OffComm News Autumn 2014

For buyers and suppliers of telecommunications destined for remote & harsh environments

Where Telecoms & Energy Connect

Autumn 2014

More Bang for your BUC Get more out of your satellite bandwidth with our special feature from page 26.

Giants are moving into Scotland The big guns are lining up to serve the North Sea and surrounding fields. Find out who’s moved in and what they’re doing there from page 24

Solving the

Big Data “

50%

Dilemma

of CEOs still don’t have the right data to make good decisions.”

Hossam Farid Friedman, executive director, oil & gas industries, Oracle

Get the Lowdown M2M growth set to set satellite industry alight » flash contracts for telco and new structures » A single moment of truth revealed; customer service for boosting revenues » In-flight comms to reach US$2.1 billion by 2023 » Addressing North Sea oil & gas performance » Maritime crew comms under the spotlight » and much more inside!

Produced by CTLD Publishing Ltd

Dropped, smashed, submerged:

Survived.

Catch the very latest in rugged hardware capable of withstanding the harshest environments. Page 23.

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Autumn 2014

OffComm News will be watching closely as the this year’s VSAT event recognises the stars in our community, dishing out awards for: Service provider of the Year, Technology innovation of the Year, The Rising Star, and a special Lifetime Achievement award. Good luck if you’re in the running. We’ll be tweeting the results LIVE on 18 Sept so make sure your connected with us!

Welcome Here’s a question for you regarding wireless backhaul via satellite on mobility platforms: What’s the better benchmark between deployment and revenues? This was an element posed during a recent webinar from NSR (Northern Sky Research), an international market research and consulting firm specialising in telecommunications technology, with a particular focus on “50% satellite and wireless.

Aside from the oil and gas industry, other sectors are also picking up on the options becoming available for remote connectivity. The inflight sector, for example, is well underway. In fact it’s expected to double over the next decade to reach US$2.1billion by 2023, says a report from another research firm, Euroconsult.

of CEOs

But adding this to the mix will only increase the amount of data flying in / out. It needs to be stored, it needs to be analysed, we need access to it cheaply and securely. We also need to understand what we’ve collected and how to handle it.

still don’t have the At the moment, there is no clear winner between FSS and right data to make As always, we enjoy hearing your views.

HTS. However, that is set to change. If you missed the good decisions” If you’d like to get in touch you can webinar, we picked up on some of the most interesting Oracle. reach us with the email below. points relating to this, which you can find on page 31.

Page 14 Georgina Elrington Editor@OffCommNews.com

Inside this issue

OffComm News got the chance to ask the company’s president, Jay Friedman, a few questions about what software defined networks can do to help manage the data deluge from oil and gas operations. Our quick fire interview can be found on page 13.

Vaughan O’Grady reports for OCN on how to get more out of your satellite bandwidth in this exclusive feature on page 26

Get the most out of your offshore teams by getting the most out of your welfare bandwidth quota.

Page 28

Analyst Teresa Cottam, of Telesperience, questioned the value locked inside the mass of information now coming at us, and found some interesting approaches for taming it. Page 14

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

Data compression & bandwidth optimisation for the O&G industry

A good crew is a connected crew

Industry Interview: Distrix

Bandwidth Optimisation Imperative, on page 18

d up of remote deals from the last qu arter

Hub Urlings, a satellite M2M specialist, dives in feet first to consider two options for harnessing data as efficiently as possible. Join him on page 20

Defence news page 10 & Corporate moves page 24

Martin Jarrold examines the

for our fast fla sh contracts roun

New bandwidth management challenges for satellite M2M

Regulars The Quarterly Pages 4 & 5 Comms News Pages 6 & 7 Diary Dates Pages 16 & 17

Solving the Big Data Dilemma

Keep a pages lookout 12/34

Ka vs. Ku: Battle of the Bands for Offshore Communications

Hear from Denis Sutherland, senior systems engineering manager at iDirect, as he talks us through the ongoing HTS story in the oil and gas market. Page 33

flash contracts Q2

Find out which companies clinched what deals, and uncover real business opportunities. See page 12 for comms contracts and page 34 for new builds. to www.OffCommNews.com Whether online or in print, copyright remains that of CTLD Publishing Ltd. It is prohibited 1

OffComm News is a trading name of CTLD Publishing Ltd. Company No. 7774639 ISSN 2051-9362. Read the digital version online by clicking the current edition image at www.OffCommNews.com. Printed by HP OffComm News is available in print quarterly by subscription only. To start receiving OffComm News: Digital subscriptions are free via http://goo.gl/kr3bz. For advertising contact: marketing@OffCommNews.com ~ For editorial & subscription queries email: editor@OffCommNews.com or telephone 44(0)203 239 1777

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The Quarterly Marketplace Roundup ...New builds... refurbishments... executive appointments... Stay up to date with the market on these pages in every issue...

Redline wins US$1.6million contract for offshore comms New RAS Extend Marine system brings powerful cost-effective wireless communications to marine fleet Provider of mission-critical wireless networks, Redline Communications Group Inc, has received a $1.6 million contract to deliver a marine communications network based on its RAS Extend Marine product.

The customer, a government organisation whose ships patrol its country’s coastline to ensure the safety of its citizens, will be using the Redline network to enhance its high speed communications capabilities. Ships within 80km of the shoreline can now be costeffectively connected for real-time coverage of maritime borders, fleet tracking, sensor integration, support for prevention operations, and internet access for crews.

Designed initially for communications between offshore oil drilling platforms, and the many ships that service them, the wireless broadband networking system connects moving assets in remote locations over sea, automatically locating and connecting to a network base station, which can be located on a ship, platform or shore.

“With the type of performance that the RAS Extend Marine system delivered to this customer, terrestrial wireless is a very viable alternative to satellite, exceeding its capacity performance with lower latency and no usage fees,” stated Bojan Subasic, vice president of research and development at Redline. “This has the potential to reduce communications costs significantly for marine applications including communications among ships and offshore drilling platforms, communications among ships in harbours, and for naval organizations that patrol coastal waters.”

New service delivers news and entertainment at sea The IP-MobileCast content delivery service developed by KVH Industries, Inc, for its miniVSAT broadband satellite network is now live, enabling seafarers in the middle of the ocean with affordable access to daily digital newspapers, television news, sports updates, music, new-release blockbuster movies, and TV programs via a multicasting service.

Multicasting technology delivers large amounts of content to many ships at once, overcoming the prohibitively high satellite communications costs typically charged to deliver files for individual use.

Content is delivered over the top (OTT) of the network so there is no charge for the delivery, just the content.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

Who’s Who News in Brief Imtech Marine has appointed Nico van Leeuwen as global sales services director.

MSC Cargo Italy chooses Marlink’s VSAT for 124 vessels MSC Cargo Italy, one of the top three container companies in the world, has contracted Marlink to deliver the new WaveCall Plus high-speed broadband VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) package for its entire fleet of 124 vessels.

WaveCall Plus is part of AuroraGlobal, the new multi-band high-speed initiative launched by Airbus Defence and Space in MSC selected WaveCall Plus as the proposition best fitting its vessel’s operations and crew communications requirements and budget, after a thorough review of the various VSAT offerings available in the market.

Intelsat and SpeedCast join forces to enhance broadband mobility

Two industry giants establish strategic agreement It means that Intelsat will provide access to its global C- and Ku-band broadband mobility network to SpeedCast, the leading global satellite communications and maritime service provider.

The multi-year agreement will enable enhanced broadband and mobility solutions to the maritime, oil & gas, and enterprise markets with expanded coverage and greater flexibility.

“Broadband mobility represents one of the fastest growing markets for satellite services,” stated Stephen Spengler, President and chief commercial officer, Intelsat.

“The new and enhanced agreement with SpeedCast provides both companies with a strong platform to further expand our ability to serve customers.” ~ See page 24 for more industry news ~

www.OffCommNews.com

Eutelsat Communications tightened its management structure with Michel Azibert, deputy CEO, taking commercial and development activities under his direct responsibility. He succeeds Jean-François LeprinceRinguet who becomes special advisor to the CEO. Jotron, a global manufacturer of highquality communication products and sy stems for land, sea and air applications, has announced that its director of administration, HR and former chairman, Merete Berdal has taken over as managing director.

SpeedCast appointed Michael Malone as a non-executive board director; and John Mackay as chairman.

GE has a new company officer. Charles Nugent, 52, has been appointed vice president, manufacturing, for GE Oil & Gas. Nokia has chosen Danny Atme as general manager of networks business in Pakistan.

Carl Trowell has been named chief executive officer and president of Ensco plc. He will also be seated on the company’s board. He joins from Schlumberger and succeeds Dan Rabun who retires after 8 years as CEO. Telenor Group has appointed Michael Patrick Foley as the new chief executive officer of Telenor Pakistan. The group also reports 3 new executive vice presidents: Henrik Clausen, Katja Christina Nordgaard, & Pål Wien Espen.

The World Teleport Association elected Signalhorn’s Robert Kubbernus to its board of directors.

Intelsat S.A. has elected Robert F. Callahan, chairman of Longueview, a media, internet and technology advisory firm, to the company's board of directors.

Viking Offshore and Marine Limited announced Lee Suan Hiang’s appointment as lead independent director.

NSN appoints Salvatore Maisano head of Central East & West Africa to lead overall NSN sales, operations and business growth across the region.

The board of directors at SES S.A. has appointed René Steichen as chairman of the board; and François Tesch and Jean-Paul Zens as vice-chairmen.

Ericsson just welcomed Rima Qureshi as chief strategy officer for the Group. She will drive the company's M&A acitivities and serve as chairman of business unit modems.

Nokia’s board of directors has appointed Rajeev Suri as president and CEO of Nokia Corporation.

4

The Quarterly Marketplace Roundup ... Company announcements can be emailed to the news desk for consideration. Send your story to: editor@OffCommNews.com ...

New antenna for broadband at sea

Globecomm wins order for WGS tri-band satellite terminals

Editor’s Choice

KNS Inc, a designer, manufacturer, and integrator of marine communication systems, has launched a new satellite antenna; Z18MK3, KU and C-Band to provide advanced communications for ships that require broadband speeds at sea with exceptional reliability and durability.

Noah Chung, a director at the company, said: “Our Z18MK3 is one of the most reliable and rugged antennas on the market, capable of extreme weather conditions with unlimited azimuth input to provide uninterrupted high quality connections, even when a ship turns.”

Globecomm has been awarded an order for its WGS certified auto explorer lightweight transport (LT) terminals. The Auto Explorer LT 1.2-Meter X-Band and 1.0metre Ka-Band configurations are both qualified to operate over the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) constellation.

Get the news as it happens with our Editor’s Choice RSS feed from the homepage at www.OffCommNews.com

The Z18 comes with an automatic satellite search and skew control, and an accurate signal acquisition by KNS’s distinctive algorithm.

Advantech Wireless goes from 12% to 5% ROF on high speed broadcast modem Advantech Wireless Inc, a privately-held Canadian corporation and manufacturer of satellite, RF equipment and microwave systems has reported 5% Roll-off Factor (ROF) on its AMT 75e DVB-S/S2 high speed broadcast modem.

The company has been deploying systems with 12% roll-off for more than five years.

This latest development has lowered the achievable roll-off to just 5%. It is expected that this will provide additional reduction in the occupied bandwidth helping to reduce the monthly OPEX cost.

The AMT 75e is a multi-purpose high speed satellite modem uses LDPC coding to achieve what it claims is the most bandwidth-efficient transmission available in the market today.

The company also recently released a new Ku-band GaN technology based SSPA/BUC designed to withstand extreme temperatures ranging from -55oC to +70oC (-67F to +158 F). It hopes that the new line will help aid new markets in challenging envi ronments, such as satel li te communication on aircrafts.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

It includes the baseline terminal with three RF kits, including Ku-band, X-band and Kaband. The LT tri-band version allows the user to operate on both commercial and military satellites.

Many government users have traditionally only leveraged commercial SATCOM. With access to WGS capacity, they now require remote terminals to leverage the military X and Ka-bands as well. This award represents the first Auto Explorer LT Kaband order since announcing its certification earlier this year.

Auto Explorer transportable satellite terminals are lightweight, highperformance, two-way communication systems designed for military units and government agencies. They seamlessly extend user networks to remote edge locations to enable secure voice, data and video communications.

Android app for Ka-band installations ‘Avanti Mobile As s i s t ’ , from A v a n t i Communications optimizes the installation process by supporting job allocation, antenna line-up, initiation of service and reporting for engineers.

It allows all stages of a standard Hughes installation to be carried out, cuts installation equipment costs by up to 75% and installation time by up to 20%.

The app, available from the Google Play store, eliminates the need for tools including a horizon satellite meter, a laptop, an external GPS unit, a compass / inclinometer, or a camera.

www.OffCommNews.com

Managing multiple DAS networks via single platform Westell Technologies, Inc is a global company specialising in intelligent site management, in-building wireless, cell site optimization, and outside plant solutions. It has just integrated its Optima Management System® with the ClearLink® Universal DAS Interface Tray (UDIT) by Cellular Specialties Inc. The integration enables the viewing and management of multiple distributed antenna system (DAS) networks and UDITs from one management platform.

“With the rapid growth of in-building wireless deployments and demand for a quality and reliable communications experience, understanding and optimizing DAS and small cell networks is critical,” explains Ben Stump, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Westell.“ The integration of the ClearLink UDIT into Optima enables wireless service providers and neutral host operators to actively monitor and manage their entire DAS and small cell network from one location.” > Operational efficiency is improved by providing remote monitoring and management, minimising site visits.

Network reliability and availability are optimized by using Optima to provide a comprehensive view of the entire DAS deployment, from the head end to the antenna, and monitoring the KPIs to validate peak performance.

Comtech receives US$5.3m order for Ka-band satellite power amplifiers Comtech Xicom Technology, Inc, has received an order valued at $5.3 million for its 500W Ka-band high-power amplifiers to be used in the High Throughput Satellite (HTS) market.

The amplifiers will be located at multiple gateways to enable high-capacity consumer broadband applications.

5

Comms at work at sea

BYOD from Airbus Defence and Space enhances crew welfare onboard Introduced earlier this year, Airbus Defence and Space’s BYOD solution enables crew to use their own devices on board for voice and data communication.

Wi th seaml ess Pharostar VS AT, FleetBroadband or Iridium OpenPort, the offering combines the latest WiFi technology standards, a set of free apps and the newest version of the XChange communications management platform.

In all, it is a cost-efficient and convenient crew welfare tool allowing smartphone and tablets access to a vessel’s VSAT and MSS (Mobile Satellite Services) links.

BYOD offers a more cost effective solution compared with traditional cellular solutions for maritime. It comprises hardware and service support, without any additional or hidden costs.

For crew, the new apps and XChange v3 take the complexity out of using personal devices on board.

With the new XChange Voice app, crew can comfortably use their smartphones to call family and friends, or even anyone else on board, in just one click.

Messaging and internet access is provided through the easy-to-use XChange Data app. Crew can surf the web, send emails, check news or access social media sites, while resting in their cabin.

“This package of new functionality helps ship-owners to enhance their crew welfare programmes quickly and easily,” said Tore Morten Olsen, head of maritime satellite communications activities at Airbus Defence and Space.

“In the crew survey we conducted, officers and crew expressed a desire for more personal access to connectivity. Our focus on BYOD is in response to this need for more privacy and comfort when communicating at sea.”

Panasonic gets smaller & tougher with rugged handheld tablets Panasonic, an industry leader in reliable and innovative mobile computers since 1996, today announced the U.S. launch of its fully-rugged, 5-inch handheld tablets.

The Toughpad® FZ-E1, powered by Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld, and the Toughpad FZ-X1, running the Android™ 4.2.2 operating system, are enterprise-class handheld tablets ~ with voice & data connectivity designed for mission-critical mobile workers.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

With 14-hour hot-swappable batteries, FIPS 140-2 Level 1 security, and sunlightreadable HD touchscreens that work even while wearing thick gloves, the Toughpad FZ-E1 and Toughpad FZ-X1 are purpose-built to improve efficiency and productivity for mobile professionals such as first responders, military service members and those in transportation and logistics, utilities, manufacturing, retail and field services.

The 5 inch handheld FZ-X1, from Panasonic, with voice and data connectivity, can withstand 10 foot drops and submersion, meeting the most demanding enterprise requirements.

34 vessels stay online thanks to Imtech Marine USA Leading Canadian shipping company Algoma Central Corporation has renewed and upgraded its VSAT Connectivity contract with technology solutions provider Imtech Marine. The agreement now provides VSAT satellite coverage and airtime connectivity to 34 vessels which are owned or managed by Algoma.

Algoma Central Corporation owns and operates the largest Canadian flag fleet of dry and liquid bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes ~ St. Lawrence Waterway, including 18 self-unloading dry-bulk carriers, seven gearless dry bulk carriers and seven product tankers.

Private networks and increased bandwidth For the past six years the shipping company had a VSAT connectivity package together with two other Great Lakes operators, American Steamship Company and CSL. But Algoma decided that it wanted an independent solution.

Peter Wi nkl ey, Al goma Central Corporation vice president, commented: “We are pleased to partner with Imtech Marine to provide VSAT services to our Canadian fleet of vessels. The contract renewal created a private network with increased bandwidth for the Algoma fleet, enabling wireless internet connectivity to our crew members onboard all vessels.”

Crew welfare is clearly very important to Algoma, commented Kara Babb, Imtech Marine’s QHSE manager.

“The vital thing is the vessels maintain their business functionality, while at the same time the crew can keep in touch with family and friends via the internet.”

www.OffCommNews.com

With Imtech Marine’s global 24/7 VSAT support, “Algoma knows it has consistency of service, dependable and reliable airtime. The airtime bandwidths are separated so the crew has full access to the internet without them delaying any business operations,” she added.

Imtech Marine’s broadband communication solution utilises the iDirect evolution platform and includes service level agreements, and automatic beam switching. A three year renewal option includes the iDirect Ku-band global VSAT service (6 megabytes) and two Voice Over IP (VOIP) lines.

e-Sea installation warms up dive crews onboard the Seven Osprey Crew onboard the Seven Osprey, a dive support vessel operating in the North Sea, has also upgraded its crew comms system.

It installed the e-SEA H60 system, from Aberdeen based Woodsons Marine Electronics, which has made browsing the internet and communicating with the outside world a far more enjoyable experience for the crew, leading to a happier and more productive workforce.

We, at OffComm News, think that anything to help after a nippy dive in the freezing-cold North Sea is well deserved.

The service offers bandwidth options via a ‘hotspot’ system where they can purchase cards which have separate logins ~ allowing a pre-determined amount of data per month. Revenue generated by the system will be returned to the crew welfare fund.

27 Stena Line ferries upgrade to new maritime VSAT hybrid network A ferry operator in North West Europe, has contracted Marlink to upgrade 27 of its vessels in Scandinavian, Irish Sea, and North Sea operations.

It will be equipped with the latest VSAT services and technology to increase available bandwidth enhance connectivity services.

and

Core drivers leading to the upgrade were identified as crew and passenger welfare, as well as more efficient operations. The new system will help to ensure the operator’s vision for high-levels of connectivity onboard.

6

Comms news

7

IoT is buzzing

Worldwide market trillion forecasted to exceed $USD this figure by 2020

Interest around the IoT, having grown steadily in recent years, seems to be coming to fruition.

According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), a transformation is underway that will see the worldwide market for IoT (Internet of Things) solutions grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020.

The company defines the IoT as a network of uniquely identifiable endpoints (or ‘things’) that communicate without human interaction using IP connectivity ~ be it locally or globally.

Businesses are intrigued by the efficiencies, business process implications, and revenue opportunities that IoT solutions can generate. "Technology vendors are evolving their solutions in a supply-driven market that's edging toward becoming a more demand-driven market," said Vernon Turner, SVP of IDC's enterprise infrastructure, consumer, network, telecom and sustainability research.

Additional findings from IDC's research include: worldwide IoT installed base will experience a compound annual growth rate of 17.5% from 2013 to 2020; and, increasingly over the forecast period, IDC expects product offerings will be differentiated and competition will generally intensify, particularly around holistic solution offerings that incorporate smart analytics and applications.

~ Read more about IoT from page 20 ~

Imagination and Oracle collaborate to enhance Java for embedded & IoT Imagination Technologies is collaborating with Oracle Corp. with intent to enhance Java for embedded & IoT applications, and optimise Java for the MIPS CPU architecture.

The pair are working together to bring the Oracle JDK (Java Development Kit), Oracle Java SE Embedded, and other such product support to MIPS32 and MIPS64 systems.

Java is the foundation for a broad range of networked applications and is a global standard for developing and delivering embedded, web-based and enterprise content, and applications.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

MIPS licensees can make use of highly portable languages and platforms for a broad range of applications including routers, wireless access points, residential gateways, next-generation consumer premises equipment (CPE), other networking equipment, mobile devices, IoT, embedded, and more.

Nandini Ramani, vice president, Java and IoT, Oracle, said: “The MIPS architecture is widely used in networking, embedded and other key markets. We are excited to see the differentiated feature set that Imagination has laid out in its roadmap for MIPS, and we are seeing increasing demand for optimized Java support for MIPS. Through this new relationship with Imagination, we are strengthening the presence of Java in a range of highvolume markets.”

Powerful satellite HotSpot debuts

It is now possible for subscribers in the oil & gas, marine, natural resource, and emergency response sectors to use their own device to stay connected when cellular coverage is unavailable.

Globalstar’s latest newest voice and data solution, Sat-Fi, provides seamless wireless connectivity over the world's most modern satellite network.

Boasting the fastest, most affordable, mobile satellite data speeds ~ reported to be 4x faster than the competition ~ the offering comes with the clearest voice communications in the industry.

A smartphone app enables connectivity between any WiFi-enabled device and via the Sat-Fi satellite hot spot, allowing users to send and receive email, SMS text messages, and make voice calls from their own devices.

Powered by the world's most modern satellite network, key features include: easy setup in minutes; affordable airtime plans; the best voice quality with seamless connectivity; simple 10 digit dialling; up to eight users at once; and the ability to reach emergency responders.

Sat-Fi is available for purchase for CDN $1,099. Airtime plans start at $39.99per month. Unlimited voice and data option is priced at $149.99 per month.

www.OffCommNews.com

Mobilising the Sky: AT&T Building 4G LTE In-Flight Connectivity Service AT&T has informed us of plans to launch a high-speed 4G LTE-based in-flight connectivity service for airlines and passengers in commercial, business, and general aviation.

The service, planned for late 2015, will be capable of providing in-flight broadband for customers including; fast, reliable WiFi, and onboard entertainment. Following launch, aviation customers can also expect improved connectivity solutions such as cockpit communications, maintenance operations & crew services.

To deliver this new service, AT&T plans to build an air-to-ground network in the continental United States, based on global 4G LTE standards, to provide fast speeds and efficient utilization of spectrum already owned by AT&T. As the architect and operator of the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network, AT&T has the expertise, spectrum and financial strength to transform airborne connectivity.

“Everyone wants access to high-speed, reliable mobile Internet wherever they are, including at 35,000 feet,” said John Stankey, chief strategy officer at AT&T. “We are building on AT&T’s significant strengths to develop in-flight connectivity technology unlike any other that exists today, based on 4G LTE standards. We believe this will enable airlines and passengers to benefit from reliable high speeds and a better experience. We expect this service to transform connectivity in the aviation industry ~ we are truly mobilizing the sky.”

Honeywell, an aerospace industry leader, recently issued a wireless connectivity survey indicating that in-flight WiFi currently causes frustrations for nearly nine in 10 users worldwide, most often due to inconsistent or slow connections.

AT&T will work with Honeywell, providing hardware and service capabilities, to deliver the in-flight connectivity solution. It is hoped that passengers will be able to experience the sort of reliability that, to date, has been on many wish-lists. It promises internet browsing, checking email, keeping in touch with friends and family through social networking and messaging services, as well as increasing business productivity.

7

Comment

Service Satisfaction A single moment of

Reaching Difficult Locations Perceived Performance Orange Business Services BT NTT Com AT & T Telefonica Verizon T-Systems Cabel & Wireless

Customer Satisfaction Index %

By Janet Watkin, Ocean82

Today the mantra “No network, No cloud” is commonplace. Transformation is underway to provide users with a unified digital experience to bring agility and flexibility right to the fingertips of business people.

Many business executives are tasked with driving up productivity and reducing costs to cope with increasing competition, as well as addressing user demands for better value. They often hope that ICT (Information Communications Technology) will be the key that unlocks the latent demand for speedy, secure and reliable access to relevant information by anyone, anywhere, anytime, in the work place. But is it that simple?

By providing a ‘single moment of truth’ on the status of an installation, for example, or with the progress of a fault repair, users gain more peace of mind. However, uniform user experiences seem to have been few and far between in the corporate world where conservative attitudes and vested interests appear to have acted as barriers to change.

A survey conducted by Ocean82, with users in multi-national enterprises, shows consistent levels of dissatisfaction with service providers on ‘internal co-ordination’ and ‘ease of doing business.’

Such process failures by service providers’ causes frustration, impacting network downtime and service continuity, which is what users hate to experience, especially when it is coupled with uncertainty as to when service might be resumed.

In many harsh and remote environmental locations, connectivity itself becomes the top priority and, it is often very costly. In Brazil, we know of service providers laying cables along mine shafts to allow its clients the same level of speed and security as in any major city of the developed world. Such willingness to partner clients, to allow remote connectivity to data VPN services, extends coverage and confers competitive advantage in niche sectors. Others are ‘bolting’ the internet to the data VPN ~ to connect remote business sites ~ on a pay per user basis.

Ocean82 asked users in multinational business enterprises to rate their level of satisfaction with a basket of eight global data VPN service providers on ‘reaching difficult locations’. Orange Business Services scored the highest for with customer satisfaction, followed closely by BT.

Gilat satcom takes connectivity underground in African mines Gilat Satcom, a provider of satellite and fibre-based connectivity services in Africa, Asia and Middle East, is bringing high-quality voice comms to people working in underground mines.

The company has been providing a similar system to underground bunkers operated by military forces around the world for some years. Recently, it adapted the technology to cope with the harsh conditions found at underground exploration locations. To date, communication with underground workers has been via temporary cables which are prone to damage and, for various reasons, are unsuitable for many mines.

Gilat Satcom’s SuricatePRO service provides coverage extension for standard satellite phones ~ extending telephony underground without loss of signal quality.

Dan Zajicek, CEO of Gilat Satcom, said: “Communicating with workers in underground mines has always been problematical. Our system is extremely reliable, cost-effective and market-proven. We are actively reaching out to mining companies in Africa where we know our system will be of great benefit.”

SuricatePRO takes advantage of Foxcom’s RF-over-fiber technology. All that is required is the installation of outdoor and indoor units connected via fiber (up to 6 km), after which Iridium satphone users can immediately access the Iridium constellation – just as if they had clear sky view.

Whelan and his colleagues examined the available technology options, and determined that the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger from Globalstar best suited their needs: “The devices were well received by staff because they were so easy to use,” reported Whelan.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

30

Defence news

Harris awarded 8 year US Navy broadband satellite contract The U.S. Navy has awarded Harris Corporation an eight-year contract valued at up to US$133 million to provide shipboard terminals that give crews access to high-bandwidth voice and data communications.

Under the agreement, Harris will provide up to 120 1.3-meter terminals offering Xband over existing military satellites, with the option of military/commercial Kaband operation for the future.

“These Harris terminals provide the Navy with access to the high-bandwidth services essential to mission-critical communications and to morale,” said Ed Zoiss, vice president and general manager, defence programs, Harris Government Communications Systems.

Collaboration fights back piracy for Ecuadorian fisher folk

Breakthrough enables special forces with data

Low profile maritime terminals in combat

Forces can now hit the ground and establish critical real-time data exchange with partners in minutes, rather than days or weeks.

Gilat Satellite Networks has provided lowprofile maritime terminals for various naval vessels of an unnamed Asian country.

Mutualink, Inc. has developed a new data gateway to provide a secure and easy way for soldiers to exchange tactical and positional information in real-time. The technology enables military and coalition partners operating with disparate communications networks and messaging formats to exchange arbitrary data on demand in a highly secure manner. It is currently under evaluation by the U.S. Marine Corps as well as NATO. Its ability to securely bridge otherwise non-routable networks provides a key differentiator in the field. The system has also been successfully evaluated in conjunction with cross-domain solutions, adding flexibility and critical information flow between high & low side locations.

Deployed on missile boats and fast attack craft, in both Ka- and Ku-band, naval commanders now have access to realtime information and better situation awareness. The terminals, capable of operating in the harsh maritime environment, provide secure Commandand-Control communications in combat.

Based on the RaySat SR200M and ER5000KA Ka-Band antennas, which provide high-speed connectivity in a small, light, and low-profile form factor, the terminal includes a Wavestream BUC and the GLT-1000 high-performance modem.

It has a small footprint and is simple to install, making the terminal ideal for small and unmanned surface vessels where size, weight, and power limitations present challenging environments.

Between January and April of 2013, seven Ecuadorian fishermen disappeared at sea. Pirates steal the boat motors and leave the fishermen stranded out at sea, where they often die.

Globalstar’s partner, VehSmart, has been awarded the first regional pilot project of its kind ~ in Ecuador. It will outfit the country’s artisanal fishing fleet with lifesaving satellite tracking and emergency notification devices.

This could help to combat numerous piracy attacks in the region. No less than 184 acts of piracy occurred against Ecuadorian fishermen during 2012.

But help is now, quite literally, to hand. The special project will initially outfit 4,000 small fishing boats with Globalstar’s satellite transmi tter: SmartOne (pictured). These devices will provide these fisher folk with a means for raising help at sea when facing a lifethreatening emergency ~ including piracy.

Linked to Ecuador’s National Emergency Response System, the devices will have a panic button that any sailor can activate discreetly to summon a rescue, and pinpoint the location of the distressed vessel to the authorities.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

10

Defence news

US$4.2m for Comtech satellite modems A subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. based in Arizona, Comtech EF Data Corp, has confirmed a $4.2 million order for DMD2050E satellite modems destined for the United States Army. The modems will be deployed to support mission critical communications associated with a major undisclosed military program.

The modems provide advanced and bandwidth-efficient forward error correction and modulation. When integrated with DoubleTalk® Carrier-inCarrier® bandwidth compression, users can minimise the required satellite bandwidth, while maximising both throughput and availability without additional transponder resources.

Around the same time, the company also confirmed a US$3.1m order from a Government systems integrator. This time the modems will be utilised to support the U.S. Army's Defence Comm uni c ati ons and Arm y Transmission Systems (DCATS) satellite communications programs.

SatComs for UK Royal Navy mine counter measure vessels Four UK Royal Navy mine counter measure vessels (MCMVs) operating in the Arabian Gulf have been upgraded to state-of-the-art military X-band satellite communications.

Airbus Defence and Space has enabled full operational capabilities for communications comprising Deployable Maritime Milsat (DMM) satellite services that use the Skynet 5 constellation onboard the boats. More vessels are expected to follow suit.

Commanding officers onboard the MCMVs now benefit from full military communications capability at all classification levels, enabling improved operations in bandwidth-hungry ISTAR operations.

ISTAR is the process of integrating the intelligence process with surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance tasks in order to improve a commander’s situational awareness and consequent decisions.

“Communications and information are critical to warfare. Not only has the new DMM satcom fit made routine work faster and more efficient, but I am now able to engage effectively at the Task Group level securely and effortlessly,” said Lieutenant Commander Ashley Spencer, Commanding Officer on HMS Ramsey.

Thuraya launches IP Commander Thuraya Telecommunications Company has launched IP Commander, its first ruggedized satellite broadband terminal designed using MIL-SPEC components.

Developed in collaboration with USbased SRT Wireless, the terminal is engineered to enable mission-critical voice and data connectivity in mobile or stationary applications in the most extreme and remote environments.

Suited for military and governmental operations, land mobile, energy and mining, it offers data rates up to 444kbps, streaming IP speeds up to 384kbps, as well as user-definable asymmetric streaming functionality.

Randy Roberts, Thuraya’s VP of innovation: “As global defence and infrastructure budgets shrink, the IP Commander will prove to be a vital element in the communication strategy of government users, deliveri ng great value without com promi si ng on qual i ty and performance.”

Iridium in U.S. Army's network integration evaluation process >> Results will determine commercial technologies recommended for integration << Iridium is presenting a Position Location Information (PLI)-based tracking device, Enhanced Mobile Satellite System (EMSS) beacon manufactured by NAL Research and exercised in the NIE ‘demonstration’ category.

Designed to accelerate and improve the way communications technologies are delivered to soldiers, NIEs take place twice a year and are comprised of rigorous evaluations of new commercial technology. The EMSS Beacons will be outfitted on a manoeuvre platoon to demonstrate the operational value and utility of near realtime position and location tracking of personnel as well as assets.

After years of in-service testing and operational use by other agencies, the PLI device has already demonstrated a high level of performance and reliability in similar environments. Its small form factor and lightweight design make it ideal for the war fighter. The ‘puck’-like device supports geo-fencing and allows for integration into the Nett Warrior system, facilitating global tracking of every soldier on the battlefield.

"The EMSS Beacon is designed to meet the size, weight and power requirements for the dismounted soldier and fills a need that has been around for more than 10 years," said Ngoc Hoang, President of NAL Research. "Our device provides a critical communications lifeline for soldiers on the battlefield, and only Iridium's network provides the truly global tracking capabilities that meet the military's needs." ©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

1

flash comms contracts Q2 Vendor Name

Client Name

Comtech Xicom Technology Inc

Confidential

Emerging Markets Communications

Nature

Destination

Details

Satellite, Cellular

USA

Star Clippers

Satellite, Cellular

Worldwide

Eutelsat Communications

Wireless Innovation

Satellite, Cellular

Europe

Harris Corporation

Confidential

Satellite

Asia

NASA Data Systems

Avanti Communications Aurecon

Satellite, Cellular

Middle East

Network Infrastructure

Worldwide

Order valued at US$53million for state-of-the-art 500W Ka-band high-power amplifiers for HTS in multiple gateways Contract to deliver full internet, phone services & satellite connectivity to the whole fleet Agreement to provide critical communication services & connectivity for temporary & mobile offices to the utilities, renewables, construction, asset management & military sectors in Europe Contract to provide enhanced tactical communications & field support Contract to extend satellite broadband capability capability across the Middle East 5 yr contract to re-design, consolidate & manage Aurecon's network infrastructure & deploy a high-speed global wide area network connecting 80 sites Contract to provide broadband communication network

Cellular

Worldwide

Redline Communications Group

Becker Wholesale Mine Supply Hess Corporation

Cellular

Bakken, North Dakota

Contract to provide wireless networks for its operations in Bakken Reserve Area, North Dakota Agreement to connect underserved rural communities with high-speed broadband

Telecomm Mexico

SES

Satellite, Cellular

Mexico

Partnership to expand mobile satellite products & services

Thuraya Telecommunications Company

Satcom Direct

Satellite

USA

BH Global Corporation Ltd

Confidential

Satellite, Cellular

Contracts of USS$12.7m for an electrical & telecommunications design, integration & supply contract with a renowned Japanese Shipyard for a mobile offshore unit vessel Acquisition to advance cyber security efforts for critical infrastructure & operations technology

GE

Wurldtech

Network infrastructure

USA

Long term service contract worth in excess of US$30m

ITC Global

GoM

Satellite

"North Sea & West Africa"

Contract to deliver new WaveCall-Plus VSAT bundle for fleet of 124 vessels

MSC Cargo Italy

Marlink

Satellite, Cellular

Italy

Redline Communications Group Inc

Confidential

Satellite, Cellular

Canada

Thuraya Telecommunications Company

ViaSat

Satellite

Worldwide

Satellite

Arabian Gulf

UK Royal Navy

Airbus Defence & Space

Contract of $1.6m to deliver a marine communication network based on the recently announced RAS Extend Marine product Partnership to develop & launch a highly secure, end-to-end managed M2M service, targeting end-users across energy, uUtilities, logistics & enterprise sectors Agreement to upgrade 4 UK Royal Navy Mine Counter Vessels (MCMVs) to state of the art military X-band satellite communications

Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Thaicom PLC

Satellite, Cellular

Thailand & SE Asia

Paranave SA

Marlink

Satellite, Cellular

Paraguay

Stena Line Ferries

Marlink

Satellite, Cellular

"UK / Ireland / Scandinavia"

Vislink

ND SatCom

Satellite, Cellular

Worldwide

Orange Business Services Rajant Corporation

Singapore

ŠOffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

Contract to provide broadband satellite technology for in-flight connectivity services on more than 550 aircraft, in partnership with Global Eagle Entertainment Contract installing WaveCall Ku-band on 4 pusher tug boats & a river containership, facilitating shore-side management and remote access Contract to upgrade 27 ferries with the latest VSAT technology increases bandwidth & enhances connectivity services (antennas, modems, routers) ÂşAccess agreement enables product portfolio sharing

30

Industry Interview

Formerly Spark Integration Technologies, Distrix is a leading developer of software-define network (SDN) solutions that enable simple, secure, and resilient networks. Based in Vancouver, the company works to close the gap between IT and operation technology (OT) systems, giving network architects and IT/OT managers the ability to remotely monitor and manage physical devices, control systems and resources in business critical environments. OffComm News’ editor, Georgina Elrington, got the chance to ask the company’s president, Jay Friedman, a few questions.

Jay Friedman, president, Distrix OCN: What are the most compelling needs of today's remote communications environments?

JF: These environments, as in most all networking, demand efficiently automated connectivity.

OCN: What can IT professionals expect when it’s time to implement them?

JF: They’ll need to better manage networks for connectivity, and focus on analytics and how devices talk to devices while being pushed out to the edge of the network. They also need to factor in processing data on the fly – or “data in motion” as we like to refer to it.

OCN: What is unique in Distrix’s approach to these characteristics?

JF: We provide a model to implement M2M both immediately and strategically, one that’s 100 percent compatible with existing infrastructures and with security built in.

OCN: What market segments, within remote communications, are the most in need of solutions like Distrix?

JF: We’re seeing a great deal of acceptance of Distrix in a number of segments: oil and gas, retail, transportation, banking, and manufacturing. This is because organizations in those spaces add devices on a large scale, and they all require secure remote connectivity.

OCN: What are the dos and dont’s of such implementation?

JF: Well, I’d say don’t rip and replace an infrastructure when it’s not necessary – that is, when far more sensible alternatives exist. Do look at SDN-based solutions that provide a more economical approach to implementation.

OCN: How can network/IT experts optimize and lower the cost of remote communications environments?

JF: By deploying SDN-based solutions that overlay existing networks to maximise infrastructure and provide cost-efficient, secure remote connectivity.

OCN: Why are characteristics such as security, resilience and scalability so important to IT professionals?

JF: A large system can quickly grow from 100s to hundreds of thousands of devices, so greater automation is essential, as is security to prevent disruptions. And resilience helps assure scalability with minimal issues.

OCN: What can we expect to see in this space in the next, say, one to five years?

JF: M2M, Big Data and remote communications go hand-inhand in this space, so we’ll see significant growth in that coalescing relationship, while the need for device data management and taking action will become all the more essential.

OCN: What can we expect from Distrix particularly, and from its customers using the software?

JF: As an SDN-based solution, Distrix is constantly being refined to be more dynamic to customers’ changing needs, to maximise their networks’ flexibility, and allow them to be more innovative.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

13

Insight Feature

Solving the Big Data Dilemma As the volume of data in the world continues to rise exponentially, Telesperience’s chief analysts, Teresa Cottam, looks at the potential and pitfalls of Big data for the energy industry.

...How big is

Big Data?

All of this is game changing but the question is:

is it delivering business value?

Bain and Company, a global management consulting firm, estimates that big data analytical advantages could deliver a 6-8% improvement to production, but said that most companies (96%) across all industries are failing to deliver tangible business value from their big data initiatives.

How Big Data and analytics create value for oil & gas companies • Predict problems, resolve earlier • Find solutions faster by sharing/re-using data • Provide insight to create new solutions that can be reused with predictable outcomes • Improve calibration and visualisation by integrating data • Reduce risk

The answer is vast and growing. According to IBM, 2.5 exabytes ~ that's 2.5 billion gigabytes ~ of data was generated each day in 2012. But even these vast numbers are increasing exponentially as a wider range of devices create an ever-increasing volume and range of data. A huge proportion of it is unstructured (estimated at 75%), and a rising volume of it is generated by ‘things’ and not people, as the Internet of Things (IoT) roars into life.

While some industries have been blown away by the potential of big data, dealing with large data volumes is not new to the oil & gas industries. In fact, the effectiveness of business, technical, and operational decisions in this sector are based on the quality and availability of data.

• Optimise wells by improving drilling parameters and well spacing • Improve completion techniques • Improve new well delivery by optimising drilling and well connection • Improve interpretation of geography

• Improve monitoring to ensure better maintenance • Enable predictive/protective action and intervention

Midstream

However, while oil & gas companies might be used to dealing with seismic software, visualization tools and so on, newer technologies mean that the industry is undergoing rapid change as it transitions towards the digitised oilfield of the future.

Key to squeezing maximum value from data is the quality of the information, and not just the quantity, cautions Oracle’s Hossam Farid. He explained that one of the big data dilemmas facing the industry is quality versus quantity.

More data is being generated partly because sensors are now cheaper than ever to deploy. Data is also being collected more frequently (increasing granularity) and greater volumes of detail can be cheaply stored. At the same time, data insight is becoming easier as sophisticated analytical tools quickly identify meaningful information and patterns in real-time, delivering better and faster decision making and predictive insight. Mobile devices are also revolutionising the creation, as well as the consumption, of data and access to it from anywhere, thereby improving performance.

“We may have far more data than before,” he said “but the key question is can we trust it? If data accuracy problems mean that I only trust 50% of the data I have to make decisions on, then having more data doesn’t necessarily help me. I might not own much of the data I need to make the decision, and thus might not be sure of its provenance or quality. Driving up data quality is therefore key to maximising the value.”

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

Part of the problem here is that data sources might not be owned by the company. It might be coming from third party vendors, contractors, and so on.

www.OffCommNews.com

14

Green Elephant’s information lifecycle management expert, Peter Bowen, noted that data is typically fragmented between different datasets and it might not be in one location. “Even the way it’s structured is varied ~ it might be by process, by location, or you might have one database for land wells and another for offshore wells.”

Fragmentation

Can standardisation help with these problems?

Oracle’s Farid said the answer is yes and no. “All too often standardisation comes at the cost of innovation,” he noted.

“The trick is to find ways of standardising without pain.” Farid explains that a simple example of where problems can occur due to lack of standardisation is when measuring the depth of drilling. “Here everyone might have their own standard, so by specifying how it’s to be measured you can save a lot of problems later down the line.”

Data fragmentation creates a number of problems, one of “Applications that use big data methods will which is that it can slow a company’s ability to analyse need to find their data in a forest of technical and act upon data insight. “In most oil and gas and commercial applications,” said companies the relationship between IT and the David Cameron, director petroleum, business is changing rapidly,” said Bowen. “The energy & industry at IT enabled Volume business requires analytics to be integrated into business services company, Steria.

More data day-to-day operations, and needs real-time collaboration with IT. Automation is delivering a “An IT vendor needs to ensure that there’s space high velocity of data, not just volume, and that in the oil company's IT landscape to support the data has to be handled and new application and that it analysed quickly in order to can be implemented deliver against its potential. safely, securely, and with It’s no good having the maximum data integrity.

4Vs Velocity Variety data that tells you a Big data won't be a big of big Faster More types problem is about to bang: it will be a number data speeds occur, if you can’t access of very specialised it in time to take action.” applications with well-defined purposes. At This is another dilemma: even present, vendors are technology if you trust the data you have, can driven: big data is equal to what they are good at.

Value you access, analyse, and use it readily in order to This is unhealthy, as the strength of big data is in ROI from take timely action? Farid agrees that timely data integrating data sources and combining it with access and analysis is paramount. “During the scientific and commercial knowledge" performance lifecycle of data there’s a value peak. If we can’t get at the data when it’s most valuable then we lose the Oracle’s Farid echoes these thoughts. “My key opportunity,” he said. “But locating the key data is message to oil and gas companies is that more harder today. In the past we could go back and look data is coming. Fifty per cent of CEOs still don’t have through data to find what we wanted if we knew what we the right data to make good decisions. But these were looking for. But now we don’t necessarily know what companies are engineers and scientists, they’re not data we’re looking for as we move into the era of prediction. That companies. Their future performance, however, depends on requires far more sophisticated techniques and it means we having the right data, analysed at the right time to help them need to collect and analyse data faster.” make the right decisions. Closing the gap between the data they have, what they can analyse and act upon is key.”

Consuming the data at the front end is certainly easier because of the proliferation of mobile devices. But what if the insight provided via analytics isn’t accurate because it’s not complete. While we can federate data stored in different places, what can we do about different data structures?

How can we be sure that the data we’re analysing is being measured in the same way and is thus comparable?

50% of CEOs still “don’t have the right data to make good decisions Oracle.

“

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

15

Diary Dates

Where Technology & Energy Connect

9 - 10 September 2014

24 - 25 September 2014

EastAfrica.com Safari Park Hotel - Kenya

Intelligent Oilfield Digitization Conference Houston, TX, USA http://bit.ly/1iIG8Oi

http://eaafrica.comworldseries.com

Quote VIP Code: EAS14/MP

East Africa Com is the leading conference & exhibition for the region’s telecoms, media & ICT industries. In its 10th year, the conference is the annual meeting place for East African operators and regulators to network, do business and set the agenda for the forthcoming year together with international and regional telecoms solution providers. East Africa Com is part of the Com World Series, a series of events dedicated to the telecoms, media and ICT sector in emerging markets, produced by Informa Telecoms & Media. The conference programme covers the most strategic issues affecting companies in East Africa’s digital market – services, connectivity, efficiency, profitability, customer experience, partnerships, policy, and more.

Through case studies from industry peers, this advanced course on digital oilfields will examine how to manage information overload and big data, amend expectations for KPIs, increase operation readiness and assurance, and prepare digital technologies to shift into intelligent oilfield practices. The meeting will present updated oilfield technologies to be adapted for streamlining and increasing efficiency within the oil & gas industry.

28 – 29 October 2014 VSAT Mobility The Mira Hotel, Hong Kong http://mobility.vsatevent.com

14 - 16 September 2014 Critical Communications Middle East Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai http://criticalcommunications-me.com

The Congress, conference and exhibition will offer networking with a high level audience of critical communications specialists, the latest technologies, and insights from an expert panel of speakers. This event is relevant for: armed force & local authorities; industry users (oil and gas, mining and construction); network operators; transport for rail, metro, airports & ports, as well as the energy sector for distribution and generation.

The VSAT Mobility market continues to grow at an exponential rate, with the demand for on the move and on the pause VSAT services on land, air and sea becoming an increasingly prioritized focus for many in the VSAT industry. Informa Telecoms & Media will continue to partner with Comsys in 2014 to take the second annual VSAT Mobility conference to Hong Kong, reflecting the importance of this region in both maritime, aeronautical and disaster recovery sectors, among others.

17-19 September 2014 VSAT 2014 Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London, UK http://vsatevent.com

19 & 20 November 2014 GVF Oil & Gas Communications South East Asia 2014 Evolving the ‘Big Data’ Digital Oilfield Offshore & Deep Water

Pushing the boundaries for VSAT in the race for global connectivity. The annual global VSAT industry meeting place, VSAT 2014 is the industry’s premier event focused on VSAT and surrounding topic, attracting 300+ attendees and more than 50 speakers from across the globe. The three-day thought leading interactive conference provides attendees with a showcase of senior level global speakers from across the VSAT ecosystem to focus on the key issues, the latest developments, and identify the strongest areas of opportunity.

InterContinental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.uk-emp.co.uk/current-events/o-gsea-2014 The 22nd event in the global Oil & Gas Communications Conference Series, the 7th event for the Southeast Asian oil & gas patch, will take place in association with major oil & gas industry-related organisations, as well as the communications sector, providing the opportunity for extended networking opportunities within the context of a conference programme where the applications and connectivity imperatives of the energy market vertical will be fully addressed.

Events for quality global networking & real live innovation ©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

16

Article

Remote Oil & Gas E&P

~ and the Bandwidth Optimization Imperative

By Martin Jarrold, chief of international programme development, GVF

November 2014 will see the 22nd event in the GVF Oil & Gas Communications Conference Series take place in Kuala Lumpur. Part of the programme will investigate key facets of the “bandwidth optimization imperative.”

The Asian regional oil and gas industry backdrop, to Oil & Gas Communications South East Asia 2014: Evolving the Big Data Oilfield – Offshore & Deepwater (the 7th event for the region), has a 54% increase in expenditure forecasted for offshore infrastructure over the next five years.

South East Asia is continuing to drive demand and, Malaysia is specifically expected to continue to be a key driver of market capex. Malaysia’s oil & gas industry has been boosted by favourable taxes and non-tax incentives on the downstream, and this is anticipated to have a positive effect on the upstream.

The Petronas Rotan field is projected to see the highest expenditures.

Malaysia’s strategic geographical location is one of the key influences in the country’s determination to increase offshore production, to support both domestic needs, and those of nearby countries in East Asia.

Communications solutions represent only a small fraction of energy companies’ total capex and opex, yet well-managed ICT networks play a disproportionately great role in reducing expenditures. ©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

Regional activity Asia will continue to play an important role globally in the offshore oil & gas industry over the next five years. With a number of developing countries expected to see increasing demand for energy, the region is likely to see increased levels of offshore oil & gas activity. National Oil Companies (NOCs) will continue to be the main focus of investment in the region, with the International Oil Companies (IOCs) closely following behind.

Asia will become one of the largest investors in offshore fixed platforms, with Malaysia (and China) dominating demand.

South East Asian and East Asian countries oil & gas industry policy remains tightly centred on ensuring national energy security and the injection of measures – such as the tax incentives cited above – for continued national, and by extension, pan-regional, economic stimulus. Asia’s offshore energy industry has enough potential to deliver on the need for assured domestically-sourced oil & gas supplies – on the basis of both continuing production from already operating fields and from the accelerated exploitation of newly discovered reserves.

www.OffCommNews.com

18

In the shorter term, Asia’s offshore E&P environment will continue to be characterised by shallow water developments.

Consequently, capex on pipelines and fixed platforms will account for the most substantial proportion of the regional new infrastructure spend.However, in the longer term, in order to fully exploit the region's reserves, fresh oil frontiers are being opened up in deeper and more remote waters. Such developments are expected to greatly increase demand for subsea units and floating production units.

ICT before you drill Using ICT, widely spread and remotely located experts can see oil & gas field data as it is collected in real time and can determine the size and potential value of a payload before any actual drilling begins. This can significantly reduce the amount of time and other resources wasted on drilling sites that don't have a strong yield potential.

Communications solutions represent only a small fraction of energy companies’ total capex and opex, yet well-managed ICT networks play a disproportionately great role in reducing expenditures not only in remote location exploration, drilling, and production, but in every other area of operations. Included in the regional conference programme will be a dialogues on ‘Big Data’ – the specialism which focuses on solutions and services to store, manage, protect and analyse information extracted from the large volumes of data generated by the oil industry – and the implications for oil & gas E&P of the interface of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and satellite connectivity.

In Malaysia, increases in capex by Petronas reflect the increase in deep water discoveries in the last few years. Forty per cent of new discoveries in the last six or seven years have been in deep water.

Working in association with major oil & gas industry-related organisations, as well as the communications sector, GVF & EMP will again be providing a platform for extended networking opportunities for communications end-user and solution vendor expert practitioners, set within the context of a conference programme in which the nature of the applications and connectivity imperatives of the energy market vertical will be fully addressed.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

Other essential facets of South East Asian oil & gas communications connectivity to be included in the Kuala Lumpur programme relate to the optimisation of bandwidth usage, with particular reference to various technologies, including: Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) is a technology which can automatically change the forward error correction and modulation of a link to compensate for changes in link conditions. And, Advanced Forward Error Correction (FEC), a technique for improving the performance of error-prone channels found in communication systems.

Event details Oil & Gas Communications South East Asia

Evolving the ‘Big Data’ Digital Oilfield Offshore & Deep Water November 19 & 20, 2014 Intercontinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur

19

New bandwidth management challenges

for satellite M2M applications With new ku- and ka-band satellite services now available, the satellite M2M application range has also extended. However, the challenge to optimize throughput while keeping costs low remains. Solutions like SASS and proxy show that it is possible to meet that challenge for new satellite based broadband M2M solutions in the security, energy and offshore market, writes Hub Urlings.

At first sight, the idea of bandwidth optimization for M2M seems unnecessary.

M2M applications don't use a lot of bandwidth.

The input dataflow from the sensor to the satellite device (or the output to the actuator) should be kept to a minimum anyway. So, bandwidth for these type of M2M satellite applications is low, and bandwidth optimization therefore sounds like overkill... Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it? ŠOffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

That way of thinking stems from the times when satellite M2M was limited to the use of L-band services e.g. in the trucking market. Taking a closer look, at the broad range of satellite services in L-, Ku- and Ka-band available for M2M these days, we see that the range of M2M applications has grown with the extra bandwidth that became available via the new satellite services.

On top of that, the Ku and Ka band services provide extra bandwidth for M2M applications, and (maybe even more importantly) they do so at much lower cost levels, opening up new M2M markets and enabling new satellite M2M broadband applications.

The range of satellite M2M applications now is much wider than just remote control and asset management applications. Think of data collection applications for large scale environmental data, or corporate sensor readings out of a wide geographical area.

The security market, a driver of new applications The security market is one of the sectors driving new satellite M2M applications and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stretching the limits of high bandwidth M2M applications in particular. The new standard Ku- or Ka-satellite IP services allow anybody to connect a time lapsed photo camera or a remote controlled video cameras online at any location in the world as a surveillance camera and watch them from a computer.

The security market however is looking for professional applications, that not only are compatible with existing norms for the reliability of the security connections, but that also keep the costs down, in particular the satellite service costs.

www.OffCommNews.com

20

SASS systems enable the interconnection of alarm- and video surveillance via satellite. In order to be integrated into existing terrestrial security systems SASS needs comply with European standards (e.g. EN50136) for applications with the highest security classification. The development of a system that can handle this was commisioned by the European Space Agency (ESA).

With SASS valuable satellite bandwidth for video transmissions is only used (immediately) after an alarm goes off rather than for general surveillance purposes. Therefore, bandwidth will only be allocated to video cameras based on sensor alarms and compliance to the priority policy. That means bandwidth hungry applications like CCTV run only when really needed. With broadband satellite bandwidth, from Ku or Ka-band, high quality video transmissions can be made from remote CCTV camera installations for surveillance of public and corporate infrastructure like in the energy sector or the offshore industry.

+

TM

Internet of Things The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of

networks of uniquely identifiable endpoints (or "things") that communicate without human interaction using IP connectivity — whether locally or globally.

App What makess

Ana

IoT oT market? up the

Pla

lica

2020

5,649

3,782

2019

2017

1,928 2013

50%

About the author: Hub Urlings is an international satellite product marketing consultant with a specialisation in satellite M2M services. He was responsible for the introduction of Inmarsat-C at KPN Station 12 in the 1990s and has worked with KPN Station 12/Stratos, Inmarsat, Eutelsat, Skylogic and M2sat.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

2,712 2015

IoT Market Revenue ($B)

In many cases data protocols also have to be adapted for satellite or other networks, and so called proxy solutions can optimize the M2M communications performance dynamically depending on the transmission network used.

The VdS 2465 alarm protocol was not designed for satellite (as with many other M2M data protocols it has to be adapted).

But a good indication for it is the fact that the protocol is generating lots of traffic: 300 kbps just to monitor if the alarm line is still available; and up to 900 kbps for a couple seconds in the case of an alarm.

s

ocia

l bu tfor sine ms (D ss Con appevice, nec ena ser v tivit ble ice, me an y n Inte t) d llige nt s yste ms /de vice s

Proxy solutions

The ESA project demonstrated that a proxy solution can reduce bandwidth utilization by more than

s/s

7,065

This mechanism makes a SASS system a cost-effective satellite solution to provide connectivity for security systems where terrestrial broadband networks with the required transmission performance are not available - or are more expensive to install and use.

Proxy solutions have been around for a while and performance has been proven for mission critical applications, such as alarm transmission and offshore construction. A good example of how a proxy can reduce bandwidth utilisaztion is with the the VdS 2465 alarm protocol that is used in Europe with a lot of alarm applications. In Germany this protocol is mandatory for alarm systems for objects.

tion

lytic

IDC expects the installed base of IoT units to grow at a 17.5% CAGR over the forecast period to

IDC estimates that as of the end of 2013, there were 9.1 billion IoT units installed

Competing priorities in developing regions

Global scalability

28.1 billion in 2020

Privacy and security concerns

Lack of standards

Nascent ecosystem for application development

IoT Market Challenges

The IoT opens up many

IT vendors to the consumer market and will create new business opportunities where ever electronic devices have a networking capability.

IoT set to triple by 2020

Satellite Based Alarm and Surveillance Systems (SASS)

IDC Market in a Minute :

Professional Services and Security

Let’s take a closer look at two ways to optimize the use of bandwidth while meeting the customer’s security application requirements.

Source: Worldwide and Regional Internet of Things (IoT) 2014–2020 Forecast: A Virtuous Circle of Proven Value and Demand

www.OffCommNews.com

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M2M and IoT

Satellites set to boost global M2M connectivity The M2M market presents an interesting and potentially huge revenue stream for the satellite industry Terrestrial networks currently cover just 10% of the globe. This has created a need to switch toward satellite networks to help connect the remaining 90%, providing an attractive route for machine-to-machine players. Indeed, M2M is set to be key growth engine for satellite services over the next few years, so says research from Research and Markets entitled, ‘Global M2M Satellite Communication Market Report 2014 - 2019.’

It also says that alliances are trending with network providers working with application developers to provide end-to-end solution to customers; and machine manufacturers collaborating with solution providers.

In May this year, Thuraya Telecommunications Company and ViaSat Inc. signed a partnership agreement to develop a dedicated M2M platform ~ combined with specific products and commercial packages. In fact, they share a vision for a faster and more secure offering to address the higher-end requirements of the energy, enterprise, and military sectors.

Hence, the partners intend to launch, early in 2015, an end-toend managed service, boasting a low total cost of ownership over the lifetime of an M2M project.

Thuraya is an leading operator in the MSS (mobile satellite serves) sector and serves the land mobile and maritime markets with high-quality and cost-effective solutions across its network which covers Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

ViaSat technology uses satellite bandwidth more efficiently to lower the cost of ownership and enable advanced features for M2M applications, including multicast and improved network security. Together, the companies will create a competitive offer for the satellite M2M market.

Due for launch in August 2014, the IsatHub from Inmarsat is a portable smart device connector that works beyond the reach of terrestrial mobile and fixed networks.

For those operating in far flung places, Inmarsat’s IsatHub might present an interesting option. Under the spotlight at CommunicAsia last month, it’s a portable way to connect smart devices when beyond the reach of terrestrial mobile and fixed networks.

“You could be a thousand kilometres from the nearest mobile network and still connect to the rest of the world for applications ranging from video calls to accessing your emails,” said Drew Brandy, vice president of strategy & development, Inmarsat Enterprise.

For companies, this means that employees can stay productive and in contact regardless of whether they are in a mobile signal ‘black spot’ or the middle of a desert.

Inmarsat partner, Addvalue, has manufactured the first terminal to access the service ~ the Wideye iSavi. This small, lightweight terminal is less than half the size of a standard laptop and can connect to any smart device via WiFi. Powered by Inmarsat’s global 3G network, IsatHub also features the highest data rate of any equivalent service with standard IP data up to 240/384kbps (send/receive).

Randy Roberts, vice president of innovation at Thuraya, said: “Thuraya recognises that one of the key drivers of the Internet of Things (IoT) is the growing adoption of M2M technology across industries. The partnership with ViaSat will enable us to broaden our M2M product portfolio, for both fixed and mobile applications, to better serve our enterprise users’ need for asset tracking and remote monitoring services. The strategic partnership with ViaSat will address this through a proven, highly secure, cost-effective, and reliable M2M platform to manage these processes effectively.”

“No other mobile satellite operator can offer this performance and reliability in global smart device connectivity,” said Ronald Spithout, president, Inmarsat Enterprise.

Dependability is crucial when access to connectivity has to be quickly established, even in remote locations, to facilitate tracking, reporting, and monitoring.

“As an organisation, we are dedicated to bringing voice and data connectivity to those regions not supported by costly terrestrial networks. IsatHub is a further advance and brings our space-based 3G network to more users than ever before.”

Phil Berry, vice president, ViaSat MSS

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

‘Black spots’ and deserts pose no problem for IsatHub

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Product news

Toughpad rugged 7-inch tablet for enterprise mobility Panasonic has also launched a tough looking machine. It’s the Toughpad FZ-M1 rugged 7-inch tablet PC powered by the Intel ® Celeron® processor. As a more affordable model of the standard Toughpad FZ-M1 which was announced earlier this year, the tablet is built to serve as a platform for cloud-based applications, delivery routing, email connectivity and other everyday tasks in the field.

Meeting MIL-STD-810G specifications for drops up to 5 feet, shock, vibration, altitude, humidity and extreme temperatures, the 7-inch device weighs 1.2 lbs and is 0.71” thin. Readable in sunlight, with strengthened glass, its touch-screen can be used even while wearing thick gloves. The memory has 64GB eMMC (128GB or 256GB SSD options), 4GB RAM and the battery can last up to 16 hours.

Available now, the Toughpad FZ-M1 Intel® Celeron® Processor model is priced at $1,299. The standard model of the tablet, featuring a high-performance 4th generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor, additional storage and memory is also available at a street price of $2,099.

Dell recently brought out two products; Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme notebook, and the Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme convertible notebook, for those who need connectivity in unforgiving conditions.

Dell tackles toughest jobs in the harshest of conditions

They have been purpose-built, with the most robust materials available, to withstand hazards such as dust, moisture, drops, vibration, extreme temperatures and other punishing conditions faced by users in fields such as military service, public safety, manufacturing and first response.

With battery lives up to 8.5 hours and up to 14 hours, respectively, both notebooks carry efficient fourthgeneration Intel® Core™ processors, speedy solid state storage and discrete graphics options (for the Latitude 14).

To stay connected and collaborate, both models also offer a suite of wireless capabilities where available, including mobile broadband and dedicated GPS. Available now, the Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme convertible notebook begins at US$3,649, while the Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme begins at US$3,499.

Glacier Computer’s rugged android tablet for

Fusion 7 brings advantages of the Android operating system to the enterprise sector.

industrial marketplace

Glacier Computer industrial computers are typically used in harsh industrial environments where a standard PC cannot survive. The Fusion 7 Rugged Android tablet extends the company’s product line of tough industrial PCs, tablets, portable hand-held devices, and fixed mounted data collection computers.

Compact, light, and feature-rich, Fusion 7 enables businesses and mobile users to add efficiencies throughout operations, while providing a capital asset with an extended life, and superior ROI. Glacier is also collaborating with partners, including The Allen Group and SOTI, to help with enabling broader adoption of the Android OS within the traditional Windows environments of the industrial marketplace.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

The Fusion 7 combines the advanced power and memory management capabilities of Android enabling more than 1 million applications to run on the rugged Glacier device.

23

Corporate moves

Giants move in to the Granite City

EMC also recently confirmed supplier status for Achilles' First Point Assessment (FPAL). FPAL is a community used by major oil & gas companies ~ a well as buyers in Europe to identify, pre-qualify and assess suppliers for various operational projects and opportunities.

Aberdeen

The Aberdeen market is key for maritime, shipping and offshore oil and gas activities in the North Sea and surrounding areas. So much so that several satellite communications giants recently made a move to the region ~ including Emerging Markets Communications (EMC), and ITC Global.

EMC will support its maritime, oil and gas operations in the North Sea and throughout Europe from a new office in Westhill, Aberdeenshire. This is also in in close proximity to EMC’s R&D function in Norway.

“Our investment in the Aberdeen location better positions EMC to deliver and respond to customers requiring satellite communications in the North Sea,” said says Blake McLane, President and chief marketing officer, EMC. “Customers in maritime and oil and gas segments are demanding more reliability and faster deployments of VSAT services. Our in-country inventory and proximity to the North Sea enables us to meet the highest SLAs for these requirements through our new location.”

Having an Achilles FPAL supplier license allows EMC to improve efficiencies in the business process. Over 2,000 individual buyers are actively engaged, making it easier to identify new customer opportunities as well as measure business performance against other competitors and submitted proposals.

"FPAL will be a great tool to strategically build our European customer base, especially with our recent expansion of an Aberdeen office," said John Seaton, EMC's head of the Aberdeen office location.

"This membership does more than just get the EMC brand name out; it drastically simplifies the process of finding the most appropriate match for our services among potential customers in the oil & gas business. This is instrumental in monitoring our success in this market and developing our business strategy for growth."

Earlier this year, ITC Global also took up residence in the city. The provider of satellite communications to remote and harsh environments took on new office space that will initially be composed of sales and engineering resources, with near term additions of technical support, and a service depot for systems operating in the North Sea. Aberdeen is known as the Granite City and is Europe’s oil hub. It is so-called because nearly all of its buildings are made of the pale granite that is quarried nearby. Most of the granite was extracted from Rubislaw Quarry, at Hill of Rubislaw, which at one time was the largest manmade hole in Europe. The quarry has been closed since 1972 and is now full of water. Source: Aberdeen Today

New high-speed satellite broadband service to bridge Scotland’s digital divide Hot on the heels of furthering services and development of the region, ISP Broadband Everywhere is using Astra Connect to offer satellite broadband services to the whole of Scotland, including remote locations.

The new offering widens the geographical area covered by Broadband Everywhere, which already provides Astra Connect satellite Internet to customers in England and Wales, via SES satellite ASTRA 2F. “Broadband Everywhere frees users from the limitations of terrestrial internet connections, and brings fast, reliable broadband anywhere and we are delighted people in Scotland will now be able to benefit from our service,” said Steven Burton, business sales at the company.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

www.OffCommNews.com

Useful for residents, the service may also help the hoards of oil and gas workers who travel to the region each month on their way to work offshore.

With satellite broadband, there is no need for a phone line or mobile dongle. Also, the connection is unaffected by landscape. So, if broadband is required at the top of a mountain, in the middle of a field, or in a rural hamlet ~ the company claims this is the perfect service.

1

Corporate moves

Ceragon opens new centre in Norway

dedicated to oil and gas market Enabling oil and gas resources team to broaden market presence in the North Sea and beyond to global onshore and offshore installations Ceragon Networks Ltd, a major wireless hauling specialist, has opened a new competence centre in Bergen, Norway, committed to boosting the company’s operations serving the oil and gas market. The centre will spearhead Ceragon’s research, sales, support and strategic efforts in the region as it continues to expand its onshore and offshore offering worldwide.

The company’s wireless hauling and turnkey project capabilities allow drilling and exploration companies to build and maintain high -speed communication links between control centres and offshore rigs and vessels, making integrated operations an affordable reality.

For oil and gas firms, this means continued connectivity between onshore and offshore locations with much higher capacity and lower latency than satellite solutions and a far lower deployment cost than fibre cables.

Picture: Ceragon’s new offices in Norway

Ceragon’s solutions for the oil and gas market include a range of high-power evolution long-haul systems as well as the PointLink, a unique microwave antenna designed specifically for moving platforms, drilling rigs and floating production, storage, and offload ships (FPSOs). PointLink employs gyro-stabilized antennas which keep constant track and perfect alignment with their counterparts on offshore vessels and on land-based facilities.

“By establishing the new competence centre for oil and gas in Norway, Ceragon reaffirms its commitment to this important market,” said Arild Fotland, head of Ceragon’s oil and gas division.

“With exploration expanding into deeper waters and with environmental and safety regulations heightening, onshore and offshore communications are more important and challenging than ever. The team in Bergen will continue to serve Ceragon’s large customer base in the North Sea, while increasing our footprint in other regions.”

Speedcast acquires Oceanic Broadband in latest expansion into Papua New Guinea The global satellite telecommunications service provider, Speedcast, has completed the acquisition of long term partner, Oceanic Broadband. The acquisition will strengthen SpeedCast’s position in Australasia servicing the natural resource sector, a market which Oceanic has been developing for many years.

This announcement is the latest in SpeedCast’s 18-month acquisition activity, of established satellite industry players in the Australasia region, namely comprising: Australian Satellite Communications, Pactel International and SatComms Australia. It also acquired Elektrikom Satellite Services in the maritime sector.

Oceanic Broadband specialises in providing end-to-end wireless and satellite services, and has been a long-term partner. The successful relationship has seen the companies support a broad range of customers and applications, particularly in Papua New Guinea, which accounts for the majority of Oceanic's business.

Oil States International spins off accommodations business: Civeo Corporation The spin-off of Civeo into a separate, publicly traded company is a significant step which will allow both Oil States and Civeo to pursue growth opportunities in each of their respective businesses, as well as enhance shareholder value creation.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

With Oceanic’s technical expertise and network infrastructure in Papua New Guinea, SpeedCast strengthens its ability to design, install, operate, and support communications networks for its oil & gas, mining and NGO customers in the growing PNG market.

“SpeedCast’s commitment to innovation and reputation as a leading player in satellite mean they are a perfect fit for us,” said Tony Waters, CEO of Oceanic Broadband. “Working collaboratively, we can expand the scope and scale of our offerings to even better meet the needs of the natural resource, Government and NGO sectors in the region.”

www.OffCommNews.com

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Get more out of your satellite bandwidth More Bang for your Buck A number of technologies and techniques can be used to help oil and gas companies cope with these demands and limitations. One such is echo cancellation, which, said EMC, “enables both directions of transmission to share the same satellite bandwidth capacity.”

Limited satellite network bandwidth has to cope with greater demands as the data, voice and video needs of remote oil and gas installations grow.

However, as Vaughan O’Grady finds out, data compression and bandwidth optimization offer ways to make less satellite bandwidth do a lot more.

So why are advances in data compression and bandwidth optimization so important to oil and gas companies in remote areas? Firstly, because of growing quantities of operational data (including M2M, equipment monitoring and new applications in video), virtualised server applications, internet Thomas Wurst, access, HDTV, SaaS and more. All can demand senior solutions more bandwidth and yet, as Thomas Wurst, senior engineer with Signalhorn solutions engineer with Signalhorn, a provider of communications solutions employing satellite, terrestrial and wireless technologies, put it: “Remote rigs often have limited connectivity, low bandwidth, and high latency.”

Which is why, according to Emerging Markets Communications (EMC), a provider of hybrid global satellite and terrestrial communications, “Companies must control each user’s bandwidth utilization.

Satellite connections must be optimized to meet the requirements of the application. A 10 Mbps satellite link must factor in the round-trip delay.”

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

On legacy TDM networks, *Abis devices provide a good level of voice compression, allowing multiple E1s to be combined onto a single one. However, as end-to-end IP circuits arrive new techniques are being implemented. EMC noted: “Header compression and traffic shaping are standard options used in most of the VSAT NOC [network operation centres].” TCP acceleration and optimization, HTML objects caching, JPEG transcoding and GZIP compression and byte caching all have applications.

EMC also cites its own SpeedNet cloud-based (and zero latency) web browser along with the HD Connect high definition application for video conferencing, which removes the need to buy dedicated capacity to integrate users on telepresence or videoconferencing systems.

Signalhorn also cites application acceleration technologies and data compression based on technologies like zip, rar or other formats — as well as IP header compression, caching and proxy server technologies (which reduce the response time to requests) and, of course, optimization of the TCP/IP protocol. “The protocol parameters and transmission mechanisms — such as TCP window size and slow start — are modified by external devices or software to adapt to long latency connections,” Wurst explained.

“This technology is also called protocol spoofing and is done at both ends of a connection to increase data throughput.”

There is also de-duplication of data — eliminating information that will not be sent via the link. “The reconstruction at the other end is done based on data patterns that are already transmitted at an earlier stage,” Wurst said.

On the VSAT technology side, he added, the capability for optimization depends on many factors such as the available space segment for the specific locations of the customer sites, frequency band, teleport capabilities and VSAT vendor technology.

“Basically, the key mechanisms to achieve highly efficient space segment utilization are based on adaptive coding and modulation techniques or ‘carrier-in-carrier’ solutions,” said Wurst.

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Considerable Options Tore Morten Olsen is head of maritime satellite communications activities at Airbus Defence and Space, of which Marlink, an independent provider of services for the maritime industry, is a part. He commented that: “Satellite operators providing HTS services are using frequency re-use, which makes it possible to get more megahertz per dollar. A different example is the XChange box we have provided to more than 1,000 vessels, which combines different technologies like compression, caching, content filters and prioritisation.”

Which of the available options are likely to be the best for an offshore operation using satellite communications rather depends on the type of operation, your company’s coverage and throughput needs, and the band or bands employed. However, the good news is that a wide number of companies offer products and services that can make more efficient use of limited satellite bandwidth options.

They include EMC, of course, and Marlink but, for specific acceleration solutions, Wurst cites vendors such as Riverbed, Xiplink, Blue Coat, FatPipe, Cisco, Ipanema, Citrix, Packeteer, Expand Networks and Silver Peak Systems. And of course space segment optimization and effective utilisation of space segment resources is the focus of many VSAT technology vendors, such as Comtech EF Data, iDirect, Gilat, Hughes and Newtec.

Wurst continued: “The leading optimization vendors offer several different combinations of IP WAN optimizing technology that suit specific purposes. Signalhorn’s role is to select and integrate the optimal data compression and bandwidth optimization technology to provide a tailor-made solution for our customer.”

Marlink has a similar philosophy from the maritime VSAT point of view. “Providing ship owners all over the world with Ku, C, L and soon Ka and X-band services, we are well positioned to provide bandwidth-efficient communications because of our experience, network, partners and product portfolio,” said Olsen.

Noise Reduction System

As well as proven technologies for optimization, EMC has internally patented several technologies including not just Speednet but its NRS [Noise Reduction System] technology, which uses its carrier cancellation capability to save inbound MHz.

Limitations

“Making something which is already compressed even more compressed is still difficult.”

But what are the limitations (at the moment) of such techniques beyond which data compression or bandwidth optimization are no longer viable options? Quality of service is, of course, a necessary consideration. It’s also true as Marlink’s Olsen said that processing is faster than ever “but making something which is already compressed even more compressed is still difficult.”

For satellite bandwidth optimization, however, EMC said, the industry is especially focused on improving the digital television broadcast standard DVBS2 and modulation techniques. Just over ten years ago we were talking about modulation techniques such as Binary and Quadrature Phase-shift keying (BPSK and QPSK) and then 32 asymmetric PSK (APSK). These days, “We are talking about 64APSK and 256APSK. New FEC [forward error correction) steps and even sharper roll-off will also be part of the new optimization techniques. On the data side the progression seems to be toward faster and newer options for optimization.”

All of which, in real terms, means that more bandwidth efficiencies are helping to deliver more advanced applications in locations with limited connectivity, and that companies can save money by making less bandwidth do more.

Will this continue? It will have to. As Thomas Wurst said: “Today oil and gas companies are looking at ways to maximize their existing satellite capacity rather than just increasing capacity as their needs grow.” *The Abis interface is within the GSM architecture, between the BTS (Base Transceiver Station) and BSC (Base Station Controller).

“EMC also focuses efforts on improved software for our SatLink product line to achieve portability of bandwidth to various locations or vessels within a network on demand and advanced network monitoring applications to manage bandwidth utilization,” said the company.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

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Feature

A good crew is a connected crew Reliable communications access is not just important for rig or vessel owners.

It’s increasingly seen as a way to attract ~ and keep ~ good crew, and an important market for companies that provide or support offshore communications.

Communications access matters more than ever on rigs, ships and other offshore vessels ~ and not just for operational reasons. KVH Industries specialises in the provision of global high-speed internet, television, and voice services via satellite.

KVH media and communications manager, Jill Connors said: “Based on industry surveys as well as our own informal polls to our Crewtoo.com [a social media network for seafarers] members, we know that the ability to communicate with family and friends is the most important type of connectivity for seafarers.”

Fishing fleets are another example. As Mark O’Connell, director of European sales and business operations for Globalstar, said: “Those who go out on long fishing stints have to keep crew morale up, and keeping them in contact with family and friends is important.”

This doesn't just mean voice. Email, YouTube, Facebook, movies and more are expected in line with what Connors describes as “a trend for seafarers to bring their own devices onboard.”

Crews today expect connectivity Put simply, crews today expect connectivity ~ and numerous companies now offer it. For example, with KVH VSAT onboard, said Connors, “the vessel receives satellite internet and built-in onboard network management. This means that the vessel can manage bandwidth access, prioritise for operations and create separate networks for the crew. VoIP phone services are also provided by KVH VSAT.” KVH manufactures the TracPhone V-series satellite communications antenna systems, operates the mini-VSAT Broadband satellite network, manages the airtime plans and billing for customers and provides professional services and 24/7 global support. Its mini-VSAT broadband network is a combined C/Ku-band network that covers the globe, and a TracPhone V11-IP antenna system can access both C-band and Ku-band beams from one, compact (1-meter), onboard terminal. And a new IP-MobileCast service utilises multicasting technology to deliver entertainment content and operations content.

Globalstar, by contrast, has its own satellite constellation. In fact it has now completed its second generation network ~ a LEO constellation circumnavigating the earth and covering 120 countries. Crew can carry Globalstar’s GSP1700 satellite phone for both voice and data (up to 9.6kbps). This is a lightweight (seven-ounce) mobile phone that communicates directly with satellites or through an extended antenna placed high up in the mast. It uses an IS-95 CDMA air interface, which, combined with the low orbit of the satellites and the company’s ground station architecture, offers low latency and high voice quality.

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

As Gavan Murphy, Globalstar’s director of marketing for EMEA and Latin America, puts it: “Our calls are up-down ~ from handset to satellite, which is effectively acting as a repeater back down to the ground station and across the PSTN; there’s no satellite-tosatellite handoff.”

Gavan Murphy, director of marketing for EMEA and Latin America

The Globalstar Sat-fi, voice and data solution will launch later this year. “It will allow for up to eight users to connect on to the device at a time using their smartphones and iPads,” said O’Connell. Also on offer is the SPOT range of satellite tracking and messaging devices, which has already played a part in over 3,000 rescues.

As for business models, KVH provides satellite Internet and VoIP phones with either a purchase or lease of the TracPhone V-series hardware coupled with a monthly airtime plan; while Globalstar offers both a postpaid and a prepaid service to its customer base. Using a scratchcard registration system, prepaid can even be shared, for use with any Globalstar phone or even on an already activated postpaid phone.

Operators know that to be competitive in keeping the best crew members they need to offer more benefits .

The company is already the lowest-cost prepaid provider within the satcoms industry and some prices are coming down further.

“We’ve just introduced an extended home zone for our prepaid customers which allows them effectively not to incur roaming charges when using a Europe registered Globalstar phone in America, Latin America, and the Caribbean as far as the mid-Atlantic and north Africa,” said Murphy.

These are not the only players in the crew connectivity market, of course. Many companies now offer such services but, as Connors notes, there’s a good reason for that. “Operators know that to be competitive in keeping the best crew members they need to offer more benefits.” And today those benefits include more than just voice calls home.

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Oil Comm

Strengthening Your Connectivity

JOIN YOUR PEERS AT OILCOMM 2014

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November 6 - 7, 2014 George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas

Attend the OilComm 2014 Conference & Exposition and strengthen your connectivity to your drill sites, your assets and your professional colleagues.

OilComm is the only event dedicated to the communications challenges faced in the oil and gas community throughout the lifecycle of the platform and no matter where the drill site is located.

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Anadarko Petroleum Corporation - Apache Corporation - Baker Hughes - Bechtel BP - Chevron - Conoco Phillips - Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. - Eagle Rock Energy - ExxonMobil - Fluor Corporation - Halliburton - Hess - Imperial Oil Maersk Oil - Marathon Oilwell Varco - NEMSCO - Noble Energy - Oasis Petroleum Oceaneering International - Pacific Drilling - Rowan Companies, Inc. - Sabine Oil & Gas Shell - Spectra Energy - Unipower - Vantage Drilling - and many more!

CONFERENCE BENEFITS: • Complete access to all keynotes and sessions • Learn from experts in the industry • Spend time on a densely populated show floor full of vendors showcasing the latest services and solutions • Network at the evening cocktail reception with hundreds of your industry peers • Enjoy three days of complimentary breakfasts, lunches, and designated breaks • Perfect your golf skills with a day on the course with your peers • And much more!

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#oilcomm 24392

Case Study

The Renewables Sector stays in touch with remote workers with lifeline communications from Globalstar and SPOT SSE plc Group owns and operates multiple wind farm operation sites across Great Britain and Ireland while its renewable energy development division SSE Renewables is responsible for the delivery of its pipeline of new onshore wind farm generation sites in both markets.

With teams working across rural and remote locations, often in areas where channels of communication are difficult, and where there may be little or even no mobile phone coverage, SSE Renewables sought out a communications system that would help the company to stay in contact with and support lone wind energy workers.

The company required a reliable system; come rain or shine, 24/7, and one that enabled isolated crew members to have an always-on link with colleagues at headquarters on a day to day basis. Importantly, the system needed to swiftly alert the company to any emergency situation, and ideally, summon help in order to initiate any rescue efforts as speedily as possible.

The challenge of managing remote worker operations is great, and communication is vital, particularly in rugged and mountainous environments. These areas are subject to sudden and dramatic changes in weather and to add to the safety imperative, access by the emergency services in hard-to-reach locations with extremely rough terrain, frequently with few roads, can be difficult.

We wanted a solution which featured a ‘buddy system’, a facility for checking in, and most importantly, for summoning help in case of emergency in locations where other communications devices may not work.

Whelan and his colleagues examined the available technology options, and determined that the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger from Globalstar best suited their needs: “The devices were well received by staff because they were so easy to use,” reported Whelan.

Paul Whelan, SHE manager at SSE Renewables (Ireland) and Chairman of the Safety Strategy Group with the Irish Wind Energy Association, explains: “In 2008, we sought out a lone worker system that would provide helpful and reliable communications for our crews; it had to be efficient, reliable and easy to set up with multiple users.”

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

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The number of workers in the wind energy space will increase EU and national governments are all energetically striving to meet targets for renewable energy production. We’ve seen constant growth in the sector over the past decade and, despite some economic pressures in markets in general, this trend shows no sign of slowing down. The number of workers in the wind energy space will increase.

Whelan advises that it is important to consider the welfare and safety of people working in the industry, and the diversity of trades and professions involved in this sector. This includes engineers to ecologists, installation crews to construction workers, and of course maintenance personnel and operators who work on wind farms on a regular basis.

“Many of these sites are located in difficult-to-access areas.

This creates interesting and unique challenges with regard to the management of lone and remote working. Communication and consideration for the management, safety and wellbeing of employees is critical,” explains Whelan.

SPOT Gen3 is the latest version of the SPOT tracking and positioning device, released in EMENA in November last year.

Enhancements include motion-sensitive tracking and improved battery life. Products in the SPOT portfolio have played a vital role in over 3,000 rescues around the world to date.

Its reliability and reach is enabled by Globalstar’s worldwide satellite constellation (deployed last year). The company’s LEO (low Earth orbit) system is the only complete next-gen satellite network in the world today, offering better-thanever reach and more capability to help workers stay in touch, whatever they are doing and wherever they are.

SSE Renewables’ staff regarded the custom message text feature and ‘Check-in/OK’ facility of the SPOT GPS-enabled devices to be the most valuable function. Whelan also highlights how SPOT uniquely helps promote worker safety: “There is an overarching safety benefit of having a device which, when necessary, can summon the assistance of emergency services.” http://international.findmespot.com/

He believes it is therefore essential for energy companies to carefully study the communication options when assigning people to work in such areas, and, he says: “to consider the vulnerabilities created by either the environment and / or a break in communications.”

Wireless Backhaul via Satellite on Mobility Platforms:

No clear winner between FSS and HTS,

writes Jose Del Rosario, research director, NSR A recent webinar by Northern Sky Research outlined key trends and findings based on the company’s latest report, ‘Wireless Backhaul, Trunking and Video Offload via Satellite, 8th Edition’. The webinar found that unlike wireless backhaul in land-based towers, trunking and video offload, the frequency mix or the solution for wireless backhaul on mobility platforms will be heavily competed by all solutions with strongest contenders expected to come from FSS and HTS.

End users or assets being targeted today include the following: Examples Of End-User Markets

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

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story continues

Various solutions are being used with no clear preference for either FSS or HTS. In fact, even L-band is being deployed as well. In a sense, one solution does not fit all requirements.

Aeronautical markets still require manageable ARPU levels to gain usage or increase customer penetration, estimated currently at just 10% of passengers aboard the aircraft; Maritime markets need large footprints, which may be an issue with upcoming HTS solutions; and Land Mobile is challenged by foliage, tunnels, re-establishing connections when links are lost, and most of all, terrestrial technology encroachment.

Usage trends point to a clear advantage for GEO-HTS wher allocations per unit double compared to Traditional FSS capacity that is forecasted to grow only incrementally.

MEO-HTS is expected to be the largest allocation per unit; however, this is a tiny niche serving high-end cruise lines that support a variety of high bandwidth applications, specifically video.

Global Mobility Platforms Wireless Backhaul Capacity Revenues, Land, Air & Sea 900

And this has to do with capacity usage trends and price points. GEO-HTS is cheaper per hertz and per bit such that an end user that is provisioning high-bandwidth backhaul services will get a ‘bigger bang for the buck’ using HTS compared to L-band. Thus, GEO-HTS is likely to be the dominant capacity used over time, while Ku-band and C-band should see steady increases as well but not at the level of GEO-HTS.

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2023

MEO-HTS

In using in-service units and capacity usage as benchmarks, it would appear that HTS wins out in terms of market preference and usage. In using the revenue benchmark; however, the market is virtually tied for C-band, Ku-band and GEO HTS while L-band and MEO-HTS have niche roles to fill. This is basically the reasoning behind an un-conclusive or unclear market winner in the Wireless Backhaul-Mobility Platforms segment. Each platform has a role to play and each can support a positive business case to support ROI. Wireless backhaul is a high revenue/high value market proposition. In tracking the top Mobility Service Revenues for Ku-band and HTS, six of the top 10 services are wireless backhaul markets. In terms of the competition between Ku-band and FSS, the numbers are inconclusive once again given the edge of Ku-band despite an expectedly higher deployment rate and capacity usage for HTS.

Wireless Backhaul Mobility Platforms via Satellite Bandwidth per Unit (Mbps), 2013

GEO-HTS 1.2

Traditional FSS 0.33

600 $millions

In terms of in-service units, the market today is still heavily dominated by L-band, specifically the use of Inmarsat’s BGAN system. Over time, a market shift is expected where platforms should move to Traditional FSS and HTS. Within Inmarsat, BGAN will be marketed alongside Global Express or customers could prefer or migrate from L-band BGAN to Ka-band Global Express.

Bottom Line MEO-HTS 0.0

Source: NSR

Wireless Backhaul Mobility Platforms via Satellite Bandwidth per Unit (Mbps), 2023

MEO-HTS 38.4

GEO-HTS 2.1 Traditional FSS 0.39

©OffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

Source: NSR

From a revenue standpoint, there is no clear winner…yet…given that implementations on all bands are taking place where even L-band should have a market play.

The question then is

What is the right benchmark: deployments or revenues?

Moreover, the market could change where: Higher penetration of users on commercial airlines and maritime vessels from the current 10% could change the solution mix in favor of HTS; End user service costs could drop that leads to higher usage; And/or ccombined higher penetration or usage could lead to a preference for a frequency mix, i.e. HTS. NSR believes the above market changes will take place. Thus, implementations (and eventually revenues) should favor HTS.

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32

Ka vs. Ku:

Battle of the Bands Denis Sutherland, senior systems engineering manager at iDirect

for Offshore Communications

By Denis Sutherland In the ongoing discussion about the impact of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) it is important to examine the impact that frequency will have on offshore communications.

Headline discussions focus around the Ku vs. Ka-band debate. Offshore communications providers are largely deployed over Ku-band today so there is an incentive to avoid a large-scale replacement effort. Several Ka-band high throughput satellites are launched that promise faster data rates, with high performance Ku-band satellites on the launch schedule as well.

The question on the table is this: Should offshore communications providers base their service strategy on one particular band, or should they draw from multi-spot beams whether Ku or Ka, as well as continue to rely on wide beam Ku, C and L bands?

To get a bit more granular in the debate, we must examine the four important factors related of these different frequencies: throughput, antenna size, band spectrum and different ODU and susceptibility to rain fade.

In terms of throughput, Ku and C band, which are the dominant frequencies in markets like maritime, remains a very viable model for delivering services. On the Ka band side, you have frequencies greater than 30 gigahertz allocated to the use of FSS and BSS satellite usage on the high-end side. So, clearly, there's a lot higher throughput, and with the use of spot-beam technology, the link budgets get much better, allowing you to achieve higher bits per hertz utilization of that frequency.

ŠOffComm News ~ Autumn 2014

In terms of the antenna, the higher the frequency the smaller size in antenna is possible. This is due to the smaller wavelengths utilizing much smaller VSAT dishes in order to achieve similar performance of their larger counterparts. In terms of spot-beam architectures, satellite payload antennas can be made that are more accurate in terms of beam width, meaning the spots can be smaller.

Turning to rain fade and the ODU, this can be quite drastic on the Ku and Ka bands, which can lead to a larger block-up converter being used on such higher frequencies and the need for adaptivity on the outbound and inbound channels to adapt to changing weather conditions and disadvantageous location within the beam coverage.

So while much of the HTS band discussion focuses around Ku vs. Ka, the truth of the matter is four bands remain at playâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even if just for sake of failover purposes (such as the case with L band). All the aforementioned factors need to be taken into consideration when deploying services across HTS. And for service providers, this means the ground infrastructure must be flexible and support any of the beams and frequency bands.

What this all ultimately means for service providers is that capacity integration is the key to success, taking into account such factors as throughput, terminals and rain fade susceptibility. While some might look as Ka as replacement for Ku or other bands, the fact of the matter is Ka is simply a new option that opens up strong opportunity for offering even more cost-effective services.

www.OffCommNews.com

33

flash contracts new builds Q2 Contracted to

Contracted by

NDSQ

Qatar Armed Forces

Contract for 2 signed MoUs worth QAR 3.1 billion to build 7 x new vessels

Qatar

Baku Shipyard

BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Ltd

Contract to design & build a Subsea Construction Vessel (SCV)

Coastal Contracts

Undisclosed / Confidential

Drydocks World, Dubai

Malta Oil & Gas Ltd

Ensco Plc

Lamprell

Shipbuilding Contract for 3 x offshore support vessels & 2 x 'low end' vessels worth cUS$ 55million Contract to build 2 x new jackup drilling rigs equipped to hold 150 persons and a helideck Contract for 2 x high-specification jackups, ENSCO 140 & ENSCO 141

"Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan Sector)" Asia

Golden Energy Offshore Imabari Shipbuilding Co Ltd

Nanton Rainbow Offshore & Engineering Equipments Co Ltd Mitsubishi Corp

Keppel FELS Ltd

Workfox B.V.

Keppel FELS Ltd

Workfox B.V.

Marine Assets Corp (MAC)

Fujian Mawei Ship Yard

Marine Assets Corporation (MAC)

Details

Location

Dubai UAE

Shipbuilding Contract for construction of 2 x PSV's from Ulstein

China Spain

Fujian Mawei Ship Yard

Contract for 2 x LNG carriers to be delivered to the Spanish Shipping Co, Elcano, for use by Gas Natural Partnership for engineering study to build one of the world's first jackups with P&A features & well intervention Partnership to build 1 x jackup rig (Seafox 8) for 282 persons to address a gap in the current P&A market Contract for 4x Platform Supply Ships (PSVs) & 2 x floating accommodation units (Flotels) worth cUS$125m Contracted to build 2 additional 60m PSVs

Siemens

Nordic Yards

Contract to fabricate 3 x HVDC BorWin2 platforms

Warnemünde

Ulstein

Niigata Shipbuilding & Repair

Japan

Vroon Offshore Services

Undisclosed/confidential

ASL Shipyard Pte Ltd

Undisclosed / Confidential

Contract for design & equipment packages for 4 x ocean tugs for ALP Maritime Services, Holland Contract to design a new concept of offshore accommodation vessel of 3,600 dwt USS$91million contract for construction of 3 x powerful & highly manoeuvrable infield support vessels & 1 x seismic support vessel

CASCO Offshore

Ulstein Sea of Solutions (USOS)

Europe

Edison Chouest Offshore

Island Offshore

A design contract for the CASCO Enabler, a high spec DP3 800 POB monohull accommodation vessel to hold 800 persons Partnership for the construction of 2 vessels

JAPDEVA (Costa Rica)

Damen Shipyards Group

Contract for a Damen Stan Tender 1504 (Pilot Vessel)

Central America

Jurong Shipyard

Hercules North Sea Ltd

Petroleos de Venezuela SA

Damen Shipyards Group

Contract worth US$236m to build a 1 x high specification, tailor-made jackup rig with accommodation for 150 persons Contract for 10 x ASD 2810 Azimuthing Stern Drive 28m tugs

"North Sea (UK Sector)" Venezuela

Seadrill Ltd

Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd

5 year contract worth cUS$1.1 billion

Nigeria

Sinopec

Havyard

Contract for construction of a Havyard 832 L SE PSV at the Chinese Shipyard Fujien Mawei Shipbuilding able to carry 40 persons

China

Worldwide Norwegian Sea Worldwide South East China

Undisclosed Australia & Norway

Norway

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