SatellitePro ME May 2014

ISSUE 29 | MAY 2014

TAMING AFRICA

TRIED AND TESTED Reviews of mobile broadcasting and SOTM solutions

SERVING THE MULTITUDE To thrive in the near future, providers must embrace multiservice infrastructure

COMMUNICATIONS NIRVANA? Despite HTS promises, L band will hold its place in the maritime market

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

EDITORIAL

Group Chairman and Founder Dominic De Sousa Group CEO Nadeem Hood

Welcoming new beginnings

Group COO Gina O’Hara

Putting together this month’s edition of Satellite Pro has been interesting. As it is the pre-show issue for CommunicAsia2014, the events of the last 12 months have come to mind. You see, it was this time last year that I took on the role of editor. Now, that we gear up once more for one of Asia’s most recognised ICT events, I can’t help but recount the year’s highlights and challenges faced.

Publishing Director Raz Islam raz.islam@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 Editorial Director Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpimediagroup.com +971 55 105 3787 Editor Adrienne Harebottle adrienne.harebottle@cpimediagroup.com +971 55 105 3776 ADVERTISING Group Sales Manager Sandip Virk sandip.virk@cpimediagroup.com +44 7734 442526 Senior Sales Manager Rodi Hennawi rodi.hennawi@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9106 DESIGN Art Director Simon Cobon Deputy Art Director John Marsland

While I reflect on the year passed, I’m also focused on moving forward. It is the start of a new year and I feel that positive changes are in the air, which is very exciting. And marking the start of this cycle of all things new, Satellite Pro was media partner for Russia’s eighth International Satellite Navigation Forum, which took place in Moscow. It was very good to be part of an event related to a such thriving market.

Amplifying my excitement is the anniversary celebration for sister publication BroadcastPro, which is turning four years old this May. We shall hail the occasion with wonderful revelry, joined in by our numerous friends from the industry. If I don’t see you at the birthday party, I’ll hopefully catch up with you at CommunicAsia2014 – it’ll have two great satellite-related tracks this year!

Adrienne Harebottle Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY Jay Colina Abdul Kader Pattambi PRODUCTION Production Manager James P. Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9146 CIRCULATION Database Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +9714 440 9147 DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Maagma Web Developers Joel Azcuna Janice Fulgencio

In this edition: “It is very common for TV channel start-ups in Africa to default on payments and switch providers without first clearing their dues” Safia Rana, Head of Sales and Marketing at ViewSat Page 12

“Many in the international industry agree that the Middle East is an important growth area and applications such as HDTV, broadband and cellular backhaul continue to require the infrastructure that only satellite can provide” Anthony Colucci, Vice-President of Business Development at SSL Page 26

“Conversations with ship owners and managers about HTS follow a similar pattern: ‘interest concept, potentially very exciting, but you first’” T. Sanford Jewett, Thuraya’s Acting Head of Maritime Market Development Page 20

“Conventional broadcast infrastructures have the strongest potential to remain the most efficient distribution method for mass market linear TV, as future technologies require even more bandwidth” Deepak Mathur, SES’ Senior VicePresident of Commercial for Asia Pacific and the Middle East Page 36

Published by

Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 www.cpimediagroup.com Printed by Printwell Printing Press LLC

© Copyright 2014 CPI. All rights reserved.

While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Design: Be Dandy

www.eutelsat.com

First choice for satellite homes Eutelsat is one of the world’s leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. We provide capacity on 36 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies.

Leading DTH broadcasting in the MENA region The Eutelsat-Nilesat 7/8° West position is the first choice for multi-channel viewing with an audience of over 50 million satellite homes. 1,050 TV channels of which over 190 are international and 80 are in High Definition broadcasting from this neighbourhood.

Taking you above and beyond

CONTENTS

Issue 29 | May 2014

18

News

SatReview

4

30

Interesting partnerships, expanded coverage, upcoming launches, new technology and more

Satellite Pro tests Eutelsat’s mobile direct-tocar broadcasting and the ICCES/Wiseband receive-and-transmit mobile solution

Historic deals

Tried and true

SatLead

SatDevelopments

12

34

Overcoming Africa’s challenges The market has its share of challenges, but if broadcast rivals join hands, they can counter the issue of payment offenders

The multiservice revolution

36

Industry players must be ready to embrace the era of multiservice infrastructure if they want to thrive in the near future

SatMaritime

20

SatEvents

36

HTS: full speed ahead or steady as she goes?

Asia’s pay TV set for new heights

Despite the promised communications nirvana, L band will continue to command the lion’s share of traffic

CommunicAsia2014 and SES will show that DTH will see continued growth and pay-TV subscribers may double by 2022

SatEvents

26

Middle East makes its mark on Washington Returning from Satellite 2014, industry representatives reflect on how the Middle East market was in the spotlight

40

SatGuest

4040

Middle East industry boasts added appeal Desire to be part of a life-changing market and educational programmes will attract a new wave of professionals

SatNews

Measat makes history with platform Measat has announced that its MEASAT-3/3a platform has become the first Asian C-band satellite platform to exceed 50 HD channels.

Measat first started offering HD distribution services on the MEASAT-3 satellite in July 2007. The services were expanded in 2009 with the launch of the co-located MEASAT-3a satellite.

Measat is currently working with uplink providers, including Encompass Digital Media, Globecast and RRsat America - Global Communications Network for an HD video distribution solution tailor-made for the Asian market. In addition to the channels distributed by the uplink partners, the satellite also supports HD channels uplinked by the channel operator.

“In collaboration with our partners, we developed an innovative business model to help ‘jump start’ the Asian HD segment. Through this collaboration, we announced the first regional C-band distribution of an HD channel in 2007. We are delighted to now be able to celebrate the maturing of the HD segment with the announcement of the 50 HD channels on our platform,” said Paul Brown-Kenyon, CEO of Measat.

Paul Brown-Kenyon, CEO of Measat

www.measat.com

ARABSAT SHOWCASES BADR-7 AT GULF RADIO & TV FESTIVAL

Arabsat participated in the Gulf Radio and TV Festival, which took place in Manama, Bahrain, from March 25 to 27.

During the festival, Arabsat showcased the capabilities of its new satellites, including its upcoming Badr-7.

“Arabsat is always keen to sponsor and participate in various media events in the Arab world. Arabsat showcased its new state-of–art Badr-7 satellite, which is considered a breakthrough in Arabsat satellites, offering a combination of TV broadcasting and satellite communications services,” said Khalid Balkheyour President and CEO of Arabsat.

Badr-7 is expected to be launched next year on Arabsat’s exclusive hotspot at 26 degrees East to cover the Middle East and Central Asia regions. www.arabsat.com

EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE NAVIGATION FORUM HELD WITH NAVITECH EXPO AMID STRONG MARKET GROWTH

The eighth International Satellite Navigation Forum took place during the Navigation Systems Technologies and Services (Navitech) exhibition at the Expocentre Fairgrounds in Moscow, Russia, on April 23 and 24, 2014. The Navitech Expo is Russia’s major exhibition and congress devoted to satellite navigation and ran from April 23 to 25.

The main objective of the forum was to inform national and international attendees about GLONASS innovations. GLONASS is the Global Navigation Satellite System operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.

During the event, Vladimir Klimov, Executive Director of the GLONASS and Global Navigation Satellite Services Forum, told Satellite Pro as official media partner that Russia’s domestic navigation technology market has grown 20-25% annually, adding that the consumer market will boost continued growth.

“The mass consumer market will drive growth in navigation technologies, equipment and services in 2014. By the end of the year, the level of penetration for navigation and information services into the Russian navigation mass market will be around 10% of the total volume of provided telematic services, translating to USD 34 million in monetary terms,” said Klimov.

The forum was organised by a non-profit association of designers, manufacturers and users of GLONASS and other global navigation satellite services technology, equipment and applications. www.glonass-forum.ru

TWO NEW AFRICAN CHANNELS JOIN CANALSAT BOUQUET VIA GLOBECAST

Benie TV and Ouest TV, two recently launched African channels, have chosen Globecast to distribute their programming via satellite to new audiences in West Africa. Via the Globecast service, Benie TV and Ouest TV are now part of the CANALSAT bouquet available on the SES-4 platform.

CANALSAT is a satellite pay-TV package including over 150 channels, covering more than 30 countries in West and Central Africa. Ouest TV is a regional news channel while Benie TV is a religious channel. www.globecast.com

4 | SatellitePro | May 2014

SATLINK LAUNCHES NEW DVB-S2 PLATFORM ON HOT BIRD

SatLink Communications has launched a new DVB-S2 platform on Eutelsat’s Hot Bird satellite. The platform offers wide beam coverage to the Middle East and Europe, and will support the delivery of HD and SD channels to European cable, satellite and pay-TV platforms.

The Hotbird DVB-S2 platform, which will be located at 13 degrees East, supports the Italian TV platform’s conditional access system.

“The launch of the new Hot Bird DVB-S2 platform is another step in our continued development of SatLink’s services and offerings as we look to address the needs of both broadcasters and pay-TV platforms. The continuing growth of the HD market is the future for broadcasting across the regions as broadcasters look to enrich the viewer’s experience,” said David Hochner, CEO of SatLink Communications. www.satlink.tv

Yahsat, Thuraya co-host reception at Washington embassy during Satellite 2014 Yahsat and Thuraya co-hosted a reception at the UAE Embassy in Washington DC, which was attended by Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE Ambassador to the United States, as well as more than 300 of the space industry’s top executives.

The annual reception was a celebration of the UAE’s burgeoning satellite and space industry, and brought together key industry decision makers on the outskirts of the annual Satellite 2014 Conference, which took place from March 10 to 13.

Senior US Government and military officials, representatives from other nations, and senior executives from the satellite and aerospace industries, including Airbus, Astrium Satellite, Boeing, Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Science and Space Systems/Loral, also attended the gala, as well as world-famous astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

“Yahsat is often considered to be the reference in the Middle East region when it comes to servicing government satellite communications. Similarly, we are able to service enterprise and end users through our satellites. It is this type of commitment to the global community, be it in the Middle East or the United States, that drives Yahsat to lead in the future generations of satellite technology,” said Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, Yahsat’s CEO. “More importantly, our global reach helps drive the satellite industry in the UAE as a whole. In less than a decade, the UAE has become the region’s hub for satellite innovation,” said Mahmood.

Samer Halawi, CEO at Thuraya, added: “The UAE has quietly developed itself as a centre for space and satellite excellence with three home-grown satellite operators, EIAST, YahSat and Thuraya. We are grateful for the support and commitment of the UAE Government to the UAE satellite industry.”

INTELSAT, VODACOM PARTNER FOR BROADBAND IN AFRICA

Intelsat and telecommunications group Vodacom have entered into an agreement under which Intelsat will provide a managed broadband service. The solution will position Vodacom to offer a differentiated service targeting the small office/home office (SOHO) and small/medium enterprise (SME) users across sub-Saharan Africa.

Intelsat will provide Ku-band capacity on Intelsat 28 at 32.8 degrees East and deliver a fully integrated and managed solution, powered by Hughes technology. The solution enables Vodacom to manage its service platform and determine the service levels while maintaining direct engagement with its SOHO and SME customer base.

When the Intelsat 33e satellite enters service, scheduled for 2016, Vodacom will be able to access a high-performance overlay that will provide additional throughput for its busiest regions. www.intelsat.com www.vodacom.com

www.yahsat.ae www.thuraya.com

C-COM INCREASES ITS PRESENCE IN MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA MARKETS

C-COM Satellite Systems has announced that it is expanding its sales efforts in the Middle East and Africa by adding a dedicated sales person to cover the region.

Based in the Middle East, the sales engineer will be focused on selling the C-COM manufactured iNetVu antennae in the MEA region.

“Sales of the iNetVu antenna systems in the MEA areas have been increasing with the introduction of Ka-band satellite coverage there. We believe that having a local representative in the region will allow us to provide a more timely response to customer requests and it will assist us with developing this rapidly expanding market faster,” said Leslie Klein, President and CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems. www.c-comsat.com

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 5

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ThaT’S flexIBIlITy Newtec Dialog offers you a platform to build your business to the size you need it.

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ITU, ABI RESEARCH LAUNCH CYBERSECURITY INDEX ITU and ABI Research have presented the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI), an initiative to measure the levels of cybersecurity in countries around the world. The long-term objective is to drive further efforts in the adoption and integration of cybersecurity on a global scale.

A comparison of national cybersecurity strategies will reveal the countries with the highest rankings, and highlight the lesserknown but successful cybersecurity strategies.

Based on questionnaire responses received

by ITU member states, a first analysis of cybersecurity development in the Arab region was compiled and one for the African region is under way. The aim is to release a global status of cybersecurity for 2014.

www.itu.int www.abiresearch.com

THURAYA, ULTRA ELECTRONICS AEP TO SERVICE GOVERNMENT CLIENTS Ultra Electronics AEP and Thuraya have signed a global agreement enabling Thuraya to offer a complete end-to-end solution comprising the Communicate and Encrypt range of solutions geared towards government end users.

The Ultra Electronics AEP solution enhances mobile satcoms, providing agnostic, seamless switching between Thuraya’s satellite and terrestrial network connections. In addition to government users, the solution is also suitable for customers in the energy, media, maritime and humanitarian NGOs sectors.

“Government users demand solutions that are secure and highly reliable at all times. Our partnership with Ultra Electronics AEP enables us to offer extremely secure communications. It also allows users to switch seamlessly between Thuraya’s satellite network and available terrestrial connections for clear communications and uninterrupted coverage,” said Randy Roberts, Vice-President of Innovation at Thuraya. www.thuraya.com www.ultra-aep.com

Turkey’s Profen, Avanti partner for historic gateway Earth station

Telecoms operator Profen has announced the establishment of a gateway Earth station in Turkey. The gateway will manage traffic for Avanti Communications’ Hylas 2 satellite, which provides 100% coverage over Turkey.

This deal makes Avanti the only international Ka-band satellite operator to secure a gateway Earth station inside the country.

The infrastructure partnership guarantees data security within Turkey, providing secure, highquality data connectivity for a captive customer base. The gateway will be owned and operated

by Profen, in addition to retaining part ownership and operation of Hylas 2 capacity and services in Turkey. Services will also be available to Avanti’s Turkish customers.

“Ka-band services have enormous potential in Turkey. Our operation of the gateway Earth station will ensure provision of highly secure, quality data connectivity to government, enterprise and retail customers in Turkey,” said Onder Havuzlu, Chief Executive at Profen. www.avantiplc.com www.profen.com

SEEAFRIKA, RGB TO TAKE AFRICAN CONTENT TO EUROPE

Seeafrika, provider of the world’s first PanAfrican bouquet, is deploying RGB Network’s TransAct Encoder/Transcoder as a softwarelicense along with RGB’s TransAct Packager to facilitate the delivery of its over-the-top (OTT) video services.

With its target audience geographically dispersed across Europe, Seeafrika plans to roll out 30 broadcast channels to subscribers in the initial stage of its deployment. While its OTT services are aimed predominantly at viewers using Android and iOS-based devices, RGB’s combined TransAct solution will enable the operator to deliver video to

any IP-enabled device in the future as Seeafrika’s subscription base grows.

“In Europe, the current offering of African TV channels available to view, whether via satellite or IPTV, is limited to roughly 100,000 viewers – yet there is an estimated population of 4 million people on the continent who will be interested in accessing specific, local African content from their homes. We needed an intelligent and flexible solution to make our vision a reality, and RGB’s package does just that,” said Issa salifou dit Saley, President of Seeafrika. www.see-afrika.com www.rgbnetworks.com

April 2014 | SatellitePro | 7

ASBU, Eutelsat sign capacity deal for MENA exchange gateway The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) has concluded a multi-year contract for Ku-band capacity on the EUTELSAT 21B satellite that provides reach of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

The capacity will be used for broadcast content exchanges between ASBU member broadcasters in a region extending from Morocco to Bahrain and from the Mediterranean to Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania, and also extending their footprint to Europe. Uplinks will typically be carried out using cost-effective antennae based on a transmission plan enabling three standard digital (SD) carriers to be transmitted in DVB-S2 or one HD and two SD carriers.

Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, Eutelsat’s COO Established in 1969, ASBU is one of the most recognised Arab institutions with over 30 active broadcaster members and 25 associate members. It provides a key platform for radio and TV exchanges of news, programming and sports across the Arab world.

“We are honoured to strike this new relationship with ASBU and that EUTELSAT 21B matches its expectations to provide the highest signal quality to its members for immediate coverage of events,” said Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, Eutelsat’s COO. www.eutelsat.com www.asbu.net

THURAYA, WESTERN UNION PARTNER FOR TOP-UP SERVICE

Thuraya and The Western Union Company, a provider of global payment services, have entered into an agreement to offer a topup facility for Thuraya prepaid SIMs for voice and data services. The top-up facility will use the Western Union QuickPay service at participating Western Union agent locations in the majority of the 200+ countries and territories in which the company provides services.

This new method of payment enables Thuraya customers to recharge their prepaid SIMS with no extra fee.

To top up a prepaid SIM card, a customer can visit a participating Western Union agent, provide identification and the phone number and reload the SIM card with a cash payment. www.thuraya.com

8 | SatellitePro | April 2014

AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE UPS VSAT COVERAGE IN INDIAN OCEAN

Airbus Defence and Space has expanded its Ku-band VSAT coverage in the Indian Ocean region, using the Intelsat IS-702 S2 satellite.

The new coverage, reportedly, enables improved availability of Pharostar, Sealink and WaveCall VSAT voice and data services for vessels transiting or operating primarily in the Seychelles area, north to Ethiopia and south to Madagascar.

The increased availability of high-speed VSAT will serve various maritime groups including commercial fishing, government, naval, shipping and yachting vessels. An improved Ku-band footprint will also enhance security and anti-piracy efforts in the region.

“By bringing up this network, we enhance our market-leading global VSAT coverage to support service providers serving customers in the Indian Ocean region. The new coverage enables delivery of reliable connectivity up to 3.8Mbps,” said Ghani Behloul, Head of Product Marketing for Maritime at Airbus Defence and Space. www.airbusdefenceandspace.com

PASHTO 1 TV CHANNEL LAUNCHES ON ASIASAT 7

AsiaSat has announced that Pakistan’s Pashto entertainment channel, Pashto 1, has commenced broadcasting on AsiaSat 7 at the orbital location of 105.5 degrees East.

This free-to-air TV channel serves the large Pashto-speaking population in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East and other regions covered by the satellite’s C-band footprint.

“We welcome Pashto 1 to the AsiaSat family of premium South Asian programming. Pashto 1 helps us expand our line-up of local language TV services onboard our fleet, providing more choices to various ethnic groups living and working across the Asia Pacific region,” said William Wade, President and CEO of AsiaSat.

www.pashto-1.tv www.asiasat.com

William Wade, President and CEO of AsiaSat

Mitsubishi Electric completes in-orbit delivery of Turksat 4A Mitsubishi Electric has completed the in-orbit delivery of Turksat 4A to Turksat Satellite Communication and Cable TV Operations Company (Turksat). The satellite was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on February 15, 2014.

After the launch, Mitsubishi Electric confirmed performance in a series of inorbit tests while the satellite maintained a predefined geostationary orbit about 36,000km above the equator. Upon the completion of the tests, the satellite was then handed over to Turksat to provide communication and broadband services to the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Mitsubishi Electric is also preparing to launch Turksat 4B in 2014 as part of an ongoing effort to expand the company’s space business in Japan and in other countries. www.turksat.com.tr www.mitsubishielectric.com

KRATOS TO PROVIDE TURKSAT WITH FULL-MOTION ANTENNA SYSTEM

Turksat has selected Integral Systems Europe (Kratos ISE UK), a business unit of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, to deliver a full-motion antenna system for installation at its site in Gölbası, Turkey.

Under the contract, Kratos ISE UK will provide a turnkey system to include the antenna tower with integrated equipment room, the RF system and a full-motion, full-performance 13-metre Ku-band antenna. Kratos ISE UK will also build and test the RF system at its ground system integration facility near Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom prior to installation, integration and final testing in Turkey. www.integ.uk.com

LIFT-OFF OF EUTELSAT 3B SATELLITE GETS DELAYED

Eutelsat has been advised by Sea Launch of a delay to the launch of EUTELSAT 3B. The satellite was planned to lift off on April 15.

Sea Launch confirmed that during the final “dry” roll-out phase of integrated launch vehicle processing in support of the EUTELSAT 3B mission, a discrepancy in the nominal movement of the cable-mast and the Zenit-2S launch vehicle lateral plate occurred while installing the integrated launch vehicle onto the launch pad.

A decision was made to demate the payload unit, which comprises the satellite, adapter and fairing, and the Block-DM-Sea Launch in order to resolve the discrepancy, establish the root cause and perform additional checks of the interface between the launch vehicle and ground support equipment connectors.

Once the above tasks have been completed, Sea Launch will advise Eutelsat of the updated schedule and launch day for EUTELSAT 3B. The EUTELSAT 3B satellite was not powered on during the operation on the launch vehicle and was unaffected. It remains in a safe configuration. www.sea-launch.com

www.turksat.com.tr www.eutelsat.com

O3B SATELLITES BEGIN JOURNEY TO LAUNCH SITE

O3b Networks’ second group of four satellites has begun the journey from the Thales Alenia Space facility in Rome to the launch site from Le Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou in French Guiana.

The company’s first four satellites, which we were launched in 2013, are operating successfully in orbit.

Customers are completing testing and will be turning up commercial service before the next launch, according to O3b Networks. Tests with customers have attained throughput of up to 1.6Gbps and round trip latency below 150 milliseconds. www.o3bnetworks.com

O3B’S FIRST CUSTOMER ALREADY OPERATIONAL

O3b says it already has a customer fully operational, saying that Telecom Cook Islands has worked with O3b to validate the system performance since the launch of the initial constellation in June 2013. Telecom Cook Islands then decided to initiate full commercial operation in the Cook Islands.

“With four satellites finished and four more to launch later in the year, 2014 is the breakout year for O3b. There are so many places in the world that don’t have infrastructure conducive to 21st century communications. In 2014, we will help to change that, starting with Cook Islands,” said Steve Collar, CEO of O3b Networks. www.telecom.co.ck

April 2014 | SatellitePro | 9

FACEBOOK NOW FREE ON MOBILE HANDSETS IN EAST AFRICA Tigo Tanzania has entered into a partnership with Facebook, giving its customers in the country free access to the social media site’s services in English and a new Kiswahili version. Free access is available through customers’ mobile handsets.

It is the first time that Facebook will be free on any mobile network in East Africa, according to Tigo General Manager Diego Gutierrez.

“What this partnership means is that Tigo customers can, for the first time, access Facebook through their handsets without incurring any data charges, and connect with the social media network’s 2 million users in Tanzania and 1.2 billion users worldwide,” said Gutierrez.

“Facebook has been a fantastic driver of data on mobile networks. With this unique partnership, we are making Tigo stand out from the crowd and giving many customers their first taste of the internet and social media, including in Kiswahili. That’s what creating the digital lifestyle is all about, and it reinforces our strategy to encourage more Tigo customers to use data as part of their daily communications activity.” www.tigo.co.tz

MULTICHOICE, INTELSAT TO EXPAND DTT OFFERING IN AFRICA African direct-to-home (DTH) operator MultiChoice will expand the reach of its digital terrestrial TV (DTT) offering in Sub-Saharan Africa using C-band capacity on the Intelsat 904 satellite at 60 degrees East. MultiChoice’s GOtv product offering will reach Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Namibia and Malawi, as well as target new countries.

“Intelsat is our primary partner for media satellite solutions in Africa, serving as our platform of choice for our Southern African DTH services and our DTT offerings. With Intelsat, we are able to broaden our reach in Sub-Saharan Africa and deliver more affordable and differentiated programming to the region,” said Nico Meyer, CEO of MultiChoice Africa.

Virgin Galactic, Aabar Investments plan to send Emirati into space An Emirati will win the chance to travel into space as part of a nationwide competition being launched by Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments. The prize winner will be given a place onboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo when it begins running commercial trips into space.

The tickets are currently worth USD 250,000 each.

Virgin Galactic and Aabar Investments are coowners of Virgin Galactic, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson to make commercial space trips viable.

“The specifics of the competition are being finalised but this is an ideal way for us all to give something back to the community of the UAE,” said Virgin Galactic CEO and President, George Whitesides.

“Without the support of Aabar Investments, this programme would not be where it is today. We are on the precipice of achieving our first goal – our first flight to space – which is expected to take place later this year.”

Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company is the parent company of Aabar Investments and will be involved in running the competition. www.virgingalactic.com

THURAYA, AIRTEL AFRICA BRING MSS TO 17 COUNTRIES IN AFRICA

Thuraya and Bharti Airtel International BV have signed an agreement to provide Airtel Africa customers with mobile satellite services (MSS) and products across 17 countries in Africa. The partnership will provide these customers voice and broadband connectivity via Thuraya’s satellite network across the continent’s most remote areas.

From May, Airtel Africa will sell Thuraya’s products and airtime packages through its retail outlets and enterprise account team.

“Providing reliable connectivity in many remote parts of Africa can be challenging.

But now, Thuraya’s satellite services will be combined with the reliable, high-quality voice calls and broadband access that our customers are accustomed to experiencing in our urban centers,” said Christian de Faria, CEO of Airtel Africa.

www.intelsat.com

www.thuraya.com

www.multichoice.co.za

www.africa.airtel.com

April 2014 | SatellitePro | 11

SatLead

OVERCOMING

AFRICA’S

CHALLENGES

Golden opportunities are there, but Africa also has its share of “bad customers” who jump service providers before paying their bills.

Surpassing the issue of defaulting customers as well as various other difficulties isn’t easy, but with collaboration, experienced players say it can be done Emerging markets present great opportunities but they are not without their challenges, many of which are unique to the region or specific country. This uniqueness means that international companies need to learn a distinct code of practices and behaviours in order to survive and, hopefully, then thrive in the market. Africa is no exception.

Africa is the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent. With over a billion people walking the land that is largely lacking in fibre, it represents a promising source of business opportunities for the satellite industry as a whole. While stoking the glowing ambitions of players from across all the vertical markets, Africa has plenty allure for the broadcast sector.

TV channels are increasingly popping up across the continent, say industry representatives, and popping up with them are international players. This means that local channels have a range of know-how, from the start-ups, who need end-to-end, fully managed services, to the top-tier channels, who need simple playout services.

Gulfsat targets all potential clients from start-ups to the top tier and everyone in between. The Kuwait-based provider of 12 | SatellitePro | May 2014

satellite communications solutions has been present in Africa for 19 years, since it was founded. Noting that TV broadcasting, VSAT, data transmitting and closed networks are the services in demand, Gulfsat has clients from the government, oil and gas, banking and enterprise sectors.

While the company has experienced numerous successful projects in Africa, it has needed to adopt a unique mode of operating for this market.

“For Gulfsat, a main challenge in dealing with some African channels or clients is from language and culture. Such clients are difficult to manage remotely from Kuwait.

They need frequent visits and preferably a local presence,” explains Mohammed Al Haj, Chairman and COO of Gulfsat.

According to Al Haj, the main trends present in Africa currently include Ka band, O3B and high-throughput satellites.

For ViewSat, however, demand for fully managed services is currently the strongest, says Safia Rana, Head of Sales and Marketing at ViewSat. Specialists in free-to-air (FTA) satellite TV and radio playout services, ViewSat has been serving the African market since its 2006 inception, albeit under the name ViewAfrica Network

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 13

Worldwide

Satellite

Broadcasting

Services

at your fingertip

Contact Sales By +386 1 527 24 40

sales@stn.eu

Follow Us On www.stn.eu

“Like every emerging market, there are new costs attached and risk assessments must be made with regards to payments and technical investments for new projects. Deep consideration must be taken as to how sustainable it is for a company to enter and operate in this kind of market” MITJA LOVSIN, Sales and Marketing Director at STN

back then. Despite an increased number of competing companies today, Africa still holds impressive opportunities, says Rana.

“When we first started out, the market held tremendous potential as there weren’t many operators in the region at the time.

This allowed us to gain an early foothold and establish a number of strong customer references. Since then, the amount of competition in the market has increased many-fold but because there is a number of new channels that has emerged, there still exists huge potential in the market.

There is definitely a lot of satellite operators showing interest in Africa. These providers are establishing teams to specifically meet the requirements of their African customers.

“When we began operations back in 2006, our objective was to provide a reliable, cost-effective private broadcast service in Sub-Saharan Africa. We had identified the need for this in the market as communication and technical infrastructure within Sub-Saharan Africa were often challenging. Furthermore, there was an obvious gap that needed to be filled as new broadcasters in Africa did not know how to launch channels.

“Currently, the greatest demand in the continent is for fully managed services.

Fully managed services are what start-up customers constantly demand. Only about

10% would ask for a tailored solution, whereas the rest want a simple playout server to play their pre-recorded materials.

Only recently we have seen an uptake in live solutions, over-the-top (OTT) and more specific requirements,” explains Rana.

Risky business Africa’s challenges are not limited to communication and technical infrastructure, says Rana, who mostly deals with start-ups, which come with their own additional risks.

A significant battle is caused by payment defaults, which, in a twisted way, are linked to the growing number of operators present in the African market.

“There is always more of a risk and greater challenges faced when working with start-ups. Top-tier clients are well aware of what they need from their providers. As new entrants to the market, start-ups, on the other hand, require a hand-holding approach in order to establish themselves. Many of them are unaware of the basic steps they need to take in order to properly launch their channels. So the skill sets and technical understanding places a burden on the master control room and engineering teams.

“It is also very common for start-ups to default on payments and switch providers without first clearing their dues.

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 15

“The main challenges in dealing with African channels or clients are language and culture.

Unlike Middle Eastern clients, African customers are difficult to manage remotely from Kuwait.

They need frequent visits and preferably a local presence” MOHAMMED AL HAJ, Chairman and COO of Gulfsat Unfortunately, as we operate in a number of developing markets, the legal framework to protect providers against this is not yet in place,” she says.

Rana explains that despite being market rivals, operators need to come together, as a collaboration will offer a form of protection by helping to counter the problem of clients not paying their bills.

“This is why we are currently trying to engage with our competitors.

Collaboration within the industry will help identify and blacklist defaulters, thereby protecting providers and making channels more conscious of their decisions. This would on the whole greatly benefit the industry,” she says.

This collaboration is important, explains Rana, as it can benefit industry players two-fold. Going beyond the protection offered through outing payment offenders, tackling this problem will, in turn, boost the market.

“The reason we target this start-up segment is because growth within the region is mainly driven by these new channels, rather than those that are already established in the industry. Furthermore, top-tier clients tend to stick with their providers so we work towards developing these start-ups into qualified clients who invest back into the relationship as their business grows,” says Rana.

Gulfsat’s Al Haj identifies another problem regarding payments, but this 16 | SatellitePro | May 2014

time, rather than it being from defaulting customers, it concerns financial instruments.

“We face difficulties in transferring funds from Africa, which affects the receivable cycle. There needs to be more flexibility in the international money transferring rules; such flexibility would minimise these difficulties,” says Al Haj.

“Satellite operators need to agree on a blacklist and other measures that protect their rights and prohibit bad customers from abusing the system”

Abusing the system Like ViewSat, Bahrain’s Noorsat also sees the need for a blacklisting mechanism and other measures that will help protect satellite operators and capacity providers from defaulters and bill-dodging clients.

Omar Shoter, CEO of Noorsat, explains that while some customers may default due to a variety of legitimate reasons, there are some that could take advantage of the number of industry players available by not settling their debts and moving on to continue operations with another service provider.

“Satellite service providers can individually implement their own relevant legal procedures and policies to guarantee receiving their due payments. However, the few customers that don’t pay because of reasons other than bankruptcy or because their TV channels have been shut down, may try to take advantage of the fact that there are alternative satellite capacity providers in order to avoid payment. Hence, satellite operators need to agree on a blacklist and other measures that protect

OMAR SHOTER, CEO of Noorsat

their rights and prohibit bad customers from abusing the system,” says Shoter.

Noorsat, which deals with customers in North Africa within its primary focus on the Arabian world, has a combination of both start-up and top-tier clients within the satellite TV and telco sectors.

Accommodating clients from the government and private markets, the satellite operator is not being plagued by non-paying customers. According to Shoter, Noorsat is now in a healthy situation regarding receiving payments thanks to the steps it has taken.

“The lease agreement regulates and deals with this issue, where it specifies that any breach of the provisions may entitle the satellite provider to take defined gradual actions that start in drawing down the security deposit or the standby letter of credit, ending in contract termination.

“Managing late or defaulted payments

is a serious issue in the industry. However, Noorsat has taken steps to mitigate this and the actual payment received has been above the market standards and expectations in the last few years,” says Shoter.

Failed attempts The need for a blacklist mechanism and protective measures is nothing new; the industry has seen attempts previously.

However, these weren’t met with success, says Mitja Lovšin, Sales and Marketing Director at STN. “There have been several initiatives not only by individual operators, but also on the level of a teleport association to join forces and put together a database or blacklist of clients that have proven to be a risk investment. Unfortunately, to date, no such joint collaboration has been able to come to realisation for a variety of reasons,” says Lovšin.

STN has been present in the African market since its inception in 2004. Its first project on the continent was for a small direct-to-home platform operating in central Africa. Since then, STN has undertaken numerous projects and has had to change its approach in order to see success with these contracts.

“Regarding our first contract in Africa, it was not unusual for projects of this type at that time to fail, and it showed that although there were success stories, there were also many projects that were cancelled for various reasons, some, of course, due to lack of funding.

“After further attempts dealing directly with African clients, STN decided to change the strategy and look for the opportunity with non-African channels or clients.

This has proven to be a major success, as STN is currently distributing more than 150 channels across the whole African continent,” says Lovšin.

STN has not concentrated on a particular part of Africa, explains Lovšin, but has spread its services across the entire continent, operating the most demanded orbital positions for North Africa, Central Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Lovšin says that despite the risks, Africa remains generously punctuated with opportunities.

“It is very common for start-ups to default on payments and switch providers without first clearing their dues.

Unfortunately, as we operate in a number of developing markets, the legal framework to protect providers against this is not yet in place” SAFIA RANA, Head of Sales and Marketing at ViewSat “Like every emerging market, there are new costs attached and risk assessments must be made with regards to payments and technical investments for new projects.

Deep consideration must be taken as to how sustainable it is for a company to enter and operate in this kind of market.

“Despite all the risks and problematic issues that have already surfaced with the African market, it is clearly recognised by competing players for its huge potential not only in video distribution but also in other areas of telecommunications such as internet, data and mobile. With massive foreign investments in Africa, the market has potential for strong growth in the foreseeable future,” says Lovšin.

Growth areas Rising awareness of FTA services and the industry shift from analogue to digital have created a number of opportunities.

Additionally, as vast areas of the continent remain underserved or completely unserved, tapping into new viewer bases including those in rural areas is a definite opportunity.

“As the market matures, the evolution would be that of the content itself.

Diversification would be key to retaining existing viewers while growing the subscriber base. Going ahead, the industry will no doubt follow trends already witnessed in other markets. MPEG4 and HD content will gain uptake in the near future along with an increase in pay-TV services across the region,” says ViewSat’s Rana. PRO May 2014 | SatellitePro | 17

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SatVertical: Maritime

FULL

SPEED

AHEAD

OR STEADY AS SHE GOES?

High-throughput services can provide unprecedented bandwidth capabilities at sea, but T. Sanford Jewett explains that despite the promised communications nirvana, L band will continue to command the lion’s share of voice and data traffic

20 | SatellitePro | May 2014

The launch of high-throughput satellite (HTS) services over the coming decade promises to provide something of a communications nirvana for the maritime industry. The potential increases in bandwidth capability and available airtime suggest that, where once the maritime industry laboured to do a fraction of what users take for granted on land, it would finally achieve some parity.

In some cases this may be true, but it is far from the whole picture, says T. Sanford Jewett, Acting Head of Maritime Market Development at Thuraya. A comprehensive understanding of the maritime satcoms landscape needs to recognise not just the changing dynamics of demand and supply, but have a clear understanding of customer behaviour and needs, he says. Do just that and it becomes immediately clear that for the majority of owners and operators, legacy L-band systems will continue to command the lion’s share of voice and data traffic over coming years, Jewett explains.

“That may seem counter-intuitive, given the lower-per-megabyte costs and package deals to be had by upgrading. But the fact remains, shipping is only now coming to the end of a seven-year down cycle, with some analysts suggesting that anyone imagining a return to uniform pre-2008 business conditions is likely to be disappointed.

“Ask the average ship owner how much he pays per megabyte and the chances are he does not know. Ask the same ship owner how much his communications bill is every month and he will be able to tell you quite easily. Look ahead even to the medium-term and the drivers to satcoms adoption are likely to remain focussed on a service package that delivers on price, quality of signal, robustness and ease of use and installation,” says Jewett.

HTS launches by Inmarsat, Intelsat and O3B, for example, make great news;

they give hope to users who want to see their ships as an extension of the office rather than a remote branch where no one answers the phone. But exciting as HTS is, it will be expensive to use and far more complex in day-to-day operations than in legacy maritime services, explains Jewett.

“The demand is certainly there and one only need check the relevant media to see that owners of tanker fleets and other specialised tonnage are moving ever closer to full VSAT as a prelude to HTS services when they come on stream.

Even so, questions remain. Does the majority of ship owners need a bandwidth pipe that big? Are they prepared for the higher Capex on ground equipment and maintenance? Will these services work as well as L band in the mobility market?

“Even their providers also accept that these services are likely to be attractive to comparatively few high-end users, making their penetration small as a percentage of the addressable market. That’s despite the users’ already having, in some cases, contributed to the cost of their development.

But anyone who has spent time in the maritime industry knows that the leading edge is not always representative of the majority. Shipping’s middle ground is a place of fragmented ownership and smallto medium-sized companies, which exist in far lower profile niches than the big fleets and publically-listed companies.”

The drivers to adoption of VSAT and higher bandwidth services also need to be examined in more detail, adds Jewett.

As has been noted by recent research, many VSAT vendors are making sales based on the unprecedented demand for crew welfare communications, he says.

“This is in part because they struggle to make the case at boardroom level for VSAT or high-bandwidth services

“Even providers accept that HTS services are likely to be attractive to comparatively few high-end users, making their penetration small as a percentage of the addressable market” T. SANFORD JEWETT, Acting Head of Maritime Market Development at Thuraya

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 21

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Over 1,300 international exhibitors will be showcasing their latest innovative solutions at Asia’s largest info-communications technology event. Exciting events are line-up exclusively for you…

Network & Source from leading international exhibitors Agilent Technologies, Benchmark Broadcast Systems, Enersys Power, Eltek Power, GlobeCast Asia, Hughes Network Systems, Irdeto, Kaonmedia, NovelSat, O3b Networks, Phicomm, RAD Data, REVE Systems, Tata Communications, Technicolor and many others.

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Huge congregation of Satellite Companies from around the world Learn about the latest satellite services / technologies from the impressive showcase of exhibitors such as APT Satellite, Asia Broadcast Satellite, iDirect, Intelsat, KNS, MEASAT Global, SES, THAICOM Public Company and many others at Level 1.

Witness innovative products and solutions Entire ICT ecosystem from Cloud and Virtualisation, IPTV, Multi-Screen Technology, Over-The-Top (OTT), Satellite Communications and many others will be showcased on the exhibition floor.

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Register your visit to the exhibition at www.CommunicAsia.com/pre-registration before 6 June 2014!

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Exhibitors will be presenting interesting product demonstrations, new product / solution launches or thought-provoking presentations related to the NXT Clusters at Studio NXT.

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“Any communications package comes with limits, regardless of what the sales brochures say, and providers will build into contracts clauses covering best effort, committed information rates, throttling back and normally some figure covering maximum megabyte consumption” T. SANFORD JEWETT, Thuraya’s Acting Head of Maritime Market Development

for business communications and also because the promise of a fat pipe that can keep the crew happy for a fixed monthly fee is almost too good to be true.

“In some cases, it is just that. Any communications package comes with limits, regardless of what the sales brochures say, and providers will build into contracts clauses covering best effort, committed information rates, throttling back and normally some figure covering maximum megabyte consumption. Crew use of social media will test all those parameters.”

Service partners with a solid package of value-added services are best placed to succeed because even with “unlimited” packages, the best use still has to be made of the bandwidth and user experience, explains Jewett.

“This suggests that the sale of VSAT services for crew use is distorting the demand figure. Crew usage may be taking

up the majority of VSAT airtime but the chances are that just like business users, they will not get the advertised rate at all times for purely practical reasons.

“Equally, our experience is that for the majority of business users, a smaller pipe with more reliable throughput works fine, notwithstanding peaks and troughs in demand, during which they can throttle the crew channel back themselves.

“Of course, that problem is exaggerated when using L-band broadband. Cynics might even question the use of the term but the reality is that rates of 512kbs must be counted as maritime broadband against the historical throughput rates that shipping has laboured with for three decades.”

What the trend towards HTS overlooks is not just the legacy tonnage that will rely on L band in future, says Jewett, but why it does that. L-band signals and their associated shipboard and ground-based May 2014 | SatellitePro | 23

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Features include the Hub in Hall 14, IBC Cloud Solutions and IBC Workflow Solutions.

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signals are prized for their robustness, resistance to rain-fade, and the fact that for the most part, the crew can install, trouble shoot and even upgrade the equipment with a little help from a service provider.

Figures from research company Northern Sky Research suggest that in-service MSS maritime units will grow from 368,000 in 2011 to 955,000 in 2021, the vast majority of them narrowband. Revenues from HTS services will begin to emerge by 2015 but still make up a fraction of the total, which is predicted to increase from USD 1.8 billion in 2011 to USD 3.9 billion by 2021. Maritime L-band revenues will be double those of Ku and Ka band combined by that date, the research suggests.

True, L band is hardly global, explains Jewett. Only one operator claims a truly pole-to-pole service and others provide a regional footprint, while the incumbent covers the majority of ports and trade lanes over three ocean regions. But “regionality” is not limited to L-band providers. Most

current VSAT coverage is put together from beams operated by fixed-satellite services providers and coverage is rarely, if ever, global. Even when it is marketed as such, VSAT systems require an L-band failover for back-up – seen by some as a source of some contention and by others as opportunity to offer price plans tailored for this purpose, he says.

“The fact is that maritime has never been a one-size-fits-all market and emerging from the worst downturn for almost a generation, this is more true than ever. The successful shipping company in the second, third and fourth decades of the 21st century will need to be connected, but it will also need to keep costs under control and take advantage of proven systems and services that are designed to fit its specific needs.

“More often than not, conversations with owners and managers about HTS follow a similar pattern: ‘interest concept, potentially very exciting, but you first’.

Those banner contracts will come – the

groundwork is already laid and we would accept that the trend is set – betting against bandwidth has been discredited in the past.

“But that bet has been won and lost on land. Maritime is a different environment, one where equipment must be designed for purpose and reliability. A consistent and reliable service, albeit at unstarry data rates, might be of equal value to a mid-sized operator than a high-speed connection that only gives him 70% coverage and a high dropout rate.

“The price equation will continue to play a key role. Ship owners do not spend their hard-earned dollars without measurable and meaningful payback – look at the market for energy-efficiency devices for proof of that – so there is good reason to believe that dedicated L-band operators who understand their customers and have close links to their partners cannot just survive the HTS wave, they can prosper in the niches that a patchwork global recovery creates,” says Jewett. PRO May 2014 | SatellitePro | 25

SatEvents

MIDDLE EAST MAKES ITS MARK ON WASHINGTON Touted as the most paramount industry event, this year’s edition of Satellite in the US capital brought together some of the biggest players and decision makers. Through networking, an exhibition, conferences and various debates, key representatives tackled some of the main issues facing the global industry. Satellite Pro caught up with some of the attendees to learn about how the importance and status of the Middle East satellite industry was under the spotlight 26 | SatellitePro | May 2014

Jay Monroe, Chairman and CEO of Globalstar

I took part in a lively panel session with my fellow mobile satellite service (MSS) CEOs, where we had a wide-ranging discussion on what the future holds for this sector. One of the most intensely debated issues was about spectrum.

While the other panellists were largely against leasing spectrum to terrestrial wireless vendors, I see it as a unique opportunity to help solve the WiFi traffic jam that the United States currently faces. The simple fact is that mobile networks and WiFi are over-congested and are failing. At the same time, demand for and strain on these networks is growing exponentially.

A key highlight of Satellite 2014 was the significant interest shown in satcomms for the terrestrial space, which has been a part of our vision for some time now and an area that we believe has huge potential. Seamlessly integrating satellite and terrestrial coverage will help the 2 billion or so people living, working or playing in areas that are either underserved or even totally unserved by terrestrial and traditional cellular networks, and represents a huge opportunity for MSS providers.

One important point was seeing other MSS operators, such as Thuraya and Iridium, recognise the opportunity and need for satcomms in the B2C space and helping to validate the market. While consumers represent about half of our user base currently, we believe this could increase to about 80% in five years, thanks to our SPOT range of consumer-facing products and our new Sat-Fi solution. It’s our mission to drive down the price and increase the utility, and in doing so, broaden the market very substantially over the next few years.

Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, CEO of YahSat

Yahsat is the first satellite operator in the region to offer end-to-end broadband solutions over Ka-band, using highpower multi-spot beams and re-usable frequencies. Through multiple services such as YahClick and YahService, we are placed in a unique position of providing the maritime, telecommunications and government sectors with secure high bandwidth satellite services. Satellite 2014 provided Yahsat the chance to discover and identify major emerging opportunities in an ever changing market.

Over a period of four days, leading satellite operators attending Satellite 2014 discovered the technologies and solutions needed to succeed – all led by high-level thought leaders, pioneers and innovators in the global satellite marketplace.

More so, the conference highlighted the importance of a growing global market and business opportunities that Yahsat can capitalise on.

Celebrating the UAE’s burgeoning satellite and space industry, Yahsat cohosted an event with Thuraya at the UAE Embassy in Washington DC. Attended

by His Excellency Yousef Al Otaiba, the Ambassador of the UAE to the United States of America, as well as more than 300 of the space industry’s top executives, the annual reception was the ideal event for key industry decision makers to discuss the importance of the UAE’s satellite industry vis-à-vis Yahsat’s relationship with North America.

Riyadh Al Adely, Managing Director of SkyStream

SkyStream has signed an international service provider agreement with Yahsat, a partnership that will expand our coverage over the Middle East and Africa. Yahclick is the first product of its kind in the Middle East and has repositioned our satellite industry as a cost-effective and reliable broadband service to end users. Regarding this partnership, our starting markets are Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Three main subjects caught my interest during the event. Despite how many launches have taken place and that the ground equipment has improved performance to increase that data rate in the space segment, the satellite industry is still expanding and will witness more launches worldwide in the coming years.

Companies are still challenging physics and science to produce cost-effective, easy-to-deploy terminals. The trends are leaning towards flat panel antennae. Finally, connectivity while out at sea is no longer considered a luxury but a necessity. The demand to have access to larger data is increasing exponentially. The maritime business has an increasing need for real-time data communications such as voice or to enable reporting and swift decision making.

Although there is less attention to the Middle East from the international industry, the industry agrees that the Middle East is still a potential market for satellite if we consider telecommunication, military, maritime and oil and gas. Hearing all the good stories about the Middle East market and the rest of the world, I think the time has come for SkyStream to expand beyond the Middle East and consider new markets.

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 27

Sanford Jewett, Vice-President of Marketing at Thuraya

Satellite 2014 was a great platform for Thuraya to demonstrate our expertise in mobile satellite solutions and educate the industry about our innovations. This year, we showcased our newest innovations, the Thuraya SatSleeve for Android and the maritime-specific Thuraya Orion IP. Our CEO, Samer Halawi also shared Thuraya’s successful transformation story, which has yielded two years of consecutive growth, driven by recurring revenue and not one-off events.

Highlights for us at the show included the Thuraya SatSleeve winning the MUSA Innovator Award and our key spokespeople speaking on panels discussing key industry trends and Thuraya’s contributions to sectors such as mobile handhelds, maritime and media.

Together with Yahsat and the UAE Embassy, we were proud to host the annual satellite industry reception, which was attended by key dignitaries and satellite leaders.

28 | SatellitePro | May 2014

Anthony Colucci, Vice-President of Business Development at SSL

There was a lot of interest at the conference in our new partnership with Skybox Imaging.

SSL was awarded a contract to build 13 small Earth observation satellites for Skybox, and through the partnership we can now provide Earth observation satellites using the Skybox-licensed technology. This creates a new product line for the company based on a small, very cost-efficient low Earth orbit bus for a broad range of missions and payloads for both commercial and government customers.

We are big supporters of the SSPI Gala dinner. It was an excellent time for us to network and support a good cause at the same time. We came away with a good sense of the ongoing strength of the industry and the continued demand for the kind of satellites that SSL provides. Many agree that the Middle East is an important growth area and applications such as HDTV, broadband and cellular backhaul continue to require the infrastructure that only satellite can provide.

Riaz Lamak, Director of GVF Validation and Benchmarking

One of the key issues talked about at Satellite 2014 during the “Big 4” top satellite industry management’s round table and the specific working groups and sessions onsite and offsite was on the C band spectrum.

[This came] in response to the terrestrial wireless industry’s efforts to appropriate satellite spectrum and get access to it. One dedicated session was run by GVF on this subject, attended by almost all the key industry representatives.

Another interesting development was from the interference prevention summit.

Newer initiatives were discussed in addition to all the ongoing efforts for interference reduction, prevention and mitigation, vis-à-vis the benchmarking and validation route. In this way, the industry wants to build long-term sustainable “Quality of Workmanship” through benchmarking and the “identify gaps and suggest remedy” to bring back on track network performances through validation of existing networks.

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Testing connectivity on wheels, Satellite Pro explores the SOTM solution provided by ICCESS in partnership with Wiseband as well as Eutelsat’s mobile broadcasting vehicle

30 | SatellitePro | May 2014

Mount-in-motion SOTM in Ku band Saudi-based ICCES teamed up with Dubaibased Wiseband to demonstrate their satcom-on-the-move (SOTM) solution.

Located at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the SOTM-enabled vehicle provided WiFi to the vicinity, even allowing a woman sitting at a café nearby to connect to the internet.

Using Ku-band capacity on Arabsat’s Badr 4 satellite, located at 26 degrees East, VoIP calls were made, demonstrating very low latency. The video call was made with highquality audio and without any webcam image distortion or signal disruption. No VoIP calls were dropped throughout the demonstration.

The vehicle was fitted with TracStar’s iMVS450M antenna system, which is designed to track a single satellite while mounted on a stationary or moving vehicle.

The vehicle tracked the satellite while traveling over a range of road conditions

and is internet and intranet compatible.

The iMVS series terminals are suitable for military wheeled or tracked vehicles, security and emergency response communications, enterprise organisations, news gathering and multi-media production crews.

The SOTM vehicle provided high-speed IP-based data communications and could accommodate a host of applications such as secure digital communications up to 4 Mbps, high-speed internet access, VoIP communications, teleconferencing, wide area private network extension and also video broadcasting.

The vehicle’s antenna uses electromechanically steered AZ, EL, and POL Axii and requires no special test equipment for alignment, inertial navigation unit. or computers or peripheral equipment for operation. It is equipped with tracking equipment and LNB (high-power amplifier is optional); built-in attitude, heading and rate sensors; power interface unit and interface cables; and adjacent satellite.

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 31

Mobile direct-to-car broadcasting in Ka band

Dubai saw the world-first demonstration of mobile direct-to-car broadcasting in Ka band. Eutelsat showcased its capabilities with a vehicle that drove around the city of Dubai, transmitting live TV signal via satellite. Satellite Pro was onboard that vehicle to test the solution and experience first-hand the transmission and viewing quality.

A dedicated platform of TV channels was set up for this demonstration. The TV channels were encoded in MPEG4 at a bitrate of approximately 1 Mbps and a resolution optimised for viewing on a tablet or equivalent smart device. The video signal was encoded at Eutelsat’s teleport in Rambouillet, France, then uplinked to the satellite from a teleport in Arganda,

Spain. The channels were transmitted as IP streams using the DVB-SH satellite protocol.

The use of the DVB-SH protocol in the satellite channel resolves temporary interruptions due to obstacles such as buildings, which Dubai, home to the world’s tallest tower and renowned cityscape of skyscrapers, has a plethora. A protocol such as DVB-S2, which is designed for fixed installations, would experience packet losses during such interruptions whereas DVB-SH was specifically designed for use in mobility by integrating coding and interleaving techniques to “repair” the missing parts of the streams. A TDM carrier of 5 MHz was used for the demo.

As this was a dedicated direct-to-home (DTH) platform, it was transmitted in Ka band at high power. “Normal” platforms are transmitted in Ku band and require larger antennae for reception. Using antennae less than twice the size of Ku-band antennae, the Ka band is well suited for new-generation TV services to tablets and smartphones in vehicles.

Using tracking capabilities, the small antenna fixed on the roof of the car was receiving signals while the vehicle was moving. The satellite signal was decoded by

Extra review: Smart LNB Satellite Pro also reviewed Eutelsat’s Smart LNB in action during a live demonstration in Dubai. While providing a satellite return link for Digital Rights Management (DRM), the Ka/Ku Smart LNB provides a narrowband return channel for short transmissions of IP packets with which it bundles direct-tohome reception of TV channels. Its ability to accommodate DRM means encrypted content can be securely viewed on fixed and mobile screens, enabling users beyond terrestrial networks to experience connected TV via satellite.

The Smart LNB uses the coaxial cabling of existing installations to connect to a home IP network and is compatible with connected TVs, tablets and other IP-compatible devices including legacy DVB-S2 receivers.

32 | SatellitePro | May 2014

To access encrypted content stored in a settop-box or to watch an encrypted channel live, a remote control or IPenabled mobile device is used to send a clearance request to a DRM server via the Smart LNB. Once the keys are exchanged, users can view the content on any device.

Eutelsat teamed up with partners Ateme, QuadriFast, Dune HD, NXP Software, Broadpeak and Verimatrix for this Smart LNB demo.

a DVB-SH demodulator. The IP streams were extracted and delivered to smartphones and tablets aboard the vehicle over WiFi, thanks to a local WiFi access point in the car. In the future, all the elements of the system (antenna, demodulator and WiFi hotspot) will be integrated into the antenna itself to simplify installation. The current antenna already has a magnetic base to easily fix it on the roof of a car.

The prototype antenna used for the demo is based on a plate of 22x11cm, installed on a platform tracking the satellite in azimuth.

The total dimension of the antenna, including radome, is 30x12cm. During the demonstration, another model antenna was also shown, which is wider and flatter at 38x9.5cm. As current antennae are prototypes, there could be different antennae available for different markets with different specifications, including tracking in elevation. The current antennae have a gain of about 30dBi. Eutelsat used one of the beams of the Ka-Sat, its high-throughput satellite located at 9 degrees East. This satellite provides regional coverage in certain areas, however, for global coverage, the operator will use other Ka-band satellites.

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SatDevelopments

ENTER THE MULTISERVICE REVOLUTION Industry players must be ready for the era of multiservice infrastructure if they want to thrive rather than just survive. Agility and the ability to stretch every Hertz is key, says Jo De Loor, Market Director at Newtec

Predicting market evolution in the somewhat longer term, while having to invest in the most profitable option now is tough. That’s nevertheless what satellite service providers are faced with more than often. At first, it might feel like a daunting task, after all, there is the relentless competition from fibre. However, it shouldn’t keep you up at night.

Keeping satellite services relevant for the market is not as difficult as it seems, it doesn’t require a crystal ball or loads of money. All it really needs is agility and flexibility in the way you serve the market because there are lots of things going on out there.

In the more traditional satellite home territory of broadcast-related services, there’s plenty of business opportunity, growth is ubiquitous, there’s more content and it all needs higher quality. Getting more Mbits out of your transponder and being agile in your ability to support changing IP based workflows are key. The latter does translate to the need to support multiple services, now more than ever IP-based services. Offering, for example, straightforward one-way ASI34 | SatellitePro | May 2014

based contribution-only services might still do the trick now, but for how long will it keep the newsroom happy?

In other areas, growth might be less obvious and the crowd of satellite service providers is being gathered in a smaller market place. Here too, a revolution seems to be developing – it is still rather quiet, though some might already hear it rumble. The good old days, where just one type of service could safeguard profitability are gone, and the decline of high-speed IP trunking, for example, has definitely kept some service providers awake at night. However, agility allows service providers to not only survive but even thrive. There’s simply so much going on to keep satellite relevant for a long time, be it in cellular backhauling, where terrestrial infrastructure cannot reach, or in communications on the move, where only satellite can reach.

Satellite operators and service providers are responding to quick-changing market dynamics. At least they are if they want to diversify, offer improved quality of service (QoS) and be more flexible on the delivery

of service level agreements. Today, there’s a need for higher service levels, both in terms of speed and volume, to deliver what customers want.

At the same time, applications are putting a strain on capacity by requiring more bandwidth. There has been well documented growth in multimedia-rich content, big data, HD video and a proliferation of channels.

This is without mentioning the introduction of 4K or our own graving need to download more, faster. Besides this, the end user’s relationship with technology and media is changing too; customers expect an alwayson connection leading to demands for higher service availability.

For a host of reasons, profitability is under pressure. There is a squeeze, with decreasing prices on the one hand and higher bandwidth needs resulting in higher satellite capacity cost on the other. Caught in between these two is the profitability of satellite services.

But the forces get welcome backpressure.

On the bandwidth supply side, it’s obvious and just to name one, we’ve all heard of how

Ka band is poised to mitigate a big part of the Opex problem. It’s far from being a fit-for-all but where it fits, it fits really well.

On the demand side, challenges do remain, but they’re not necessarily bad ones.

Yes, customers expect lower prices. But nobody said those expectations can’t be met without jeopardising profitability. You just need to make sure you differentiate among customers and manage each of their own particular set of expectations in an agile way. Only that keeps the churn monster away, both in the consumer market and the hardcore B2B market alike. It’s all about having the flexibility to adapt the nature of your services and make sure the customer feels happy. In the all-ubiquitous IP world, that means you need fair usage policies, highly diverse QoS and shaping mechanisms.

And nobody said that can’t be done. So yes, the profitability needs to be managed and yes, once you made the ends meet, somebody might move the ends. However, having agile yet fair bandwidth allocation mechanisms embedded in your platform, you can meet that challenge.

When agility is required and things are unclear, we all typically revert back to technology. That often works, but that also can mean a very tailored solution for a targeted problem. That’s how service providers very often end up with a plenitude of different platforms, each with their own limited fit, tailored around one technology, but each of them coming with their own technology roadmaps and their own particularities in terms of operational support.

But there’s good news too. While the need for agility might seem to come with very particular technological solutions for very particular markets, the ubiquity of IP renders those various needs more similar than one might think. In fact, it all drills down to being efficient on the lowest layer – squeezing every possible bit out of every Hertz – while at the same time, ensuring there are plenty options available in terms of speed, throughput quality and higher layer networking functionality. Once you combine that with controlled availability, based on one single platform with its single and future-proof roadmap, you’re basically good to go.

Sure, some vertical markets will continue to have their own specific needs that go just that little bit further but that’s manageable too. For as long as your platform is agile from a connectivity point of view, you can always add extensions, supporting specific valueadded services, from embedded non-linear file transfer contribution in the broadcast world up to specific encryption mechanisms for government application.

Simply put, the solution is the end of single-purpose satellite infrastructure and the birth of truly multi-service technology platforms. We need platforms that address multiple markets and verticals, while putting more customers in the same transponder. All of this is possible thanks to advanced QoS management and easily switching between SCPC, MF-TDMA and other more optimised return link capabilities. Together with the emergence of the new DVB standards, they will enable service providers to differentiate and complement terrestrial services all while adding more flexible and improved service offerings for their customers. PRO May 2014 | SatellitePro | 35

SatEvents

ASIA’S PAY TV SET FOR NEW HEIGHTS

DTH boasts continued growth on the back of HD adoption and more locally produced content, while pay-TV subscribers are expected to double to 160 million by 2022. SES will shed light on this market while highlighting new growth areas at CommunicAsia2014 Asia continues to witness strong growth in direct-to-home (DTH), a segment buoyed by a rise in the production of local content and by increased adoption of HD content. According to a report by an analyst firm specialising in satellite applications, communications and digital broadcasting, the number of DTH pay-TV subscribers in Asia will double from today’s 80 million to approximately 160 million subscribers by 2022.

Based on this volume of growth and the climbing subscriber numbers, global satellite operator SES sees a strong need for innovation across the entire value chain. SES currently holds a leading position in providing DTH in 36 | SatellitePro | May 2014

Asia Pacific. The satellite operator carries the highest number of pay DTH channels, almost 1,000 channels, translating to more than 35 million pay-TV homes in the region.

“The DTH satellite TV market in Asia Pacific has been able to sustain its momentum due to a number of key macroeconomic factors.

Strong economic growth and a generally young, tech-savvy population in this region have combined to create favourable conditions for pay TV adoption, with viewers more disposed for premium content than ever before. Equally, broadcasters are meeting demand for quality programming by opting for a mix of local, regional and international

content, commensurating with rising GDP and increased advertising,” says Deepak Mathur, SES’ Senior Vice-President of Commercial Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

“Finally, while in many of the more mature markets, where terrestrial infrastructure already exists, in Asia, much of the terrestrial infrastructure has never been built and we have leapfrogged to the wireless delivery of voice, video and increasingly data as well.

In this context, DTH offers the consistent and ubiquitous delivery of vast amounts of content – in extremely high quality – to millions of subscribers at virtually no marginal cost,” adds Mathur.

“OTT may provide a smart delivery method for niche channels and on-demand services, but we view it as complementary rather than competitive to traditional broadcast infrastructuress” Deepak Mathur, SES’ Senior Vice-President of Commercial Asia Pacific and the Middle East

Impact of OTT The popularity of over-the-top (OTT) technologies has created business opportunities, based on satellite communications’ core strengths: instant reach, scalability and quality of experience.

The distribution of both linear and nonlinear content in a broadcast mode becomes economically more viable than by other terrestrial means. From that perspective, satellite perfectly integrates in a global “least cost routing” quality-aware architecture, explains Mathur, adding that OTT is not the ideal delivery mode for all.

“Conventional broadcast infrastructures

have the strongest potential to remain the most efficient distribution method for mass market linear TV (or DTH) as future technologies such as Ultra-HD – offering a resolution four times higher than current HDTV – require even more bandwidth. OTT may provide a smart delivery method for niche channels and on-demand services, but we view it as complementary rather than competitive to traditional broadcast infrastructures,” he says.

Anticipating the advent of the connected home and to bring all types of content to different devices, SES together with industrial partners, developed a technology called Sat>IP. The IP-based architecture allows

Deepak Mathur, SES’ Senior Vice-President of Commercial Asia Pacific and the Middle East May 2014 | SatellitePro | 37

satellite programmes to be distributed, like traditional IPTV, over any IP network and to be received not just on IP capable set-top-boxes (STB), but also on other modern IP-capable devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Designed with several usage scenarios in mind, from consumer in-home distribution to large professional distribution applications, the technology opens up many new possibilities to customers.

Customer knowledge Addressing customers’ unique business challenges and enabling them to use business opportunities is paramount for SES, says Mathur.

“This is hardwired into everything that we do at SES. Our culturally diverse regional team based in Singapore works closely with our customers to meet specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements, from the design of a satellite to co-locating satellites to provide unparalleled reliability.

“SES has a track record of working closely with all stakeholders of the video eco-system.

We co-operate not only with our customers but also with manufacturers of TV sets, STBs and chips, with installers and retailers to bring together the pieces that are necessary to develop a consistent infrastructure. SES has been the driving force for HD adoption and currently is the driving force for UltraHD adoption. Our annual industry days, for example, gather all relevant stakeholders that are needed to elaborate and implement technologies and standards to transmit and receive Ultra-HD or to translate satellite signals in IP mode.”

In addition to DTH, there is also strong growth in enterprise and data, says Mathur, pointing to new areas of growth for satellite.

“With the rollout of 3G and 4G networks,

there is increasing demand in cellular backhaul applications. Satellite is a key enabler for immediate coverage of vast territories, and as there are many areas without sufficient terrestrial broadband connection, we believe satellite bandwidth demand will grow even faster than overall bandwidth demand,” says Mathur.

“Demand for both data and voice services in the maritime vertical are also growing in Asia.

Key players in this sector are now beginning to realise the short- and long-term benefits that investing in secure, reliable and affordable satellite communications capabilities can bring to their business. Companies are increasingly aware that they can raise operational efficiency, ensure safety through the real-time monitoring of vessels at sea and also maintain crew welfare.

“The Asian market is highly competitive, due to the large number of domestic and regional satellite operators. As a world-leading satellite operator, we certainly have an advantage, as our global fleet enhanced by our world-class terrestrial network allows us to work with customers who are increasingly seeking to monetise their content globally. Similarly, Asian enterprise customers and telcos are moving outside Asia, into markets such as Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, and our global presence ensures that they get access to capacity around the world.”

Regulatory constraints and barriers present a formidable challenge for satellite players, notes Mathur.

“It is important that equal opportunities are given to both national and global satellite companies to ensure growth and create a truly open and vibrant satellite sector. It is not just important for players from outside the region, as the end user is the ultimate beneficiary of true market dynamics.” PRO

“In Asia, much of the terrestrial infrastructure has never been built and we have leapfrogged to the wireless delivery of voice, video and increasingly data as well” Deepak Mathur, SES’ Senior Vice-President of Commercial Asia Pacific and the Middle East 38 | SatellitePro | May 2014

Opportunities and trends in Asia

Deepak Mathur, SES’ Senior Vice-President of Commercial Asia Pacific and the Middle East, will deliver a keynote address at the CommunicAsia2014 Summit taking place at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on June 19, 2014. The address will be on Market Opportunities and Upcoming Trends for Satellite Growth in Asia.

“CommunicAsia has grown to become one of the most important platforms in Asia to meet with our customers and vendors across the region. I am looking forward to speaking on the unrelenting growth of the satellite industry in Asia at this year’s CommunicAsia Summit,” says Mathur.

A part of Asia’s leading event for the ICT industry, the CommunicAsia2014 Summit will be held across four days from June 17 to 20. On June 18, delegates will hear from and engage with a stellar panel of speakers, who will divulge valuable intelligence on the transformation of Asia’s satellite landscape.

SatComm2014 The CommunicAsia2014 Summit will be hosting two new tracks dedicated to satellite communications. With focuses on high-throughput satellite (HTS) and VSAT mobility for land, aviation and maritime,

the tracks will address the pressing issues impacting the satellite operators, users and suppliers. The SatComm 2014 tracks will also focus on key satellite service areas such as broadcast, broadband and maritime.

SatComm2014 is an exhibition for global satellite and broadcasting communities to gather for networking opportunities with their Asian counterparts, as well as to receive the latest industry updates.

Key topics will include: • How is the intensifying competition from satellite operators and terrestrial networks affecting the customers and competitors – what can be done?

• Is HTS another example of evolution in the satellite industry, or a gamechanging revolution?

• What are the key success factors for mobile backhaul for moving to 3G-4G or HTS? • How are VSAT service providers creating services to meet today’s communication needs and support changing the requirements of the future?

• Advancing aeronautical: the rise of inflight connectivity

May 2014 | SatellitePro | 39

SatGuest

MIDDLE EAST SATELLITE INDUSTRY BOASTS ADDED APPEAL A strong desire to be part of a life-changing market together with innovative educational programmes will see a new wave of professionals

A career in satellite communications in the Middle East has increasing appeal, as various people are interested in being part of what is becoming a highly unique and rewarding industry. They want to be part of creating game-changing innovations that make a huge impact on the lives of the people residing and working in the region, explains Masood M. Sharif Mahmoud, CEO of Yahsat.

According to Mahmoud, Yahsat is always keen on hiring fresh graduates with a good academic history, excellent interpersonal skills and those who are highly committed and dedicated to learning.

“One of our critical pillars for success is

40 | SatellitePro | May 2014

talent development.

Our learning path for our young colleagues is strong and transparent, concluded by the graduate taking over a decision-making position within years of rigorous on-thejob development.

“We aim at providing an industry worldclass learning path for our employees with agreed upon success metrics and meaningful knowledge transfer strategies that are individually tailored.

Our most valuable secret to successful learning paths is to make sure that our talents’ experience with us is invaluable, while we help them complete their learning objectives while on the job,” says Mahmoud.

Mahmoud notes that organisations should support university career fairs and offer internship schemes, pointing to Yahsat’s efforts in 2012 to foster and nurture talented Emirati youth. This included the hosting of female students, something that reflects a change in a traditionally male dominated industry.

“In 2012, helping to sustain the company’s efforts to foster and nurture talented Emirati youth, Yahsat established a highly specialised

and technical course, the first of its kind, and hosted four students from the Higher Colleges of Technology - Abu Dhabi Women’s College as part of its ongoing internship programme.

“The trend in the past has meant that this field has traditionally attracted male employees. However, we do have a number of female engineers working within the flight dynamics and pre-sale engineer teams.

We’re always looking to recruit more female engineers at Yahsat,” says Mahmoud.

The industry’s pull factor can be complemented with compelling education programmes, which are fundamental to educating and raising awareness within the public on advanced sciences and how it can change the way people live, says Mahmoud.

This will, in turn, help create greater selfreliance in the Middle East, as qualified people from the region will increasingly take to satellite communications professionally.

Mahmoud adds that while there is good evidence of the region’s self-reliance, he expects to see greater international collaboration with regional players. The outcome, he says, will see the region produce new innovations.

“Multiple home-grown operators have successfully launched satellites and extended their operations in recent years. I believe this is a testament to the confidence of regional players in their technical competence.

At the same time, given the dynamic nature of technical advancements in the satellite industry, I foresee an era of greater international collaboration and potentially leading to significant innovation being fostered in the region.” PRO

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