01-2012.pdf

xml version 1.0 encoding UTF-8
REPORT xmlns http:www.fcla.edudlsmddaitss xmlns:xsi http:www.w3.org2001XMLSchema-instance xsi:schemaLocation http:www.fcla.edudlsmddaitssdaitssReport.xsd
INGEST IEID ECH9NOYMP_Z2YL8L INGEST_TIME 2017-04-26T20:23:12Z PACKAGE AA00054427_00099
AGREEMENT_INFO ACCOUNT UF PROJECT UFDC
FILES



PAGE 1

S a t M a g azi n e W o r l d w i d e S a t elli t e M a g azi n e January 2012 in this issue Small Satellites: Changing The Size Of The Industry C-COM Satellite Systems Comtech EF Data Globecomm Chris Forrester, Alan Gottlieb, Jos Heyman + Bert Sadtler Grass Valley Harris CapRock Hermes Datacomms Intelsat Skybox Imaging Space Foundation T-VIPS Thrane & Thrane and much, much more...

PAGE 2

Payload Publishing Operations Silvano Payne, Publisher + Writer Hartley G. Lesser, Editorial Director Pattie Waldt, Executive Editor Jill Durfee, Sales Dir., Editorial Assistant Donald McGee, Production Manager Simon Payne, Development Manager Chris Forrester, European Editor Alan Gottlieb, Global Maritime Editor Richard Dutchik, Contributing Editor Jos Heyman, Contributing Editor Dan Makinster, Technical Advisor Bert Sadtler, Contributing Editor Authors Matt Allard Mark Dale Katy Harrison Casper Jensen Hartley Lesser Janet Stevens Eric Thompson Pattie Waldt Published monthly by Satnews Publishers 800 Siesta Way Sonoma, CA 95476 USA Phone: (707) 939-9306 Fax: (707) 838-9235 2012 Satnews Publishers We reserve the right to edit all submitted materials to meet our content guidelines, as well as for grammar and spelling consistency. Articles may be moved to an alternative issue to accommodate publication space requirements or removed due to space restrictions. Submission of content does not constitute acceptance of said material by SatNews Publishers. Edited materials may, or may not, be returned to author and/or company for review prior to publication. The views expressed in our various publications or opinions of SatNews Publishers. All rights reserved. All included imagery is courtesy of, and copyright to, the respective companies. SatMagazine January 2012 Vol. 4, #10 2 SatMagazine January 2012 Gottliebs Focus: Which Service Is Best? As satellite phone airtime prices have fallen and lower cost phones have been introduced, the market for satellite phones has grown substantially. With the introduction of Inmarsats low cost IsatPhone Pro and the likely coming revival of Globalstars duplex voice services, selecting the appropriate provider and hardware is more complicated than ever. P.40 A Case In Point: How to Run A Tight Ship PACC Ship Managers Pte. Ltd. knows how to run a Carriers Limited (PCL), a Singapore-based company that is a leading owner and operator of dry bulk carriers and product tankers. P.36 Executive Spotlight: Dan Berkenstock, EVP, Skybox Imaging Dan Berkenstock is an entrepreneur and engineer from Chicago, Illinois, with a healthy respect for the risks and rewards of doing business in space. He is also fascinated by scalab. P.48 Executive Spotlight: Janne Morstl, COO, T-VIPS AS Janne T. Morstl is COO of T-VIPS AS, a technology company providing professional video transport solutions. She is one of the founders of the company, and manages key functions within the company. P.88 Focus: Progression In The World Of SATCOMs @ Sea The maritime industry has always had a challenging time trying to keep its workforce in place. The financial reward for going to sea, often for months at a time, can be significant but the fact that seafarers are required to spend so long away from home means that many of them dont view life on the ocean waves as a job for life. by Casper Jensen. P.44 Forresters Focus: Newtec: Expanding... + Compressing This past year has seen the U.S. dramatically reduce have seen this in the U.S., says Serge Van Herck, CEO at Newtec. We have been able to grow very nicely in other parts of the world and this has stabilised and compensated those lost revenues. P.66 Heymans Focus: Aerosat A Brilliant Idea Gone Wrong In the early 1960s various ideas for dedicated application satellites were advanced including one for aeronautical communications that was being considered in the United States as well as the European nations, the latter through the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). Unfortunately the market was not ready for this development and the proposal was cancelled. P.82

PAGE 4

Advertiser Index 2012 Intl Satellite Directory 71 Advantech 09 AnaCom, Inc. 35 Arabsat 05 AVL Technologies, Inc. 37 Azure Shine Intl 03 Comtech EF Data 83 Comtech Xicom Technology 77 CPI, Inc. 91 Dubai World Trade Center 25 GE-Satellite 27 GigaSat 15 Global Link Productions, Inc. 87 Gottlieb Intl Group 69 Harris Corporation 11 MANSAT LLC 19 MITEQ / MCL Inc. cover + 33 NewSat Limited 07 Newtec CY 13 SatFinder 31 Singapore Exhibition Svcs. 39 SMI GroupO+G Satellite 53 SSPI Gala 73 Teledyne Paradise Datacom 49 W.B. Walton Enterprises, Inc. 51 Wavestream 45 SatMagazine January 2012 Vol. 4, #10 InfoBeam: Tracking Disease Satellite images of nighttime lights... P.06 InfoBeam: COTS Demos December 8, 2011, marked the one year anniversary... P.08 InfoBeam: Predictions The new generation of weather... P.10 InfoBeam: Six Pack A launch representing France, Chile and Russia has been successful... P.12 InfoBeam: 2Gs Launch Six new secondgeneration Globalstar satellites have been successfully launched... P.14 Insight: Spatial Repurposement + Awards Space folks dont always feel the love these days Stevens... P.72 Insight: Libyan Rapid Response... One of the most challenging projects the Company has faced in recent months was during the civil uprising in Libya for the oil & gas patch. With the demise of Colonel Gadaff... by Katy Harrison... P.26 Insight: Solar Weather Effects On Satellites Every once in a great while, a report surfaces about a communications satellite which has been partially or completely disabled as the result of a sudden knockout is that these things can happen... by Tobias Nassit. P.32 PRIME: Changing The Size Of The Industry How important are small satellites to our industrys judge for yourself by the editors... P.54 Re:Sources The Road To The Future Careers Many business leaders feel that sales producers are a special breed...by Bert Sadtler... P.86 SatBroadcasting Media Server Considerations A media server is a much more complex system than facility, there are a wide number of issues that should be carefully considered... by Matt Allard. P.76 TechTalk Bridged Point-to-Multipoint Satellite networks are often designed to support by Mark Dale. P.20 Insight: Welcome To The Year Of The Dragon Welcome to 2012 by Elliot H. Pulham. P.16 4 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 6

InfoBeam 6 SatMagazine January 2012 Tracking Disease Outbreaks Satellite images of nighttime lights, which normally are used to detect population centers, also can help keep tabs on diseases in developing nations, according to new research. An interna tional research team that includes Matthew Ferrari, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State, found that the new technique accurately indicates tion density and thus the corresponding risk of epidemic that can elude current methods of monitoring outbreaks. The research, reported in the current issue of the journal Science is expected to help medical professionals to synchro nize vaccination strategies with increases in popula tion density. Ferrari and his team used night time images of the three largest cities in the West African nation of Niger to correlate seasonal tions with the onset of measles epidemics during the countrys dry season, roughly from September to May. Because many pathogens that cause epidemics the population density is the greatest, satel lite imagery showing brighter areas indi cating greater numbers of people then can be used to pinpoint disease hot spots. The images, taken between 2000 and 2004 by a U.S. Depart ment of Defense satel lite, were compared to records from Nigers Ministry of Health of weekly measles outbreaks during the same years in Maradi, Zinder, and Nigers capital, Niamey. In many agriculturally dependent nations, such as Niger, people migrate from rural to urban areas after the growing season, explained Nita Bharti, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University of the research paper. As people gather in cities during the dry-season months when agricultural work is unavailable, these urban centers frequently become hosts to outbreaks of crowd-dependent diseases such as measles. Because temporary and seasonal migrations are very hard to measure directly, the night lights are an important source of data for Africa and Asia, especially, where other sources of data are some times absent. The team found that measles cases were most prevalent when a citys lighted area was largest and brightest. We found that seasonal brightness for all three cities changed similarly, Ferrari said. Brightness was below average for Maradi, Zinder, and Niamey during the agriculturally busy rainy season, then rose to above average as people moved to urban areas during the dry season. Measles transmission rates followed the same pattern low in the rainy season, high in the dry season. The team members also found that the relationship between brightness and measles transmission appeared even clearer at the local level, as did the potential value of the researchers technique in providing medical treatment. For example, in Niamey, measles cases were recorded daily for three districts, or communes, during the 2003 to 2004 dry season. Both brightness and measles infection peaked early in the northern districts in February and March of 2004. A two-week mass-vaccination campaign was launched in March and April of 2004, but popula tion density, as determined by light brightness, already had started to decline in the north of the city. Ultimately, the goal is to use this research to design better preventativevaccination programs and vaccination strategies when outbreaks do occur, Ferrari said. Bharti added that the teams new method is not limited to under standing measles. Think about malaria or meningitis, she said. These diseases are geographically to areas where this would be a useful technique. These are places that are not so industrialized that they always will be saturated with brightness and where there may be some level of agricultural dependence so that there are detectable labor migrations. The researchers also are exploring the use of nighttime lights with other large-scale populationResearchers analyzed the seasonal changes in nighttime-light brightness in Nigers largest cities. The height of the peaks represents the brightness of nighttime lights over the course of one year.

PAGE 8

8 SatMagazine January 2012 InfoBeam tracking methods such as the monitoring of mobilephone usage. When used alone, both population-tracking methods have their short comings, Bharti said. Nighttime-lights imagery is susceptible to weather conditions, while mobilephone usage data are biased in the portion of the population it can represent. Bharti and her co-authors hope that when nighttime imagery is combined with other tech niques, the measures will be complementary. In addition, the team members hope to explore uses for nighttime satel lite data outside of epide miology, such as tracking population displacement and mass migration during a war or following a natural disaster. We now have a technique that allows us to observe and measure changes in population density, Bharti said. This short-term use of night time-lights data could apply to a number of different situations beyond seasonal migrations and infectious diseases, such as humanitarian and disaster aid. Were excited about the potential this method has for other important global-health issues. In addition to Ferrari and Bharti, other authors of the study include Andrew Tatem of the University of Florida; Rebecca Grais of research facility located in France; Ali Djibo of the Nigerian Ministry of Health; and Bryan Gren fell of Princeton Univer sity. The research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information, contact Ferrari at 814-8656080 or mferrari@psu. edu or Barbara Kennedy, Penn State Science PIO, at 814-8634682 or science@ psu.edu Article is courtesy of Penn State Live, the Universi Dragons COTS Demos December 8, 2011, marked the one year anniversary of Dragons Transportation Services (COTS) demonstra made history as SpaceX became the only commercial company to successfully return a spacecraft from orbit. This feat had previ ously been accom nations and the Euro pean Space Agency. The Company is now preparing the Dragon spacecraft for yet another history to visit the Interna tional Space Station (ISS). NASA recently announced February 7, 2012, as the new target launch date for the upcoming mission. In be allowed to complete the objectives of COTS 2 and COTS 3 in a single mission. This means Dragon will perform all of the COTS 2 mission objectives which include numerous opera tions in the vicinity of the ISS, and will then perform the COTS 3 objectives. These include approach, berthing with the ISS, astro nauts opening Dragon and astronauts closing the spacecraft and sending it back to Earth for recovery the coast of California. This mission marks a major milestone in Amer the ISS will be to transport cargo, both Falcon 9 and Dragon were designed to ultimately transport astro nauts. Every trip made to the ISS from this point forward gets the Company closer to that goal. mission to orbit and back involved a level of effort equal to launching the Dragon for two weeks of operation in space and for approach and berthing with the ISS poses new challenges. Meeting them requires a large amount of detailed planning and careful execution. Each launch day will have just one narrow liftoff window no more than a few minutes in order to synchronize Dragons ISS. Catching up to the ISS will take from one to three days. Once there, Dragon will begin the COTS 2 demonstrations to show proper performance and COTS 2 objectives include Dragon demonstrating safe operations in the vicinity of the ISS. The actual zone of operations is greater than shown in the illustration above. Illustration: NASA / SpaceX. As part of the COTS 3 objectives Dragon approaches the ISS, so astronauts can reach it with the robotic arm. Illustration: NASA / SpaceX.

PAGE 10

10 SatMagazine January 2012 InfoBeam control in the vicinity of the ISS, while remaining outside the Stations safe zone. During the entire time Dragon is in the vicinity of the ISS, station astro nauts will be in direct communication with Dragon and will be able to monitor the spacecraft as well as issue space craft commands. After successfully completing the COTS 2 requirements, Dragon will receive approval to begin the COTS 3 activities, grad ually approaching the ISS from the radial direction (toward the Earth), while under constant observation. Dragon will approach to within a few meters of the ISS, allowing astronauts to reach out and grapple Dragon with the Stations robotic arm and then maneuver it carefully into place. The entire process will take a few hours. Once in place, Station astronauts will equalize the pressure between the ISS and Dragon, open the hatches, enter the vehicle and begin unloading Dragons cargo. After Dragon spends about a week berthed at the ISS, astronauts will reverse the process, loading Dragon with cargo for return to Earth, sealing the hatches, and un-berthing Dragon using the robotic arm. Dragon will then depart from the ISS and return to Earth within a day or so, and the SpaceX recovery crew will meet it at splash off the coast of California. Both the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and the Dragon spacecraft that will mission have been deliv ered to the SpaceX launch complex in Cape Canaveral, stage, second stage, and interstage were integrated and rolled out for two sepa rate wet dress rehearsals, in which SpaceX engineers performed the entire count down sequence up until the moment the engines would The Dragon COTS Demo 2/3 spacecraft and trunk have also been delivered to the launch pad Predictions Of The Spatial Sort The new generation of weather and envi ronmental satellites, became operational as GOES-West December 13, 2011. As a result, communities across the Western United States improved weather forecasts and environ mental intelligence. ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems, an operating division of ITT Exelis (NYSE: XLS), designed and built the imager and on board GOES-15 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra tion (NOAA) in cooperation with NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. In addition to producing the familiar weather pictures on U.S. newscasts, these instru ments will enable GOES-15 to provide early warnings of severe weather conditions hurricanes and hail storms. Providing timely access to environmental intelligence is critical to protecting lives, property and infrastructure, said Rob Mitrevski, vice presi dent, Intelligence, Surveil lance and Reconnaissance programs at ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems. The satellite instruments built by ITT Exelis continue to be an integral part of our nations weather fore cast ability, enabling our country to see and solve some of the toughest envi ronmental challenges. GOES satellites provide meteorologists with nearly continuous images as well as temperature and mois ture data, enabling more accurate weather forecasts. GOES data is also used for climate-weather prediction models; ocean tempera ture; charting ice; snow and glacier mapping; land temperature measurement; and monitoring agricultural crop conditions. GOES-15 was launched March 4, 2010. After reaching geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above The astronaut operating the robot arm aboard the ISS will move Dragon into position at the berthing port where it will be locked in place. Illustration: NASA / SpaceX. The completed Falcon 9 COTS Demo 2/3 vehicle in the SpaceX hangar at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photo: Mike Sheehan / SpaceX. ITT Excelis Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) More information at http:// www.exelisinc.com/solutions/ Pages/GOES-R.aspx

PAGE 12

12 SatMagazine January 2012 InfoBeam the U.S. and prior to being activated, the satel lite underwent six months of extensive post-launch testing before being parked in on-orbit storage. ITT Exelis has been designing and building space-borne meteorological instruments for nearly 50 years and is currently working with NOAA and NASA to build GOES-R. This next-gener ation environmental satel lite will include the most advanced meteorological imaging instrument ever built for operational weather forecasting, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Designed and built by ITT Exelis, ABI will monitor three times the number of atmo spheric conditions currently measured and will produce images that can discern objects as small as one-half a kilometer. ABI is also much faster, updating data every 30 seconds versus the current rate of 7.5 minutes. At that speed, ABI can create a full-Earth image in minutes for the current imagers. ABI also will zoom in and track a single storm while simul taneously collecting continent-wide data and imagery. All these improvements add up to faster and more accu rate forecasts, improved hazardous weather tracking and increased capability to study and monitor climate change. Six Pack Lift Off A launch representing France, Chile and Russia has been successful... Arianespace Flights VS02, ST24, VA205 and VV01 are aboard as Soyuz performs its second liftoff from the new French Guiana launch facility created for this medium-lift vehicles operations in service with Arianespace. Arianespace from the Spaceport with the successful launch that placed six satellite passengers into Sunsynchronous orbit. Departing precisely at the planned liftoff time of 11:03:08 p.m. in French Guiana, the Soyuz performed a three-hour, its payload of the French Pliades 1 and Chilean SSOT satellites for civilian and defense image gathering, along with four French ELISA microsatellite demonstrators for defense-related elec tronic intelligence gath ering (ELINT). This was Arianespaces second mission with the Russian-built mediumlift workhorse launcher performed at the Space port, and it occurred less than two months after Soyuz historic maiden on October 21. Designated Flight VS02 in the Arianespace launcher family numbering system, tonights mission involved four burns of Soyuz Fregat upper stage, which enabled the six satellites to be released for operations at altitudes ranging from 610 km. to 700 km. Using a new purpose-built payload dispenser developed for Arianespaces Soyuz missions, the deployment sequence began with the release of Pliades 1. It was followed by the simul taneous separation of all four ELISA satellites, and the mission was completed with the deployment of SSOT, which occurred three hours, 26 minutes after liftoff. The Soyuz lift perfor mance was an estimated 2,190 kg., which includes approximately 1,400 kg. for the Pliades 1, ELISA and SSOT satellites, along with the weight of its payload dispenser and integration hardware. This the Soyuz launcher family, which ushered in the space age and continues to demonstrate its reli ability and robustness in both unmanned and manned missions. Pliades 1 weighed in at 970 kg. at launch and will provide military and civilian users with very high resolution optical satellite imagery from a 700 km. orbit, offering 50cm. resolu tion imaging products at a coverage swath width of 20 km. Built by prime contractor Astrium for the French CNES space agency, Pliades 1 is a compact, hexagonalshaped spacecraft optimized for operational agility and image location accuracy. The Pleiades satellites offer in technology over previous generation satellites, based on their size, resolution, high degree of agility in orbit, and ground transmission capacity. The four ELISA (Elec tronic Intelligence by Satel lite) demonstrator satellites will enable French defense procurement agency DGA (Direction Gnrale de lArmement) to test the space-based mapping of radar transmitters across the planet, while also deter mining the characteristics of these transmitters. The DGA and CNES are co-project authorities, and chose Astrium, with Thales Airborne Systems, to build the four satellites, each weighing about 120 kg., along with the user ground segment. The Soyuz missions four ELISA micro-satellites are part of a joint demon strator program involving Artistic rendition of the Pliades 1 satellite

PAGE 13

the French DGA defense procurement organization and the countrys CNES space agency, with these spacecraft developed in a partnership of Astrium and Thales Airborne Systems. Weighing 120 kg. each, they have an operational design life of more than three years. Chiles SSOT (Sistema satelital de Observacin de la Tierra) is a dual-role military/civilian optical satellite that weighed 117 kg. at launch, and is designed for such missions as mapping, agricul tural monitoring, and the management of natural resources, disasters and risks. Built by Astrium for the Chilean armed forces, SSOT is based on the same CNES-conceived spacecraft platform as the ELISA satellites. Following this successful launch, Arianespace intends to continue its sustained launch cadence as another Soyuz mission is set for December 28 from Baikonur Cosmo drome in Kazakhstan, while preparations continue at the Space port in French Guiana for the new lightweight Vegas inaugural liftoff, as well as for the next Looking ahead to Arianespaces 2012 mission activity... Opera tionally, Ariane 5 lofted eight large geostationary telecommunications satel lites from French Guiana during the year repre senting one-half of all such payloads orbited worldwide in 2011 along with the no. 2 Automated Transfer Vehicle. The initial Vega to be launched from French Guiana is taking shape at the Spaceport, with its solid third stages now stacked on the launch pad. Shortly, Vegas AVUM liquid-propellant upper stage will be moved to the pad and installed atop the launcher. Integration of the upper composite, consisting of the launchers payload and protective fairing, is planned for integrated launcher and the countdown rehearsal. Vegas solid-propellant third stage is installed on top of the launcher earlier this month in French Guiana as this new light weight vehicle is readied the Spaceport in 2012. This introductory Vega mission designated VV01 is anticipated Vegas solid-propellant third stage is installed on top of the launcher earlier this month in French Guiana as this new lightweight vehicle is readied for its maiden flight from the Spaceport in 2012.

PAGE 14

14 SatMagazine January 2012 InfoBeam to occur in the JanuaryFebruary timeframe and will carry Italys LARES laser relativity satellite, along with the ALMASat-1 spacecraft from European universities and several small cubesat platforms. Separately, the no. 3 Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for servicing of the International Space Station is scheduled for a March 9th liftoff from French Guiana on an Ariane 5. This been declared ready for the Spaceport handover to Arianespace by industrial prime contractor Astrium. It will be the 205th mission with an Ariane family vehicle, and is designated VA205 in Arianespaces numbering sequence. The ATVs two major components its Inte grated Cargo Carrier and the Service Module have already been mated in the S5 payload preparation building at the Spaceport, marking a major milestone in preparations for the resupply spacecrafts liftoff. With Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega operating sideby-side from the Space port, Arianespace will have a complete launcher family that supports the compa nys goal of being able to launch any payload, to any orbitanytime. Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said the companys perfor mance in 2011 once again validated its market lead ership, with the numbers speaking for themselves. 2Gs Third Launch Six new second-genera tion Globalstar satellites have been success fully launched from the Baikonur Cosmo drome in Kazakhstan. The Globalstar satel lites were launched on Wednesday, December 28, 2011, at 11:09:02 p.m. local Baikonur time (5:09 p.m. UTC and 12:09 p.m. EDT) using the Soyuz-Fregat version of the Soyuz launch vehicle. There have been more than 1,780 successful launches of the Soyuz family launch vehicle. Launch services provider Arianespace stage accurately injected the six second-generation satellites into the targeted low Earth orbit of approxi mately 920 km. Globalstar reports that all six satel lites have been successfully acquired following separa tion of the Fregat Upper Stage and release from the satellite dispenser. Global star has initiated satellite in-orbit testing and all six spacecraft are operating normally at this time. It is with great plea sure that we announce the successful third launch and continued deployment of our second-generation constellation, said Tony Navarra, President of Global Operations for Globalstar, Inc. We are now only one launch away from completing our four second-generation satel lite launches and we look forward to the future services our new constel lation will support. With these six new satellites now safely in orbit, we once again congratulate and applaud all of our Globalstar employees world-wide and thank launch provider Ariane space as well as our satellite contractor Thales Alenia Space for this launch success. Globalstar signed a contract with satel lite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space in late 2006 for the design, manu facture and delivery of its second-generation constellation satellites. A total of four launches of six satellites each are being conducted by launch services provider Ariane was conducted in October 2010 and the second launch was completed in July of this year. The Globalstar secondgeneration satellite constellation is designed to support the Companys current lineup of voice, Duplex and Simplex data products and services including its lineup of SPOT retail consumer products. The new satel lites are designed to last for 15 years, twice the lifespan of Globalstars Once the four launches are complete and the second-generation satel lites are deployed, Global star expects to provide mobile satellite voice and fastest mobile satellite handset data services to customers in more than 120 countries. Combined with its affordable suite of consumer retail SPOT prod ucts, Globalstar expects to offer the worlds most extensive lineup of high quality mobile satellite services to the broadest range of commercial and retail consumer customers around the globe. Increased Activity China will launch the Shenzhou-9 and Shen zhou-10 spacecraft and achieve space rendezvous and docking missions with the orbiting Tiangong-1 vehicle in 2012, a spokesman for the China National Space Admin istration has revealed.

PAGE 15

15 SatMagazine January 2012 Spokesman Zhang Wei made the announcement at a press conference held in Beijing for the release of a white paper titled Chinas Space Activities in 2011. However, the spokesman did not unveil a detailed timetable for the launches. China issued the white paper on the development of the space industry since 2006 and the major tasks white paper was the third white paper on the countrys space activities issued by the State Council Informa in 2000 and another in 2006. The Chinese govern ment has made the space industry an important part of the nations overall development strategy and adhered to the explora tion and utilization of outer space for peaceful purposes, the white paper said. Over the past few years, China has ranked among the worlds leading countries in certain major areas of space technology, it said, adding that in the will be new opportunities for the countrys space industry. At the same time, China will work together with the international community to maintain a peaceful and clean outer space environment and endeavor to promote world peace and development, the document said. Major tasks listed in the white paper for the next transportation system, Earth satellites, human space exploration. China also plans to launch space laboratories, a manned spaceship and space freighters, and will start research on the preliminary plan for a human landing on the moon, the document said. As an important part of deep-space exploration, the countrys lunar probe projects follow the idea of three steps orbiting, landing and returning. the country plans to launch orbiters for lunar soft landing, roving and surveying to implement the second stage of lunar exploration. Artistic impression of Chinas Shenzhou-5 satellite

PAGE 16

by Elliot Holokauahi Pulham, CEO, Space Foundation Welcome To The Year Of The Dragon Point Of View A loha from Colorado Springs, the home of the Space Foundation, and welcome to 2012 which will either be the most auspicious year ever, or the end of life as we know it, depending upon whether you ascribe to the Chinese calendar or the Mayan one. In fairness to the Maya, they never predicted the end times; rather they stopped counting at 2012, perhaps because they foresaw declining ISQs in The answer, of course, is up to us. If we dwell on all the things that could make it bad ITAR, the injured U.S. space industrial base, a clueless and arrogant White House, etc. we could certainly pity ourselves into a funk of black hole proportions. If we choose, instead, to remain outside the pity pot event horizon and carpe some diem, theres no telling what a good year 2012 might be. 16 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 17

Byline Title Im mindful that our view depends upon our perspective. A lot of our partners in the global space community would likely characterize 2011 as a lousy and forgettable year and with good reason. But other of our partners managed record results in 2011 and, thus, would have a different perspective. For the Space Foundation itself, 2011 was a banner year not without its challenges, but a historic year of progress nonetheless. (Starting this month in Space Watch, were running excerpts from our soon-to-be-published annual report.) that many in the space community face. NASA has bet the farm on commercial orbital transportation systems, yet the COTS lynchpin could pop right out of the machine if competing interests both inside and outside the agency divert crucial funding. Key propulsion companies, relied upon by both NASA and the U.S. Air Force, cut people and facilities to the bone in 2011, and any further uncertainty about government procurements could push the United States into a hole that would take decades to crawl out of. Still, were frequently reminded that posi tive change can come when you least expect it, usually driven by people who believe. This past Nov. 30, delivering keynote remarks at the Space States Summit, I made an impassioned case for the development of a two-stage-to-orbit vehicle as both a disruptive breakthrough in space transpor tation and a means for driving a new generation of technology and innovation that could inspire, enable and (literally) propel humanity. Less than three weeks later, space enthusiast and serial innovator Paul Allen announced plans to do exactly that, in collaboration with legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and maverick space transpor tation company SpaceX. Allen and Rutan have been down this path before, with the Microsoft billionaire bankrolling the X-Prize winning Spaceship One effort, which in turn has spun off Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic suborbital space tourism enterprise. All of which serves to remind us that there is, indeed, a great deal of exciting space stuff going on around the world, and that 2012 is going to be a great year for some, if not all. Going back to COTS, its worth keeping an eye on United Launch Alliance and its partner companies this year, as ULA continues to make great strides space travel. Three of NASAs four Commercial Crew Development suppliers are counting on ULA to do the heavy lifting for their commercial crew systems, and, I believe, ULA will not disappoint. Taking a very different approach, 2012 should be the year that SpaceX makes history (yet again) cial vehicle to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). The company plans a demonstration SpaceX to also make some big breakthroughs with the human-rated version of Dragon. Speaking of Dragons, January 23 kicks off the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar. Dragon years are believed to be the most auspi cious, according to Chinese tradition, and I believe were going to see some auspicious developments in Chinas space program in the next 12 months. China carried out an impressive 17 orbital launches in 2011, including both the Tiangong-1 space station/docking testbed and the Shenzhou 8 space craft. The impressive automated docking maneu vers following those launches paves the way for the China Manned Space Engineering Organization to conduct its next set of missions in 2012, and I believe that China will leapfrog its own schedule and launch a Taikonaut crew to Taingong-1 becoming only the third nation to independently establish a crewed space station in orbit. Insight 17 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 18

18 SatMagazine January 2012 Not all thats worth watching in 2012 will Laboratory Curiosity is presently hurtling through space, en route to an August rendez vous with the Red Planet. Despite MELs picturenearest planetary neighbor, we need to remember has enjoyed great success in recent years with Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, the recent, failed Phobos/ Grunt mission serves as a sobering reminder that missions to Mars are frequently spacecraft killers. And Curiosity, of course, is probably most famous as the thing that killed the cat. With its wildly imagi native Skyhook landing system, the MEL mission is a bold gambit . just the kind of derring-do that we like to see in our space programs. One things for sure: this mission will have us glued to our seats come August. One group that will not want to be glued to its seats will be the passengers and crew aboard Space Ship Two when Virgin Galactic makes its Although Virgin Galactic has been very careful to measure its progress in test and safety mile stones rather than revenue seat miles, theres ample reason to believe that 2012 could mark the historic commencement of the Age of Personal Space Flight. And, of course, Sir Richard Bransons jaunty grin will factor in the occasion. And thats not all. 2012 will undoubtedly bring us more stun ning imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, and more astounding discoveries of M-Class planets from the Kepler Space Telescope. The Pan-Starrs array atop Haleakala will reveal more space debris than we ever imagined in the geostationary belt. Heretofore unknown Near Earth Objects will be discovered. The U. S. Air Force AEHF-1 satellite will become operational and ULA will launch at least nine spacecraft for the national security space community. ESA will conduct the maiden launch of its Vega launch vehicle. JAXA will launch its Kounotori 4 spacecraft on an autonomous docking resupply mission to the ISS, while Hayabusa 2 is being prepared for Japans second asteroid encounter and sample return mission. The India Space Research Organization three-stage GSLV MkIII launch vehicle. And, lets not forget, J.J. Abrams new Star Yes, its true that there is so much more that we could and should be doing in space. Election year politics are going to be ugly, and federal space programs are going to suffer because of it. The ITAR dragon will defy efforts to slay it, and U.S. space companies will continue to cry for their freedom to compete in world markets. But The View from Here is that the Year of the Dragon will be an auspicious one indeed in space. For all of us who love the milieu, the endeavor to advance space activities will be a battle worth joining, and fun to be part of to inspire, enable and propel humanity. Lets give it all weve got. Elliot Holokauahi Pulham

PAGE 20

by Mark Dale, V.P. Product Management, Comtech EF Data Bridged Point-to-Multipoint S atellite networks are often designed to support connectivity for Internet Protocol (IP) data traffic. In many networks (particularly government networks), data traffic is encrypted prior to arriving at the satellite communications element of the network. In encrypted IP-based networks, it is often highly desirable to have the satellite network transparently bridge traffic (i.e., operate at Layer 2 in the OSI model, rather than Layer 3 or higher). This eliminates the requirement to support routing protocols and other Layer 3 functions in the satellite communication equipment on the black side of the encryptor, which in turn greatly simplifies the configuration and operation of the overall network. TechTalk 20 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 21

21 SatMagazine January 2012 In many IP-based satellite networks, a pointto-multipoint, or hub-spoke network architec ture is also desired. However, standard Layer 2 Ethernet switches or other networking products operating at Layer 2 do not support hub-spoke networks. Hence without special processing, the requirement for Layer 2 connectivity in the satel point-to-multipoint network architecture. Comtech EF Datas bridged point-to-multi point implementation provides a solution to this problem, and enables Layer 2 bridged connectivity in a point-to-multipoint network. Point-to-Multipoint Network Architecture In a hub-spoke architecture, distributed remote terminals communicate to a central hub location. Point-to-multipoint is another term that is used to describe this architecture. Figure 1, shown on the next page, shows a hub-spoke architecture connecting a number of secure Government networks using SLM-5650A from the hub to the remotes is time division multi plexed (TDM) into a common Forward Link (FL). All remote terminals receive the FL. RemoteLinks (RLs) from each remote. In networks where multiple remotes need to connect to a common hub, a network architecture using a shared FL is often preferred because satel an alternative architecture using multiple point-topoint connections to each remote. This is partic ularly true when the network is IP-based, with time varying data rates to the remote users. Key a. Broadcast packets destined to all remotes are transmitted only once in the shared FL. An alternative architecture using multiple point-to-point links would need to transmit the broadcast packets in each link. b. Statistical Multiplexing: Shared FL capacity is utilized by the remote terminals that are active at a given time (i.e. capacity is not dedicated to idle terminals, nor is excess capacity dedicated to low data rate terminals). If data rates of the remotes vary over time, the ability to share the FL capacity provides both higher peak throughput and higher average throughputs to the remotes. Layer 2 connectivity is enabled by the BPM Network function shown in Figure 1. This function enables the satellite network to appear as a bridged LAN from the perspective of the Government networks on the red-side of the encryptors (as shown in the bottom part of Figure 1, next page). The BPM network function is implemented by a combination of packet processing in the switches. Details are provided in Section 0. Bridged Point-to-Multipoint Implementation A block diagram showing the key elements of the BPM solution at the hub is shown in Figure 2. Due to the split-path topology at the hub, the processed by different SLM-5650A or SLM-5650AD (demod only) devices. In the forward link direction, lator (a SLM-5650A acting as a shared modulator). In the return link direction, packets received via single carrier per channel (SCPC) return links are processed by hub demods (SLM-5650ADs oper ating as receive-only devices). Both the hub TDM modulator and the demods which have 4-port Ethernet switch interfaces (2 of the 4 ports of the Network Processor module are shown in Figure 2). The external hub Ethernet rate switches, the Hub LAN Switch, and the Hub Demod Switch. It is important to note that this is a functional concept only. The physical implemen tation of this switch could be accomplished in at least one of three ways 1 : a. Two separate switches, as illustrated in Figure 2. b. One physical switch, partitioned into two logical switches using port isolation (many commercially available managed switches have this capability). c. Hub LAN switch implemented as a single external switch, with the functionality of the hub-demod switch implemented by means of daisy-chaining the LAN ports of the hub demod units together (i.e. connecting the P1 port of one hub demod to P2 of the next hub demod). This has the advantage of reducing the required hub equipment. In the forward link direction, packets received from the hub data network ingress to the TDM modulator on a LAN port (P1), are forwarded to the satellite WAN port, encapsulated, optionally encrypted, and then transmitted to the satellite. No packets need ever be forwarded from the hub TDM modulator to the hub demods (hub demods are receive-only hub TDM port connected to the hub LAN switch

PAGE 22

22 SatMagazine January 2012 Figure 1: Point-to-Multipoint Satellite Network Provides Layer 2 Connectivity for Secure Government Networks

PAGE 23

23 SatMagazine January 2012 (P1) being output from the port connected to the hub demod switch (P2). For return link packets arriving via SCPC chan nels, care must be taken to avoid potential issues associated with the split path topology inherent in the point-to-multipoint system architecture. Two issues need to be addressed: 1. MAC address learning in the hub switches and modem switch ports. 2. packet transmission and/or reception. Figure 2: Bridged Point-to-Multipoint Block Diagram

PAGE 24

24 SatMagazine January 2012 TechTalk MAC Learning In The Hub Switches Typically, a Layer 2 switch learns the MAC-toport association (MAC learning) during operation. However, in managed switches, MAC Learning can optionally be disabled on a per port basis. Disabling MAC learning is necessary in two places: LAN port of the hub TDM modulator Network Processor that is connected to the hub demod switch (port P2). External hub demod switch ports that are connected to each of the hub demods (all ports). Disabling MAC learning on these ports avoids confu sion in the hub layer 2 switches 2 In the return link direction, disabling MAC learning on the hub demod switch ports causes all return link packets to be broadcast to all ports on the switch, including the port connected to the LAN port of the hub TDM modulator (P2). This serves to aggregate all of the TDM modulator port P2. The hub TDM modulator P1 port and WAN port off. In addition, a feature of the TDM modulator switch called port association is enabled. This feature allows the source MAC addresses from the TDM modulator P2 port to populate the MAC learning table for the TDM modulator WAN port. As a result, when a return link packet arrives at the TDM modulator port P2, based upon the learned MAC address, the packet is sent to the correct LAN or WAN destination. That is, the packet is sent to the hub TDM modulator P1 port if it came from a remote and is destined for a device on the hub network. If the packet came from a remote and is destined to another remote network, the packet is sent to the hub TDM WAN port for transmission to the forward link WAN TDM carrier. Shared Outbound MAC Filtering At The Remote Modems The hub TDM modulator will broadcast hub to remote and remote to remote packets as appro priate on the forward link. Because the outbound TDM carrier is shared across all remotes, every remote receives a copy of each packet. For large sometimes exceed the ability of the subsequent Layer 3 devices at the remote to process, and hence a given remote is optionally implemented. All unicast Ethernet data packets destined for a given remote terminal will have an Ethernet Destination Address (DA) of the router or encryp tion device connected to the remote modem. MAC matching this device, plus all multicast (broadcast) Conclusion Bridged point-to-multipoint enables a satellite oper ator to implement a point-to-multipoint network feature enables the operator to combine the band network topology, with the simplicity of a bridged satellite network. References 1 hub encryption device) connected to the Hub connect directly to P1 of the TDM modulator. Use of the daisy-chaining mechanism of imple then eliminate the need for any external hub 2 generated at the Hub destined for Remote Ad About the author Mark Dale is Vice President of Product Management for Comtech EF Data in Tempe Arizona, where he works to tion products for Government applications. He has worked in the satellite industry for many years, and has contributed to the systems engineering, design, and implementation of several satellite communica tion products and systems. Prior to joining Comtech EF Data, he worked at Lucent Technologies, Broadcom, and Viasat. He has an o degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

PAGE 26

By Katy Harrison, Marketing + PR Manager, Hermes Datacommunications, Ltd. Rapid Response To Libyan O&G Comms Requirements O ne of the most challenging projects the Company has faced in recent months was during the civil uprising in Libya for the oil & gas patch. With the demise of Colonel Gadaffi on October 20th, 2011, Hermes Datacommunications worked feverishly to renew operations in the country and recently announced the Libyan oil fields are now fully operational. Subsequent to that announcement, Hermes installed two new VSAT systems for companies working in the oil and gas sector, providing communication links from clients offices based in Tripoli to their headquarters in Europe via the Hermes teleport in the United Kingdom. In November, Hermes won a contract from a major oilfield services company to provide a multi-site 4mbps C-band SkyWire cloud to provide connectivity for their headquarters in Tripoli, enabling the client to re-establish office connections. Glynn Wagg, Country Manager Libya, said, The contract was signed and the system was installed by the engineering team from Tripoli just five days later. I believe the client chose Hermes not only because of our proven track record in delivering reliable, efficient and cost effective comms solutions but also because we are now fully operational in Libya and we are able to respond quickly to customers VSAT requirements. Hermes Datacomms has an established presence within the Libyan capital, Tripoli, trading continuously and has been operating in Libya since 2005 supplying VSAT communication needs and Libya, said, During the unrest, we continued to provide full service and maintenance support. Hermes Datacomms uses technology that has proven to be reliable in Libya and our network designs are built with redundancy and no single point of failure. This design ensured our customers were able to continue to transmit data and retain voice connectivity. Hermes approach to service and support aims to maximize the reliability of the clients system monitored remotely, 24/7/365, by Hermes regional Network Operation Centers. Insight 26 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 27

27 SatMagazine January 2012 Glynn Wagg continued, One of our clients in Libya relied on the state communication system for their comms solutions from their rigs in the Libyan desert to their headquarters in Europe. As the unrest grew, the state system became less and less viable and eventually went down. Our clients asked us to set up a satellite dish at very short notice. We took the kit out the next day and set the dish up, providing Internet from the U.K. as well as international telephony. The client was able to continue with its normal operations without having to rely on the state communications. We have continued to support our clients throughout the disturbances, from our support teams, out of the U.K. and Tripoli. Recently, we have been assisting our current and new customers to rebuild their communication systems. Our ex-patriot staff has started to return to Tripoli with the task of inspecting our infrastructure and meeting with the new government and ministers to ensure that we comply with the NTC vision. Saleh ben Saleh, Administrative Director, Libya, who has remained in Tripoli during the civil uprising, said, We have provided service to customers in Libya including BP and PetroCanada. New business has been seriously affected as foreigners are still overcoming the hurdles of coming back to the country. The main immigration Hermes Datacomm monitoring equipment

PAGE 28

28 SatMagazine January 2012 Insight re-building the infrastructure. Companies are keen to get back into the country due to the importance of the Libyan market with respect of the oil and gas industry. Tripoli is probably about 90 percent safe now, although you can still hear a few rounds being a small war broke out in Zawiya, a small town between the Tunisian border and Tripoli. Many of the oil and gas companies are re-establishing oper cities, but drilling sites within the Libyan Desert are still too dangerous. [As of this writing] We are waiting for the new Prime Minister, Abdurrahim El Keib, to form the new transitional government who can address the safety issues of rebel forces. Until then, it is not safe and oil and gas companies are not sending personnel out into the desert. We expect it will be three or four months before it will be safe. were interfered with during the past few months and equipment and links will have to be recon nected. We have several customers in Libya who continued to use our service. The Libyan situa tion affected their business dramatically. Hermes systems are ready for business and our satellite links are ready immediately. The International Energy Agency recently wrote, Efforts to restore oil production in Libya are progressing faster than anticipated. According to their latest Oil Market Report, restoration of oil production in Libya is on a far faster track than initially anticipated. Crude oil supplies rose from an average of 75 thousand barrels per day (kb/d) in September to around 350 kb/d in October, and 500 kb/d in early November. We see plenty of potential within the oil and gas sector in Libya. There is still a lot of uncer challenge is the safety of our engineering team local infrastructure will take some time to re-build but Hermes is positive about its future in Libya as we are in a position where we are providing full neering support and in country stock. Libya is just one example of the often turbulent environments we operate in. Hermes Datacomms has a strong regional presence in Russia and and the Middle East, with business in Afghanistan and Iraq. Operating in the Middle East for more than 2008 to answer the growing demand within the region and to enable Hermes to provide its regional customers with more in-depth, direct and exten sive support. Kevin Thorley, CEO Middle East, said, We team of engineers and a 24/7 help desk. From an grown to 22. We see tremendous growth in Iraq Hermes Datacomms Middle East recently announced they received their trading license for Iraq. The Iraq branch has been approved by the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Trade. By obtaining this license, Hermes Datacomms further secures VSAT service providers in Iraq. Thorley explained, We see huge growth currently taking place in Iraq and predict that this will continue steadily, if not exceedingly for the we are not only effectively established within the region, but also that we are continuously devel oping and strengthening our own offering to cater for the demands ahead. Thorley expands Oil and gas companies are not just looking for a VSAT provider; they are looking for a company that offers an integrated solution. We are now working with partners to make sure we deliver turnkey projects that would involve Our approach is to manage and control all aspects of the network, end-to-end, including licensing and logistics at both ends of the satellite link. Nigel Green has recently been appointed Head of Security and Operations in the Middle East. Nigels background makes him the perfect candi date for this role, having previously worked for the Middle East private Security Company Olive group Kevin Thorley, CEO Middle East, and Nigel Green, Head of Security

PAGE 29

29 SatMagazine January 2012 and a military background serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nigel is responsible for the security of all Hermes personnel within the Middle East. He implements audits on security companies, orga nizes accommodation and methods of transport, and liaises with client security companies. Green explains, More and more expats are visiting sites in Erbil, North Iraq, down to Umm Qasr in Southern Iraq and there is a need for command and control for those personnel visiting these areas. Planning take place to ensure the security team is aware of what is happening in the area, intelligence reviews are carried out to identify any recent incidents or threats and safe accommodation is arranged in the area, normally at the US Military Base, although that has come under rocket attacks in the past. Green continues, When personnel are out on train personnel on what to do in the event of a road side bomb or small arms attack. We provide B6 armored vehicles and the personnel are accom panied by security companies, which cost around $4,400 per day, to ensure that all possible actions have been taken to keep personnel safe. Green says It is about mitigating against threats of operate as safely as possible within these regions. For more information, please contact Katy Harrison, Marketing and PR Manager, katy.h@ hermes.uk.com or contact +44 1743 23555 or visit www.hermes.uk.com About Hermes Datacomms Ltd Hermes Datacommunications Ltd specializes in providing Wide Area Communications to the upstream oil and gas industry worldwide. With over 20 years experience, service in 54 coun tries, representing 92 percent of the worlds oil and gas reserves. Hermes Datacomms provides remote and challenging locations, both onshore to the oil and gas industry and include interna infrastructure. Hermes Datacomms is listed in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 2011 as one of Britains 100 private tech companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. Dish setup in Libya

PAGE 30

Hermes Case Study 1 Client BP Background connectivity at short notice to meet their opera Project including: Life support camps, de-gassing data and voice capabilities over a fully meshed Solutions/Services Agreed strict SLAs to ensure maximum uptime of the VSAT link. Assigned an account manager to provide advice priority fault tickets. Trained and mentored local BP staff on the use of to reduce additional costs. Hermes Case Study 2 Client Baker Hughes Location: Libyan Desert Background solution at short notice for their seismic and bilities in a remote location. Solution Developed a solution to provide Baker Hughes Provided a mobile VSAT solution operating on a private providing connectivity and communications, in high speed voice and internet service. With a press lorries and taken to the location for their seismic and drilling operations in the Libyan Desert. Service For fault reporting, the customer can contact our Service Desk and speak to a trained engineer. Assigned an account manager to provide advice priority fault tickets. Insight 30 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 32

Insight Solar Weather Effects On Satellites E very once in a great while, a report surfaces about a communications satellite which has been partially or completely disabled as the result of a sudden knockout blow delivered by the sun. The first thing to keep in mind is that these things can happen. The second thing to keep in mind is that they happen very rarely. succumbed to any form of so-called solar weather, which satellites are designed and built to withstand. The study of solar weather is ongoing, and operators are constantly monitoring the suns activities and improving their ability to respond to the impact of solar events. Satellite operators tend to focus on four elements of solar weather that can affect satellite communications: solar wind, coronal holes, coronal 32 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 33

33 SatMagazine January 2012 33 SatMagazine January 2012 The solar wind is constant but varies in inten sity, while the other three solar phenomena come and go. The goal in terms of space infrastructure has been to identify and effectively counter the suns link to so-called single-event upsets (SEUs) that happen whenever the performance of one or more spacecraft compo nents abruptly changes without warning. SEUs are not likely to be caused by the solar wind itself, which is relatively low in energy and seldom penetrates the outer layers or protective skin of a spacecraft. Instead, more disrup CMEs and coronal holes, whose powerful reach often extends beyond Mars orbit. When solar storms erupt, they can bombard a satellite with highly charged particles and increase the amount of charging on spacecraft surfaces. When CMEs occur in the suns corona or outer atmosphere, a huge amount of plasma and magnetic energy is emitted. The huge and quite visible explosions on the sun are known as extreme form of solar storms. They discharge large amounts of radia tion and highly charged clouds of protons, in particular. X-ray obser vations provide an important early warning for astronauts in orbit, while slower-moving CMEs often trail behind, subject to the suns CMEs follow a curving path as they leave the sun. Because of this, the CME may not actually impact satellites at all. When a CME impacts the Earth, the Earths magnetic one side and stretches out on the other. This can result in dazzling for example. Fortunately, most CMEs last only three days or less.

PAGE 34

34 SatMagazine January 2012 Insight Thankfully, the sun is fairly predictable in this regard, and sunspot activity takes place on 11-year cycles, with the maximum or most intense stage lasting about two years and the least intense Since 2006, we have experienced the least active period of major solar weather events in recent history. In other words, the sun has been very quiet lately. Coping with electrostatic discharges from the sun that can potentially disrupt satellite services are part of the everyday reality of the satellite world. Losing solar power is not a serious concern, whereas losing total control and command of a satellite as the result of solar weather is the most severe effect. Solar panels on satellites are the most affected components, and normal erosion rates for solar panels are usually 0.3 percent to 1 percent per year. A solar storm can reduce solar panel perfor mance by 3 percent to 5 percent in a day, but since this phenomenon is well understood, space craft manufacturers increase the tolerances by design and attach larger-than-needed solar panels to satellites to allow for losses during the antici pated solar storms. The body of a communications satellite, which contains vital control and communication compo nents, uses special materials, as well as active and passive measures, to be highly resilient. A Faraday cage protects the satellites internal equipment from external electrical charges. Highenergy particles discharged by the sun rapidly lose strength as they pass through the multiple layers of a spacecrafts body or bus. There, they encounter a series of specially designed circuit dividers, indi vidual compartments and other unique structural elements that act as barriers. The disruptive nature of solar weather impacts far more than satellite operations and adversely affects terrestrial power and communications grids. For these and other reasons, a considerable amount of manpower and money has been devoted to monitoring the suns activity, and more research into solar phenomena in general is planned in the steady improvement in our ability to rapidly detect and track these solar events using powerful obser vation and detection systems both on the ground and in space. NASA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense oversee much of this activity. In addition to NASAs twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, the Air Force Research Laboratory has launched the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite to forecast the presence of ionospheric irregularities caused by the sun that adversely impact communication and navigation

PAGE 35

35 SatMagazine January 2012 systems. Spaceand ground-based measure ments have been taken to help determine how the plasma irregularities affect the propagation of electromagnetic waves, among other things. Satellites depend upon the sun, and satellite operators have steadily improved tools and tech niques which allow them to ensure the operational integrity of all satellites in the face of all forms of solar weather. That weather changes over time, while satel lite performance and design continues to improve. Thanks to proper planning, design and execution, the survival rate of satellites is quite remarkable. About the authors Peter Brown is a freelance writer who has covered evolving satellite technology appli cations and the global satellite industry for more than two decades. This article is derived from a white paper written for Intelsat. Mr. Tobias Nassif is responsible for the overall management and operation of Intelsats global as 11 satellites operated for third-party entities. This effort includes the 24/7 operation of the spacecraft, orbit analysis and maneuver planning of the movement with other satellite operators, and restoration from and resolution of spacecraft anomalies. Additionally, Mr. Nassif is responsible for the acquisition and mainte continual operation. Prior to the merger of Intelsat and PanAmSat in 2006, Mr. Nassif was responsible 35 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 36

A Case In Point How To Run A Tight Ship P ACC Ship Managers Pte. Ltd. knows how to run a tight ship. They do it for their parent company, Pacific Carriers Limited (PCL), a Singapore-based company that is a leading owner and operator of dry bulk carriers and product tankers. In addition to serving as PCLs in-house ship management arm, PACC also manages vessels for third parties: A total of 46 vessels including dry bulk carriers, product tankers, chemical tankers, container feeder vessels and multi-purpose vessels, with home ports in Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. Ship management companies are the outsourcers of the maritime industry. Their clients core business is moving cargo, and ship managers look after everything else, from manning and equipping to provisioning and maintaining the ship and its systems. Communications is a key piece of the puzzle, for safety at sea, ship management and crew morale. 36 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 37

37 SatMagazine January 2012 Managing With se@comm Since 2005, PACC Ship Managers has been a customer of Telaurus, a Globecomm company that provides a comprehensive service platform for the management of maritime communications. Traditionally, communications at sea involves an unwieldy mix of providers (Inmarsat, Iridium) and services (voice, data) with complex pricing that can produce sticker shock when the monthly bill arrives. The se@commTM system from Telaurus provides a single shipboard computer interface for managing email and data services, which typically The system produces those savings in several ways. It interfaces with Inmarsat so that, instead of charging by the minute or message, Telaurus charges by the kilobit, usually at a much lower rate. The se@comm system then adds advanced compression and encryption to substantially reduce the number of kilobits required. Prior to transmit ting any message, se@comm displays its cost and allow each user to decide what email addresses they will accept messages from and how large those emails may be. This sophisticated approach to communica tions management applies to crew services as well. Intuitive account screens make it easy to set up crew members email accounts using a prepaid scratch card or credit card. Each user receives an email address that can move from ship to ship with crew members about newly arrived email without requiring them to query a shoreside server. Broadband Advantage Inmarsat B service, a traditional offering that provides direct-dial phone, telex, fax and data communica tions but at only 9.6 kilobits per second. That is a very a narrow pipe by todays stan dards, says Patrick Sim, director of sales and marketing for Telaurus in Singapore. Inmarsat B service was reliable and proven, but it was gradu ally becoming a bottleneck for their operation.

PAGE 38

38 SatMagazine January 2012 A Case In Point Fortunately, there was an alternative. In 2007, Inmarsat introduced Fleet Broadband, a true mari time broadband service delivered by the compa nys new I-4 satellites. Fleet Broadband delivers an always-on Internet Protocol service at speeds from 150 to 432 kbps. Like a home or business broadband connection, it supports voice, email, SMS text, virtual private networks, even ISDN for legacy applications. Fleet Broadband is really a new world for ship owners and managers, says Sim. We began talking with PACC about this in 2009, and convinced to support new applications, and dollar-for-dollar savings compared with Inmarsat B. Growing Capabilities In January 2010, PACC made the decision to convert 35 of its ships to Fleet Broadband provided through the Telaurus system. Telaurus provided the software upgrade, the Fleet Broadband contract and the Thrane & Thrane shipboard antennas, while PACC took responsibility for installing the constantly on the move, the work went in stages, requiring about six months to provision each third While the capabilities of Fleet Broadband are new, the game is the same when it comes to squeezing the greatest value from that capacity. Our services are like a data plan for a smart phone, says Patrick Sim. If you dont have a data plan, you can pay a lot of money per bit. But with the management and compression technologies we provide, PACC can meet all of its needs for a very beyond the reach of a 9.6 kbps service. The PACC installation includes se@SHIELD, for example, a unique variation on traditional antivirus software. Conventional antivirus software requires regular two-way interrogation between the computer and shoreside servers, with frequent updates to shipboard environment, these are either costly or impossible. Maritime users wind up paying for regular downloads they do not receive, and have a far lower level of virus protection as a result. With se@SHIELD, the Telaurus shoreside servers know the status of every se@SHIELD installation and send only the data required when new updates become available. This reduces ally small in size and are transmitted in compressed form. Telaurus also eliminates updates of the scanning engine itself. The se@SHIELD system automatically updates every PC on the shipboard tion against the most common source of ship board viruses: Flash drives and other external hard drives that are plugged into a PC. When an external drive is plugged in, se@SHIELD automati cally scans it for viruses before any data transfer can take place. The software can also be loaded even if the PC is not on the local area network. better control of our budget, says George Tan, general manager of the technical department at PACC Ship Managers. The prepaid phone cards for crews eliminate the need for paperwork for crew phone bills as in the old system. The auto updates of the virus list in the se@SHIELD program also eliminate the need to send quarterly virus updates, as with other anti-virus programs. Next Step: Video? PACCs interest in Fleet Broadband was sparked in part by the potential of video communications. devoted users of videoconferencing, because they misinterpretation in high-stress situations. The same logic applies at sea, and PACC is interested in giving its captains the ability to videoconference with the headquarters staff. Even more intriguing is the opportunity to add video surveillance capabilities to its ships. By posi tioning cameras at strategic locations and having them monitored from shoreside, PACC can poten tially improve safety on its decks, reduce pilferage in the hold, and enhance its ability to guard against pirate attacks. But adding video also adds costs, says Patrick Sim. While impressed by the potential of video, PACC is waiting for market conditions to justify the next expansion of its capabilities. Its a privilege to work with industry leaders like PACC Ship Managers, says Globecomm chairman and CEO Dave Hershberg. Globecomm has expanded strongly into maritime services over the past few years. From managed Inmarsat and Iridium service to VSAT broadband, we are now serving thousands of ships at sea every day. A modern ship is a mobile warehouse and be tightly integrated into the operations of a global supply chain. But running a tight ship, as PACC Ship Managers does, also requires a sharp eye on the bottom line. With Fleet Broadband service provided by Telaurus, PACC has found the best of both worlds. Globecomm Systems website

PAGE 39

Singapore Exhibition Services Full Page Ad placeholder

PAGE 40

by Alan Gottlieb, Global Maritime Editor Iridium, Inmarsat + Globalstar... Which Service Is Best? Gottliebs Focus A s satellite phone airtime prices have fallen and lower cost phones have been introduced, the market for satellite phones has grown substantially. With the introduction of Inmarsats low cost IsatPhone Pro and the likely coming revival of Globalstars duplex voice services, selecting the appropriate provider and hardware is more complicated than ever. Of course, low priced services and hardware that do not fit the users needs are never a bargain. Deceptively low pricing can be a dangerous allure to the unwary, in particular, for those who have not properly analyzed their needs to determine which products are the best fit. While the new services do offer lower cost terminals, each is distinctly different, making a careful comparison of features and coverage essential. Consequently, an accurate analysis of how and where the phone will be used U.S. only, +70 to -70 degrees north and south, globally (including Polar and Far North) and for what purpose exclusively voice, long calls, short calls, email, data is essential. 40 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 41

41 SatMagazine January 2012 For those in search of a new satellite phone provider, Gottlieb International Group analyzed the choices by user type and application and found that the new services have tended to enlarge the SatPhone market by opening new, less mission-critical segments. Based on the type of user and their requirements, here are the advantages, and disadvantages, of each SatPhone offering as we see them: The Iridium Phone With more than 500,000 subscribers, Iridium is the dominant player in the satellite phone (SatPhone) market. They offer true global coverage (including extreme northern and southern latitudes and the Polar regions), rugged handsets, location-based services that enable tracking in near-real-time, SMS and email capabilities as well as an unmatched accessories and applications. Recently, the Company announced its Iridium Force Initiative that includes: New handsets that meet military stan dards (Mil-Spec 810F) for ruggedness that feature one-button SOS capabilities and Location Bases Services with full GPS tracking ability form around which partners can build An Open software platform that Partners can use to develop web portals for a variety of personal and asset tracking applications A WiFi Access point that allows laptops and smartphones to connect to the Iridium constellation using either an Iridium Extreme or 955 phone A Call Center emergency response support service linked to the dedi cated SOS feature on the Iridium Extreme phones While Iridium is the recognized leader in this space, all satellite phone services have their own unique disadvantages, and Iridium is no different. As Iridium is an LEO constellation, the satellites move constantly, making reception a function of satellite positioning. At times, mountains or other near horizon objects may obscure the satellites and cause interruption of service a problem that tends to be experienced only on excessively long calls of 15 minutes or longer. Of course, GEO satel lites can also experience similar call disruptions if the user is moving. For most users, however, this issue is manageable. The Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro With the introduction of its new IsatPhone Pro, Inmarsat offers a possible alternative to Iridium for more cost conscious users and those who can do without global coverage or a wide-variety of value add services. So far, the service has captured 30,000 users, largely due to Inmarsats excellent reputation as a satellite service provider, and the lower cost of its phones (U.S. $500.00 range). While low-priced handsets and voice quality are positives, the new Inmarsat service has several notable disadvantages: No ruggedized phone models minutes or more) Inability of the phone to receive calls without the antenna extended Questionable connectivity above 60 degrees North especially on the deck of a pitching and rolling vessel and no Polar coverage Lack of a one-button SOS feature No location-based services that allow GPS tracking of the phone. Limited

PAGE 42

42 SatMagazine January 2012 Gottliebs Focus accessory availability: In addition, accessories are available from only one supplier, Beam Communications of Australia While questionable far North coverage and no Polar coverage is not a major issue for most users, we believe that excessive waiting time for satellite connectivity is a serious shortcoming and, under certain circum stances, could be a life threatening issue. At the very least, having to maintain the satellite antenna in an extended position is an inconvenience. Whats Up At Globalstar? Those users considering Globalstar need to be aware of the Companys ongoing efforts to recon stitute their satellite constellation and upgrade their infrastructure. While Globalstar phones are priced in the same $500 range as the IsatPhone Pro units, uncertainties regarding the coverage areas and functionality of the new constellation have yet to be determined as only two of the four launches have been completed. In reconstituting the constellation, four launches of six satellites were planned and two have occurred, one in October 2010 and the second in July of 2011. Those launched in October 2010 experienced problems with their momentum currently operational, and one is in Safe Hold due to malfunctioning momentum wheels). Thales is the satellites provide service and complete their planned 15-year mission. Of those launched in July 2011, three are currently in service, and three more will go online during the next three months. However, according to Thales, the July series of satellites could also experi ence the same momentum wheel problems as those launched in October 2010. If this occurs, then the series, one was launched December 28th and the Thales will build additional satellites, and at what price, remains an item of contention and is currently under arbitration with a resolution expected in early 2012. As coverage is an important issue for the user, the number of operational satellites aloft needs to be considered. As both Globalstar and Iridium are in the process of launching new satellite constellations, potential customers need to follow their progress closely. Another issue of importance is the transition of the Globalstar platform from Qualcomm to Hughes infrastructure. Globalstar has signed a contract to upgrade its network to the Hughes platform. According to When we put the new services into place in each of the ground stations, we will be advising all our subscribers how they can either transition their service to the second-generation service, or for what period of time they can continue to use their current prod ucts and services. Consequently, users purchasing the existing handsets need to be aware that their hardware will become obsolete in the near future, unless, of course, they will use their phones in a region or area where the gateway, or gateways, are not upgraded to the Hughes infrastructure. Another issue is whether, in actuality, all of Globalstars third party, international Gateway operators, will undertake the expense to upgrade their regional gateways to the Hughes platform is yet unresolved. At this point, other than in areas where Globalstar owns its own gateways, global compatibility under one platform cannot be assured. In addition, when Qualcomm discontinues support of their platform, Globalstar services may only be available in regions where the platform is upgraded to Hughes. Of course, those users under the Hughes platform should have the option to use the newer Hughes compatible handsets and faster data speeds as soon as the HNS platform is available. Finally, purchasers of Globalstar phones need to know that the models currently available for sale are the oldest of the three phones compared here, and lack many of the features found in the newer phones. The GSP-1700 was originally intro duced to the market in early 2006, making it four

PAGE 43

43 SatMagazine January 2012 older than the Iridium Extreme. The GSP-1700s currently available for sale are likely to have been these phones are a bit smaller and lighter than competitive models, the real issue still is how long these handsets will be supported given the transi tion to the Hughes infrastructure. Data Services Compared Inmarsat and Iridium both offer basic circuit switched data speeds of 2.4 kbps. Using a direct Internet feature, Iridium offers compressed speeds of up to 9.6 Kbps. However, using XGate soft ware from Global Marine Networks, both Iridium and Inmarsat are able to achieve data speeds of up to 20 Kbps. Globalstar offers the fastest regional uncompressed data service at 9.6 Kbps and can also reach higher speeds with similar data compression software. Essentially, all services are priced by the minute and the minimal differences in data speed and price are largely irrelevant. Iridium handsets are also able to take advantage of Iridiums Short Burst Data (SBD) service, a packet data service ideal for small messages. Iridium SBD provides a highly reli able and cost effective method of delivering location reports and messages from the new Iridium Extreme. In Conclusion If we carefully consider the strengths and weaknesses of the three excessive satellite acqui sition delays, character istic of the IsatPhone Pro; and limited and uncertain coverage areas associated with Global-stars transition to the Hughes platform, barriers to adoption of these phones in the high-end, mission crit ical market.While the Inmarsat and Globalstar handsets are less expen sive alternatives in the short run, Iridiums offering of a tough, ruggedized handset, global coverage, conti nuity of service under a single platform, and avail ability of numerous, industry sories will continue to make it the service of choice for all but the most casual, cost conscious users. About the author Mr. Gottlieb is Managing Director of Gottlieb International Group Inc. Established in the application of VSAT Technology in Maritime and Oil & Gas Markets. Gottlieb Internationals mission is to provide vendors with the hands-on informa tion and contacts needed to structure product and service offerings, and to assist Maritime VSAT buyers in selecting the appropriate service and vendor. 1 Varies Signifcantly. To determine current satellite availability, Globalstar provides a software tool on their website. As additional satellites are added, network registration times should be reduced. 2 In order to reduce costs, some dealers are subsidizing phone costs for one-year contracts. Satellite Phone Features Comparison Table

PAGE 44

by Casper Jensen, V.P. Maritime Business Unit, Thrane & Thrane Progression In The World Of SATCOMs @ Sea T he maritime industry has always had a challenging time trying to keep its workforce in place. The financial reward for going to sea, often for months at a time, can be significant but the fact that seafarers are required to spend so long away from home means that many of them dont view life on the ocean waves as a job for life. So crew retention is a major concern for ship operators human resources departments. The companies with the best track record in supporting long term careers at sea are those that see fit to invest in the best facilities for their crew aboard vessels. Ensuring that there is a safe working environment and that crew members can relax and enjoy their time when off-shift is vital to long-term workplace sustainability, and the majority of major shipping players see SATCOM as a cost-effective way of enabling this. 44 SatMagazine January 2012 Focus

PAGE 45

45 SatMagazine January 2012 Inmarsat FleetBroadband, which is the maritime variant of Inmarsats Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), is the major Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) for shipping. Its the only satellite broadband service available globally, which, when looking at the global nature of shipping, is a very attractive feature for ship owners and operators. Although since its launch in November 2007, companies have chosen FleetBroadband provide Internet to crew on-board, ultimately for long term crew reten tion, many users quickly recognised the opera offers. They quickly inte grated the system into system networks in order to realise the poten tial of a full IP connec tion, which has enabled numerous enhancements to safety and operational FleetBroadband is, when compared to VSAT antennas, very easy to deploy aboard a ship. Because the antennas are lightweight and compact, installation can be carried out by crewmembers, who are generally very keen to get broadband Internet on-board. In the case of Thrane & Thrane FleetBroadband terminals, many of its multi-vessel installation projects are based on the delivery of installation packs to vessels. These could include computer, Ethernet Switch, router, This approach means that very little external assistance is required during installations. In fact, some crews have had the system up and running within two hours. Its this ease of procurement and instal lation that helped FleetBroadband get such a strong foothold on the maritime sector so quickly. Thrane & Thrane has so far shipped over 20,000

PAGE 46

46 SatMagazine January 2012 Focus of the service in the shipping sector, and the companys leading position in the market. Simplifying VSAT Procurement At the other end of the scale to FleetBroadband, is maritime VSAT. Until now, it has been widely recognised that these antennas present a number of technical challenges when deployed on ships. The size of antenna, capital expenditure and complicated nature of VSAT procurement have become barriers to the further spread of VSAT within the maritime industry. But with lower cost, VSAT has certainly found a niche aboard ships and a new Thrane & Thrane antenna promises to mini mise the procurement and deployment challenges. when developing the new SAILOR 900 VSAT antenna was to talk to VSAT service providers and end-users and review in detail the issues they faced. This helped to build a picture on the current state of play. With the target in terms of quality and performance set, the design team were deter mined to develop an antenna that was 100 percent suited to the environment it would be used in. This would rely on a new level of testing, involving the extensive use of real vessel data to ensure that the new antenna would perform reliably aboard any ship, regardless of the sea state or weather. To accommodate this approach, a unique testing and simulation facility was constructed. The test area is all new; it is a three story extension to the Thrane & Thrane HQ building in Lyngby (seven miles north of Copenhagen) and was implemented solely with the purpose of improving development resources for the design of new antenna systems. Critical to the success of the new testing facility and the SAILOR 900 VSAT, was obtaining real vessel data that could be used to simulate real-life conditions. Special measurement equipment that records vessel attitude data in regard to heading, roll, pitch, yaw, acceleration, position, temperature, and random vibrations and such, was deployed on different kinds of vessels from 20-300 metres. This data was fed into the multi-axis hydraulic motion testing and simulation platform that replicated exactly the movement of any vessel. Using real vessel motion and conditions, whilst connected to a live satellite provided a realistic long-term testing ground, which supported live sea trials and enabled a huge amount of data to be acquired in a relatively short period. Simulated antenna testing is a complicated process, not the least because pointing at the satel lite from inside a building is obviously a challenge. However, the investment and effort in setting up the new test and simulation facility enabled the team to at will, resulting in months of extended testing. This testing is an important factor considering the limitations antenna manufacturers face on carrying out live testing during antenna development. Additional facilities in the new test area include a set of vibration equipment and a special chamber for highly accelerated lifetime testing (HALT), which ensured that the antenna could be designed to exceed performance and reliability requirements within the harsh maritime environment. As a result of Thrane & Thranes unique approach to developing the SAILOR 900 VSAT, it requires no evaluation, planning, procurement or installation of RF components. It is shipped from the factory ready to install. This removes the need for labour-intensive testing and balancing of the antenna on-board the vessels as Thrane & Thrane live test the antenna during production so that it will work on any Ku-band service, anywhere. The importance of this cannot be understated; it really is a step change in the world of maritime VSAT, which makes SAILOR 900 VSAT a far more attrac tive prospect to potential users. The SAILOR 900 VSAT system has already made its mark in the maritime sector, with leading satellite service provider for ships and offshore vessels Marlink signing an agreement with Thrane & Thrane in September this year to add the inno vative new Ku-band antenna to its portfolio and offer it to its extensive global customer network. Integrated Solutions ping industry for integrated MSS and VSAT solu tions, where VSAT would be the main source of connectivity when sailing within a broadcast SAILOR 900

PAGE 47

47 SatMagazine January 2012 satellites footprint, and FleetBroadband would be the back-up system when out of VSAT service, offering truly global coverage. The redundancy such a solution provides means that global sailing vessels can now experience continuous connec tivity, wherever their trade takes them. Inmarsat, too, seems to have recognised this, and with the 2010 announcement of the Ka-band based Global Xpress service, is getting ready to enter the world of VSAT. Global Xpress is expected to go live in 2013, and brand-new SAILOR termi new maritime Ka-band service, are currently in development as part of Thrane & Thranes position as a launch manufacturer for the new service. Extreme Environments SAILOR products are tested daily in some of the most extreme environments on the planet, which is why Thrane & Thrane is chosen to supply communication systems for the Volvo Ocean Race. The SATCOMs scope of supply for the 2011-2012 SAILOR 150 FleetBroadband and two SAILOR mini-C systems. The systems will be used to enable race HQ by Media Crew Members and also for the downloading of weather data, which is one of the most important tactical tools the Volvo Open 70 skippers and crews have at their disposal. Thrane & Thrane will also supply the race teams, umpires VHF radios whilst the media team will also be using Thrane & Thrane EXPLORER BGAN terminals to leaves and enters port. Ten years ago there wasnt much in the way of IP based SATCOM communication at sea, in fact, video from Volvo Ocean Race used to be collected by IP is becoming an integral part of maritime commu nication and in the future it will be an important years ago, an Internet connection at sea was more akin to an old dial-up connection on land. You turned it on when you needed it, say four to six times per you were lucky, to friends and family. It really was still voice-based solutions that were prominent. Now though, it is possible to stay online and be connected 24/7. The maritime industry has hit the next level of communications possibilities. Seafarers can be in regular contact with loved ones, which makes their life on the job a little bit easier, so choosing a long term career at sea is more viable. We have networks connecting vessels ciency applications to provide tangible cost savings and reduction in carbon emissions. Looking forward, FleetBroadband will be getting some exciting new additions in 2012. Multi-voice provides the facility for up to nine simultaneous voice lines on a single terminal and functionality for Inmarsats new Dynamic Telemetry Services means that FleetBroadband terminals can soon be used for low-throughput tracking and monitoring applications. As FleetBroadband is such a core part of its business, Thrane & Thrane has already announced that these new services will be avail able on all new SAILOR FleetBroadband terminals Over the next few years, its clear to see that MSS and VSAT are both a vital part of the maritime SATCOMs business. About the author Casper Jensen has been with Thrane & Thrane since 1999, having joined after earning an Engineering Masters degree. He holds overall responsibility for developing and implementing strategies for Thrane & Thranes maritime radio and satcoms product range. Within this role he is tasked with developing markets and bringing valuable market input into R&D to ensure the SAILOR portfolio meets the demands of the end-user. SAILOR 500 47 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 48

48 SatMagazine January 2012 Dan Berkenstock, EVP + Chief Product Officer, Skybox Imaging D an Berkenstock is an entrepreneur and engineer from Chicago, Illinois, with a healthy respect for the risks and rewards of doing business in space. He is also fascinated by scalable and novel data streams that revolutionize the ways that consumers, businesses, and governments make decisions in their day-to-day lives. Dan is currently on leave from the Ph.D. program in Aeronautics & Astronautics at Stanford University, where he also received his masters degree. Prior to co-founding Skybox, Dan researched optimal design methods for spacecraft in the Advanced Supercomputing Division of NASAs Ames Research Center. Dan has also worked as a counterprolifera tion analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, developing methods to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. Dan has worked at several early stage startup companies and served as a cooperative education student for NASA at Johnson Space diver at NASAs Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory where he assisted in training astronauts for extravehicular activities. Dan has supported two space shuttle missions as an assistant Control, performed computational analysis on the space shuttle, and supported T-38 trainer jet activities at Ellington Field. Dans programming language of choice is C, his favorite CAD tool is Solidworks, and he wishes he had more time for camping. Executive Spotlight 48 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 49

49 SatMagazine January 2012 Dan Berkenstock, the co-founder of the Company, says Skybox Imaging brings the scalability of Silicon Valley DNA to the reliability of the aero space industry; and that will drive better business opportunities for the entire industry. We asked him to expand on this SM Good day, Mr. Berkenstock. You have a most note University and their Aeronautics and Astronautics space, and ultimately into the imagery market sector? Dan Berkenstock Ive always been naturally a space junkie and intrigued by everything about the space shuttle program and astronauts. Thats what got me into aerospace. Satellite imagery is exciting because of the tremendous amount of untapped opportu nity that exists today and will remain until we can see every inch of the globe. There are so many more ways to provide transparency and to better characterize activity on our planet. I am fascinated with the idea of working for a company that gets to handle tremendous quantities of data and extract interesting patterns from that information in order to derive insight about our planet and ultimately impact humanity. SM Tell us about your experience leading up to the Dan Berkenstock A big theme for me and for Skybox is my dual interest and passion for space and big data. My experience leading up to the co-founding of Skybox includes positions at NASA and the Department of supercomputing, big data analytics, operations and training labs. The original co-founders of Skybox Imaging are good friends and fellow Stanford graduates. Our

PAGE 50

Executive Spotlight 50 SatMagazine January 2012 was to get the smartest people we know from our Stanford circle of friends and create a company derived from similar interests and work ethics. With that initial group, weve created the kind of grad student lab experience you hear about at Google that has grown to be a strong culture with equally strong camaraderie. SM Dan Berkenstock It was a combination of things, and timing did play a factor. My personal interest in data streams and the ability to extract interesting information from them for the commercial sector combined with the big body of knowledge accrued from the last decade of Universities building microsatellites paved the way for the commercial approach we are shaping today. By 2007, microsatellite capa bilities had matured substantially and a team of us from Stanford were going to use this plat form to enter the Google Lunar X Prize. Given the economic collapse of that time, our efforts were unsuccessful. However, the by-product of that became our genesis creating mapping products with the highest quality and highest resolution that can help industries exponentially in satellite moni toring products. There was the timing of the X Prize and economic collapse and then there was the timing of hardest part of founding any new company. You are at the exact same place in their lives relative to risk, trust, experience, and the ability to work well together and that is timing! SM small satellite industry? Dan Berkenstock Over the last 10-12 years, a large number of small satellite missions have shown that its possible to do business in space with high performance and high reliability, but at a fundamentally different price point. Were taking advantage of those missions: Lessons learned, components developed for each, and a lot of the know-how in managing, scheduling and saving data from those missions. Weve been able to stand on the shoulders of brilliant people who have come before us. In a few key areas, we have been able to develop our own proprietary technology high-performance small satellite. SM You talk a lot about using timely satellite imagery as a means of revolutionizing access to information Dan Berkenstock Timely satellite imagery should be able to inform daily lives and decision-making cycles of consumers, businesses and governments across our planet. While GPS has the ability to determine an objects location at any time, satellite imagery holds the promise to reveal the context of any place on Earth at any time. For example, we envision the most up-to-date mapping product that can allow people to deter mine the number of cars in parking lots and at retail locations. Business owners can monitor their worldwide facilities, understand the environmental impact of those facilities and oversee their secu rity. Government agencies can use our product to view images alongside borders, helping them On a broader scale, we are driving the demand in other areas of the satellite industry, which will hopefully mean more affordable launches and better business opportunities for us all. SM As co-founder, executive vice president and chief Dan Berkenstock place for advancement. This means understanding the customer, understanding what the customer wants, fully developing the product offering congruent to their needs, and solving their pain points. I am making sure that we create a concep tual product that can blow users away. We need to build what our customers want and build the I currently run our sales, marketing, product and software engineering teams. SM What do you see as the core competencies of the

PAGE 51

51 SatMagazine January 2012 Dan Berkenstock There are two. First, we understand how to deal with massive quantities of data the type that imaging satellites generate and how to do that we know how to carefully mix traditional aero space electronics with more commercialgrade electronics in a way that allows for high-reliability systems at a much lower price point. SM The Company has doubled in size over the last year. What has this pace? Dan Berkenstock Our growth has been aligned with our overall progress, and the hiring of critical talent is part of that process dependent upon where we are in design and development. Last year we completed a critical design review and this year has been about detail design and actu ally building the satel lite. Our next step is a rigorous test plan which impacts both the ground and software teams. We are in a good place now and will not grow as much next year as it is not required. SM Give us an update on the production of Skybox lite, SkySat-1, and the ground systems devel opment. What does the this important mission? Dan Berkenstock We completed SkySat-1s critical design review in February. It was a big milestone. At this point, the undergoing environmental testing. We will begin a full integration and test of the complete spacecraft

PAGE 52

52 SatMagazine January 2012 Executive Spotlight ground station and are doing testing over the next six months. Weve also deployed infrastructure and software to demonstrate how we will operate these satellites from the ground. SkySat-1 is projected to launch during fourth quarter of next year. Commercial services will start approximately three months later in early 2013. SM When looking at the extensive portfolio of appli cations your technology offers, from competitive Dan Berkenstock The application that excites me most is the one we dont know about yet. Coming from Silicon Valley, Im a big believer in big data and making that data as accessible as possible to people around the world to help develop valuable applications. Im have never thought of, sitting here in Silicon Valley, California; that a developer somewhere else in the of millions of people. SM Dan Berkenstock Imaging satellites are very important and sensi tive technologies. The U.S. government carefully regulates which American companies get to launch imaging satellites and how they operate them. So, for us, obtaining the NOAA license was an impor tant milestone because that means weve gone through the process with the U.S. government to ensure we meet their criteria to bring a sophis ticated approach for how we build and operate satellites. This enables us to deliver greater trans parency to the world at large and in a manner that is consistent with U.S. national security objectives. SM ment during your tenure? Dan Berkenstock There are two things. The biggest one was being able to bring extremely high-quality, very wellknown investors from Silicon Valley into a business that involves satellites. That was a huge challenge. I think it takes a lot of vision and courage to invest in a project that, from a technology point of view, is outside of their traditional investment stream, but from a pattern-matching point of view, has many similarities. The other biggest accomplishment is developing our technology to the point where weve been able demonstrate the entire technology chain required to achieve SkySat-1s mission. SM Dan Berkenstock The main thing is getting through the launch of SkySat-1 completing integration and testing of the spacecraft and delivering it to the launch site. Then, we need to continue building out our ground infrastructure for software and hardware. That will be followed by full system-integrated testing between the satellite and the ground infrastructure to prove that when the satellite gets up into space we will be able to download images as soon as possible, and ultimately deliver them to the world. SM you inspire the technological and entrepreneurial Dan Berkenstock When I was working at NASA, Apollo 13 Flight Director Gene Kranz was still an active speaker. He taught us all that its possible to innovate and to go after big objectives in space. Mr. Kranz and other Apollo-era innovators have always been a tremen dous inspiration in my life to dream big things and accomplish them. In addition, I was very fortunate to have strong advisors and mentors at Stanford University when we were trying to start this company. I try to do as much as I can to advise the innova tors of tomorrow that I see coming out of Stanford by helping them get initial funding to turn those ideas into the latest and greatest companies. SM Which brings us to another important topic the need to train young students today in the disci students, from middle school through college, to ment and a challenging career? What can compa programs locally and nationally?

PAGE 53

53 SatMagazine January 2012 Dan Berkenstock As an industry, we have a responsibility to prove to the potential aerospace engineers of tomorrow that this is an industry that can be rewarding and challenging. I think that in the last 30 years, the aerospace industry has lost some of the things that made it great back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s kind of in the golden era, when a young person going into the industry knew they would build airplanes or spacecraft knew that their work would be seen and felt that they were working in an environment where they could be challenged and creatively innova tive toward the larger mission. Too often today, projects have gotten so expen sive, have involved so many people and taken cult for young people to convince themselves that its the most chal lenging and rewarding way for them to spend the next 30 years of their life. A concrete step that the industry can do now is to encourage and fund more projects involving small satellites and microsat ellites. The more people who are able to be chal lenged, allowed to be innovative, and are able the more people will want to get into this industry. The aerospace industry tends to be so immersed in process and rigid sched ules that there are often too little opportunities As an industry, we need to create an environment where young people want to work for us. In addi tion, we need more robust intern programs that give students real work to do. Last summer, Skybox had 10 interns who all did critical things in the design and development of our spacecraft and ground system.

PAGE 54

by the Editors Small Satellites: Changing The Size Of The Industry How important are small satellites to our industrys ongoing health and long-term financial viability? Please, judge for yourself PRIME The System F6 satellite formation, image courtesy of DARPA 54 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 55

55 SatMagazine January 2012 Lets initiate this examination of some of the elements of the ever-increasing small satellite market by taking a look at NASA. The agency has been running their NanoSatellite Launch Challenge for some time and they recently signed on with the Space Florida Small Satellite Research Center to run their prize competitions for the Centennial Challenges (there have been 22 such challenges since 2005). The purpose of this challenge is to launch satellites that possess a mass of 2.2 pounds (1 kg.) minimum into Earths orbit, and this must be accomplished twice within a one week time span. With a purse of $2 million, these craft may be small satellites, but their rewards are of major proportions. Hoped for is the realization that the expense of launching small satellites will be in the cost range of what is required to send secondary payloads, obviously with the goal of attracting customers from the academic environs as well as also commercial and government clients. When you take a look at NASA and their small satellites programs, the NPP project is a must view... when the NPP primary spacecraft was successfully launched from Vandenburg AFB in California, there were six CubeSats aboard. They included... AubieSat-1, developed by Auburn University DICE (actually, two satellites), developed by Utah State University Explorer-1 (PRIME) Flight Unit 2, developed by Montana State University M-Cubed, from the University of Michigan TAX-2, also from the University of Michigan.

PAGE 56

56 SatMagazine January 2012 PRIME With a rather packed fairing, these CubeSats are part of the agencys Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. Due to the shape of these small satellites, they have been moni kered as CubeSats. Most CubeSats weigh no more than 2.2 pounds, possess a volume of around one quart, and are about four inches in size. Those selected by NASA for this program are designed to accomplish a variety of projects, including the test of emerging technologies as well as to examine the viability of Commercial-Off-TheShelf (COTS) components. The latter could play an important role in future considerations of satellite use, as they would certainly save costs and reduce inventory expenses. To place these CubeSats into orbit, NASA adapted the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (PPD) that was designed and manufactured by California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, in conjunction with Stanford University. This arrangement has proven to be most capable on other Department of Defense (DoD) commercial launches. Other NASA small satellite accomplishments include the Nanosail-D which spent more than sail deployment. NASAs research team continues to analyze the data from NanoSail-D to deter mine how this new technology can be used by future satellites. Combining both commercial and military aspects, the U.S. Air Forces Space Test Program STP-S26 included four secondary payload satellites. Launched by a Minotaur IV launch vehicle from Alaska Aerospace s Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island in Alaska, there was FASTSAT ( Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology SATellite ) which was designed to increase the opportunities for secondary, known as rideshares. Again, a view to reduced cost was a goal of the project as well as to enable various academic, government and industry researchers to engage in experiments on an autonomous satellite at more affordable cost. Also onboard there was the Relnav, Attitude and Crosslink (much easier simply to say FASTRAC ), the STPSat-2 itself, and the FalconSat-5 (FS-5) The full fairing of the NPP project, part of NASAs ELaNa program Clockwise: FASTRAC, STPSat-2, FASTSAT, FS-5

PAGE 57

57 SatMagazine January 2012 DARPAs SYSTEM F6 System F6 seeks to demonstrate the feasibility interconnected modules capable of sharing their in the cluster. Such architecture enhances the adaptability and survivability of space systems, reducing the barrier-to-entry for participation in the national security space industry. The program is predicated on the development of open interface standards from the physical stack, including the real-time resource sharing of all participants through interdependence. A key of these open interface standards for the sustain ment and development of future fractionated the sustained development of future fractionated systems beyond the System F6 demonstration. fractionated architectures. The technology objec tives and program plan are driven by a small set of functional on-orbit demonstrations. Program tion of these demonstrations, designed to prove the highest-risk elements of the architecture to poten tial transition partners and early adopters. The NASA has also developed the Edison Small Satellite Demonstration Missions A series of NASA-focused small satellite demo missions will be run to accelerate small spacecraft develop ment for the agency for commercial and other space sector users. The focus will be on candidate or create new capabilities for lower cost, and/ or satellite communication/remote observation and space physics, and the ability to demo new apps (such as biological and physical research, servicing, space debris removal and planetary investigations), will be in the selection running. Hands-on experience for university students will be afforded with each project and NASA will manage a close coordination with programs under development at Air Force Research Laboratory and the Operationally Responsive class of small spacecraft with wet mass ranges: Minisatellite, 100 kilograms or higher Microsatellite, 10-100 kilograms Nanosatellite, 1-10 kilograms Picosatellite, 0.01-1 kilograms Femtosatellite, 0.01-0.1 kilograms The Edison Program anticipates two types of and mission capability demonstrations. The total funding by NASA under this program will range from approximately $1 million to $20 million, with cost-sharing encouraged, but not a require ment or a selection criterion. Additional infor mation is available by emailing Andrew Petro at andrew.j.petro@nasa.gov Scheduled to be launched during 2012, 2013 and 2014 are small satellite payloads that are approximately four inches long, a volume of one quart, and weigh less than three pounds. Known as CubeSats due to their cube-shape, these satel lites are usually carried as auxiliary payloads and address various aspects of education, exploration, operations, science or technology investigations. As part of NASAs Strategic Plan and the Education NASA will make their selections as to which satellites will be launched by January 30th of 2012. payloads were selected for the short-list, and represented 18 states.

PAGE 58

58 SatMagazine January 2012 PRIME The U.S. military is certainly onboard with small satellites. In April of 2009, the U.S. Army took delivery of eight, 4 kg. satellites, each one weighing less than 10 pounds, for placement into 50 years took place in December of 2010 when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted SMDC One into orbit as an auxiliary payload with the Dragon spacecraft. The size of a loaf of bread, this small satellites objective was to receive data from a ground transmitter and then relay that data directly to a ground station. When the nanosat ellite deployed its receiver antennas, despite being in a tumbling mode, contact was made by SMDC One with the ground station located at Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command/U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC/ARSTRAT) at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, and a health report was transmitted. Despite the small satellites low orbital alti tude of 200 miles, the horizon footprint offered a 1,200 mile / 1,9270 kilometer radius. This allowed the satellite to gain line-of-sight to the SMDC/ ARSTRAT Battle Lab in Colorado Springs, Colorado. day. Packetized image and text data downlinked directly to the Battle Lab. On January 12th, a power failure did termi nate the small satellites functions and its orbit decayed. A sure sign of success is that the U.S. Armys SMDC/ARSTRAT is readying more nanosat ellites four are scheduled for obit in 2012. Accompanying this effort is the Multipurpose NanoMissile System ( MNMS ), based upon a proven rocket artillery family. In less than 24 hours, nanosatellites could be stacked and launched, with a cost per launch of under $1 million. The NanoMissile should be able to launch up to 22 Capability for semi-autonomous longduration maintenance of a cluster and cluster network, and the addition and removal of spacecraft modules to/from the cluster and cluster network Capability to securely share resources across the cluster network with real-time guarantees and among payloads or users in multiple security domains the cluster to retain safetyand missioncritical functionality in the face of network degradation or component failures Capability to perform a semi-auton omous defensive cluster scatter and re-gather maneuver to rapidly evade a debris-like threat The general philosophy that underlies the tech nical approach and structure of the System F6 program is to arrive at the on-orbit functional demonstrations enumerated above through a disaggregated series of efforts. face standards, protocols, behaviors, and refer ence implementations thereof, necessary for any that can fully participate in a fractionated cluster. encryption capable of hosting the protocol stack needed to enable an existing spacecraft bus to the FDK. This image is an artists rendition of Montana State Universitys Explorer-1 [Prime] CubeSat. Source: Montana State University, Space Science and Engineering Laboratory.

PAGE 59

59 SatMagazine January 2012 pounds (10 kilograms) into LEO, (providing satel lite constellation augmentation when needed by commanders.) John London of SMDCs Space and Cyberspace Technology Directorate said, There is an emerging seriousness in DoD that these Technology Directorate manager David Weeks said the Army is serious about small satellites, which the Army sees as crucial to getting information down to the Brigade Combat Team level. Richard White of SMDCs Space and Cyberspace Technology Directorate said the images delivered by the small be shared with Americas allies. Though not up to the clarity of high resolution images long used by the defense community, he said the images give There is a difference between what the Army is doing and what the intelligence community is doing, adding that a constellation of Kestrel Eyes would provide the persistent theater coverage needed by the Army. Kestral Eye is a small, low cost, visible imagery satellite demonstrator that offers the tactical-level ground component warSmaller satellites are being tested all over the globe. In August of 2011, Russian cosmonauts at the ISS released a 30 kg. satellite named Kedr which was built by students to honor Yuri Gargin s second antenna of the satellite was not deployed properly from the satellite, Kedr was able to send data back to Earth as originally planned, although performance was degraded. The satellite remained aloft for approximately nine months. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) is planning to launch small satellites during a demo mission in September of 2012. Using an unusual launch aspect, these small satellites will actually gain space from the agencys Kibo manned The U.S. Army logo is prominently positioned on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket the night before launch. The first Army-built satellite in more than 50 years, SMDC-ONE nanosatellite, is onboard the second stage directly behind the Army logo. Artistic rendition of a Kestrel Eye small satellite, courtesy of USASMDA/ARSTRAT Public Affairs office Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, Expedition 28 flight engineer, poses for a photo with the KEDR satellite in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Volkov and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev (out of frame), flight engineer, will deploy the satellite during their spacewalk.

PAGE 60

60 SatMagazine January 2012 PRIME experimental facility aboard the International Space Station with the ISS robotic arm then releasing the satellites into space. The small satel lites planned for this excursion include RAIKO at 2U size; FITSAT-1 at 1U size, and WE WISH also at 1U size. (1U equals 1.75-inches (44.45mm) of rack height, and are the maximum dimensions. A student CubeSat project from Poland, the PW-Sat has been delivered to the European Space Agency s ESTEC technical center in the Netherlands and is scheduled to ride into orbit as VEGA rocket, with a hoped-for launch date between January 26th the Warsaw University of Technology A few months later, Polands BRITE-PL Lem, a scien Dnepr rocket. One of the European Space Agencys small satellite success stories is their Proba-1 microsat ellite, which has just celebrated its in-orbit status of 10 years, having become initially operational in 2001. Proba is the acronym for PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy As stated by Frank Preuadhomme of QinteiQ Space Proba-1 remains the most agile and stable satellite platform in its range. These attributes are a prerequisite for high performance remote sensing. This small satellite started out as a technology demonstrator and ended up becoming an EO mission, acquiring some 20,000 environmental science images via its Compact ( CHRIS ). Those images have been accessed by 446 research groups in 60 countries. What makes the Proba-1 unusual is that it rolls in its orbit to capture images, using spinning reaction wheels that are guided by a startrack to roll up to 25 degrees side-to-side and 55 degrees along its path. There were 10 European countries and Canada involved in the construction of ESAs Proba-2 satellite, which launched on November 2, 2009, with the SMOS satellite, part of the ESAs E arth Observation Envelope Program The two space weather experiments aboard were developed by a consortium from Czechoslovakia the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Aboard were experiments. The goal of the Proba small satellite series is to ensure that small companies can have access to space and give them the experience necessary to ensure European industries remain competitive and innovative. Proba-3 is in its preparatory study phase and will be comprised of two independent, three-axis with the ability to accurately control the attitude and separation of the two craft. Using either coldgas or electrical thrusters for agile maneuvering, and both radio-frequency and optical (laserbased) metrology techniques for accurate position measurement and control, the combined system is expected to achieve a relative positioning accu racy of the order of 100 microns over a separa tion range of 25 to 250m. The launch is expected sometime in the 2015 to 2016 timeframe. Artists concept of ESAs Proba-1 during an image capture run

PAGE 61

61 SatMagazine January 2012 A total of nine CubeSats will be launched by Vega, all housed within P-POD deployment systems, which themselves will be mounted on the LARES primary payload. The CubeSats were developed by six European countries and include Xatcobeo (a collaboration of the University of Vigo and INTA, Spain) Robusta (University of Montpellier 2, France) E-St@r (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) Goliat (University of Bucharest, Romania) PW-Sat (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland) MaSat-1 (Budapest University of Technology & Economics, Hungary) UniCubeSat GG (Universit di Roma La Sapienza, Italy) The Vega itself was designed to deliver smaller satellites into LEO or SEO. Scottish-based Clyde Space has been involved in the small satellite market for years. solar panels for CubeSats that can increase the generated power required for various missions and orbits, the Company has also developed a CubeSat Shop When you consider more than 40 percent Preliminary designs. Top, the larger of the Proba-3 spacecraft. Bottom, the smaller of the two spacecraft. Image courtesy of ESA. Artists impression of Vega on the launch pad at Europes Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Credits: ESA-J. Huart, 2011

PAGE 62

62 SatMagazine January 2012 PRIME Space, they would have an extremely competent handle on vendor products of the highest quality for such spatial endeavors. The shop offers every thing from the CubeSat platforms themselves to on-board computers, harnesses, batteries, struc tures, ground stations, and more. A leader in the small satellite revolution is Surrey Satellite Technology Limited ( SSTL ), which is owned by EADS Astrium NV Working on the U.K.s technology demonstration satel lite TechDemoSat-1 the Company completed a milestone with the successful testing of the a novel, charged particle spectrometer design. The Charged Particle Spectrometer ( ChaPS ), built by UCLs Mullard Space Science Laboratory ( UCL-MSSL ), has a form factor of a 1U CubeSat. It will demonstrate a payload design that combines the capabilities of multiple analyzers by using four miniaturized sensors to perform simultaneous electron-ion detection. Each of the sensors is opti mized to carry out electrostatic analysis of the different space plasma populations expected in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). ChaPS is extremely attractive as it saves mass, power and volume and, ultimately, mission cost while providing an enabling technology for future space missions, such as ESAs proposed JUICE mission to Jupiter. Its low cost also opens up new applications for such instrumentation that were simply not feasible in the past. ChaPS is one of eight British payloads that U.K. Space Agency mission. Funded by the Technology Strategy Board ( TSB ), the U.K. Space Agency and the South East England Development Agency ( SEEDA ), TechDemoSat-1 is being built by SSTL to demon strate the advanced capabilities of small satellite strations of new British equipment and technolo gies. TechDemoSat-1 is due to launch in 2012. The U.K. Space Agency is currently in early discussions with the European Space Agency regarding a suit able launch for TechDemoSat-1 ( Please see the TechDemoSat-1 sidebar for more information .) Since 1981, SSTL has built and launched 36 satellites and has provided training and develop ment programs, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA, NASA international governments and commercial customers, with its innovative approach that is changing the economics of space. In India, a new CubeSat communication system was unveiled during the recent Hamfest India 2011 A 435/145MHz linear transponder, with a bandwidth of 590kHz and capable of one to three watts PEP output, was described by Mr. AMSAT-India part of a global organization of radio amateurs interested in satellites, also plans to develop a smaller, linear TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1): The Mission national business for the companies collaborating on the project. The TechDemoSat concept envisages a baseline customers, TSB and SEEDA. The satellite is based to accommodate the payloads. than eight payloads, plus a mixture of heritage

PAGE 63

63 SatMagazine January 2012 transporter for CubeSats that can support a data rate of 1200 to 9600 bps via a 435MHz half-duplex narrow-band FM transceiver and is also able to operate as a Morse Code beacon. More informa tion regarding AMSAT India being constructed by Astrium with Spacebel of Belgium also being brought into construction mix for a 100 kg. EO spacecraft that will pack a 2.5m resolution black and white, and a 10m color, optical imager. Engineers from Vietnam are already being trained by Astrium as well as by Qinetiq Space of Belgium, a member of the Spacebel consortium. Consider QB50 an international network of 50 CubeSats in LEO for lower thermosphere and the QB50 site, a single CubeSat is simply too small be addressed that would, otherwise, be inacces sible. With lower cost considerations, and the fact that even if a few of the CubeSats fail, mission objectives could still be achieved. This data gathering would be complimentary to the remote-sensing observations by EO satellite instruments as well as ground observations with lidars and radars. The launches would occur from Murmansk in northern Russia into a circular orbit at about 320km altitude, with an inclination of 79 degrees. Orbital lifetime is expected to be approxi mately three months. The third QB50 Workshop will be conducted on February 2, 2012, following a major CubeSat Symposium running from January 30th to February 1st, in Brussels. What are the analysts forecasting for small Marco Caceres lead analyst for the The AMSAT-India 435/145MHz Linear Transponder increased accuracy to the previous sensors used. The total amount of technology on board has led the internal communications system to be oper sions on module priority. A large mission for a small satellite, the successful delivery and ultimate decommissioning of Tech barrier to commercial success in the space industry. More than your average payload ability The payloads on board the satellite currently make up four suites a Maritime suite, Space Environment suite, Air and Land Monitoring suite and a Platform Technology suite. The Maritime Suite The Maritime Suite consists of SSTLs Sea State Payload payload, the SSP uses an enhanced GPS receiver Integrating the ChaPS payload

PAGE 64

64 SatMagazine January 2012 PRIME Teal Group s said, Were seeing an upward trend in nanosatellites and picosatellites that are being launched Weve seen more nanosats and picosats go up in the past four years than in the previous 16 years, and we expect this trend to continue. The kind of LEO launch activity that we are projecting has not occurred nications satellites was orbited in the second half of the 1990s. The difference between now and then is that, in addition to the mobile comsats, we will now also have dozens of tinier satellites weighing between 1-20 kilograms that will be headed to LEO, thus making for an unusually robust segment of the launch services market. According to Caceres the boom in LEO launch services will be Russias Soyuz rocket, which is commercially marketed by Arianespace and to a lesser extent, SpaceX s Falcon 1 Eurockot Launch Services Rockot ISC Kosmotras Dnepr and Indias PSLV Teal Group Corporation website During the 24th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites research and Futron presented a white paper roughness. By using components from Astriums Synthetic Aperture Radar independent measurement of the sea state and the information gathered can then be applied to meteo rology, oceanography, climate science and ice moni antenna design using the same technology as the SAR antenna but on a smaller scale. The Space Environment Suite The Space Environment Suite consists of the MuREM ChaPS HMRM and the LUCID payloads. MuREM, supplied by the Surrey Space Centre, standard radiation alarm and diagnostic package, enhancing the security of future space missions. The Charged Particle Spectrometer supplied by the Mullard Space Science Laboro atory class of compact instruments to detect electrons measure electrons in the auroral regions, elec trons and ions in other regions and also to measure the spacecraft potential The Highly Miniaturised Radiation Monitor Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Imperial College is a light and ions). The instrument is designed to provide housekeeping data on the radiation environment to spacecraft operators to correlate the performance of spacecraft subsystems, raise alerts during diagnosing spacecraft system malfunctions. TechDemoSat-1 also reaches beyond the U.K. space industry to incorporate the U.K. scien U.K. space competition developed by Sixth form college, The Langston Star Centre Langton Ultimate Cosmic ray Intensity Detecto

PAGE 65

65 SatMagazine January 2012 entitled Small Satellites in Civil and Commercial Space , authored by Jeff Foust emerging opportunities through renewed interest in technology development and commercial scien competitive threats to small satellites in the form of hosted payloads on larger spacecraft, as well as commercial suborbital vehicles underling active development. One offset for small satellite imple mentation would be to take other steps smallsat proponents can take now, primarily by utilizing excess capacity on larger launch vehicles that today is often wasted. One solution would be for NASA, or ano ther government agency, to work with other government customers and industry launch providers to establish a coordination scheme to identify missions with excess capacity and payloads by agencies, companies, and universitie s seeking access to orbit, be it for clusters of CubeSats or for larger smallest. You can down load the entire Futron report here The wealth of infor mation regarding smaller satellites is indicative of the importance these spacecraft play in the commercial and government/military proj ects today and in the future. Given lower construction and launch costs, and the ability to more readily prepare tech nological investigations and orbit EO/sensory tools, small satellites are paving the way for more effective use of satellite technology, given the budgetary concerns confronting the industry. As Sir stated, back in October of 2008 regarding his Companys (SSTL) work with Russias ISC Kosmotras, The provision of afford ably priced launch services is critical to the success of the new small satellite business... terization of the energy, type, intensity and direction ality of high energy particles. The device makes use The European Organisation for Nuclear Research ) using Timepix chips from the Medipix Collabora tion Part of a family of photon counting pixel detec also provides inspiration to the next generation of physicists and engineers by giving school students and take part in authentic research. Air and Land Monitoring Suite Currently, the Air and Land Monitoring Suite consists of a single Compact Modular Sounder provided by Oxford Univer sity s Planetary Group and R utherford Appleton Labo ratory The CMS is a modular infrared remote sensing radi ometer unit, designed to easily mix and match subversions on multiple platforms has been proven. Platform Technology Suite While the companies and academia organizations full use of the three year mission on board TDS-1 to prove their technology, must into Earths atmosphere to burn up at the end of the mission. The other payload in the Platform Technology Suite is the CubeSAT ACS payload, tude determination and control subsystem designed for Cubesats. SSTLs 1300 platform

PAGE 66

66 SatMagazine January 2012 Newtec: Expanding... + Compressing, Simultaneously! This past year has seen the U.S. dramatically reduce its equipment buying levels, and this is the first time we have seen this in the U.S., says Serge Van Herck, CEO at Newtec. We have been able to grow very nicely in other parts of the world and this has stabilised and compensated those lost revenues. Our view for 2012 is that the U.S. market is at last picking up, and we see clear signs of this already. But, like everyone else, we hope that Europe does not move into recession. For future growth we expect further improvements to come from Asia, and India in partic ular. Brazil is also showing solid signs of growth and theres no let up as far as the Middle East is concerned. They all represent real signs of further growth. Latin America for us is extremely busy, Van Herck added. Newtec is an acknowledged powerhouse in the TV industry. For example, their modulating equipment, either under their own brand-name or OEM/badge-engineered by the likes of Cisco/ Harmonic, Motorola, Thomson and others, for DTH uplinking and cable head-end installs. They consider themselves to have an 80 percent market share of this sector. We are not on the reception side, but the uplinkers almost all use our equipment, adds Van Herck. This means that in countries like Brazil and India the broadcasters themselves use our equipment. Forresters Focus 66 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 67

67 SatMagazine January 2012 Newtecs equipment is also extremely popular amongst the Contribution & Distribution community transmission of content from Outside Broadcasts as well as SNG and ENG broadcasts and uplinks. For example, our MENOS technology links dozens of ASBU (Arab States Broadcasting Union) sites for news and programming exchanges, and has been hugely successful for them. This is now extending beyond the Middle East into Africa. MENOS allows broadcasters to automatically exchange news covers TV, radio or IP-based formats. Van Herck mentioned that Newtecs clients were almost all digital, and increasingly use higheveryone, especially viewers, but it also places width available. Everyone wants to use HD but not necessarily to pay for extra satellite capacity. products in particular for the 32APSK (Amplitude & Phase Shift Keying) modulation methods, even to quite small dishes, says Van Heck. Service providers like Globecast and Arqiva are using our equipment, but also broadcasters themselves. Much depends on the individual country and how that market is organised. For example, Sky Italia has made great use of our Equalink DVB-S2 pre-distortion solution which gives them an overall 10 percent extra perfor mance increase, or the equivalent to two free channels on each of the 23 transponders it uses. Newtec is also busy in the fast-growing market for Ka-band solutions, both for profes sional and consumer use. We work closely with Astra2Connect in Europe. They launched in 2008 using our technology and today still use our equip ment. We have delivered more 100,000 terminals. Today they are all Ku-band but theres now a shift to Ka-band as the capacity becomes avail able. We have been very successful in delivering broadband by satellite over Ku-band, and we know everyone is anticipating great economies of scale from Ka-band. Newtec equipment is seen as the revenues year by year, and achieved a record casting industry over the past couple of years. What about Commoditisation? The threat for any consumer device, such as rapidly become commoditised, and subject to land. thousands, and keep prices really keen. The try and lead the market through innovation. The moment theres any sign of our sort of technology is also true that for many products the prospects superior product is slim. Some vendors do offer multi-million dollar broadcaster is going to risk all their business to save a thousand dollars here or

PAGE 68

68 SatMagazine January 2012 Forresters Focus equipment on the market. Our kit always comes out on top in consumer surveys. Ka-band will increase the interest in these technologies given that it offers higher throughput at very similar, or even lower, prices for users. Today our largest customer in this area is Astra2Connect and next September (2012) they will launch their Ka-band service for commercial use and we will be ready to support them. Theyve already got some Ka-band capacity available for professional use, but these need slightly larger dishes. Our consumer offering, which we call Sat3Play is a self-installable, plugand-play, end-user terminal which is truly futureproofed as far as DVB-S2 is concerned with Adaptive Coding & Modulation, bandwidth optimisation and embedded acceleration and pre-fetching software. The current products, dish and modem are all Ka-band compatible. The only element that needs changing is the LNB. Van Herck sees Newtecs broadband-toconsumer products as remaining highly competi tive when compared to imported units from ViaSat which are being used exclusively by Eutelsats Ka-Sat service and which went live earlier in 2011. We also like Eutelsat! Theyre installing one of our Sat3Play hubs for a service targeted into Africa. I believe we are moving towards a situation where [supplier] exclusivity will not matter so much. We see more and more indications where service providers, who are actually retailing Ka-band solu tions, want a multi-vendor approach. We think this is sensible, and where the satellite operator just sells Mega-Hertz of capacity but where the service provider accesses that capacity through gateways. He could just as easily have enthused about Intelsat, which via its SkyeVine client, is providing a Newtec-based broadband service from Intelsats New Dawn craft into Southern Africa, or the UAEs YahSat which is using Newtec solutions for its YahClick 2-way broadband service. However, SES has frequently stated its view that it does not share Eutelsats optimism for Ka-band over Europe. This is not to say that those countries bordering Europe, or nations further ment. This is also Van Hercks view. Id hope he might change his mind thanks to Astra2Connect Somewhere in the Middle East, a government fixed installation for Newtec

PAGE 69

69 SatMagazine January 2012 and our equipment, but we have to recognise that 100,000+ terminals installed is good but is not perhaps good enough to convince Astra just yet to launch an all Ka-band satellite. I can fully under stand SES current philosophy which is to be riskaverse as far as Ka-band is concerned, and from Time will tell as to how successful Eutelsat is and whether Astras caution was sensible or not. Newtec, as well as Astra2Connect, might marketing and sales effort for Ka-Sat conducted by Eutelsat, on the rising tide lifts all boats mantra. It is always good to have competition, says Van Herck. The main road block to these services are the telcos. There is no European telco actively promoting these sorts of services. If you being vertically integrated by major operators, and often bundling or linking them in to other services like DTH. Van Herck says the quite amazing thing is that its Astra2Connect terminals have not been heavily installed in rural, or remote unserved-bybroadband areas as initially expected. The reality is quite the contrary. We see most of the demand Newtecs view of 2011 This year has been a particularly successful one for the satellite industry. Whilst the global markets regions, they have been particularly strong in also implementation of technological innovations

PAGE 70

70 SatMagazine January 2012 Forresters Focus coming from countries which already have high penetration. Even in cities and urban areas, or in the suburbs where the ADSL connection is not so strong. Currently the two most important markets for us are France and Germany, not exactly famous for lack of broadband! from the companys supply-side links with the military and other governmental clients, not least its FlexACM solution for NATOs morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) applications. Extremely active in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East, Newtec supplies to Stellar Group to help link up to 40,000 military personnel with their homes and families and supplying voice and data links in what can be extremely hostile environments. The hostility can come from enemy action, of course, but it also comes from the environment where heavy weather, dust, sunshine and monsoon-type rain can all impact the equipment. FlexACM allows for maximising the bandwidth available whilst also optimising link availability and reliability while at the same time keeping control over operating expenses. Stellar Group supplies 200Mb/s into its base in Afghanistan, for example, and manages to squeeze an extra 30 percent of throughput into that existing capacity. Newtec has had similar success using these MWR solutions for oil rig workers based hundreds of miles away from homes. Indeed, the same core technology was also used for an installation in Antarctica, where again the extreme weather (and low satellite elevation) provided the challenges. Hardly ever talked about is the use of Newtecs FlexACM on unmanned aerial drones used by the military and which need sophisticated satel lite links from their sometimes extremely remote controllers. These applications have both benign as well as military uses. The benign aspects come in the forms of disaster surveillance, emergency response, search and rescue, environmental moni toring, convoy protection and maritime surveil lance generally, as well as border control. Newtecs modulation and demodulation boards for these needs are made in a lightweight but robust form thereby helping extend a drones mission. Newtec is expanding rapidly and now has full Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing. Van Herck sums up Newtecs basic strategy: Our core belief is to help our customers and partners to succeed through innovation and cutting-edge technology. About the author Chris Forrester is a well-known broadcasting journalist and industry consultant and has been reporting on the broadband explosion for more than 25 years. Since 1988, Chris has also been a freelance journalist who special izes in content, the business of television, and emerging applica tions on all delivery platforms. He founded Rapid TV News Television.com. In November 1998 he was appointed an Associate (professor) of the prestigious Adham Center for Television Journalism. Newtec modulation on board this UAV Newtecs Sat3Play being used during the Tour-De-France

PAGE 72

by Janet Stevens, V.P. Marketing + Communications, Space Foundation Spatial Repurposement + Awards S pace folks dont always feel the love these days U.S. human spaceflight capability has lapsed the NASA budget languishes at a measly 0.45 percent of the federal budget citizens, distressed with the economy, muse about why we spend anything on space People who are in the space business know very well that the space industry deserves a lot of respect and love for many things the joy of pure discovery the ability to publicly signal scientific and technological prowess the boost that high-tech jobs and high-tech manufacturing give to our economy the inspiration for some darn good movies and TV shows and, most of all, the way space research makes our lives better, easier, safer and more comfortable. Insight SatMagazine January 2012 72

PAGE 73

73 SatMagazine January 2012 A huge volume of vastly diverse research has gone into building rockets, sending people into space (and safely bringing them back), deploying satellites, examining the distant cosmos and plan ning long-duration missions. Plus, a wide range of the microgravity environment of the International pursuits eventually gets translated into products and services we use every day here on Earth. The range of products is broad: The GPS actions, move products and protect our national security; pressure-relieving surfaces that originally cushioned Apollo astronauts and now make comfy mattresses; sunglasses that block dangerous UV weight heatsheet blankets and radiant barrier insulation; temperature-regulating clothing; biofriendly oil spill remediation systems; chiropractic diagnostic and treatment equipment; medical equipment; life-saving food supplements; energysaving vehicle designs; cordless tools; and on and on and on. When were in the business, we know about these things. We celebrate them. We tend to believe that everyone grasps the way we do they dont! And, if we know whats good for us, part of our job is to help them understand so that they, as citizens and voters and students, will support our business in their communities, at the ballot box, in the stock market and in their educa tion and career choices. Thats why the Space Foundation sponsors two important Space Awareness programs: Space vations that have been translated into valuable technologies to improve our lives on Earth. Both educate about the value of space exploration and utilization. And both, through their very existence, advocate for space. Products and services that display the Space stemmed from, or been dramatically improved, by technologies originally developed for space explo people about the value of space utilization. The program serves three purposes: Providing a unique marketing edge from a space connection Demonstrating to the public how space tech nologies improve life on Earth Making space knowledge more interesting and accessible to everyone

PAGE 74

74 SatMagazine January 2012 Insight or services that directly result from space technology or space program development or advances in space technology used in educational environments to stimu late interest in, and knowledge about, space products, games or toys that increase interest in, and excitement for, space and inspire new generations to take an active interest in space scrutinized by the Space Foundation, which works closely with NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and other organizations engaged in space research

PAGE 75

75 SatMagazine January 2012 and development to identify and validate that they are eligible for and deserving of recognition. We work with our partners to help them use and, in so doing, they help spread the word that The Space Technology Hall of Fame is a prestigious and scholarly recognition program that honors those who transform space technology to improve the quality of life here on Earth. Induction into the Space Technology Hall of Fame is consid ered and, rightly so a high honor for the space innovators. Plus, it also serves to increase public awareness and encourage further innovation. Since 1988, we have proudly inducted more than 65 technologies and honored hundreds of organi zations and individuals in the Space Technology Hall of Fame. The Space Foundation manages these programs for two reasons: to support our mission to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity; and to support the space industry and our space industry partners. In other words, we do this for our industry and for our belief that space exploration is a worthy endeavor. In return, we ask our industry to help us make these programs better and stronger. There are many things that can be done: Facilitate intro ductions with businesses that manufacture or sell space-derived products; nominate extraordinary innovations for the Space Technology Hall of Fame; educate customers, employees and the media about space technologies, using the two Space Foundation programs as teaching tools; and buy all want the same thing: A robust, productive and relevant space industry. Lets all work together to make that happen. http://www.SpaceTechHallofFame.org http://www.SpaceFoundation.org Watch these videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/ SpaceFoundation#p/u/33/G0VoKsqbXUo http://www.youtube.com/user/ SpaceFoundation#p/u/53/TjFGOlvT7OI http://www.youtube.com/user/ SpaceFoundation#p/u/1/XMAnoSbUD70 http://www.youtube.com/user/ SpaceFoundation#p/u/12/_IXaUnQvSDU http://www.youtube.com/user/ SpaceFoundation#p/u/51/7gwZCfSojzU Contact us and give us your ideas: media@spacefoundation.org About the author Janet Stevens, APR, is respon sible for the Space Foundations marketing and public rela tions programs, including public relations and marketing strategy, media relations, brand identity, advertising and promotion, graphic design, web communications, social media, community relations, and public outreach. Janet has spent more than 30 years in public relations, advertising, and quality management positions at GTE, Fidelity Investments, and Verizon. Ms. Stevens, who has a bachelors degree in mass communications from the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America.

PAGE 76

by Matt Allard, Director of Marketing, Servers & Digital Production, Grass Valley Media Server Considerations A media server is a much more complex system than one might first think. When choosing such a system for a facility, there are a wide number of issues that should be carefully considered. Todays best media servers leverage the core technologies of the general IT industry, and then optimize and enhance those technologies specifically for the real-time, high-availability requirements of television broadcast and video production. The best suppliers build systems that use standard file systems, storage, and networking. These suppliers provide added value by optimizing and tuning IT technologies for media applications in ways IT vendors cant or wont. The implementation of the latest technology produces more cost-effective solutions. SatBroadcasting 76 SatMagazine January 2012 A media server should incorporate a variety of the latest technologies. These include 8 Gb Fibre Channel backbones with 15/7.2K SAS drives in RAID-5 or RAID-6 topology. Storage compo nents alone will not provide a satisfactory solution, they must also be integrated with a complete infra structure. An IT server component must be included to act as a data bridge and to manage dynamic and deterministic bandwidth requirements. For optimum throughput, a 64-bit operating system scalability and cost-effectiveness is to adapt the iSCSI protocol over 10 Gb/1 Gb Ethernet to provide real-time and deterministic performance for media movement. Technologies and infrastructure should be combined to manage bandwidth. Bandwidth is a primary factor in determining how reliably a system will perform and what capabilities it can provide. A server system should be architected to manage the multiple levels of bandwidth that may be needed for deterministic operations. This can Quality of Service mechanisms. Three levels of managed bandwidth should be provided: for real-time Media where clients are designed to never exceed stated band widths. This real-time performance is a service level not needed by most regular IT systems. At the other end of the spectrum is managed shared bandwidth for non realIn between these two levels there should also be a reserved bandwidth level for time-critical production activi ties, such as editing, where each indi vidual client gets allocated bandwidth that it cannot exceed. All three levels should be available simultane ously. On many systems there is only one level of bandwidth management and it cannot be relied on to perform all tasks reliably and consistently. A proper media server system has built-in redun dancy, buffering, and multiple levels of processors for guaranteed throughput. The supplier of such a system characterizes the storage performance for various production uses, and measures band width performance by individual LUNs, servers, and controllers. very large. The system, including storage control In a standard IT server system there are reads/writes to and from storage. It is not neces sary to read during the write process; delays and latencies can be tolerated. In media, delays and latencies are not accept able as they translate to black frames and audio storage has many simultaneous reads during the write process. system should provide specialized buffering and containers, and optimization of the application When assessing a server system for media produc tion, this is an area that should be examined very critically. Many systems that claim they are suit able for media do not offer these optimizations, and consequently fall short of delivering the constant performance necessary for content delivery. Platform Flexibility A media server should be versatile so it can deliver different solutions suited to a variety of unique requirements. It needs to scale to any dimension of performance and redundancy. Expandability needs to scale along multiple, independent vectors. A system may need to increase media channels, ational bandwidth for production needs such as

PAGE 77

77 SatMagazine January 2012 off-speed play and editing. A server for broadcast and video production must be equally adept as As there are no second tries when delivering media data, redundancy on multiple levels is required. The system must provide redundant data paths between media clients, media servers, and storage a design that inherently has no single point of failure. In terms of implementa practices, such as redundant RAID control lers, redundant network interface controllers connected via multiple servers, and multiple switches should be avail able. On a device level, there should be redun dant power supplies, redundant cooling, and redundant storage drives. For media inter facing, a standard PC with some processor cards is simply not reli able or robust enough. A purpose-built, appliancetype device for broad cast and production that incorporates selected IT technologies should be used to provide a highly available play and record service for 24/7 environments. With this approach, be attained. The device can be ruggedized for use even in mobile environ ments. Modular compo nents can be easily accessed and serviced. A dedicated device can utilize specialized embedded and real-time operating systems along with multi-level general purpose and custom ized processors to offer unique and complex features with reliable performance. Some of these features include multi-purpose channels that can manage audio/video recording, audio/ video playout, recording of super slow-motion, recording and playout of combined left-eye/righteye 3D, recording and playout of combined video/ key, multiple compression formats, and resolution up/down/crossconversion.

PAGE 78

78 SatMagazine January 2012 SatBroadcasting All this can be augmented with the creation and management of low-resolution proxy media as well. At the same time, this type of device incorpo rates all the advantages of a standard platform for storage, interface displays, graphics, and network connectivity for simple integration and lower costs. An integral part of any media server system is storage. Broadcast and production environments have diverse requirements, so a server system must offer a range of storage solutions. The simplest implementation is serial attached SCSI (SAS) drives that are located internally to the media client. To simply increase capacity, external RAID chassis with serial attached SCSI drives can be connected to the media client through a host bus adapter. a media server should support a Storage Area ( SAN ). A SAN is a dedicated storage network that provides access to consolidated storage. The networked storage devices are acces sible to the servers such that they appear as if they are locally attached to the operating system, allowing direct read/write requests to the storage disks. The server component acts as a data bridge between the Ethernet and Fibre Channel connec can interact with. A SAN provides the scalability, connectivity, bandwidth, and storage to permit a range of production scenarios. As a server platform provides the essential are a number of features that should be provided should be stored as elementary streams on disk for direct editing and metadata operations. There should be import and export of media in parallel with other operations to networked storage, remov support standard video compression formats such as MPEG-2 MPEG-4 DV and AVC-Intra These wrappers such as MXF and QuickTime Other WAV for audio, QuickTime 32 for graphics, and MPEG transport/program stream for video should also be compatible. Files should be transferable using standard FTP and CIFS protocol, as well as via the direct iSCSI connec tions. To help automate the process of moving As content owners want to re-purpose mate rial, creating, saving, and exchanging metadata by the server system using an open standard such as XML Managing the server system and its capabili ties, as well as keeping operating costs and total cost of ownership low should be provided for. To simplify how systems are used and maintained, there should be an integrated toolset and utilities and upgrading the system. Application Integration A server system is only as useful and interesting as the applications that it can be used with. To have complete solutions, a server supplier must also enable applications that people need to use. There should be applications that permit people to tion, news, entertainment, and playout. A server system supplier needs to create applications to enable innovative and affordable solutions. Some of these applications include ingest, replay, clip store, editing, channel control, and playout. Application services should be provided to offer proxy operations, common edit decision lists/play lists, common metadata keywords and markers, and content management. Having these applica tions available show that the supplier understands the details of how complete solutions need to work across the entire broadcast infrastructure. User experience and feedback are what should drive application design. Applications should focus on reducing learning curves and making usage simple. Ease of use should also apply to upgrades and maintenance. All applica tions should have common user interfaces and

PAGE 79

79 SatMagazine January 2012 format support, proxy, metadata, and edit deci sion list/playlist information. No media server supplier can produce all the applications that may be needed by production users. Therefore, it is necessary to have an API available so additional applications can be devel oped by third-party companies and even end-users. The API should support common programming environments that do not require proprietary languages. A traditional capability for an API is for based production, the API must also incorporate content management capabilities. The API must provide direct access to media assets. There should be access through network services for systemthrough FTP and CIFS protocols. All new function ality should be openly supported through the API. To create sophisticated application frameworks, there should be an API that supports a service oriented architecture (SOA) abstraction layer to provide services for content management, proxy, ingest, playout, search, transfer, and metadata. With a well executed API, a media server supplier should have a staff of development support engineers to foster a diverse community of active developers. They will help to enable the supplier to develop a broad array of supporting applications. Testing + Validation For a media server to provide all these capabilities and integrations, an extensive amount of research and development has to occur long before any solution is delivered. While careful software devel opment and hardware design at the engineering level are expected, there are some other critical technical processes that need to be incorporated as well. With the goal of having tight integration of a variety of standard IT components and subsystems, rigorous validation has to be performed. Some of the technology evaluation criteria that should be included as part of validation... Does a certain technology deliver on the Can the technology be effectively used for its Can the technology function well as a Will the development cycle to integrate the Will the technology scale as expected and What will be the operational behavior in Some of the evaluation criteria for storage valida tion should include... Benchmarking performance over multiple days during rebuilds, and while running Price versus performance versus latency Bounded latency with augmented storage sub-systems that respond within a certain time limit Hot-swapping storage controllers under a full validation should include... With a shared SAN, how is access managed and controlled for concurrent access of realeven under 24/7 operation Some of the evaluation criteria for network data movement validation should include... Management of the network data stacks and fabric so that transfers are effectively lossless ment of device initiators and targets, network interface cards, and network switches so they operate as one clean loss less connection from end-to-end Analysis of network switch internal architec ture, port setup, and microcode versions Once a design has been completed and software created, a multi-stage component/system valida tion and testing process must be completed. This process should be implemented on a long-term basis and be highly scalable. For on-going support and new releases, the functionality and behavior of each technology piece, and the overall system, must have extensive regression testing. As technology advances, there will be subse quent generations of components. As they are incorporated, the system must be retested with new versions of storage drives, RAID controllers, host bus adaptors, and switches to ensure the To put the necessary effort into perspective here are some examples of what typically should be done with every generation of components to guarantee the performance of the system.

PAGE 80

80 SatMagazine January 2012 SatBroadcasting Storage RAID Six months with two engineers at the media server system provider and three engineers at the supplier to validate. Shared Storage Drive Series Four to six months with two engineers to Part of the validation is for extended multipleyear serviceability so that storage can be expanded with future generations of drives and have the drives, drive groups, rebuilds all work within the expected performance levels. Internal Drive Series Four to six months with two engineers to Performance analysis and validation, failure analysis, special mode page handling for media usage, integration of management and service ability tools. As with shared drives, not every drive family or drive supplier will meet the necessary standards. Media Networking After years of initial development, nine months with three engineers to develop the latest 10 Gigabit-based media networking tools, performance benchmarking, failures analysis, Six months of release testing, scaling, and Services + Support After a media server has been selected, the inter action with the supplier needs to enter a new phase. Now the supplier must deploy service expertise to effectively design and implement a system that meets your business needs, and Evaluating the suppliers capabilities in these areas nology, minimizing risk, and controlling total cost of ownership. Effective system design is essential if you technology. In this step, the suppliers system architects must engage in a discovery process to gather detailed technical requirements, and then translate those requirements into a system design. An experienced system architect will ask basic questions about your requirements, such as preferred compression and bit rates, projected amounts of storage, and numbers of ingest and playout channels. A true consultative approach from best-in-class suppliers should also explore potential future expansion of the system, interface points with other systems in the enterprise, longterm data continuity planning, and total system ence the design process as much as the simple bits, bytes, and channels data, which often take precedence outside of a consultative engagement. If an effective system design is the vision, then the reality is built during on-site system implementation. Here, the media server suppliers and trainers combine to commission new systems in real-world environments. The system must be and then the users must be trained on operation and maintenance procedures. Every media server supplier should have these basic capabilities. For systems of greater complexity and size, such basic implementation capabilities must be orchestrated by a detailed project management methodology to control project cost, timing, and risk. In any supplier eval uation process, each supplier should be asked to explain their project management methodology, including the statement of work, project sched uling, supplier/vendor communication, system documentation, and issue tracking. A properly designed and implemented media server system can provide years of operation as the heart of various media delivery infrastructures. However, all systems inevitably require technical support to troubleshoot failures, keep the system current with supported software releases, replace defective hardware components, and gener ally maintain system uptime. Potential suppliers must demonstrate their capabilities and invest ment in these core areas to ensure that capital investments are protected. Beyond core technical support capabilities, media server suppliers with advanced customer support infrastructure should be capable of providing high-availability services such as... 24/7 technical phone support Remote system diagnosis Access to continuing software releases and associated installation services

PAGE 81

81 SatMagazine January 2012 Advance exchange hardware replacement with next business day delivery Field service engineering Media server suppliers who can offer such highavailability services are able to dramatically mini mize any system downtime while ensuring the enterprise, on-air playout, and online operations. In addition, best-in-class customer support orga nizations are able to offer high-touch services such as dedicated technical account management, 24/7 remote system monitoring, and even outsourced engineering support. Grass Valley infosite About the author Matt Allard is the global Director of Marketing for the server and digital production systems product lines. He is responsible for product marketing of live production, studio, news, and integrated playout solutions focused around server platforms and software frameworks within Grass Valley. Matt has played a key role in the launch and management of the entire product line portfolio including the K2 Media Server, K2 Summit, K2 Dyno, Aurora News Production Suite, and STRATUS Media eight-plus years with Grass Valley, Matt has had international marketing, product management, and partner management roles at Commodore, Tektronix (Grass Valley), Microsoft, Chyron, and Intel.

PAGE 82

by Jos Heyman, Contributing Editor Aerosat: A Brilliant Idea Gone Wrong Heymans Focus I n the early 1960s various ideas for dedicated application satellites were advanced including one for aeronautical communications that was being considered in the United States as well as the European nations, the latter through the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). Unfortunately the market was not ready for this development and the proposal was cancelled. However, today and many years later, with new technology and in a different market, this may be one application that deserves revisiting. The impetus for the use of satellites in aeronautical fade altogether. HF had, however, the advantage of being able to bounce on the ionosphere, allowing long distance communications. 82 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 83

83 SatMagazine January 2012 Experts were looking at the use of the VHF band and the so called L-band (at around 1600GHz) as alternative frequencies. These frequencies had the advantage of being free from interference and propagation effects but, on the other hand, needed the high orbit platform that was provided by a satellite in geostationary orbit. Research and studies started separately in Europe, where the L-band frequencies were favored, and the United States, where NASA favored the VHF band. It was just a matter of time before the two parties pooled their resources. In a separate move, Comsat, a commercial U.S. organization, had submitted a draft plan to the U.S. Government for the development of two hybrid satellites with VHF and L-band capabilities band was seen as an immediate operational capa bility whereas the L-band was seen as a long range development capability. The Comsat proposal, made to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), envisaged one satellite to provide the service with a second satellite as a ground spare. Aerosat: A Source: Flight International, September 25, 1975

PAGE 84

84 SatMagazine January 2012 Heymans Focus In 1971, the U.S. government made the decision that the FAA, and not NASA, was the appropriate agency to manage an aeronautical communications satellite project. All the previous work carried out by NASA in partnership with ESRO was, in effect, turned over to the FAA and the Aerosat project, a joint venture of the FAA and ESRO, was established in August 1974. Initially it was hoped to get Australia, the Philippines and region, but these nations were not interested and instead the project started to focus on transIn 1974, Canada joined the venture and the percentages were ESRO and FAA each 46 percent with Canada at 8 percent. In 1975, ESROs share was taken over by the newly established European Space Agency (ESA). By November 1975 a two phase plan had satellites were to be developed and launched to perform a variety of experiments to determine preferred system characteristics of an opera tional system. Two satellites were to be located in geostationary orbit at 15 degrees West and 40 degrees West, with launches taking place in late 1977 and early 1978. The contract would have included a third ground spare satellite as well as ground stations. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics a British company, headed the Mesh Consortium that was selected to develop the Aerosat satellites from the ESAs OTS platform, in a similar manner as that platform was to be used for the ESAs MAROTS experimental maritime communications satellite. Source: Flight International, September 25, 1975

PAGE 85

85 SatMagazine January 2012 Originally, the satellites were to carry only L-band equipment to meet the European require ment, in which case the satellites could have been launched by a Delta 2914 launch vehicle. The inclusion of the VHF equipment necessitated a shift to a Delta 3914 launch vehicle. Each satellite was to have six L-band channels and two VHF channels for applicational use, with one C-band channel for groundstation-to-satellite service communications. An integral part of the Aerosat experimental satel to nine European and 12 U.S./Canadian aircraft. The subsequent operational phase was anticipated to be run on a commercial basis by a private concern with launches commencing in the late 1980s. Comsat, which had made earlier proposals, as well as RCA ITT and Western Union had expressed their interest. Eventually Comsat won the development contract in 1975. Up to this point the potential users of the system, the airlines, had not been asked for their opinions. This proved to be a recipe for disaster especially since in 1973/74 the prospects of civil dramatic increase in the oil price, and hence avia tion fuel costs, as well as the introduction of the wide body Boeing 747, reduced the number of was the cancellation of the American supersonic SST aircraft and the reduction in the number of Concordes, both of which had been used to justify the Aerosat program. All this caused airline compa nies to withdraw their support. At the same time the cost of the Aerosat project was increasing and, eventually, in 1977, the FAA pulled out and ESA decided to cancel further work. With this decision, the dream of a satellite system completely devoted to aviation died, then and there, never to be revived. At that point, mari time applications were to take center stage. The first geostationary communications satellite built by the MESH consortium which included Matra (France) and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics (UK), two companies now merged in Astrium. The two models launched in 1977 were the forerunners of the 19 satellites in the ECS series and the precursors for the Eurostar series. Photo courtesy of Astrium. About the author Jos Heyman is the Managing Director of Tiros Space Information, a Western Australian consultancy specializing in the dissemination of information on commercial application of space for use by educational as well as commercial organisations. An accountant by profession, Jos is the editor of the TSI News Bulletin and is also a regular contributor to the British Interplanetary Societys Contributing Editor for SatNews Publishers SatMagazine and MilsatMagazine.

PAGE 86

86 SatMagazine January 2012 Re: Sources Careers The Road To The Future Sales Support T hese are extremely challenging times for employers who need to acquire top level talent as well as for those seeking a career change. Today, companies economics compel them to re-assess their talent needs in order to remain competitive and drive growth. The satellite communications industry remains ripe with new opportunities. Employers are challenged with making a great hire. For the candidate, finding an opportunity can sometimes be a rather difficult proposition. To assist with career searches, we asked Bert Sadtler of Boxwood Executive Search to respond to readers questions regarding the processes of recruitment and hiring as well as how Companies can retain crucially-needed talent. Boxwood is located in the Washington DC region and has success in senior level recruitment in satellite communications, government contracting, and within the intelligence community. If you would care to submit a recruitment, hiring, or retention question specific to our satellite communications and related industries for Bert to answer, please email your question to BertSadtler@BoxwoodSearch.com This issues inquiry: Dear Bert, the need to recruit a senior level sales professional. We have had mixed results hiring sales talent. What are your thoughts on the key areas of successfully recruiting a sales professional? Thank you, DT, Division President Dear DT, Many business leaders feel that sales producers are a special breed. The good ones embrace rejection, work tirelessly, deliver new customers, compliment their support team and significantly contribute toward growth. The bad ones make promises that are not delivered, generate internal conflict, drive customers away and deliver little or no revenue. Heres what I recommend. As with all good recruiting, the first step toward acquiring sales talent is to communicate internally and determine your requirements. Is your organization struc tured for performance Are you comfortable if an-over achieving sales performer earns more in base plus bonus than the senior leadership of By determining what will work best within your organization, you can pursue the sales talent who will best fit your company and your corporate culture. Revenue producing positions require that attention be given to a well-constructed compensation plan that is also a focal point in attracting and retaining the right talent. A good plan should be aligned so there are similar goals for the front line producer, the manager and the leadership team. A good plan also attracts the kind of talent you want and discourages the sales talent who is a poor fit.

PAGE 87

Questions to ask when determining the best plan for your organization and defining the type of sales talent you want to recruit might include: Do you have an estab lished revenue stream and want to expand growth or are you penetrating a new market and developing How is sales success Is the role of your sales talent to simply generate What is a realistic time months, one year, two years) What are the On-Targettion plus bonus plus other) Have you validated that your On-Target-Earnings are competitive in your marketplace to both attract Does the compensation package encourage sales performance that exceeds Is there an included bonus Is the compensation and understood by members of sales, manage Are you insuring that earned commission is paid Hope you find these suggestions to be helpful to you and your organization. Best of luck with the new hire. Sincerely, Bert Sadtler 87 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 88

Janne Morstl COO, T-VIPS AS J anne T. Morstl is COO of T-VIPS AS, a technology company providing professional video transport solutions. She is one of the founders of the company, and manages key functions within the company including R&D, Support, Finance and Administration. Ms. Morstl joined T-VIPS from TANDBERG Television where she served in several management positions in Engineering and Business Development. In 2001 and 2002 she worked as Program Director at Zonavi, a Telenor-owned ITV company. Ms. Morstl is also on the Board of Directors of Vizrt, a Norwegianbased provider of 3D graphics and asset management tools for the broadcast industry. Ms. Morstl holds a Siv.Ing (equivalent to Master of Sciences) from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Ms. Morstl currently resides in Oslo, Norway, and has been a member of the Companys board since November 2010. Executive Spotlight 88 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 89

SM Good day, Ms. Morstl. The broadcasting industry and its connection to satellite communications possesses a strong technical bond and continues to play in this industry? Janne Morstl T-VIPS is a leading IP-based video network that casters and post-production customers in more than 50 countries with innovative solutions that high quality video transport. video gateway with the goal of targeting low bitrate contribution links such as Satellite trans missions. T-VIPS engineering team have deep experience in transport stream processing and have introduced innovative solutions to ensure reliable delivery of high quality video over IP-based video networks. We specialize in delivering solu tions for transporting, processing and monitoring professional video broadcast signals. Our products are used in live broadcast contribution, transport of video between studios, feeding from broadcaster to transmitters in terrestrial networks, regional content handling, local adaptation systems and monitoring and switching. T-VIPS close involvement in video standards bodies, leadership in JPEG2000, expertise in IP and transport stream multiplexing, processing and monitoring results in state-of-the-art technology that makes complex broadcast network operations simpler and preserves the integrity of high-end video streams. T-VIPS solutions are also used in many demanding applications, including 1080/60p, 3DTV, alternative content for digital cinema, live HD sports and news back-haul, and the transport of HDTV programming over IP networks. Among those currently deploying T-VIPS IP-based video transport solutions are News 12 Long Island, who use TVG430 HD JPEG2000 Gateways for transmission of HD and SD signals over IP. TVG415 SD JPEG2000 Gateway for ENG transmis sion from mobile trucks to the studio. WFTV-DT, an ASI to IP Video Gateway systems for real-time backhaul of HD ENG news footage over IP networks. Global Crossing, a leading global IP service provider, uses T-VIPS TVG425 Transport Stream Gateways for IP conversion. Optimum Lightpath, a provider of MetroEthernet-based data, Internet, voice and video transport solutions to the New York City area, a substantial number of T-VIPS units in its IP contribution network. PBS station WNET in New York City selected the T-VIPS TVG420 ASI to IP Gateway solution to transmit the stations locally produced program ming over an IP network to the PBS Network Operations Center, in Alexandria, VA. Another PBS to achieve increases reliability by monitoring and switching of incoming transport streams and for local PSIP rebranding at each of its transmitter sites, across its multi-station network. Boston from the WGBH-DT transport stream for delivery to Thames Valley Communications, a cable tele vision, high-speed Internet, and digital phone service provider in Groton, Connecticut. Numerous additional TV stations in the U.S. are using T-VIPS CP505 ATSC Processor and CP525 cMUX remultiplexers to insert PSIP infor mation into transport streams. Several high-end Hollywood post production facilities, including MTI Film and Skywalker Sound, deploy T-VIPS JPEG2000-based Video Gateways for real-time transmission of high-quality video T-VIPS TVG430 HD JPEG2000 Gateway 89 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 90

and audio for offsite reviews, color correction, approvals and collaboration. T-VIPS is privately-held company and head quartered in Oslo, Norway, with Americas head quarters in New Jersey. SM You have several years of experience, ranging from Janne Morstl I saw that the video world was moving to IP I was responsible for the IPTV business segment with Tandberg Television so I was aware of the opportunity for utilizing IP as a video transport technology. At the same time, I recognized that the focus of the larger vendors was in last-mile compression technologies and saw an opening to drive innovation in the contribution segment. In parallel the Digital Cinema industry was embracing JPEG2000 and we were excited by the possibility that this technology might provide in high quality video contribution. SM Janne Morstl T-VIPS brings unique expertise in delivering high quality contribution technology over IP video networks. With the launch of the TVG650/610 MPEG-4 products we now offer the market a best of breed point solution for low bandwidth contribu tion and addition assist the Satellite operators in deploying hybrid solutions including satellite and is right for Satellite operators to take advantage pioneered the JPEG2000 codec for broadcast appli cations because of the anticipated growth of IP in broadcast and understood that this codec was particularly well suited for IP video transport. As the quantity, quality and value of digital assets grows, content owners, producers and broadcasters want to avoid image degradation and maintain the highest video quality from acquisition and production through to distribution and storage. Sending JPEG2000 compressed video over IP networks enables programmers and content owners to preserve the highest image quality and repurpose their digital assets for all device formats. This allows the broadcaster to not only deliver the content to big HD/3D screens but also reformat the content to deliver a high-quality internet or mobile video viewing experience. Moving JPEG2000 compressed video over IP transport networks addresses the technical challenges facing broadcasters today and well into the future. SM We note your recent launch of your Companys opment of these products? What are the goals for these products? 90 SatMagazine January 2012 Executive Spotlight

PAGE 91

Janne Morstl Were a growing company and have decided that the time now is right to extend our product offering to cover lower bandwidth contribution solutions. We have been a pioneer in delivering high quality contribution solutions and this launch continues in that same tradition. The bandwidth footprint of our existing product portfolio is from 80-160 Mbit for HD all the way up 600 Mbit for 3D. With the TVG610/TVG650 we will meet the needs of customers with available bandwidth of 10 to portfolio. With the launch of these new products we will gain access to new market segment and addi tional revenue streams. The products are aimed at the Satellite and lower bit rate Telco contribution segments. We believe the TVG650/610 will prove to be the best high end MPEG-4 10 bit solutions available in the market. The TVG650 and TVG610 combine easily with other T-VIPS products to provide a robust satellite or telco contribution solution, in particular the CP525 cMUX Remultiplexer for intelligent processing, multiplexing and scrambling of MPEG-2 transport streams and the TNS541 Seamless TS Monitoring Switch for intelligent 1+1 redundancy switch-over between two MPEG-2 transport streams. SM Janne Morstl Deploying high quality TV services over a cost effective IP video infrastructure brings competi In terms of reliability, todays IP video trans port solutions are robust with a built-in quality of service (QoS), including advance error handling techniques such as Forward Error Correction (FEC). The availability, reliability and uptime of 91 SatMagazine January 2012

PAGE 92

IP networks has improved dramatically in the last decade, and they have now reached the quality level required for video transport. Those currently using microwave links can introduce IP in the domain. Signals can be routed to many different locations. Microwave transmission operates on a point-to-point, line-of-sight basis. IP-based video networks are ideal for sending the same signal to multiple locations. IP connectivity has a lower cost than satellite or legacy Telco networks. IP also means that video can be distributed over generic Ethernet networks, rather than the whole distri bution network being video or broadcast-centric. This saves cost and makes it easier to contribute content from wherever its generated. This is particularly true for news footage or for sports and events at smaller venues that may not have dedi cated links already installed. ATM and SDH/SONET systems are more expen sive to deploy and harder and more costly to main tain than todays IP-based networks. IP/Ethernet switches are commodity-off-the-shelf hardware, enabling an inexpensive deployment process. The availability of manpower with knowledge and IP/ Ethernet know-how is abundant. There are costIP-based infrastructure that make for an attractive ROI scenario. IP connectivity has a lower cost than satellite or video telco networks. IP also means that video can be distributed over generic Ethernet networks, rather than the whole distribution network being video or broadcast-centric. This saves cost and makes it easier to contribute content from wher ever its generated. This is particularly true for news footage or for sports and events at smaller venues that may not have dedicated cable or satel lite links already installed. SM Would you please take the time to describe a best case scenario in terms of a satellite operator Janne Morstl We would like to see customers deploying the 10 bit option of our MPEG-4 Encoder to contribute high value video assets such a live premium sports event over their existing Satellite infrastructure. SM With your Companys focus on these products, does technology in its product line? Please explain... Janne Morstl We have been the pioneers of JPEG2000 for as long as we have existed we lead the market with our JPEG solutions we intend to remain at the forefront of JPEG2000 developments. We continue to believe that where customers have access to the required bandwidth, JPEG2000 out-performs all contenders. With the TVG610/TVG650 we will meet the needs of customers with available band in our product portfolio. With the launch of these new products we will gain access to new market segment and addi tional revenue streams. The products are aimed at the Satellite and lower bit rate Telco contribution segments. We believe the TVG650/610 will prove to be the best high end MPEG-4. 10 bit solutions available in the market. From the start, our strategy has been to deliver high quality contribution solutions. We believe the time is right for MPEG-4 with availability and matu rity of MPEG-4 AVC 10-bit 4:2:2 coding technology for SD and HD signals. We are growing as an organization and now have the manpower and skills to carry a wider range of products. We strive to be responsive to our customer requirements and believe these new products will be a good match for the needs expressed by some of our customers (particularly in the APAC region). The applications for these two new products include: satellite and IP contribution, live event coverage, primary distribution, studio-to-studio media exchange, outside broadcast production, and professional broadcast contribution. And we have no plans to enter the DTH market. Our current focus continues to be the high end contri bution market. SM Janne Morstl We are constantly reviewing market trends and listening to our customers and will naturally bring new products and solutions to the market but we cannot go into details at this time. TVIPS TVG610 MPEG-4 Contribution Decoder 92 SatMagazine January 2012 Executive Spotlight

PAGE 93

SM Connect monitoring solution? Janne Morstl T-VIPS CONNECT is a web-based client server management system for the management and operation of video transport networks. From CONNECT, an operator can handle the manage ment of inventory, set-up and tear down of connec tions between T-VIPS transport stream processors, multiplexers and gateways. Connect also enables scheduling of connections. The entire video trans port process is combined in one managed system and operated from one screen. SM What challenges do you foresee for the satel lite broadcasting industry, both from a technical terms of entering this market as a Company unfa Janne Morstl Entering the Satellite space means maximizing limited bandwidth and that in turn means delivering the highest quality video at the lowest possible bit rate. Our best of breed products utilize the most this challenge. SM Janne Morstl As operators need to reach multiple device types as well as merging broadcast services with broadband tion networks becomes increasingly relevant. The customer expects a high-quality visual experience, regardless of the viewing device. The broadcaster has to deliver content compatible with the highest video quality device the large TV set in the living room. This means the broadcaster delivery network, the contribution network, to deliver the highest video quality possible. Theres a clear trend now among broadcasters of designing contribution infrastructures to support 10 bit/1080p, even though most of their current contribution is in HD at 1080i or 720p or even SD. The transcoding to prepare the content for different viewing devices happens in the studio, allowing the quality and format to be tailored for the various device screens and resolutions and simultaneously archiving the content for future re-purposing. The use of IP networks makes it economically viable to keep the content at high-quality for as long as possible throughout the video chain, which makes handled centrally. SM you have accomplished bring a smile of satisfac tion to your face? Janne Morstl If I think back, our greatest achievement was the TVG420 ASI to IP Gateway, and Im still 93 SatMagazine January 2012