Collaborative efforts to improve maritime operations with cutting-edge communications were advanced recently during Broadband Maritime Europe 2011, where the international shipping and broadband satellite communications industries began co-ordinating on training, regulatory and other shared priorities.

Ideally an operator would like to have a satellite go from RFP to orbit in 25 to 30 months. However, the reality is that manufacturing satellites is far from an assembly line operation where every component is sourced with sufficient inventory support. Often the equipment onboard the satellite is highly specialized and vendors are few, which put constraints on delivery and in effect, time to market for satellite services.

So what issues keep satellite manufacturers up at night?

Broadcasters and producers are experimenting with strategies that stream on demand applications to mobile devices. Hampered by steep fixed costs, limited distribution and scheduled services that proved less than appropriate to small screen viewing, the first generation of Mobile TV has been superceded by streamed on-demand applications more in tune with the way we want to consume content on the go.  When Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany and Austria shuttered theirDVB-H networks in quick succession last year it left Italy with the only successful service in Europe.

30% of Broadband Homes consider Live Multiscreen Service as a Top TV-Service Feature

Receiving live TV on a mobile phone, tablet, or computer is a popular feature throughout Western Europe, with 30% of broadband households highly interested in these TV Everywhere services, according to Parks Associates’ recent consumer survey Connected Consumer in Europe.

The Asia-Pacific region will lead set-top box growth for the next five years, with shipments approaching 50% of the set-top boxes sold worldwide in 2013-2015 before falling off slightly according to ABI Research. Established players delivering cable boxes to China, including Jiuzhou and Coship, stand to gain in market share as unit shipments and ASP increase in Asia. Huawei (through Huawei Devices) is also engaging service providers in the region, and ABI Research expects they will see success in this market.

O3b signed a "multi-year, multi-million dollar reseller agreement" with Sky Fiber Corporation in June 2011 following on a similar announcement with Mavoni Technologies, South Africa in May 2011. Yet, beyond these two recent contracts and one additional framework agreement with Etisalat, O3b has been fairly quiet in terms of client deals since it completed its funding in November 2010.

Report provides insight into the buying preferences, issues and priorities of teleport customers in the enterprise sector
 

The World Teleport Association announced the release of its newest report, What Customers Want: Enterprise 2011. The report is a product of interviews conducted with senior decision-makers for teleport and satellite customers in the enterprise sector. Customers interviewed ranged from retail, maritime, and finance to communications carriers and nonprofit organizations.

More than 56,000 industry visitors, conference speakers and delegates, exhibiting staff and media from around the world attended CommunicAsia2011 and BroadcastAsia2011 between 21 – 24 June. “Each year we endeavour to evolve the content, offerings and format of CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia, and exhibitors and visitors continue to endorse our efforts through their regular participation in the shows,” said Mr. Stephen Tan, Chief Executive of show organiser, Singapore Exhibition Services (SES).

George Bernard Shaw once said that “if history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience”. NSR is not as critical about the future of the launch industry for North America and Western Europe but does extend a word of caution towards the development of next-gen launchers.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA)  released its 2011 State of the Satellite Industry Report, showing a five percent growth in overall world satellite industry revenues in 2010. Global 2010 revenues for the satellite industry totaled $168.1 billion, for an 11.2 percent average annual industry growth rate over the past 5 years.