ST Engineering iDirect, a company of ST Engineering North America, and its long-term partner, Spacecom (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange: SCC), operator of the AMOS satellite fleet, have announced the successful demonstration of VSAT return capabilities on AMOS-17.

The demonstration resulted in an exceptionally wide return link for a small VSAT of 40 Mbps using the iDirect iQ 200 modem’s Adaptive TDMA return over AMOS-17’s high power C-band HTS beams. The combination of the 2.4m C-Band terminal and AMOS-17’s high-performance beams generated a highly efficient solution.

The large return data rate enabled simultaneous transmission of multiple high data streams from South Africa to Europe with a small antenna, resulting in the low-power Communications-on-the-Pause (COTP) solution. This opens up many operational and business opportunities to customers, such as emergency deployments, government applications, coverage of events and backhaul services.

Conducted from the UK-based SMS Teleport, an AMOS-17 European Gateway partner, the modem and antenna were installed in a communications truck located between Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa. The truck was provided by Telemedia, a leading provider of broadcast and teleport services across Africa.

The iQ 200 is a DVB-S2/DVB-S2X modem with Adaptive TDMA returns, combining  high-performance  features with mobility, making it an ideal solution for real-time, cost-effective, small to medium enterprise applications, such as IP trunking for disaster response and emergency services as well as mobility solutions such as maritime.

Tsachi Dahan, VP of Vertical Solutions at Spacecom, stated that by using the iDirect Evolution platform and iQ 200, the company can now offer a unique low footprint, low power and high capacity return links from any remote location, enabling users to enter new markets and facilitate new applications. AMOS-17’s C-band spot beams provide superior throughput and efficiencies over Sub-Saharan Africa with connections to Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Spacecom loosk forward to presenting this unique value proposition to customers brought about by this combination of satellite and ground segment.

Jerome Clapisson, Regional VP of Sales, Europe at ST Engineering iDirect, added that this opens up a whole new array of applications for users that span many different applications and markets and is synonymous with the company's goal of expanding market access to customers by setting an industry benchmark in performance and efficiency.

ST Engineering iDirect's iQ 200 Integrated Router Board.