18
December 2018
The fast pace of change in
the satcoms industry
T
he satellite industry is undergoing
a major period of change right
now. Challenged with increasing
competition from other connection
methods and consumer demand for a
continual and perfect feed, the industry
is standing its ground thanks to a very
important “I” word: “innovation”. This
is just one reason we felt we need to
change the “I” word in our group’s name
from the very negative “interference” to
the wholly positive “innovation”.
Evolving demand
Broadcasters are currently one of the
biggest users of satellite spectrum.
However, things are undoubtedly
shifting, driven mainly by increasing
competition in the broadcast space.
With so many services launching
across multiple platforms, consumers
have more content choices than ever
before. Broadcasters need to maximise
efficiency while keeping costs down;
simultaneously, they need a reliable and
high-quality feed as so much choices
means consumers will not tolerate
downtime or poor quality.
At the same time, video-over-IP
has been steadily gaining ground, with
broadcasters looking for ways to reduce
costs. This is naturally a potential
threat for satellite operators, although
it is also an opportunity as satellite
communications can enable that.
We are also just on the cusp of the
Internet of Things (IoT) revolution,
where consumers are becoming all
the more connected, whether that be
smart home devices, connected fridges,
or even connected cars. As this trend
continues, satellite will be an important
enabler of both the large volumes of
data and the on-the-move connections
needed for connected cars, for example.
However, it has to be able to ensure
constant connectivity — so reliability
will be key.
This evolving demand has led to
a need for innovation in the satellite
industry to increase efficiency and
reduce costs in order to better compete
with other connection methods.
Innovating
That said, the industry has been
innovating and there are a couple of
interesting innovations to watch right
now.
One of those is Digital IF
(intermediate frequency). The basic
concept can be summarised in the
ability to give an IP address to the
physical antenna and make it part of
the IT infrastructure. This enables
you to implement a software-based
infrastructure, which dramatically
reduces costs while increasing efficiency.
Satellite operators are realising the
potential of this technology and there
are a number of applications where
Digital IF is being deployed worldwide
already. That includes site diversity,
antenna combining, disaster recovery,
broadcast and multicast operations, and
doppler removal. Eventually, Digital IF
will become an industry standard —
the question is simply when that will
happen.
Another interesting trend is the
use of big data and machine learning.
There is no doubt that this has massive
potential for the industry to greatly
increase efficiency. I am reassured to
hear a lot of discussions about how
this could be applied, and finding
new ways to apply big data will be a
big focus for the Satcoms Innovation
Group. However, some tools are already
available and having a big impact.
For example, technology is available
that can correlate data coming from the
different elements of the satellite system
(such as telemetry, RF monitoring,
monitoring and control, and so on).
It can not only troubleshoot events
and correlate a complex set of outputs
into a single dashboard, but could also
prevent degradations and anomalies by
analysing trends. The same technology
is applied to optimising the available
bandwidth on complex satellites, such as
HTS and VHTS (very high throughput
satellite).
There has also been a great deal of
innovation when it comes to set-up.
Auto-pointing antennas and tools to
ensure proper set-up without the need
for highly trained installers not only
increase accuracy, but also reduce costs
associated with set-up. However, it
needs to be precise and repeatable to be
compliant with SOMAP or any satellite
operators approval requirements to stop
incidents before they happen.
The future of satellite
Satellite will continue to play a crucial
role for connectivity across the world.
As the consumer demand evolves, the
industry needs to evolve to address new
challenges and consumption habits.
That is already happening and I look
forward to the Satcoms Innovation
Group helping to drive that further. q
MARTIN COLEMAN
Executive Director,
The Satcoms
Innovation
Group, and an
APB Panellist