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CONTENTS MASTHEADVol. 7 No. 3 July/August 2009 SATMAGAZINE JULY/AUGUST 2009 Published monthly by Satnews Publishers 800 Siesta Way, Sonoma, CA 95476 USA Phone (707) 939-9306 Fax (707) 939-923 5 Website: www.satmagazine.com 2009 Satnews PublishersAuthored content does not opinions of SatNews Publishers EDITORIAL + PRODUCTIONSilvano Payne Publisher Hartley Lesse r Editorial Director Pattie Lesser Editor Associate Editor Jill Durfee Assistant Editor Chris Forrester Contributing EditorEurope Michael Fleck Contributing EditorAsia Susan Sheppard Contributing Editor Richard Dutchik Contributing Editor Dan Makinster Contributing WriterSALES & MARKETINGJill Durfee, Advertising Directorjill@satnews.comDEVELOPMENTSimon Payne, Creative ManagerTHIS ISSUES AUTHORSPatrick Boyle Hoyt Davidson John Graham Josh Heyman Ian Fichtenbaum Chris Forrester Hartley Lesser Tony Radford Richard Roithner Claude Rousseau Roland Schaller Koen Williams04BEAM: Teleports, Ground Stations + MSS by Hartley Lesser07BEAM: SATELLITE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION: 2009 State of the Satellite Industry14 16BEAM: Near Earth LLC: 2nd Annual Space Business Forum by Hoyt Davidson22 BEAM: World Teleport Association: 14th Annual Teleport Awards For Excellence24EUROCONSULT EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: Emerging Apps Driving MSS Growth by Richard Roithner28 NEAR EARTH EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: Geography On The MapAnd Markets! by Ian Fichtenbaum32 THE FORRESTER FOCUS: Smart Card Encryption Under Pressure by Chris Forrester36FUTRON EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: Switching I Up Moving Content To The Edge?38CORE TALK: Satellite DeploymentNewtec by Koen Williams46EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT ON: David Ball, Regional 48CASE WORK: GlobeCast Australia: Reaching The World by John Graham54RADFORD RULES: CHRONICLES OF SATCOM: TRIBAL HISTORY by Tony Radford56FOCUS: LONGBOTTOM COMMUNICATIONS: Increasing Brand Value by Patrick Boyle58 by Josh Heyman64NSR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: MSS and Financing Weathering The Coming Storm by Claude Rousseau72FOCUS: SATLINK COMMUNICATIONS: Linking The 76FOCUS: OPTUS: Communicating With Australia BEAM: EUROCONSULT: Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2018, World Survey78FOCUS: UDcast: Riding The Rails With The InternetAt 200 MPH! by Roland Schaller 82INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
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4SatMagazine July | August 2009 With the teleport and MSS satellite service provider markets doing well, we wish to SatMagazine some ad We are also going to take a look at the satellite Additionally, if you like your news fresh, tight, and to the point, you can now receive tweets directly from ... each time a news item is placed on the Satm daily news site, a fresh message is sent to those who are following . For those on the go, at a desktop who only have a brief moment or two to ingest the news, Twitter is a time-saving and immediate way to obtain timely, industry news. Simply head over to m and sign-in (or establish your FREE account). To obtain the SatNews goodies, enter will be handling commercial communication ser vices to Africa via satellite. This new teleport opened last year and their SATCOM services include telephony, notably Virtual Private Network (VPN services in May of this year and provides Ku-band capacity across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, as well as C-band capacity that ex tends from South America across Africa and Europe. In mid-May, satellite entered full commercial service of its Kuand C-band services at the 10 degrees East orbital slot. This required service transfers from the W1 satellite to and the teleport facility worked closely with all of the Eutelsat client via the Control Center to make certain the transfer was as seamless as possible. Clients that were already operating in the Ku-band experienced full continuity for their services, and Eutelsat now also has additional headroom for new customer expansion and coverage extensions at operations from a repositioning to the 4 degrees East slot and a name change is also imminent for business based in Manaus and other rural areas of northern Brazil via its teleport and Internet access point in So Paulo. This was made possible when the company expanded from 92 to 104 MHz of C-band capacity aboard NSS-10 satellite. BT also tapped a portion of the satellite bandwidth to support customer single channel per carrier (SCPC) and distance learning services throughout Brazil. NSS-10 satelliteBandwidth... constant pressure for companies to acis moving swiftly ahead to ensure such pressure can be alleviated by working with
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5 SatMagazine July | August 2009nership with Level 421, a global satellite broadband into play. Level 421 uses more than 38 geostationary satellites across the globe, which receive content from Ulm, Germany. With the Expand intelligent compression algorithms technology, Level 421 will be able to optimize bandwidth. ditional resources to their ground network infra structure for this area of the world. An upgrade at their Ocean satellites, with media customers receiving GlobalConnex Network Broadband Managed services will be expanded, with hubs being added at poration signing on with Intelsat is ABS-CBNi, who has now signed a multi-year contract expansion with the satellite, located at 97 degrees West, to in North America via its fully-owned and operated teleport. In ethnic video platform in North America distribut ing to nearly 180 international channels, is located neighborhood.. has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from to provide a remote ground station solution to an international customer to enable support for the WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satelstation order to-date that MDA has received from DigitalGlobe and MDA will provide a solution capable of programming, receiving, and processing imagery and data from those satellites. As prime contractor, MDA is responsible for developing, integrating early 2010. and are going to be building a new teleport in Santander, North Spain. This new facility will initiate operations by the end of vices through two antennas pointing to and satellites, operating at geosynchronous slots 60 degrees West to 65 degrees East, covering a region ranging from Western Australia to North America, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Uplinks and downlinks from both of these satellites will be supported. Cand Ku-band teleport ops will be added to the current MTN global and terrestrial network, along with point-of-presence and a 24x7 WorldView-2 satellite
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6SatMagazine July | August 2009 NOC in Santander. ERZIA will be able to improve mobile CyberJaya, Malaysia, is the location of the and this operation will handle the needs of the just-launched 3a satellite. Located at the orbital slot at 91.5 degrees East and will support DTH, broadcasting, and telecom munication services. Full commercial operations are expected by the close of July. Teleports require a variety of hardware and software that end, last month Newtec made the announcement that (ABS) is going to be working with them to optimize their point-to-point technology. ABS customers will be able to transport live video content directly from their studios to ABS tribution feeds will then be multiplexed, encrypted, and uplinked to full transponder MCPC platforms on the satellite for payTV distribution and for DTH broadcasting. The Newtec high order DVB-S2 modulation solution is comprised of their broadcast satellite monitor, the and the demodulator. With acquisition by Networks band data and voice business communications ser vices for enterprises in the oil and gas, mining, and forestry sectors as well as government agencies will be formed into a new broadband communications division. Joining the former RAMTelecom services operations, with all services based in and operating from Ottawa, Canada, with teleport facilities in Ot tawa, Montreal, and a future site in Western Canada. The former president and CEO of RAMTelecom, Mr. Gilles R. Desmarais, is now the North American vice president of sales and marketing for both divisions. coverage of North America. The National Geographic Wild programming will now be reaching Romania, thanks to the in Prague. Spacecom, the operator of the satellite the programming heading into the teleport via the satellite. Spacecom will provide the satel lite capacity and encryption services with its Viaccess conditional access system. is located at 4 degrees West and serves DTH and other TV platforms in Europe and the Middle East. You read earlier about the work with BT and their teleport services well, the Company has also signed a multiyear agreement with for the distribu wan via the NSS-11 satellite. Three transponders will be used. This satellites overs Ku-band coverage of China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, South Asia and portions of the Middle East. By the way, the complete list of global teleports at... 4Your time would be worthwhile in visiting the WTA website for a full listing of available teleports there are also URLs to some of the teleport websites. Select the graphic below for further WTA information.Hartley Lesser, Editorial Director
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7SatMagazine July | August 2009 Patricia port was released at revealing a 19 percent growth in overall world satellite industry revenues with revenues totaling $144.4 billion in 2008. Global revenues for the satellite industry con tinue to increase, averag ing an annual growth rate of 14.2 percent from 2003 to 2008. SIA commissioned the to conduct its 12th an nual Futron polled more than 70 sat ellite companies, both SIA members and non-mem bers, to determine ag gregate revenues in each sectors: satellite services, satellite manufacturing, launch industry and ground equipment. In 2008, the ground equipment sector was the fastest-growing satel lite industry segment, followed by the satellite services sector, which continues to demonstrate increased growth. The report shows that:Satellite Services revenues maintained a steady growth of 16 percent, with satellite television leading this sector, amounting to a total of $67.3 billion in 2008.Satellite Manufacturing revenues decreased slight2008, as fewer new satellites were launched.Launch Industry revenues increased by 20 percent in 2008, with United States launch industry revenues remaining relatively constant at $1.1 billion.Ground Equipment revenues grew fastest at 34 percent, increasing to $46 billion, second only to satellite services. Consumer-oriented products, including satellite TV and broadband, mobile satellite and GPS devices, led the growth in this sector.
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8SatMagazine July | August 2009 The SIA chart titled World Satellite Revenues at the bottom of this page shows revenues expressed in On the next page are two SIA charts that reveal the World Revenues By Sector. As is readily discernible:Overall worldwide industry revenue growth was 19 percent increase from 2006 to 2007 Satellite Services increased by more than 16 per-cent from 2007 to 2008, largely due to growth in satellite television revenues Satellite Manufacturing revenues declined slightly, Launch Industry revenues grew by 20 percent from 2007 to 2008, fueled by a general increase in launch prices, despite fewer launches Ground Equipment revenues grew by 34 percent growth in 2007According to SIA, Satellite Services experienced a growth rate of 16 percent in 2008 quite robust which paralleled the 17 percent growth in 2007. Additionally, satellite television (DBS/DTH subscription revenues), which represented three-quarters of total satellite services revenues in 2008, maintained a steady growth, increasing by 17 percent to $64.9 billion. Satellite pay TV subscribers grew by more than 30 percent over 2007 levels, surpassing 130 million globally.In the U.S., satellite pay TV subscribers exceeded 30 million in 2008. Representing the core of the FSS sec tor, transponder agreement revenues continued to
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9SatMagazine July | August 2009
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10SatMagazine July | August 2009 contracts for full or partial transponders and occa sional use video services. Data applications continued to drive mobile satellite services growth, with mobile data services revenues increasing by 22 percent, as compared to 14 percent in 2007 this now represents almost 70 percent of all mobile satellite services. Revenues for mobile telephony declined by 24 per cent in 2008, largely due to the recent decline in Globalstar voice services. Satellite broadband reve nues doubled, driven by subscriber growth in the U.S. Satellite radio (DARS) continued to experience strong growth, although at a lower pace than previously ex the 29 percent growth from 2006 to 2007. Subscrib the growth rate of the previous year. The chart below, Satellite Manufacturing Revenues, shows revenues decreasing slightly from $11.6 billion decline can be attributed largely to the reduction in number of satellites launched 94 satellites were launched in 2008, versus 102 in 2007. Meanwhile, U.S. manufacturing revenues declined from $4.8 billion in 2007 to $3.1 billion in 2008. The U.S. share of manufacturing revenues also fell, from 41 percent of the world total in 2007 to 29 percent in 2008. In 2007, 48 launched satellites were manu factured in the U.S., but in 2008, only 21 launched satellites were manufactured in the U.S. Global satellite manufacturing revenues from comproportion of manufacturing revenues from commer cial customers (versus government and military cus tomers) rose from about 33 percent of manufacturing In regard to future commercial spacecraft orders:21 new commercial geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellite manufacturing orders were announced in 2008, the same number as in 2007 orders, the same proportion as in 2007
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11 SatMagazine July | August 2009 European manufacturers received 33 percent of these orders, down from 43 percent in 2007Russian, Chinese, and Japanese manufacturers each received one order, together constituting 14 Worldwide Launch Industry revenues increased by 20 percent in 2008, slightly higher than the previous Revenues were virtually evenly divided between launch procurements by commercial entities and those commercially contracted by governments Launch prices rose on average-vey respondents, as well as widespread industry media reports sus other currencies 37 spacecraft were commercially launched on be-half of government clients, while 41 spacecraft were on behalf of commercial clients While global commercial launch revenues rose in 2008, U.S. revenues remained relatively constant at $1.1 billion Despite stable revenues, the U.S. share of world-wide launch revenues declined from 31 percent in 2007 to 28 percent in 2008 However, future U.S. geosynchronous (GEO) com -mercial launch orders doubledfrom three announced orders in 2007 to six announced orders in 2008The chart at the top of page 12 graphically demon strates the launch industry revenues. that overall revenue in this sector grew by 34 percent from 2007 to 2008, making it the fastest-growing satellite industry segment. Ground Equipment is second only to Satellite Services as a proportion of satellite industry revenues, contributing 32 percent of all revenues in 2008, up from 28 percent in 2007. Consumer equipment revenues led growth in this sector, with users of consumer-oriented products such as satellite TV and broadband, mobile satel
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12SatMagazine July | August 2009 lite, and GPS devices responsible for hardware sales growth. GPS device sales accounted for slightly more than half of ground equipment revenues, with new applications and services driving subscriber churn, which also increased sales of new hardware.The table above shows end-user terminal number growth across all sectors. Growth of end-user broadband between 2007 and 2008 occurred primarily in the U.S., with U.S. satellite broadband subscribers growth ranging from approximately 622,000 in 2007 to approximately mainly in Asia, although service is also starting in the U.S. and Europe.Growth in satellite carriage of vision (HDTV) continued to drive both transponder and DTH service revenues. The number of HDTV channels worldwide grew by almost 170 percent over and more than 60 percent of HDTV channels currently serve North American market.
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13 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Remaining HDTV channels primarily serve European When dealing with employment in the satellite industry, SIA and Futron found that the U.S. satellite industry managed to add more than 2,000 jobs between 2006 and 2007, led by satellite services em ployment growth of 21 percent. The overall satellite industry growth of 19 percent indicates fundamental robustness. Relative industry composition demonstrates the increasing weight of the Satellite Services and Ground Equipment seg ments, as these two segments, combined, constituted 86 percent of satellite industry revenues in 2006 and have now grown to 90 percent.Consumer services, both satellite TV and satellite radio, continue to lead overall Satellite Services growth and fuel revenue growth in the Ground Equipment segment. Launch price increases, rather than more launches, fueled an increase in Launch Industry sector revenues between 2007 and 2008. Despite fairly constant revenues, the U.S. share of world launch revenues decreased from 31 percent in 2007 to 28 percent in 2008, with lower Satellite Manufacturing revenues 2007. To reiterate, the U.S. share of manufacturing revenues fell from 41 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2008. Some industry-wide trends continue...Commercial satellite operators replace and realign Robust global appetite continued for consumer satellite applications, mobility, and convergence Carriage of HDTV continued to reach critical mass in major markets globally The full impact of the global economic downturn Economic downturns have historically had a de-layed impact on the satellite industry, but growing interdependence among all four sectors may serve to shorten negative business cyclesThe preceding information is excerpted from the industry statistics. Conducted by tion, the report included surveys of more than 70 SIA members and key companies in the industry, and was augmented with publicly available data and research to derive industry revenues and statistics. For more info on the SIA, access the graphic below.
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14SatMagazine July | August 2009 E Satellites This informative report estimates 1,185 satellites will be built and launched for the period 2009the previous decade (1999-2008). Market revenues generated from the manufacturing and launch of these satellites are forecast to grow by the same rate, reaching $178 billion for the period 2009-2018. Both the government and commercial sectors will contribute to this market growth, albeit unequally, said Rachel Villain, the editor of the survey and the Director for Space & Communications at Eurocon sult. The ongoing global economic crisis will have a limited impact on the industry. Governments around the world remain committed to space technology development and only a small number of commercial Governments drive future satellite demand par ticularly for civilian applications. Civilian and mili tary government agencies will launch a combined 770 satellites increase over the past ten years. Two-thirds of these satellites will be for civilian or dual use. Civil satellites represent a higher proportion of gov ernment satellites than the previous decade. While ongoing defense and security concerns create oppor tunities for dedicated satellites, or hosted payloads on commercial satellites, demand for proprietary military satellite systems remains concentrated in a limited number of countries. Market growth will be derived from three distinct groups of countries (see the table below). To gether, they will procure satellites for operational missions in...Earth observationMeteorologyNavigationCommunicationsDeveloping space science & exploration missions as well as technology demonstration satellitesEarth observation is emerging as the largest applica tion, with a total of 230 satellites over the next de cade as more governments order and launch satellites through national space agencies, multilateral agen cies, and public-private partnerships for both civilian and military uses of satellite imagery. At $116 billion over the decade, the government market is almost double the commercial market but it is largely closed to non-domestic suppliers. Most of are low Earth orbits (41 percent) with higher altitude orbits (GEO, MEO, HEO and deep space) making up Commercial satellites are still primarily for commu nications and broadcasting services from the geo stationary orbit. The commercial satellite market is forecast to grow by over one third in both number of distinct trends: The maturity of the commercial geostationary communications satellite industry (GEO comsat). This dominant segment of the commercial market is now driven by replacement of in-orbit satellites with fewer new entrants, resulting in cyclical investments for such systems (ex. nearly three quarters of the 88 satellites ordered in the past four years are for the replacement or expansion of satellites to be launched over 2009-2018 with a will occur early in the decade with over 30 units to be launched per year, declining to fewer than 20 units per year at the end of the period.
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15 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Growth in commercial satellite services outside the geostationary orbit, with a total of 180 satellites to be built and launched during the period, up from 104 the previous decade. These are communications satellites being launched into low Earth orbit for the second generation of Orbcomm, Globalstar and Iridium and into medium Earth orbit (O3b) in addition to optical and radar Earth observation satellites launched into low Earth orbit (e.g. Infoterra, GeoEye, RapidEye). market value generated by these satellites will jump 73 percent, though will remain small compared to GEO comsat.The 12th edition of is the landmark study for all industry actors concerned with satellite systems and their launches. understanding the global space market present and future. The report includes exclusive 10year forecasts, including breakdown by customer and by orbit number and mass of satellites to be manufactured and launched and market value. both supply (industry) and demand (customers), per mance. It also includes a comprehensive and detailed demand database for commercial and government satellites including: application, launch date, satellite platform, manufacturer, launch provider.
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16 SatMagazine July | August 2009 The Business of Spaceby Hoyt Davidson enticed greater investment community interest and the challenge of bringing space business leaders and investors together as well as entrepreneurs, astro nauts, and space tourists sit down with aerospace executives, government policy makers and investors to further their mutual understanding of the industry and its potentials.Tom Hendricks, President of Aviation Week, reminded the audience of how large and global the space in dustry has now become. percent enjoyed in 2007. Continued growth is expected in 2009-2010. Commercial satellite services and infrastructure make up 67 percent of total revenues with government space budgets representing 32 percent. Innovation and entrepreneurial activity remain high. Commercial competition will only get more in-tense as Europe, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and other new space faring nations join the party. For instance, more than half of the 636 expendable launch vehicles projected over the next decade will be from Russia, Ukraine and China. On the civil space front, greater international col-laboration is expected, both for ISS and future lunar exploration. The U.S. space industry employs more than 262,000 people and at pay scales roughly twice the national average, yet availability of trained engineers remains a key issue, especially for domestic talent. Anita Antenucci, Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey, moderated the opening panel themed Andy Africk, Senior Partner at Apollo Management and Heidi Wood, Senior Equity Analyst Aerospace at Morgan Stanley, joined her for the discussion. Key insights included:
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17 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Aerospace industry stock and bond performance held up better than the general market during the downturn, but is likewise enjoying less of a pop in the post March recovery. Commercial satellite companies were taken down with the rest of the market, but have actually with strong backlog (FSS) and loyal customers (DBS/DTH) are showing good recession resistivity and sound business models. MSS is the next sector that must prove its business models to investors and will be a focus of 2009/2010 with Iridium, Globlstar, ICO, SkyTerra and TerreStar all The panel shared a feeling that the public equity investor base was still less sophisticated in terms of risk reward analyses for the space industry than debt investors. More education and perhaps more equity successes will be needed to truly open up the public equity markets. Part of the equity problem is that some commercial satellite companies went public too soon, before they really had stable or well understood business -til revenue generation becomes more clear and a major obstacle to funding in weaker economic cycles like now. Some cautiousness over future prospects for aerospace/defense industry as military budgets may get hit or at least restructured.Steven Kenney, a Partner at Toffler Associates, led a discussion on Steven reminded those in attendance that the space industry is increasingly part of the larger terrestrial telecom, media, weather, and security industries. His major points included thoughts from: Richard Sanford, Chief Strategist, Global Government Solutions Group Cisco, discussed the future of sat ellite telecomm. He believes that with development of new satellite technologies use of space by consumers will be just another economic decision versus a last resort. High throughput satellite broadband tech nologies were mentioned as an example. Mr. Sanford believes the need to eliminate the last mile barrier will provide a large market for space companies as laying markets. In ten years or so, he also sees intraand inter-linked satellite constellations and small satel lites operated in networked and reprogrammable
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18 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Edward Morris, Executive Director of Strategic Business Development, ITT Space Systems, focused on the tremendous contribution made to the global economy by GPS. He indicated GPS is responsible for billions in productivity gains and the enabling of whole new economic activities like automotive navigation and handheld positioning devices. Mr. Morris also discussed GPS 2.0 with its promised four civil signals and the 24x7 service (despite recent rumors of gaps). Lastly, he reminded us GPS is not just about positioning, but also provides timing signals from atomic clocks, which will increasingly enable synchronization of actions in a growing M2M industry. Richard Buenneke, Deputy Director for Space Policy, U.S. Department of State, this panel. He stated that the new Administration had started policy reviews in several areas involving space, but clearly understands the vital nature of space infrastructure to our economy and security. Our embassies, for instance, rely on commercial satellites for much of their communications. DHS is tasked with protecting our domestic satellite infrastructure in a partnership with DOD. Protection of space infrastructure is an agenda item for bilateral talks with our allies and using satellites to expand prosperity to the global Mr. Buenneke also discussed the growing importance of space situational awareness given increased crowding and the space debris problem. The U.S. Air Force has recently expanded the number of objects they track and intends to notify commercial and non-U.S. satellite operators of potential collisions. Lastly, he develop global standards for space communications Mr. Thomas Pickens III, the CEO of Astrotech Cor poration restructured and renamed SpaceHAB, now doing business as Astrotech and trading under the ticker The focus of Mr. Pickens Buenneke subsidiary. Mr. Pickens and his team at Astrogenetix have studied more than 2,000 space manufacturing experiments to determine what does and does not work and what activities have the NASA has been focused on completing ISS before gravity research to the side. Astrogenetix had special was named an ISS National Lab Pathfinder business. The decision was to focus on projects such as dis covering biomarkers for vaccine development, which rely on microbe growth. Microbes grow virulently in Pickens stated that a vaccine that might cost $100 million to develop on Earth could cost only $30 million if developed on ISS and perhaps even less on another platform with less red tape and astronaut handling requirements. Some vaccines could have billion dollar markets. Protein crystal growth is another promising market. e.g., 7,000 pages just to stay on the shuttle) and there is a general reluctance by pharmaceutical companies to engage in new and riskier drug development technol ogies. Mr. Pickens believes ability to use sub-orbital systems exists for R&D, mostly limited to shorter tem experiments such as metallurgy. Joseph Fuller, CEO of Futron Corporation moder ated a panel on new space. Panel members included Gwynee Shotwell, the CEO of SpaceX, Andrew Nelson, COO of XCOR, and Patricia Grace Smith, Former FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation and a Virgin Galactic consultant. Mr. Fuller reminded the audience that new space is not just space tourism, but also includes activities NASA and DoD are supporting. The general consensus was that entrepreneurs were doing things the existing aerospace community was not well equipped to lead the best outcome would be one of collaboration versus hostility. There was also consensus that space tourism was the only one trick pony for new space. other missions and eventually orbital services was an ambition the three panelists agreed upon, in addition
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19 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Gwynne Shotwell brought the audience up to speed on the success to date and the status of development. She hopes to get two Falcon 9 launches completed this year and then highlighted a 29 mission, $2 billion backlog, mostly COTS use of for ISS supply missions. Clearly, COTS is doing what it was intended to do and the hope is that NASA will use this success to create additional COTS style programs for other commercial space activities, such as lunar cargo supply missions. Ms. Shotwell Angeles region.Andrew Nels gave a most persuasive talk centered on debunking many cherished myths about space development. For instance, XCORits piston-pumped green thrusters vehicle, with as many as seven one day, has proven that not all rocket-based vehicles require government funding. XCOR is focused on jet-like operations for space tourism and other sub-orbital applications with a projected 2014 Patricia Grace Smith reminded the audience it was Burt Rutan and the original X-prize winners that truly launched space tourism into the realm of plausibility and the support of Virgin Galactic added much needed respectability and capital. Ms. Smith stated that SpaceShip 2 percent complete and was expected to roll-out this Fall. Richard Garriott, famed videogame developer (Ultima rules!) and private space explorer, was interviewed by Tom Shelley, the V.P. of Marketing for Space Adventures Ltd. Mr. Garriott most engaging travel log of his recent trip to ISS. Three major lessons learned:Going to space is way cool and addicting (best experience of his life he wants to return, but not at $30 million a pop), The Russians are now better capitalists than Americans and, -nies willing to pay you to conduct experiments in space for millions rather than tens of millions of dollars.
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20 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Mr. Garriott is convinced companies such as SpaceX, XCOR, Virgin Galactic, Armadillo, and Blue Origins, will be wildly successful and substantially lower the cost per pound of access to low Earth orbit in his life time.Garriott believes strongly that the amount of money you can generate by working in space will, in the near future, exceed the cost of getting to space. In his mind, new space cannot be stopped it will happen. Many in the audience remained skeptical of the time frame for these cost improvements in launch, given the historically slow pace of chemical rocket-based propulsion advancements. In short, Mr. Garriott is the epitome of the space enthusiast, having spent much of his videogame fortune on a series of space ventures optimism are quite contagious, save for those who have been immunized in the school of hard knocks. John Higginbotham, the CEO of Integral Systems shared with the audience his impressions, to date, of running a public space company after having man aged SpaceVest, a leading venture capital / private Sarbanes-Oxley and normal regulatory compliance were a piece of cake (just be honest). What gets you, he said, are the unseen regu latory requirements. He was also critical of account ing rules for employee option expensing, which hurts innovative growth companies. The short-term public investor focus on earnings was another known, if unfortunate, issue, but more worrisome was an unfair quently costing public companies hundreds of thou he has made the transition from private to public, and while bemoaning the extra cost, work and risk inher ent in being public is focused on growing Integral Systems and creating shareholder value.As for the general public equity market for space companies, he believes the aerospace/defense is well accepted; the commercial space industry is now viewed as real, and there are a growing number of sophisticated, long-term, public investors. Mr. Higginbotham also believes we are moving into a third wave of globalization. As for the new space versus old are real companies such as SpaceX that happen to be at an earlier stage, and more mature companies like of development stage, not a new versus old mind set. Kenneth Gordon, CEO of Antelum Capital Partners, moderated a panel that dealt with the expectations in space acquisition from the new Obama Adminis tration. The panel included representatives from the major players and space budget entities, including the U.S. Air Force, NASA, NOAA and the FAA.Gary Payton, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space Programs, policies were under review. We may see an increase term decrease in the overall space budget, despite the cancellation of will be funded as will increased space situational awareness. He also con Space mission got funded to support a request from a regional commander.Alan Ladwig, Senior Advisor, NASA said many key decisions would be under review for a while as the suspects NASA will have a continued interest in sup porting commercial participation in civil space activi ties as with the COTS program. International coopera tion will also increase. Maureen Wylie, CFO of NOAA focus on getting the NPOESS program. Perhaps luckily for the com
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21 SatMagazine July | August 2009 mercial sector, the cost challenges with these main NOAA programs have created a need and willingness to work with commercial suppliers of atmospheric, oceanic, and weather data. She summarized a long list of data NOAA needed following their decadal review, such as GPS radioccultation measurements for more accurate weather prediction. Ken Davidian, EFP Program Lead, FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, has a much smaller space budget than his peers on the panel, but certainly the FAA is a key player. Mr. Davidian seems to be following in the same tradition of Ms. Smith and should be a supporter and asset to the industry. He focused much of new drive to create more accurate predictions of the increasingly complex launch service market. In conclusion, Hoyt Davidson (article author) of Near Earth LLC states space and involves an allocation of resources away from other pressing needs, with distant in their realization. The future of space will, instead, depend on the hard work, dedication, and vast number of people and entities, many of whom are not yet even engaged. A small number of wealthy enthusiasts can be applauded for jump-starting our imaginations again and pointing us along the next leg of our journey into space.If we are going to accomplish everything we can and should in space, we will need numerous and deep new pockets of funding alone has proveven if it does continue to provide the backbone for our national security requirements and most civil space exploration.New technologies and business models need to be access. Innovative new ways also need to be explored to leverage the support of governments to unleash the creative energies of an enthusiastic even passion ate private sector. I hope these issues are the focus of future
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22SatMagazine July | August 2009 the international trade association and its awards Independent Teleport Operator of the YearRRsat Global Communications Network Ltd. (Israel) RRsat was chosen as Independent Teleport Operator of the Year based on an impressive year of accomplishments that included two major acquisitions, inauguration of an HD playout center, additional satellite platforms added to the portfolio, and launches of new TV channels. RRsat distribution services including production, playout, uplink, downlink, turnaround services, as well as end-to-end transmission for television, radio and data channels. The company was founded in 1991 with one teleport and four SNG trucks. In 2009 RRsat completed the acquisition of two teleports Hawley Teleport in Pike County, Pennsylel, bringing its count to six teleports. RRsat also expanded its capabilities with the inauguration of a new HD playout center. Four additional satellite platforms were added during the year to the 30 satellite platforms already in operation, expanding coverage with a new solution for cable operators in Russia and Asia, and additional DTH services to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Australia, and Asia. In November 2006 RRsat became one of the few publicly traded independent teleport operators in the world. Under the leaderTeleport Executive of the Year, RRsat was ranked in 2008 as well as among the Independent Top Twenty for three consecutive years. Corporate Teleport Operator of the YearGazprom Space Systems (Russia) Gazprom Space Systems was selected as the Corporate Teleport Operator of the Year based on a 48 percent revenue growth rate in 2008. Mixing support for Gazprom corporate operations with service to outside customers, Gazprom currently operates three mid-size Yamal satellites covering Russia/CIS and most of the Eastern hemisphere, four teleports in Moscow and the Moscow rewide network of Earth stations across Russia. As an operator, service provider and system integrator, Gazprom serves over 200 customers with the Gazprom Board of Directors approved a prospective plan for growing the space business ellites and building a new teleport in the Moscow Twenty in 2008 and to The Fast Twenty in 2008 and 2007. Teleport Technology of the Year (Belgium) In a time when companies are tightening budgets, a product that can help reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and achieve high service reliability was the end-to-end solution for implementing Adaptive Coding Modulation (ACM) technology, IP shapcient way for IP trunking and IP backbone satellite links. The implementation of FlexACM can result in a doubling of the data throughput in a given satellite segment while also guaranteeing a commercially available system which integrates DVB-S2 ACM with advanced IP optimization techand shaping. In order to anticipate degrading link conditions, the FlexACM system relies on a unique patent-pending Noise and Distortion Estimator (NoDE) capability on each of the receiving points, resulting in the most accurate estimation
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23 SatMagazine July | August 2009 ciency, FlexACM includes cross layer optimization eration to compensate for the transmission delay inherent in satellite communication, and dynamic Teleport Executive of the YearIn addition to the above honorees, Doug Tutt, Chief Operating of Global Energy Ser vices at CapRock Communications (United States) was presented with the Year award.The WTA The WTA is dedicated to advocating for the interests of teleport operators in the global telecommunications market and promoting excellence in teleport business practice, technology and operations. Companies is the best investment they can make to open new channels to the industry. More information is available at g.
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24SatMagazine July | August 2009 Emerging Apps Driving MSS Industry Growth by Richard Roithner place their aging satellite constellations, an In 2008, MSS operators generated total wholesale revenues of $1.23 billion, a 6 percent growth over 2007. The leading three operators and account for close to 88 percent of the total industry revenues, with Inmarsat alone having a market share of over and also reported a positive EBITDA for 2008, with the remaining three operators and reporting negative results. The number of global active MSS terminals has increased million terminals in 2008, largely driven by the strong growth in M2M terminals. the MSS industry, with total industry wholesale rev enues growing from roughly $740 million in 2002 to and government activity in the Middle East and in creased usage of MSS in vertical industries through out North America, Europe an Asia. results have been impacted by technical issues with the satellite and a high number of pre-paid users who stopped using their phones. U.S.-based Globalmance beginning in 2007, due to technical problems their aging satellite constellations.Today, the MSS industry is undergoing a major shift new products and applications over the last years, such as low data rate M2M products as well as MSS broadband systems. MSS broadband (i.e., >128 kbps data rates) has seen strong growth over the last 2 to three years with more than 30,000 terminals deployed
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25 SatMagazine July | August 2009 at year end 2008. First launched for the land-mobile market, with main users being government/ military, media, and the oil & gas sector, MSS broadband is now also gaining momentum in the maritime and aeronautical markets with dedicated products for those marthe market. were deployed as of December 2008. Growth rates for MSS broadband systems are expected to remain high over the next years with the total number of terminals expected to more than triple by 2014. The main drivers underlying this growth are the increasing need for remote mobile data communications in a number of vertical markets (e.g., media, merchant shipping, business aviation, etc.) and a number of new end user applications supported by the higher data rates. With new end-user applications, data usage per terminal is expected to increase leading to higher ARPU and revenues.The market for mobile satellite M2M and low data rate products has equally been strong, increasing over the last few years from around 200,000 terminals in 2003 to roughly 1.2 million today. Growth has mainly been driven by increasing use in vertical markets including land transport, energy, utilities, constructions, heavy machinery as well as in some maritime markets. With a decrease in hardware and service pricing, satellite has become instrumental in those markets for data collectelemetry and SCADA. M2M is becoming also increasingly important in the maritime market tightening regulatory requirement including AIS and LRIT. In terms of revenues the M2M market stays however primarily an equipment and value added service market and is thus not a major contributor the wholesale MSS revenues. With an increasing number of end user applications and higher M2M data capabilities the ARPU is expected to grow. Initially created for maritime communications, the largest user base for MSS today is in land mobile mar-
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26SatMagazine July | August 2009 kets, which accounted for roughly 86 percent of total MSS terminals in 2008. Distribution of MSS revenues among the segments is more balanced with maritime Future growth of the MSS industry is in particular ex pected to be driven by the aeronautical and the mari time markets, both estimated to gain in importance in terms of operators revenues. The current economic kets could however slow growth, at least in the short and medium term. Growth in the maritime market in recent years has primarily been driven by data applications. MSS op erators and service providers are pushing for higher bandwidth products. Inmarsat launched its Fleetproduct (up to 432 kbps) in late 2007, Iridium is currently starting commercial service of (128 kbps) and Thuraya recently launched a broadband version of its system. In addition to broadband, voice remains an important application for crew welfare and safety communications. Major maritime segments include mergas as well as some leisure markets including yachts economic crisis in some of these markets could lead MSS market. crisis in various ways such as it currently leads to prices and a decline in ship orders. As an illustra tion, the Baltic Dry Index, an indicator for the prices of maritime cargo transportation came down from quarter of 2009. A recovery of the industry in the middle term could however rapidly result in a return to growth for MSS in maritime markets. The aeronautical market for MSS solutions is still in its infancy, with slightly more than 30,000 terminals estimated to be deployed at year end 2008. However, MSS has become an essential part of aeronautical communications, in particular for long-haul, trans The growth of aeronautical MSS termi
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27 SatMagazine July | August 2009 in recent years due to an increasing network of distributors and service providers and numerous new MSS products launched for the sector with a trend towards data communication terminals both, for high data rates (e.g., ) and low data rates (e.g.).A major growth driver for MSS in the aeronautical cabin communication systems. MSS seems in par ers and However, the aeronauti with the International Air Transport Association ( IATA) forecasting a total industry loss for commercial avia tion of $8.9 million for 2009 and an unprecedented on MSS may be a slower take up in market penetra tainment applications. The MSS industry is currently facing some challenges, ing some of the key vertical markets for MSS, and the tough competition by other technologies including mobile VSAT. However, we see a number of growth opportunities for the industry lying ahead, in particu lar the increasing use of MSS broadband in the aero nautical and maritime markets, low data rate satellite M2M applications, as well as the ongoing increase in demand by government and military customers. All in all the market is expected to stay a niche market. Beyond the traditional MSS business, hybrid satellite/ terrestrial systems in the US (ATC) and Europe (CGC) plan to launch their services throughout the next two years. At the moment the business case as well ket remains unclear and a number of candidates are partnerships for the terrestrial parts of the networks. However, if the systems are successfully implemented and the business cases prove viable, the MSS indus years from now.About the authorRichard Roithner, Senior Analyst, Euroconsult, specializes in the strategic analysis of satellite op
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28SatMagazine July | August 2009 Geography On The Map And Markets!by Ian Fichtenbaum For public companies, no less than individuals, one is too often the loneliest number all the more so the case with rival, Virginia-based Geo GeoEye has been public now for almost three years and yet seems like an orphan, the only traded commercial imaging satellite shop on the block. With two active, publicly traded competitors, we can now make comparisons.Both companies operate a set of high and medium resolution satellites, both are heavy clients of the U.S. government (particularly the ), and both is fully operational. Even though both have their signifthey are (at the time of this ing) both trading with an enterprise value at 3.6 times revenues and both at a PE ratio of around bullish, perhaps owing to the strong government component to their revenues.Comparisons aside, the real question for both companies is, as usual, what next? What are their eventual fates? Improving technology and greater demand for more detailed imagery and geospatial analysis will keep race of ever more powerful imaging satellites for some time though only within limits that the U.S. government (a customer of 70 to 80 percent of Geoallows. Moreover, neither is likely to overpower or acquire the other in the foreseeable future, (e.g., Sirius and XM in satellite radio), if only because it continues to be the interest to maintain the balance of power between two competing viable commercial imagery sources. While the rest of the commercial satellite imagery (operators and compete on low and medium resolution, while Geospatial and all of these companies have a government participa of MDA Geospatial for a case study of a government (in this instance, Canadian) protecting its satellite imaging crown jewels. Cooperation is likely the way to go for the time being, with larger operators adding to capabilities in overlooked areas, such as ubiquitous low-resolution coverage as well as continue to devel op capabilities in aerial photography and intelligence. Even as many barriers to entry persist, (i.e., high capital costs, government participation), the product (imagery) becomes more and more commoditized on the commercial end of the business. In addition to pictures from orbit, we have pictures from aerial ve and -2 satellites satellites
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29 SatMagazine July | August 2009 with street view cameras, as well as crowd sourced data from millions of clicker-happy tourists. lution video of the Earth, and are likely still a ways from it, but already the gushes of data is making raw imagery less than scarce for most non-government purposes. As the product becomes less valuable, margins inevitably get squeezed. When that happens, where does the money get made? Just as the telecom gration services to augment its transponder leasing business, imaging satellite processing, manipulation, and interpretation servic es. In theory, this sounds like a recipe for vertical integration into high value services. In practice, much as in telecom, value-add ed services are often en gineering and manpower heavy, while margin light.Even if the imagery business continues to avoid commoditization through innovation, it is unclear where, ultimately, the pivot of this industry lies. Both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe and bound to get larger, but for all intents and purposes, these are small cap companies. In scale and in comthey are overshadowed by the major players in GPS devices, such as Garmin, and as well as by one of the largest players in the GIS/Geospatial software sector. Certainly, even these are tiny compared to two commercial customers, and Telematics, asset track ing, land management, and geospatial analysis are believed by many to be growth industries: any one of the large players, or others, may feel that the market needs a true end-toend solution and proceed to roll up manufacturers, developers, and service providers across the value chain, including the imagery providers... ...if it makes any sense. Although many companies of operating satellites, the idea that someone might seek to take control of a strategically important source of data (geographic or otherwise) for com mercial reasons is not out of the question, as long as
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30SatMagazine July | August 2009 it does not trample over national security con cerns. The acquisition of by Nokia and of by vividly illustrated the extent that the GPS OEMs would go to assure access to the two primary repositories of digital road data. Could satellite imag ing companies be subject to bidding wars on imagery assets just as the roadmap companies were? Perhaps. were the millions of man-years put into painstakingly mapping, cataloging, and updating every automo bile accessible crevice of western civilization. When up against that barrier to entry, the cost, launch, and operate a satellite almost seems HC SVNT DRACONES, or Here be dragons reads a famous 16th century globe, now on display in the New York Public Li brary. A pity that Digital Globe or any of its com petitors were not around at the time if so, they might well have captured beautiful high-resolution images of those dragons, bathing and sunning them The dragons of today are likely far less photogenic and might look more like widening credit spreads, toxic asset-backed securities, bank failures, and the dragons of limited M&A and the risk of com moditization. Regardless of future direction, with a successful IPO under its belt and room for growth, actly photograph these dragons, it can certainly shoot them down. Most would agree: those would be a sort of green shoots worth cheering for. About the author Mr. Fichtenbaum is an Associate for Near Earth LLC. Hailing from Canada, he is a graduate of the Master of Management program at the University of British Columbia as well as a Bachelors of Engineering at McGill University. Since graduation, Ian has built a variety of business experience in both advised the Montreal-based small satellite startup, Operations Excellence, providing quantitative analysis and decision support tools to industry clients. Mr. Fichtenbaum is also a proud alumnus of the International Space University, having participated in the 2006 Space Studies Program in Strasbourg, France.
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32SatMagazine July | August 2009 Under Pressureby Chris ForresterP and his Farncombe coming a thing of the past as they are increasingly hybridized with broadband ones:An increasing number of pay-TV businesses are operated by Internet players over IP networksThe diversity of video consumption modes and their associated devices is growing exponentially, eroding the dominance of traditional linear TV consumptionPiracy is increasingly performed by simply distrib-uting content or by sharing scrambling keys (so- All of these developments are leading to video ser environments. This raises the question of whether the traditional method of protecting pay-TV content from piracy and securing its distribution i.e., through a smartcard-based system originally designed to secure content broadcast on one-way networks remains appropriate, says Farncombe. Traditional DVB-based schemes potentially contain a weakness, the report suggests: The scrambling algo rithm used to make the content unreadable is stan dardized, as well as the reciprocal descrambling one. In other words, the descrambling function is the same a per-smartcard or on a per-STB basis).This means that there always exists a physical location in the STB where these clear and non-diversipoint where they are communicated to the standard descrambler). They can thus be re-used, as is by any other standard implementation of the DVB descrambling algorithm, and so give access to the scrambled content. widespread broadband penetration, but today many CA systems are being compromised by this type of attack using so-called control-word sharing. This is the-clear control words across the Internet to a large population of pirate devices which only need to contain a DVB-standard descrambling system to be able illegally to access premium content. Tracing the This raises the question of whether the traditional method of protecting payTV content from piracy and securing its distribution remains appropriate The Forrester Focus
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33 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Clearly, says the White Paper, in this type of CA process, the vulnerability lies within the set-top box. This means that when a pay-TV operator buys a hardware in protecting the interface between the smartcard and the descrambler is as important as the resistance of the smartcard itself and of the cryptological mechanisms it uses. It is, therefore, absolutely critical to the overall secu rity of any CA system operating in a DVB environment that the communication channel between the smartcard and the silicon of the DVB descrambler be made opaque: this minimizes the opportunity for the in terception of in-the-clear control words. This level of security must be en sured on 100% of the de vices that can potentially host the CA system, since only one device needs to be hacked for control words to be disseminated around the globe across the Internet. The merits (and challeng es) of card-based systems are well understood, but White Paper also examines the pros and cons of a cardless ap proach. On the face of it, cardless solutions should have one advantage, at least, over smartcardbased ones, in that there are probably more ways to hide large secrets in the software and hardware system of an STB than in a simple smartcard. There is also no smartcard inter face to be rendered se is conceptually speak ing embedded inside the STB software itself.Balanced against this advantage is the problem devices to hide these essential secrets. Further, in the DVB control-word context mentioned above, cardless solutions still need to protect themselves against controlword sharing attacks, for the same reasons as smartcard-based systems do, as in principle control words are still used. Once discovered within the STB they may be used in any other STB that includes the common scrambling algorithm.Consequently, says Farncombe, providers of card less solutions also need to require a very high level of tamper-resistance from STB manufacturers, across 100% of the hosting devices (not just most of them: as mentioned earlier, only one device needs to be hacked for control words to be disseminated around the globe across the Internet). The Forrester Focus
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34SatMagazine July | August 2009 In one-way environments, cardless solutions also pared to smartcard-based systems:In these systems, all the security is hosted within the STB, which is generally a commercially available piece of hardware. This makes reverse engineering -cal in a cardless environment: unlike smartcardbased systems, compromising the STB hardware not only exposes the system to control-word sharing attacks, but possibly to other types of atchallenge to cardless systems: once a device is copied, the perfect copies will follow all updates, maintain themselves, and work in a stand-alone way, with no need for a broadband connection (which is required for a control-word sharing hack to succeed). If the cloned device is detected, the clone-maker only has to provide a new identity to While smartcards can be more easily swapped, technology improvements will tend to make hardware security features embedded in the STBs obsolete over time, increas- Consequently, card less systems are argu ably unable seriously to compete with the level (good) smartcard-based system in a one-way broadcast network, says Farncombe. This is es pecially true of cardless systems that can be em bedded in devices which are not strictly required to observe comprehen sive and drastic hardware security requirements.*The complete White Paper can be downloaded from: / Cloakware, Irdeto Group (and Naspers), has also released a White Paper* that details how advanced features of the next generation of set-top boxes have created new content security challenges. Such new content portability developments as Home Networking in which content is pushed beyond the TV to a wide range of connected digital devices has set-top boxes (STB) and their associated conditional access (CA) systems and digital rights management (DRM) technologies are under increased threat from device tampering, software security breaches and tation and bottom line for both STB manufacturers and service providers. Software conditional access specialists Latens say that the market is in creasingly receptive to software-based (and card-less) conditional access. argues Latens CEO Jeremy Thorp.Thorp says Latens has demonstrated that the technology works. We can do it successfully and we can provide the cost savings that we talk about, Thorp says that software-only CA is winning approval from larger cable systems, as well as the IPTV sector. I think the large operators will shift to over the next two or three years. The traditional security model with a ogy point of view. He stated that far too many card-based systems were now hacked, and the cost of swapping cards was immense. The hackers now completely services to more devices, not just to a traditional set top box, and I think this is one of the big trends that we have to allow for, the consumer living in a multi device environment and wanting the content to run across all of them seamlessly from their point of view. So the card base model breaks down, and obviously the card base model is broken from a cost point of view because the cost of replacing a card base solution is so massive for operators, usually they just settle with being hacked for a very long time, Latens Widevine Verimatrix, and others will happily advise. The Forrester Focus
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35 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Consumer demand for media-rich home entertain ment services has driven innovation and new revenue opportunities in the STB industry. Next-generation STBs will integrate video content from multiple signal sources such as broadcast television, premium videoon-demand and Internet-based ser vices as well as provide value-added capabilities like time-shifting. They will also allow content to be distributed to a variety of viewing devices including multi-room TV networks, personal computers, por table media play ers and other mobile devices which are more suscep tible to piracy than set-top boxes, says the Cloakware White Paper. At the same time, content owners, including movie and television studios, demand protection against the piracy of their intellectual prop erty and require that content licensees (such as cable or satellite operators) take steps to prevent secu rity breaches and to mitigate against damage should a breach occur as part of their distribution agreements. Set-top box manufacturers have rigorous compliance and robustness rules that they need to address to sat isfy their customers, said Greg McKesey, V.P./Con sumer Products for Cloakware. Cloakware provides drop in, easy to integrate content protection compo nents that meet or exceed studio and operator content security requirements, al lowing these set-top box manufacturers to meet those stringent regulations and get their products to market faster. The download is available from: com/whitepapers/setphpThe Forrester Focus About the authorLondon-based is a well-known entertainment and broadcasting journalist. He reports on all aspects of the TV industry with special emphasis television and emerging technologies. This includes interactive multi-media and the grow ing importance of web-streamed and digitized content over all delivery platforms.
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36SatMagazine July | August 2009 Switching It Up: Does Putting Intelligence In Orbit Help Move Content To The Edge? S Despite the early demonstrations on ( the recent start of service of 3 satellite that commercial broadband users have switching combined with spot-beam technology for direct site-to-site high-speed connectivity. At about the same time, U.S. defense users also started receiv WGS satellite network. Looking forward, other alternatives being developed to move the intelligence into the sky include the -funded ULtra fast Internet Satellite Switching () demonstration program for Ka-band multi media distribution using Radio Burst Switching, and the Internet Router In Space ( ) demonstration by hosted by for the DoD. But what are the advantages of having switching or routing systems on-board the satellite, vs. on the ground? Most importantly, such on-board capabilities provide technical and cost advantages to organizations op erating mesh networks among widely dispersed and the ability to have a virtual hub in space rather than is particularly important when the terrestrial network may be at risk of being compromised, which is the case for disaster recovery, emergency, military and extraction industry operations. Such systems also have the potential for storing large amounts of HD content and/or varying con tent by region without duplicating capacity. This is a transport medium, including streaming of video and entertainment content, corporate data and satellite news gathering applications. IPTV in particular may be ferent content by region with a simpler, more direct needed, and the potential elimination of double hops. market that requires mesh capability added to a star network or having a hub anywhere in the network. On-orbit intelligence enables the user to eliminate the need to go through central point on ground hub or data center or gateway and supports the desire for point-to-point interconnectivity. On the government side military goals of achieving the net-centric Everything Over IP service is clearly dependant on this type of advanced satellite pro cessing. In addition, in the civil government arena, thus they value the ability to bypass double-hops for most obvious for large networks with thousands of sites (e.g. haul links to a datacenter due to direct connections without the need for routing through a hub facility. market regions. For these users, on-board switching and/or routing can facilitate video on demand and other time-shifting applications. With the expansion more content choices and options as well as better capacity utilization at same or lower cost. This selec tive connectivity for video multicast facilitates indi vidualized broadcasting to selected groups and subcorporate networks with remote teleworkers or con sumers, such as small companies in remote locations. In addition, on-board routing or switching enhances a range of applications such as remote monitoring, maintenance and control systems including video that need the ability to increase feed or bandwidth size on demand to investigate issues at remote facilities in industries such as extraction or construction. Mobility applications are especially well-suited to having intelligence in the sky. In this case, an advanced
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37 SatMagazine July | August 2009 satellite with directive beams can support applications such as mobile IPTV, enabling both the mobile and on-demand access to interactive video for delivery of content to the truly moving edge. Other edge content applications include point-to-multipoint, such as satellite caching of data, imagery or other media for needed. These applications have value to a range of corporate and government users, such as military or tions, mapping, and headquarters coordination. While most of the technology already exists, manufacturers will need to redesign some equipin particular the ground equipment. This poses with a lot of ground terminals, since the cost savings from eliminating duplicate capacity or hub networkthe satellite and a need to repoint to get switching through another bird; this also leads to questions about the availability and costs of backup options. There is also a need to drive power consumption down and right-size power for individual applications to keep the on-orbit technology cost-competitive with terrestrial options.An additional requirement is for strengthened QoS to separate out video, data, voice for shared networks, and to establish or modify priorities among them, user requirements. This requires the network and its components be able to support customerconsistently for a particular application, such as a business video session.As IP platforms, mobile applications and enhanced video services expand and integrate, so too will the advantages of having more intelligence on-board satellites rather than on the ground. At the same time, costs will be driven down by the continued cross-over of technology from military to commercial, broadcast to enterprise, supporting the business case for moving more investment in space to help move content closer to the edge.
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38 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Digital Terrestrial and Mobile TV But What About The Cost?by Koen Williams This article discusses the cost considerations a broadcaster could face during a deployment over sat ellite and explains how technologies as DVB-S2 Multistream and regionalization can reduce the total cost picture. Some use cases will be added to illustrate an alternative approach to design Digital Terrestrial or Mobile TV installations.A quick browse through the newspapers nowadays we actually would like to we do not need to under stand the root causes of the economic downturn to see that the market is reacting through major bank reorganizations, company restructuring, and govern ments adapting their budgets. come more complicated resulting in less launches and a satellite bandwidth capacity reduction. Due to the reduced bandwidth over satellite it becomes increas hand broadcasters and governments could choose to postpone new projects in order to optimize their cur Some long term projects might not be directly ex posed to the current economic crisis due to the fact that they are bound to the regulatory environment
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39 SatMagazine July | August 2009 and to government projects. One example is the that needs to be in place before 2013 in Europe and ments tend to start up large projects to stimulate internal economics and to ensure employment. Still there seems to be quite an interest in satellite busi the EU towards ESA clearly illustrates.With the installation of new projects, or the review of current projects, a natural reaction is to select lowdeploy broadcast networks. This reaction towards deployments is to purchase low cost material in stead of best of breed equipment. The risk in purchasing examples are:quality. Broadcast picture quality because it will drive away annoyed customers (viewers) which could impact advertising revenues. Bad quality implies more service costs and more man hours to recover broken signals. As some DTT (Digital Terrestrial TV) and Mobile TV towers are located on remote sites service engineers need to drive up to these locations or extra investments in communication lines need to be made to enable mul tiple and fast remote management control. Another issue with low cost equipment is the ten dency to replace internal parts during the product life cycle according to the market availability and price where internal parts are changes every six months. As DTT and Mobile deployments mostly are planned over longer stretches of time a broadcaster could end up nance. Additionally it provides headaches in terms of spare parts supply after deployment.
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40 SatMagazine July | August 2009 to stick with old technology whereas new technology could bring features that have a big impact on other cost lines next to equipment cost. The switch for example from DVB-S equipment towards DVB-S2 al per year (market average) on a transponder. pliers are natural steps in a purchasing process. This article is holding up a warning sign not to be blinded by short term price reductions but instead to look at long term impacts behind a purchase. What could be the Return-on-Investment behind acquiring new equipment? This aspect will be exam ined later in this article.Satellite links have the advantage not to depend on any telecom infrastructure on the ground and cer tainly are the fast track option to deploy a digital terrestrial TV network over entire countries. With the correct technology and equipment, satellite ensures a very economical way to perform the primary distribu tion of TV content. The operational costs do not in crease with the number of towers and repeaters in the network, and last but not least, satellite also provides towers remotely.Considering the cost issues broadcasters are faced with new satellite network technology ideally focuses on aspects that touch the broadcaster operational is sues on a daily basis. Some major cost issues include:Cost of equipment: new satellite network tech-nology should check whether it can reduce the amount of equipment that is needed to install an improved network Cost of operation: new satellite network technolo-gy should investigate on how to put multiple services on the same carrier and how to save bandwidth over a satellite link. Cost of service: new satellite network technology should be easily installed/deployed and have a good reliability/MTBFCost of Content: new satellite network technology should protect the content of the satellite link in order to prevent piracy and (news) scoop hijacking. Nowadays, we see the transition from the DVB-S standard towards the DVB-S2 for the satellite links in the broadcasting market. DVB-S2 (Digital Video Broadcasting Satellite Second Generation) is an DVB-S standard. DVB-S2 is closely linked to the increased demand for ( HDTV) over satellite. HDTV typically requires three times the bandwidth required for ( SDTV) signals. From a cost perspective, DVB-S2 has a performance on a yearly basis (market average) on a transpon to transmit the same information in DVB-S2, which reduces the energy costs. Multistream is a main advantage in satellite com munication for Primary Distribution of Digital Ter restrial TV and Mobile TV and is fully complaint with the DVB-S2 standard. Multistream, in short, allows users to aggregate (combine) a number of transport streams or IP streams into one satellite carrier in a fully transparent manner, maintaining the integrity of the original content. The application of Multistream within Primary Distri bution of Digital Terrestrial and Mobile TV via satellite
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41 SatMagazine July | August 2009 will be displayed in the following examples. The net ), a DVBT/H network with multiple carriers is displayed. Each ASI input stream (can be a multiplex) is modulated or demodulators) receive a selected carrier and send it through to the COFDM modulator in order to be standard TV signals at 7.3MHz and one Mobile TV carrier at 3.6MHz. Due to the risk of inter-modulation (explained later), the satellite transponder cannot be saturated. When compared to the previous example, some in a Primary Distribution Network for Digital Terrestrial and Mobile TV over satellite with Multistream ( ). First, the amount of equipment has been drastically reduced. The coming from terrestrial and mobile TV bouquets are aggregated (com bined) and injected into the modulator. At the receiver end, a multi ASI output satellite receiver is preferred above multiple single ASI output receiver devices (e.g. satellite receiver unit with multiple ASI outputs does the trick. If we multiply this tower installation over a total deployment a dras tic reduction in CAPEX can be achieved. In a network with 300 towers, only 300 satellite receivers (in this example) are required in be found in the transmission over satellite. In carriers over satellite, all the digital terrestrial and mobile TV bouquets or multiplexes are combined into one baseband stream before the modulator. A single carrier is sent over the tistream operation allows saturation of the transpon der. Additionally the compatibility with SFN operation is ensured through demodulating multiple transport streams from a single satellite carrier guaranteeing the integrity of the content. If we look at Multistream in a more technical sense (), we see that transport streams (coming from encoders or multiplexers) and/or IP streams are divided into a chain of packets. The packets in transport streams and IP streams are en capsulated into Base Band Frames through stream aggregator equipment. These Base Band Frames con sist of a header and a payload (content). Into the header the ( ISI)-value Modulation and Coding ( MODCOD) information for each Base
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42 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Band Frame. Multiple packets out of a similar initial transport stream can be stored in a Base Band Frame (16 or 64Kb). The Base Band Frames on their part will be multiplexed (combined) into a multiple input stream which is called the Multistream. The Multi stream is injected into the modulator in order to be sent over the satellite link. At the receiver end of the satellite link the Multi stream is demodulated. The Base Band Frames that out of the Multistream and separated again into the Transport & IP streams. The modulation and coding information are checked per base Band Frame. Once the transport streams are restored in their original ASI format, they can be inserted into the COFDM is SFN-compliant, which is necessary for the distri bution of digital terrestrial and mobile TV content in Single Frequency Network mode.Multistream in more human comprehensible terms could be described as multiple similar packets which are put into a box. Each box is labelled with a destination address, address of origin and how it should ent content are organized and put onto a means of transport that carries the payload from one location to another or to multiple locations. Arrived at destination the boxes are selected and unpacked. The packets are then put into their original state and in their original sequence.Multistream is fully in touch with the broadcasting operational reality as several services (Terrestrial TV, Mobile TV, Direct-to-Home and IP data distribution) can be combined onto one carrier. The combination facilitates the saturation of a transponder and thus lite bandwidth. Returning to the cost topic, Multistream can reduce the OPEX (bandwidth cost to full capacity in a single carrier operation. Single carrier operation (Multistream) does not need the carrier operations (one multiplex per carrier) in order
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43 SatMagazine July | August 2009 mise the quality of the received signal. Multi-carrier operations are not able to use the full output power of the transponder. When compared to (currently mostly used in the market) multi-carrier operation, Multistream saves up to 4dB resulting in more bits width gain).To avoid jitter and time lapses in the television sigInput Stream SynchronizerISSY) operation mode to be used with Multistream. Better implementations of Multistream do not require ISSY which is a big advantage as ISSY creates up to 2 percent overhead in the bandwidth.Analog TV broadcasting had to face the problem of co-channel interference, prohibiting the re-use of the same channel over considerable distances. In addi and natural obstacles resulted in receivers capturing the sum of the original signal, some delayed replicas and channel noise. To compensate this physical deg radation, the traditional method was to increase the transmitting power, thereby increasing signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately, this also increases the frequency occupancy over a larger area as well as operational cost (power consumption). New digital transmission standards make use of the so-called SFN (Single Frequency Network) technique to overcome those problems. Under certain conditions, Single Frequency Network operation can be obtained only if all transmitters radiate the same digital sig nal at any point of the service area. Therefore, each transmitter within one SFN must radiate the same data bits, on the same frequency, at the same time. SFN requirements have a direct impact on the way to set up the transmitter network and the primary distribution network. Through Multistream equipment multiple transport streams can be demodulated from
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44 SatMagazine July | August 2009 a single satellite carrier in a way that guarantees the integrity of the content in order to be compatible with SFN operation. In order to enable Multistream in DVB-S2, some adapted equipment is required. The use of the Stream Aggregator Newtec implementation. The content received from broadcasters is encoded in MPEG2 or MPEG4 inserted into the aggregator. The aggregator sup multiplexes in one baseband stream which is inserted into the modulator. In case of large number of ASI Transport Streams, other aggregators can be placed in parallel in order to feed the modulator. The cas cading of several Aggregators yields to the creation of The modulator sends the signal over satellite to the required locations. At the other end of the satellite link, the Satellite Receiver is capable of demodulating multiple MPEG streams in Multistream mode. The transport streams are separated again based on their DVB-S2 Input ( ISI). as a means to reduce the CAPEX. Instead of multiple IRD per carrier) in the transmitter towers, one unit can receive and distribute multiple streams over ASI and IP. This saving is multiplied by the number of tow ers where multiple multiplexes need be delivered for bers, we see that for a deployment of 300 transmitter be saved in hardware cost through the use of Multi stream receivers with multiple outputs. Combining multiple outputs in a receiver adds ad vantages that do not come to mind directly but which should equally be considered as they are delivered with a price tag at the end of the ride. If less units are used (i.e., 1 Multistream Satellite Receiver instead of 4 IRDs) the consumption of electricity will be low ered, the air-conditioning only needs to consider one
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45 SatMagazine July | August 2009 space-limited cabinets. RegionalizationIf we are in a cost saving mode, why not go all the way? By means of an example, the case for Multi stream and regionalization will show that even more bandwidth can be saved on the transponder. The regionalization functionally, in short, allows the operator to distribute all 14 regional and nine nation al content undoubled on the same satellite carrier. The content of the terrestrial bouquets will be com posed locally by the satellite receivers with regional ization functionality. In other words, the equipment inside the transmitter towers will pick the correct channels (nine national channels and one regional channel) out of the satellite signal that are linked to their region. The remainder of the regional channels are left disregarded. The content will then be transferred to the COFDM (mobile) TV devices. Without this feature, each local bouquet would need to be composed centrally and distributed separately, increasing the satellite band width cost dramatically. Multistream with regional ization does not jeopardize the quality of signal. The integrity of the content is guaranteed. If not the SFN operation requirement would not be valid anymore. In this real life example, nine national channels and 14 regional channels need to be distributed over satellite. In total, 280 Mbps content should be trans ferred simultaneously. Without considering Multi stream or regionalization, three transponders would euros per transponder per year. To avoid the multiple transmitting of national con technology must be used on top of the Multistream keeping SFN requirements into scope. The big cost reduction using Multistream with Regionalization is realized through the requirement of only one tran sponder in stead of three to send the same informa tion over satellite. In a whisker, a broadcaster saves some other services can be added to the transpon der or rented to other parties as in this example the No matter how hard companies and governments try to secure their networks and content, the risk that unwanted parties intrude upon the network and/ or abscond with vulnerable content remains high. Is security related to cost saving? Certainly. In the broadcaster market content is key and rep content is pirated or hijacked, the investment costs to recreate the stolen content will be harder to recover. Still, only a minority of the primary satellite distribu tion links are secured at this point. BISS be cause it is standard compliant and AES because a simpler, yet more powerful, propriety scheme can support the high bitrates of DVB-T bouquets. in search for means to complete their Digital Terres trial TV and Mobile TV networks projects, the exercise ment becomes an essential consideration in order to Broadcasters should look into reducing their initial investment as well as consider how the technology dimension beyond the price tag needs to be investigated closely. Certainly this is a priority, as broadcasters must consider new technologies such as HDTV and 3D television that are popping up above the horizon and they require additional transponder bandwidth over satellite. The DVB-S2 Multistream solution has a proven Re turn-on-Investment track record both on CAPEX and OPEX domains. Stream aggregators and multiple ASI output demodulators help broadcasters to get more for a broadcaster whenever adapting or installing a new network over satellite should be to consider best price solutions more precisely, best price solutions in the long term.About the authorKoen Willems started his career in 1998 with Lernout & Hauspie as a project manager in the Consulting & Services division. More recently, he joined Toshiba as a Product Marketing Manager for the Benelux and later for the European market. In six years, Koen contributes to all major Toshiba Retail IT product releases. Mr. Willems is, at present, Product Marketing Director Mobile TV and Digital Terrestrial TV Equipment for Newtec, a Belgium-based specialist in satellite communications.
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46SatMagazine July | August 2009 avid Ball manages to Regional Vice President, he held an identical post, concentrating on sales, Prior to joining Force, where he specialized in communication sys tems management. He has a Bachelor of Science de gree in Communications Engineering from the in Australia and also has a Graduate Diploma in Business Management He is a member of the Council of Governors of the ( ) and is also a board member of the ( ), becoming the chairman of the CASBAA Satellite Industry Committee in 2007. As we are all well aware, Asia has become one of the most robust regions for satellite-enabled services. Throughout variety of satellite services: the rollout of broadband infrastructures connecting island nations to mainland countries; the provision of satellite bandwidth for maritime communications; direct-to-home television platforms; and the delivery of regional and interna tional programming, to name a few. David recently shared his views on what is driving business growth in the region. Here is what he had to say:SatMagazineDavid, would you please share with us some of your recent business highlights.ments in recent months. I would have to say the precommitment contract for capacity on our satellite by of French Polynesia (OPT) was a huge testament to our excellence in delivering an infrastructure that enables a diverse grouping of applications such as DTH, VSAT and Internet delivery services; ration becoming a distributor for our maritime service and hosting two new GXS Network Broadband hubs that expand our managed services portfolio in the region; and more recently, the contract win with where we are expanding its DTH services in North America.SatMagazineWhat is driving growth for media services in the AsiaNew video channels are gaining momentum, fueled by the globalization of content. We are seeing growing demand for regional content to be delivered to North America, as well as an increased demand for Asian programming to reach viewers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.SatMagazineHow important is deregulation in your region to allow Intelsat to grow its business?Regulatory change occurring throughout Asia
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47SatMagazine July | August 2009 satellite industry growth. Of course, we would like to see regulatory change in China, currently a closed market for us with respect to domestic services. We have had great success in distributing Chinese content globally, but with such a large land mass and minimal terrestrial infrastructure in place, satellite connectivity is becoming increasing more important for domestic delivery of not only video, but voice and data communications and we can have a robust and positive impact in China.SatMagazineWhen do you think HD going to become the headWe are starting to see that now. Special events and sports are really driving the growth for more HD content in the region. We saw that with the Beijing Games this past summer. Viewers in Asia, like any other region, once they view programming in HD, they begin to demand it on a regular basis. Today we are seeing an increase in the pay-TV channels arena starting to expand their programming into HD. Many countries are also starting to deliver regional content in HD throughout the region. As MPEG-4 continues its rollout, we believe program mers will accelerate their SatMagazineWhich applications will drive demand for satel lite-enabled services in the coming years?We are seeing tremendous interest for expanded video and network services throughout the region. There is strong demand across the Indian Ocean region for connectivity between Northeast Asia and Africa for telecoms services; while Southeast Asia continues to be a very strong video distribution region ing presence in Asia. The replacement satellites within there will be huge changes in application demands in the near term but if there are changes, we will be well-positioned to serve those growing needs for our Asian customers.
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48 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Reaching The Worldby John Graham G This year, and are receiving major enhancements and re-designs. This is being accomplished to assist increased busi service to clients. The Master Control is increasing in size by 100 percent to ensure GlobeCast Austra lia continues to reach the world. In fact, GlobeCast Australia in June processed its 100,000th booking in its electronic booking system, Rapid growth in global demand for high-end content distribution has seen GlobeCast Australia quadruple its annual bookings volume for occasional use ser services growth. Key bookings clients include , , , the Seven Network, SBS, SportsBrand, and is the provider of choice to deliver ad hoc content to and from broadcasters service, and the front line of this operation is a highly skilled Bookings department and a system that can be viewed by all key personnel. GlobeCast Australia Finance Manager Rini Chandra worked with the bookings team, MCR operators, SNG operators, and engineers on the custom implemen tation of ScheduALL and said, Prior to ScheduALL, we handled incoming bookings and project schedul
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49 SatMagazine July | August 2009 distributed to operators and engineers, then back business had outgrown these spreadsheet and paperbased processes. From its Sydney based Teleport, GlobeCast Australia encoding, multiplexing, encryption, time-delay, local play-out and insertion, 24/7 monitoring, IP moni toring, transcoding to 3G phones, and SMS Services. satellite network which presents attractive solutions. GlobeCast Australia has fully protected and diverse, bers connecting Auckland, Sydney, Los Angeles, and London all use SDH as the standard. They are the equipment at either end is fully redundant, with no single point of failure throughout the system. The Company also operates dozens of full time digital and analog tails to major international switches and hubs; Sydney DVOC, LA Switch and Pac Bell Hub, and the BT Tower in London. For Australia and New Zealand, the Company operates one full -ready transpon der on television operator. On the programming. On the PanGlobal platform, there are an additional 29 video channels on ( ), plus a range of Arabic, African, European, Asian, and niche foreign language channels. GlobeCast Australia also caters to Asia via full-time leased and operated 9MHz C-band SCPC on for occasional use for distribution throughout Asia on the preferred Asian distribution satellite; and it has an impressive list of international downlinks in Sydney: , , and NSS-6. In Perth, it has a facility at which can downlink and That allows Globe Cast to backhaul Direct to Home ( DTH) channels and occasional use SD and HD bookings on capacity from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Content is then moved via a protected STM-1 connecting the Perth facility to the state-of-the-art, 24/7, master control teleport facility in Sydney. history in transmitting and distributing ethnic and
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50 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Vision Asia and the Australian Christian Channel, both DTH and payTV platforms. With more than 120 video and audio services already delivered on a permanent basis, DTH services cater to a wide range of view ing tastes, including the multicultural communities of Australia as well as featuring major international channels, such as Vision Asia, with nine channels from India, is a key client. Vision Asia General Manager Gurudutt Satigrama said, We have been with GlobeCast Australia for the past eight years and they look after all our satel lite and up-link needs. We have had a very fruitful problem solving solutions they have provided us. We look forward to strengthening our relationship in the coming years. lution for channel operators, according to GlobeCast Lobwein.The satellite has been developed by Optus to deliver the nexgen of digital satellite services to Australasia, with increased channel capacity and technical quality. Optus D2 is received in more than New Zealand, and includes numerous free to air (FTA) channels. operates the Croatian package on the Optus D2 platform. We are very pleased to have signed with GlobeCast Australia. They are exactly able and open to new solutions. Thanks to them, we Chris Williams.In recent years, the channel distribution has become even more mainstream with the addition of the likes of global sports net Setanta and Australasian racing channel, In addition, the DTH model is becom ing increasingly versatile in the content it carries and the distribution locations. For example, TVN, in addi tion to being distributed to is also delivered Transmissions over the past two years for 3G mo channels, such as Cartoon Network, Sky News Australia, Fox Sports, CNN, and BBC smaller screen environments. IPTV, and simultaneous broadband streaming, are an integral part of reaching audiences in 2009. The anywhere, anytime psyche that drives mobile and Internet distribution is clearly evident across all GlobeCast activities. We service many of the biggest channel providers in tor Andrew Nealon says. And, we are responsible broadcasts on the likes of BSkyB, Sky New Zealand and FOXTEL. GlobeCast Australia also multi channels and timeshifts in the digital environment for and the Seven Network to other leading FTA networks, including Network Ten and SBS. The company is regularly adding new marquee sports and events to its calendar of events, including the Indian Premier League in 2009. Uplinking and distri bution of rugby league and motocross were new in 2008, joining major sports such as V8, thoroughbred horse racing, tennis Opens and rugby union interna tionals, to name but a few. Our sporting relationships, some direct with sport ing organizations, also lead us to good relations with rights companies and agencies such as IMG, Sports Brand, and World Sports Group, Mr. Nealon stated. From this history of broadcast distribution, Globe Cast Australia also sees a new market developing a more direct to venue than the original direct to home. Corporate clients and venues are in detailed planning stages for the installation of digital uplink
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51 SatMagazine July | August 2009 and downlink infrastructure to assist in spreading large audience environments. In particular, another breakthrough relates to com munications in the workplace and to customers. Busi ness TV solutions are about to be delivered for major allowing them to better communicate internally and externally, enhancing their brand and sharing criti cal information quickly and with maximum impact. increasingly fragmented and niche world of commu nications, according to the team at GlobeCast.As mentioned earlier, the increasing demand for channels, events, and broadcasters has led Globe Teleport and Master Control, according to the com Peter Booth. The Teleport is positioned on the roof of one of MLC Centre The Teleport upgrade in 2009 increased power, installed larger amps on AS2 to allow for four simultaneous uplinks, and resulted in higher quality, clean carriers. Also created were three discrete uplinks to the three D2 slots, something that is dish farm on the MLC Building is the second tallest address in Sydney and possibly the highest Teleport facility in the Southern hemisphere. which are uplinkable to domestic and international destinations as far away as Cyprus in the Mediter ranean and Los Angeles in the U.S. Complement this provides the bridge to key distribution markets throughout Asia, the Middle East and into Europe. and covering an area throughout the region enjoy world-class broadcast events on a regu lar basis, courtesy of GlobeCast Australia services. The English Premier League is a prime example and is viewed from the U.K. to Fiji with Globecast Australia providing the bridge with Intelsat.
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52 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Another satellite providing crucial operational con The latter is a more powerful satellite that will cover the same AS-2 broadcast footprint, rang ing from the Eastern fringe of Europe all the way to Australasia, with downlink capability throughout all from Europe, can be transmitted via the MLC Teleport. The content can then be received in Hong Kong and Singapore, Malaysia, India, Dubai, Jordan, and Cyprus. These locales are all major connectivity hubs for on Such is particularly useful for European-only satellites events out of Australia to viewers on the other side of the planet. Globecast Australia, as an owner of permanent capac ity, undertook a calculated decision to increase uplink capability in readiness for seamless transition to to transmit two 9MHz C-Band channels from Sydney to a total of four 9MHz C-band channels. Ex-British Telecom Satnet Satellite Operations Manager and now the Teleport Engineer at Globecast Australia, Jonathan Garratt, says the company also decided to use New tec range of modulators and combining and redundancy for any uplinking scenario that could be potentially requested. Single, dual, triple, or quad carrier operation at 9MHz can be individually driven from a purpose-built graphical interface at the MCR operations level. Any combination of these carriers or their committed sum bandwidth on satellite can be manipulated at the touch of an onscreen button to engage single or dual carrier operation for as much as 36MHz of HD level broadcasting. DVB-S2 modulation schemes and 8PSK are a crucial part of planning at Globecast Australia. As Garratt said, From the modulators through the various stages or RF upconverting, frequency ranges can be manipulated to support interference-free combining of a multitude of carriers. Loss is kept to a minimum as is spectral regrowth, which often is the major implication when combining signals at varied amplitudes for diverse transponder loading on the tude of applications is unique to them. The Master Control upgrade is ongoing as crucial infrastructure is carefully duplicated, transferred, and and the number of monitoring screens is tripling. The design has created one large CAR rather than sepa rate rooms, and created more rack space for now and for the future. For DTH, in its Master Control, GlobeCast Australia ed DS-3) more than 100 video and audio services to Optus Belrose for uplink onto and in all a total of six platforms. One of the platforms is running on legacy equipment, three platforms are on (one of these is for the Foxtel ready platform onto C1), and a fur ther two platforms running on Thomson Vibe are us ing the very latest multiplexer. The created transport streams are passed to Belrose on equipment Network Adapter Units ( NAU ), as supplied by (). The scrambling system employed is Irdeto Pisys. The Master Control supplies a mixed bouquet to Hutchinson for reconstitution onto their 3G mobile phone network platform. A selection of TANDBERG SA DCM (Digital Content Manager). The multiplexed output is fed to Hutchinson via protected DVNs. and backhaul circuits are populated with equipment supplied by TANDBERG (Decoders/encoders), ThomThe continued growth in all business areas including Contribution, DTH, and SNG services facilitates the need for more rack space and a larger Master Control, according to Broadcast Operations Manager Peter Doueihi. The planned expansion will include a completely new, state of the art, control desk complemented by a video wall increasing from 10 to 24 (Plasma/ LCD) screens. Recent infrastructure enhancements in preparation for this expansion are already underway with the addition of a and increased capacity to the air handling. Once the build has been completed, in addition to the expanded MCR, GlobeCast Australia will have the footprint available to install an additional 30 equipment racks, already in demand from multiple clients. Probel Sirius while AXON standards converts are used to change between NTSC/PAL, and is used for ad insertion and crawlers. is employed for driving the monitoring displays, and are the decoders of choice, with BERG 5700 and 5782 for SD and HD encoding, and for uplinks. provides ASI delay units, while
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53 SatMagazine July | August 2009 image servers are used for SDI delay and a Sapphire ASI recording device is used to top/tail clips. There are upconverters for the Cand Ku-band uplinks. In addition to the landmark occasional use Book ing #100,000 achieved in June, the upgrades come company conducted the entire level of 2004 busi ture allows for seamless disaster recovery for key broadcast networks in Australasia. A secure, state of the art facility was custom built to satisfy the needs of clients. The company now also contracts for satellite tracking, as well. GlobeCast Australia was the founding transmission platform for the Australian Christian Channel (ACC). Erstwhile ACC General Manager Neil Elliott said, In the early days, broadcasting was a new venture for us. The GlobeCast Australia team came alongside us with their wealth of experience and expertise to make the dream come to reality in a very prompt and cost working relationship has continued to develop and GlobeCast has become a most valued and trusted partner to our business. About the author Manager. He joined in July 2008 after more than 20 recently as General Manager Production and Sales for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation until June 2008. Before he joined the ABC in 2001, Graham was Head of Programming at Optus Television, and he has also worked as a television news executive and journalist Television New Zealand.
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54 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Tribal History of the Chronicles had to manually track the crusades of our nomadic pioneers, the veterans who laid the foundation of the industry we know today. To keep things simple and to protect the identities of those few deserving of such, details are presented in the context of tribal behavior. Let us consult the Chronicles and journey back in time to see how all these tribes originated. Though these writings may be slightly inaccurate due to a few over-statements, embellishments, and exaggerations of truth, they are anchored in a frightening reality. Also, some pages were removed from the Chronicles and used for unmentionable things when other forms of paper were in short supply leaving some gaps in the contiguous time line.Now on with the story. One of the earliest and most decorated tribes, known as the Sandpeople, originated on the beaches of Melbourne, Florida Satellite Beach to be exact. Members of this tribe milestones in SATCOM history, like sending the was something major, like a Boy George concert or that. All I know is that it triggered the end of cultural purity around the globe and launched an exciting new industry.At around the same time, some Georgia Tech nerds started gathering in a local garage on the weekends Devo-like rock band was beginning to form, they invented some an new SATCOM industry. By recruiting droves of engineers leaking from the Tech campus and unable to escape the gastronomi cal pull of the Varsity, the Cabelteevees entered the scene. They grew in ranks and ultimately formed in northeast Atlanta. Then, following the paving of Cabelteevees and Sandpeople began to interbreed, forming a new tribe called the LowPBTees. After a long reign of low-margin success, the LowPBTees disbanded and formed numerous local sub-tribes, creating a perpetual climate of cross-pol lination and tribal wars that continue to this day.Far across the land, a couple of clever guys bought a little wooden house across the street from the MGM Studios. Soon, the Ideebees exploded on to but after a brief skirmish, one of the elders decided to break away and head east in search of greener Integrates were formed.As the tentacles spread like a patch of new gene-pool was created and eventually the Eu ropeans came with an infusion of fresh DNA, which was badly needed. Times seemed good. Though, of wealth and prosperity, some Integrates tried to escape the tribe and run to Mexico. But they ran out of gas in Kilgore. Too tired to continue, they set roots and formed the Parabolites. At one point in time, the Parabolites were devoured by the Sandpeople well and were eventually returned to tribal self-rule, later to be consumed by warriors wearing threehorned helmets the TriPoints clear who actually consumed who). The result was the formation of a new super-tribe called the Geedeeites who amassed major armies and embarked on a quest for global domination. Other Integrates decided to journey back to the homeland, only to hit hard times in Phoenix. Three tribes, the Reeds, Solomons and Viterbis were formed where turf battles ensued for years. They tried to be unique, but governed by the laws of open stan dards; their markings were all the same. After years of surviving the tribulations of desert life, one of them became cannibalistic and consumed the other two. War-torn and defeated in their battle for independence, those who were able to escape assimi lation joined insurgent forces from Happy Valley and All the while, small tribes began to take shape in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey. But there was so much in-breeding that the roots of their ancestry were diluted beyond recognition. Despite the lack of cohesive identity, they found fertile ground in the Federal Government where their combined roots be came thickly intertwined.
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55 SatMagazine July | August 2009 water, they grew into some of the SATCOM giants we know today. They rarely socialize with other tribes, but operate under a veil of secrecy and feed on a seemingly endless supply of tax dollars. When you think about it, the tribe analogy really is appropriate. When SATCOM veterans congregate, they will inevitably gather into huddles of common ancestry. But as the industry weathers cycles of good times and bad, one tribe may experience famine while another may be enjoying a period of prosperity. This drove some tribesmen to change allegiance to another tribe that might be basking in the spoils of a major kill. In an attempt to dissuade their subjects from seeking better hunting grounds, some of their tribal leaders attempted to force bondage in the form of non-compete treaties laden with shortamassing legal militia and waging frivolous battles armed with small caliber NDAs. But with the relentless passion, dedication and stone-hard perseverance of a sled dog crossing the (or simply the lack of any other marketable skill) and despite attempts to thwart their escape, some tribesmen armed only with their experience, skill and ambition climbed the fences, swam the moats, crossed the desert and ultimately perpetuated the industry we know today as satellite communications. About the thought provoker Tony Radford is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Paradise Datacom. He may be reached at m
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56 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Increasing Brand Value In by Patrick Boyle, Managing Partner, Longbottom Communications lic relations and brand management strategy: Go all out to increase market share when the economy is booming and the competition is coasting on a wave of prosperity the easy part of the cycle and then speed up to pass the competition when climbing out of the depths of a slow economy. That said, why do so many company executives reach for the pruning shears to trim advertising, marketing or public relations budgets when the economy de clines? There are several likely reasons: Trimming marketing & PR budgets appears an easy way to save money in the short term. A lot of this money is spent on big ticket items, such as advertis ing, trade show exhibits, or agency retainer fees for strategic brand management and deliverables such as websites, e-newsletters, news media positioning and the like. An executive often can cut the marketing in the short term. A CEO can measure bottom line value, say, of a feature article about the company in a trade publication or a new exhibit booth that more key message platform. Pulling back on branding and marketing expenditures can give the appearance of immediate bottom line gains. A CEO might reason that reducing advertis ing and PR activities might impact corporate identity in the short term, but that the budget can always be restored once business improves with minimal longterm impact on the company. Eventually, however, cutbacks in activities that sup to impact revenues. Notice that each of the above may appear to yield immediate budget gains, but it can be illusory. often surprising to see this sort of thinking creep into decisions that can have a long term impact on a are intertwined. A recent study conducted by lic Relations and its research arm ics found evidence that public relations may be more important than advertising to brand value, especially for companies that sell feature-rich or complicated Media Promi, which calculates brand value based on report, show that on average 27 percent of brand value is tied to how often the brand name appears in the press. In industries that involve more research before pur chases are made, public relations can account for nearly half of brand value. For example, in the com puting industry, media prominence accounted for 47 percent of brand value, or 16 times that of the per sonal care industry. When the economy is headed south, C-suite leaders sets its employees, its facilities, its products and less on intangibles such as reputation, brand value, and corporate culture. In a recession, the activities over those activities that support the underlying rea In a September 2008 article titled Brands, Business Week concluded, History shows that a recession can be an auspicious time to invest in a brand. Some of the most successful brand cam paigns in the past six decades began during econom ically challenged years. In 1974, for example, BMW introduced itself as The Ultimate Driving Machine, a slogan that endures to this day and helped turn the German auto maker from a niche sports sedan in the minds of American drivers into a top luxury auto brand known for superior engineering in everything from roadsters to SUVs. taining or even increasing marketing and public surpass its competitors in that metaphorical marathon:
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57 SatMagazine July | August 2009 face of declining advertising. This means more edi tors are open to may even depend upon good story ideas from public relations professionals they know and respect. Developing strategic corporate messages and then pitching story ideas around those messages to key editors can result in excellent pub licity for a company, further enhancing its reputation. Furthermore, earned media generally is perceived as more credible and trusted than direct advertising and marketing messages. A recession is a good time to reassess all marketing expenditures. Instead of slashing the budget wholesale, however, the prudent CEO dictates a line-byline budget review to determine what spending can dollars could be shifted from trade shows or advertising budgets into a more strategic and pro-active public relations campaign to support business development initiatives. Get the loudest bang for those scarce bucks!Long-term thinking involves an analysis of the best ways to reach existing customers with targeted PR and marketing communications campaigns. This is aiming for the center of the dartboard: customers who know a company and its products are most likely to bring repeat business. These same customers can be the source of testimonials and referrals. An e-newsletter in gaining sales from existing customers than ramping up spending on another trade conference or additional ad buys to reach potential clients who know little about the company.It may seem counterintuitive, but the ideal time to reach out to ence the business trade publication editors, analysts, key customers, government regulators, current and potential investors is when budgets are tight. For important observing the company being proactive in a tation for leadership in the industry. One of the primary objectives of strategic public rela tions is to increase perceptions of intangible assets and build the perception that the company is a leader in its market. Savvy CEOs and marketing executives are adept at this strategy. They are the ones most often quoted in the press, seen speaking on confer ences panels and invited to share insights about their business at public forums. The Media Prominence Study underscores the importance of managing and growing brand value through public relations sion: The more complex a product is to a buyer, the more likely they are to re search the product catego ry and to look for informa tion they can trust from editorial content rather than advertisements. An economic downturn is when these successful companies speed up the pace of public relations and marketing communications to further cement their they pass the competition going up the hill. For more information, visit m or contact Patrick Boyle at 1-703-5285493 or m.
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58 SatMagazine July | August 2009 by Jos Heyman, Tiros Space Information there, done that, as well as missed opportunities due to bad government decisions. With the advent of the space programs: European Launcher Development OrganisationBritish Black Arrow test programUnited States tracking networks launch of Wresat in 1967True, in the Wresat early involvement, Australia was little more than that of a large rocket range, but it could have been the starting point of something big had the Australian governments not, deliberately, more remarkable is that over the years Australia re newed its involvement in space several times, only to be cut short again by government decisions. WoomeraAfter the second World War, Great Britain needed a test facility to experiment with its newly found (V-2) rockets, its guided missiles, and the missiles for the nuclear weapons that were all on the draw ing boards. The open desert space of Australia was, from a geographical point of view, very attractive for political inclinations were, in those days, very much towards the Empire and its allies. From the Australian perspective, there was also a distinct need to become involved in these advanced weapons. The lack of modern weapons during the second World War, and the failure of the Allies to supply Australia with these weapons, had created a strong desire to become in dependent from weapons supplied by other countries. In 1946, a site in South Australia was selected. Des ignated Woomera, the site was in the desert region north of Adelaide across the continent, consisting of deserts. The site was also conveniently located near the port facilities of Adelaide as well as the former Salisbury munitions factory and the Edinburgh air force base. Australia took part in the experiments as a full partner and es were amalgamated to form the Weapons Research ( WRE). Over the years, a variety of guided missiles were tested until, in the early sixties, the experimental missiles were to be tested. For this, it was necessary to further extend the range and, in particular, it was necessary to establish a network of roads in the downrange area. These roads were drawn across the continent and several, such as the Gunbarrel Highway, continue to exist these days. On the Western Australian coast, where the missiles were expected to impact, a large area was reserved for the planned Talgara township, although the town never materialized. A further impact area was 2400 km into the Indian Ocean, near Christmas Island. In those days, the island was dominated by the Royal Australian Air Force, which had a base there. Between Woomera was also used to launch sounding rockets in sub-orbital programs, and the Special Anti-missile Research Tests, Australia ( Sparta) program was one of these. This late sixties program, in which the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia partici pated, studied the physical phenomena associated with the re-entry of objects at high velocity into the were conducted from Woomera using Redstone misried various shaped re-entry bodies, which were to re-enter the atmosphere at a speed of 6 km/sec. The re-entering bodies were observed with radar equip ment, cameras, photometers, and spectrometers. The tion of solid fuelled second and third stages which took the re-entry bodies to an altitude of 360 km. For these tests, a separate launch pad was constructed at Woomera and the Weapons Research Establishment provided support operations. Between November 26, were conducted.Towards the completion of the Sparta program, the space program had begun. Hastily, the University of Adelaide, in cooperation with the Weapons Research a satellite which was an integral part of the third stage of the Sparta vehicle. Designated Weapons Research (Wresat ), it was launched from the Woomera site on November 29, 1967, and placed degrees. The 84 kg satellite studied the solar radiation
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59 SatMagazine July | August 2009 ence the temperature structure at heights above 300 km, in order to understand the mechanism of the heat balance between solar and terrestrial radiation. The satellite carried three ultra-violet ion chambers, an X-ray counter, a solar aspect sensor, a mag netometer, an ozone sensor, and a Lymanalpha telescope. The satellite ceased operations, as planned, WresatThe program managers and scientists had plans for a series of Wresat satellites for which Redstone launch vehicles would have to be purchased from the United States. But none of these plans materialized, due to a The series of launch vehicles was developed for the sation (ELDO), which was established in 1964 to provide an independent launch vehicle for European countries. Australia was a member of ELDO. Using the facilities at Woomera, 10 launches were undertaken Kourou 1971, before further development was cancelled on and escalating cost. In addition to the Woomera facil ity, where the Lake Hart launch pad (originally built for missile use), Australia contributed a tracking station at Gove, in northern Australia.In addition to its contribution to the development of the Europa launch vehicle in the form of the Blue launch vehicle. The Black Arrow was an outgrowth of the Black Knight missile developed by the Although this was a British and not an Australian program, Australia was heavily involved, as the facilities at Woomera tween June 28 and October 20, 1971, before further development was cancelled. As the consequence of its involvement in the ELDO program, Australia was radio amateur satellite sponsored by the poration Development commenced in 1966 by stu dent radio amateurs at the and the satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the United States as a secondary pay km with an inclination of 102.0 degrees. This was to employ bar-magnet stabilization to ellite telecommand system. The satellite was mainly used for educational purposes and was designed only to transmit on the 28 MHz and 144 MHz bands for ing maximum sunspot activity. The 18 kg satellite remained operational for 46 days.In 1977, a formal report to the Australian Government recommended the use of a space based communica tions system to provide communication facilities to the entire continent. It was correctly suggested by experts that the vastness of the Australian continent and the lack of an appropriate communications infra structure were conditions which could only be solved using satellite technology, in order that all Austra lians, irrespective of their place of residence, would have access to the same telecommunications facili ties. This resulted in the establishment of a task force and, following experiments with the Canadian communications satellite in 1978, led, in 1979, to a government decision in favor of a communications satellite system.
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60 SatMagazine July | August 2009 was established in 1981 as a government body owned by the Government and Telecom, the latter also government owned, to operate the sys Hughes spacebus and the satellites carried Services were initially directed at remote areas in the outback.Plans for the next generation of satellites were made in the late eighties and the second generation of satellites were also ordered from By then, had been sold to the second (and privately owned) communications organisation in Australia. The focus of the system had been changed to provide new customer services, such as mobile communications and pay television. The third and fourth series of Optus satellites, and followed at a later date, by which time ownership of Optus had been transferred to interests in Singapore.In spite of the fact that Australia did not have a space program during the early seventies, scientists and engineers, against all odds, continued to operate at a below-government level and kept the candle burn ing with a range of projects. Some of these projects found their way to the U.S. as payloads for satellites. Australia has a traditional expertise in astronomy. As a result of this, Australia became, in 1979, involved in the project, conducted with the United States platform to be placed in orbit by the Space Shuttle for periods of six to twelve months at a time. It would have carried a camera providing high resolution im format photon counting array and a multi-purpose spectrograph for the extended study of selected as the 1990/91 period, but the program faltered after Canada withdrew its support. The proposed satellite was to have been launched in the 1986/88 period and would have been based on the Spartan spacebus. It would have carried an X-ray telescope and was to have been deployed from the Space Shuttle. A further develop ment, known as envisaged a free orbit. Mirrabooka, incidentally, is an aboriginal word for Southern Cross. To provide some coordination in the space involve ment of the various divisions of the Government, the ( CSIRO) established the ( COSSA ) was in COSSA, the Government established the ( ASO ) in 1987 to actively encourage the development of a local space industry and commercial space activities which were internationally competi tive. The ASO was also to create an innovative envi ronment by encouraging greater involvement of local industry in space research and development activities. Endeavour payload which used the large photon counting array originally proposed for Starlab. The payload, which was completed by the Australian space industry in mission of January 22, 1992, after having been delayed by the lenger disaster. Using two Getaway canisters, provided the Australian space industry with experience and tion, which was evidenced by the fact that, while the bay would face outer space, the payload obtained. ASO was heavily criticized for allowing Enable the decision, however, was outside Australian control. The payload was placed in storage and was successful. Like Starlab, Australian participation in the fell by the wayside due to matters beyond Australian control. The ASO also became involved in the Cape York Spaceport project, which envisaged the establish Name Int.Des. LaunchAussat-1 1985 076B 08/17/1985 Aussat-2 1985 109C 11/28/1985 Aussat-3 1987 078A 09/16/87 Optus B-1 1992 054A 08/13/1992 Optus B-2 1992 090A 12/21/1992 Optus B-3 1994 055A 08/27/1994 Optus C-1 2003 028B 06/11/2003 Optus D-1 2006 043B 10/13/2006 Optus D-2 2007 044B 10/05/2007
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61 SatMagazine July | August 2009 ment of a commercial launch site for Soviet Zenit in 1980, included the development of a seaport and an airstrip and was expected to commence commer several times, failed to materialise as a result of a lack ronmental and aboriginal tribal concerns, while the general downturn in the space industry may also have been a contributing factor. The ASO was also instrumental, and more successful, in establishing a number of ( SIDC), which combined the research skills of the universities with commercial partners, establishing competitive intellectual property. Centres were established in Adelaide and Brisbane and one of these was involved in signal processing, navigation and position location technology, as well as micro wave technology. In 1988, proposals were made by for a launch vehicle that would have had The vehicle would have been a two-stage vehicle using solid fuel. The length would be approximately would have used the Cape York facility. Because of an excessive reliance on imported components, the proj ect lost its commercial viability and did not materia lise. Neither did a Southern Launch Vehicle proposal made by drawing board. In spite of the modest successes by the Australian Space Office, the Government passed the Australian Space Council Act in 1994, establishing the Australian as a move towards a more comprehensive national space program. Consisting of representatives of the ment, the task of the Council was to advise the Minis ommendations included a proposal for Australia to launch two satellites. However, the Government of the to initiate a review of the National Space Program, which had originally been planned for 1997 forward Space Program and eventually precluded decisions on long term initiatives and the Australian Space Council concept and its National Space Program disappeared from the scene.In spite of the fact that the Australian Space Coun announced a new direction for the Australian space the launching of a satellite during the centenary of Federation in 2001. The microsatellite program, known as was undertaken by the ( CRCSS), a branch of the CSIRO organization. launched on December 14, 2002, was to provide hands-on-experience in space science and technol ogy for those involved, providing a skilled resource base for follow-on space projects whilst at the same time stimulating the development of a commercial market and maintaining the public interest. But, due to lack of funding, there was no follow-up to FEDSAT waste of time and resources. lite ( ARIES) was proposed. The 400 kg satellite was to carry an imaging spectrometer with visible and near-infrared and shortwave infrared capabilities. To be launched in 1999, it would have been be placed will provide users with data for mineral exploration, resource mapping and environmental monitoring.Interest in Australia as a location for one or more launch sites continued. Over the years, proposals for launch facilities at Woomera, Cape York, Darwin, Eu cla in Western Australia, and Christmas Islands (Indian Ocean) have been made, but all of them lapsed due to a lack of funding. It has been suggested that some of the launch proposals failed as a result of a lack of commitment from the Australian government. Satellite ProposalsIn spite of the lack of a national space program, the resulted in a satellite was Westpac, a 24 kg geodetic satellite with a mass of 24 kg that was based on the Russian GFZ-1 satellite and was used by the West( WPLTN ). It was launched via a Zenit 2 launch vehicle from Baikonour on July 10, 1988. The lite ( BLUESat) is a microsatellite project undertaken
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62 SatMagazine July | August 2009 at the University of New South Wales proposed in 1997 and went into a research phase in remains slow, mainly due to limited funding as well as In 2007 Australian space scientists proposed the corona and the origin of solar winds. Designated as the spacecraft could be powered by Aus tralian-made plasma thrusters to get it within three to four solar radii of the sun before it stops sending data back to Earth and burns up. The ( ASRI), volunteers, came about in the early 1990s through a merger of the ( ASERA ) and a group at the Monash University in Melbourne that was interested in developing a launch vehicle labelled as Al though run as a company limited by guarantee, ASRI does not have employees, has very limited resources, laboration with a number of Australian educational institutions, including the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, University of Queensland and the University of Technology in Sydney. Its previous activities included the development of an amateur satellite designated as The satel lite, based on the with the Australian built Integrated Remote Imaging System, but the satellite never materialized. One of the other activities ASRI continues to undertake is the launching of rockets from Woomera. These rockets, originally surface to air missiles, had been donated to ASRI by the Royal Australian Air Force to be used to launch educational payloads into a suborbital trajectory. Launches are conducted twice a year from Woomera, South Australia. In 1990, ASRI started the development of a very light launch vehicle under the designation The was conducted success fully on February 9, 1989, at the Puckapanyal Army Camp had a length of 2.6m and was propelled by a furfuryl alcohol/nitric acid motor which provided a thrust of 1274 N for 8 seconds. con ducted on November 17, 1992, at Woomera, met with 1.8 km was achieved (instead of 9 km) and a distance with a thrust of 9810 N for 20 seconds. An improved vehicle, designated is scheduled for launch in mid 2010. and 4 are projects currently being devel oped by ASRI. Ausroc 3 is a liquid fuelled sounding have active guidance so that its trajectory can be have a 6 minutes period of weightlessness before it will re-enter with a steerable gliding parachute recov clustered Ausroc 3 vehicles will provide an orbiting capability for a 10 kg small satellite. Four of the clus rocket, in the core, will serve as the second stage.
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63 SatMagazine July | August 2009 On top of this will be a solid fuelled third stage. The instance the ASRI activities are intended to advance education, technology and industry development, the capability and hardware being developed through the program may have commercial application.It is unlikely that the future of the Australian space gion, Australia now faces strong and real competition where the governments actively support the emerging space industry. A parliamentary enquiry conducted in 2008 recommend a step-by-step approach towards re-establishing an Australian space agency. But to what extent the recommendation will eventually result in a space agency remains an outstanding question. As far as is known, the recommendation does not yet have government endorsement. And if the government endorses it and decides to take positive action, there are many points on the path of progress where the government can cop out for whatever reason they deem suitable. The report does not recommend a time frame and it could be years before we can see the establishment of an Australian Space Agency. Others have suggested that Australia does not require a primary space in dustry, but rather a secondary space industry which comprises the involvement in multi-national consortiums to build spacecraft components, marketing our expertise in remote sensing, and so on. Whatever direction is taken, such will require the involvement of government at a higher degree than current com mitments. This would be needed to ensure such ef forts are sustained by government funding and do not ment is, as a rule, driven by public perception, it is also essential that an active space awareness program be successfully conducted.About the author Jos Heyman is the Managing Director of Tiros Space Information, a Western Australian consultancy specializing in the dissemination exploration and commercial application of space for educational and commercial organizations. Jos is the editor of the letin and is also a regular contributor to the British
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64 SatMagazine July | August 2009 MSS And Financing Weathering The Oncoming Stormby Claude Rousseau, NSR With less than two million subscribers, the six main MSS players are holding their own for the most part, as three constellations totaling 128 satellites in Low Earth Orbit and another 23 satellites in MEO and GEO could be launched in the next six years. This is a lot of capacity for what many believe is too many opera tors vying for the same business, in a market that is very small compared to the telecom industry, where giants today battle for hundred of millions of new subscribers every years. Furthermore, two other operators, namely and will enter the market and have satellites whose power and transmission capabilities dwarf current satellites in orbit, such that the game is likely to get tougher in the corners. Nonetheless, the market has seen the to tal number of subscribers grow by 21 percent in one year, to reach above 1.9 million subscribers at the end of December 2008. The riskiest part in the life of a these operators, the launch of its satellites, will peak for the entire indus try in 2010-2011, with an estimated 82 birds set to satellites launched at the same time. This represents is part and parcel of what makes the satellite com munications industry unique, and is a well-known extended reach from well above the Earth. As far as revenues goes, the six operators combined cent increase over the previous year. Over the last three years, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) percent, a performance to be taken in the context of dwindling revenues for (minus 20 percent
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65 SatMagazine July | August 2009 over the same period) and increased competition and expansion from wireless operators. At 23 percent CAGR, it is that is showing the highest revenues growth rate, driven in large part by defection from Globalstar voice users to its service and a booming data modem business.But is the past a measure of future success? Not nec essarily. Simply because more satellites will be up in space will the market demand equation strongly tilt towards the supply side and this causes more issues for the operator that are sometimes independent of its market position. started launching in 2007 with a launch of its eration satellites providing very wide coverage across the planet in the coming decade. The repositionunlocking access to a new family of broadband Lband products for land-mobile, maritime and aeronautical markets with and respectively. The operator success has continued when it received partial funding from the to build and launch an L-band satellite called to extend spectrum and capacity for BGAN over Europe, the Middle-East, and parts of Africa.More good news for the operator came from the of bandwidth in the 2 GHz band of spectrum over Europe to Inmarsat. However, this also means that it S-band satellite by the end of 2011 but it is well-po In the Middle-East, the competition was not sitting idle. Earlier in 2008, nications also launched a satellite that is positioned over Asia, a new region of interest to them and the market as a whole. This was the enabler to increase handset service revenues and tap into the broadband and maritime markets so as to make a dent in the In marsat BGAN user base with an IP-based solution, the delivering standard Internet services to an On the other side of the world, launched its G-1 spacecraft in April
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66 SatMagazine July | August 2009 2008, a next-generation spot beam S-band satellite. However, to this date, it is still in the demonstrating phase, putting through tests the virtues of the satel lite network in the Las Vegas and Raleigh region and it has yet to generate revenues. ICO recently ran into and is running the risk of not delivering its highlytouted multimedia service to vehicles if its funding problems continue. If it can settle issues with spec trum in Europe where it lost the S-band decision, Earth orbit (MEO) constellation designed to provide MSS globally. A low Earth orbit (LEO ) operator that has been around for a long time, ., based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, launched six satellites in June 2008 to band, two-way messaging, data communications, and geo-positioning services, globally. It now has 29 sat ellites in orbit and ordered in early 2008 another 18 satellites from for $117 millions (excluding launch and insurance), with an option for another 30 satellites to replace the current constellation. The new satellites should be launched between 2010 and 2011. Finally, a joint venture of FSS opera tors and is the newest player in the game, having launched in March this year an S-band payload onboard a geosynchronous orbiting satellite built for Eutelsat for European customers. The company has signed up various suppliers such as and and is in the process of recruiting national mobile operators, broadcasters, and equipment manufacturers to develop an eco system which will sell products and services that will us its capacity for mobile TV, in-car entertainment, and data services. The S-band payload has, however, experienced problems that could delay the service roll-out. Furthermore, the European Commission de cided in May 2009 to allocate frequency on a conti nent-wide basis in the 2 GHz part of the spectrum to Solaris, which may be in jeopardy if the company is unable to recover its payload. and six LEO satellites that the industry launched in the last three years. This is just the beginning of a whirlwind of launches for the industry, with a swell of large and powerful satellites to loft in the next few years. is to lift a huge 6,700 kg. spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit over North America this summer, and one more in 2010. It will be the largest commercial satellite ever built,
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67 SatMagazine July | August 2009 held and PDA users in a roaming fashion over it satellite/terrestrial network. At the time of this writing, the company had delayed the launch to verify the -built S-band antenna, which developed similar problems on the ing agreement with is the principal route to market for them as no proprietary ground infrastructure has been set-up to enable the ancillary terrestrial component of its network to provide service. They MSS-ATC authorization from the (for a satellite-terrestrial hybrid network) as ICO and Globalstar are already in orbit but both have yet to deliver any service commercially through this authorization. will launch its constellation much later, starting in 2014, and will elect a supplier in the 3rd quarter of this year for the manufacturing of the 66 spacecrafts. It plans to have a little more than four years to build and launch what should be the most powerful LEO constellation ever built. As the to get reserved capacity in the downlink direction of up to 2 mbps. rival Globalstar, which continued to have problems with its voice service over the last two years. This situation has given almost a monopoly situation to Iridium in many satellite handset markets and there should be no stopping them in the next 12 to 24 months as Globalstar replenishes its constellation and Inmarsat delays its entry into the handheld market until mid-2010. connectivity, Globalstar is on track to roll-out its new services in late 2010 at the earliest, and delivering large discounts on phones and services packages, while at the same time signing up new ones with simplex data hardware and a new critically-acclaimed consumer-oriented location-based messaging device called Its main shareholder, Partners, also infused a healthy does of goodwill by situation of the operator. Lastly, formerly MSV, has continued the roll-out of its successful push-to-talk solution with government and state emergency responders in
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68 SatMagazine July | August 2009 the U.S. It is actively preparing to launch two highpower spacecraft to a hybrid network upgrade that will include a terrestrial component and higher capa bility handsets in 2010 and 2011. the machine-to-machine and asset track ing specialist in the VHF part of the spectrum, which has increased its subscribers base (or as it calls them seen a decrease of more than 30 percent in equip ment sales. Its revenues from service were up 34 per in on service revenue and less on hardware. They believe that what best suits the application decides the hardware, and in doing such, that they are help ing manufacturers develop new hardware to meet the new needs of the market. They also were struggling with board-level disputes recently that were settled, but lost much expected revenue when a key order from its largest customer in the transportation indus try last year (over 200,000 units) was withdrawn. This of income in the coming years, perhaps shifting to the maritime and government segments in the face of weak transportation sales.All these satellites come at a time where economics may trump business plans and dry up future streams to make good on large capital infrastructures pay ments. The expected launches shows the cyclical nature of the MSS market: most satellite are ordered, and sometimes less, which is a feat in itself when considering the increased complexity, range of ca pabilities, performance, and sheer number of satel lites in production, small or large. If these are placed into orbit at a time of general economic distress, equipment sales and associated airtime revenues will industrial customer base of the majority of operators continues to communicate, albeit at a slower pace. In the case of as mentioned before, they have forfeited the build-out of their terrestrial net works putting on hold a $76 million contract with Perhaps this was due to ligations, which are why the operator may start need ing new money by early 2010. Terrestar is faced with huge contractual obligations totaling $2.4 billion. In the meantime, it has extended its development of a PDA form factor with Elektrobit and hopes to promote ellites, will be made in Malaysia by mobile electronics manufacturer Flextronics. In April of this year, one year after launching its MSS-ATC satellite, Security Exchange Commission company would be hard pressed to meet repayment commitments on loans and notes if it did not have
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69 SatMagazine July | August 2009 whose name was changed to was placed under Chapter 11 protection to restructure under a moun tain of debt. All this begs the question: who is going to pay for all this? The answer certainly does not lie in too many directions and at a time when banks and institutional investors are leery of anything that is new and un known with a high risk factor, it is not a sure bet that going to the market will be an easy task. It is perhaps time to think in more pragmatic terms and consider that the public domain, as a whole, is mobile satellite communications, and may be the only ventures such as mobile satellites. which stole the show at the Satellite 2009 export credit agency COFACE, has understood that its 48 satellites currently under construction in France were providing jobs to the French aerospace industry. Before crumbling under mountains of debts, and thus public institutions help to shape a deal that still puts the onus on the company to deliver but handed them generation satellites. The advantage is clear for the operator: increased reliability of its faltering system and the completion over an 18 months period of a brand new, highspeed, IP-based satellite network. It users will be able to continue using their current handsets, but also a Hughes-built, MSS-ATC, dual mode chipset that will be placed into each device in hopes such will get subscribers back with the constellation all the while gaining new ones. Time is of the essence for Global put pressure the equipment manufacturer to deliver on its promise so it can meet FCC requirements for two-way MSS-ATC service by July 1, 2011, to keep its authorization. Furthermore, through its partnership with wireless rural operator this service has to include WiMAX (TDD) air interface protocols to retain its FCC authorization.
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70 SatMagazine July | August 2009 changed the paradigm with increased governmentalfunding of the satellite manufacturing side of a com mercial industry. This is a change that, in this day and that have a stronger bottom line to show for their well-advised to try and get public money to stay the course over the next few years. For that, it may seek the same sources of export credit. But to complement this, it will probably host payloads on its polar-orbit ing constellation that are likely to come from govern ment agencies or military users, especially for surveil lance or Earth Observation missions. Add to this the continued critical support that it provides in Iraq and Afghanistan through its contract with the U.S. Depart ment of Defense, which continued to grow last year, and one has a strong case for using dollars from the public as a basis to spread risks. As for the other newcomers in the next-generation game, and their onus, given their operator that wants S-band spectrum to either use it as is, or re-purpose it (with a little help from the FCC). They stated their aim is to address government and homeland security markets from the get-go, but this is not likely to be enough to generate revenues to pay down debt. Terrestar still has a card in hand, however, in its majority owner Harbinger Capital Partners, which has a solid hold and many hedge positions on spec trum across the MSS-ATC and wireless allocations in the US.: they own a large stake in and about 29 percent of plus a good portion of When coupled with the impending merger of Inmarsat and SkyTerra, Harbinger could certainly combine Terrestar or leave it as is, while sup porting it long enough to cash-in its chips by selling both Sand L-band spectrum received by its subsidiar ies for MSS-ATC services. As for ICO, from its majority owner, Eagle River Investments, LLC (owned by telecom mogul Craig McCaw) can bring much needed cash to convert the company into a multimedia service operator. greater speed to more devices than ever before, one of the main ob stacles and yet the one item that will accelerate MSS operators to success (and help them down the large capital outlay that builds the satellites mentioned above. There are a few companies that can look for their shortto mid-term needs at deepthere is more than just a lump in the road ahead, and as NSR has stated in the past, it is perhaps easier for the MSS industry to seek money from the govern ment investment arms those have backed far more troubled industries lately until the horizon clears up. This will help the MSS companies weather the storm and come out of the trenches with a healthier outlook when the economy does rebound.About the authorClaude Rousseau is the Senior Analyst for Satellite ence in the space sector, including business and program management, consulting, research, administration, and communications. Mr. Rousseau started his career as Special Assistant for space and Minister of Industry, Science and Technology of Canada. He then joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1992 in Montreal, Canada where he was Assistant to the President, then successively Analyst for Industrial and Regional Development, Administrator for the RADARSAT program and Manager for Strategic Planning in the Long Term Space Plan Task Force.
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71 SatMagazine July | August 2009
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72 SatMagazine July | August 2009 W The future of the teleport is evolving. No longer are teleports simply conduits through which content is moved from one place to another rather, they are becoming Gateways. These Gateways are akin to value added routers or connectors. They insert smart ad ditions to enhance the value of the content passing to help clients to improve their services. As the world Gateways take on even further economic importance as they generate new revenue streams and add to their importance in the broadcast value chain. The Middle East is considered by many to be the cen ter of the world this according to Christian, Judaic and Islam beliefs. These traditions accord Jerusalem the title of epicenter or Umbilicus Mundi (Latin: Navel of the World). Today, as we link the world together linking signals to and from Europe, Africa, and Asia. With communications methods advancing, a smartly run teleport business operating to ensure and enhance communications holds a natural competitive advantage. For instance, as immigration grows and ethnic groups move from their original homes to new regions, there is an increasing need for the broadcast of channels into those regions, or for insertions into existing channels to reach these new audiences. The role of the teleport will only improve as broadcasters and advertisers seek to reach and embrace these consumers.The experience of in linking the world together supports this thesis. With an antenna forest of more than 80 antennas, the global satellite communications services provider has developed its geographically strategic located facilities in the Judean to channels, broadcasters, IP providers, satellite opera tors, governments, and others. Sitting atop a ridge in the Holy Land, overlooking both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the company is a leading provider of tailor made trans mission solutions for Global Content Distribution with well as its own. SatLink CEO David Hochner. We are not only moving communications, but also adding value to our cus tomers whether satellite operators, channels, net works, or telecoms. Recognized as one of the ports by the in 2009, the company provides access to a worldwide network downlink and turn around, channel management, production, SNG & Flyaway, hub hosting, video moni toring, IPTV and Telemetry, Tracking, and Control (TT&C). Irdeto Viaccess encryption solutions, or for a broadcasters the signal to its full transponders for contribution to cable head-ends, re-broadcasters, and distribution for direct to home (DTH) viewers around the world. and technical acumen has garnered acknowledgeerators and brands such as SES NewSkies, and all of whom have designated the for carrying content between Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.The company weaves together complementary ground services based upon top-level technologies with the creation of a space presence in the form of various MCPCs (Multiple Channels Per Carrier) platforms. By
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73 SatMagazine July | August 2009 linking its ground station to leading satellites around cially for HD and SD broadcasters, networks, opera ences or to open new markets. SatLink operates a range of premier MCPC platforms for global content distribution on 8, (), las Sat, reaches from New Zealand and Australia to Hong Kong and Singapore to Europe and the Mediterranean and to North, Latin and South America. In a rich media content generating area such as the Middle East, SatLink is also the communications pro vider of choice for international broadcast services, networks, and news agencies seeking to maximize coverage from this region and beyond. It is never a dull day as Reuters and APTN leading providers of news and entertainment broad cast materials, employ the company for contribution and distribution of their materials around the world on a daily basis. Mr. Hochner sits in a strategic location and we are routinely busy around the clock, serving our long standing per manent customers as well as occasional use clients. Because of our 24/7 capabilities, we have developed breaking news as regularly as permanent services. The most recent upgrade engineered by the company (HD) capabilities. Company management has moved HD transmission capabilities to as many as 12 simul taneous streams including encoding, decoding, and region to possess complete end-to-end HD teleport facilities with those feeds. The new HD systems add a new layer of technologically advanced services, mak ing the teleport a major gateway for sports, news, and special occasional events, as well as for HD perma nent channels with HD Playout services provided through a nearby partner. The systems also enable prior to re-transmission and distribution, as well as down conversion of HD to SD and vice versa. Such needs for HD entertainment programming such as
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74 SatMagazine July | August 2009 ing and multiplexing of multiple HD feeds. According to Mr. Hochner, HD will soon go from be ing a single digit percentage of revenues into a dou ble digit earner. SatLink is already positioning itself to meet this need and its incumbent challenges.The satellite communications industry is also choosing the Company to undertake sophisticated techniE.I.R.P. services to satellite operators and satellite owners. Based on its technical expertise and transservices that include satellite beam measurements and performance; satellite tracking and command; satellite maneuvering, E.I.R.P. spectrum and multiple and hub hosting. Mr. Hochner growth is our commitment to providing superior service, customized solutions and robust technical capabilities. In a dynamic business world, we are a global content distribution provider positioned per fectly at the intersection of the fast growing markets in Africa and the developed markets in Europe, North America and Asia. Despite the current economic turmoil, we are op brought forth additional HD capabilities, supplement and enlarged our MCPC platforms. Consummating new deals in Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa tions with the highest service level in a global mar ket, states Hochner.
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76 SatMagazine July | August 2009 The successful deployment of the satellite will expand than 30 percent, provide an in-orbit redundancy ca Broadcast Satellite Spectrum ( BSS) band in Australia. To support this new frequency band, Optus has con structed a new Earth station in the Canberra suburb of Hume, which will act as the primary means of ac cess to the Optus D3 satellite and also provide ad stations in Sydney and Perth. The award-winning Canberra Technical Facility is also used by Optus to support other communication services including mo Brett Finch, General Manager, Optus Satellite Engineering, said, The construction of our new facility adapt to the ever-evolving conditions of the satellite in the early 1980s, they were distributed throughout Australia and were primarily used to support analogue TV distribution, with customer connections most commonly provided via local microwave links. To a large degree these were turn-key facilities with almost all of the equipment carrying the same brand. Fast forward 20 years to today and we see satellite technologies that have advanced to a remarkable new level. Satellite has evolved into a mainstream service delivery medium, fully integrated with the access tions network. We now use our satellites to provide a diverse range of services including digital TV, corporate data applications, consumer broadband internet,
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77 SatMagazine July | August 2009 mobile telephony, cellular backhaul and distance education, Mr. Finch said.Optus currently operates three major Earth stations across Australia in Perth, Sydney, and Canberra. These Earth stations allow Optus to provide the as sociated ground support for a variety of customers using Optus satellites, ranging from major TV broad casters to broadband Internet consumers. The Sydney and Perth facilities also house the equipment and the specialist operators who manage the command and control of the Optus satellites, as well as the service When people think about satellite services, it is usually the satellites that attract most of the attention; however the ground segment is also a critical element in end-to-end service delivery. The proviEarth stations is essential for successful business outcomes for satellite operators and our customers, said Finch. Rapid changes in technologies and services coupled with the current economic climate will continue to present challenges for operators. To ensure future business growth can be supported through use of these emerging technologies, operators need ment philosophies to years past. To be successful, operators must maintain the capability to integrate products from multiple ing reliability or quality of service for customers.As a result of this evolu tion, as well as changes in customer demands and other commercial factors, Optus now operates fewer, but larger, Earth station facilities. While aggregation ground-based facilities is a commercial reality, many of our major customers are quite rightly focussed on mitigating risks of service loss for business continuity purposes. For Optus, this means we are committed to careful management of satellite capacity, and to investment in the provision of geographically diverse backup ground access for key commercial services. Improved satellite sensitivities and power capabilities some services can be supported through more modest facilities. Environmental issues, planning regulations, and increasing competition means there well established operators. Mr. Finch said.
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78 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Riding The Rails With The Internet... At 200 MPH!by Roland Schaller W net access is concerned hotels, airports, A last challenge for Internet access was obtaining connectivity in a high-speed train running at 200 Miles per Hour just for informational purposes, for bullet trains in Europe these days. Such posed unique technical challenges. Enabling Internet access Cellular Wireless high-speed Internet access via 3G or CDMA technologies this technology is mostly available in countries where high-speed trains are deployed. However, the amount of work required to cover hundreds of kilometers of railway networks, often located in remote rural areas where Internet access is not much needed, does not make it economically feasible for the cellular providers to invest in such infrastructure. Bandwidth obtained using this technology is poor and as unsuitable as a backbone for the hundreds of users in a train attempting to access the Internet. Furthermore the high travel speeds pose some severe constraints on cellular infrastrucAnother commercial problem for cellular access is that data subscriptions are usually quite expensive age, such as when crossing borders, which is very frequent in Europe where a train can easily travel through as many as three or four countries during the course of its journey.Wi-Fi access is potentially interesting. Experiments are underway to cover lengthy track segments with dedicated Wi-Fi access, leaky cable technology (de signed to radiate a portion of a signal along its entire length the longer the cable, the less uniform the connection due to signal dispersal), and also WiMAX. These technologies are too immature for robust, daily service and use. Additionally, Wi-Fi does not behave well at high speeds. Of course, satellite access has the major advantage of providing high bitrates (up to a few Mbit/s per train) while being relatively immune to the high speed of the train, but does require a clear view of the sky.
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79 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Combining these three technologies enables seamless access to the Internet and takes advantage of the strengths of each technology:Satellite access when satellite is visible, i.e., no tunnels or buildings blocking the link Wi-Fi access when the train is approaching, standing in, or leaving the train station Cellular access while in dense urban environments or in tunnelsUsing these technologies means there must be some intelligence on the train that will manage the switch between any of these access technologies, depending on the condition of each link, managed by priorities: Wi-Fi access will always be favored over everything else when Wi-Fi is not available, satellite Internet will be used when satellite access is not available, the system will fall back on cellular access. For cell access, there are multiple modems installed, with traveled through in order to access the best available The diagram on the previous page illustrates the communication principles: All seems quite obvious from a principle point of view. However, there are some serious implementa tion challenges that need to be solved:When switching from one technology to the other, the IP addressing space changes, as other operators are brought into the mix Open data connections will reset due to changed IP addressing terms of bandwidth, delay, packet loss, and so onThe number of simultaneous users per train, when high enough, can saturate the link with the total Some users will attempt to consume more band-width, either consciously (watching video, downloading, peer-to-peer, etc), or unconsciously (viruses, Trojans and other Malware) partnering with major system integrators, has provided the technology to overcome the afore mentioned problems. The core technology of UDcast, known as the product line, was imple mented with extreme data compression, protocol enhancement, Quality of Service and security.
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80 SatMagazine July | August 2009 First, the extreme data compression, named compress, is used to reduce the amount of data sent over the data link, independently of which link is currently in use. WANcompress stores all IP data streams at the sending and receiving end, while at the sending end, the data is indexed and searched in real-time. This allows data to be found that has been already transmitted between a particular train and the ground (and vice-versa) to prevent retransmission a pointer to the data is sent instead. This 30 to 40 percent.Protocol and application enhancements such as TCP acceleration, HTTP Caching and Prefetching, DNS caching, further enhance the user experience and de suppression technology reduces the bandwidth on the return channel, allowing the use of freed up band width for more valuable data. The UDcast Virtual Private Network ( VPN) function performs two functions in this train context:It secures and authenticates the connection be-tween train and ground center More importantly, it overlays the private IP ad-dressing scheme of the train Internet Service provider over whatever addressing scheme that is used for the link is lost between the clients and the Internet when switching links or during short interruptions in the link that is currently being used. The Quality of Ser vice function is very important to ensure real-time access policy is enforced, attempting to give all users on the train the same capacity, even under circum stances where a link becomes congested. In a train environment, like any other vehicular envi such as temperature, shocks and vibrations, as well as regulatory and safety constraints, which have an impact on the hardware that can be used in the train. The UDcast software has been ported on an existing marine, road, or aeronautical transport use.
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81 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Further advantages of the UDcast open service plat can be implemented to accommodate user needs. In example, hardware with very limited processing power. The UDcast technology can also be extended with additional features that could include, but are telemetry, remote maintenance, least-cost routing, and so on. The photo on the previous page illustrates the com plete equipment rack, mounted in one of the wagons, and feeding the entire train, allowing Wi-Fi coverage through all of the wagons.Internet access in trains is currently deployed on some routes where there is a long travel time, typically a few hours the technology is gradually being extended to shorter routes and commuter trains.In addition to the service for the railway passen ger, the railway operators themselves are starting to use the same Internet access for their internal use. This would include non-vital train commu nication, on-board pas senger information, video surveillance, and digital signage systems, just to name a few. All these technologies make Internet access truly mobile and covers one of the few last white spots, much to the enjoyment of the traveller, or to the sadness of the business traveller who sees there is no excuse anymore for being unproductive on a train if you are on an Internet-enabled train right now, get back to work and stop gazing through the window to watch the cows watching you zip by at 200 Miles per Hour.About the author Roland Schaller drives global product strategy and communications activities of UDcast. He also leads the Technical Sales Support team of UDcast. He is a Senior Engineer in telecommunications, IP and Mobile technologies. Prior to his role as Vice President Product Management, Schaller managed the Presales Team and built the training programs. Before joining UDcast, Roland lead the Operations Support group at the Lucent Technologies European Technical Support Center.
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82 SatMagazine July | August 2009 Index of Advertisers COMPANY PAGE AAE 27 AVCOM 31 AVL 49 C-COM 77 CASBAA 47 COMTECH EF DATA 11 E2V 73 EUROCONSULT FOXCOM 79 FUTRON 37 GE INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL LINK 69 GLOBECAST 71 HARRIS CORPORATION 03 IDIRECT 21 INTEGRAL INTOREL 67 MITEQ INC. / MCL 29 NEAR EARTH LLC 17 NEWSAT 81 NEWTEC CV 07 NSR 70 PARADISE DATACOM 33 SATLINK COMMUNICATIONS 74 WAVESTREAM CORPORATION 19 WB WALTON 41 YR20
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