Gulf Air unveils first GCS equipped aircraft

Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, today took delivery of its first A330-200 aircraft retrofitted with Panasonic Avionics Corporation‟s (Panasonic) Global Communications Suite. The comprehensive communications and entertainment solution, Sky Hub, offers passengers onboard full broadband connectivity to access internet, mobile phone services and, for the first time in the world, a global, live television service onboard. The Panasonic‟s Global Communications Suite is being installed across Gulf Air‟s entire fleet of aircraft progressively.

Unveiling the „Sky Hub‟ onboard the aircraft today to the media and senior Bahrain civil aviation officials, Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Mr. Samer Majali said, “It is another important milestone in our customer service journey as we unveil our latest inflight entertainment system, Sky Hub on our fleet.”

“We are bringing to you, for the first time in the world, fully integrated broadband connectivity offering high speed internet with high speed Wi-Fi and data services, voice over the internet (VOIP), streaming videos and the world’s first in-flight live TV satellite stream across continents.” He added, “In tune with the fast-paced economy, Gulf Air is providing the fastest, affordable and unlimited internet and mobile access onboard for our customers to stay fully connected in the air and, we are pleased to be the first in the industry to offer our customers a connected airline. I am sure this avant-garde, cutting-edge technology will fundamentally change our passengers communications and entertainment experience onboard setting a new standard for in-flight entertainment,” Mr. Majali concluded.

Paul Margis, Chief Executive Officer for Panasonic Avionics Corporation said, “We are very excited and honored to have helped Gulf Air become the first carrier in the world to offer a truly amazing passenger entertainment experience with broadband connectivity for high speed internet access, mobile voice and data services, and a live television service that includes some of the world‟s most popular news programming and live sporting events.”

Using Panasonic’s Global Communications Suite, Gulf Air will offer two-way broadband connectivity at speeds of up to 50 Mbps to the aircraft, enabling faster browsing, chatting and other internet based services. Gulf Air will offer deeply immersive, content-rich entertainment in addition to live, uninterrupted television services on routes across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Travelers will no longer have to wait in anxiety until they land to find out scores from their favorite sporting events or news from around the world. Now they can watch their favorite football teams on IMG Media‟s Barclays Premier League channel or keep up with world events on favorite news channels such as BBC World News, BBC Arabic and Euronews.

Passengers also will be able to browse the web at broadband speeds, and access social media services such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, business travelers can access their virtual private network (VPN) to send and receive emails while watching live-news and stock market updates at 35,000 feet. They simply need to turn on their personal device, connect to the in-flight Wi-Fi network, and log into the service through Deutsche Telekom, the wireless internet service provider onboard.

Olivier Baujard, Chief Technology Officer of Deutsche Telekom commented, “We are excited about our future collaboration with Gulf Air. Together, we can now offer a new and bigger international group of customers the use of high-speed Internet access also in the sky. The expansion of our Wi-Fi offering is an important element in the development of our networks and in addressing the demands of the Gigabit-Society. It also provides further proof of Deutsche Telekom’s innovation leadership.”

Harris Corporation expands regional broadcast headquarters in Dubai

Harris Corporation has expanded its broadcast operations in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and formed a new regional headquarters office to support its growing business in the Middle East and South Asia (MESA) region. It is one of three Harris operations supporting a broad range of customers throughout the region.

The recently enlarged Harris Broadcast Communications office facility will house the service and support members of the MESA team, which will work alongside the newly formed regional solutions group that is responsible for managing larger, integrated broadcast projects across the region. The inaugural office opening was held Wednesday, October 12, 2011. In addition to the Dubai Media City location, Harris provides local services, support, sales and pre-sales teams at its facility in Noida, India.

“Harris first established its Middle East Broadcast operations in Dubai in 2006, and has seen its annual business grow exponentially across the region,” said Harris Morris, president, Harris Broadcast Communications. “Expanding our presence enables us to develop closer relationships with customers and engineering teams, ensuring faster local service and support and helping customers optimize their successes.”

Harris recently was awarded several new contracts in the region, including a significant order from Turkmenistan TV, the state broadcaster in Turkmenistan, for an end-to-end integrated Harris broadcast solution for its new TV-Tower project in Ashgabat. Harris also won a contract to provide Sky News Arabia, the new 24-hour Arabic language news channel, with an integrated solution for part of the playout automation facility at the broadcaster’s Abu Dhabi headquarters. In South Asia, STV Orissa, a new regional news network channel in northern India, went on the air last month with an end-to-end newsroom playout solution from Harris.

In broadcast communications, Harris offers products, systems and services that provide interoperable workflow solutions for broadcast, cable, satellite and out-of-home networks. The Harris ONE™ solution brings together highly integrated and cost-effective products that enable advanced media workflows for emerging content delivery business models.

In addition to the Dubai, UAE and Noida, India broadcast facilities, Harris operates Harris Atlas Systems, LLC – a joint venture in Abu Dhabi that offers customers in the Middle East highly reliable solutions for situational awareness, command and control, emergency management and other mission-critical situations.

Inmarsat selects Willis as its space risk management advisor

Following a detailed review and competitive tender amongst leading space insurance brokers, mobile satellite operator Inmarsat has awarded Willis Group Holdings an exclusive appointment to act as its risk management advisor and placing broker for its new generation of satellites.

The agreement covers the launch and in-orbit operation of Inmarsat’s highly anticipated broadband satellite network, Global Xpress, and the additional launch of the Alphasat satellite. The appointment also includes responsibility for Inmarsat’s current in-orbit fleet.

Using high-power Boeing 702 type satellites, Global Xpress will deliver mobile broadband to the world at speeds of up to 50Mbps on devices as small as 60 centimetres.

Inmarsat’s Alphasat will be the first launch of The European Space Agency’s newly-developed Alphabus, the world’s largest communications satellite platform.

Willis will be charged with creating and implementing a risk mitigation strategy for Inmarsat’s suite of technology that can be effectively valued by the insurance community. The role requires a multi-disciplined approach, bringing together expertise in engineering, risk management, and technical analysis.

The appointment follows the selection of Willis as insurance broker to Inmarsat for all non space policies at the beginning of 2010.

Roger Bathurst, CEO of Willis Inspace, who led the bid team, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been chosen to represent Inmarsat. This is the result of a tremendous all round performance and is the clearest possible illustration of the strength and depth of the Willis team. To be at the forefront of one of the most dynamic and exciting satellite projects in the world is a great honour.”

Globecomm Maritime: delivering excellence at sea

With a solid reputation in several key vertical markets, Globecomm is ramping up its maritime offering with tailored solutions to meet the needs of this diverse market segment. Through acquisitions and careful thought about their customers’ needs, the company is going from strength to strength on the high seas. Helen Jameson speaks to Keith Hall, President and COO of Globecomm, about their offerings.

Question: Can you please begin by telling us about Globecomm Maritime and the company’s decision to move into this sector of the satcom industry?

Globecomm has been very much focused on building a world-class managed services company, leveraging on our core engineering capabilities and our global network of communications solutions. We operate across a number of different market verticals and the satellite centric maritime market fits our profile, is part of our history and we know it very well. The key factor is that it is very difficult to enter a new market with a need-to approach or with a commodity-based offering. What we saw in the maritime sector was a big shift in appetite for broadband services and that allowed the industry to take a new VSAT-based approach and provided an opportunity for new players. For years the market was supported by narrowband solutions. What we did was to supplement our core value proposition, our global networks and our engineering talent with acquisitions. We began with the purchase of Mach6, a global maritime VSAT platform, and two other companies – Evosat and Telaurus, who have strong industry relationships and several value-add back office applications. So when we look at that in its totality – Mach6, Evosat and Telaurus and Globecomm – we have developed a maritime team that will provide innovative and unique solutions to the market.

Question: What services are you offering to the maritime community?

We provide a family of maritime communications services across all the available technologies including Inmarsat, Iridium and VSAT. At our core, we are a communications solutions company and our key differentiator is our ability to customise. We are technology agnostic and we focus on providing best-in-breed products and solutions to each of our customers, who have very specific needs.

To complement solutions that use terminals from the likes of Iridium and Inmarsat, we have developed a unique suite of management software called se@com. se@com provides messaging compression and encryption and reduces the costs of the user by more than 50 percent. It also offers features such as fully itemised billing detailing each and every email sent/received which allows not only for effective cost monitoring, but also gives Ship Manager’s the ability to recharge Owners, Charters and other third parties for costs incurred by them. We also have a full suite of value-added services such as se@REMOTE, which provides fleet IT personnel with remote access to onboard computer systems, regardless of location, for remote diagnostics and trouble shooting. We also offer se@FLEX which provides always-on broadband and automatic switching between satellites as well as between VSAT and L-band services to provide seamless connectivity around the world.

Wavestream selected by General Dynamics for SATCOM amplifiers

Wavestream has been selected by General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies to supply the company’s 16W Ka-band Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) for their Model 20 Satcom-On-The-Move (SOTM) terminal. Wavestream is shipping 16W Ka-band amplifiers for use in vehicle-mounted satellite communications systems to support U.S. Department of Defense missions worldwide.

“Wavestream is proud of its long, successful relationship with General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies, supplying Ka-band amplifiers to support a variety of deployed SATCOM terminals worldwide,” stated Terry Magee, executive vice president at Wavestream. “This latest selection is testament to our continued ability to deliver extremely reliable, field-proven products on-time, and in the quantities required to support SATCOM Technologies’ critical program requirements.”

Wavestream’s Ka-band products, which also include 12W, 25W and 50W amplifiers, have demonstrated exceptional reliability and performance in severe operational conditions, and are currently deployed supporting war fighters in the most extreme environments. Wavestream’s 16W Ka-band amplifier is designed for the demanding shock and vibration environment of wheeled and tracked vehicles. The amplifier is a compact, proven product that is mounted within a radome close to the antenna feed to reduce waveguide loss. As with all Wavestream products, it is fully tested over the entire operating temperature range and frequency band to ensure in-spec performance under all operating conditions.

“The ability to provide continuous connectivity everywhere, all the time, in any environment is essential to the war fighter,” continued Magee. “SATCOM Technologies is a key provider of robust, mobile satellite communications systems that provide the critical “always connected” capabilities for in-theater and strategic operations worldwide. We are proud to offer proven technology to help them meet the growing demand for more portable comms-on-the-move SATCOM systems to support critical missions wherever they may be.”

RRSat offers customers data increase using NovelSat 3G

RRsat and NovelSat have announced that live testing of its NS3 modulation solution resulted in a 26% data rate increase over DVB-S2. NS3™ achieved a rate of 8.25 Mbps compared to DVB-S2’srate of only 6.54 Mbps, over a 3 MB carrier. This remarkable achievement should have an impact on the industry, especially for small data terminals as well as for Satellite Newsgathering (SNG) services. For certain applications, such capacity boost can be translated into usage of a much smaller antenna, namely around 35% smaller antenna diameter, for similar data rates.

“RRsat is proud to be an early adopter, as exemplified by our use of this advanced technology, and is excited about the potential benefits NS3™may have for our customers,” said Ziv Mor, CTO of RRsat. “In addition to the potential data rate and bandwidth advantages, RRsat may now be able to provide higher levels of reliable and robust service while allowing its customers to use smaller antennas.”

“It has been very helpful working with RRsat, a company with a well-earned reputation for assisting and encouraging companies with innovate products and services. RRsat’s guidance and live testing of NS3™ with its impressive roster of first tier customers provided us with the kind of real-time situation needed prior to market launch,” said Itzik Wulkan, NovelSat CEO. “For commercial companies to governmental organizations, we have, with RRsat’s assistance, been able to see firsthand how the NS3™ implementation can improve service value. We are thrilled with the opportunity to extend the impact of these tests further through our new partnership with RRsat.”

EMC announces breakthrough in HD video conferencing over satellite

Emerging Markets Communications has announced the general availability of its affordable new high quality HD Connect On Demand satellite technology, which offers significant breakthroughs for the telepresence, videoconferencing and visual collaboration industry.

The first high definition (HD) videoconferencing over satellite service available in an affordable, on demand, ‘pay as you go’ manner, HD Connect is available now for deployment to Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia – and soon to China as well as Central and South America. HD Connect allows governments, multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in hard to reach areas of the world to use HD videoconferencing, telepresence and visual collaboration anywhere, anytime (on land, sea or in the air), at a fraction of the price of a typical dedicated satellite data circuit. HD Connect also delivers unprecedented quality, with low jitter, low packet loss and predictable and steady latency for excellent, unparalleled videoconferencing experiences.

Driving HD Connect is the industry’s first single carrier per channel (SCPC) – a non-shared, on/off model specifically designed for videoconferencing. With several patents pending around the methodology and the technology, EMC is the only company offering the service today.

HD Connect, which works with any videoconferencing system, utilizes EMC’s high quality MPLS satellite network, which has been providing data services to governments and NGOs in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for over eight years.

EMC’s new HD Connect service offers:

•Secure, mission-critical, end-to-end high quality video communications deployable anywhere on the planet
•Affordability: A revolutionary ‘pay as you go’ service where users only pay for the bandwidth that is used, packaged with bundled hours of monthly usage (like a pre-paid cell phone)
•High quality: Low jitter, low packet loss with predictable and steady latency for excellent videoconferencing experiences
•Ease of use: Delivered via a browser in bandwidth multiples of 1mb & 5mb, the user simply goes to a portal, turns on the system and operates the videoconferencing system of his choice for as long as he likes
•Speed of service: Circuit turn-on takes less than 30 seconds
•A single vendor: Providing customers the ability to interact with just one vendor to reach over 140 countries eliminates the need to depend on the local infrastructure for power and communications outside the region. Since EMC owns the entire network, EMC is a single solution provider for all satellite-served areas.
“Until now, HD videoconferencing in the most remote regions of the world has been costly, unreliable and of poor quality,” said Thomas Luketich, VP of Videoconferencing and Application Services for EMC. “Our easy to use HD Connect service enables organizations around the globe to conduct affordable, on demand, lifelike face-to-face communications and collaboration with colleagues, partners, suppliers and customers in regions that have traditionally been hard-to-reach.”

“Historically, the use of satellite connections to host videoconferencing sessions has involved significant cost, performance and availability compromises,” said Ira M. Weinstein, Senior Analyst and Partner at Wainhouse Research. “With its ad-hoc availability, consistent quality of service and usage-based pricing model, EMC’s HD Connect has changed the rules of satellite-based videoconferencing.”

In related, news, EMC also announced that it will be interconnecting with Masergy, a global provider of secure, virtualized network services. Masergy’s IP/MPLS network, the most mature global IP/MPLS network in the industry, was purpose-built to support real-time applications like Telepresence and HD videoconferencing.

“EMC’s new HD Connect service will provide clients with locations in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia with a compelling alternative solution for video applications in these fast-growing regions,” said Chris Carr, Director of Video Markets for Masergy. “We are excited to be partnering with EMC as these regions are extremely important for our customers and partners.”