Update on the Japanese Satellite Market
by Naoakira Kamiya
Tokyo, Japan, June 1,2020--The flame for 2020 Tokyo Olympics arrived from Greece to Japan on March 20th and Japanese leg of the torch relay with the concept of “Hope Lights Our Way” was scheduled to begin on March 26 from J Village in Fukushima prefecture. However, on March 24 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the Tokyo Games due to the spreading of the novel coronavirus. Consequently IOC made a decision to accept it.
Later on March 30th, the IOC approved the new date for Tokyo Olympics from July 23 to August 8, 2021 and the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5, 2021. Such date was proposed jointly by Japanese Government, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and Japan Olympic Committee on March 30 and was immediately approved by IOC.
It seems that the torch will remain in Fukushima prefecture for the time being.
As a consequence, the Japanese satellite industry with particular reference to the occasional use segment of professional video was seriously impacted by the postponement of the torch relay and games. Satellite operators, OB van owners, mobile equipment renters, and so forth lost business opportunity for at least one year. One of the OB van operators who was contracted to cover the torch relay commented that he counted his chickens before they are hatched. It seemed that about half of the contracts were postponed for one year and the remaining contracts were tentatively cancelled.
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| Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center |
Besides the satellite industry, one of the most seriously ipacted is Japan’s largest convention center called Tokyo Big Sight, where the International Broadcast Center (IBC) and Main Press Center (MPC) for the Olympics will be located. IBC needs a large space for Olympic Broadcasting Services with 17 Rights Holding Broadcasters and so many sub-license holders. To meet such purpose, Tokyo Big Sight has not been used for exhibitions since last year and some construction works started in line with the requirements of IBC and MPC.
If the venue has to be reserved until next year, it would further take away business opportunities and the damages would be catastrophic. According to the Japan Exhibition Association, the loss would be about Yen 2.5 trillion (approximately US$ 22 Billion), even if the games had been held as originally scheduled. Supposing the venue has to be closed until next year, the association members will face another significant loss.
Under such circumstances, Japan Exhibition Association submitted a strong petition to Tokyo Metropolitan Government requesting that Tokyo Big Sight be available for exhibition business use as many days as possible.
OneWeb Bankruptcy
In the meantime OneWeb announced on March 27 that the company has voluntarily filed for relief under Chapter 11 of Bankruptcy Code in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the announcement the reason for such filing is that the financing process did not progress because of the financial impact and market turbulence related to the spread of COVID-19.
About two weeks later on April 13 SoftBank Group forecasted a record Yen 1.35 trillion operating loss for the fiscal year ended March 31. The company said it expects Yen 800 billion losses on the basis of FVTPL from its own investment to such companies as OneWeb, WeWork, and so forth. Another Yen1.8 trillion in losses is expected from its Vision Fund Investments. They said that total consolidated revenue is estimated at Yen 6.15 trillion and net loss Yen 750 billion.
Surprisingly enough SoftBank Group said on April 30 that its net loss would be increased from Yen750 billion to Yen900 billion.
JSAT
During the past six months SKY Perfect JSAT Corp (JSAT) launched two new satellites, JCSAT-18 and JCSAT-17. JCSAT-18 made by Boeing Space Systems, is a joint satellite with Kacific Broadband Satellite and was launched aboard Falcon-9 rocket on December 16, 2019.
JCSAT-17 was lifted off aboard Ariane-5 rocket on February 18, 2020. This satellite is a state-of-the-art multi-beam high throughput satellite of S-band transponders, and was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. At the time of this writing JSAT said that in-orbit-tests have been successfully completed and a contractual delivery has been made from JSAT to NTT DoCoMo for their use.
In addition to these new GEO satellites, JSAT started operating a LEO satellite named SDS-4 (Small Demonstration Satellite 4) from December 2019. The small three axis spacecraft of 50kg was originally launched aboard H-2A rocket in May 2012 and operated by JAXA at the altitude of 696km for about seven years. JAXA handed it over to JSAT for extended operation. Its main mission, Space-based Automatic Identification System, is continued to be experimented by JSAT at their Ibaraki Satellite Control Center.
All in all JSAT is operating a large fleet of 16 satellites at the end of April 2020. Their active satellites are located from 85 degrees east where JCSAT-85 is operated to 169 degrees east where JCSAT-12 is located. Furthermore JSAT and Intelsat jointly own and operate Horizons-1 satellite at 127 degrees west, Horizons-2 at 85 degrees east, and Horizons-3e at 169 degrees east. Newly launched JCSAT-18, which is now called JCSAT-1C, is located at 150 degrees east. Newest satellite, JCSAT-17, is operated under the new name of N-STAR-d at 128 degrees east.
B-SAT
Another satellite operator in Japan, Broadcasting Satellite System Corp (B-SAT), currently operates four satellites, BSAT-3a, -3b, -3c and -4a, at 110 degrees east. Unique feature of BSAT-4a satellite is that it carries 12 left-hand circularly polarized Ku-band transponders in addition to the traditional 12 right-hand version.
B-SAT ordered one more satellite, BSAT-4b, from Space Systems/Loral in March 2018. The satellite is already completed and scheduled for launch aboard Ariane-5 rocket in June 2020. However the launch operation at Guiana Space Center is presently suspended due to COVID-19 and the liftoff may be delayed. BSAT-4a and 4b are mainly intended for unprecedented live transmission of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games by NHK in 2K, 4K, and 8K Super High Vision.
In terms of 4K, B-SAT said such companies as SC Satellite (Shop Channel 4K,), QVC Satellite (4K QVC), and Tohoku-Shinsya Media Services (Cinema 4K) have already started broadcasting via BSAT-4a transponders and NHK also uses one more transponder for their 8K Super High Vision premium entertainment service. Actually NHK is broadcasting its 8K content every day for 12 hours from 10 A.M. to 10:10 P.M..
(On May 1 Arianespace Tokyo Office announced that Guiana Space Center will resume launch service from middle of June and BSAT-4b launch is scheduled towards the end of July)
With regard to the government satellite operation in Japan, Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is in the spotlight. Presently four Quasi-Zenith Satellites (QZS) named “Michibiki” in Japanese, are under operation. Three satellites, QZS-2, QZS-3, and QZS-4, were launched aboard H-2A rocket during 2017 and full operation including QZS-1 officially started from November 1 2018. Unique features of QZSS operation are sub-meter signal called L1S and sub-centimeter signal called CLAS. In addition iPNT (Indoor Position, Navigation, and Timing) is now available.
For future deployment Japanese government placed an order of three more satellites with Mitsubishi Electric Corp. These are QZS-1R (QZS-1 Replacement), QZS-5 and QZS-6. QZS-1R is scheduled for launch in 2021 and QZS-5 & QZS-6 in 2022.
Coming back to the subject of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Japan Consortium (NHK and Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association) and IOC agreed on broadcasting rights in June 2014. Since then the remarkable advancement has been seen in Japanese video market.
First, 4K HDR has come into wide use. Accordingly OBS said it will contribute and distribute about 9,500 hours of Tokyo Olympic Games in 4K HDR format. A specialist in this sector said OBS is going to use thirty two 4K HDR OB vans. The merit of Tokyo Olympics is surely the spreading of 4K HDR quality video all over the world.
Second, NHK started broadcasting 8K TV channel from December 1 2018. To meet 8K video requirement, NHK said they have built four 8K OB vans. These vans were built on SDI/IP hybrid basis. Furthermore NHK is operating three 4K OB Vans, which is based on Sony’s IP live production system for delivery interface. It seems more than twenty 4K and 8K OB vans are available in Japan.
Last but not least it is a pity that Japan looks like being far from staging a safe and complete Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo in the summer of 2021 in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Naoakira Kamiya is the Managing Director of the Satellite System Research Institute and Director of the Japan Satellite Business Association. He can be reached at: zum05241@nifty.ne.jp
