People

Idirect Appoints VP In Asia

iDirect announced the appointment of KW Chan as vice president of sales for the Asia – Pacific region. The addition of Chan will help iDirect continue offering reliable bi- directional satellite-based broadband access solutions to the Pacific-Rim market with the customer-focused approach it is known for.

Chan was most recently with SES-Americom as the director of Northeast Asia. In this role he was responsible for business development, marketing and sales for Asian transponder capacity in the NEA market. Prior to SES-Americom, Chan was general manager, broadcast and fixed satellite systems at Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong Tel) while gaining his initial experience at British Telecom’s Wireless Division.

Micro-Ant Inc. Appoints CTO

Micro-Ant appointed Gregory C. Poe as its CTO. He will be responsible for overseeing the company’s engineering and technology development.

Most recently, he served as senior RF engineer at KVH Industries where he led the development of a Ka-band phased array antenna and LNB for mobile satellite television in SUVs and mini vans.

Paradise Datacom Names New CEO

John Restivo has been named Paradise Datacom’s new CEO for both the U.S. and U.K. operation of the company, in addition to being responsible for its global activity. Restivo, who joined Paradise Datacom in 2003 as executive vice president was responsible for the company’s global sales and marketing activities and was also a contributing member of the senior management team. Restivo will be setting the future direction of Paradise Datacom in his new role. Prior to joining Paradise Datacom, he was general manager of Viasat Inc.

SES Global Appoints New CFO

Mark Rigolle has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of SES Global. He succeeds Jurgen Schulte who will retire after more than 13 years of service in this position at SES.

Rigolle joins SES Global from Belgacom, where he held various positions in the financial and strategic areas. He brings experience in treasury, budgeting, reporting and controlling. He has been finance director at an operating entity as well as at the corporate level and was responsible for corporate strategy and business development. Most recently, he was the project leader for Belgacom’s successful IPO.

Spacenet Appoints New Executive VP

Spacenet Inc., Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.’s U.S. subsidiary, named Christina Clifton as executive vice president, sales and marketing. Clifton will oversee these business efforts for Spacenet’s custom enterprise networking solutions, Connexstar broadband networking services and new product/service deployment throughout North America.

Prior to joining Spacenet, Clifton held a wide range of senior sales and marketing positions in the telecommunications industry, including executive vice president, global sales and marketing for Iridium Satellite LLC; senior vice president, global sales and business development for Astrolink International; and executive vice president at World Access, Inc./Facilicom International.

Services

France Telecom Launches Regional BGAN Services

France Telecom Mobile Satellite Communications is enhancing its range of value-added services with a new product on the market for satellite data transmission: the Regional BGAN Scratch and Web prepaid card. The Regional BGAN Scratch and Web prepaid card offers credit volumes in megabytes (1, 5 or 10 mbs for example, 1 mbs can be used to send approximately 33 ten-line e-mails). It enables one or more users, especially corporate expatriates, to manage their own usage levels more effectively and keep in regular contact with family and friends, whatever their location.

This card also gives telecommunications managers better control of their communication budgets. Given that all communications via Scratch & Web are personal, calculating the breakdown of communication costs for all employees becomes unnecessary. The card offers the ideal solution for managing private data transfer by employees on long-term assignments abroad.

Globecomm Provides New Video Platform

Globecomm Systems Inc., (GSI) now enables U.S. programmers to directly reach viewers in Europe and the Middle East over GSI’s new direct-to-home video platform, which utilizes the Telstar 12 high-powered transatlantic satellite. The platform and related GSI services are also available for business television applications. The new video platform is uplinked to Telstar 12 from GSI’s teleport on Long Island, NY. GSI provides free-to-air and encrypted broadcast services, including complete billing and collection services for encrypted broadcasts.

Multiple encryption options are available for DTH, BTV, and cable distribution requirements. Both Nagra and Irdeto options are available for DTH, Scientific Atlanta and Wegener options are available for BTV applications, and any of these options are available for cable distribution requirements.

The video distribution platform is also enabled for the provision of IP multicast and content delivery services, using both the SkyStream zBand and the Wegener iPUMP / COMPEL Media distribution platforms, as well as custom solutions available utilizing equipment from multiple vendors.

Loral Skynet Establishes BTV Service

Loral Skynet announced that it has signed an agreement with Jaguar Cars UK to provide a business television network covering all 100 Jaguar dealerships in the United Kingdom.

This new network is in addition to Loral Skynet’s previous agreement with Jaguar’s sister company, Land Rover UK, which provides business television services to 130 Land Rover dealerships throughout the UK. Jaguar Business TV will broadcast training and communications programming over a secure video and data network developed by Skynet. Jaguar Business TV will be distributed across the UK using Loral’s Telstar 12 satellite, located at 15 degrees W.

Skynet will provide the communications infrastructure, including on-premise dishes and receiving equipment, and maintenance services to each dealership.

 

Panamsat Delivers HD Content For NHK

Panamsat Corp. will be delivering live sporting events and breaking news in high-definition (HD) format for Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK). Such programming will be delivered through Panamsat’s hybrid network.

"Panamsat now also can monitor and support HD broadcast services through its teleport, advanced fiber network and HD-ready satellites. By leveraging these key elements, Panamsat provides NHK the answer to its U.S. domestic transmission needs," says Joe Wright, president and CEO of Panamsat.

NHK will uplink news and sporting events across the United States via SNG trucks to Panamsat’s domestic satellite fleet. Panamsat will then provide the terrestrial fiber link to reach NHK’s U.S. gateway in New York City.

Singtel Deploys Two-way Satellite

Nera Telecommunications is providing Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) with a DVB-RCS (Digital Video Broadcasting-Return Channel via Satellite) system through its hub and terminals. In 2001, SingTel launched its IP broadband via satellite, or DVB-S one-way service, offering bandwidth on demand, media content distribution, live streaming and data multicasting.

The DVB-RCS hub, together with SingTel’s ST-1 satellite system, supports data transmission of up to 2Mbps on the return channel. Now SingTel will focus more on distance learning, targeting interactive services at remote schools and institutions of learning in the region.

Contracts

Comtech EF Data Wins Follow-on Order

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. announced that its Tempe, AZ-based subsidiary, Comtech EF Data Corp., has received a follow-on order for $1.2 million of satellite communications equipment to be deployed in a large cellular network in Southeast Asia.

The order includes satellite modems and transceivers that will be used as critical components in the expansion of this service provider’s Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network. Including this order, the customer has ordered $2.9 million to date of Comtech satellite communications equipment for this specific GSM cellular network infrastructure.

Integral to this operator’s network is the deployment of Comtech’s advanced, high- performance Model CDM-600 satellite modems. Both higher-order modulation and Turbo Product Coding, the industry’s most bandwidth efficient forward error correction, will be deployed. These innovative technologies enable the network service provider to reduce the satellite bandwidth requirements by approximately 50 percent. Additionally, the new programmable drop and insert functionality on the modems allow automatic power control on the transmission link, further optimizing the efficiency and lowering the overall cost of data transmission. Also included in the network expansion project are Comtech Model CSAT-5060 C-band transceivers.

Gilat Wins Rural Telephony Contract

Telikom Papua New Guinea (PNG) chose Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. to provide a hub and 500 DialAway IP VSATs for rural telephony services across the island country. The network is expected to expand to 2,000 sites and will support IP, education and health applications.

"A satellite-based network was ideal in our situation due to the lack of existing infrastructure. There is a huge demand for our services and we are very pleased with the development of the rural communities in the wake of this project, which is only the first stage," says Florian Gubon, chairman of the board of Telikom PNG.

Intelsat Provides Services To Saipem

Intelsat, a leading global communications provider, has been chosen by Telespazio to provide oil and gas industry contractor Saipem, an ENI company, with voice and data services to support its worldwide on-shore and offshore construction, drilling and deep water operations.

Intelsat’s global solution, utilizing the IS-701, IS-905 and IS-904 satellites, will allow 16 oil and gas vessels traversing the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans to transmit voice and data traffic to Saipem’s land-based operations center located in Europe. In combination with Telespazio’s Fucino teleport, Intelsat’s satellite system, Riverside teleport facility in California and fiber-optic cable interconnections are creating a global communications solution for Saipem. Each of the 16 vessels will be equipped with a 2.4 meter C-band maritime antenna to communicate with Intelsat’s satellite system. This network is integrated into Saipem’s global terrestrial network which is managed by Albacom, a telecom provider.

Irdeto Contracts With Yiwu CATV

Irdeto Access announced that Yiwu CATV, a local cable network operator in Yiwu, based in the province of Zhejiang, China, has selected Irdeto Access’ large-scale conditional access (CA) system Irdeto PIsys for its digital TV operation.

Yiwu CATV cable network covers more than 200,000 TV households in the city of Yiwu and is planned to serve the surrounding counties in the future. The purchase of Irdeto PIsys was done in cooperation with GNI, a system integration partner. With this association, Irdeto Access continues its business in the Chinese market in offering content security solutions for pay-media operators.

Mainstream Data Lands Bloomberg Deal

Mainstream Data announced that it has been awarded a contract by Bloomberg LP to provide a custom global distribution platform for Bloomberg News. Bloomberg will use Mainstream’s unique MediasNet distribution network–an Internet-based streaming protocol that provides real-time, guaranteed, and secure data transmission. Bloomberg is also installing Mainstream’s Medias Server at its customer sites, which is an input agnostic (Internet, leased circuit, or satellite) multimedia server that captures feeds, stores content locally, and interfaces with enduser applications.

The Medias Server handles any file type or format/character set. Bloomberg will use Mainstream’s Medias technology to deliver its content in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and English. Support for foreign languages was a key consideration in Bloomberg’s selection of Mainstream.

The Medias Server also features Mainstream’s MediasNews Distribution Suite that provides a broad spectrum of output options, including RS-232 serial, TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP push and file sharing protocols, thus allowing Bloomberg to deliver its content in a flexible and customer-friendly transaction.

Mentat Wins GSA Contract

Mentat Inc. won a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) contract GS-35F-0379P for its SkyX Gateway and SkyX Client/Server products and training. With pre-negotiated purchase terms and pricing, the GSA contract simplifies the procurement process for U.S. government and military customers of Mentat’s SkyX products.

Mentat’s SkyX products overcome the performance limitations of Internet protocols when used over satellite and other long delay links. The SkyX Gateway and SkyX Client/Server combine multiple acceleration techniques including TCP protocol translation, Web prefetch, data compression, and multicast fan-out to increase transfer speeds and improve responsiveness while conserving satellite bandwidth. SkyX products accelerate file transfers, e-mail access, Web browsing, database transactions, and other TCP/IP applications while remaining entirely transparent to endusers.

Quintech Wins CBS Contract

Quintech Electronics and Communications Inc., a broadband RF signal management hardware designer and manufacturer, announced that CBS purchased an SRM 2150/32×64 Modular, Expandable, Full Fan-out (splitting) L-band Matrix Routing Switch for its Viacom Broadcast Center in New York, NY. Quintech’s MRF Series of programmable, non-blocking, full fan- out (splitting) RF matrix routing systems, when fully integrated, are configured to route any of 2 to 12 inputs carrying RF signals to any number of 2 to 4 outputs. These series offer compact, ultra-reliable, high-performance realizations of radio frequency (RF) switching technology in a cost effective manner. Quintech also offers the MFF Series of full fan-in (combining) matrices.

Viasat Expands Malaysian Internet Access

Viasat Inc. is supplying a Linkstar broadband satellite communications network to Smart Digital Communications Bhd in Malaysia to help provide high-speed Internet access to more than 1,500 schools. The $4 million contract for Viasat is expected to be the largest VSAT network in the country, once completed.

Smart Digital Communications is partnering on the project with Malaysia’s second largest ISP, Jarig, which has more than 800,000 subscribers. The new satellite network is part of the Malaysian government’s national broadband plan, a joint effort by the national ministries of education, telecommunications and finance. Possible future additions include distance learning and VoIP, plus expansion to other government agencies.