Keynote: The View From Jupiter: Pradman Kaul, Hughes, CEO, USA
Consumer and enterprise markets present many similar challenges, yet also each segment has its own unique demands and both have an influence over the overall direction of the industry. After three decades of pushing the envelope for the VSAT industry and constantly delivering innovations in hardware and services that stretch satellite technology to challenge and complement ever more capable and widespread terrestrial networks, what does Hughes believe the future holds?
Event at a glance:
Dates: 11-14 September 2012
Venue: Lancaster London Hotel
Registration: www.comsys.co.uk
A Broader Frequency: Dave Bettinger, iDirect, CTO, USA
Broadband is not defined by the band, but by the bandwidth. Despite growing use of Ka-band, other frequencies have their strengths and physics ensures that these will always remain valid for a good number of customers – often defined by those with the highest value applications. Platforms need to be flexible and adaptable to fit in with new satellite architectures without neglecting specialised networking needs across the vast spectrum of customers that employ VSAT technology in many mission critical applications.
Padding the Envelope: Serge van Herck, Newtec, CEO, Belgium
Is DVB-S2 truly the end of the line and the ultimate in bandwidth efficiency as was suggested when it was launched? Perhaps not, already there have been some incremental improvements with new gains being added step-by-step over the past year. The DVB Project is working on new designs and private companies, like Newtec, are also pushing the boundaries within the DVB standards process as well as on their own initiative. It is important for operators and users to understand what they can expect the technology to deliver long term and this presentation gives us a glimpse into the future.
Exceeding Expectations: Mark Dankberg, ViaSat, CEO, USA
With speeds of 12 Mbps, satellite internet services in North America now directly challenge many DSL offerings, but is this too much of a good thing. Channels to market are crucial and major incumbents don’t necessarily want to hear of VSAT services that can present a purchase dilemma for a consumer. However, as plans progress for even more enhanced offerings in the next generation of broadband satellite platforms, the strategic positioning of these services will have to change, possibly in a radical way, as the technology moves up from being the solution of last resort.
Insatiable Defines The New Power Generation : Daniel Enns, Comtech, Senior Vice President, USA
The demand for bandwidth truly appears to be insatiable. Despite intense pressure on service charges and hardware costs, overall service revenues continue to grow driven by a seemingly inexorable rise in bandwidth consumption. This trend is constantly changing the market characteristics and, consequently, the key issues that an operator should be in touch with. Compression, optimisation, intelligent resource sharing and, of course, basic transmission speeds built around the most advanced techniques are all vital areas, but what are the facts behind the need for bandwidth, are there regional differences and what are the longer term implications.
Banding Together: Leo Mondale, Inmarsat/Global Xpress, CEO, Global Xpress, Switzerland
MSS L-band service has its advantages, but plentiful bandwidth is not one of them. Inmarsat essentially owns the mobility brand in many key market segments, but all of these applications are experiencing exploding demand for bandwidth and the Ka-band Global Xpress service is the company’s answer to this dramatic challenge to its traditional L-band offering. However, this is much more than simply a technological step up, it’s about a radical change in where, when, why and how to sell a new Ka-band spotbeam service that offers some unique attributes and a major restructuring of a market environment.
Trading the Seas: Alberto Boratto Carpene, Milano Teleport, Business Development & Board Member, Italy
The maritime VSAT service environment looks set to change fundamentally over the next few years. Channel positioning, teleport infrastructure, investment criteria and customer ownership are all possible elements that may be caught in the mix. Large and small operators are likely to face difficult, but often very different decisions. Milano Teleport has a substantial maritime business, but sees its strength as a trader of maritime services – a strategy that is not necessarily tied to its own infrastructure nor to any particular channel model. So where is the value in this position and what preparation is required?
Attention to Detail: Bertrand Hartmann, OmniAccess, CEO, Spain
From Royal family yachts to the Smith family’s cruise, everyone wants to be connected when they take to ocean, but is delivery of bandwidth enough or is much more required of an operator? As with all markets, maritime VSAT services are being increasingly commoditised, but there will always be room for the independent service provider willing to provide a tailored, flexible, responsive and integrated solution. After all, ultimately customer relationships are what really make a sale and these are based on trust resulting from demonstrable expertise.
There’s Gold in Them Hills: Yoel Gat, SatixFy, CEO, Hong Kong SAR
Satellites provide bandwidth on which VSAT feeds and available capacity is growing as the spacecraft operators move up the frequency ranges, but access to this resource is dependent on many other technologies and innovation across all levels of the industry. However, the VSAT market does not enjoy the same economies of scale that mainstream product and component manufacturers can exploit, even in the consumer segment. There is, however, a solution that could bring the benefits of scale and ensure the gold that new satellite capacity offers is maximised for the benefit of all. The diamonds of satellite’s USPs will not be forgotten either by someone who has broken the rules before.
Architectural Visions: Jay Yass, Intelsat, Vice President, Global and Strategic Sales, USA
To paraphrase a well-known expression, it’s not what you have, but how you use it and satellite capacity, coverage and frequency is no exception. Raw bandwidth is one thing, but how it should all come together, the way in which it is packaged and sold together with considerations of ground segment variations and future needs are all vitally important. In the near future, satellite operators will begin to face vastly different challenges and some radical decisions that will both affect their businesses and those of their customers.
Storming the Barriers: Emil Youssefzadeh, STM Group, Founder & CEO, USA
Globalisation has brought greater access across markets, but the satellite industry generally and the VSAT business in particular continue to open the doors into many opportunities and areas that would otherwise be left waiting. Sometimes the only effective strategy is one that combines technology, initiative and investment to bring change in a dramatic and worthwhile way.
Flying Low: John Finney, O3b Networks, Chief Commercial Operator, Jersey
Geostationary orbits have their advantages, but one of them is not the round trip delay of a signal. There are advantages to flying spacecraft lower – fibre-like latency from a satellite service is undeniably attractive – but equally there’s a price to be paid. In a rapidly changing communications infrastructure, which applications are expected to demand the unique features of a MEO system, where will the custom come from and will the service be a complement or a threat to traditional VSAT solutions are a few of the key questions that need to be answered.
Behavioural Change: Riyadh Al Adely, SkyStream, CEO, UAE
In almost every region, operators are facing the harsh reality that simple broadband services have little staying power against terrestrial solutions when available and the onslaught of Ka-band consumer VSAT platforms are about to tilt the landscape even more. The move to value-added application support, niche segments and custom networking presents a new set of challenges, but SkyStream began this process a few years ago and is now able to describe the path, share the painful moments, speak of the benefits and showcase the results.
Empires and Umpires: Nadeem Khoury, HICAP, Director SATCOM Department, Saudi Arabia
Spotbeam satellites bring their challenges and advantages, some of which are a natural fit for military customers, such as the segmented coverage and high power levels that makes interference much less of a threat than on conventional spacecraft. However, in a mixed use environment serving different branches of the military and civilian government with fixed and mobile service, integrators and operators have to provide robust and secure partitioning to ensure both performance and network integrity. This is just one emerging requirement as Ka-band projects demand new skill sets and technology expertise that will challenge many layers of the satellite industry supply chain.
More presentation details at http://www.comsys.co.uk/wvc_prog.htm
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