSD, which provides engineering services andsubsystem design and manufacturing to U.S. governmentcustomers. In his new role, Low will oversee the company’sdevelopment, manufacturing, testing and operational activitiesrelated to Rocketplane Kistler’s (RpK) K-1 reusable launchvehicle, which was recently selected by NASA for the COTSaward. Orbital is RpK’s primary industrial partner on the COTSprogram.
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Burgess is assuming the leadership of the Special Programsbusiness area in Orbital’s Advanced Programs Group. TheSpecial Programs business area specializes in developing newspace-based capabilities using advanced technologies onaggressive schedules to meet emerging national security spacemission requirements. In this capacity, he will be assuring thecontinued success of ongoing programs and expandingOrbital’s business base in this area. Mr. Burgess is transitioningfrom his role as Program Manager of the MiTEx satelliteprogram, which Orbital designed and built for the DefenseAdvance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aposition he has held for the last three years. Mr.Burgess’ 14 years at Orbital has spanned technical,business development and program managementroles in aircraft, space transportation and satellitesystems. Pullen has been with Orbital for the past 18 years atTSD. For the past two years, he has acted as Low’sdeputy head of the division, which is based inGreenbelt, MD. He is a trained electrical engineerwith broad familiarity with the company’s currentcustomers and of the overall market for TSD’sservices. Jack Danko, who, until recently, was headof the Space Systems Group, Orbital’s largestbusiness unit, will serve as an advisor to Pullen ona part-time basis. Iridium Satellite NamesMatthew J. Desch as NewCEO
BETHESDA, Md. —Iridium Satellite LLC hasnamed Matthew J. Desch,48, as chairman and chiefexecutive officer of thecompany, replacing DanColussy as chairman. Colussy said that Deschwill replace him as CEO ofIridium Satellite. Deschwill become CEO ofIridium Holdings, the
parent of Iridium Satellite, while Colussy will remainchairman of Iridium Holdings. Desch was most recently CEO of New Jersey-based
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Telcordia Technologies, Inc., a supplier of software and servicesto the telecommunications industry. Desch was instrumental inmoving Telcordia into new wireless and international markets,and spinning off the company to private equity from SAIC, Inc. Prior to Telcordia, Desch spent 13 years at Nortel Networks,leaving in 2000 as President, Global Service Providers andresponsible for Nortel’s business in Europe and Asia.
Matthew J. Desch
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NEW PRODUCTS
SES Astra to Launch Astra2ConnectBroadband Internet BETZDORF, Luxembourg — SES Astra, an SES Global com-pany, will launch Astra2Connect, a fully satellite-based interac-tive and low-cost broadband internet access to serve theresidential market, the small and home offices as well as smalland medium enterprises. SES Astra said Astra2Connect will provide a full satellite-based“triple play” infrastructure service enabling broadband internetaccess, voice-over-IP and other content related access servicessuch as IPTV or Video-on-Demand. It is expected to be opera-tional in the first quarter of 2007 and will mainly target homes inEurope, which can not easily get terrestrial broadband internetservices. Ferdinand Kayser, president and CEO of SES Astra, saidAstra2Connect is a great innovation that brings broadbandinternet access to everyone. He said the end-consumers willbenefit from an affordable and always-on two-way connectivity. Astra2Connect is currently offered on a wholesale basis to largeEuropean service providers such as telecommunication opera-tors, internet service providers and broadband operators thatconduct pro-active marketing and sales activities in the residen-tial and small enterprise markets. The necessary equipment consists of an interactive satelliteantenna as well as a low-cost and easy-to-install satellitemodem. For the design and procurement of the satellite platformand the related modems, SES Astra has entered into a coopera-tion with Newtec, a recognized market leader in satellite commu-nication systems. Astra 2Connect uses advanced technologydeveloped with the support of the European Space Agency(ESA).
Lockheed Martin Instrument Suite o Study Dynamic Solar Activity onNew International Sun Mission PALO ALTO, Calif. — A suite of instruments called the FocalPlane Package (FPP) — designed and built at the Solar andAstrophysics Laboratory of the Lockheed Martin AdvancedTechnology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto — is scheduled forlaunch on the Solar-B satellite from the Uchinoura Space Center,Kagoshima, Japan on Sept. 23, 2006.
Lockheed said the primary scientific goal of the Solar-B missionis to observe how changes in the magnetic field at the Sun’ssurface propagate through the different higher layers of thesolar atmosphere. Solar-B is an international cooperative mission between NASA,the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), theParticle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the UnitedKingdom, and the European Space Agency. It is the secondmission in the Solar Terrestrial Probes Program within theHeliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate,and follow-on to the successful Solar-A (or Yohkoh) mission,for which Lockheed Martin provided the Soft X-ray Telescope. The FPP comprises four distinct sub-systems — a broadbandfilter imager (BFI), a narrowband filter imager, a spectra-polarim-eter and a correlation tracker to stabilize the images — andresides on the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) whose mirror andstructure were designed and developed by the NationalAstronomical Observatory of Japan and Mitsubishi ElectronicsCompany. The SOT is the largest solar optical telescope ever tobe flown in space and will be able to resolve features on thesurface of the Sun just 90 mi. (150 km) across. Solar-B will perform coordinated measurements of the differentlayers of the solar atmosphere from a Sun-synchronous orbitaround the Earth. Three instruments will perform these measure-ments, the previously mentioned SOT, an Extreme UltravioletImaging Spectrometer and an X-Ray Telescope. These instruments will measure the Sun’s magnetic field in thephotosphere and the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation, emitted bythe transition region/low corona, and the upper corona.Scientists will use the data obtained to gain a more preciseunderstanding of the sources and mechanisms of the Sun’svariability. Dish Network Launches BroadbandInternet Options ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — EchoStar Communications Corporationand its DISH Network satellite TV service announced onThursday that consumers now have the option to sign up forDSL high-speed Internet service while choosing their DishNetwork programming. EchoStar said the functionality is made possible by technologyfrom GetConnected, Inc., a point-of-sale platform that searches
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NEW PRODUCTS
for current offers available from high-speed Internet serviceproviders based on a customer’s home address and telephonenumber. Where available, customers can select and purchaseDSL high-speed Internet service at the most current prices inthe marketplace from well-known and trusted brands. EchoStar joins a comprehensive list of retailers, major DSLservice providers, and Internet service providers that useGetConnected to offer a combination of video and data ser-vices. NGA Buys Entire Suite of DigitalGlobe CitySphere Product LONGMONT, Colo. ̄ The National Geospatial-IntelligenceAgency (NGA) has purchased DigitalGlobe’s CitySphereproduct to access imagery of 200 of the world’s major metropoli-tan areas. CitySphere is an off-the-shelf collection oforthorectified color imagery provided by DigitalGlobe’sQuickBird satellite. “CitySphere demonstrates DigitalGlobe’s ability to deliverinnovative products and services that meet both commercialand defense and intelligence needs,” said Jill Smith, chiefexecutive officer of DigitalGlobe. “The currency, resolution andaccuracy of CitySphere make it ideal for use as a base map ingeospatial applications and we are delighted that the NGA haschosen CitySphere for its needs.” CitySphere features orthorectified 60 cm (2 foot) mosaic colorimagery of 200 of the world’s largest cities. Cities such asBeijing, China; San Francisco, California; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;and Rome, Italy are available off-the-shelf with immediatedelivery. Each city is comprised of imagery that is refreshedevery year, so that no content is older than 24 months. DigalGlobe said that CitySphere can meet the geospatialcontent needs associated with embassy security, convoy androute planning security operations, the location of new propertycompounds, and the development of evacuation plans. DitigitalGlobe’s CitySphere product provides accurategeospatial data that aids customers in providing timely andrelevant geospatial intelligence in support of worldwidemapping requirements. CitySphere enables easy access to aconsistent, reliable source of unclassified high-resolutionimagery that is a foundation for planning, decision and action.
Blue Sky Offers Satcom Solutionfor Existing MagnaStar Users LA JOLLA, Calif. — Blue Sky Network (BSN), a global logis-tics solution provider for two-way linking and managingtransportation assets via satellite, has announced its plan tooffer existing MagnaStar customers special pricing on BSNIridium satellite communication solutions to minimize downtime. Recently, Verizon announced that its MagnaStar Airfone servicewill terminate in December, leaving 4,000 customers without anairborne communications path. BSN said it will offer all of theseMagnaStar customers a discount for converting to BSN Iridiumbased equipment and service before the end of the year —helping them to ease their burden from having to changeservices. The BSN satellite voice and data solutions for aviation include avariety of options for portable and fixed installations. BSNequipment has also been certified by Rockwell Collins for usewith the Airshow 4000. Blue Sky said it has developed innovative communicationpackages to fill the specific needs for a variety of aviationcustomers. The lightweight, easy to use equipment is ideal foraircraft, and the reliable Iridium global service is availableanytime, anywhere on Earth.
IDC Unveils New Hybrid DVB-S &DVB-S2 Products for IPTV, HDTVand Digital Cinema OTTAWA — International Datacasting Corporation hasunveiled its next-generation of hybrid DVB-S & DVB-S2product suite with MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-4 HE-AAC for highspeed distribution for IPTV, HDTV, Digital Cinema and en-hanced IP services. The new product suite is part of IDC’s new SuperFlex™SFX3101 series—featuring IDC’s Pro Audio and Pro Videoproduct lines that consist of new satellite receivers, routers andintegrated Datacast XD™ file and stream Content Distributionand Management software. IDC said DVB-S and DVB-S2 product series is a high perfor-mance end-to-end audio solution that is ideal for demandingbroadband applications such as; IPTV, Digital Cinema, MPEG-4/
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NEW PRODUCTS
H.264 HDTV distribution, file distribution for syndicatedtelevision applications and more. Gary Carter, VP and chief technology officer, said theSuperFlex™ SFX3101 series includes built in product featuresand functionality that will improve overall network performancewhile significantly reducing operating costs. IDC said with the recent increase and demand for HD contentcapabilities, the company’s launch of the product suite will nowoffer the combined benefits of MPEG-4 Advanced Video Codec(AVC) and DVB-S2 for cost-saving satellite transmission ratesusing reduced bandwidth capacity and drastically cuttingoperating costs by close to 50%.
Blue Sky Launches Two-WaySatellite Tracking Solutions LA JOLLA, Calif — Blue Sky Network, the global logisticssolution provider for two-way linking and managing transporta-tion assets via satellite, has announced its compact Iridiumsatellite terminals, the D2000M/MD, for land vehicles andmarine vessels. The GPS tracking system offers customers two-way communica-tions, and instant web-based tracking and position reporting forfleets of trucks and marine vessels that can be located any-where in the world. Building on the strengths of its aircraft flight tracking solutions,the D2000M/MD utilizes a next-generation technology fromIridium, allowing a much smaller form factor and more competi-tive pricing than previously available. The satellite assettracking unit is the size of a car stereo and can be easilyinstalled on a land vehicle or marine vessel for instant, globaltwo-way text messaging communications. Working seamlessly with Blue Sky Network’s SkyRouter, aninteractive fleet management Web portal, the D2000M/MDallows land vehicle or marine vessel fleet managers to enjoy thesafety and convenience of global satellite tracking for all of theirtransportation assets — even in the most remote locations. In addition, dispatch or other parties may send free form two-way text messages via SkyRouter’s fleet management interfacedirectly to the land vehicle or vessel. The D2000M/MD inte-grates with third party resource allocation or dispatch software.
It also features a “quick position” switch to allow for emergencynotification. Integrasys Releases Next Generationof Low-cost VSAT Line-up ToolBased on Satmotion Technology
AMSTERDAM— IntegrasysS.A. hasunveiled a newSatmotionPocket VSATpointing & line-up tool basedon the idea ofproviding to theinstaller thespectruminformation of
the continuous wave (CW) carrier used to line-up as receivedby the network operations center (NOC). Integrasys said calibrated EIRP for polar and cross-polar CWsignals along with target values are received by the satelliteterminal and displayed on the installer laptop or PDA while finetuning the antenna pointing to meet the specific performancerequired by the satellite operator. For initial antenna pointing and satellite identification,Satmotion displays on the PDA a real-time measurement of theS/N of the forward link which ensures that the right satellite andservice are being received by the terminal. This added newfeature may prevent the installer to carry with a traditional fieldstrength meter or portable spectrum analyzer. VSAT IDU and installer PDA or laptop communicate using awireless connection, so the installer can be present at theantenna site to perform pointing operations while setting up thetransmission power levels in the terminal IDU and maximize itstransmission cross-pol isolation. The system supports DVB-RCS and other satellite broadbandinteractive terminals including those manufactured by Viasat(LinkStar and SurfBeam), NERA and EMS Technologies,according to Integrasys. Satmotion system is currently being operated by Eutelsat,Hispasat and the European Space Agency through the Hellas-
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NEW PRODUCTS
Sat satellite. Integrasys is a member of SatLabs Group EEIG formed byservice providers, satellite operators, system integrators,terminal manufacturers and technology providers with acommercial interest in DVB-RCS. The object of the SatlabsGroup EEIG is to bring the deployment of the DVB-RCS stan-dard to a large-scale adoption, by ensuring interoperabilitybetween DVB-RCS terminals and systems and by achievinglow-cost solutions.
Swe-Dish Partners with Envivio to Offer MPEG-4 Video AMSTERDAM — Envivio Inc., a technology provider of IP-based MPEG-4 video solutions for telcos and broadcasters, andSwe-Dish Satellite Systems AB have teamed to provide IP
broadband and broadcast quality MPEG-4 video. The solutionbundles Swe-Dish IPT Suitcase with the Envivio 4Caster™ B3MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoder to offer a compact and quick-to-airMPEG-4 video enabled small satellite terminal. With easy, one person operation, the IPT Suitcase with 4CasterB3 solution offers up to 4 Mbps IP broadband transmissionalong with high quality MPEG-4 video at lowest possible bitrate from anywhere in the world and it is ideal for news organi-zations, military units, government agencies and rescueorganizations operating in remote locations, according to Swe-Dish. They said the system also offers an easy upgrade path forexisting IPT Suitcase users to support MPEG-4 video capabili-ties. SM
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COVER STORY
The Ground Equipment Market
As with the rest of the satellite industry, the ground equip- ment segment of the market grew 11 percent in 2005 overthe previous year, according to the annual State of the IndustryReport published by the Washington, D.C.-based SatelliteIndustry Association (SIA). According to the report, earthstation and other major equipment revenues experienced arebound, growing some 10 percent compared to only two percentgrowth in 2003-04. The biggest driver of the growth in satelliteground equipment revenue is end-use equipment, particularly forkey consumer services such as satellite radio and directbraoadcasting services (DBS), accordingto the report.
You can probably add to that list thegrowth in consumer broadband servicesand IPTV, which many see as driving thedemand for equipment in the next fewyears. With the launch of a new genera-tion of Ka-band satellite broadbandservices, Wildblue in North America,strong performance by HNS’DIRECWAY service, and successfulorbiting of the Thaicom-4/iPSTAR-1satellite and launch of their broadbandservice,, and the announced launch ofAstra2Connect broadband internetservice by SES Astra in Europe, there isno dearth of initiatives that will begeneratinmg demand for satellite groundequipoment from the consumer and smallhome office (SOHO) markets. Research firm NSR estimates thesatellite broadband industry generated nearly US$2.7 billion in2005 from an installed base of 1.01 million IP VSAT sites andsatellite broadband subscribers.
Industry consultant and SatMagazine columnist Bruce Elbertsaid that he sees two two types of ground equipment in highdemand: (1) compact terminals that can be set up quickly andauto-acquire the satellite. As the prices of these terminal comedown, the demand should grow rapidly. And, (2) fixed VSATsused for Internet access and broadband services.
“While the US, European and Japanese markets are prettysaturated as far as broadband is concerned, the regions wheresatellite-based products are needed and wanted are Latin
America, Africa and parts of Asia and the Pacific. Low prices andgood bandwidth capabilities are what these markets are lookingfor. The satellite operators will hopefully support this growth bydeploying their new Ku band satellites to serve these areas,”said Elbert.
Elbert also sees the potential in IP-based applications likeInternet Access, VoIP, video conferencing using the H.323protocol, and content distribution in retail. “There are morerequirements now for mobile installations in vehicles and boats;
commercial aircraft usage is still a questionmarkafter Boeing’s decision to close down Connexion.In general, users who find themselves in lesserdeveloped and remote areas expect to have thesame broadband access that they enjoy in majorcities. This propels the demand for affordableequipment that meets this need,” he added.Ohter applications that could potentially driveground equipment demand include:
Emergency and Disaster Communications
With the spate of major natural disastersrecently, there is more awareness of the need toprepare for emergencies. At a press briefing inCoral Gables, FL on July 31, David Paulison,Director of the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency (FEMA) said that one of hisorganization’s objectives in this hurricaneseason was to purchase more satellite equipment
in order to better communications capabilities, improve supplyshipments and increase situational awareness during thehurricane season. Paulison stated one of the first tasks hisorganization is trying to perform better this hurricane season isto improve communications between federal departments, stateagencies and local governments to more efficiently assist theaffected populations. One of the pieces FEMA claims it missedlast year was providing enough satellite equipment.
The second aspect mentioned was logistics to prevent losinggoods in transit, which required FEMA to purchase a $20 millionsatellite-based system for its 800+ supply trailers that will relaytheir position on the way to disaster relief sites. Finally, he toldjournalists that FEMA had purchased a satellite-based video
Demand for compact terminals thatcan be set-up easily and quickly isincreasing such as the ND SatComSkyRAY Compact series, one ofthelatest generation of aerodynamicSNG antenna subsystems on themarket. (image from ND SATCOM)
by Virgil Labrador Managing Editor, SatMagazine
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COVER STORY
streaming system so as to improve its “situational awareness” ofthe extent of the disaster instead of relying on newscasts.
Business Continuity via Satellite
Key business sectors are increasing their planning for businesscontinuity solutions to counter the various threats and ensuremission-critical data transmission is enabled at all times,according to NSR.
Among these critical sectors are banking and financial services,oil and gas refineries, retail stores, telecommunications providers(including ISPs and telcos), shipping companies andmanufacturing plants. “The satelliteindustry has been an importantcontributor to this emerging market andis helping a small set of customers inthese key fields of activity to increase thereliability and availability of theirnetworks and ensure back-upconnectivity with partners, customersand remote sites. With the increase in useof IP-over-satellite, operators andresellers, as well as equipment vendors,take advantage of a large installed baseof VSAT networks to offer optionalemergency backup solutions.,” accordingto NSR.
Mobile Broadcast Services
Mobile broadcasting is expected torapidly become the model of choice fordistribution of live television and moviesto mobile devices in the United States,and by the end of 2007 approximatelyfour million subscribers will receiveentertainment and information on theirwireless handsets via mobile broadcasttechnologies such as DVB-H andMediaFLO, accoding to ABI Research.
A recent ABI Research study, “Broadcastand Unicast Mobile TV Services”forecasts that in 2011, mobile TV serviceswill have some 514 million subscribersworldwide. Of that total, the researchindicates, 460 million will be subscribersto broadcast services. Broadcast serviceswill have 1.5 million subscribers by theend of 2006. In the US market, mostsubscribers will be enabled by thewireless carriers’ broadcast network
partners, including MediaFLO (a subsidiary of Qualcomm),Aloha’s Hiwire network, and Crown Castle’s Modeo service.
Demand for GPS Satellite Receivers
Over 40 million Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)receivers were shipped in 2005, but in 2011 the market will havegrown to nearly 300 million shipments, according to a new studyfrom ABI Research that tracks GNSS markets across elevenvertical industry segments.
That growth will not occur evenly across the board. In 2005, in-
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COVER STORY
Virgil Labrador is Managing Editor ofSatMagazine and is responsible for alleditorial activitis of Satnews Publishersworldwide. He is co-author of the book,Heavens Filled With Commerce: A BriefHistory of the Commercial Satellite
Industry. He can be reached at: [email protected]
vehicle navigation systems accounted for just 26 percent of thetotal shipments, but 34 percent of worldwide GNSS hardwarerevenues. In 2011, in contrast, in-vehicle navigation shipmentswill represent just 16 percent of the total market, but will stilldeliver 29 percent of the hardware revenue, according to ABIResearch.
Much of that added growth will come from the mass uptake ofGNSS services by the majority of the world’s mobile subscriberswho use GSM handsets. As that trend develops, the fastestregional growth, which until now has been seen in NorthAmerica and parts of Asia, will shift to Europe.While communications will be the standout, and portablenavigation—buoyed by falling prices and a flood of newofferings—will remain a strong and popular application, othersectors will show more modest gains. Garmin, TomTom,Magellan, Thales, Trimble, and more specialized GNSS vendorssuch as Rockwell Collins, Leica, and Honeywell will see a varietyof expanding opportunities, ABI said.
“Military applications will increase,” saysABI’s Frank Viquez,“especially driven by the US military’s aggressive push to equipnot just vehicles but individual soldiers with GPS. Civil aviationwill see some growth due to the increasing popularity of regionalcommuter and executive jets. The deployment of the EuropeanGalileo GNSS satellites will boost mapping and surveyingapplications as well: the more satellites in the sky, the greater theavailability of the signal, and the more accurate the location datait provides,” he added.
Direct-to-Home Services
IMS Research has predicted that worldwide shipments of digitalcable and DTH set-top boxes will increase by 15 percent over thenext five years, approaching 74.8 million units by the end of 2010.
In a recently published update to its online Television Database,IMS Research said as manufacturers race to incorporate thelatest digital technologies for pay-TV, worldwide shipments ofdigital set-top boxes will grow substantially through the end ofthe decade. According to analyst Mark Meza of IMS Research,the desire for increased functionality and utilization of interactiveservices offered by cable and satellite providers will fuel demandfor set-top boxes that feature DVR capabilities and advancedcompression technologies like MPEG-4/H.264. “As the numberof high-definition channels offered in programming packagesincreases, the need for advanced HD set-top boxes will furtheraffect demand,” he said.Interestingly, increased digital serviceofferings, and the capability to use them, depend largely uponthe operator’s ability to reduce the cost of the set-top box to theconsumer. “In an effort to increase consumer access to new
compression technologies and high-definition content thatinvolves costly decoders, operators will look for ways to provideset-top boxes that the average consumer can afford,” Meza said.Lease-only equipment programs and downloadable conditionalaccess systems are just a few of the ideas on operators’ cost-cutting horizons, IMS Research said.
Digital Satellite Radio
Worldwide, the combined market of both digital satellite andterrestrial radio will grow from approximately 5 million unitshipments in 2004 to 22 million unit shipments in 2009, predictsIn-Stat.
The primary drivers for this growth will be new and compellingcontent, data services, price erosion for digital radio receivers,and digital radio provider partnerships with new carmanufacturers, the high-tech market research firm said.
“In the U.S., satellite radio is driving the digital radio market,”said Stephanie Guza, In-Stat analyst. “In other markets, mostnotably in the U.K., terrestrial digital audio broadcasting isdriving it. The launch of Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB)services in Japan and Korea, along with increased promotionalactivity in Singapore, Australia and Taiwan over the next year,will drive digital radio shipments in Asia.”
Conclusion
There is certainly enough possible sources of future growth inthe equipment market with new applications and consumerservices taking off in the next few years. Obviously not all willeventually pan out, but it is definitely better to have more eggsin your basket than none at all. SM
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Amsterdam’s giant IBC broadcasting show seemingly gets biggerevery year. This year’s event
attracted a thumping 45,000 visitors, up5% on 2005. Now it is fair to admit thatthis seems puny when compared toNAB’s massive 100,000+ visitors, butIBC’s organisers talk about qualitybeating quantity and about the trueinternational nature of the Dutch show.But setting aside such trite comparisonsthere were some discernable trends inevidence at the show, and talked aboutduring the conference sessions.
Top of this list was IPTV, whichseems to have hit something of a brickwall in Europe. Growth has stalled tosuch an extent that a major technologysupplier, Tandberg Television, had toissue a profits warning just hours aheadof the show. CEO Eric Cooney summedup the situation in a statement, blaming“Late buying decisions”, although hestressed he felt the longer-term view onIPTV remained wholly favourable, “Weremain confident in the longer termoutlook for the business driven bycustomer demand for high-definition,IPTV, video-on-demand and interactiveadvertising solutions.”
Cooney admitted that many telcos– in the US as well a Europe – foundprogramming for IP a challenge: “Todaythey are coming at the problem verydifferently, they know it is a businessimperative for them and essential fortheir survival that they enter the worldof video. It’s a major motivator, havingthis fire at their heels and focuses themind quite a bit in terms of answering‘what do we really need to do here?’”
IBC, the Greatest Show on Earth?By Chris Forrester
FEATURE
Cooney wasn’t the only majorplayer bemoaning IPTV. “Some of thetier one telcos have been taking theirtime rolling out,” Graeme Packman,principal consultant at Understanding &Solutions told a packed room at the‘IPTV - the future has arrived’ session.“The slowdown is starting to underminethe credibility of the concept and this isundermining the confidence of contentowners. Some of them are thinking‘Maybe we can do this ourselvesthrough websites or other servicesrather than working with the telco guyswho may not be as organised as wethought.’” IPTV subscribers willcontinue to grow from about 6.5msubscribers at the end of this year tonearly 37m by 2010, but there will be wilddifferences among countries dependingon their competitive landscape, saidPackman, who predicted it will be a“long time” before financial successcomes to most IPTV rollouts. By 2010,he predicted IPTV revenues will be $4bn,or about 10% of total projected pay-TVrevenues of $42bn.
However, if Tandberg had to suffer
from a stalling of demand, they werehugely bullish on HDTV. Cooney’s teamshowed their latest HDTV compressionkit, perfect for satellite distribution usingDVB/S2, and MPEG4 compression,which – says Cooney – can deliver high-def in a 6Mb/s bit stream (when used ina statistical multiplexer). “By and largetoday’s accepted bit rate for Stat-Mux,advanced compression high def isbetween 8-10 Mbps. Before the end ofthe year we’ll be down to 6 Mbps forhigh def and to be honest we are prettyimpressed with the end result,” saidCooney.
The IBC judges agreed, and at anAwards ceremony at the show Tandbergpicked up two ‘gongs’, for its RX1290multiformat professional receiver whichwon the award for best satellite contri-bution/distribution/transmissionsolution, while its zBand™ contentdelivery platform picked up the prize forbest content-on-demand solution. Thedouble success built on Tandberg’s sixnominations for the awards – the mostfor any company at this year’s event.
Blake Krikorian, co-founder andCEO of Sling Media
Fritz Pleitgen, DG of Germanpublic broadcaster WDRNHK UHDVcamera
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FEATURES
But Tandberg, like one or two otherexhibitors and conference speakers, isalso looking to the future and so-called‘next generation’ compression. This is awholly ‘chicken and egg’ situation thatfurther compression (that is better thantoday’s H.264/AVC MPEG4) depends onsignificantly improved computerprocessing, as well as footage speciallyshot with – at least – 4K cameras.Japan’s NHK, as ever, is in the forefrontof such technology and showed its4000-line plasma to seemingly never-ending queues of visitors who allemerged eager to see more. CurrentlyNHK is using a giant 76kg hand-built4000 line camera to capture images, andeven took the unit down to Antarcticalast year to see how well the systemfared in tough conditions. The cameracaptures IMAX-quality images, andindeed, this is where the technologymight well end up, but some folkssuggest that with the right technologyadvances in digital compression it couldend up in our homes.
This ‘next big thing’ has alreadybeen dubbed Ultra High Definition(UHTV). Let’s be clear this isn’t going tohappen tomorrow, but perhaps in thenext 5-7 years or so, and the engineersare already looking at H.265 to providethe technical solutions. Their target –and it may be ambitious – is to trim 50%from the current MPEG4 bit-rates. Butbecause 4000 line (or even 2000 line)images need massive amounts of data,this would still be a much fatter ‘pipe’ ofdata into the all-new set-top box, hencethe wait for chip-sets that are signifi-cantly more powerful than those in usetoday. The NHK demo used a massivebank of computers to drive their display,but the end result was breathtaking andcrammed a 32 megapixel display (some 16times more than today’s conventional 2megapixel HD screens).
One highly regarded voice from the
IBC saw the presentation of a ‘product of the year’ prize to SESAstra’s BluCom technology, which links a set-top box to a mobile phone toenable improved return path connectivity for broadcasters. BluCom isalready in use in Germany.
SES Astra also introduced at IBC a revamped return-path broadband-by-satellite product Astra2Connect, described by CEO Ferd Kayser as afully satellite-based interactive and low-cost broadband Internet access toserve the residential market, SMEs and SoHo locations. Astra2Connect canprovide a full satellite-based triple play infrastructure service enablingbroadband internet access, voice-over-IP and other content related accessservices such as IPTV or Video-on-Demand. It is expected to be operationalin the first quarter of 2007 and will mainly target homes in Europe andperhaps Africa.
Kayser said the technology, costing below •250 at “factory gate”prices would bring broadband Internet access to everyone - whenever andwherever they might be. “The end-consumers will benefit from an affordableand always-on two-way connectivity,” he said. Astra would not themselvesretail the service, leaving that to distributors who would add value in the formof marketing, sales and subscriber management. Customers could choosebetween three levels of service, each with direct return-path technology, at256kbit/s downstream, 512 kbit/s, or 1024 kbit/s. Astra2Connect is not anopen DVB-RCS standard.
SES Global’s new toys
European Broadcasting Union, DavidWood, argued that the human eye mightnot take kindly to this higher resolutionformat. Indeed, the demo seemed toconfirm this, in that there was so muchinformation on the display that one wastruly amazed at the detail. Mr Woodsuggests that we would find such detaildistracting. What everyone seems tothink is more likely, at least in the shortterm, is that the technology will makedigitally projected cinema more realistic,and it’s quite possible that NHK’sbrilliant invention might see use insports stadiums, rock concerts and evenmuseums and galleries all of whom wouldbe able to afford the expensive comput-ers.
NHK talks about Ultra-HD experi-mental broadcasts around 2015, withconsumer equipment available around2020 and full broadcasting around 2025.But it could be sooner. Us ordinarymortals might have to wait the 10 or 20years predicted for the technology toappear in our local electrical retailer. Butas Night follows Day, about 10 yearsfrom now, when the same electricalretailer has managed to persuade all ofus to invest in flat screens then they’llbe looking to the ‘next big thing’, andUHTV might well be the answer.
There was also at IBC a clear shiftin emphasis on the HD front. To datemost of Europe’s high-def transmissions
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FEATURES
are coming from pay-TV broadcasters.The problem for Europe’s importantpublic broadcasters is one of cost. Mostoperate on very fixed licence fee income,and even those that can carry advertis-ing are finding that the ad-market is soft,and not growing. Then there’s the vexedquestion of bandwidth, and inEurope’s crowded spectrumspace there’s not much sparecapacity for greedy HDsignals, not until analogue isswitched off.
Fritz Pleitgen, DG ofGerman public broadcasterWDR and also incomingpresident of the EuropeanBroadcasting Union, says heis personally convinced aboutthe merits of high-def. “As aprogramme maker I wanted totry [the technology]. I can tellyou I have become an addict.However, as the directorgeneral of a public broad-caster I am very anxious aboutthe cost. There’s no doubt theinterest across Europe isconsiderable, especially forsport, drama and documentaryproduction. But it all meansextra investment, on band-width and transmission, onequipment and production,and even for the consumer.Not all broadcasters, withlimited amounts of cash, canfund this exercise.”
Pleitgen used a phrasethat had been echoed aroundthe hall more than once,saying that HDTV’s adoptionwould be evolutionary morethan revolutionary. “Step bystep we can build up ourprogramming archive andeven this is a challenge forsome public broadcasters.”
Before we move on from high-def,one of the technology stars at the showwas Grass Valley’s impressive wirelessHD camera (from G-V’s Thomson cameraunit), one of the very first in the busi-ness, and perfect for touchline action.HD viewers will have noticed that while
stadium shots in HD are terrific, thetouchline action cameras are usuallyStandard Def, that’s then upconvertedbecause sports regulators usuallyprohibit umbilically connected camerasto be sited near a game’s action. Thatcan now change, and the newly devel-
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FEATURES
oped HD camera can operate at dis-tances up to 150 yards from the cameratruck’s antenna.
The IBC conference suites werepacked, in some cases to overflow. Oneterrific session included Blake Krikorian,co-founder and CEO of Sling Media,who presented their Slingbox. He tolddelegates to IBC’s ‘Content that MovesWell’ session that Sling’s objective wassimply allowing viewers to have contentto their TV programming wherever theywere in the world. “People love TV,” hesaid. “And we are more and morelooking at screens away from our livingrooms. Mobiles, projectors, PCs andlaptops, PDAs. We know that peoplewant TV on all these devices whereverthey are. We know that about 35% ofSlingbox viewing is in the office. In factdestroying office productivity is anotherone of our goals!”
More seriously, Krikorian arguedthat Slingbox’s existing 350,000 buyersare not under threat from Hollywood’sstudio lawyers. “We’re only doing whatcable did in the early years in the US,which was to move signals from a cityout into the countryside. We’re just avirtual cable company. Importantly,unlike the internet, we are just a one-to-one product, not one to many.” SlingMedia has licensed its product toScandinavian satellite DTH operatorViaSat, and to a South American cableMSO.
London-based ChrisForrester, a well-known broadcastingjournalist is the Editorfor Europe, MiddleEast and Africa forSATMAGAZINE. He can be reachedat [email protected]
SM
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October 2006
FEATURE
By Bernardo Schneiderman
APSCC Conference Highlight S-DMBDevelopments in Asia
The APSCC 2006 Satellite Conferenceand Exhibition, which was held on
September 26-28 in Seoul, Korea high-lighted developments in the Asia-Pacificmarket. Attended by over 500 profession-als from the satellite and space-relatedindustries, the APSCC conference themewas “Satellites - Growing with Asia”which emphasized growing businessopportunities in the region through aseries of CEO roundtable discussions andpanel discussions that provided essentialtips and tools for doing business in theAsian market.
Also at this year’s,APSCC Dr. NongluckPhinaintisart waselected as the newAPSCC President for atwo-year term startingin January 2007. Shesucceeds Dr. Eui K.Koh, President of ASATechnologies, who hasserved as APSCCPresident for the pastfour years. Dr.Phinaintisart is currently Presidentof Shin Satellite Public Co. Ltd., asatellite operator in Asia based inThailand operating five satellites:Thaicom 1A, Thaicom 2, Thaicom3, Thaicom 4 (IPSTAR), andThaicom 5.Among the key developments during theconference was the announcement ofShin Satellite’s sales of User Terminals forits broadband satellite service reaching50,000 in Asia-Pacific. IPSTAR Australia(IPA), a subsidiary of Shin Satellite,announced that it has achieved a deploy-
ment rate of 1,000 subscribers per monthin Australia since August and is expectingto reach 2,000 new subscribers per monthby the end of this year. This brings thetotal number of satellite user terminalsprovided by Shin Satellite to well over50,000 in the Asia-Pacific region.Another key announcement came fromthe Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) aboutthe acquisition of Lockheed Martin SpaceCommunications Ventures (LMSCV) andLockheed Martin Intersputnik (LMI) fromLockheed Martin Global Telecommunica-
tions (LMGT). LMSCV owns andoperates the LMI-1 satellite andLMI has the right to market the
capacity on LMI-1. As a result of thetransaction, LMSCV and LMI have beenrenamed Asia Broadcast Satellite Hold-ings and Asia Broadcast Satellite Ltd.,respectively. The LMI-1 satellite has alsobeen renamed ABS-1. ABS-1 offerscoverage to Asia, Africa, Middle East and
Eastern Europe with 28 C-band and 16Ku-band transponders providing DTHand CATV distribution
Among the main topics that was dis-cussed during the conference was thepotential increase of the price per MHz forC-Band capacity by the satellite operatorsin the region. The price has been lowcomparing with the other major regionalmarkets. Additionally the entering of newsatellite operators in the region showsthat the Asian market is still in the growthmode.
Among the new players are ProtoStarfocuses on providing high-power geostationary satelliteservices optimized for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite televisionand broadband Internetaccesses across the Asia-Pacific region. ProtoStarreceived a commitment for aUS$ 40 million Series B round offinancing from an impressiveventure capital syndicate thattogether manages more thanUS$10.3 billion in committedcapital.
Developments in S-DMB
Since last year, S-DMB hasgenerated a lot of interest in the
development of the Mobile SatelliteBroadcasting Consortium’s service.Based on the presentation of the twomain operators of the services: TU Media(South Korea) and Mobile BroadcastingCorporation (Japan), the number ofsubscribers will reach over one million
User Terminal of S-DMB Service integrated in an NTT DoCoMo Mobile phone
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October 2006
Bernardo Schneiderman has over 20 years of experi-ence in satellite communications and is the President ofTelematics Business consultants based in Irvine, CA. Hehas been working in Business Development, Sales and Marketing forSatellite Carriers, VSAT Equipment Manufacturer and Consulting Compa-nies in the USA, Latin America, Brazil and Africa developing businessfor the Telecom, Broadcast and the Enterprise Market Segment. He wasthe editor of the Publication Brazil Telematics Newsletter from 1995-2003. He has a MBA from University of San Francisco with Major inTelecom and International Marketing and BSEE from UFRJ in Brazil. Hecan be contacted at [email protected]
SM
users by theend of 2006.Korea is aheadwith 90% ofthe marketshare andJapan isreaching 10%.One of the keyissues for thesuccess inKorea was themarketingcampaign verystrong and theparticipationof the localmobileoperator in thelaunch of newservices. InJapan theefforts aremore conservative in the marketing effortsand the local partner was not a mobileoperator. Tu Media is forecasting that S-DMB will have 6.6 million subscribers atthe end 2012 in Korea.
In the Korea market the client is receiving12 video channels, 26 audio channels anddata via Satellite direct to end user device.(or alternative via a Gap Filler) Thetransmission is in S-Band (2.63 – 2.65GHz)
In Japan MBC is broadcasting eightVideo channels, 37 Audio Channels and60 titles with Data Content Programs.MBC additionally developed applicationsfor Disaster Prevention and OMarineInformation for Small Ships.
The interest in this program in Asia isgrowing in the global market where morethan 110 companies from the Americas,European Union and Asia Pacific re-
SchematicDiagram of the S-DMB service (courtesy of TU Media)
questedinformation about S-DMB, of which 22%was Mobile Operators, 18% Broadcastersand 12% Satellite Operators.
FEATURE
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October 2006
CASE STUDY
Leveraging Satellite Technology Boosts EmployeeProductivity for M.A. Mortenson
Background
M.A. Mortenson is a family-owned construction companyfounded in 1954. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota,Mortenson has been on Engineering News Record’s list of thetop 50 contractors since 1990. It operates nationwide as well asoutside the USA on projects ranging from corporate officebuildings and healthcare projects to network/data centers, sportsvenues and hotels. Mortenson also specializes in wind powerconstruction projects. Many of these are built in locations farfrom anything resembling abroadband connection. At some,even mobile phone coverage islacking. In a time sensitive businesswhere scheduling delays can costthousands of dollars, Mortenson’sinformation technology departmentfaces a continuing challenge: to keepprojects moving by keepingemployees in the loop.
Temporary Servers on the Job Site
After much experimentation, thedepartment hit on a partial solution.“We would configure and ship atemporary server to each remotelocation,” says Mark Calkins,Enterprise Systems Lead forMortenson. “Then we arranged forsatellite connectivity to link theservers to our network hub.
The link wasn’t very good. It had a lot of latency. But it allowedus to replicate Lotus Notes and Expedition [a projectmanagement system] at the project site and refresh it everynight.” These and most of the company’s other applications aredelivered through Citrix.
The solution worked, but was far from ideal. “The project staffdidn’t like the fact that they couldn’t work on project documentsor view photos in real time,” says Calkins. “We also couldn’tgive them access to Mortenson’s corporate intranet due to
latency.” From thecorporate point ofview, lack of access onthe job site translatedinto lost employeeproductivity. And theIT department spent an estimated 30-40 hours to set up atemporary server and a further 10 hours per week to maintain it –time that could have been devoted to much higher value work.
The breaking point came when thecompany decided to move to Oracle’seBusiness Suite for its primary enterpriseapplications. The high interactivityrequirements of the system made itimpossible to roll it out on temporaryservers. Satellite remained the sole means toconnect with truly remote locations – butthere seemed to be no way that satellitecould deliver the secure LAN-like servicethe company required.
LAN-Like Performance Via Satellite
By March 2006, however, Mortenson’s ITdepartment had nearly 30 users at threesites connected through a satellite-delivered VPN, using Citrix to provide real-time access to Oracle applications, the
company intranet and the Internet.
What made it work? End II End Communication’s uniqueOptimalHub software at the data center and OptimalEdgesoftware at each remote site. Running on Intel-based servers, thesoftware provides an optimized IPSec VPN that delivers maximumperformance over satellite and terrestrial broadband. The Optimalsuite makes it possible to run Citrix, SAP, Oracle and other highlyinteractive applications over satellite with LAN-like performance.It replaces multiple proprietary network devices, offers end-to-end AES 256 encryption from the data center to every remote siteand provides unified management of all sites on the network. Yet
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October 2006
it can be installed by non-technical staff at remote sites withoutsupervision.
“We needed something cost-effective and manageable,” saysCalkins. “We occasionally do not get much lead time for thestart-up of a newsite. And there’s a lotof mobility in thiscompany.
We’re bringing sitesup and taking themdown all the time.The solution had tobe something wecould support anddeliver on aconsistent basis. EndII End met the need.”
Meeting the needmeant more thanselling software. EndII End also providedlogistical andtechnical support toenable rapid deployment, and Calkins “applauds the company’sability to work with us to resolve technical issues.”
Windfarms and Military Bases
The first site equipped with End II End’s software was on theside of a volcano in Kaheawa, Hawaii, where Mortenson wasbuilding a windfarm project. Next up was another windfarm in thewilds of Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. The third site was at the Ft.Leonard Wood military base in Missouri, where Mortenson wasbuilding a veterinary clinic.
Early in the evaluation period with End II End, Calkins’ teamtested the software against a Cisco 3002 router over a satellitelink. They found that, when they had just one user on the remoteend, the two devices worked about equally well. This came as nosurprise, since one user had access to a surplus of bandwidth.
CASE STUDY
As they added users, however, the Cisco router’s performancedegraded so drastically as to be unusable. “It was due to theencryption overhead of the router,” says Calkins. “We couldimprove the performance somewhat by lowering the encryptionlevel, but who wants to make that kind of trade-off? With
End II End, we couldrun at the maximumencryption settingwith multiple usersand still get greatperformance.”
In addition tosignificant laborsavings in the ITdepartment, Calkinsestimates that the EndIIEnd’s solution, bymaking it possible torun all of thecompany’s Citrix-based applications, isresponsible for a 300%gain in employeeproductivity at the job
sites. “For anybody who is using Citrix and has challenges likethese,” says Calkins, “End II End is an ideal solution.” SM
Forthcoming Issues:November 2006 Military Satellite Market
December 2006 Year in Review
January 2007 Telecom Market
February 2007 Space Tourism: What’s in it for Satellites?
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
VITAL STATISTICS
Aon Explorer is the strategy consulting arm of Aon France in the aerospace and telecoms markets. Resulting from theacquisition of Vista Advisers in January 2005, Aon Explorer Strategy & Finance has developed a thorough expertise inbusiness plans, feasibility studies, companies due-diligence both for the satellite industry and the finance community.Please contact Laurence Journez, Vice President, tel: +33 1 5875 6064, email: [email protected]
About Aon Explorer
Asia shows the lowest fill rate as a result of over-investment and fragmentation
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
The satellite industry is facing amajor threat to its successfulbusiness operations worldwide,
one that will overwhelmingly compro-mise its ability to serve the mission-critical communications requirements ofits millions of customers on everycontinent, in every sector, across allvertical markets. If national and interna-tional government organizations fail tointervene effectively to limit this trend,the satellite industry may well beprevented from supplying Fixed (FSS)and Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) – invoice, data and video – in both devel-oped and developing nations, every-where.
Right now – in coordination withGVF – a wide range of satellite industry-related organizations around the worldare developing initiatives to challengethis development, and subsequentMarket Intelligence Reports will keepSatMagazine.com readers fully updatedregarding these vitally importantstrategies.
The “Conflict-Band”The ‘extended’ C-band frequencies
– in the range 3.4 to 3.7 GHz – havealready been identified by a number ofnational administrations for use by newterrestrial services such as BroadbandWireless Access (BWA) and WiMax. Inaddition, still more administrations areconsidering deployment of these newservices in the ‘standard’ C-band – 3.7to 4.2 GHz – frequency range. Already,in countries where WiMax services havebeen introduced, there have been
significant in-band and out-of-bandinterference problems and serviceinterruptions for satellite groundstations. According to David Hartshorn,Secretary General of the GVF, “suchinterruptions have been identified ashaving occurred across Africa, and inAustralia, Bolivia, around the Caribbean,in China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia,and Russia.”
In Hong Kong, the Office of theTelecommunications Authority (OFTA)issued a report earlier this year – entitled‘Report of Working Group on Assess-ment of Potential Interference betweenBroadband Wireless Access Systems inthe 3.4 – 3.6 GHz Band and the FixedSatellite Services in the 3.4 – 4.2 GHzBand’ (RSAC Paper 5/2006) – whichconcluded that without the implementa-tion of technical constraints, principallygeographic separation and the use ofLNB filters – a very costly option forboth BWA operators and FSS users –the deployment of BWA services in the3.5 GHz band would lead to interferenceproblems in the entire C-band (3.4 to 4.2GHz), making a wide and cost-effectivedeployment of BWA systems in arestricted geography like that of HongKong very difficult.
And this is not all. In addition toBWA systems, C-band spectrum is beingtargeted for the deployment of terrestrialmobile services – IMT. The Interna-tional Telecommunications Union ITU-RWorking Party 8F, which is responsiblefor the terrestrial component of AgendaItem 1.4 – ‘Future Development of IMT-2000 and Systems Beyond IMT-2000’ –
of the next World RadioCommunicationsConference (WRC-2007), has includedthe 3.4 to 4.2 GHz frequency range as apotential candidate band for IMT.
Both BWA and IMT can besimilarly characterized, in that both havelarge numbers of ubiquitously deployedbase stations and user terminals. FSSsatellite systems deliver extremely weaksignals which are highly sensitive inboth the standard and extended C-bandranges. The most effective solution toavoid interference problems from theseservices is to separate the systems byimplementing exclusion zones aroundexisting FSS earth stations. ITU-R(including Working Party 8F), togetherwith several ITU studies within WorkingParties 4A and 8F, have recognized theneed for exclusion zones. However,these are essentially impractical in thecase of ubiquitously deployed C-bandantennas (as such zones cannot bedefined) and for C-band antennas atknown locations the width of such zonesmay go up several hundreds of kilome-ters, thus preventing the deployment ofterrestrial IMT over very large areas.Furthermore, the implementation of
Is C-band about to be the “Conflict-band”?By Martin Jarrold,Chief of International Program Development, GVF
Satellite & Terrestrial:MARKET INTELLIGENCE
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SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
exclusion zones would negatively affectthe ability of FSS operators to expandtheir operations beyond existing earthstations.
In Africa
Africa has always had a highprofile in the programs of the GVF, andthe arena of C-band interference willelevate this profile even further. TheAfrican continent is well served by Ku-band, but for large areas of the continent– where rain fade can be problematic, atleast during the rainy season – satelliteservices delivered over C-band frequen-cies are absolutely essential. There arethousands of large satellite antennasacross Africa that operate in the C-bandfrequency range, and thus, according toMatthew Botwin who chairs the GVFRegulatory Working Group, “It will beparticularly important for the satellitecommunity of Africa – operators,government regulators, and users ofsatellite services alike – to attend thenext meeting of ITU Working Group 8F,in Cameroon in January 2007, where the3.4 to 4.2 GHz frequency range will beunder threat from the search forIMT2000 spectrum.” Mr Botwin added,“The services using these satelliteantennas would suffer interruptions ofservice and significant interference if theITU allocates this band to IMT mobileservices.”
In Africa, as elsewhere, the C-bandfrequency range is the primary means bywhich the satellite industry providesmillions of users with vital solutions fordistance learning, telemedicine, univer-sal access, disaster recovery, andnumerous other applications.
Africa – along with Europe –comprises most of ITU Region 1. WithEurope in favor of allocating 3.4 to 4.2GHz to IMT, it is now doubly important
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
that African communications regulatorsurge their foreign ministries to opposethis movement at the ITU, if they hopeto protect C-band satellite services inAfrica.
In Abuja, Nigeria, GVF will next beaddressing this issue at the beginning ofNovember 2006. Adjunct to the mainprogram of the West Africa SatelliteCommunications Summit, 31 October to2 November, GVF will host a meeting ofthe regional satellite community toestablish a pre-Cameroon WorkingGroup 8F dialog and plan of action. Thisregional meeting will be taking place on1 November at the Summit venue (LeMeridien Hotel, Abuja), and furtherinformation may be obtained [email protected]. Informationabout the Summit as a whole may beobtained at www.gvf-events.org.
Targeting a Global Solution
The agenda of the Abuja meetingwill be premised on the GVF view of theinterference problem. David Hartshorndescribes it thus: “The only effectivesolution to protect satellite services inthe extended and standard C-bandfrequencies is to separate them fromterrestrial systems such as WiMax orBWA by several thousands of kilome-ters, or to find other spectrum for theseservices to operate.”
And, in a paper entitled ‘TechnicalAnalysis of the Potential for Interfer-ence from Terrestrial BWA Transmit-ters to FSS Receive Earth Stations inthe Band 3.400 – 4.200MHz’, proposedby a number of GVF members, andsubmitted to the CITEL PCC.II meetingin Lima, Peru, June 2006, it was con-cluded that “co-frequency operation ofBWA systems and FSS receive earthstations in the same geographic area isnot feasible.” The paper has the
support of a number of CITEL countries,and is likely to be included as CITELinput to the ITU WRC process.
In addition, and right now, GVF isurging its global membership to follow asix-point plan of action, as follows:
ONE: Register all receive-only andtransmitting earth stations that operatein the extended and standard C-bandswith the local telecommunicationsregulatory authority (TRA) whereverpossible, so that they can be affordedthe proper protection against interfer-ence.
TWO: Establish direct contact withthe local TRA, and urge them to preventthe reassignment of C-band frequenciesto BWA and WiMax services. Presenteach case by telling the plain and simpletruth, that your business will suffersignificant service disruptions if theseterrestrial services are allowed to operatein the bands you are ALREADY using.
THREE: Urge TRA’s to prevent thedesignation of the C-band frequenciesas candidate bands for IMT services atWRC-2007, and contribute to this effectfrom the upcoming Conference Prepara-tory Meeting in February 2007. Explainthat your business will suffer significantservice disruptions if these terrestrialservices are allowed to operate in thebands you are ALREADY using.
FOUR: Join the international effortto stop the reassignment of C-band toterrestrial services, particularly throughsuch regional telecommunicationsorganizations as CITEL in the Americas,the APT in Asia, CEPT in Europe, andthe ATU in Africa, as well as the ITU inGeneva.
FIVE: Encourage national govern-ments to participate in the aforemen-tioned international efforts and to seek
36Back to Contents
SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
protection for satellitebusinesses, whilst alsoparticipating in thesemeetings directly,representing the privatesector.
SIX: Join with theefforts of the GVF, as itspeaks for the globalsatellite servicesindustry and conductsit advocacy on behalfof the spectrum rightsof existing C-bandusers, and join the GVFRegulatory WorkingGroup as well as the C-band Interference TaskGroup.
CONTACT: MatthewBotwin, Chairman of theGVF RegulatoryWorking Group –[email protected]
Martin Jarrold is theDirector, InternationalPrograms of theGlobal VSAT Forum.He can be reached [email protected] more informationon the GVF gotowww.gvf.org
SM
37Back to Contents
SATMAGAZINE.COMOctober 2006
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ADVERTISERS’INDEX
AAE Systems 14www.aaesys.com
Colem 17www.colem.co.uk
COMTECH EF DATA 12www.comtechefdata.com
Global Link 36www.globalinktv.com
GlobeCast coverwww.globecast.com
Global Milsatcom 2006 16www.globalmilsatcom.com
ISIS NYC ‘06 23www.isis-nyc.com
L-3 NARDA SATELLITENETWORKS 10www.lnr.com
MITEQ 21www.miteq.com
PTC 2007 28www.ptc07.org
SES AMERICOM 27www.ses-americom.com
APT SATELLITE ATS 1.30 1.12 - 2.10
ANDREW CORP ANDW 9.20 7.08 - 14.25
ASIA SATELLITETELECOMMUNICATIONS(ASIASAT) SAT 16.25 15.91 - 19.60
BALL CORP BLL 40.44 34.16 - 45.00
BOEING CO BA 79.84 63.70 - 89.58
BRITISH SKY ADS BSY 41.38 33.59 - 43.75
CALIFORNIA AMPLIFIER CAMP 6.20 5.44 - 13.90
C-COM SATELLITE SYSTEMS INC CMI.V 0.47 0.23 - 0.56
COM DEV INTL LTD CDV.TO 6.18 1.67 - 6.22
COMTECH TELECOM CMTL 33.99 25.67 - 45.65
THE DIRECTV GROUP DTV 19.70 13.17 - 19.98
ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS DISH 32.66 24.44 - 35.95-
GLOBECOMM SYS INC GCOM 8.59 5.88 - 8.91
HARRIS CORP HRS 43.49 36.72 - 49.78
HONEYWELL INTL INC HON 41.44 32.68 - 44.48
INTL DATACASTING CORPORATION IDC.TO 0.18 0.14 - 0.31
INTEGRAL SYSTEMS ISYS 31.00 18.63 - 33.55
KVH INDUSTRIES INC KVHI 12.94 8.77 - 13.60
L-3 COMM HLDGS INC LLL 78.31 66.50 - 88.50
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP LMT 87.12 58.50 - 86.45
NEWS CORP NWS 20.55 14.76 - 20.82
NORSAT INTL INC NSATF.OB 0.43 0.30 - 1.19
NTL INCORPORATED NTLI 26.02 19.99 - 31.00
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP ORB 18.32 10.86 - 20.36
PT PASIFIK SATEL IT PSNRY.PK 0.0010
QUALCOMM INC QCOM 35.05 32.76 - 53.01
RADYNE CORPORATION RADN 12.17 10.07 - 17.85
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO SIRI 3.98 3.60 - 7.98
SES GLOBAL FDR SDSFA.F 12.45
TRIMBLE NAVIGATION TRMB 46.17 26.64 - 52.40
WORLDSPACE INC WRSP 3.38 1.90 - 15.37
VIASAT INC VSAT 24.94 22.32 - 30.83
XM SATELLITE RADIO XMSR 13.00 9.63 - 36.91
Company Name Symbol Price(Oct. 2)
52-wk Range
