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1www.satellite-evolution.com | March/April 2020

Editor’s View....

Networking in the face of adversityAmy Saunders

Editor

“Many of the smallsatellites coming intoplay this year areworking to bridge thedigital divide.....”

2020 is shaping up to be a huge year for the satellite sector; already, we’ve seen big announcements across the board, in everything fromon-orbit satellite servicing and deep space communications through to inflight connectivity firsts and maritime services.

The year is set to be especially promising for the small satellite sphere, with many of the new constellations reaching fruition; SpaceXalone is due to launch some 1,500 satellites for its Starlink constellation this year, while OneWeb is also ramping up its launch schedule,having successfully orbited 34 new satellites in February. Wondering what will the effects be onthe wider space segment? Check out SIG’s article on page 18 for the latest thoughts.

Many of the small satellites coming into play this year are working to bridge the digital divideby delivering high speed Internet connectivity in remote and rural locations, including SpaceXand OneWeb. Other high-speed broadband delivery satellite constellations in the works, dis-cussed on page 8, include O3b’s next generation mPOWER series, as well as Telesat, Facebookand Amazon.

Indeed, satellite technology itself is racing ahead, with the high throughput satellites (HTS)we all know and love going even larger: Very high throughput satellites (VHTS) such as Inmarsat’sGX5 can deliver even more capacity than ever before, although the long-term effects of this andthe other upcoming VHTS are expected to further negatively impact on capacity pricing.

With the threat of COVID-19 surging across the world, ubiquitous, reliable satellite communi-cations are required now more than ever in order to keep people connected during periods of isolation. Remote working is going to see ahuge boom in the coming months, enabling certain industries to stay afloat, however, there are tough times ahead for many others.

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No part of this publication may betransmitted, reproduced or electronicallystored without the written permissionfrom the publisher.

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All editorial contentsCopyright © 2019 DS Air PublicationsAll rights reservedISSN: 1740-3413

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Contents - volume 18 - issue 2

Regulars4 Satellite News Review

8 High-speed goes small

16 Q&A Bernd Lehr, Sales Director, ND SATCOM

18 Lessons from GEO: smallsats and low Earthorbit

22 Q&A Tore Morten, President of Marlink Maritime

26 News gathering goes mobile

30 Gearing up for a 5G future

32 Q&A Sean Wiid, UP42’s CPO

Front cover: Photo courtesy ofShutterstock

Never before in history has as muchdata been collected as it is today.There are literally billions of sensorsspread across the world, on land,at sea, in the air, and in space, re-cording anything and everything;data as diverse as traffic patterns,weather formations, remote ma-chine applications on oil rigs and inagriculture, stock room supplies,medicine consumption patterns, etc.The amount of data being collected has seen a new era of Big Datacome into being, one which companies and governments the worldover are grappling to understand and manage.

COVER STORY - 12

Changing the world with Big Data

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Photo courtesy of SpaceX

Kacific1 Broadband services commence across Asia-PacificKacific1, Kacific Broadband Satell ites Group’s firstcommunications satellite, has entered commercial serviceand is ready to support customers across Asia-Pacific.

Designed and manufactured by Boeing, Kacific1 is a high-throughput, ka-band satellite which successfully launchedon 16 December 2019 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Thepayload and bus platform have been thoroughly tested andall 56 spot beams are now operating with full capability fromthe 150E orbital position.

“From the early design and through the constructionphases, we knew that Kacific1 would provide the Asia-Pacificregion with cost-effective technology to transform lives andbusinesses with the best broadband available to remoteareas. Now with the in-orbit tests completed, we can realizethis huge potential.” said Bob Perpall, Chief TechnologyOfficer, Kacific.

“In the two months since launch, we’ve rolled out over ahundred trial sites across Asia-Pacific and are extremelypleased with the technology’s performance. When we put upthe initial carriers and saw the performance we were gettingon that first terminal, we knew then that we had somethingwonderful to offer people.”

Kacific engineers are upskilling local engineers in theinstallation and maintenance of the satellite groundtechnology. The rapid rollout will continue in coming monthsconnecting both new end users and those being transferredfrom the provisional Ku-band network to Kacific1’s Ka-bandservices.

Intelsat selects SpaceX to launch Intelsat 40e SatelliteIntelsat has selected SpaceX as its launch partner for Intelsat40e (IS-40e). The launch is planned for 2022 on SpaceX’sAmerican-built Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

“We look forward to working with SpaceX to launch Intelsat40e in 2022,” said Intelsat Chief Services Officer MikeDeMarco. “IS-40e will join the Intelsat Epic high-throughputsatellite fleet and integrated IntelsatOne ground network toprovide our customers with the managed hybrid-connectivitythey need in today’s ever-changing world.”

“We are honoured Intelsat, one of the world’s premiersatellite operators, has selected a flight-proven Falcon 9 todeliver its next geostationary communications satellite toorbit,” said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales TomOchinero.

Intelsat 40e is an advanced geostationary satellite thatwill provide Intelsat’s government and enterprise customersacross North and Central America with high throughput,“coast-to-coast” services. The satellite’s capabilities willsupport the growing number of customers that depend onIntelsat’s managed services and solutions to easily integratesatellite into their overall networking and communicationsstrategies. Intelsat announced in February that MaxarTechnologies will manufacture IS-40e.

This is the second launch for Intelsat and SpaceX. In 2017,SpaceX launched Intelsat 35e, a satellite currently providinghigh-throughput coverage for Intelsat customers in portionsof North and South America, Europe and Africa.

PCBL selects ATEME for downlinking of televisioncontent throughout the PacificATEME, the leader in video delivery solutions for Broadcast,Cable TV, DTH, IPTV and OTT, has provided Kyrion DR5000Integrated Receiver Decoders (IRDs) to Pacific CooperationBroadcasting Limited (PCBL), a New Zealand Governmentinitiative that supports Pacific free-to-air broadcasters throughthe delivery of New Zealand-originated content forrebroadcast, and the provision of training to encourage theproduction of local content.

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Want to supply content for consideration?Contact the Editor: [email protected]

www.satellite-evolution.comPCBL opted for 52 DR5000 IRDs for its easy setup; fast

signal lock; and industry leading RF robustness. A future-proof solution, the ATEME IRDs provide support for HEVC,in addition to 10-bit 4:2:2, SD, HD, UHD, MPEG2 and H264to be installed into the 25 downlink locations. The Kyrionsolution provides PCBL and its regional partners - whichcovers approximately 20 percent of the Earth’s surface - withunmatched reliability and video quality.

Professionalism, ease of use, and reliability both in termsof the product itself and ATEME’s ability to deliver accordingto the project’s tight schedule were key factors in PCBL’sdecision making. ATEME is recognised worldwide as a trustedlong-term partner who can assist customers like PCBL inthe implementation of its current and future vision.

“Some of our clients are in remote parts of the world,including Kiribati, Solomon Islands, The Kingdom of Tonga,and Niue. Support and service are obviously hard to comeby quickly in these places, so the DR5000’s robustness anduser-friendly operation were key to our decision,” saidNatasha Meleisea, Chief Executive of PBCL. “With many ofour broadcast partners spread across the Pacific, being ableto roll out the decoders and configure them on site via USBproved to be another huge advantage. The ease ofconfiguration, coupled with the skill of the onsite team, sawour fastest installation completed within 15 minutes.”

“ATEME was always confident in meeting PCBL’s exactingtimelines and technical requirements,” said Will Munkara-Kerr,Country Manager for ATEME Australia and New Zealand. “Weare delighted to have been a part of PCBL’s ambitious vision,and now that the initial phases have been successfullydeployed, we are looking forward to continuing our closerelationship as that vision expands.”

Intellian’s next-generation tri-band maritime antennaearns type approval from SESIntellian, globally renowned as a pioneering force in thedesign and manufacture of mobile satellite communicationsystems, has achieved further success with the news that itsrecently launched 2.4m v240MT Gen-II antenna has achievedtype approval from SES, the leader in global contentconnectivity solutions.

Intellian’s v240MT Gen-I was the world’s first 2.4m tri-band and multi-orbit antenna, winning Via Satellite’s inauguralSatellite Technology of the Year Award in 2019. The v240MTGen-II delivers enhanced performance across C, Ku and Kabands, providing customers with access to higher throughputand offering improved network efficiency to the operator.These advances were proven in partnership with SES, withthe new system producing exceptional results during testingand sea trials.

In addition to the enhanced performance of the v240MTGen-II, the new model offers greater flexibility and morefeatures than ever before. Paired with the innovative newIntelligent Mediator solution, customers are now able tomanage up to eight antennas simultaneously. This allows forseamless connectivity and the ability to maximizeperformance and throughput from the systems on board.Customers and partners also benefit from the capability to

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manage and control systems both on-board and remotely,allowing for cost savings through monitor ing andmaintenance.

“As SES operates the industry’s only multi-orbit satellitefleet, with a GEO and MEO constellation, we believe that thev240MT Gen-II antenna system, with its tri-band and multi-orbit flexibility, constitutes a perfect fit,” says Eric Sung, CEOof Intellian. “Both companies are focused on deliveringinnovative solutions to customers in terms of performance,reliability, flexibility and all-round user experience. It’s excitingto know that we are forging a new path for maritime satellitecommunications with our valued partners.”

COMSAT named 2020 Independent Teleport Operator ofthe Year by the World Teleport AssociationCOMSAT has been named Independent Teleport Operatorof the Year by the World Teleport Association (WTA), duringits 25th annual Teleport Awards for Excellence event. TheWTA presents the award to a teleport business whoseachievements have been deemed exceptional by industrymembers from across the globe, and selected COMSAT asthe winner from a field of 35 nominations.

COMSAT was honoured to receive the award for the firsttime in its rich history in the sector, which has been built on alegacy of providing teleport services to complex networksconnected to multiple terrestrial fibre pathways for over 50years. Its ground infrastructure, state-of-the-art technologyand onsite 24/7/365 network operations centres supportingextensive geographic redundancy was also acknowledged.In addition, the company’s continuous investment indevelopment of its Tier 4 certified teleports located on theeast and west coast of the USA added weight to the judges’decision. Upon completion, the current phase of expansionwill augment COMSAT’s already extensive redundancy andexpand its transmission pathway capacity for existing andnew satellite companies launching an increasing number ofsatellites into various orbits. The expansion also enhancesCOMSAT’s cybersecurity infrastructure across all services.

Presenting the award to David Greenhill, COMSAT CEO,Louis Zacharilla, Director of Development, WTA, also singledout the contribution COMSAT makes to saving lives bykeeping global emergency services connected, even in themost challenging environments.

“Objective recognition of our hard work and investmentfrom members of an organization as prestigious as the WorldTeleport Association, especially in such a competitivemarketplace, is incredibly satisfying for us. We work diligentlyto ensure that COMSAT stands out from the crowd bydelivering the most advanced, reliable, interconnected globalnetwork and ground facilities available internationally. Whenour next phase of expansion is complete COMSAT will supportmore satellite constellation providers than any other terrestrialnetwork and this award demonstrates how important that isfor the industry,” said Greenhill.

WORK Microwave DVB-S2 solutions power earthobservation data reception in AntarcticaWORK Microwave announced that a leading geospatialanalytics company is using its DVB-S2 IP Receiver SDD-IPto receive earth observation data from Antarctica. UtilizingWORK Microwave’s DVB-S2 receiver, the company canachieve high throughput and outstanding signal receptionperformance.

WORK Microwave’s DVB-S2 receiver is a robust platformfor receiving IP and Ethernet data over DVB-S2 satelliteconnections. Supporting a flexible range of output formats,the receiver is perfect for a variety of space missions. Today,WORK Microwave’s DVB-S2/S2X IP Receiver SDD-IP andAR-60 have been widely deployed across all continents fromSvalbard, Norway, to Antarctica for earth observation andother data-critical applications.

“WORK Microwave is actively engaged in both traditionaland emerging satellite markets. More and more, we’re seeingLEO, MEO, 5G, and EO satellites in use, and we’re excitedto support those platforms and pave the way to the next-generation space era,” said Joerg Rockstroh, Director ofDigital Products at WORK Microwave. “Through earthobservation we can deliver a fundamentally better picture ofour planet, and reliable signal reception is critical to makingthat happen.”

Fourth successful launch in 2020 for ArianespaceFlight ST28, was the 28th Soyuz mission carried out byArianespace and Starsem from Baikonur Cosmodrome inKazakhstan. Performed on Saturday, March 21 at 10:06 p.m.local time at Baikonur Cosmodrome (17:06 UTC), Flight ST28orbited 34 new OneWeb satellites – bringing the total in orbitto 74.

“I am very proud of the teams at Arianespace, Starsemand their partners here in Baikonur and also in French Guianafor having performed four successful launches within a 10-week period, including two on behalf of OneWeb,” saidStéphane Israël, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace.

The first 40 satellites in the OneWeb constellation wereorbited by Arianespace in two missions: the first six inFebruary 2019 from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou,French Guiana; and the next 34 in February 2020 fromBaikonur Cosmodrome.

Satellite operator OneWeb aims to deliver high-speedinternet through a next-generation satellite constellation thatwill be able to provide connectivity to everyone, everywhere.OneWeb’s system will be comprised of an initial 650 satellitesand will provide global coverage in 2021.

The satellite prime contractor is OneWeb Satellites, a jointventure between OneWeb and Airbus Defence and Space.The satellites are built in Florida, USA and Toulouse, Franceon dedicated assembly lines.

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High-speed goes smallThe Internet has changed life as we know it, with a massive array of possibilities enabled. We canspeak with friends across the world in real-time, run our businesses, shop for groceries, or catchthe latest episode of ‘insert current TV show I’m too behind the times to be aware of’ on ourmobile phone while cuddling up in bed. We take this connectivity for granted, paying very littleattention to the incredible fibre or satellite technology behind it, despite the fact that this can onlybe described as Very Big Business.

Amy Saunders, Editor, Satellite Evolution Group

Photo courtesy of sdecoret/Shutterstock

For those of us who grew up without any kind of Internetat all – I remember how exciting it was when my parents gotour first dial-up connectivity back in my early teen years –the advent of high-speed broadband into homes across thedeveloped world was a complete game-changer on so manylevels. As this new level of connectivity became widespread,innovative online companies launched amazing newapplications that broadened horizons irreversibly forconsumers, businesses and government:

• Staying in touch: The Internet has enabled families andfriends to stay in touch over unfathomable distances, viaemail, Skype, social media, etc, at the click of a button.

• e-marketplaces: The advent of online shopping meansthat we can now order almost anything (or actuallyanything if you delve into the Dark Web) to be delivereddirect to our door. Groceries, clothes, technology, homedecor, etc. can all be with you as soon as same day! Forinstance, today I’m expecting potting compost, a mosspole and a pack of child-proof drawer locks.

• Small (and large) businesses: Closely entwined withonline shopping, entrepreneurs have grasped hold ofopportunities to launch their own online businesses atvery low cost, providing a flexible and independentalternative to the standard 9-5. Meanwhile, establishedbusinesses both small and large are increasingly enablinghome working for employees, which is often cheaper andmore efficient in labour terms and favoured by many staff.

• Online banking: For those with mobility issues or undertime constraints, or simply with better things to do, onlinebanking has become a fantastic use of the Internet, savingtime for both customers and the banks themselves.

• e-health: Healthcare capabilities have really opened upin the connected era; from online GP appointments,requesting and ordering medications online, deliveringdiagnosis and treatment digitally to remote and ruralareas, or indeed consulting with experts in niche areasof medicine, healthcare is well on its way to become asleek, well-oiled machine.

• e-learning: Students can take up new disciplines, ranging

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from distance university courses, to how to knit, from thecomfort of their own homes. For those in rural locationswith few teachers and facilities, remote learning hasprovided never-before seen opportunities.

• Media consumption: OTT services such as Netflix andHulu have boomed since high-speed broadband becamecommonplace, enabling live, on-demand streaming of amassive variety of content. In addition, books andmagazines can be bought and consumed digitally on adevice of your choosing.

The massive array of services currently delivered onlinehas completely revolutionised the way many of us live ourlives. Take a look at the above list and see how many areasyou personally make use of to get an idea of the scale ofthings today. Everyone working in the connectivity sector –from capacity operators, service providers to equipmentmanufacturers and installers – is well aware of just howimportant the Internet is to modern life. Moreover, whileproviders compete to win a bigger share of the market in thewestern world with faster speeds and lower costs, there stillremain some three billion people completely unconnected,offering up massive business opportunities.

Delivery methodsToday, home and businesses are provided with high-speedInternet connectivity via fibre or via satellite. Fibre connectivityhas historically been the cheaper option as capacity wasmuch less expensive than satellite – a quick check for my

home reveals prices ranging from UK£14.50 (11Mb speeds)to UK£52.00 (63Mb speeds) for fibre, whereas satellite isn’teven recommended due to so many good fibre options beingavailable – however, times are changing. Overcapacity andincreasing competition in the satellite sector means that rawcapacity prices are falling, making satellite a genuinecompetitor for fibre in many areas.

Of course, there exist many areas around the globe wheresatellite connectivity is the only option; in rural and remoteregions, island nations, and much of the US, where the layingof fibre is price-prohibitive or even impossible. In addition,satellite connectivity also provides certain advantages overfibre, including the in-built resilience against natural or man-made disasters that damage terrestrial fibre infrastructure.Many businesses across the world have in place a contractwith a satellite service provider for back-up connectivity incase of Earthquake or similar, while utilising fibre for day-to-day activities.

While fibre is a pretty stable connectivity method – existingcables are repaired and upgraded, new cables are run tonew areas, but nothing ground-breaking changes to the bestof my knowledge – the same cannot be said for satellite.Connectivity that has been historically delivered via largetelecommunications satellites in GEO, and later large highthroughput satellites (HTS) in GEO, is fast becoming outdatedin some peoples’ eyes, as a huge number of small satelliteconstellations in MEO and LEO, currently in the planning,build-out or deployment stages, enter stage left. Indeed, whileHTS satellites designed to deliver high-speed Internet

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connectivity are still being launched into GEO; AMOS-17 inAugust 2019; Intelsat 39 in August 2019; Inmarsat’s GX5 inNovember 2019; JCSAT-18/Kacific1 in December 2019;Eutelsat’s KONNECT in January 2020; the big news thisdecade is in the more scalable, flexible small satelliteconstellations.

LEO (and MEO) vs GEOThe big supporters of the next-generation constellations ofsmall satellites cite a great many advantages of smallsatellites orbiting in LEO and MEO over large satellites inGEO. For one, the manufacturing costs are vastly reducedas a large number of identical small satellites can be producedmuch more efficiently than one large unique satellite. Launchcosts are also lower per satellite thanks to the vastly reducedweight. Time to orbit is reduced, as manufacturing time ismuch lower, and the small satellites can form part of arideshare with long-ago planned large satellites. For theconnectivity service itself, small satellites orbiting in LEO orMEO offer up vastly reduced latencies thanks to the muchlower orbits; we’re talking about differences of 35,000kmcompared with 160-2,000km, which make a big difference totransmission times, when signals can only travel as fast asthe speed of light! On the flip side, small satellites have vastlyreduced lifespans of 1-5 years compared with 15-20 yearsfor large telecommunications satellites, requiring much higherrefresh rates and many more launches. However, this doesallow for more frequent technology upgrades, whereas thelarger long-lived satellites have the potential to becomeoutdated.

Small satellite constellations, designed to deliver global,ubiquitous broadband connectivity are all the rage right now.Designers of these constellations boast that with the rightnumber of satellites in the right orbits, they can truly deliverhigh-speed broadband connectivity anywhere in the world.

At the time of going to press, O3b Networks remains theonly operator with a fully-commercially-functioningconstellation of small satellites delivering connectivity aroundthe world. The company completed its first-generation MEOsatellite network in April 2019 with the launch of the last fourof its 20 small satellites, with which it is targeting ‘the other 3billion’ (hence the name) of people currently underserved bybroadband. O3b is already working on its O3b mPOWERconstellation, which will be based on seven ‘super-powered’MEO satellites, with more than 30,000 dynamic, electronicallygenerated fully-shapeable and steerable beams that can beshifted and switched in real time. Delivering multiple Terabitsof throughput, the fleet is scheduled for launch next year andis scalable to multiple terabits of throughput globally, providingcoverage to an area of nearly 400 million square kilometres. Atotal of 22 O3b mPOWER satellites have been approved bythe FCC.

Meanwhile, making the headlines is OneWeb Satellites,which launched the first six of its 882 LEO satelliteconstellation back in February 2019. In recent years, thecompany has created several assembly-line stylemanufacturing facilities in the US and France, which willenable the production of satellites fast enough to meet theambitious ‘one launch every 21 days.’ OneWeb has focusedheavily on the creation of affordable satellites in order toprovide affordable high-speed connectivity for usersworldwide. 2020 is a major year for OneWeb, one in which itplans to ramp up its launches, with 34 achieved in Februaryalone.

Also making waves (as always) is SpaceX, which ismaking huge strides towards its Starlink constellation,ultimately planned to comprise some 12,000 small satellitesutilizing inter-satellite links and operating in Ka and Ku-bands.While the main application of the Starlink constellation is thedelivery of low-cost high-speed Internet connectivity, it’s alsopossible that some of the satellites will be sold for military,scientific or exploratory services. The company kicked off2020 with the January launch of 60 Starlink satellites, followedclosely by another 60 in February, bringing the current Starlinkconstellation total to 240 (or 242 including the demonstratorsatellites launched in 2018) including the 2019 launches. Thislatest launch makes SpaceX the owner of the largestcommercial fleet in orbit, with as many as 21 more missionsplanned this year alone.

Now, we move on to the plannersTelesat is gearing up for a not too distant satellite constellationlaunch with a 300-strong small satellite constellation in LEOexpected to deliver high-speed Internet across the globe. Thecompany has already achieved highly successful prototypesatellite tests in orbit and has won a lucrative partnershipwith the Government of Canada – expected to generateCAD$1.2 billion for Telesat over 10 years, and an additionalCAD$85 million contribution through the Government’sStrategic Innovation Fund.

Facebook and Amazon have also jumped on thebandwagon; Facebook with its Athena constellation of smallsatellites designed to provide broadband Internet connectivity,particularly to rural regions; and Amazon with a planned 3,236small satellite constellation in LEO, also designed forbroadband Internet connectivity. Amazon’s Kuiper Systemswill call for three layers of satellites, 784 at 590km, 1,156 at630km and 1,296 at 610km.

A mixed futureDespite the above discussed (and other) small satelliteconstellations targeting high-speed Internet connectivity inthe works, the larger HTS servicing today’s broadbandconnectivity market is going nowhere fast. Such satelliteshave proved themselves invaluable for many years now,delivering effective, high-quality services for millions ofconsumers, businesses, enterprises and governments.Demand for these services is on the rise, particularly in theair and maritime mobility sectors, helping pave the way forfuture HTS in GEO as well as the new wave of small satelliteconstellations.

Photo courtesy of NicoElNino/Shutterstock

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Changing the world with Big DataNever before in history has as much data been collected as it is today. There are literally billionsof sensors spread across the world, on land, at sea, in the air, and in space, recording anythingand everything; data as diverse as traffic patterns, weather formations, remote machineapplications on oil rigs and in agriculture, stock room supplies, medicine consumption patterns,etc. The amount of data being collected has seen a new era of Big Data come into being, onewhich companies and governments the world over are grappling to understand and manage.


Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

The year is 2020, and Big Data has become big business.But what exactly does that mean?

A 2016 definition describes Big Data as ‘representing theinformation assets characterized by such a high volume,velocity and variety to require specific technology andanalytical methods for its transformation into value.’

We can take that to mean that Big Data is simply datathat is too big for most commonly used software tools tocapture, manage and process within a reasonable timeperiod. The actual quantities we’re talking about seem a littlevaguer; in 2012, Big Data referred to a few dozen terabytes,but today, it means many exabytes. Indeed, the amount ofdata being collected today is truly staggering.

People often refer to the three Vs of Big Data as a usefulway to consider exactly what we’re talking about:

• Volume: The quantity of generated and stored data, whichdetermines its value.

• Variety: The type and nature of the data, which may betext, images, video or audio.

• Velocity: The speed at which the data is generated andprocessed, which for Big Data, is often availablecontinuously and in real time (unlike small data).

Today, Big Data is everywhere. It has become deeplyintertwined with machine learning and artificial intelligence,which are expected to be a key enabler of the processingand analysis of data too massive for current processingstreams. And while it may sound a lot like inexplicablebusiness jargon – designed to confuse us normal folk aboutwhether or not we’re talking about data for data’s sake – isexpected by many to be key to a whole host of newtechnologies, services and applications, as well as thecontinued evolution of the services and industries we knowtoday.

Opportunity knocksThis new Big Data era is opening up some impressiveopportunities for companies across the board. According toNSR’s ‘Big Data Analytics via Satellite, 3rd Edition’ report,

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there exists a cumulative market opportunity of US$18.4billion in the next 10 years for satellite-based Big Dataanalytics. The fastest growing vertical market, the servicessector, is expected to help drive the market, in addition totraditionally strong Big Data markets, including energy,transportation, civil government and military.

“The services vertical mainly consists of financialinstitutions involved in the securitization of commodities andhedge funds, where large risks are at play. While it took uponly about seven percent of the market share as of 2018, it isexpected to rapidly grow through the next decade to reachnearly US$640 million (20 percent market share) in revenueopportunity by 2028,” said NSR analyst ShivaprakashMuruganandham. The majority of this growth is attributed tothe proliferation of Earth observation analytics. “Investmentfirms looking to gain a competitive edge on the market havedriven the use of satellite data across the board: From thecounting of cars in parking lots and oil barrels to derivedvegetation metrics for crop yield and carbon stocks.”

Indeed, Big Data analytics has the potential to really shakeup a whole host of markets in the near future - let’s take alook at some of the exciting real-world projects going on rightnow.

Data-driven farmsAt the end of 2019, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Servicepartnered with Microsoft and Esri to take the next step towardsthe data-driven farms of the future. The Data Innovationsproject incorporates the Internet of Things (IoT) and othertechnologies to help provide farmers and researchers withreal-time data on farm conditions.

The USDA has deployed sensors, drones and IoT-enabledfarm equipment for a public-private pilot programme calledFarmbeats at a 7,000-acre farm at its Beltsville Area Research

Center. The data then gets beamed up to the cloud, wherean AI algorithm provides data visualization to farmers andresearchers. The pilot could be revolutionary for USDAresearchers, who currently record data points in field booksbefore entering them into a central database.

“We’re collecting a lot of data manually and that’s killinghow much research we can actually get done,” said MichaelBuser, USDA ARS National Program Leader for Engineering.“We want to go through with this Data Innovations effort toreduce the number of data touches that we have. And byreducing those data touches, we can basically free up thetime of our scientists and our technicians.”

The project is expected to produce better data, and tohelp farms around the country operate more efficiently,sustainably, and profitability. While there are many variablesthat impact farming conditions, tracking key metrics such asdisease, insect levels, weeds, water and nutrient dynamics,can help provide farmers with better, actionable information.Moreover, while this single farm pilot project will prove useful,the real value is expected to stem later down the line, whena big-picture view is enabled by tracking the same data froma planned 200 farms across the country. Going beyond thesimple recording and analysis of data, through predictiveanalytics, Microsoft’s AI algorithms can in fact combinesatellite and sensor information to train a model that canpredict metrics for field areas where there are no sensors inplace.

Greenhouse gas monitoringLast year, Descartes Labs announced the development of amethane-detection model designed to help monitor harmfulemissions as a means of implementing New Mexico’sstrategic mitigation policy. Descartes Labs’ Data Refinery willutilise Big Data from satellites and other public and private

A highboy tractor equipped with sensors passes through a field at the USDA research farm in Beltsville. Photo courtesy of Microsoft

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....Big Data

sources to create modelling and mapping capabilities for thedetection of methane.

The Permian Basin, spanning more than 86,000 squaremiles across Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, isthe highest producing oilfield in the world, and will be thefirst area that is mapped before the project goes state-wide.Large-scale monitoring of methane is expected to help oiland gas companies improve their management of emissionsand guide state inspectors to potential problem areas on analmost real-time basis. It will also help the state meet theenvironmental benchmark to reduce greenhouse gasemissions by 45 percent between 2005 and 2030. Indeed,methane is a potent greenhouse gas believed to trap 28 timesmore atmospheric heat than carbon dioxide over 100 years.However, there has been a historical lack of reliable tools fortracking methane detection.

“For New Mexico to reach its methane reduction goals,it’s critical to first understand the problem. The DescartesLabs Data Refinery can pull data from satellites, planes,drones, and ground sensors so that inspectors will be ableto pinpoint sources and alert well owners to the problem.This is what it looks like when data informs policy,” said MarkJohnson, CEO at Descartes Labs.

Protecting the skiesIn the summer of 2019, the Canadian Government’scontracting arm, Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC),announced plans to sponsor a new satellite system to providecommercially available data about space to meet growingconcerns over debris. NorthStar Earth and Space will utiliseBig Data analytics to assess the situation in orbit.

Today, there are around 60,000 pieces of space debris inorbit around the Earth, far more than the number of activesatellites in play. With the NewSpace economy valued at anestimated US$1 trillion each year, demand for real-time,

accurate information on the space environment is high.Private investors for the project include Telesystem SpaceInc. of Montreal and the Space Alliance of Europe, formedby Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, a joint partnershipformed by France’s Thales and Italy’s Leonardo.

The proposed small satellite constellation would belaunched in 2021, featuring a combination of infrared,hyperspectral and optical sensors to assess the Earth’secosystems and orbit. The system would also utilize Big Dataanalytics and AI to find the meaning of the vast amount ofdata and precisely predict potential collisions with debris andother objects in space.

Big futureAll of the available market reports indicate that Big Data isgoing to be huge going forwards. Of course, once we take alook at the impressive applications and try to get a scope ofthe seemingly endless possibilities, it seems an obviousconclusion to draw. Enhanced efficiencies, superiorpredictions and cost savings are all benefits which we shouldsoon begin to reap as Big Data analytics becomes morewidely applied across the markets.

However, the big turning point will come when AI andmachine learning is advanced enough and affordable enoughto really turn things around. Until then, we have massivequantities of data being collected and stored, but inadequatelyprocessed and analysed. Indeed, this data is actuallyhindering many companies today; it takes more than just theright tools to analyse the quantities of data we’re seeing now– many businesses lack the knowledge base to conduct ameaningful analysis and are becoming bogged down. That’shardly surprising given the quantities of data we’re talkingabout.

Big Data is a big opportunity for some, a hindrance forothers, and a challenge for all.


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....Q&A ND SATCOM

Flexible and reliable supportND SATCOM is a German satellite communications developer and system integrator specialisingin large, complex projects featuring software and hardware development and customisability.They’re known to their partners and customers for providing flexible, reliable support for theirproducts and systems. We spoke to Sales Director Bernd Lehr to discuss their recent successes.

Laurence Russell, News and Social Media Editor, Satellite Evolution Group

Question: You’ve made it onto aseries of prestigious lists recentlyincluding Silicon Valley Review’s 50Best Workplaces and CIOApplications magazine’s top 10 BestSpace Tech Solutions Providers.What is ND SATCOM doing so wellto get this kind of gleamingrecognition?Bernd Lehr: Well that’s quite easy. Theway that we work and develop is byhaving our people act internationally,having our engineers, mechanics andtechnicians installing and running oursystems worldwide, which is veryexciting.

Then, when they come back, theyhave first-hand experience from ourcustomers and partners to share withus. This is valuable data such asfeedback, new requirements, or workpreferences, which then directlyinfluences the development of our newtechnology.

This means our employeesfrequently enjoy having a hand in ourentire chain of production, fromplanning to developing, and finallyimplementing the technology. Not onlysatisfying on a personal level, this is anexcellent way of serving customerdemand, since the engineers on theground who are directly aware of therequirements of the region are the samepeople spearheading the concept-ualisation of our new solutions.

We’re primarily based at LakeConstance, which is an idyllic urbancentre at the foot of the Alps, and aparadise for tourism where you can skiand sail. People come from all over theworld to be there, and it’s all rightoutside our door. It’s no surprise ourstaff are overjoyed to be a part of ourcompany.

Question: How does your SKYWANtechnology, which was nominated for

Via Satellite’s 2018 SatelliteTechnology of the Year Award, deliversuch a world-class standard?Bernd Lehr: SKYWAN 5G has been anespecially interesting technologybecause it’s a hubless system, whichmakes it far cheaper than itscompetitors and contemporaries. It’salso remarkably easy to create abackup master system, which is criticalfor disaster relief communications onthe move, where operating with a planB is absolutely imperative.

We also use a multi-frequencyTDMA modem that can reassume a linkafter an interruption extremely quickly,in under a second, which isunprecedented in this market. I don’tknow of any modem that can work thatfast.

It’s a mesh topology modem thatprovides rooftop-to-rooftop connectivity.It’s these sorts of innovative features,some of them quite minute and

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Bernd Lehr, Sales Director, ND SATCOM

bespoke, which are greatly appreciatedby our defence, government andbroadcast customers.

Question: What are you delivering inthe arena of satcom on the move?Bernd Lehr: We have sold 10 SOTMvehicles to SABC in South Africa. Theseare trucks we’ve equipped to transmitvideo, voice, and data to gather andshare news at the drop of a hat. We’veseen some incredible feedback therebecause our system offers such avariety of modern solutions soaccessibly. All the features provided arealready connected together, you simplyturn it on, and you have everything atyour disposal.

Question: When it comes todelivering technology to acompetitive market, what is moreimportant to establishing a strongedge? Outperforming competitors orproviding technical and situationaldifferentiation?Bernd Lehr: I believe one doesn’t

necessarily exclude the other. We’reinvested in providing reliabletechnologies foremost. We’re notinterested in fighting or contending inthe regions we’re catering to.

We’re far more interested innurturing longstanding relationshipswith our customers and partners,maintaining a standard of dependabilitywith them while endeavour ing tounderstand their needs and goalslongitudinally. That means we can focuson perfecting bespoke solutions to helpthem succeed, where a standard,specific product from an impersonalvendor might not deliver.

Our edge comes from the degree ofcooperation we offer our customers andpartners to actually ensure they growand thrive, rather than simply sell aproduct and move on.

Question: You recently rebranded alot of your marketing material. Howimportant is it for global companiesto continue making a dynamicimpression through their branding?Bernd Lehr: In the last couple of years,ND SATCOM’s approach to exercisingits brand was fairly limited. We’re a veryinnovative company invested at stayingat the cutting edge of what ourconsumers require, and for a while thatdynamic element of our work ethicwasn’t quite communicated by the waywe used our branding.

We’ve entered a new era now, witha greater degree of conciseness in howwe present ourselves. We’ve nowoverhauled the way we express ourbrand across the board, with a freshnew energy, and I’m looking forward toseeing how our customers and partnersacross the industry will respond to that.

Question: What’s your outlook on themodern broadcast environment?Bernd Lehr: We’ve been seeingdevelopments in satcom-on-the-move

technology with phased array antennasand low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites,which we’re keen to be a par t ofimplementing.

Across regions, we’re seeingdifferent developments. For example,there’s a preference in the southernhemisphere for larger antennas orphase-combined HBA systems, whilethe northern hemisphere leans towardsmaller antennas, high poweramplifiers, and more units.

We need to adjust our strategydepending on where we target, so we’revery interested in staying ahead of thecurve to identify these types of trends.

We’re currently increasing our salesforce across Asia and Africa so we canmeet their increasing requirements. Wesee these regions as fantastic growthopportunities where we can steadilychip away at the digital divide.

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....Small Satellite Constellations

Lessons from GEO: Smallsats andlow Earth orbitWith increasingly large numbers of small satellite constellations being brought to fruition, spacetraffic management, debris and orbit allocations are becoming more vital than ever before.Valuable lessons can be learned from GEO which may smooth the way for the upcoming LEOconstellations.

Helen Weedon, Managing Director, Satcoms Innovation Group

Photo courtesy of SIG

Smallsat mega constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO)have been a widely discussed topic for some time. In recentyears, LEO operators have been highlighting the benefits ofmega constellations and smallsats and we’re starting to seeusers look towards LEO to provide low cost connectivity.Tackling industry pain points such as cost and latency, megaconstellations are set to make a huge impact on satellitecommunications. However, we are seeing industryprofessionals raising questions on the technical aspect oflaunching a huge number of smallsats into orbit. The spaceenvironment is finite; how do space users share it amicably?Could over-crowding in LEO have an impact on other orbits?What impact will this increased usage have on RF systemsat the ground segment?

The technical challenges behind the numbersAt an operational level we know that managing LEO is thecritical consideration. Use of space has steadily increasedover the decades and this gradual growth has created

technical challenges to service delivery. Over the years,insufficient space governance has steadily increased theissue of space debris, with many operators launchingsatellites with little thought as to what would happen at theirend of life. The numbers highlight the magnitude of the issue;of the 9,600 satellites launched into orbit, approximately 5,500remain in space with only 2,300 still in active use. Over theyears, policies have been introduced setting de-orbitingguidelines which many operators have adhered to in orderto manage the space environment. Recent years have seenGEO operators work together to prevent and mitigate theimpacts of space debris on satcom services; there hasbecome an important understanding that operators mustcooperate in orbit in order to be able to deliver high-qualityservices to satellite users.

Looking to the future, LEO is set to hugely increase thenumbers of satellites in orbit, and in an incredibly short spaceof time. The lessons learnt by the industry in recent yearsshouldn’t be ignored – working in isolation is likely to cause

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severe issues when it comes to managing LEO. Collisionavoidance, both of other satellites and debris, is hugelyimportant in managing the space environment. Space TrafficManagement is key in keeping all orbital planes operationallysafe. Without strict and enforceable legislation, there runs arisk of those designing, launching and operating largeconstellations creating bigger issues within this sharedenvironment. Fur thermore, we’re seeing technology,production and automation progressing at an incredibly quickrate and it is therefore more important to regulate and imposestandards on the quality and accuracy of the equipment being

put into orbit. A LEO smallsat has an orbital period of between84 and 127 minutes and there will be time when the satellitecannot be seen. It is crucial to have strategies and policies inplace to safely manage satellites within LEO in order to avoidboth costly financial and operational incidents.

When examining challenges within the new satellitelandscape, it’s difficult to avoid discussing spectrum.Spectrum is a highly debated topic, with the long-lasting 5Gand C-band debate continuing. As a finite resource, spectrumis an important consideration when assessing how theindustry needs to adapt to incorporate LEO megaconstellations. Although frequency bands have beenallocated, have the designs and operation of transmissionplans and interference mitigation been fully thought throughto ensure all parts of the space environment are safe? Andwill these vary from country to country, depending onavailability and limitations imposed by regulatory bodies?Spectrum and RF transmission needs are truly importantconsiderations when striving to understand the shape of theLEO environment.

Managing RF and the ground segmentThis leads on to questions surrounding the ground aspect ofLEO. Managing RF incidents has been a longstanding issuewithin satcom. It’s critical that all satellite operators considerthe ground station when deploying satellite fleets. In recentyears, many operators and teleports have invested heavilyin preventing transmission issues caused by poor equipmentand poor setup at ground level. With RFI having devastatingeffects on satellite services, we must consider the impact ofthe plethora of ground stations needed to operate a LEOconstellation in order to prevent further issues. The incorrectdesign or use of RF often impacts numerous services,regardless of which orbit the signal has originated from.

The LEO ground station will have different requirementsto those that we see in GEO. Agile antenna tracking, switchingand redundancy for both telemetry and services is going tobe critical in processing transmissions to and from LEO dueto the speed and proximity of the satellites. With price being

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....Small Satellite Constellations

a driving factor for many LEO customers, it will be importantto deliver high-quality ground segments at a lower cost.Maintaining a low-cost solution is at the core of thesedecisions, however we know that this must not mean thatlower-quality equipment is utilised. In-depth understandingand planning allow the industry to prepare high-quality andcost-effective solutions. Additionally, it allows us to processLEO requirements whilst anticipating the impact this couldhave on wider services in other orbits. Will LEO impact onMEO and GEO?

Where will LEO sit in the new connectivity ecosystem?Taking a bigger look at satcom, we’re seeing the dynamicsof the industry changing. 5G is set to have a huge impact onconnectivity and many professionals are envisaging this tohave a direct impact on how satcoms deliver services.Telecommunication companies will need to utilise othercommunications systems in order to deliver the wide-rangingand wide-reaching service that 5G is expected to be. LEOhas the potential to be utilised within 5G to deliver connectivityto a geographically broad audience, including comms on themove, and we’re seeing many LEO operators including 5Gmodulation formats within their networks to enable thisdelivery. Working alongside telcos could open hugeopportunities within satellite connectivity industries; 5G is verynearly here and consumers are already enjoying its benefits,so why compete?

Communications industries need to be looking atconnectivity as an overarching service, removing barriersbetween industries. There’s undoubtedly an increasingdemand for comms on the move, with consumers wantingseamless connectivity, regardless of where they are.Currently, someone who is travelling by air must access airlineInternet services – why can’t we be striving to deliver in-airconnectivity as par t of their mobile data plan?Communications industries connect cells; by working inisolation, telcos and satellite companies can only servicecertain corners of connectivity. By creating solutions whichbridge the gaps between both industries, for example, byutilising the layers of connectivity that satellites offer fromLEO to GEO, consumers will benefit from a more streamlinedapproach.

Of course, delivering these technologies will beoperationally challenging, however we have some great toolswhich could be developed to create these solutions. Intelligentsolutions, which could utilise tech such as the cloud and AI,could identify the satcom service best suited to the customer’s

requirement (regardless of the orbit) and deliver the servicefor the telco provider.

Using industry experience to prepare ourselves for LEOLEO is set to enhance the communications services thatsatellite can offer. We know that, historically, satellite has hada reputation for being costly and that it’s not always beensuitable for all types of connectivity due to its latency. LEOmega constellations are set to tackle these issues and deliverfresh services to new customers, potentially rebranding howsatcom is seen across the world. However, unquestionablythere are technical and operational considerations which mustbe thought through prior to launching a huge number ofsatellites into orbit.

The satellite industry has the advantage of being a well-established industry; we as professionals have seen theoperational challenges of working alongside competitors inan increasingly busier environment. Challenges are foundin-orbit and at the ground; in recent years we have seenoperators work together to preserve the reputation of theindustry by prioritising the quality of services, as opposed tocutting costs in order to maximise profits. Ultimately, withoutstriving to a mutual objective of delivering high-qualityservices to customers, the industry runs the risk ofdiscrediting its reliability. From the lessons learnt at GEO, wecan see the issues we need to be tackling in order to deliveroperational solutions allowing LEO constellations to succeed.

We know that the space environment will become busierin order to deliver the benefits of LEO, however, we must seethat correct governance is introduced to provide the correctlevel of policy and guidance for the environment. Space TrafficManagement is more important than ever before as the spaceenvironment gets busier. Alongside the obvious need tomanage the physical placement and replacement of satellitesin LEO, there is also a need to address the spectrumrequirements and the resulting needs of the ground segment.A successful service is dependent on the successful uplinkingand downlinking of RF signals and, therefore, this stage ofthe process must not be ignored. Looking at the larger picture,LEO is cer tainly opening the door to some brill iantopportunities for the satellite industry as a whole; it providesa different set of benefits to the satcom ecosystem which willbe invaluable when looking at the industry as aninterconnected entity. With new technologies such as 5Gcoming to the fore, LEO mega constellations can strengthenthe satcom industry’s ability to enhance and deliver high-quality and wide-ranging connectivity to all consumers.

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....Q&A Marlink Maritime

Digitalisation takes hold in maritimeMarlink is a world-leading provider of managed connectivity and IT solutions for maritime andenterprise customers ranging from global on-demand MSS services to regional, multi-regionaland global Ku-band, C-band and HTS-ready maritime VSAT systems. Tore Morten, President ofMarlink Maritime, outlines their recent successes and explains what’s next for the company.


Question: 2019 was a pretty busyyear for Marlink, in which a slew ofnew partnerships and achievementswere celebrated while the companyhoned its suite of services. Whatwere some of your favouritehighlights from last year?Tore Morten: Marlink enjoyed asuccessful 2019 which put us in astrong position for 2020 and beyond.The year star ted with our beingconfirmed as the world’s leadingmaritime provider of satell itecommunications and end-to-endmanaged VSAT connectivity, accordingto a report from Valour Consultancy andlater confirmed by the Comsys report.

We also renewed and expanded ourpartnership with Intelsat to providebroadband services to maritime vesselsaround the world in a multi-yearagreement to deliver additionalthroughput via multiple layers of space-based coverage.

Developments like these demonstr-ate the momentum that Marlink isbringing to the digitalisation of theshipping industry. Ensuring thatshipowners and operators have accessto reliable and flexible always-onconnectivity is essential to this processwhich promises to bring huge benefitsin terms of safety and efficiency.

Question: In your experience, whatare some of the most urgentdemands in the world of maritimecommunications, and what steps hasMarlink made to meet them?Tore Morten: We see an urgentdemand for connectivity and newservices evolving as digitalisation takeshold in the maritime industry. At timesthis has been a slow process, but thetrend is strengthening and acceleratingfor a number of reasons.

It’s no secret that data istransforming maritime operations and

businesses. It enables ships and fleetsto run more efficiently, use less fuel andreduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thishas driven a huge increase in thedemand for bandwidth and massivelychanged usage patterns. Ourcustomers want to transfer more andmore diverse data to shore controlcentres, they want to operate withinuser-friendly managed portals, and theywant to ensure that their data is alwayssecure.

For both efficiency and compliance,shipowners need simplified datacollection; systems that can remotelyconnect bridge and engine room datawith communications infrastructure togive them access to a vessel datadashboard on a vessel-by-vessel basis.

To meet these demands, ourbusiness has evolved. Today we aresupporting our customers to not onlyconnect their vessels and crew globally,but to secure their networks, offer

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Tore Morten, President of MarlinkMaritime

solutions and technologies to help themmanage their data and IT Networks, andapply innovations to enable reductionsin both CAPEX and OPEX.

Companies are becoming moreprofitable using data in a smart way, butwe can also see the potential for moreefficiencies and importantly, new ways

to reduce the impact of shipping on theenvironment.

Question: Marlink provides its ownVSAT system connected to thirdparty platforms. What are theadvantages to using proprietaryhardware like this?Tore Morten: Firstly, it’s important tounderstand that Marlink is technologyand frequency agnostic. The advantagethat we deliver to our clients is that weare completely independent from anysatell ite operator or hardwaremanufacturer. It’s always the customer’schoice which hardware and service theyprefer to specify and of course we willadvise them if there are particularcombinations that best fit their needs.

As an integrator we bridge the gapbetween the technology and the userby creating optimised networks andsolutions for every individual customerin every market vertical we serve.

We use the standards employed bythe industry’s leading hardwaremanufacturers, based on open systems,with the ability to combine applications,services and solutions into a platform

that is technology agnostic and that canrespond to changing needs.

In the maritime environment, thoseneeds run to fully managed VSATservices, L-band backup andincreasingly hybrid services that enableswitching to LTE connections or evenWiFi in port. We have a new agreementin place for global roaming with a majoroperator that we will share more detailsabout very soon.

Question: What are some examplesof the kinds of value-added servicesMarlink provides to support smartervessel operations and cybersecurity?Tore Morten: Shipowners are lookingfor technology that can support genuinefuel savings, reduced emissions andbetter vessel performance, both forregulatory compliance and an improvedbottom line - and that includes securityas a standard feature.

BridgeLink from Marlink addressescompatibility, interface and ownershipchallenges by providing an openplatform for unifying collection of datafrom onboard equipment and sensorswith network infrastructure and satelliteIP connectivity, so that data from anysystem can be accessed, collected,shared and displayed in a singleinterface at sea or ashore.

Providing access to data fromOperational Technology (OT) such asradar, automation, power andpropulsion systems, BridgeLink enablesMarlink customers to use scalableremote ship management and smartmaintenance systems to fur therenhance and improve vessel efficiencyusing secure data collection forspecialised analysis and applications.

Fully customisable to fit any specifictechnical needs, BridgeLink creates thelink between onboard systems andsensors and how critical data theygenerate is used to optimise operationsand remain compliant with internationalregulations.

Clearly, the growth of digitalisationbrings a challenge in terms of securityof onboard technology andcommunications, with the cyber riskwidely known, if not always wellunderstood.

Last year Marlink expanded itsrange of cyber security solutions, withthe launch of Cyber Detection, a uniqueand intelligent threat detection solutionfor the maritime industry and part of ourfully integrated Cyber Guard portfolio.

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....Q&A Marlink Maritime

monitors all outbound and inboundnetwork traffic around the clock andenables customers to view threatsaffecting their vessels through anintuitive, web-based dashboard. Inaddition, customers may also set-upnotifications on critical threats whichcan be monitored by email and/or SMS.

Marlink has also introduced ITLink,a suite designed to provide remote ITmanagement and intervention and 24/7 monitor ing of the onboard ITenvironment, increasing the level ofcompliance with upcoming regulationssuch as IMO2021 and TSMA Version 3cyber security requirements. ITLink alsoprovides deep transparency via an IT-specific advanced online dashboard,which includes continuously updatedPC and server status information.

Crucially, it can also relieve Marlinkcustomers of the time-consuming taskof updating onboard networks andapplications. Automated updates canreduce the time to secure, i.e.,thousands of onboard PCs on a fleet ofmore than 100 vessels to a few days,while manual updates are known to beproblematic and can take severalmonths for a similar number of PCs.More than 1,100 ships are alreadysaving time and money on IT updatesusing Marlink’s IT automated updateservices.

Question: One of Marlink’s maritimebranches, Telemar, recently releasedthe BridgeLink smart maintenanceservice, which provides pro-activesupport and reduce downtime,netting higher efficiency for BridgeElectronics systems. Could you runus through some of its features?Tore Morten: The BridgeLink SmartMaintenance Application from Telemaris the next layer of added value to theBridgeLink platform, created to drivegreater efficiency and savings viaMarlink bandwidth.

The Smart Maintenance Appprovides a unique support servicebased on giving suppor t servicetechnicians remote access to theOperational Technology (OT) systemsonboard ship, enabling them todiagnose issues with shipboardequipment wherever they are in theworld.

With active support from the SmartMaintenance App, shipowners canreduce potential down-time andincrease efficiency of their bridgeelectronics hardware and associatedsoftware. By expanding the scope of

equipment remotely accessible via theBridgeLink Smart Maintenance App,Telemar can perform more repairsremotely and increase first-time fixes fora more efficient service when its fieldengineers visit customer vessels.

As well as creating a benefit forshipowners by streamlining troubleshooting wherever they operate,Telemar exper ts can use the datacollected to optimise asset lifecyclesand deliver further efficiencies.

The BridgeLink Smart MaintenanceApp can optionally be used forperformance analysis and to collectdata for site surveys, helping to furtherreduce the engineering time required forfirmware/software installations andupgrades.

By leveraging remote suppor ttechnology, Marlink and Telemar arecontributing to reduced time, travel andultimately carbon footprint for shippingcompanies. The Telemar Smar tMaintenance team consists of certifiedand trained Field Service Engineersable to start in depth investigations ofproblems with GMDSS equipment,radar and ECDIS, satell itecommunications systems, Voyage DataRecorders, quickly and from shore.

Question: Marlink has also recentlyproduced the Marlink FX Portal, acommunications managementplatform for Marlink Fleet Xpressusers to access network and serviceinformation in real-time. How doesdata like that drive a competitiveedge for your users?Tore Morten: The Marlink FX Portalwas introduced with the aim ofincreasing transparency for IT andoperations personnel, enabling them tomonitor, support and maintain FXnetworks with greater efficiency. Theonline portal is a unique developmentthat can share the network data vital toservice quality, availabil ity andefficiency onboard. It can be remotelyaccessed from any location, giving ourFX customers deeper control andawareness of service status.

Enabled by Marlink’s onboardcommunications management systemfor the FX service, called XChange FX,the online portal that follows with thesystem, allows customers to accesspreviously unavailable network andservice information in real-time. Itdelivers easy to understand bandwidthperformance and traffic statistics, aswell as live information on whether theKa-band FX or L-band FleetBroadband

is being used. The por tal can beaccessed by crew from onboard shipand by vessel superintendents onshore,with a simple display indicating whichservice the ship is using. As well asbeing useful in supporting remoteaccess and troubleshooting, users cansee the amount of time spent on thebackup and decide how best to allocatebudget resources.

In addition to the FX voice callingoption, Marlink also offers FX users aunique low-cost voice calling service,giving shipowners a wider option ofvoice services. Combined with theXChange platform, shipowners have aseamless system optimised forenterprise and crew use.

Question: How does Marlink plan toinnovate in the maritime sphere thisyear and in the years to come?Tore Morten: More and more shipowners are taking digitalisationseriously which has a positive impactfor them and the wider industry.Digitalisation brings a genuine businesscase for investment in broadbandcommunications to achieve moreefficient operations and reducedenvironmental impact, so there is a‘push’ for us to continue refining andimproving our services

Digitalisation can contribute to shipsand fleets to running more efficiently,using less fuel and reducinggreenhouse gas emissions. This hasdriven a huge increase in the demandfor bandwidth and massively changedusage patterns.

Our customers want to transfer moreand more diverse data to shore controlcentres, they want to operate withinonline cloud-based portals, and theywant to ensure that their data is alwayssecure.

Our focus in 2020 and beyond is tocontinue to support this digitalisationdrive with applications and software thatenable owners to get the best out oftheir vessel data and theircommunications systems. Regulationremains a big part of that, whetherrepor ting emissions data or otherenvironmental performance, or beingconfident in meeting the IMO’s newstandards for cyber security.

And finally, to make all this happenwe will continue to develop the mostcomplete maritime network in theindustry, to ensure that our clientsbenefit from quality and cost-effectiveness that our expertise andscale brings to the market.

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....News Gathering

News gathering goes mobileSatellite news gathering (SNG), traditionally enabled by Outside Broadcast (OB) trucks, has along and extremely successful history of utilising satellite to transmit events, either minutes afterhappening or even live, from the ends of the Earth to the comfort of your own home. Recentyears have seen a shift away from traditional SNG methods, like OB trucks and their teams,towards single, ultra-mobile journalists and their smartphones.



Satellite news gathering (SNG) has almost 50 years ofhistory behind it, having been used way back in the 1970s,and famously demonstrated in 1982 during England’s warwith Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Today, it’scommonplace to see outside broadcast (OB) trucks at majornews, sporting or music events, where content is partiallyproduced and transmitted.

SNG completely revolutionised the broadcasting of newsin its heyday, meaning that people all around the world couldstay up to date with breaking news, disaster zones, and livestreams of music and sports events, with video direct fromthe source, making the viewer feel better-informed and moreinvolved than ever before. What once took days to reachglobal awareness, now takes minutes, thanks to the globalreach of SNG. OB trucks have seen a bit of a drop-off inrecent years as satellite technology has advanced, meaningthat all the equipment required for SNG can now fit handilyinto a carry-on backpack, instead of requiring a full vehicle.The footage is beamed, via satellite, direct to a control room,where it is processed and broadcast.

While maintaining superior ity in news gatheringtechniques around the globe, SNG is nevertheless facing anuncertain future as a new wave of mobile journalism (MoJoto those in the know) takes hold.

MoJo goes globalIn oh so many tech areas - think computers, phones, gamesconsoles, portable music, etc. at the consumer front, orantennas, amplifiers, satellites, within our industry - therehas always been a trend towards shrinkage. Indeed, size,weight and power (SWaP) have been reduced at the sametime as capabilities have grown.

This is also true in the SNG sector, where there has beena significant shift from OB truck-dominated SNG towardsbackpack-sized single-reporter kits that enable greater agilityin tough-to-reach areas, greater efficiency, and reduced costs.More recently, as smartphone capabilities have massivelyincreased, and the recording of HD and even 4K video contenthas become enabled in a device that fits (just about) in aback pocket, a swathe of new reporters, particularly in the

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News Gathering....

younger generations, have switched over to what is beingdescribed as mobile journalism (MoJo). Not only is this newera of SNG - and it is SNG, since the video content still needsto be transmitted back to the control room via satellite -allowing greater efficiencies than ever before, it also coincideswith a shift in consumer patterns, away from traditional newssources such as hard copy newspapers, direct to home (DTH)news broadcasts, or online news outlets. Consumers,especially young adults, are increasingly staying up to dateon the world via apps and social media, and video is playinga bigger role than ever before.

Traditional SNG, with OB trucks, are fast becomingoutdated; production costs are high, processing can be slow,and the workflow is poorly suited for producing video for webconsumption. Consumers want the latest news yesterday i.e.fast, on-demand, and often live. They also want to be able toview it on a variety of different screen sizes. Indeed, the highcost of production by traditional methods is deemed by someas unsustainable, particularly in a time when broadcastersare losing advertising revenue to YouTube and social mediachannels. MoJo has many benefits over traditional SNGmethods; it’s faster to go from shooting to broadcasting, moreefficient in processing and equipment costs, and the kit issignificantly lighter – there’s a big different in moving frombulky cameras and processing equipment to a device smallenough to fit in a pocket. It’s also been found that, intervieweesare less likely to be intimidated by smaller hand-heldequipment such as mobile phones than traditional TV crews,and thus are more likely to agree to spontaneous interviews.

Traditional news outlets all over the world are getting inon the action, training new journalists in MoJo, in order tomore quickly and cost-effectively report on fast-movingstories. MoJo has become a must-have for major news outlets,who are at risk of reporting old news when compared withrivals utilising streamlined systems.

BBC dips toe into MoJo watersThe BBC is cautiously testing the water with MoJo, carefullyselecting the situations in which a more intimate approach isbeneficial to the viewer.

In July 2019, the BBC’s Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg,interviewed Prime Minister Theresa May shortly before herexit from office. Kuenssberg utilised footage from two standardbroadcast cameras in the exclusive interview, but also videotaken by smartphone.

“It was a deliberate attempt to make the video asaccessible as possible,” Jonathan Paterson, Editor, DigitalVideo, BBC News, told Journalism.co.uk. “There was morehuman interest than detailed policy developments, and that’sa good starting point for us in a social video.”

However, Paterson has also warned that contentproducers should not get too ‘carried away’ with MoJo. Formany viewers, particularly in the older generations, qualitytrumps quantity, and a more formal approach is often bettersuited to news reporting. “It’s very important we haveexperienced eyes behind the lens. There are significantsavings to be observed by doing mobile journalism, butultimately the audience demands quality. We have to makeevery effort to ensure the quality is as high as possible,” saidPaterson.

The Editor reported that there are a great many trainedoperators from the BBC going into the field with just an iPhoneand its rig, delivering more MoJo for cross-platform use, thanthe wider public yet realises.

Freeing the press with MoJoA recent project out of Sudan has seen hundreds of peoplelearn key MoJo skills in order to get their voices heard. Ranked175th out of 180 in the Thomson Foundation’s 2019 WorldPress Freedom Index, Sudan has notoriously limited pressfreedom, which the foundation is keen to change.

“Our vision that everyone should have the right to anhonest and factual account of what is really happening in theworld is of paramount importance in combating fake newsand hate speech,” wrote Lord Tom Chandos, chairman,Thomson Foundation in its annual review.

The Sudan Media Capacity Building Project, run by theThomson Foundation in partnership with the British Counciland funded by the British Embassy, has benefited more than700 people, covering skills such as web publishing, radio,

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....News Gathering

TV and print platforms, as well as MoJo. As a result of theprogramme, local reporters utilised their Smartphones tocapture and relay footage of uprisings to Twitter and othersocial media, catching the attention of the world. Three ofthe participants also went on to creating their own journalismworkshops to pass on their skills.

“The project was successful because it worked with, butnot for, the authorities. We were very careful not to trainjournalists to confront unnecessarily,” said Helen Scott,Editorial Associate at the Thomson Foundation. “We had aneditorial board which gave us guidance and we have beenthe only organisation which has been working with the mediain Sudan in such a sustained way. We trained in theinternational pillars of journalism – fairness, balance, multiplesources, and talking to ‘real people’ not just accepting officialhandouts.”

The programme has proven invaluable for wideningawareness on pressing community matters such as health,environment and education. However, Sudanese journalistscontinue to face arrests and arbitrary detection by the NationalIntelligence and Security Service, resulting in extremely fewprofessional journalists and a shortage of objective andrelevant reporting throughout the country. The country’s pressis also plagued by poor management of outlets and variedlevels in everything from expertise to credibility.

The Thomson Foundation, however, remains positive onthe country’s outlook with the conclusion of the programme.“They know the stories; the people and they have anenormous will to be able to report at last on their country.Some journalists who have been in exile because they hadbeen banned by the security forces returned this week,” saidScott. “We are hopeful that, with the will of the people forself-determination, there will be a new media environment inwhich freedom of expression will, at last, be possible. AtThomson Foundation, we’re looking forward to playing ourpart in continuing to support the media in the future.”

In other news, the Thomson Foundation recentlyannounced the winners of its Middle East and African-centricJournalism Now Team Challenge, which saw teams set up amedia brand online and through social media to win a one-week UK media study tour. MoJo was in heavy use amongthe more than 600 competing teams, with the winning Team,Youth Media, utilising Instagram and Facebook to sharestories about disabled rights.

“In many countries, when students are learning aboutjournalism, they’re learning through very theoretical andacademic courses, so they don’t get cutting-edge insights orchance to practice. The competition was fundamentally a wayof giving people the situation where they have to engagewith digital tools,” said Hosam El Nagar, Director of Learningand Innovation at the Thomson Foundation. “You can doeverything with just a smartphone and we’re encouragingpeople to use the tools that they have available and to showthem [how] to use them to produce content to a high standard.”

Bad news made better with memesMeanwhile, in a bid to address its declining and agingviewership, TV2 Østjylland, one of the Denmark’s eightregional stations under TV2, has shifted its news reportingonto alternative platforms, including Facebook and Instagram,and utilising memes. The memes (images with humour) utiliseimages or video of famous people or popular culture to spreadnews items among younger viewers.

One example of using memes to spread news is TV2

Østjylland’s dissemination of the story in which AarhusUniversity had to inform 200 students that they had failed tograduate after a misinterpretation of the academic rules. TheTV station utilised a moment from pop culture, when SteveHarvey crowned the wrong Miss Universe back in 2015, withthe tag: ‘There’s been a mistake.’

Across the world, large proportions of older generationsassert that young people have little or no interest in the news,current events, or the world around them. This belief has beenwidely discredited, with those more in the know attesting thatyounger people are simply consuming the news in differentformats.

TV2 Østjylland certainly believes this to be the case:“Young Danes are absolutely into journalism. The problem isthat traditional media are reluctant to publish stories onmodern platforms where young people prefer to consumecontent, using appropriate language. It’s our problem, notyoung people’s problem,” said Head of News LouisePettersen, who also asserts that it’s important that Danishlanguage media be produced so that the country’s youngergenerations are not consuming all their news online in English.“We are financed by Danes for all Danes, so it’s important forus to be relevant to all target groups. Our traditional TVaudience is getting older and smaller so if we want to keepour relevance in ten years’ time, we have to make the effortto reach a younger audience now.”

While TV2 Østjylland originally faced criticism andmocking - you can certainly imagine the unkind words around‘pandering to millennials’ that such a move would cause inthe UK - the initiative is seen as a natural evolution of newsdissemination among younger audiences. “We couldn’t takethe traditional narrative and just put that onto Instagram orFacebook. We had to define a new way of communicatingwith a younger audience,” said Pettersen. “The memes havehelped us slowly change our narrative on TV. It’s not been arevolution, but we do use graphics more than before.”

The future of MoJoMoJo is undoubtedly here to stay. The ability to reach wideraudiences, faster, with more cost-effectively producedcontent, is always going to be a win-win for existing andemerging news organisations across the globe. New apps toaid in the production of MoJo content, such as Canva,Snapseed, Storyboard, PicPlayPost, Stop Motion Studio andThingLink, among literally hundreds of others, are poppingup at an alarming rate to ease the shift away from traditionalSNG to a more modern, streamlined approach.

Traditional news outlets need not fear yet, for there arestill plenty of households where news is consumed in thetraditional manner - newspapers and broadcast TV - however,by adapting to the latest evolution in SNG now, they cancertainly smooth the way ahead in the coming years.

Satellite will of course continue to play a key role in thisnew era of news gathering. Even with some footage beingtransmitted wirelessly over 4G or 5G networks, satelliteinvariably plays a role somewhere in the chain in the supportof those networks. So, it’s good news on the horizon foroperators as well!

“The programme has proven invaluable forwidening awareness on pressing community

matters such as health, environment andeducation.”

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Gearing up for a5G futureThe 5G revolution is upon us, and everyonefrom service providers to terrestrial networkoperators, satellite owners and teleports aregetting in on the action. The new ultralowlatency connectivity is expected to usher in anew world of machine-to-machinecommunications and Internet of Thingsapplications, with great opportunities forteleports across the globe.

Hank Zbierski, Chief Catalyst and Co-Founder,Isotropic Networks

Photo courtesy of Isotropic Networks

The advent of 5G is upon us and it promises so muchfrom blazing-fast mobile broadband speeds, exponentiallyhigher efficiencies, massive scalability, and significantly lowercost for mobile and fixed networks, along with ultralow latencyto enable new applications like massive machine-to-machinecommunications (M2M) and the Internet of things (IoT). Itwill offer a unified network infrastructure where all accesstechnologies – wired, wireless, terrestrial and satellite – workin sync. Known as the ‘Network of Networks,’ it offers a goldenopportunity for satellite to play an integral role within themainstream telecom network and it is being included fromthe start.

5G’s future impact on satellite has been called a revolution.Experts say it will dramatically affect how satellite networksintegrate into the terrestrial network. Unlike past standards,where VSAT equipment had to catch up and integrate withmobile/cellular network standards, 5G is being standardized

to enable full interoperability with satellite from the outset.

Why satellite?The 3GPP is working to integrate current and future satelliteconstellation types into the 5G standard architecture so thata seamless service and traffic flow can be created for manynew types of services. 3GPP members and the industry haverecognized the key advantages that satellite communicationscan bring to mobile networks. Satellite enables:

• Wide area coverage/ubiquity - The ability to reachanywhere on the globe wirelessly, beyond the reach ofterrestrial infrastructure;

• Mobility - Anywhere connections to moving platforms(e.g., aircraft, trains, ships, vehicles, unmanned aerialvehicles); and

• One to many/multicast - Efficient simultaneous, widearea data broadcast to dispersed sites for livetransmission or local/edge caching.

Isotropic: Big plans for 5GSet on the idyllic banks of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, one ofthe very best locations in the US for satellite transmission,the Isotropic Earth station comprises nine antennas, 21 acresand its headquarters. The company has a personal interestin a facility in Europe and has recently ordered three newhubs from ST Engineering iDirect. The company is also setto be co-located in other facilities to allow global coveragefrom one location with a global Network Management System,with every hub controlled from Lake Geneva. Isotropic willcover North and South America, Europe and Africa and theMiddle East out of a European facility in Poland and will alsoco-locate in a facility for Asia-Pacific coverage.

Isotropic shares the industry view that satellite networkscan help service providers maximize 5G and that satellitenetworks will require increased network visibility, bandwidthmanagement, and optimization to integrate with 5G - satellitenetworks will need to plug and ‘play nicely’ in a 5G world.

Satellites can affordably extend connectivity to 5G basestations (gNB) and even user devices beyond the reach ofterrestrial networks, for example, into remote, rural, low-density locations. Not only this, but satellites can providebroadband connectivity to aircraft, vessels, rail, and vehiclesoutside of cell range and support cellular roaming servicesfor subscribers or devices on mobile platforms. Satellites canefficiently multicast livestream broadband media andcacheable apps and content to distributed 5G edge nodes.As a result, they can reduce connectivity requirements forbackhaul connections to base stations and improve end-userservice quality.

Satellite networks can also provide backup capacity andmobile/transportable 5G cells for emergencies and disasterrecovery connectivity when terrestrial networks are down -for example, due to cable cuts or natural disaster.

For low bit rate IoT networks with latency-insensitiveapplications, VSATs can efficiently concentrate local trafficin remote locations or moving platforms for connectivity tothe network.

Finally, the ability to offload low-priority traffic, or multi-castable content, from backhaul networks (enterprise or cell)can help preserve precious spectrum on the main networkor provide overflow capacity for peak periods.

Satellite networks multicast livestreams and big dataefficiently to distributed edge servers on a 5G network. This

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can free up precious spectrum between cell nodes and/orbackhaul capacity so that other, more latency-sensitive typesof traffic can run between the gNB and core network (CN)over terrestrial connectivity.

In addition to reducing backhaul load, by providing a cacheat the base station close to the edge, user latency can bereduced when compared with requiring content to be pulledfrom the cloud. As 4K video streaming services - andsmartphones with 4K screens - become more widespread,this caching capability along with multicast could becomeimportant to delivering improved user Quality of Experience(QoE).

5G networks that use millimetre wave frequencies willrequire more base stations per square kilometre of coveragecompared with LTE and 3G. The higher base station countincreases the number of terrestrial backhaul points that willneed to be added to the network. Satellite multicast networksare extremely bandwidth efficient for multipoint networks,adding zero incremental bandwidth cost as the number ofsites scales up.

Isotropic is testing and rolling out early stage 5Gapplications building on the company’s 4G/LTE experienceand is working with clients (carriers, MNOs, maritime, andmobile communications networks) and partners to address5G opportunities.

Datadragon: Revolutionary bandwidth management for5GIn addition, Isotropic has also introduced its solution,Datadragon, to the market. Datadragon is a bandwidthmanagement and service platform from Isotropic that enablesnever-before-possible levels of application-level transparency,optimization, and personalization across any single or hybridnetwork. Through its proprietary bandwidth monitoringplatform, Isotropic’s clients can now provide their customersor end users with real-time visibility into their Internet usageso they can proactively analyze and address everything fromservice requests to billing issues.

Datadragon’s patented algorithm, paired with state-of-the-art AI technology, offers detailed insights into day-to-day useractivities and gives our clients the ability to optimize andprioritize bandwidth allocation according to their end users’needs.

The goal of Datadragon is to provide clients with a deepunderstanding of their bandwidth usage patterns and usertrends as well as with tools to help them more efficiently

deliver high quality of service and better user experience.Strategic insights into end-user bandwidth usage can provideopportunities to create new revenue streams and increasenetwork profitability.

Key features of Datadragon include the following:

• Transparency: Datadragon creates a hardware-agnosticplatform that gives network managers and end users areal-time picture of bandwidth utilization at the applicationlevel across any single, multi-use, or hybrid network.

• Visibility: Datadragon’s proprietary algorithm providesdetailed insights into end users’ real-time usage. Thiscreates opportunities to proactively troubleshootperformance issues more efficiently.

• Optimization: Datadragon gives network managers theability to understand and allocate the appropriate levelsof access to bandwidth, creating opportunities forupselling and increased sales.

• Frictionless: Datadragon gives network managers thepower to deliver bandwidth on demand. Satellite remoteaccess is as simple to provision as a terrestrialconnection.

• Personalization: By leveraging analytics and AI inDatadragon, operators can now customize their dataplans to match end users’ specific needs.

Prepared for the 5G FutureTimes are changing fast, and it is critical that the industry isready for these changes and able to adapt and thrive. Satelliteoffers so many unique features that it must become an integralpart of the delivery jigsaw for 5G networks. Innovation suchas Datadragon will be fundamental in ensuring a smoothtransition to 5G for customers, giving them more control overtheir networks. There is still a lot of work to do in terms ofworking out how integration will be completed, but this willbe a core focus for the entire industry – and there will be aplethora of opportunities to seize upon.

Hank Zbierski, Chief Catalyst and Co-Founder, IsotropicNetworks

Photo courtesy of Isotropic Networks

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....Q&A UP42

Geospatial dataUP42, a subsidiary of Airbus Defence, is a developer platform and marketplace which aims tosimplify the way businesses can derive insights from geospatial data at scale. The companylaunched in early 2019, gaining a lot of traction with a diverse portfolio of companies, and hasgone from strength to strength. Sean Wiid, UP42’s CPO, opines on what they’ve done right, andwhat he expects to see from the company as it finds its feet.

Laurence Russell, News and Social Media Editor, Satellite Evolution Group

Question: UP42 only launched in2019 so you’re still relatively new tothe scene; could you introduce us tothe company?Sean Wiid: We are a Berlin-based start-up with currently 35 employees from 20nationalities. The name UP42 is aplayful combination of two ideas. “UP”refers to the fact that much of our datacomes from airborne platformsincluding satellites, planes and drones.“42” is a reference to the Hitchhiker’sGuide to the Galaxy, where 42 turns outto be the answer to the UltimateQuestion of Life, the Universe andEverything. So, we aim to provide theanswers to all questions using datacollected from above us.

UP42 was founded by AirbusDefence and Space because theyrealized that there is a large untappedmarket potential for geospatial data andanalytics. They saw that there were

many commercial and technical barriersin place that prevented most companiesfrom being able to efficiently work withthis kind of data at scale.

Airbus enlisted the help of BCGDigital Ventures to incubate thecompany. We launched UP42 and ourclosed beta in May 2019 after about sixmonths of research, prototypedevelopment, collaboration with keypartners and ramping up the core team.The beta label came off in Septemberwhen we announced full commercialavailability.

UP42 aims to solve three maincustomer pain points: Access to data,access to algorithms and analytics, andaccess to an efficient computeenvironment to process the data atscale.

We reach out to data providersacross the industry, and work tointegrate their data into our platform.

This makes it easy for customers toaccess a wide variety of data sources,including satellite data, aerial imagery,AIS, weather, elevation models andmore. We started with Airbus Pleiades,SPOT and WorldDEM data, but we aimto be a neutral marketplace andtherefore open to everyone. So far, wehave around 20 data sources on theplatform, including open data sourcessuch as ESA´s Copernicus program,LANDSAT and MODIS.

We also help developers andanalytics companies to publish theiralgorithms on our marketplace. Thesealgorithms range from simple datapreparation steps all the way throughto high-value analytics such as NDVIand machine learning-based objectdetection and classification.

This means that, by using our UI,you can build a workflow that takessatellite data from Airbus and push it

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Sean Wiid, UP42’s CPO

through an Orbital Insight car detectionalgorithm in a few clicks without needingto write any code. Using our API, youcan run this same workflow over 100sof AOIs in parallel without needing tothink about how to scale theinfrastructure.

In general, there is no minimumorder and customers pay for only whatthey use. We collect revenue from ourcustomers and share it with our partnersaccording to exactly how much of theirdata or processing blocks was used ineach workflow.

What we do is unique in the marketnot only in terms of our building blockapproach, but also in terms of theusage-based revenue share model. Sixmonths after commercial launch, we areseeing good traction both on the partnerand on the customer side. We startedgenerating revenue already during ourbeta phase. So far, we have around 20data blocks and over 50 processing andmachine learning algorithms on themarketplace. We have closed 25+partnerships and have over 3,000 sign-ups.

Question: That sounds like a verystrong start; what’s your company’sstrategy going forward?Sean Wiid: Yes, it’s a strong start, andwe are proud of what we have achievedso far. But we are very aware that weare only at the beginning of our journey.

As with any platform andmarketplace, our strategic imperative isto grow our ecosystem of partners andcustomers to the point where networkeffects and economies of scale start tokick in. Of course, this will take sometime. In the meantime, we have two main

priorities to help move us in the rightdirection.

Firstly, we are focusing onincreasing both the number anddiversity of data providers on ourplatform and making it easier for peopleto find and use the data they need. Thisis critical to attracting new algorithmpartners and customers to the platform.

Secondly, we are focusing onmaturing the business enablers of ourplatform to make it easier for us tohandle more par tners and morecustomers at scale. For example,providing shared company accountsand strengthening our billing platformcapabilities.

In parallel to these main priorities,we continue to push on bringing on newalgorithms, improving the developerexperience and ramping up our salesand marketing activities. We have a lotof work to do!

Question: What industries stand tobenefit from geospatial data andsatellite imagery?Sean Wiid: I think the easier questionto answer is which industries don´tbenefit from geospatial data andsatellite imagery?

There are many studies that havebeen conducted over the last few yearsthat show how the overall impact ofgeospatial data and services on theeconomy, on society and on theenvironment far outweighs the size ofthe geospatial market itself. One studyestimated that geospatial technologyimproves revenues and costs by at leastfive percent in sectors contributingapproximately 75 percent to the globalGDP. That is staggering. Imagine what

could happen if we truly made it easierfor everyone to take advantage of thistechnology?

In fact, this universal relevance ofgeospatial technology and its overallimpact to society is at the core of ourcompany mission and also what haskept me personally engaged in thisindustry for over 20 years.

More concretely: At UP42 wecurrently see the most interest fromcompanies that want to monitorinfrastructure, including oil & gaspipelines, railway networks andelectr icity gr ids. We also havecustomers who are using our platformfor precision agriculture, insurance andenvironmental monitoring. The mainadvantage in using satellite imageryand machine learning is to be able toregularly extract insights over hugeareas to support decision making at ascale that would be impossible orprohibitively expensive to do manually.

Question: Among the applications ofyour platform, you list your ability tomonitor forestry, arctic ice andoffshore turbine batteries. Withinvestment in environmentaltechnology growing, do youanticipate a significant portion ofyour resources going to optimisingthese services?Sean Wiid: We’re definitely passionateabout environmental topics. Many of thedata sources we have or will beonboarding are optimized for use casessuch as air quality monitoring and forestfire detection. For example, we haverecently added Sentinel 5P, which isspecifically geared toward measuring awide variety of air quality metrics suchas methane levels globally on a dailybasis.

What we find very encouraging isthe number of large corporations whoare starting to use satellite imagery andanalytics to drive environmental andsustainability topics, for exampledeforestation monitoring for sustainablesupply chains. This is important, as itincreases the possibility for companiessuch as UP42 to be healthy businesseswhile also benefiting society as a whole.

Question: Your platform’s archit-ecture appears to have beendesigned with accessibility in mind.We’ve several other satellitetechnology developers prioritisingthe accessibility of their productsand services. Do you agree there isa trend of making satellite applica-

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....Q&A UP42

tions more accessible, and if so, whydo you think that’s started appearingnow?Sean Wiid: I would agree that this iscertainly a trend, and a fairly inevitableone at that.

Firstly, it’s about what developerswant. Over the last several years therehas been a massive shift in generaltowards APIs and platforms. I often hearAPIs described as the glue that holdsecosystems together. Being able to tapinto stable, well-documented APIs to getaccess to data or a service is a far moreefficient way to build digital products. Ithas also put developers into a keydecision-making role in the buying chainand as a result having a strongdeveloper experience is a cr iticalsuccess factor. We have customers thatuse us primarily because of ourdeveloper experience.

Secondly, with so many newconstellations and data sources comingonline, and the sheer volume of databeing collected each day, it no longermakes sense to deliver data in any wayother than on-demand via APIs. Formany companies, finding exactly theright data at the right time is moreimportant than having a full copy of allthe data to work with on their owninfrastructure. As the industry starts topush past the traditional largegovernment and defence contracts, itmakes more and more sense to focuson removing friction for the middle andlong tail.

Finally, it’s about the audience. If weas an industry want to address abroader market, we need to hide more

of the complexity of satellite imagery,remote sensing science, dataprocessing and machine learningbehind easy to use services. Otherwise,it’s too hard for many to get started.

Nevertheless, I think we still only atthe beginning and as an industry stillhave quite a way to go to make thetechnology truly accessible.

Question: What do you expect to seefrom the geospatial market in 2020and beyond?Sean Wiid: It’s really interesting toimagine what’s about to happen in thismarket. I’d like to compare it to theperiod where Google Maps entered themainstream.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, peoplewould get directions by writing themdown with paper and pen. The firstwrong turn you’d make trying tonavigate that way would render youutterly lost. You’d be left pulling out themap from your glove compartment andstaring at it for a half hour trying to workout where you were before evenworking out where to go next.

Then Google beta-ed an interestingapplication that did those things for you,and perhaps within a year, it hadeclipsed all other methods of navigationto become something many peoplesimply couldn’t navigate without.Suddenly we knew where we were,where we were going, when we weregoing to get there, and what the trafficwould be like.

It changed our l ives, but in astartlingly organic way. It went from anapp no one had heard of, to an

irreplaceable pillar of 21st century life,ingrained into our muscle memory. Likeit was a puzzle piece that fit so neatlyinto our lives, it almost felt like it wasalways a part of us. It went on to beconnected to most other apps, andalmost every business with a physicaladdress. It became the means by whichpeople found places. It became a veryfundamental commercial platformeveryone had to be on.

We’ve seen these sor ts ofmovements before. It ’s just whathappens when you open up a veryadvanced technology to the venturecommunity. As we open up this industryto use even more powerful geospatialdata, we’re not just talking about mapinformation. We’re talking about state-of-the-ar t imagery with 30-50cmresolution and complex machinelearning analytics. When innovators turnall those tools into apps, we may wellsee more watershed moments likeGoogle Maps popping up through therest of the early 21st century.

We see ourselves as a part of thismarket evolution. Moving forward we’llbe integrating many, many more diversedata sources and algorithms on theplatform, fur ther increasing itscapability. At the same time, we’ll beworking to keep that increasingly variedexperience simple and accessible.

I would love to encourage people togive UP42 a shot. We offer free creditsto get you started, and we’re very opento hear any and all feedback about yourneeds. Whatever you’re trying toachieve in the geospatial sector, let ushelp to get you there.

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