GVF Hub Summit DeBrief

by Martin Jarrold

Dubai, UAE, March 18, 2019--The Satellite Hub Summit @ CABSAT 2019, GVF’s prominent MENA platform for addressing and analyzing evolutionary and revolutionary transitions in satellite technologies, services, applications, and markets, was a central feature at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre/Dubai World Trade Centre over 12th to 14th March. The Hub program started-off with the first of two important keynote addresses.

International Keynote Address

Xiuqi “Ellie” Wang, Head, Data Treatment Section, Space Publication & Registration Division, Space Services Department, Radiocommunication Bureau, International Telecommunication Union

Ms. Wang’s keynote covered the details of the preparatory processes in the build-up to the World Radiocommunication Conference in November 2019 including February’s CPM19-2 consolidated report that will serve as the basis for discussion at the WRC-19 through providing detailed background for each of the agenda items.

Following the ITU address and before the first of four main program sessions I, as Summit Chair, introduced the moderating team who brought a wealth of insight and informed perspective to their management of the program.

The Hub Summit Moderating Team

  • Virgil Labrador, Satellite Markets & Research
  • Riaz Lamak, GVF
  • Stéphane Chenard, Euroconsult,
  • Torsten Kriening, SpaceWatch Global

The format of the four main sessions allowed each speaker/panelist to have a maximum of 15 minutes to deliver a presentation and opening remarks relating to their selected topic within the overall session theme to which they were a contributor. At the conclusion of all presentations/opening remarks the speaker/panelists formed a panel with 45-50 minutes of moderator-led interactive discussion amongst the panel members and the Hub Summit audience.

As above with Ms. Wang’s keynote, I have provided below brief descriptions of each speaker/panelist contributions. For access to the full slide presentations in PDF format please contact me at martin.jarrold@gvf.org.

Global Satellite Focus… “Big Ticket” Issues on the Industry Forward Agenda

Alexander Mueller-Gastell, Chief Executive Officer, ND SATCOM
Disaster response satcoms innovations and strategies.

Martin Coleman, Executive Director, Satcoms Innovation Group
Space traffic management and space debris.

Yasir Hassan, Director, Transmission Operations, ArabSat
Operations excellence, communications systems monitoring, interference source geolocation.

Torsten Kriening, Chief Commercial Officer, PTScientists GmbH
Future moon exploration and the first lunar 4G/LTE network established with Vodafone, Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs.

Nick Roullier, Vice President, Customer Enablement, SES Networks
Sustainable space initiatives and best practice; optimizing network performance.

Jack Buechler, Vice President, Business & Product Development, Talia; Chief Operating Officer, Quika
The new VSAT market and the LEO disruptive factor.

Global Satellite Business is Big Business. New Space Making It Bigger

Ramesh Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President & General Manager, International Division, Hughes
Perspectives on the GEO, NGSO and terrestrial networking world for wide ranging user markets and addressing the digital divide.

James Taylor, Director, Business & Market Development, Methera Global Communications
Key drivers and challenges for New Space; the Methera MEO disruptive approach to broadband provisioning solutions.

Javier Santos, International Business Development Engineer, INSTER
Opportunities for an expanding satcoms ecosystem: ground terminals on-the-move, last mile satellite backhaul, IoT remote connectivity.

Ronald van der Breggen, Chief Commercial Officer, LeoSat
The challenges of increased data dependency, and highly-secure and resilient laser backbone spanning the entire planet in the most cost-efficient way possible – via space.

Nick Dowsett, Director, IntelsatOne Managed Solutions, Intelsat
Innovating for the Global Hybrid Network and investing in innovation with simplified access, on standards and interoperability, for flexibility and longevity, and hybrid networks.

National Keynote Address

Khalid Al Awadi, Manager, Broadcasting & Space Services, Spectrum Management Affairs Department, United Arab Emirates Telecommunications Regulatory Authority

Al Awadhi’s keynote speech covered all facets of the TRA’s policy position preparations for WRC-19 in November, with reference to all communications technologies, and the development, under the leadership of the U.A.E. Space Agency, of national satellite and space programs and collaborations with other national agencies.

Mobility: ‘Maritime Morning’ – “To the Wider Market and Service Horizon”

Andrew Faiola, Head of Mobility, Newtec
Customer demand in the maritime space (encompassing such applications as virtual networking, vessel enterprise, big data, BYOD) met with HTS in the mix.

Ramsey Khanfour, Vice President, Corporate Development, Middle East & Africa, SES
MSS to VSAT: VSAT market dominated by Ku-band across all segments, but Ka-band catching up and will reach >30% share by 2027; key maritime mobility drivers.

Hassan Aouisse, Director, Systems Engineering, iDirect
Maritime trends, the connected ship, emerging maritime IoT applications, future trends and complexities influence ground segment considerations.

David Burr, Vice President, Business Development, Satellite Operators & Mobility, Comtech EF Data
Uncertain times with maritime customer increasing performance expectations, tighter budgets, greater complexity of satellite networks.

Gagan Agrawal, Senior Consultant, Northern Sky Research
Major industry changes; forecasting capacity drivers in the new wave of growth; architecture adaptation; revenue shares from data; decoding critical market changes; core offerings, competitive threats and evolving business models.

Steve Richeson, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Mission Microwave Technologies LLC
The new shape of solid state BUCs/SSPAs and advantages for maritime: lighter BUCs, better RF performance, higher throughout, leveraging advantage of HTS and GEO/MEO/LEO architectures.

Mobility: ‘Aero Afternoon’ – “It’s Not Just About the IFEC!”

The ‘Aero Afternoon’ audience listening to the speaker/panelists:

Hassan Aouisse, Director, Systems Engineering, iDirect
Aero growth across all market segments; tomorrow’s technology: software-defined architecture, terminal integration to reduce SWaP, multi-receive/satellite/technology solution, multi-provider/multi-waveform/multi-technology, 5G standard connectivity architecture.

Guido Baraglia, Director of Business Development & Sales, Kratos Communications

Sebastien Couvet, EMEA Sales Manager, Integrasys
Link budgeting with SatMotion Pocket; automatic line-up and auto-commissioning of VSAT remotes to minimize interference with other terminals and adjacent satellites.

Workshop – Satcoms Insights & Capacity Building

Workshop Chair:

Martin Jarrold, Chief, International Program Development, GVF

Workshop Leaders:

Yasir Hassan, Director, Transmission Operations, ArabSat
Capacity building challenges regarding VHTS satellite monitoring, Geo-location increasingly challenging with payload complexity (on-board processing), number of spot beams; Earth station registration and Big Data of measurements and analysis required.

Riaz Lamak, South Asia Liaison for Training, Benchmarking, Validation & Product Quality, GVF

Capacity building resources provided through GVF online, mentored, and classroom-based training, with examples of Pacific Endeavor/Satcom Endeavor and ITU Satellite Symposium @ WRS-18.

Workshop Contributors:
H. E. Dr. Riyadh Najm, Former President of the General Commission for Audiovisual Media & Current Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Arab Radio & TV Academy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
No slides.

Martin Coleman, Executive Director, SatComs Innovation Group (SIG)
Innovation enablers; game changers: space traffic management, network complexity, operational efficiency improvement; RFI management, improved integration of tools and processes, automation and AI.

Guido Baraglia, Director of Business Development & Sales, Kratos Communications

Next on the GVF events calendar is the Newtec Satcom Hub at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, U.S.A.

David Meltzer, GVF Secretary General will be speaking on: Upcoming Spectrum Battles at WRC-19; Satellites – A Ubiquitous Solution for Communications Needs; and, Sustainable Space Operations, at 16:00 hours on April 10, 2019.

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Martin Jarrold is the Chief of International Program Development of GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarrold@gvf.org.