ISCe 2007 Address Key Issues and Trends on the Commercial, Government and Military Satellite Market
Speakers at the ISCe Industry Leaders Panel include from left ISCe Conference Chairman David Bross; Clayton Mowry, President, Arianspace Inc; and David Leonard, President, WildBlue Communications; Alan Guggenheim, President; Pat Brant, CEO of Skyport Global Open TV; Ed Horowitz, President, SES Americom; Pat Brant, CEO of Skyport Global and Dr. Nongluck Phinainitisart, President, Shin Satellite; and co-moderator, Carmel Group Chairman Jimmy Schaeffler.
SAN DIEGO, CA, June 8, 2007 - Satnews Daily - The ISCe 2007 Conference and Expo held from June 5-7 in San Diego, California addressed key issues and trends in the commercial, government and military satellite markets.
The ISCe 2007 Conference went off to a good start with the Global VSAT Forum (GVF)/ World Teleport Association (WTA) Workshop held on the first day on “Profiting from Hybrid Solutions.” The whole day workshop tackled important issues on the role of satellite technology in hybrid networks.
The day’s workshop was led off by a panel chaired by GVF Secretary-General David Hartshorn Hartshorn sparked the discussion with the issue of interference from terrestrial networks on the C-Band spectrum—which is traditionally reserved for satellites. He said that the C-Band spectrum should be preserved for satellites in order to ensure the workability of hybrid networks. The issue of reallocation of C-Band spectrum to terrestrial users will be discussed in the forthcoming World Radio Communications conference in Geneva later this year. He proposed that an “exclusion zone” be declared in areas covered by C-Band frequencies to avoid interference.
Another issue that impedes satellites from being competitive with terrestrial technologies such as cable or fiber is export regulations which treat satellite technology as a matter of national security by the US authorities. Cable and fiber are not covered by export regulations. It was pointed out by John Orway that only the US imposes such restrictions on satellite technology and no other government does.
The panelists took turns in emphasizing that almost all networks today are hybrid in nature and satellites with their distinct advantages especial for ubiquitous coverage and last mile solutions has an important role to play in any communication network design.
“Hybrid networks are the only viable way to implement end-to-end solutions for our customers,” said Andreas Georghiou, CEO of service provider Spacenet.
The second day of ISCe 2007 featured an Industry Leaders panel composed of CEOs of major satellite companies with the theme “Bringing the Internet, Telcos, Cable and Satellite Together.”
The consensus among the panelists is that in the rapidly changing market environment, satellite companies should be able to not only keep up with trends and changes but be always one step ahead.
The panel was jointly moderated by ISCe Conference Chairman David Bross and Carmel Group Chairman Jimmy Schaeffler and included panelists David Leonard, President, WildBlue Communications; Alan Guggenheim, President, Open TV; Ed Horowitz, President, SES Americom; Clayton Mowry, President, Arianspace Inc; Pat Brant, CEO of Skyport Global and Dr. Nongluck Phinainitisart, President, Shin Satellite.
The panel was kicked started by Shaeffler presenting results of a study that showed different preferences of audiences in how they receive content. The result of the survey showed that consumers receive content in media that did not even exist just a decade ago. The panelist then took turn affirming the need to listen closely to what the new audience and customers preferences and requirements. “We should go to their house and not have them come to ours,” said SES Americom’s Horowitz.
“There are many people out there creating great content but do not know how to distributue it. Our role is to work with them and provide a total solution to their needs,” said Skyport Global’s Brant.
The challenges for the industry include how to help customer s roll out services and get to market faster said Arianspace’s Mowry. Another challenge is to overcome the consumers’ expectation to get services for free and be able to provide systems solutions that are high speed and low cost, said Open TV’s Guggenheim, who earlier gave the keynote address to open the day’s sessions.
Guggenheim said that two key trends are driving the market: digitalization and the increasing complexity of requirements that it is not possible anymore for a single entity to provide a total solution that a customer requires. Thus, the need for partnerships with other companies to be able to provide complete solutions, he added.
The third and final day of ISCe was devoted to sessions as part of the Military and Government Requirements Forum. Several panels tackled various aspects of the military satellite market including one on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Transformational Communications Architecture and another on the “Intelligence and Communications—You Can’t Have One Without the Other!”
The Intelligence and Communications panel was chaired by Maj. Gen. James Armor, Director, National Security Space Office and featured a distinguished panel that included Denis Curtin, Chief Operating Officer, XTAR; Harry Gatanas, Executive Vice President, Strategic Programs Group, SI International; Paul Millingon, Business Development Director, Paradigm Secure Communications; CDR John Roesli, C3F, J6-US Navy; and Nelson Santini, Director of C4ISR Business Development, Datapath.
The military’s intelligence requirements have changed a lot after 9-11 and the Patriot Act, according to CDR Roesli. “It used to be information that we need to know, now it is we need to share”said CDR Roesli, citing the need to share intelligence not only with multiple law enforcement and government agencies domestically but internationally as well with multiple navies and forces.
“We are almost solely reliant on satellite communications,” said Roesli, “which opens up potential vulnerabilities.” The panel emphasized the need for redundancy in systems and multiple communications paths for reliability and increased security.
Paradigm’s Millington said that despite the development of the military’s own capabilities there will always be capacity shortfalls which can be augmented by the commercial sector through hosted payloads and what he calls “coalition operationally responsive space”---or cooperation between allied nations and forces.
General Armor, gave the keynote speech at the ISCE 2007 Leadership luncheon sponsored by Intelsat General, EADS and Paradigm Secure Communications.
In his luncheon address, Gen. Armor spoke on the US’ national space policy which ensures freedom of action in space and seeks to cooperate with other nations for the peaceful use of space. He emphasized the importance of the US commercial space sector and the need for “sharing of space capabilities with international and commercial partners.” (a full interview with Gen. Armor will be published in the second quarter issue of MilsatMagazine (www.milsatmagazine.com) coming out at the end of June).
The ISCe 2007 Conference and Expo was considered a success in terms of the quality of attendance and the sessions by its organizers Hannover Fairs USA (HFUSA). HFUSA announced the 7th annual ISCe event next year will be held again in San Diego from June 10-12, 2008. at a much larger venue to accommodate it growing number participants and exhibitors from all over the world.
