TECHNOLOGY

C-Com Unveils Inclined Orbit Satellite Tracking

C-Com Satellite Systems has developed a proprietary inclined orbit satellite-tracking algorithm intended to provide customers with the ability to use inclined orbit satellites for their space segment needs.
    With the new feature enabled, C-Com said the iNetVu controller will ensure that the mobile antenna maintains its maximum peaked signal on the configured inclined orbit satellite irrespective of their inclination angle.

M/A-Com Technology Solutions Introduces Broadband Surface-Mount Switches

M/A-ComTechnology Solutions Inc. is introducing a family of surface mount broadband switches for test instrumentation, satellite and other wide frequency range applications.
    The switches are offered in three chipscale package sizes — SPDT, SP3T and SP4T — and offer performance with a range of 24 gigahertz to 26 gigahertz depending on the package.

Newtec, ABS Optimize Point-to-Point Satellite Transmissions

Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) is working with Newtec to optimize their point-to-point transmissions services via satellite.
    Using Newtec’s DVB-S2 modulator and demodulator technology, ABS customers can transport live video content from their studios and live events directly to ABS gateway teleports efficiently and reliably. These live video contribution feeds are then multiplexed, encrypted and uplinked to full transponder MCPC platforms on ABS-1 for pay-TV distribution and direct-to-home broadcasting.
    Newtec’s integrated high-order DVB-S2 modulation solution consists of an AZ110 Azimuth Broadcast satellite modulator and an AZ910 demodulator.

Sirius XM Releases iPhone, iPod Content Access Application

Sirius XM Radio released a free application on Apple’s App Store that will allow iPhone and iPod touch users to access Sirius XM content.
    Sirius XM said users of iPhone and iPod touch also will have access to exclusive, Internet-only showcase channels.

Starling Introduces Antenna System

Starling Advanced Communication launched a Ku-band airborne broadband antenna system, MIJETLite.
    The system enables data transmission and reception at true broadband bit rates via a low profile and lightweight antenna. The antenna system aims to provide aircrafts with a compact size, lightweight, Ku-band antenna system. Starling hopes this system will open up the airborne broadband market for in flight entertainment and communications and cockpit applications.

Teamcast Develops DVB-T2 Modulator

TeamCast will partner with the BBC on a DVB-T2 modulator for professional applications.
     Under the collaboration agreement, TeamCast is licensed to use BBC’s embedded demodulator software as the functional core of the overall product firmware developed by TeamCast.

SERVICES

Amino, Prime Time Upgrade IPTV HD Service to MPEG-4

Prime Time Communications, a provider of integrated IP-based services, and Amino Communications, an IPTV entertainment solutions provider, have completed an MPEG-4 upgrade program to deliver expanded high-definition services to their customers in Utah.
    Prime Time, which offers IP-based services to more than 10,000 subscribers, said it programmed a rapid two-week changeover program to convert 3,800 customers to MPEG-4 video signaling using Amino’s AmiNET130 and AmiNET530 high-definition set-top boxes.

BBC USES Eutelsat W2M, Nilesat To Cover Iranian Election Dispute

BBC enlisted the help of Eutelsat’s W2M satellite to assist the broadcast company in covering the presidential election dispute in Iran. The BBC also said it will be receiving the help of Nilesat satellites in the near future.
    According to the BBC, the satellites help circumvent jamming of the broadcaster’s Persian-language service. The jamming allegedly was by the Iranian government.
    BBC’s Persian-language service is normally provided exclusively from Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 6 satellite, which has experienced heavy interference over the last week, the BBC said in a statement.

Canal Plus Brings Pay-TV Service to Microsoft Xbox 360

Microsoft signed a strategic partnership deal with French broadcaster Canal Plus to bring pay-TV content to Xbox users in France. The partnership initially will involve on-demand services from Canal Plus, CanalPlay and Foot Plus and eventually be extended to other products of the Canal Plus group as well as other Microsoft platforms.
    Microsoft said Xbox viewers in France will have access to thousands of movies, a television catch-up service, as well as access to premier league French soccer, which Canal Plus holds the rights for. There are 1 million Xbox 360 users in France, while Canal Plus’ Canalsat direct-to-home platform has more than 5 million subscribers.
    The deal follows Microsoft’s partnership with BSkyB, announced in May, which allows Xbox users to have access to Sky pay-TV content in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Canalsat Launches On-Demand TV Service

French satellite pay-TV operator Canalsat launched its on-demand television service, Canalsat a la Demande. The service was launched on the PC market in January, and Canalsat is extending that service to broadcast TV.
    Canalsat has more than 5 million subscribers in France, making it one of the largest pay-TV operators in Western Europe.

EchoStar Provides ViP-TV Services to Northern Georgia

EchoStar Satellite Services signed an agreement with Ringgold Telephone Company (RTC), a U.S. provider of converged communications to access lines in northern Georgia, to deliver EchoStar’s ViP-TV video transport service to RTC’s secured network.
    With EchoStar’s support, RTC will receive transport of up to 42 high-definition TV channels to its IP headend, bringing its total number of high-definition channels to 48. RTC said the ViP-TV delivered IP channels will be available immediately to its subscribers.

Eutelsat Launches DTT Service in France

Eutelsat has launched Fransat, a satellite service providing access in metropolitan France to all free digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels.
    The service, based on Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 3 satellite, offers access to 18 DTT channels, plus France Ô and four high-definition channels. It is a subscription-free service with no time limit and based on the same model as terrestrial DTT.

Inmarsat Initiates BGAN X-Stream Service in Asia-Pacific

Inmarsat launched its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) X-Stream service in the Asia-Pacific region, completing the global coverage for the new service.
    BGAN X-Stream guarantees streaming IP data rates from 384 kilobits per second (kbps) to around 450kbps and has been developed as an enhancement to BGAN’s other streaming services. The IP streaming service is accessible through terminals manufactured by Hughes and Thrane & Thrane.

Keystone Provides Distance Learning Satellite Network to Lehigh University

Keystone Enterprise Services announced a partnership with Lehigh University to enhance its distance learning educational program using Keystone’s interactive satellite-training network.
    The service will transmit graduate courses live from studio classrooms located on the Lehigh campus to Keystone client sites and elsewhere. Students can also communicate with the course instructor by phone bridge.
    Lehigh University specializes in distance learning programs for both undergraduate and graduate studies.

Vizada adds Inmarsat FleetBroadband 150; Partners With Addvalue

Vizada has launched its Inmarsat FleetBroadband 150 (FB 150), a high-speed maritime voice, IP data and SMS service, Vizada announced. The mobile satellite terminal measures 29 centimeters and is designed for smaller vessels with relatively low data requirements, including fishing boats, leisure boats and smaller merchant vessels such as tug boats.
    Separately, Addvalue Technologies appointed Vizada as its first tier distributor partner for Addvalue’s Skipper 150 FleetBroadband terminal. Vizada will distribute the Addvalue maritime broadband products to its target markets.

CONTRACTS

DigitalGlobe Signs NGA Imagery Extension Contract

DigitalGlobe signed a contract to extend its NextView world imagery service agreement with the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) for $12.5 million per month.
    DigitalGlobe will provide NGA with access to the WorldView-1 satellite through March 31, for a total of $100 million during the extension period.
    The contract also includes an option for NGA to extend the contract for an additional nine months — from April 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2010 — on the same terms.

Eutelsat Selected by German Province to Provide Broadband Services.

Eutelsat signed a satellite broadband deal with the German province of Brandenburg to provide services supporting Brandenburg’s Broadband Supply for Rural Areas program. The program’s goal is to bridge the digital divide in the German state, which has a population of around 2.5 million, by the end of 2009
    In collaboration with service providers, Eutelsat will provide its Tooway satellite broadband service to all interested households and small companies at a monthly 39.95 euros ($56.18) cost for a 24-month subscription, equipment included.

Gilat To Build Broadband Networks in Papua New Guinea

Telikom PNG, a government-owned telecommunications operator serving Papua New Guinea, has selected Gilat Satellite Networks’ SkyEdge and SkyEdge 2 platforms to provide a broadband satellite communications network covering hundreds of sites.
    Gilat’s SkyEdge platform will be used to deliver broadband Internet services to remote areas and to provide telephony to rural citizens. As part of this deployment, a number of existing Gilat DialAway sites will be upgraded to the SkyEdge platform, Gilat said.
    Gilat’s SkyEdge 2 platform will aim to serve Papua New Guinea’s interactive data communications requirements of enterprises in its financial services sector.

Integral Systems Provides Command and Control System to SkyTerra

Integral Systems signed a contract with Telesat to provide Integral’s Epoch Integrated Product Suite (Epoch IPS) of satellite command and control software to support the SkyTerra1 and SkyTerra2 satellites. Telesat will add the Epoch IPS to its existing Epoch control system supporting nine satellites it owns and operates.
    Integral Systems also is implementing a set of executable operating procedures for the satellite platform based on Boeing’s recommended operating procedures, which are implemented using Integral Systems’ Automated Real-Time Execution Suite procedure platform. Telesat will develop payload procedures, perform validation of the bus and payload procedures to ensure operational readiness and assume operational control of the SkyTerra satellites at completion of in-orbit testing, the company said.
    Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.

Lockheed Martin Wins Air Force Space Fence Development Contract

The U.S. Air Force awarded a $30 million contract to Lockheed Martin to begin concept development for Space Fence, a system of land-based S-band radars supporting operations centers that detects and reports objects and debris orbiting the Earth.
    Lockheed Martin’s team, which includes General Dynamics, AT&T and AMEC, will develop potential system configurations. The contract also includes site and facility surveys as well as planning and development of net-centric approaches to integrate with the existing architecture of the Space Surveillance Network.

MDA Receives $21.7 Million Canadian DefenSe Contract

MDA signed a $21.7 million contract with the Canadian government to provide the Canadian Department of National Defence with a maritime surveillance solution based on MDA’s Radarsat-2. The contract initiates the implementation phase and will include real-time coastal ground systems and an advanced ship information extraction system to exploit the new data.
    The contract builds on a $2.4 million deal MDA won in June 2007 to conduct the definition phase for Polar Epsilon, a maritime and arctic surveillance project targeted to deliver space-based, day and night, all-weather maritime surveillance information of Canada’s Arctic and its ocean approaches.

SES Americom-New Skies Wins Korea Telecom C-band Capacity Deal

SES Americom-New Skies signed a three-year capacity agreement with Korea Telecom (KT) for the use of up to 9 megahertz of C-band capacity on the NSS-703 and NSS-12 satellites. KT has deployed a dedicated 32-meter uplink antenna to access the SES Americom-New Skies satellite at KT’s Earth station in Boeun, Korea.
    NSS-703 is located at 57 degrees East, with NSS-12 scheduled for launch into this orbital slot in the third quarter.

SES Astra Signs Deal with SatGate

SES Astra signed a capacity deal with SatGate, a Lithuanian satellite service provider, to resume transmissions from SES Astra’s orbital position at 31.5 degrees East.
    SatGate originally started services from 31.5 degrees East on the Astra 5A satellite. The spacecraft ended its mission in January and was replaced in April by Astra 2C, which carries 24 BSS transponders. With the new contract, SatGate uses five transponders on SES satellites, four on Astra 2C and a previously contracted transponder on the Sirius 4 satellite.
    SatGate uses four transponders to provide broadband and Internet connectivity to ISPs, households and end customers in Eastern and Central Europe, Russia and its neighboring countries and the Middle East. Part of the capacity also will be used to serve ISPs who do not have the necessary infrastructure themselves, SES Astra said.

SpeedCast INKS Distribution Agreement with Globe Wireless

SpeedCast entered into a strategic distribution agreement with Globe Wireless to provide Ku-band broadband maritime service to extend Globe Wireless’ broadband services.
    Globe Wireless provides maritime fleets with end-to-end communications and information technology applications across all the major shipping lanes and regions of the world. This broadband service, provided by SpeedCast in partnership with Eutelsat, will serve Globe Wireless customers across the key shipping lanes using Ku-band capacity on more than 15 beams and multiple teleports in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
    SpeedCast also will supply applications to serve requirements onboard vessels.

Wavestream Wins Military Ka-band Amplifier Order from General Dynamics

Wavestream Corp. received orders totaling more than $50 million from General Dynamics for products from Wavestream’s family of Ka-band SSPAs  for the U.S. Army’s new satellite transportable terminals.
    The product being delivered to General Dynamics is a 50-Watt Ka-band SSPA with integrated BUC, which is part of a family of Ka-band products by Wavestream that includes 12-Watt and 25-Watt models. To date, Wavestream has delivered over 600 Ka-band SSPAs to General Dynamics.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Eutelsat Names CEO to Replace Berretta

Michel de Rosen will replace Giuliano Berretta as the CEO of Eutelsat in November.
    De Rosen initially will join Eutelsat in July as deputy CEO and work with Berretta in advance of assuming the CEO position in November. Berretta will continue as chairman of the Board.
    De Rosen began his career in France in the Inspection Générale des finances in the Ministry of Finance and from 1986 to 1988 was chief of staff of the Minister of Industry and Telecommunications. From 1988 to 1999 he held executive positions at Rhône-Poulenc, including CEO of Rhône-Poulenc Fibers and Polymers from 1988 to 1993 and CEO of Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (United States) from 1993 to 1999. From 2000 to 2008 he was chairman and CEO of ViroPharma in the (United States). He returned to France in 2008 to the position of chairman and CEO of SGD.

Pace Appoints CSO

Pace appointed Scott Sheldon as its first chief strategy officer. Sheldon will be responsible for development of a strategy in the global market for digital TV technology.
    Previously, Sheldon served at N.M. Rothschild & Sons, where he was a director and global head of technology investment banking covering hardware, software, services and semiconductor clients.

ITT Corp. Names New Imagery Director

ITT Corp. named Edward Kelly as director of image information solutions for tactical development in the company’s space systems division. Kelly will be responsible for assessing business trends and customer requirements along with identifying and helping capture new business for the image information solutions business unit.
    Kelly previously served as program manager at ITT’s advanced engineering and sciences division.