[Satellite News 09-03-08] ND SatCom likely will generate the majority of its revenues from the military/defence sector going forward, Karl Classen, ND SatCom’s CEO, said.
    “Due to the business we gained from the German armed forces, we were able to increase revenue share from the defence segment up to some 40 percent of our overall revenues,” Classen told Satellite News. “Three to four years ago, it was just 20 percent of our revenues. We expect this to become the majority portion of our revenues in the next one to two years. Defence could reach 60 percent of our business in the next couple of years.”
    Success in the United States is key to this transformation to a more military/defence dominated business, Classen said. ND SatCom signed a breakthrough deal in May, as U.S. affiliate ND SatCom Inc. won a contract from the U.S. Navy which could be worth close to $300 million over five years. ND SatCom, an SES Astra subsidiary, will serve as a prime contractor for the U.S. Department of the Navy, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, as the contract establishes a framework for ND SatCom to deliver multiple portable satellite communication terminals to the U.S. Navy.
    “This (deal) gives us the ability to compete for a strategic important piece of business in the U.S. defence market.” Classen said.

Global Focus
ND SatCom also has transformed in other ways, including taking a more global focus. “We have intensified our efforts to provide solutions globally, more close to our customers,” Classen said. “We have grown our teams in the Middle East, the Unted States and China, for example. It enables us to have a higher share of costs based on the U.S. dollar rather than the Euro. The company has not been easy to manage because of the weakness of the U.S. dollar. We have the global markets which have changed the overall landscape. We have been performing business mainly on the U.S. dollar base. For a company like ND SatCom we constantly need to improve our solutions on the one hand, but on the other hand also the costs of manufacturing these products and systems.”
    Classen is optimistic about the opportunities for the company in Asia. “We see strong opportunities for growth in Asia, from China and Turkey to Central Asia to the Middle East,” he said. “We see a strongly growing demand in vertical markets such as homeland security, especially in the Middle East. In this region, we also see opportunities for media teleport activities. Also, we have more demand from ministries of education for satellite-based distance learning school networks. We have often talked about these networks in the past, but now governments have really decided to implement them.”
    In Europe, ND SatCom is placing more emphasis in generating revenues from the broadcast space. “In Europe, we see strong demand for media systems and equipment, especially supporting news gathering,” he said. “We are integrating now about 50 SNG (satellite newsgathering) vehicles per year in mainly Europe. The market is increasing compared to three to five years ago. The demand for being able to provide real-time news content is quite important for public and private broadcasters in Europe.”

IPTV
ND SatCom also has introduced an IPTV contribution solution in the past  year. “The trend for IP within broadcast is growing,” Classen said. “It will drive this industry. We started to introduce IPTV in our SNG media contribution offerings. We designed an IP contribution, together with our SkyWAN product. This IPTV solution allows broadcasters to produce and transmit IP-based content cheaper than today’s existing systems. The demand for local content to be provided to the IPTV end users in the region can now be much better satisfied.”
    Working with SES means ND SatCom plays a vital role in an overall ecosystem that can potentially offer customers a strong end-to-end solution. “In the SES Group, we work together with other infrastructure companies,” Classen said. “We are able to design complete end-to-end solutions from the ground segment, specific applications, space segment etc. A good example is recently, we were able to acquire a business in the Middle East for a complete DTH teleport in one of the Gulf countries. This includes the infrastructure for a playout center, content management systems, transmission equipment. We have all these capabilities within the SES Group.”
    The company can also offer satellite bandwidth as part of any deal. “We are quite well-positioned to offer a complete solution to customers,” Classen said. “We work to include satellite bandwidth into our offerings from the satellite operators. For ourselves, a ground system provider, it is very important that we become enabled to offer system solutions including space capacity to our customers, especially to government customers, for example. Sometimes, customers like to procure space segment separately, and some prefer to have the bundled end-to-end solution.”