In Broadcast - December 2019 - 16

16

SATELLITE NEWS

SATELLITE NEWS

SATELLITE NEWS

SATELLITE NEWS

SATELLITE NEWS

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 9 - Issue 11 | December 2019

InSAT

Comtech To Acquire
UHP Networks

C

omtech Telecommunications has
entered into an agreement to
acquire UHP Networks (UHP) for US$40
million.
UHP is a leading provider of
innovative and disruptive satellite
ground station technology solutions.
Founded in 2005, UHP is based in
Canada and has developed technology
that is transforming the Very Small
Aperture Terminal (VSAT) market.
Fred Kornberg, President and CEO of
Comtech, said: "With end-markets for
high-speed satellite-based networks
significantly
growing,
Comtech's

acquisition of UHP is a significant step
in enhancing our solution offerings for
the satellite ground station market."
He added that extensive testing
has revealed that UHP's innovative
implementation techniques for time
division multiple access (TDMA)
technology was best-in-class.
Vagan Shakhgildian, President of
UHP, said: "I believe this strategic
combination
with
Comtech
is
compelling.
"I expect our customers will
significantly benefit from greater
resources and capabilities than UHP

could provide on a standalone basis."
The
acquisition
will
expand
Comtech's product line in the satellite
ground
station
market,
which
has a growing need for reliable,
high capacity satellite equipment,
particularly in the private and highperformance enterprise VSAT market.
It will also enable the company to
integrate a TDMA technology into
Comtech EF Data's HEIGHTS platform
(which includes HEIGHTS Dynamic
Network Access (H-DNA) dynamic
Single Carrier per Channel (dSCPC)
technology).

Newtec Executives In Key Roles
At ST Engineering iDirect

Simoens has been appointed as CTO
as ST Engineering iDirect seeks to
T Engineering iDirect has
further its pioneering role in
appointed Thomas Van
leading the satellite industry.
den Driessche and Frederik
Simoens has served as
Simoens to key executive
Newtec's CTO since 2015 and
roles following the recent
brings with him invaluable
acquisition of Newtec Group.
expertise
in
satcom,
Van den Driessche is
standardisation, physical layer
named as President of the
technologies, networking and
Executive Strategic Board
network virtualisation.
and
Chief
Commercial
Kevin Steen, President and
Frederik Simoens, CTO CEO, ST Engineering iDirect,
Officer (CCO). He will Thomas Van den Driessche, CCO
lead the newly-formed Strategy in ground infrastructure to propel said: "We are in the midst of a pivotal
Group which comprises product further transformation and market time in the satellite communications
lifecycle
management,
vertical opportunity across the satcom industry, and the combination of
market
development,
marketing industry. As CCO Van den Driessche Newtec and ST Engineering iDirect has
and strategic business development. will steer the global sales organisation created a company with unparalleled
He will spearhead the company's to better serve customer needs as the expertise at the forefront to the
efforts to establish a new standard industry evolves.
industry transformation."

S

Thuraya Conducts Aero Mobility Demonstration

T

huraya in partnership with SCOTTY,
a developer of beyond line-ofsight (BLOS) satellite communication
solutions based in Austria, has
successfully
conducted
a
live
demonstration of its Aero Mobility
capabilities platform - Thuraya Aero.
The demonstration replicated a realtime ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance &
Reconnaissance) mission over satellite
communications to key government
customers.
The
technology
demonstration
highlighted
the
reliability
and
effectiveness of Thuraya's Aero
solution for various ISR operations
associated with border patrol,
maritime
and
environmental

protection, in addition to disaster relief
missions.
Thuraya CEO Ali Al Hashemi said: "By
fulfilling the growing requirements
for secure, always-on mobile satellite
communications on land, at sea and
in air, we are looking to expand our
strong partnership with the UAE
government.
Today's
successful
demonstration is a testament towards
Thuraya's capability to providing
reliable aero mobility solutions to our
global customers."
Thuraya's L-band satellite network
enabled the real-time transmission
of HD aerial video and position data
from an inflight fixed-wing Diamond
DA62 MPP surveillance aircraft to the

Thuraya Aero SCOTTY demonstration

mission control centre.
The live surveillance imagery,
flight tracking, and duplex data
was displayed on the ground using
SCOTTY´s Mobile HD portable
receive station that supports critical
applications including live exchange
of ISR information, transmission of
border/coastal patrol imagery and
first-responder support.

Airbus'
Electronically
Steerable
Antenna+
Technology

Eutelsat Quantum Elsa+ antenna

A

(Picture courtesy of Airbus)

irbus, ESA and Eutelsat recently
presented
ground
breaking
multibeam active antenna payload.
Airbus'
ELSA+
(ELectronically
Steerable Antenna+) is a first for
commercial satellite communications
in Europe. The versatility of its
performance represents a step change
for communications satellites with a
spacecraft able for the first time to
adapt to the customers' business cases
by means of software control.
The
electronically
steerable
reception antenna, works in Ku-band
with eight independent reconfigurable
beams.
This inherent flexibility enables the
operator to reconfigure the radio
frequency beams over the coverage
zone, allowing for an unprecedented
flexibility
in
multimedia
and
broadcasting services.
In addition, these capabilities can
be implemented on each beam either
independently
or
simultaneously
including hop up to several tens of
predefined different configurations per
beam (beam hopping).
This new antenna technology
complements new generation fully
digital payloads where the operator
can thus change the orbit position,
frequencies and the power of their
spacecraft.
Airbus Defence and Space in Spain is
the prime contractor for this advanced
instrument developed over four
years. Airbus led an industrial group
that included a group of 12 European
companies, eight of them Spanish, to
build this advanced system.
The Eutelsat Quantum satellite is due
to be launched second half of 2020.
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.comtechtel.com http://www.airbus.com http://www.idirect.net http://www.idirect.net http://www.thuraya.com/content/thuraya-successfully-conducts-aero-mobility-demonstration-key-government-customers
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