18 March 2001

Satcoms

Andrew Supplies Transportable Antennas to Globecomm Systems
Andrew Corporation has received a contract to supply transportable 3.7-meter C band earth station antennas to Globecomm Systems Inc, a leading global supplier of end-to-end satellite-based communications solutions.

The transportable antennas are part of a multi-million dollar contract awarded to Globecomm by a major international customer.

Andrew Corporation's 3.7-meter transportable C band antennas offer al combination of high gain, excellent pattern performance, and versatility. The unique Trifold antenna design enables one-person deployment in less than 30 minutes.

The antennas have aluminium trifold reflector panels that provide excellent thermal expansion characteristics and ensure extremely accurate surface contour.

Bird Satellite Communications Announces Canadian Satellite Plans
Richard Stursberg and NB Capital Partners Inc have announced the creation of Bird Satellite Communications Inc, a new Canadian owned and controlled satellite company.

The company intends to launch two satellites effectively ending the monopoly enjoyed by Telesat Canada. Telesat has also announced two new satellites. Both companies will target the Canada's underserved areas.

Bird Satellite Communications will invest an estimated Cdn$ 1 billion (US$ 641 million) in Canadian telecommunications infrastructure.

A Canadian government decision on Bird Satellite's application is expected in three months. If the company's application is successful, the first satellite will be launched in December 2003, the second one by May 2005.

In Telesat's proposal two new satellites would be placed in Canada's orbital slot at 118.7° W. One would provide new capacity for broadcasting and telecommunications services, the other would carry advanced multimedia services to individual Canadians and public institutions.

GlobeCast Spain Selects Scopus Encoders
Globecast (Spain), a subsidiary of France Telecom, has selected Scopus' Codico E-1100 digital broadcasting encoders for deployment in new DSNG (Digital Satellite News Gathering) and fixed satellite projects.

Scopus is providing a series of E-1100 encoders to be installed in news gathering vehicles and teleport ground stations throughout Spain. Scopus is integrating a specialised scrambling unit into the E-1100 enabling high quality contributions signals from DSNG vehicles and allowing the teleports to tighten the security of their communications against piracy and competition.

The E-1100 Professional Encoders operate at 50 Mb/s and handle the new EBU scrambling standard for DSNG application (DSNG - BISS). The E-1100 supports both MPEG-2 4:2:0P@ML and 4:2:2P@ML encoding levels. The E-1100, housed in a single unit rackmounted enclosure, uses an advanced video pre-processor to deliver flexible encoding capabilities and high quality pictures at any given bit rate and with a very low delay.

Globecomm Systems Wins US$ 1.8 Million Fox Contract
Globecomm Systems Inc has been awarded a US$ 1.8 million contract to provide construction, installation and testing of digital satellite receive racks required by Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates to facilitate state-of-the-art digital television broadcast reception.

Globecomm Systems will construct and install the digital satellite receive racks and will be responsible for on-site testing at the Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates' broadcasting stations across the United States and in Mexico. Installation of these racks is scheduled to begin in July 2001 and they are expected to be operational in August 2001.

Kingston MediaStream Uplinks Into the Blue to Astra
Kingston MediaStream has been awarded a contract to provide digital backhaul and uplinking services to the Astra satellites at 28.2° E for the Energis and Graham Technologies joint venture known as Bright Blue.

Bright Blue is an interactive 'virtual high street' that will be available to Sky TV's viewers - more than 4 million people - who will be able to use TV, Internet and mobile phones to access a range of services including shops, banking, travel, betting and recruitment.

To support this service, Kingston MediaStream will provide dual diversely routed 34 Mb/s circuits from the interface point at Telehouse, London. From its Chalfont uplink site in Buckinghamshire, the service will be re-multiplexed using a Phillips compression and multiplexing system before passing through a Tandberg Adaptation hub for addition of Sky's Electronic Programme Guide. This system is designed for high reliability offering 1+1 redundancy throughout the transmission and RF chain.

National Rural Telecommunications Co-operative Partners With DirecPC and StarBand
The National Rural Telecommunications Co-operative (NRTC) has partnered with DirecPC and StarBand to provide satellite-delivered, two-way, high-speed Internet service in the rural American communities served by NRTC's members.

Satellite-delivered Internet, while offering speeds and costs comparable to digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable modems, has the advantage of deployment without the infrastructure investment required for those technologies. The speed and ease of deployment makes satellite-delivered Internet ideal for the sparsely populated and geographically inaccessible areas that many NRTC members serve.

NRTC represents the advanced telecommunications and information technology interests of more than 1,000 rural electric and rural telephone systems and the more than 20 million consumers they serve. NRTC's members and affiliates provide direct broadcast satellite (DBS) equipment and DirecTV programming services to homes with small-dish satellite antennas. With more than 1.7 million subscribers to its DBS services, NRTC is the 10th largest television programming provider in the United States, and the largest provider of satellite television to rural homes. NRTC's family of products and services also includes dial-up and high-speed Internet, e-commerce, utility automation services, power quality, national wireless spectrum, and consumer electronics.

SES and JSAT Co-operate on Broadband IP
Société Européenne des Satellites (SES) and JSAT Corporation (JSAT) are to co-operate on connecting satellite based broadband IP services for corporate and consumer applications between their respective markets with immediate effect.

This agreement significantly extends the reach of the two companies satellite broadband content distribution platforms. These services will be seamlessly integrated into the global, satellite based, broadband IP content distribution infrastructure, based on open-standard ASTRA-NET technology, that SES is deploying in co-operation with its strategic partner operators Sirius in Europe, Star One in Latin America and AsiaSat in Asia.

The JSAT/SES distribution service is now available, interconnected via terrestrial networks, for corporate applications, for example for global multinational corporations who wish to distribute media-rich content to their affiliates and employees worldwide. Japanese companies will have seamless broadband content distribution via satellite in Europe. While at the same time, European companies will be able to extend their reach into Japan.

In addition to corporate services, SES, JSAT and their partners will be able to develop consumer applications. The two companies will also co-operate to enhance the service features of their respective satellite platforms.

SES will, as part of the overall agreement, also enter into negotiations for NTT Europe to become a provider of IP based terrestrial backbone network services.

Science

Orbital Wins ROCSAT-3 Satellite Contract
The National Space Program Office (NSPO) of Taiwan, Republic of China, has awarded the Orbital Sciences Corporation a US$ 56 million contract for the Republic of China Satellite (ROCSAT-3)/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) program.

The ROCSAT-3/COSMIC program will use a constellation of six remote sensing microsatellites to collect atmospheric data for weather prediction and for ionosphere, climate and gravity research.

Under the terms of the contract, Orbital's Space Systems Group will be responsible for constellation design and analysis, joint development of the spacecraft bus with NSPO, payload instrument development and oversight of components made by Taiwan local vendors. Orbital will also provide assistance with system integration, satellite integration and testing in Taiwan, early in-orbit checkout, satellite positioning and mission operations. Orbital and NSPO are planning to launch the six satellites in early 2005. The satellites are designed with an expected in-orbit operational life span of five years.

The ROCSAT-3/COSMIC program is an international collaboration between Taiwan and the United States that seeks to improve existing weather forecasting and climate monitoring systems. The project builds on a proof-of- concept experiment carried on the Orbital-built and launched OrbView-1 satellite, which was deployed in 1995 and still operates today. The ROCSAT-3/COSMIC constellation will augment the current global atmospheric observing systems and provide essential data for improved forecasting of weather and climate research, by providing more than 2,500 atmospheric measurements per day, around the world and in all weather conditions.

The ROCSAT-3/COSMIC satellites are based on Orbital's flight-proven MicroStar spacecraft platform, which is designed to be launched in multiple or "piggyback" units. It is one of world's 'most widely flown spacecraft platforms, with nearly 40 MicroStar-based satellites currently in orbit. For the ROCSAT-3/COSMIC mission, each MicroStar satellite will carry three instruments: a GPS receiver, an ionospheric photometer and a tri-band beacon. The satellites will be commanded from an operations centre in Taiwan and data will be relayed to a facility in Boulder, Colorado for analysis and archiving. This data will be made freely available to the international scientific community in near real-time.

Technology

First 64-bit RISC Processor for Space
High-Reliability Components Corporation (HIREC) of Japan, under contract with the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan, has developed the first 64-bit RISC microprocessor chip for space applications.

The microprocessor chip is based on MIPS Technologies' 64-bit processor architecture for high-performance, low-power embedded applications.

Development of the microprocessor chip was a collaborative effort, led by HIREC, among leading technology providers. Toshiba Corporation, a licensee of the MIPS architecture, developed the 64-bit TX49 processor core intellectual property. NEC Corporation developed the chip's large-scale gate-array technology, and Kyocera Corporation developed highly reliable packaging suitable for use in space.

NASDA plans to use the chip in satellite applications, beginning with the Engineering Test Satellite VIII, which will establish and verify the world's largest geostationary satellite bus technology and the Advanced Land Observing Satellite, which will be used for cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring and resource surveying.

The features implemented by Toshiba to handle the rigors of space and ensure reliable operation include:

• MIPS instruction set
• 36-bit address bus (64-bit virtual address), 64-bit data bus
• 8 kB instruction cache, 8 kB data cache with 8-bit error detection and correction
• 25 MHz pipeline frequency
• 50 MHz external clock (a selectable feature for the bus clock rate)
• 64-bit general-purpose registers, integer unit, floating point registers, and floating point unit
• operating voltage of 3.3V (5.0V I/O tolerance)
• operating temperature of -40 to +85 degrees C
• 304-pin ceramic flat package

Launch Services

ATK Receives Ariane 5 Contract
ATK Aerospace Composite Structures Company has been awarded contracts worth approximately US$ 1.8 million from EADS CASA Espacio to produce composite structures for the Ariane 5 space launch vehicle.

Under a nine-month contract valued at approximately US$ 1 million, ATK Aerospace Composite Structures Company will fabricate a composite adapter that serves as a link between the Ariane 5 vehicle's upper stage and the payload.

A second contract worth approximately US$ 800,000 calls for the company to produce additional interstage skirts, which connect the lower and upper stages of the vehicle. These additional flight models represent a follow-on to an original US$ 4 million contract award received in 1999.

Work under both contracts will be performed at the company's Southern Composites Center in Iuka, Mississippi.

Delta IV Problems Threaten USAF Selection
Technical problems with Boeing's Delta IV program may force the US Air Force to choose rival Lockheed Martin for the first EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) launch scheduled for May next year. Worse, the fall off in the commercial launch business may make the Delta IV project unprofitable.

Lockheed Martin's family of Atlas launchers is closer to US Air Force certification for the first EELV launch having completed all its engine tests. A further point in Lockheed's favour is that the design is based on hardware that is already flight proven.

Boeing's Delta IV is a largely new design which uses the new RS-68 engine, the design of which has seen a series of delays and problems including excessive vibration which forced the redesign of the pump supplying fuel and oxygen to the motor.

Boeing's Delta IV program has cost the company some US$ 1.5 billion so far, with the US government adding a further US$ 500 million. The declining demand for commercial launches, particularly to LEO, in a market which is still highly competitive, makes it difficult to see haw Boeing can ever recover this investment in the development of its Delta IV launcher family. Boeing has yet to sign a commercial customer for its first launch which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2002.

Business

Comsearch Opens SE Asia Office
Comsearch has opened a new office for Southeast Asia, located just outside Sydney, Australia, from which it will offer a full range of engineering services and software support to wireless operators, vendors and system integrators in the Asia Pacific region.

Comsearch will offer engineering services to include design, installation and commissioning for all modes of wireless communications. Services to be offered include distributed wireless/in-building services, micro and macro cell design work, fixed network engineering for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications, satellite engineering, field measurements, as well as sales of Comsearch's IQ Link software network design tool.

Comsearch's Southeast Asia office will begin operation on April 1, 2001, and will be located at: 6 Stuart Street, Padstow, 2211 NSW, Australia, tel: +61 2 9774 3300, email: [email protected]

Gilat Profits To Tumble
Disappointing profit forecasts for Gilat Satellite Networks have caused the value of shares in the company to drop by one half.

VSAT manufacturer Gilat posted fourth quarter earnings excluding charges of US$ 19.4 million (US$ 0.82 per share) compared to US$ 23 million (US$ 1.00 per share) the previous year. Revenue increased from US$ 109 million to US$ 175 million.

Taking charges in to account, Gilat made a loss of US$ 0.44 per share compared to analysts expectations of an earning of US$ 0.83 per share.

Gilat also cut its forecast for earnings for the next two years, predicting US$ 1 per share for fiscal year 2001 (previously US$ 2.43) and US$ 2 per share (previously US$ 3.57).

The reason for the downturn - slower purchases by US and international customers and tighter access to equity markets.

To cut costs, Gilat has laid off 275 (about 18%) of its 1500 employees.

ICO-Teledesic Responds to Market Conditions
ICO-Teledesic Global's affiliate, New ICO, is to collaborate with Ellipso to build a global voice and data satellite system. In a parallel move, ICO-Teledesic Global and New ICO Global Communications (Holdings) have cancelled their proposed merger.

New ICO, and Ellipso will collaborate on technical, financial, business and regulatory issues related to the deployment of spectrum-efficient satellite systems capable of providing a broad array of telecommunications services on a global basis. The agreement ultimately could lead to a strategic alliance and the merger of ICO-Teledesic Global and Ellipso assets. A merged system is reportedly scheduled for launch is 2003.

Washington based Ellipso is developing the Ellipso satellite-based global communications system that will provide low-cost and high-quality digital voice and data services worldwide. Utilising unique and patented elliptical orbits, the Ellipso system will provide a full range of advanced communications services to subscribers at prices significantly lower than competing systems. The Ellipso project includes the participation of The Boeing Company, the Harris Corporation and L-3 Communications. The Ellipso team is also involved in the development of the Virtual Geo broadband satellite system that will replicate the characteristics of satellites in geostationary orbit, efficiently reusing spectrum without interference. Ellipso has not, however, shown any real signs that it is capable of raising the US$ 1.5 billion required to build, launch and operate its satellite system.

New ICO is constructing a constellation of MEO satellites with which it will offer wireless Internet and other packet-data services. Boeing Satellite Systems is building the satellites.

ICO-Teledesic Global Limited and New ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited have withdrawn their pending S-4 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The S-4, which was filed in September 2000, related to the proposed mergers of New ICO and Teledesic Corporation into ICO-Teledesic Global, a Kirkland, Washington-based holding company formed to hold the satellite assets of Craig McCaw.

ICO-Teledesic Global and New ICO determined to withdraw the registration statement while they assess the impact of dramatically different financial market conditions and changes to the New ICO and Teledesic business plans.

New ICO acquired the assets of ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited ("Old ICO") in May 2000 following Old ICO's emergence from Chapter 11 reorganisation proceedings. In that transaction, Old ICO shareholders and other constituents received shares of New ICO's Class A Common Stock. Under the terms of the plan of reorganisation approved by the bankruptcy court, New ICO undertook to use reasonable efforts to list its Class A Common Stock no later than March 31, 2001. Concurrent with the withdrawal of the S-4 registration statement, New ICO today filed an application with the bankruptcy court to seek confirmation that, in light of the changed circumstances described above, New ICO is not required to list the Class A Common Stock within this timeframe.

Integral Systems Forms European Subsidiary
Integral Systems Inc has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Integral Systems Europe SAS, with headquarters in Toulouse, France.

The new subsidiary will serve as the focal point for the support of all of Integral's European business.

Contact information for the new subsidiary is as follows: Integral Systems Europe SAS, High Tech Buro C, Voie 3, 31677 Labege Cedex, France, tel: (+33) 5 61002210, fax: (+33) 5 61002213.

Integral Systems is a leading provider of satellite ground systems and has supported over 120 different satellite missions for communications, science, meteorological and earth resource applications.

Products and Services

GlobeCast Introduces IP Services in America
GlobeCast, France Telecom's broadcast services division, has introduced MCast, its satellite-based Internet services, in America.

GlobeCast's MCast CDN is a satellite-based content delivery network that provides push distribution and caching of Internet content at ISPs across Latin America from GlobeCast's IPSat gateway in Miami.

The service is targeted at content providers in North and Latin America seeking faster delivery of their content to the growing base of Latin American Internet users.

The MCast product line also includes MCast File (file distribution,) MCast Connect (connectivity to the international backbone in North America) and Mcast Direct (direct-to-subscriber distribution of IP content via satellite.)

Paradise Datacom Introduces Turbo Satellite Modem
Paradise Datacom has introduced a Turbo Code version of its P300 Satellite modem, known as the P300 Turbo. The P300 Turbo allows the power and bandwidth reductions possible with Turbo coding to be used in satellite communications circuits from closed network VSAT systems through to international trunking of data or IP (Internet Protocol) traffic.

Turbo coding is a powerful new error coding technique, (so called because the output from the Forward Error Correction decoder is fed back to the input, in a roughly similar way to which a Turbo system in a car drives the inlet from the exhaust). Turbo coding is sought after by earth station operators as it allows more efficient usage of the same transponder capacity, thus reducing ongoing operating costs.

The improvement in error correction Turbo coding brings may be used either by applying less error correction information prior to transmission (thus saving bandwidth), or by using less power and relying on the enhanced error correction to provide the required quality of service. In practice, bandwidth savings of 40%, or close to 2.5 dB in power, are possible compared to techniques in common use at present. These improvements result directly in ongoing revenue savings for the operators.

Initially, Paradise Datacom are offering a plug-in Turbo Codec card based on an "off-the-shelf" VLSI chip which implements a proprietary Turbo Product Code (TPC) scheme which has become popular in the satellite communications industry. Should another Turbo coding scheme, such as the Turbo Convolutional Coding (TCC) scheme currently being investigated for standardisation by Intelsat, gain favour, Paradise Datacom will additionally offer an alternative plug-in card implementing this coding scheme.

In addition to accepting an optional plug-in Turbo Codec card, the P300 Turbo provides the full P300 feature set, providing any combination of BPSK, QPSK, OQPSK and 8PSK/TCM operation, with IBS/SMS, IDR, Closed Network or Closed Net plus ESC services. It may be fitted simultaneously with Viterbi, Sequential, Trellis (TCM) and Turbo FEC and may also operate uncoded. A variable code rate Intelsat compliant Reed-Solomon outer codec is also available.

Tandberg TV Doubles Satellite Capacity
Tandberg Television has launched its SM5600 QPSK/8PSK/16QAM modulator with an optional Dynamic Pre-Correction (DPC) system.

With 16QAM modulation, broadcasters are able to send more than 20 channels through a 36 MHz bent-pipe transponder instead of the usual six to eight using QPSK.

What makes the SM5600 modulator unique, however, is its ability to be enhanced with the Tandberg Television Dynamic Pre-Correction system. The use of higher order modulation also brings increased susceptibility to distortion in the satellite and earth station, which means that transmitted signal levels often must be "backed off" from saturation. DPC is a modulator-based technology that corrects earth station uplink and satellite based distortions while allowing the system to operate at saturation.

Historically, higher order modulation required a significant increase in receiver dish size and earth station uplink power, which to date has made this largely impractical. The Tandberg Television DPC system allows significantly smaller receiver dish sizes and smaller, less expensive earth station amplifiers to be used. This paves the way for facilitating the very high bit rates that operators and broadcasters are now demanding.

The DVB-compliant SM5600 modulator is interoperable with any DVB-S/DVB-DSNG compliant receiver in the field and is scheduled for launch in the second quarter of 2001.

Tandberg TV Introduces Voyager DSNG Encoder
Tandberg Television has introduced the Voyager digital SNG encoder.

Featuring six option slots, the Voyager digital SNG encoder is capable of housing an integrated IRD and higher order modulation offering QPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM in the same unit. The new encoder has the lowest bit-rate available, capable of performing at as low as 256 kbit/s. The low bit-rate capability, as well as the compactness of the unit, directly addresses the industry's need for an economical solution that offers better quality in a smaller chassis. In addition, the unit offers Tandberg Television's unique fully exhaustive motion estimation, which allows the system to read the entire video frame as opposed to only a portion, providing the utmost in picture quality. Remultiplexing using Tandberg Television's unique "star configuration" is also an option as are RAS or BISS encryption. All these options can be housed in the same unit at the same time.

The OFDM encoder/modulator, which Tandberg Television pioneered, is now available in 2 forms. The E6100 will be demonstrated for the first time in the United States. Designed for use in aviation and motorcycle production applications the E6100 is a half 19" rack solution, combining MPEG-2 video compression with DVB-T OFDM modulation. It features a detachable front panel that allows the operator to fit the unit inside the passenger compartment of an aircraft. Its small, robust structure also makes the E6100 ideal for motorcycle applications.

People

PanAmSat Appoints Scott Tagliarino to Marketing Position
PanAmSat Corporation has announced the appointment of Scott Tagliarino to the position of vice president, corporate and marketing communications.

In this post, Mr Tagliarino will direct all of PanAmSat's worldwide marketing and communications activities relating to the company's global satellite services and operations.

As vice president, corporate and marketing communications, Mr Tagliarino manages all PanAmSat marketing communications activities. These functions include public and media relations; advertising and corporate marketing; creative services; corporate events planning and trade shows; market research; and customer communications.

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