Winter 2012

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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Winter 2012

Your resource for telecoms destined for remote & harsh environments

In Print. Online. Offshore.

Inside this Issue

Welcome Data squashing seems to be the name of the game for bandwidth optimisation, and it’s something that we should all be keeping an eye on over the next 18 months.

While size still matters, what you do with allocated bandwidth is getting under the spotlight. Our conversation with Chris McIntosh, UK CEO at ViaSat, revealed that within 12 months satellite comms will be competing with the mobile market in more ways than one. You’ll also find his opinion of the top three barriers in the remote telco sector and how providers should be addressing the market on page 24.

We also spoke to Jim Dodez, VP of marketing and strategic planning at KVH Industries, for this issue’s company profile. Amongst other highlights, size comes into play again, this time regarding misconceptions surrounding consumption. See more from page 12.

And be sure not to miss our special interview with CEO Steve Collar of O3b Networks, a company with its sights set on changing the way that satellite connectivity will service the comms industry, particularly for the oil and gas sector. We think it’s one of the most exciting companies of the moment. Find out more about this rising star from page 21.

See you in the Spring!

What’s Missing?

Hear from Gerbrand Schalkwijk, VP Enterprise, Energy, Inmarsat, who asks if satellite is the missing link in offshore M2M. Page 10

Company Profile KVH Industries Inc. rises to the top with buckets of megabytes at one tenth the cost. Page 12

Opinion Great Gains for Soaring Bandwidth Demand. How greedy applications are impacting performance. Page 15

Diary Dates Pages 18 & 19 CEO Interview Special feature interview with Steve Collar, CEO at O3b Networks. Increasing demand and size and reliability of communications links in the oil and gas industry is being driven by new applications, the regulatory environment, the increasing distance from the shore where such platforms are moving, and the need to utilize a limited number of industry experts more efficiently throughout expanded regions. Page 21

Bandwidth & What To Do With It PLUS: The top barriers, operator business strategies and opportunities from Chris McIntosh, UK CEO at ViaSat. Page 24

Georgina Elrington editor@OffCommNews.com PS: Do YOU know where YOUR data is right now?

Turn to page 16 to find out!

The Quarterly Pages 4 & 5

@OffCommNews

Insight: Combating BYOD Offshore Keep the communication flowing without jeopardizing your network. Four North Sea oil rigs get 1st class comms treatment in our special Insight feature. Page 25

Case Study

Next Issue: Spring 2013 Updates on: Hybrid Networks, Encryption & Security

“Communicating without security is like walking with no clothes on.”

To find out who said this and why be sure to get the next editions of OffComm News in print or online. See page 16

90% Compression for system SMS updates offshore. Page 30

Opinion Optimising satellite communications to improve working conditions & crew welfare. Page 31

OffComm News magazine supports www.AfricanChildrensBookProject.com

OffComm News is a trading name of CTLD Publishing Ltd Company No. 7774639. Read the digital Cover Photo: Steve Collar, CEO of O3b Networks. version online by clicking the current edition image on the homepage at www.OffCommNews.com O3b Networks is a global satellite service provider building a next Printed by HP, OffComm News is available in print by subscription only: 12 months (4 issues) £50 generation satellite network for telecommunications operators, ~ 24 months (8 issues) £73. Contacts: & ©OffComm News ~Advertising Winter email: 2012George@CTLD.me ~ Editorial www.OffCommNews.com 3 internet service providers, enterprise and government customers in emerging markets. The O3b Subscriptions email: Editor@OffCommNews.com ~ Telephone: 44(0)203 239 1777 Write to us at: Elrington, Le Ros Grignon, Ploeuc-sur-lie, Brittany 22150 France system will combine the global reach of satellite with the speed of a fibre‐optic network OOO Sponsored feature providing billions of consumers and businesses in nearly 180 countries with low‐cost, high

speed, low latency internet and mobile connectivity.

The Quarterly OffComm News Round Up News in brief

Cruising Fibre More than 8,000 guests, staff and crew members cruising the Caribbean on the Oasis of the Seas are about to get better connected. As O3b Networks’ systems integrator, Harris CapRock will deploy stabilized VSAT antenna systems enabling the delivery of fibre quality bandwidth to the vessel throughout her voyages. www.O3bNetworks.com

Chinese Fishing Vessels Trial Comms Beam Communications will trial marine communications terminals on fishing vessels in China for a satellite company in the region. The trial will deploy 100 Beam Oceana400 terminals and 100 Beam Oceana800 terminals; which can support voice, data and tracking communications over the Inmarsat satellite network via the Fleetphone maritime service. Following market acceptance, the customer expects to commit to a minimum further order of 1,000 units for expansion of the trial to broader maritime users. www.beamcommunications.com

Data Speed and Global Coverage Scheduled for service introduction in 2014, Global Xpress from Inmarsat is set to offer the shipping industry unprecedented data speeds and global coverage.

Global Xpress maritime will combine the new super-fast Kaband satellite network with the existing FleetBroadband service.

Mile High Internet Starting with 28 planes, belonging to Japanese air carrier ANA, Swift Broadband wifi will be available on international routes from mid 2013. The Swift Broadband service is being provided by Inmarsat distribution partner OnAir, which is also providing inflight connectivity for Cebu Pacific Air, the Philippines' largest flag carrier and the first long-haul LCC in South East Asia. Starting with its Airbus A330 fleet the airline also has the option to install wifi on its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft for short haul flights. Once in service, passengers will be able to access the internet and make calls using Voice over IP applications via wifi enabled devices including: Android phones, tablets, iPhone®, iPad®, Blackberry® and laptops. www.ana.co.jp

In addition, Singapore Airlines has decided to add wifi and GSM passenger connectivity on its long-haul fleets. SBTV, from Inmarsat, enables airlines to provide real-time and updated on-demand entertainment content. News, sports and other video content is transmitted to the aircraft over the SwiftBroadband network and then distributed wirelessly to passengers' own devices, which can include smartphones, laptops, tablets and other personal media players.

$46.4m Acquisition of Oil & Gas Remote Comms RigNet, Inc. has acquired Nessco Group Holdings Ltd, a telecommunications systems integration company for the oil & gas industry. "Our customers will have immediate access to a broader range of integrated communications solutions as a result of this acquisition," said Mark Slaughter, RigNet's CEO and President. "Additionally, RigNet will now have the ability to support customers across the entire oil and gas value chain.” www.rig.net

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

1st VoIP for National Airspace System Harris Corporation has delivered the first operational Voice over Internet Protocol radio control capability into the National Airspace System. The Harris Liberty Radio Control Equipment is operational at the Federal Aviation Administration’s air route traffic control centre in Houston, which provides air/ground radio communications for the Gulf of Mexico, including remote oil platforms.

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High Speed Broadband for Severely Limited Regions Yahsat, an Abu Dhabi, UAE-based Ka-band satellite operator, is launching YahClick throughout the Middle East, South West Asia and African regions ~ clearing the way for the start of commercial service. Hughes has shipped over 10,000 VSAT terminals to YahClick service partners based in the 28 markets where it is currently being rolled out.

Meeting O&G and Mining Connectivity Needs Castor Networks will utilise new SES capacity to enable the delivery of voice and data across the corporate networks of oil, gas and mining industries, ISPs and governments in countries including Angola, Mozambique & South Africa.

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The Quarterly OffComm News Round Up News in brief

Harris Broadens Remote Broadband Harris CapRock will use the Intelsat EpicNG platform on Intelsat 29e to expand its service offerings and applications to global customers across the energy, maritime and government markets.

“The need for reliable broadband and high throughput on maritime and remote platforms continues to grow,” said Intelsat EVP of sales, marketing and strategy, Steve Spengler. Intelsat EpicNG will be complemented by the company’s existing satellite fleet and terrestrial network. The two satellites, which are expected to launch in 2015 and 2016 respectively, will serve all of the populated continents. www.intelsatepic.com

Good News for Sea Contractors With Single Numbers Pre-paid comms services are popular with people who work on short term or seasonal projects and prefer not to commit to a contract. Therefore, a recent announcement from Inmarsat could be just the ticket as the company brings global prepaid satellite services for both voice and data. The service is for all existing Inmarsat land and maritime services including IsatPhone Pro™, BGAN™, FleetBroadband™ and FleetPhone™. Users of IsatPhone Pro can now be contacted using a single phone number ~ wherever they are ~ using just one device for their global communications. FleetBroadband customers can travel in and out of US territorial waters on prepaid plans. Support for voice calls originating in the US and its territories is also available. www.inmarsat.com

4MB Hope for 400 million People Without Internet

Three Cheers for Merchant Navy Welfare Board The Merchant Navy Welfare Board and Three UK, a mobile operator, have partnered to provide over half a million free megabytes of mobile internet to seafarers visiting UK ports. Following a fund raising campaign, MNWB was awarded Three UK’s Community fund and 32 donated mifi units inclusive of 15GB of data per month.

Three’s director of corporate affairs, Hugh Davies, said: “We have invested heavily in our network for seafarers, a connection to one of our portable mifi means it’s free and easy for them to stay in contact with loved ones. Each device will be loaded with 15GB of data per month, enough to make 1,500 ten minute Skype calls* or send around 75,000 emails. The award-winning mifi devices are enabled with the latest HSPA+ technology, which provides a faster mobile internet experience than standard 3G.” Mr John Denham MP for Southampton commented: “Seafarers bring almost all the goods we buy but are often thousands of miles from home with no or very expensive communications. This great initiative means they can have contact with their families in the precious hours they are in port.”

SES Broadband Services has signed an agreement with SatADSL for the distribution of its satellite broadband service in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will provide internet access to businesses, banks, non-governmental organisations and institutions in remote areas throughout the region for critical applications such as financial transactions and data transfers. The package includes Voice over IP and will offer download speeds of up to 4MB. Patrick Biewer, managing director of SES Broadband Services said: “While there are plans to increase fibre connectivity across the African continent, 300 million people find themselves over 50 kilometres from a fibre or cable broadband connection. An additional 400 million people on the continent have no internet access at all. Through the use of satellite technology we are able to connect the unconnected and close the digital divide.”

*Skype calls to landlines or mobile numbers use around 1MB for one minute of calling .

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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Single Cabins for 450 Personnel Lundin Norway has contracted Prosafe’s new build accommodation rig, ‘Safe Boreas’ to support the Edvard Grieg project in the Norwegian North Sea. Prosafe claims this is the world’s most advanced and efficient harsh environment accommodation rig.

DART+ in Active Combat Norsat’s Dual-Band Autoacquisition Rapid-deployable Terminals (DART+) have been deployed in active combat zones.

The terminals provide data, voice and telecoms to and from behindthe-line areas, and enable NATO’s NCI Agency to establish communications regardless of infrastructure availability or environmental conditions.

Accommodation Upgrade Contract News Keppel Shipyard has secured three contracts for offshore vessel conversions with a combined initial value of $81.7 million.

SES Reports New Market Growth The SES-4 satellite entered commercial service in mid April, providing new capacity for Europe and Africa and provides full coverage of the Americas, plus a global beam to support mobile and maritime customers.

Onboard Approved PABX The new Alphaconnect 48/128 hybrid, from Alphatron Marine, uses propriety technology in combination with cable saving IP technology. A dedicated app allows smartphones to integrate with the onboard communication system.

370 New Accommodations Quingdao Eversafe Marine Engineering Company Ltd has launched a new work barge for general purpose that can accommodate 370 persons.

www.ses.com www.satadsl.net

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Commercial Satellite Operators Capacity Up by US$635 Million The latest supply and demand report from NSR cites that commercial satellite operators grew capacity leasing revenues by US$635 million between 2010 and 2011.

Further, they are aggressively targeting new markets in order to m a i n t a in s u s t a i n e d r e v e n u e expansion for the coming years.

Forecast: US$6.9B in new revenues by 2021 “The Ku-band market will continue to be the main growth engine for the commercial satellite market for the coming ten years”, notes Patrick M. French, NSR senior analyst and author of the report. “The direct-tohome (DTH) TV market alone could add US$1.4 billion in net new revenues by 2021 out of US$4.3 billion expected in total for the Kuband segment. Solid Ku-band revenue gains are also expected from the video distribution,

enterprise data, commercial mobility and government and military verticals.”

One major finding in the report was that the commercial satellite industry is finally beginning to fully grasp the significance of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and the potential to drive new growth in other market verticals beyond satellite broadband access services.

The combined HTS markets could add almost US$1.9 billion in net new revenues to the industry in the coming ten years, which is the second biggest gain after the Kuband market.

“The widebeam Ka-band market, especially for the government and military segment in the Middle East, is also beginning to get some real traction for the industry even if total revenue growth is expected to be substantially smaller that the Ku-

Acoustic Phone Booths for Offshore Comms Offshore platforms present some of the hardest, loudest, and most volatile work conditions of any industry. In such hazardous conditions quick and reliable communications are essential for safety and productivity.

band or HTS side of the business,” said French. The only cloud on the horizon, as identified by NSR, was the potential for weakening C-band backhaul demand after 2015 should the industry begin to rapidly migrate to the use of HTS and O3b capacity for data-intensive 3G and 4G backhaul.

The Global Assessment of Satellite Supply and Demand ~ 9th Edition report, provides data and analysis from the global trends to detailed and granular assessments of supply and demand for eight separate applications, in each of four different types of capacity: C-band, Ku-band, widebeam Ka-band, HTS; for twelve individual regions. www.nsr.com

“The avera ge number of public phones se ems to be 3 for ev ery 100 people on board.”

See page 28

Telcom & Data has introduced the Guardian AB-1000 acoustic phone booth to deliver audible communication in offshore environments. Acoustic phone booths protect users from harsh weather conditions and significantly reduce background noise.

“Everybody who has ever worked in a loud offshore environment knows that communicating over the phone is impossible without an acoustic phone booth,” Ricardo Trinidad, president of Telcom & Data.

The Guardian AB-1000 model reduces noise levels by as much as 25 decibels.

The booth is maintenance free, UV and corrosion resistant and can withstand chemical attack. It can also be equipped with strobe lights, loud ringers and explosion proof speakers to aid in the signalling of phone calls to workers.

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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Secure Onboard Communications for Satellite Piracy Growing concerns regarding deadly attacks on commercial and leisure vessels.

Addressing this problem is Beam’s anti piracy communication system which has been developed for the marine market.

Utilizing the Iridium Extreme® satellite handset and the Beam Covert Antenna, PotsDOCK Extreme Covert Piracy Solution provides a dedicated system for a safe room or citadel onboard a vessel.

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In the event of an attack, PotsDOCK ensures essential connectivity onboard; providing the captain and crew with access to voice communications and the ability to alert authorities. By design, the system is less susceptible to be ‘taken out’ and can be maintained even if all other power or communication equipment has been destroyed by pirates. Greg Ewert, executive vice president, global distribution channels at Iridium said: “It not only works everywhere off the global, reliable Iridium communications network, but it is specially designed to enable connectivity for vessels in dangerous situations.” www.iridium.com www.beamcommunications.com

Three Tugs Destined for Iraq & Sierra Leone

Damen Shipyards Group and Smit Lamnalco have signed a contract for two newly designed ASD Tugs 3212 and a Stan Tug 2208. The vessels will be used for work in Iraq and Sierra Leone.

Damen provides tugs, workboats, patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, offshore support vessels, oil-spill response vessels and even frigates and super yachts. Damen Shipyards Group operates more than 45 shipyards, repair yards and related companies worldwide.

Employing over 6,000 people in 34 countries the company has delivered over 5,000 vessels since 1969 and delivers up to 150 vessels annually. www.damen.com

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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Polar Crew & Environmental Welfare A marine geophysical company with an environmental agenda, Polarcus specialises in high-end towed streamer data acquisition from Pole to Pole. The company selected Marlink’s Sealink customized VSAT services to provide connectivity aboard two new X-bow design seismic vessels: the Amani and the Adira, which are currently under construction at Ulstein Verft in Norway. The vessels will focus on environmentally friendly operations in Polar Regions.

To meet the demanding data needs the two vessels will be furnished with the same customized Sealink system currently in use aboard five other Polarcus vessels. It is based on dua l C -ba nd an tenn as wit h automatic switchover, dedicated fullduplex bandwidth through a Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) satellite link, including several LAN networks on board, eight simultaneous voice lines and access to Marlink’s prepaid options. It also enables GSM services when in range and features Iridium Pilot as back-up, to ensure continuous, global connectivity ~ regardless of location.

Jan Einar Bringedal, VP of sales at Marlink said: “In the case of Polarcus vessels, the connectivity has been c u s t o m iz e d t o s u pp o r t t h e company’s specific operations and crew welfare, whilst strengthening Polarcus’ ability to pioneer seismic exploration with responsibility and without harm to the global environment.”

Should any technical difficulties arise, for example with the vessel engines, remote diagnosis via IP a pplic a t ion s on v ia Se alin k connectivity helps to resolve any issues quickly, therefore avoiding impact on the environment.

Magnus Oberg, vice president information technology at Polarcus said: “Although the primary use for our connectivity is operational, it’s also vital that we provide crew with a way to communicate with friends and family, and engineers on board to work remotely with experts on land. The Sealink service allows us to manage exactly how the connectivity is used, which supports our seismic operations and IT organisation.”

For seismic vessels, cruise and passenger ships, offshore platforms or maritime transport vessels, Sealink customised VSAT delivers connectivity to exacting requirements.

'Just Around the Corner' Comms For Offshore Brazilian Growth

M2M Expansion for Omani Connectivity

In view of the fast developing Brazilian market, and in line with its strategy to extend service networks to all major ports in the world, Imtech Marine will open an office in Santos in September of this year, followed by another in Rio de Janeiro. Eric van den Adel, managing director of Imtech Marine said: “We have a true global presence and are 'just around the corner' for many shipping companies with our 90 plus offices. We are proud to have added Brazil to our global map, where the offshore industry is an important, growing market. The increase in the number of our service locations is based entirely on customer demand. This is the very essence of our service strategy, we will continue to open more offices along strategic shipping lanes and add more services into this network. It is simple: be where the customer needs us.”

Redline Communications Group Inc., a provider of broadband wireless solutions for machine-to-machine (M2 M ) c o m m u n ic a t io n s , h a s announced a contract with an American oil & gas company which is expanding its operations to Oman.

The company has selected Redline to meet its communications requirements for a high-capacity wireless network between wells and drilling rigs in the oilfield, as well as to centralized control offices.

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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News

Better Crew Facilities Key Factor for 300

Challenging Africa "How can we establish an internet culture in a country lacking interconnection infrastructure, where cabled internet is notoriously inaccessible and 'white zones' constitute the overwhelming majority of the national territory?

Subsidiaries of Coastal Contracts Bhd have secured, amongst other contracts, the sale of an accommodation work barge. One of the main functions of the barge, which can house up to 300 offshore crew, is to provide a better workplace.

The vessel’s 88 cabin accommodation is equipped with facilities including: TV/video room, gym and recreation room. Delivery is expected in 2012 and 2013. Coastal is a Malaysia based marine incorporation that provides marine products and services to the shipping, oil and gas and commodities industries. Its services include the build, charter, repair, maintenance and trade of marine vessels ranging from tug boats, oil barges, dumb barges and landing crafts to offshore supporting vessels. www.coastalcontracts.com

Work Vessel Sold For US$38m Otto Marine Limited, an offshore marine company specializing in building offshore support vessels, ship chartering and offshore services, has sold Oranda 1, a 75meter work maintenance vessel. No indication of communications facilities were mentioned at the time of going to print.

Headquartered in Singapore, the Company owns and operates one of the largest shipyards in Batam, Indonesia and is one of the most sophisticated yards in Asia Pacific.

The yard is building to DNV and Norwegian class standards, primarily with customers such as deep sea and offshore operators and equipment companies who provide logistics support and offshore services.

“It is within this context of seeking solutions to allow equal access to its platform that we became interested in alternative technologies for internet access." said Charles-Joel Djikpesse, general manager of Damy Engineering.

SES Broadband Services has signed an agreement with Damy Engineering for the use of 18 MHz on SES' ASTRA 4A satellite, covering Sub-Saharan Africa.

Damy Engineering will start using the capacity, as well as the platform of SES Broadband Services, beginning mid September 2012 for internet access in Benin.

The company will commercialise and install broadband at attractive prices to individuals and schools, as well as include an online learning platform and free internet terminals in post offices throughout the country.

For the rollout of the internet access services Damy Engineering is also co-operating with La Poste du Benin and Nomotech, a subsidiary of SFR, the second largest mobile operator in France.

www.ottomarine.com

Size & Weight Savings for Rugged Environments Ten times smaller in volume and about 10 percent the weight of a standard Micro-D connector, TE’s nano connectors also provide electrical and mechanical advantages such as voltage ratings of 500 V at sea level versus 250 V (for others) and 500 mating cycles versus 200. They are available with temperature ranges as wide as -200° c to +200°c.

“Despite their small size, nanominiature connectors are

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

designed for rugged applications, with the capability of withstanding significant levels of shock and vibration, salt spray, outgassing and other environmental and mechanical hazards,” said Scott Cairns, manager, product management, TE Aerospa ce, Defence & Marine.

Nanominiature connectors from TE Connectivity combine size and weight with high reliability, low contact resistance and wide operation temperature range, making them amongst the smallest and toughest available.

Typical applications include space, smart munitions, missile defence, aircraft communications and UAVs. www.te.com

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Is Satellite the Missing Link Not long ago, satellite communications carried the negative stigma of being expensive, requiring power hungry large terminals that are complex to integrate with customer applications and being weather dependent, writes Gerbrand Schalkwijk, Vice President, Enterprise, Energy, Inmarsat.

For these reasons, satellite services for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) applications, low data rate (LDR) solutions and other remote unmanned machine to machine (M2M) monitoring management services, was only considered as the last resort option where terrestrial communication solutions do not exist.

Although these were issues with older satellite technologies, it is not longer true with today’s services for SCADA and remote monitoring applications. Today options exist which provide reliable, cost effective satellite services and small, low power terminals that are extremely easy to install.

Global remote management applications such as monitoring oil and gas pipelines are leaning towards expanding their use of satellite communications and even choosing satellite over traditional cellular and terrestrial solutions as they reduce the total cost of ownership, not just cheap airtime. This becomes critical as new environmental and safety concerns and regulations require more detailed data and higher levels of reliability than ever before. For example, In January, ©OffComm ©OffComm News News ~ ~ Winter Winter 2012 2012

the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) authored and President Obama signed the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act focusing U.S. pipeline owners and operators to conduct a comprehensive review of their oil and gas pipelines to identify areas of high risk.

Most oil and gas exploration and operation takes place in areas where basic communications do not exist. The outlook is much better these days with satellite technology providing communications in the most extreme and isolated of locations. Common in the U.S., satellite communications have been combined with licensed and unlicensed radio for thorough, cost effective coverage. Cellular technologies have played a role as backup communications to the weather-affected VSATs. These hybrid approaches take advantage of lowcost radio and cellular where it is feasible and available but ensures redundancy and reliability by complementing it with highly reliable satellite services that work anywhere a view to the sky is possible.

Pipeline monitoring and control is serious business and reliability is an absolute requirement. Monitoring sites in difficult environments, with extreme weather and geography, may dictate the use of necessary technologies such as heaters on antennas or the use of larger antennas to provide reliable signal. These solutions can be costly and require technical resources to engineer and install.

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Satellite will become even more pertinent as the oil and gas industry expands its use of M2M beyond rigs, pipes and platforms to new areas including tracking vehicles and geo-fencing.

in M2M Communications?

SCADA satellite terminals are extremely low power, simple to operate, easy to maintain and can be installed without any specialist engineering skills. Thanks to new satellite products and services, a specialised terminal designed specifically for these SCADA applications ~ combined with affordable airtime ~ result in a reduced total cost of ownership.

With environmental monitoring moving up the agenda, new technologies will continue to ensure satellite becomes more affordable, reliable and effective to meet these evolving needs.

These types of solutions are necessary on the main monitoring points of pipelines, however, there are many monitoring points which are less critical and require less frequent communications. These more remote points aren’t likely to have power available and don’t always warrant the large expense of the engineering, installation and cost of the larger sites.

This terminal can be rebooted manually by remotely sending an SMS message instead of a technician or automatically rebooted using a transmission watchdog which reboots the terminal if no transmission occurs within a specific time period. New satellite services are integrated with terminals for low power operation and use low-cost, low data rate plans.

One of the key benefits of these new satellite M2M systems is that the system is not impacted by requirement for local infrastructure such as power. It does not need commercial power infrastructure as it uses battery/solar or wind power. Like other communications options, it can operate in a completely autonomous way with remote monitoring solutions, significantly reducing the number of site visits and operational costs. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that it works well anywhere in the world where a view to the sky is available.

SCADA solutions generally operate in very harsh environments. Heavy rain, snow and even dust may degrade communication services. To counter this, new services operate on the L-band and are proven to provide 99.9% connectivity even in harsh weather conditions.

The new Hughes 9502 M2M is an example of a terminal specifically designed for SCADA. It is a small simple twopiece design with less than three components; outdoor antenna, indoor modem and an RF cable to connect the two. It has a simple pole mount design, and the only skill to setup the terminal is to roughly point it in the direction of the satellite. Its standby operating power is less than 1W. ŠOffComm News ~ Winter 2012

The 9502 operates on the Inmarsat-provided Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN). Unlike cellular, which performs well below Inmarsat's 99.9% availability, BGAN provides steady, fast and reliable communications each and every time a remote is contacted. Many times radio towers are not feasible to reach the many remote sites still requiring personnel visits, but the BGAN M2M solution will work anywhere.

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Gerbrand Schalkwijk, VP Enterprise, Energy, Inmarsat

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Company Profile KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband service seems to have been extremely well received by the maritime market.

This year, both Euroconsult and NSR, two of the leading marketing research firms covering the mobile satellite markets, concluded that KVH was #1 in terms of the number of users of its services.

“With over 70 competitors, in the maritime VSAT market, KVH’s rise in only five years has been meteoric”

Global Reach Key Facts KVH Industries Inc. services oil and gas, shipping, commercial fishing, government, passenger and yachting segments. The company has sales offices in the US, Denmark, and Singapore as well as global distributors; and offers technical support in 175 ports around the world.

Approximately 20 percent of its clients are in the offshore industry and 50 percent are based in super remote locations serving merchant vessels traveling around the globe across all the deep ocean regions, commercial fishermen in Alaska, Combined Maritime Forces in the Arabian Sea, offshore service vessels off Brazil, West Africa, Malaysia and the North Sea.

KVH Industries, Inc. World Headquarters 50 Enterprise Center, Middletown, RI 02842-5279 U.S.A.

   

Established 1982 Employees: 390 www.kvh.com Nasdaq: KVHI

Operational in the marine industry since 1982 ~ first as a provider of navigation equipment and later as a provider of satellite communications equipment and services ~ KVH pioneered the widespread use of satellite television at sea in 1994 with its TracVision product line. It made the maritime antennas for the regional North American Mobile Satellite Service in 1996 and was the first company to launch a maritime Inmarsat mini-M system in 1998, when it became an Inmarsat service provider.

In 2007, the company teamed with the satellite technology company ViaSat to launch the mini-VSAT broadband satellite network. ViaSat had developed an efficient spread spectrum technology specifically for mobile applications that enabled relative small antennas (35cm to 60cm) to receive Ku-band VSAT transmissions from FSS satellites. Combining KVH’s manufacturing capability, antenna designs and global distribution network with ViaSat’s satellite transmission technology and network operations expertise, enabled KVH to introduce equipment that truly started to rock the VSAT market in terms of speed and efficiency.

Between 2007 and 2011, KVH built the global miniVSAT Broadband network, consisting of 14 Ku-band satellite transponders providing global coverage of almost the entire Northern Hemisphere as well as around all of the continents in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America), and much of the Indian Ocean.

In 2012 the company added three global C-band transponders to the network to overlay the Ku-band coverage, thus providing a total global network.

Cont…/

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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Company Profile

The offshore communications market is growing significantly as offshore service vessels join platforms in being equipped with broadband connectivity. Technology innovation has enabled fielding onboard terminals with smaller antennas, suitable for these smaller vessels, as well as significantly lowering the transmission costs.

“In many applications, our equipment is mounted in portable units that are provided on a rental basis by the day.

These units simply require power, which is sometimes provided by their own generators, to provide multi-megabit internet access and VoIP calling,” said Jim Dodez, VP, marketing and strategic planning at KVH Industries Inc.

“Companies are doing a better job at centralizing the decision to set up offshore IT networks that truly meet the needs of their organizations. In the past, this has been handled on a piece-meal basis using many different ad-hoc solutions, which became a nightmare to manage, were difficult to maintain, performed poorly and were prohibitively expensive.“

Market Misconceptions: Consumption

Business: New Installations or Upgrade Market?

KVH finds opportunity in both new installations and the upgrading of existing communications systems. “The small size and fully integrated nature of our equipment makes it easy to deploy new or retrofit applications. For many of our fleet installations, the vessel crew has actually handled mounting the equipment onboard and running cables so a technician could quickly activate the system with a very short service call at a convenient port.

Expectations from people using offshore connectivity, especially crew members, is that internet access and voice calling is cheap and plentiful on land, so it should be readily available, free, and they should be able to use it however they like at sea. The crew member enjoys free services like streaming radio, video on demand, and Skype without realizing that transmitting some of this free content uses up a lot of satellite transmission capacity, which could be expensive for the vessel owner.

Some software that works well in land-based applications that require a lot of interactivity for updates, etc., like Microsoft Office, need to be appropriately configured for use at sea or they can consume a huge amount of bandwidth without people onboard realizing the issues.

Cont…/

Advancing Quality, Speed & Affordability at Sea Good news for vessel IT managers KVH Industries, Inc., has rolled out an onboard terminal for its mini-VSAT Broadband service, the TracPhone V7-IP. It features a 3-axis, gyro-stabilized antenna and a completely integrated belowdecks unit that includes an ArcLight spread spectrum modem and KVH’s IP-enabled antenna control unit with a built-in CommBox Ship/Shore Network Manager, Voice over IP adapter, Ethernet switch and WiFi adapter. The CommBoxACU provides a full suite of onboard services for satellite communications, including crystal clear VoIP calling, internet café, crew calling, managed e-mail, secure file delivery and remote network access.

For the vessel owner’s IT manager, the TracPhone V7-IP provides extensive functionality to help manage onboard networks remotely. The system itself is very easy for the crew to operate thanks to a web browser based user interface that includes an iPhone app. For the mariner, it is cost effective and easy to install.

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

www.OffCommNews.com

13

Company Profile

One Tenth the Cost & Buckets of Megabytes

Regarding Crew Welfare “What we find is that, typically on the offshore service vessels, they want to provide VoIP internet cafes and crew moral applications, and they also have operational applications, which we can prioritise. ”We have low cost VoIP calling anywhere in the world for 49c per minute, as well as internet cafe services for which we can set up either a company based or crew pay service.

“Using our small equipment, hardware investment can be recovered in under a year.”

Size: KVH operates the only global network offering affordable VSAT service using a dual-mode 1m C/Ku band antenna. It claims that while other providers offer global Lband services with the same coverage, competing airtime is slower and more expensive. C-band VSAT services offer global coverage, but they require 3.5meter antennas which are usually only practical on very large platforms.

Advanced spread spectrum technology designed specifically for mobile applications: This enables KVH to use onboard terminals with ultra-compact antennas.

The hardware begins with a product that is smaller and less expensive: For example, the TracPhone V7 is 85 percent smaller than most other 1m Kuband VSAT antennas, yet provides providing at least equal speed and coverage.

KVH’s TracPhone V11 is more than 90 percent smaller than C-band VSAT antennas.

End to end: KVH’s integrated approach allows the pre-programming of hardware to work immediately with its network upon activation, simplifying the installation and improving the performance of the end-to -end solution for the onboard equipment, including the appropriate

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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antenna and fully integrated below deck control unit/modem, along with an onboard network management product called the CommBox. (see previous page ) A f f o rd ab le m e te re d services: The company’s airtime packages include affordable metered services with “buckets of megabytes” that compete directly with other leading metered services. KVH’s service is one tenth the cost and delivered at network speeds up to 2Mbps. Packages start as low as at $49 per month for 50MBs. It also offers traditional speed-based fixed rate data plans.

Global support 24/7/365: Technical support is available with one call troubleshooting for any issues that may arise for the life of the product.

KVH’s hardware includes built-in diagnostic features that can test every aspect of the system and be remotely monitored to assure it is performing properly. Software updates for the hardware can be remotely transmitted and installed, assuring the onboard terminal is always up to date. Technical s uppor t peo ple ar e available in 125 ports around the world should onboard support be necessary. www.kvh.com

14

Opinion

Great Gains for Soaring Bandwidth Demand When application performance degrades, both users and management can be quick to blame the network, but often there are other factors impairing performance. The important thing is to detect these problems as quickly as possible in order to troubleshoot them. Dr Steve Turner, VP of IT optimisation at Intergence, warns that solely blaming the network for poor application performance can run the risk of overlooking many other issues.

“Per application, service level objectives should be defined to track application performance over time and alert managers when performance degrades or be used to protect and prioritise business critical applications.” Dr Steve Turner, VP of IT optimisation at Intergence.

He explains further: “Before any intelligent techniques can be used to optimise application performance, the key factor is to first understand the application usage profile of the network and their current performance.”

Performance should be the baseline prior to any infrastructure upgrades Traffic across the network and application performance should be recorded and analysed to create an understanding of the current profile. It should then be monitored to ensure performance does not degrade over time. Examples of this analysis can include:

 The amount of bandwidth required for a particular application

 Congestion of the WAN link  The latency and jitter across the network for a specific application

“Some applications are more greedy than others with regards to bandwidth consumption. For example, a voice session may only consume 84Kbps of bandwidth, yet a file transfer will consume as much as physically possible without any controls in place, and this can impact on the performance of other more ‘sensitive’ applications.

Organisations, who move to using optimisation techniques such as WAN governance and acceleration, can achieve great gains in improving the performance of business critical applications, whilst reducing bandwidth consumption and increasing throughput.

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

While file transfers can cope with high latency / jitter and even packet loss, real time applications such as voice and video cannot, and the user experience can become very poor. To address this, business critical applications should be protected and prioritised from non-critical applications through optimisation techniques such as WAN governance.

Optimisation can be used to delay or negate the need to upgrade the network, often producing both a rapid ROI and improvement on the end user experience.

“High latency and high bandwidth links can also impact the performance of applications, particularly those which rely on the TCP protocol to acknowledge packet receipt before sending the next piece of data. WAN acceleration (or optimisation) can be used to minimise the ‘chatty’ nature of many TCP applications, where there is a lot of interaction between the client and server. These include file transfer applications which will aim to effectively fill the pipe and send as much data across the WAN as is possible. Further techniques can be used to compress and de-duplicate so that only unique data is transferred to the remote host, reducing the amount needed to be sent, and effectively increasing performance.

“Organisations that have employed monitoring through visualisation have, in many cases, been able not only to improve their application performance but also reduce the spend on network upgrades. This is because they can restrict or remove non-business activity either through user education or policy enforcement.”

Intergence is an independent IT optimisation consultancy, headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with a regional office in the Middle East (Dubai, UAE). The company was founded in 2003 to address the growing requirements of clients demanding high-level impartial expertise in networks & IT. www.intergence.com

www.OffCommNews.com

15

?

Ever feel like you’re missing something?

Such as, do you know where your cloud based data is right now?

Check out previous editions of OffComm News magazine to see what you’ve missed so far...

 Spring 2012 The Legal Maze

  



of Cloud Computing: Forensic Risk Alliance warns that if companies don’t get serious about where their data is stored, they could be exposed to complex and costly legal cases.

Do YOU know where YOUR data is?

Insight: Voices from a captive audience. Rig workers tell us what’s on their communications wish list Comment from Inmarsat: Internet connectivity is a rising priority Interview with Robert Schena, The Chairman, CEO and cofounder of Rajant Corporation speaks about the proposed network in the Gulf of Mexico iDirect’s Christian Bergan tells us how satellite delivers offshore connectivity for oil and gas companies

 Summer 2012  What's Next for







Rural Broadband?

Insight from a special summit in Dubai An estimated $15 billion each year accounts for poor decision making from lack of access to relevant information regarding communications. Datasat Communications looks at the extreme costs associated with exploration, production and operations.

While VSAT-based networks are helping oil & gas companies solve core communications challenges, it needs a properly designed network to maximize effectiveness.

ITC Global gives us the key points Vizada helps crews to do more offshore and increases moral

 Autumn 2012  The effect of

connectivity on health, safety, moral and recruitment. Last century insight needs an update



Know Your Sub Group Users: Gen up with our guide. There’s revenue waiting within it



Who's Been Shaping Up the Comms Industry? Find out in this edition



The iPad: The little device that's making waves offshore

Don’t miss another issue!

Subscribe NOW to ensure your copy of OffComm News Previous editions can be ordered by contacting our subscriptions department at CTLD Publishing Ltd. Email: George@CTLD.me

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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16

In Print. Online. Offshore.

FR EE D S W UB IGIT an h A th t O ttp: SCR L E is ffC // I D P fo rm omm goo TIO ITIO . g N N to or v Ne l/k r3 ! i w u se

sit b s a c our in p z red Ab rin t? o it ca ut p Us rd ag e e

Connectivity has a direct impact on just about every corporate bottom line.

Some business operations are conducted in highly challenging locations where a whole new spectrum of issues ~ and innovations ~ arise.

OffComm News is the global magazine dedicated to exploring developments in communications destined for some of the remotest places on earth.

Print Subscriptions To get your own printed, quarterly edition of OffComm News magazine fill in the form below (or include a business card) and post it with your cheque to: Elrington, Ros Grignon, Ploeuc-sur-lie, Brittany, 22150 France If you prefer to receive an invoice, email: CTLD Publishing Ltd via George@CTLD.me

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17

Where Technology

Diary Dates & Energy Connect 5 - 6 Nov 2012

14 - 15 November 2012

3rd Edition Submarine Cable Forum Miami, United States of America www.marcusevans-conferences-paneuropean.com

Oil and Gas Cyber Security Conference London, United Kingdom www.smi-online.co.uk Contact: events@smi-online.co.uk

Developing Vital Communication Links to Support Latin American Region in the Upcoming Exponential Growth.

The South American region has a booming economy and the region as a whole is increasing and improving its communication systems, with the need for faster and more reliable international networks and new submarine cable installations. This event brings together experts in the telecommunication field to share cutting edge experiences and future plans. Participants will have a unique opportunity to learn from leading telecommunication companies about next generation networks and cable manufacturing.

SMi's 2nd annual Oil and Gas Cyber Security conference will discuss the steps large companies are currently taking to reduce the risk of cyber attacks, lessons learnt from previous incidents and best practice for the future.

The rapid evolution of technology has had many positive effects for oil and gas industrial processes, improving delivery and speeding up efficiency. It has also opened the door to a whole new level of threat from those who wish the industry harm. It is against this backdrop that cyber attacks are evolving in both frequency and effectiveness.

November 22 - 23 2012

November 6 - 8 2012 OilComm Houston Marriott Westchase Houston, Texas, USA www.oilcomm.com The OilComm 2012 Conference will focus on applicationbased solutions, the challenges currently faced by the IT professionals, CTOs, network engineers and integrators A I D E M responsible for procuring and NER implementing communications systems PART i n a n o f f s h o r e a n d/ o r r e m o t e environment. The goal of the conference is to present solutions to the end-user, regardless of the technology behind the solution - satellite, wireless, fibre, etc., while also addressing the challenges that come with implementing and operating any communications network ~ interoperability, security, cost containment, scalability ~ whether in the Gulf of Mexico or international waters.

Advanced Submarine Network for the Telecom Industry 2012 London UK www.bis-grp.com Contact: markos@bis-grp.com Maximizing cable capacity in emerging markets, this forum brings together A key industry experts from leading MEDI ER telecom companies to assess the N T R PA submarine cable issues within the telecom market and to define some of the key points for the industry in order to establish business objectives successfully. This conference covers topics including: Analyse the impact of cloud computing on the submarine network; Network with key players in the industry and share best practices; Examine the importance of increasing cable capacity; Gain understanding of the latest submarine cable developments; Improve the installation time of cables and increase the return of investment.

Events for quality global networking & real live innovation ŠOffComm News ~ Winter 2012

www.OffCommNews.com

18

Where Technology

Diary Dates & Energy Connect 3 - 5 February 2013

22 - 25 April 2013

TELSA, Four Seasons Hotel, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Contact: Meesum Raza, Marketing Manager +971 (0) 4 336 5161 www.telsaexpo.com TELSA is the only dedicated B2B Telecommunications & ICT Exhibition and Conference in Saudi Arabia. The event will support the growth and development of the telecoms sector in Saudi Arabia by providing a platform for telecoms operators, regulators, services providers, vendors and other stakeholders to engage each other.

The event will draw on an extensive network of business leaders, telecoms professionals and government agencies throughout Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and the rest of the world.

SubOptic 2013 Marriot Rive Gauche Hotel & Conference Centre Paris, France Contact: john-horne@btconnect.com or norma.spruce@alcatel-lucent.com www.suboptic.org SubOptic 2013 will be the eighth in a series which started in 1986 and is the premier conference for the undersea communications sector. It is organised by major organisations in the industry on a non-profit basis and is the only event organised in this way. Our last event, SubOptic 2010, held in Japan attracted over 700 attendees ranging from senior executives to specialist engineers, representing over 200 organisations from around the globe. It also included an exhibition with well over 50 booths promoting products and services from all elements of the industry.

8 - 10 April 2013

27 - 30 May 2013

Broadband MEA JW Marriott Marquis Hotel, Dubai, UAE mea.broadbandworldforum.com

SatCom Africa Contact: enquiry.za@terrapinn.com

A

Broadband MEA has established MEDI itself as the leading event focusing NER PART on fixed and wireless networks across the Middle East and Africa region. The premier annual industry high-level conference and exhibition will see over 1000 of the region’s decision makers converge in Dubai to do business and stimulate the growth of broadband in the Middle East and Africa.

The world class exhibition will run alongside the conference and will offer a firsthand look at cutting edge broadband technologies, applications, solutions and services.

SatCom Africa provides a platform where new revenue streams can be explored, key technologies can be evaluated, and operators and developers can gain valuable insight into implementing successful business models. In scope, content and experience SatCom Africa is the only event of its kind in Africa in 2013. The twoday agenda will provide an unrivalled learning experience, with case studies and keynote addresses from leading operators in Africa. Content will enable decision makers to evaluate key strategies, technologies and evaluate costs involved. Speakers are your clients and potential clients discussing how they plan to integrate satellite into the network.

Events for quality global networking & real live innovation ŠOffComm News ~ Winter 2012

www.OffCommNews.com

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©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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20

CEO Interview Increasing demand and size and reliability of communications links in the oil and gas industry is being driven by new applications, the regulatory environment, the increasing distance from the shore where such platforms are moving, and the need to utilize a limited number of industry experts more efficiently throughout expanded regions. O3b provides a solution that helps address the need for lower latency connectivity and higher bandwidth while maintaining the stringent availability requirements of the oil and gas industry.

O3b Networks aims to transform communications by deploying a ground breaking, next generation satellite constellation with the capability to offer better, faster, and more affordable connectivity. This, in effect, combines the reach of satellite with the speed of fibre.

A rising star in the telecoms industry, it would be difficult not to have noticed this company by now. Get to know O3b better and find out just what it can do for the remote oil and gas fields in our special CEO interview with Steve Collar.

What’s O3b’s unique value proposition for the oil and gas industry?

O3b's solution for the oil and gas industry addresses the limitations of today's satellites, solving significant connectivity and business issues in most regions of the world.

We offer more bandwidth at a lower price per megabit with significantly lower latency. We are the first satellite solution that enables enterprise applications, centralized IT through cloud computing and connectivity that bears the highest Quality of Experience (QoE) rating in the industry.

With seismic exploration, O3b offers a solution that eliminates delay in survey data transfer from ship to shore. Our system is purposely designed to transfer huge amounts of seismic data from survey vessels around the world, increasing operational efficiency, processing times and enabling real-time, latency sensitive, enterprise applications in an affordable way.

What is O3b's footprint in regions where there is ongoing oil exploration, globally?

O3b covers almost all of the key new offshore areas of exploration and development including the deepwater regions of the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and Africa, in particular Angola and Nigeria. In addition, O3b covers the Mid East, Southeast Asia, Brunei and Indonesia. The current satellite capacity utilisation on rigs within O3b's coverage area is only approximately 2.3Gbps. This capacity can easily be doubled by the deployment of a few O3b transponders in these areas.

Cont…/

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

www.OffCommNews.com

21 OOO

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The high price of bandwidth today along with the lack of available capacity has prevented data from being offloaded in real-time.

How will oil companies run their platforms differently if they have more bandwidth?

Oil and gas companies thrive on good communications technology and leverage it to improve their operational effectiveness. Video conferencing systems are deployed on board remote platforms but the quality of the video is poor because geostationary satellites are 36,000km away and the signals take an age to transit the system.

Most of the systems are unused as a result. High quality video conferencing, available over O3b, gives shorebased managers better oversight of offshore operations and allows shore-based technical experts to solve problems on the rigs in real-time. More bandwidth will facilitate the collection of higher quality data from the offshore platforms, driving the use of 4D survey and modelling tools and advanced remote diagnostics.

O3b will also change life offshore for crew. The use of telemedicine systems will meaningfully improve healthcare and even something as simple as regular and real time contact through Skype or FaceTime will make the time away from families a bit easier. A highly skilled and motivated crew is fundamental to a successful offshore operation and high end communications, now considered a basic need everywhere, can be the difference in attracting and retaining the very best crew.

This is why the O3b proposition is an interesting one for oil companies. Our ability to be able to deliver fibre like bandwidth and speed but without the geographical limitations of fibre means they finally have the right solution at the right price.

Since bandwidth is currently a challenge for oil companies, what are some of the work-arounds they have to use?

This varies for different operators. However, one such workaround worth highlighting is with seismic survey vessels. Today, these vessels operate offshore in areas that may have deposits of oil and gas under the seabed and collect hundreds of gigabytes to a few terabytes of data each day which help determine the drilling viability for a particular location. This data needs to be analyzed in real time.

Cont‌/

What is the limiting factor for oil companies accessing more bandwidth?

While this varies for different operators, most companies feel that the price they have to pay for every megabit of bandwidth is too high, particularly because buying more bandwidth doesn't reduce the latency on their networks.

If they had choice, oil companies would connect all their sites on fibre but obviously this is impractical with so many deep water platforms and rigs that are moving.

ŠOffComm News ~ Winter 2012

www.OffCommNews.com

22

O3b Networks is a global satellite services provider that is deploying a next-generation satellite network that combines the reach of satellite with the speed of fibre. It was founded in 2007 by pioneering high technology entrepreneur Greg Wyler who helped to create Africa's first commercial 3G mobile and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network and in 2008 was ranked amongst the top 50 global technology trendsetters. www.O3bNetworks.com

Currently, this data is offloaded by discs and flown by helicopters to shore-based corporate supercomputer centers for further analysis. The high price of bandwidth today along with the lack of available capacity has prevented this data from being offloaded in real-time.

We can now offload hundreds of megabits of data at a reasonable price point directly over the satellite network, allowing the seismic vessels to perform less of the processing on the ship and removing the need for expensive and inefficient manual transportation of the data.

Do you see latency as big factor on the networks of oil companies?

Latency is certainly a big factor. Anyone who knows about IP, IT and Enterprise Application Delivery knows just how crucial latency is to ensuring applications run smoothly and the way they were designed to. Virtually every oil company runs some sort of ERP application for everything from their equipment maintenance and purchase requisitions to asset management to employee services. Most transactional software applications are heavily impacted by the delays caused by latency, and ERP applications are no different. Oil companies are forced to put servers on every remote location, driving up costs for both hardware and operational support of those servers. With a low latency solution like O3b, oil companies will be able to run thin client terminals and host all their ERP applications at headquarters, making it much easier to maintain the integrity of the records in their databases.

In addition to improved performance of the business ERP systems, low latency dramatically improves the quality of voice calls. Lower latency allows for more natural

ŠOffComm News ~ Winter 2012

interactive conversations between staff on the platform and their counterparts on shore. It will also lead to more effective use of video conferencing systems.

How do you think having access to more bandwidth will impact the recreational lives of offshore employees who spend a significant amount of time on oil drilling platforms?

Any manager of an offshore rig will tell you that the happier his offshore employees, the more connected they are to their friends and families, the more productivity he will get out of them. Keeping offshore staff happy by providing them with access to Twitter, Facebook, downloads and cost effective, clear voice calls with their friends and families keeps the rigs running smother. We now live in the age of bandwidth intensive smart phones, so if you are running a rig with 50 people on it, it is likely you will have 30-40 smart phones and tablets that need to access the internet.

Are there any regulations that might require oil companies to improve their communications networks?

There are. Following the BP Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), safety concerns about the operation of these rigs have caused the US government to tighten up the regulations and operations in the GoM in general. It is anticipated that this will not only increase the data capacity demands for operators, but also require higher availability of circuits, with directives requiring rigs to cease operations if interruptions of critical communications exceed 30 minutes. We believe this creates an opportunity for O3b to help solve some of these connectivity problems that operators are facing.

www.OffCommNews.com

23 OOO

Opinion

Bandwidth: And What To Do With It According to Chris McIntosh, CEO of ViaSat UK, its not so much the cost of the service that counts, it’s how you can use it.

In your opinion

Chris anticipates that within twelve months we will be booking satellite bandwidth packages in the same way as we do the mobile phone market. There will be standard packages to use to roam anywhere, specific packages for high profile users; and changeable contracts and connectivity so that people can turn up their bandwidth or turn it on for a specific area or time. The market is going to become far more flexible.

What top three technologies or business models are going to change the remote connectivity landscape?

Connectivity being as easy to use as mobile phones.

Price per bit, being similar to cable connectivity.

True global coverage. It’s still like a patchwork quilt; it’s growing but there are still gaps. Over time these gaps will be filled in. Companies like us will help to connect the dots for true signal availability anywhere.

It’s clear that customers want to be able to pay only for what they use, with the flexibility to change what they need as and when it is required.

“Our main aim and philosophy moving forward is the cheapest dollar per bit. Our competitors aren’t in the satellite market, we're competing with the cable market.

We can get down to $50 per month for a satellite system to a home, which is very comparable to cable connectivity and far less than most satellite options,” said Chris.

“Satellite broadband connectivity is now comparable in price and performance to static cable connectivity. That clearly has the advantage of mobility and works in remote communications.”

Chris McIntosh, CEO, ViaSat UK

The majority of his customers, regarding satellite communications, are land based nomadic and mobile users, traditionally government and the military. In the maritime sphere, again for mobile and nomadic usage, there are the military, tankers and the private sector. “We also have a large amount of users who are not sure from where or for how long they need a connection, oil rigs or emergency services for example.

These customers can take a transportable dish.” The portable service has received noticeable levels of interest from the oil and gas sector, where, typically, remote locations are currently paying large sums for data connections.

©OffComm News News~~ Winter Winter2012 2012 ©OffComm

Top three challenges that will hinder the telecoms industry in the remote sector?

The size of modems and their antennas.

Misconceptions regarding performance in different weather states.

The cost of entry for the users who want to try the system without commitment.

How will vendors have to adapt the way they approach the market in order to grow satellite opportunity?

One of the main things is to invest in the future. Play the long game because that’s the only way we’re going to get the terminals and antennas required to a sensible price point for users.

www.OffCommNews.com www.OffCommNews.com

24 24

Insight Combating BYOD Issues ...while still enabling 1st class comms for crew onboard four North Sea oil rigs

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012 Image©Laz'e-Pete Fotolia.com

www.OffCommNews.com

25

A PINC network has been installed by Taqa on the North Cormorant, Tern, Eider & Cormorant Alpha oil rigs approx 300 miles northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland.

“We think it’s important that network services are available to all offshore. It’s a great benefit to the welfare of the crew and it is also great for business as vendors can easily connect back to their own corporate services when they take their laptops offshore.”

BYOD? Bring It On Monitoring the communications facilities on the North Cormorant, Tern, Eider and Cormorant Alpha rigs, Taqa noticed an increasing number of rogue devices on the networks. BYOD usage was emerging as crews brought iPhones, iPads, Kindles and wireless enabled laptops onboard to connect with home, book travel, use applications such as Skype and FaceTime and to stream video. It was obvious that the crews were looking to view the network for more than just corporate connectivity.

“Platforms were plugging in increasing numbers of wireless connectors and we were noticing sharp increase in the use of this facility. For both welfare and vendor use, we realised that people were taking laptops with them [offshore] and the PINC network could be used to connect them,” said Gavin Millar, engineer, Taqa. ©OffComm ©OffCommNews News~~Winter Winter2012 2012

In response to perceived demand, going with it rather than against it, Taqa piloted giving offshore users somewhere to hook up their devices. A small proportion of the corporate system, currently 2mb per platform, was segregated and implemented so that PINC traffic cannot break out or into the corporate network.

“We helped the platforms roll out some wireless access points, assisted with configuration, security settings and how to plan the coverage, to a point where they were able to provide wireless communications for welfare and business use throughout the communal areas on the platforms,” said Gavin.

www.OffCommNews.com www.OffCommNews.com

Cont.../

2626

Rather than stop people from having a connection, the PINC network was installed. Not only did it increase productivity, it made it possible to add extra security measures to protect the corporate network.

There are plans to change the way that traffic is currently limited which should be in place before the end of 2012, when the system will move to a more classified, prioritised provision (queuing personal traffic behind the corporate traffic). Should there be no corporate demand, users would benefit from the full bandwidth available.

Comms on the platforms are well provisioned in terms of bandwidth, delay and availability. Each has 34Mbps primary connections with a 10Mbsp back up service. In addition, a fully managed enterprise class wireless network will be installed on each of the four platforms over the next two years. The enterprise class wireless network will replicate what is in place onshore for separate wireless networks for corporate laptops, corporate iPhones, iPads, cordless PIP phones and guest devices (BYOD).

Up to 100 devices can be seen connecting to the network in any 24 hour period per platform.

Rig personnel usually work twelve hour shifts. So one might expect to see usage spikes in the few hours following a changeover. Onboard the Cormorant Alpha, such is the demand on the general network that such spikes don't figure that much.

That said, the PINC network, which was installed in Q3 2011, has been very well received judging by anecdotal feedback from the offshore crews—as well as the number of devices connecting to it.

Identified by pink network cables, PINC connections are different to the TAQA network. Wireless routers have been installed around the accommodation modules to provide service for laptops, tablets and smartphones.

The guys offshore can now use their mobile devices through a wifi connection as well as their iPads to access FaceTime and Skype from the privacy of their cabins* as well as public areas. Taqa also installed Sky+ in each of the rooms which has greatly enhanced the entertainment facilities on board.

*There are between 130 to 170 personnel on board each of the rigs.

»»» Turn over...

To find out more comms views from an offshore worker user...

PINC: Platform for Intelligent Network Communications

»»»

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

“The introduction of Sky TV and our new wireless broadband connection are fantastic additions to the Cormorant Alpha. We now have the ability to use FaceTime or Skype when calling home to speak to our families. It’s much better for us to make calls this way rather than queuing at the phone box. We are looking forward to a further development of the service, but this is a very good start,” Patrick O’Shea, offshore installation manager onboard the Cormorant Alpha.

www.OffCommNews.com www.OffCommNews.com

27

Room for More Access, Guidelines & Privacy Several platforms in the North Sea have installed, or are currently installing Wifi for use by the workforce, mainly for recreational use.

This is definitely the way forward although it does mean that anyone wishing to use it will need a wifi enabled device.

Most people already possess these but it might mean an increase in overall baggage weights ~ as more people bring laptops and tablets offshore ~ prompting further comments from the helicopter companies that fly out the crews. It may also bring about a clampdown by the offshore companies regarding PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) for personal electronic equipment. Where I’ve encountered wifi, installed in the public areas of the platform; some people have been bringing extension kits on board and trying to extend coverage to their accommodation cabins.

A major concern from the offshore workforce is the lack of telephones and lack of privacy with the existing phones.

“The average number of public phones seems to be 3 for every 100 people on board.”

It’s not clear how or who decides on the amount of phones to be installed on a platform. However, the average seems to be three for every 100 people on board.

A few platforms do provide phones in cabins, which would seem more in fitting with the 21st century, although as with internet access there are always those individuals who try to push the limits to the eventual detriment of us all. In particular it’s those people who live or have relatives/other halves in foreign countries who seem to be cited most frequently by platform management as the reason for the lack of private phones.

“We’ve all been able to hear people having domestic disputes, bad news and family problems whilst waiting in line for a phone to be free because of the complete lack of sound insulation even when the phones are in a booth.”

“All in all, things are getting better as the oil companies are slowly getting with it and starting to provide good, fast internet access and it’s very much appreciated by loved ones at home. But provision of phones still seems to be lagging behind. Those who have young children would still prefer to be able to talk to them rather than email. It’s also frustrating if you’re trying to deal with electricity/gas companies, banks, credit card companies etc... with what seems like the whole world listening in. It’s possible that it’s easier to install and maintain wifi rather than to add more phones, which may be the reason for their scarcity. Unfortunately the people who rely on connectivity the most are those of us who work ad hoc and are consequently the ‘poor relations’ of the offshore world with no real say in platform welfare facilities.”

From an offshore worker who did not want to be named . None of the above applies to accommodation barges where, he said, there seems to be vast opportunities to install cabin comms on new builds and provide upgrades for existing support vessels.

Smartphone image ©bloomua

©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012

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Satellite bandwidth is expensive and intermittent. The Regs4ships team sought a technology that would overcome this challenge and allow every user onboard to have immediate but controlled access to all the manuals and forms they need without having to experience long delays over a satellite link.

Case Study: 90% Compression for SMS Updates SharePoint is, by nature, a network intensive software system. Deploying the SharePoint based SMS presents a problem for fleets of ships at sea with limited access to communications.

Regs4ships Limited specialises in the provision of digital regulations, technical information and IMO (International Maritime Organisation) material to ships and shore infrastructure. With the only database of its kind in the world, its customers include Shell, BP, P&O, Cunard, Stolt Tankers, Stena and many ports, lawyers, insurers, suppliers, colleges and consultants.

One of the newest products in the Regs4ships’ portfolio is the FleetEMS system, a solution to modern fleet management enabling a two way information exchange between fleets of vessels and its global offices.

©OffComm ©OffComm News ~ Winter 2012 Image: ©iStockphoto.com/Ryan Lindsay

FleetEMS enables companies to keep track of important documents, policies and procedures that are mandatory under the International Safety Management (ISM) Code.

Every vessel must have an up-to-date safety management system (SMS).

The Regs4ships team identified iOra Geo-Replicator® as the best available technology to address the challenge of providing users on remote ships with uninterrupted access to the SharePoint based SMS. iOra’s technology was shown to be able to handle all the updates between shore and ship and back again despite the highly unreliable and expensive bandwidth available at sea. iOra Geo-Replicator® has powerful data compression algorithms which were shown to be able to compress updates by 90% so that they could be efficiently sent over low bandwidth satellite networks to and from ships all over the world.

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Case Study...

90% compression of SMS updates allows uninterrupted access to up-to-date regulatory, safety and technical information at sea and a reduction in expensive satellite usage. There is simple integration with Microsoft SharePoint® with no additional user training required for proprietary SMS interface.

Regs4ships’ solution is built in Microsoft SharePoint 2010®, which enables versioning control and multiuser read-write access to documentation.

An early customer of Regs4ships new system was APL Maritime. APL was investigating proprietary SMS systems to deliver health and safety compliance but were concerned about the need to train users on a proprietary interface and concerned they would become locked into a proprietary SMS system that it was difficult to migrate away from in the future. The Regs4Ships SharePoint based system addressed all these concerns and with iOra Geo-Replicator it also offered control of satellite costs.

In addition to the provision of shipboard implementation of their new system, Regs4ships also offer a hosting service based at a secure data centre on the south coast of the UK. This facility has SharePoint and iOra Geo-Replicator® servers dedicated to sending and receiving updates to and from the customers’ ships at sea.

“Shipping companies no longer have to operate in a legislative vacuum. For the first time ever personnel can refer to company procedures that are directly related to the latest flag state and international regulations. The Regs4Ships system with iOra GeoReplicator® allows shore managers and ships’ crews to refer to integrated data in near real time. Auditing of the integrated system is simplified and, as a consequence, the vessel vastly reduces the risks of non-conformities at ISM and ISPS audit compared to a standard paper based system,” said Richard Eastham, CEO.

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Optimising satellite communications to improve working conditions & crew welfare For employees working in remote locations, the ability to access low cost voice and data services and stay in contact with home dramatically improves working conditions and quality of life. Crew welfare initiatives are also driving the adoption of advanced communications solutions. Companies that want to attract and retain the best staff need to be able to provide them with reliable and cost effective means of staying in contact with family and friends.

Employers that use new optimised communication solutions can provide access to web, email, voicemail and VoIP calls, similar to a terrestrial environment, without watching their expenditure spiralling out of control. Multiple calling over a single IP connection, allows many employees to contact their loved ones at the same time, rather than waiting in a queue to call home on a single connection.

Chris Moore, sales and marketing manager at One Horizon Group writes: By the nature of the business, oil and gas exploration and the shipping and marine industry require staff to work in remote environments for extended periods. Compounding the issue of physical separation, exploration often takes place in areas that are out of reach of terrestrial communications infrastructure.

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As a result, communications in the oil, gas and marine industries are usually conducted over satellite connections. While providing a vital link to headquarters, medical and emergency services, relying on satellite for day to day communications can significantly increase operating costs.

Being away from family and friends for weeks at a time can have a profound impact on workforce morale.

However, the expense of making calls over satellite can make it difficult for personnel to stay in touch with loved ones as often as they’d like.

Ease of deployment In oil, gas and mining, voice and data communications must be easy and quick to set up at new sites and require a minimum level of telecommunications expertise on the part of relocating teams.

Our ruggedized hardware is designed for ease of deployment and use, whether in harsh environments, or offices. Calls can be made within minutes of the equipment being set up. All that is required is a mains power supply and a wired internet connection.

The role of optimisation in remote environments

Simple billing

For crew welfare and operational efficiency, optimising satellite bandwidth use is vital because it delivers highlyavailable and secure communication at an affordable cost.

Exploration and recovery operators are likely to have personnel working across large geographies. This demands flexible billing options that allow personal and business communications to be easily reconciled. The use of a PIN allows personal call records to be assigned to an individual employee on a pre-pay system, while business communications are assigned to post-paid billing, all managed from one central account.

One Horizon Group optimises communications over the internet. The company’s Horizon solution was specifically designed for oil, gas, mining and maritime industries, to enable employee communications in environments where there is limited bandwidth available for voice and data communications.

Using Horizon’s SmartPacket ™ technology, which detects silence during VoIP conversations, satellite bandwidth can be used much more efficiently. Unlike traditional VoIP calls, which send the same amount of data in both directions, regardless of whether anyone is speaking, SmartPacket uses no payload data for silence.

By sending “heartbeats”, users can tell that their line has not dropped.

This technology highly compresses data packets while maintaining voice quality, enabling multiple calls over the same bandwidth. Horizon’s VoIP PBX enables up to 8 analogue phones to be connected for simultaneous lowbandwidth calls over a single internet link and is accredited to be used with Thrane & Thrane’s SAILOR Fleet Broadband equipment. Our optimised communications platform includes compressed email, accelerated web browsing and instant messaging and is capable of interconnecting any phone system over IP on satellite, mobile and fixed networks.

This gives employers visibility and control of communication costs over satellite, while providing employees with affordable voice and data services.

Users can select from three levels of call quality during a VoIP call, so that they can choose the best balance between cost and performance.

Every part of the solution is optimised to consume minimal data and use as little bandwidth as possible.

Horizon reduces communication costs by consuming as much as 80% less data than other VoIP services and saving upwards of 20,000 bytes per website viewed.

Email is 500 times more efficient than a standard application Users are informed of how much bandwidth they are using through a desktop application, which shows the volume of data consumed and the costs incurred, in real -time, after each mouse-click on a web page or word spoken in a call.

The unit connects with any 2-wire analogue telephone, or standard Cat 3 phone cable for integration with existing telephone systems.

Employees are allocated a unique number and a PIN for pre-paid services. Once this is entered into a handset at their current location, all of their VoIP calls and voicemails are routed to that phone. This enables a “follow-me” service, so that personnel can stay in touch wherever they are located in the world.

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www.onehorizongroup.com

About the author

Chris Moore is the Director of sales and marketing at One Horizon Group and is responsible for marketing Horizon’s VoIP optimisation technology to network operators and service providers in the satellite, mobile and fixed telecommunications markets worldwide. He has more than fifteen years’ experience in the telecommunications and IT industries and was formerly sales director at Inmarsat, where he led channel sales into maritime, aeronautical, government, utilities and the oil and gas industries

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