The GVF MENASAT Summits @ CABSAT 2013: High-Capacity & Interference Prevention
by Martin Jarrold
Dubai, UAE, March 5, 2013--Many readers of this edition will no doubt be thumbing the pages or scrolling a tablet screen at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center (DICEC) at CABSAT 2013. Hoping that I’ve caught your attention earlier during CABSAT rather than later, I’d like to invite you to spend some time participating in the GVF MENASAT @ CABSAT Summit programs. The Summits, which are free to attend, take place in the Exhibition Center’s Meeting Room Hatta G & H, located above exhibition Hall 2, on March 13th & 14th.
On March 13th, the ‘The High-Capacity Satellite Summit’ commences at 11:30am (with registration commencing at 11:00am) to provide the satellite, and wider communications industry, an opportunity to engage in extended dialogue on advanced high-capacity and high-throughput satellite system topics. The Summit chairmen, myself and Virgil Labrador, will open the program, introducing the topics to be covered, the format, and the panelists for each of the sessions, beginning with ‘Technology Roadmaps & Regional Market Context of High-Capacity/High-Throughput Satellite Systems’ with featured panelists Chris Grogan, Senior Vice President, Customer Service Delivery, SES; Jawad Abbassi, Founder & General Manager, Arab Advisors Group; Kumar Singarajah, Director, Avanti Communications; and, Philip Haines, Chief Commercial Officer, Es’hailSat.
In the second session, ‘Global & Regional Satellite Operators and High-Capacity/High-Throughput Satellites’, beginning at 1:00pm, representatives of satellite companies engaged in the current, and planned, operation of high-capacity/high-throughput in-orbit assets will discuss broadband applications in demand across their service geographies, and consider what do these orbital assets already bring, and what are they planned to bring, to the communications solutions table. Featured panelists will be Soheil Mehrabanzad, Assistant Vice President, Hughes Network Systems International; Imran Malik, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, O3b Networks; Pradeep Unni, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Thaicom; and a representative of Yahsat.
Following at 2:15pm, featured panelists Olivier Anstett, Deputy Director, Multimedia & Value Added Services Department, Eutelsat; Paul Scardino, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Globecomm; Thomas Van den Driessche, Director, Vertical Markets, Newtec; Riyadh Al Adely, Managing Director, SkyStream; and, Sanford Jewett, Vice President, Marketing, Thuraya will discuss ‘Markets, Verticals & Networking Applications: Leveraging the High-Capacity/High-Throughput Solution’, answering such questions as “How are solutions for established markets changing?” and “What new solutions are being developed for new markets?” Also, with end-users being particularly applications focused, this session will investigate exactly how their requirements are being identified and targeted with a particular focus on the meeting of demands that legacy more limited bandwidth supply environments were challenged to satisfy.
‘OEMs & Ground Infrastructure: The High-Capacity/High-Throughput Equipment Manufacture & Teleports Context’, the subject to be covered from 3:45pm, will be a ground segment orientated examination of the high-capacity/high-throughput environment. With advanced satellite systems already orbited, and more preparing for launch, how have equipment manufacturers been responding to the new opportunities in established, and in new, markets? What implications has this had for the teleport segment? Overall, “Is ground segment advancing as quickly as space segment?” Our featured panelists will include Andrew Page, Projects Director, CET Teleport; Daniel Enns, Senior Vice President Marketing & Business Development, Comtech EF Data; Majdi Atout, Regional Vice President, MEA (speaker, or alternative speaker, to be confirmed), iDirect; and, Alan Afrasiab, CEO & President, Talia.
The final topic of the ‘The High-Capacity Satellite Summit’ will be ‘Regional Regulation & Licensing for High-Capacity/High-Throughput Satellite Systems’, commencing at 5:00pm. An analysis of the regulatory frameworks and licensing environment in the MENA region as they apply to new generation satellite systems that offer a new bandwidth, service, and applications paradigm will be examined by Khaled Mokhtar, Director, MENA, Abu Dhabi Office, Access Partnership. The program will close at 5:30pm.
On the following day, March 14th, the program for the ‘The Satellite Interference Prevention Summit’ opens at 11:45am (registration from 11:00am). Held in association with sIRG (the satellite Interference Reduction Group), the WBU-ISOG (World Broadcasting Unions-International Satellite Operations Group), the RFI-EUI (Radio Frequency Interference-End Users Initiative), and with the kind participation of the ITU, delegates will learn about the challenges of satellite interference specific to the MENA region, and better understand both the causes and possible solutions, as well as contributing to the discussions.
Following the 11:45am welcoming remarks from the Summit chairman, the program will first examine ‘Intentional Interference: Sources & Responses’, with featured speakers including Yvon Henri, Director, Department of Space Services, ITU; and, Chris Grogan, Senior Vice President, Customer Service Delivery, SES.
For almost a decade now, GVF has provided a solid, fundamentals-based training program for VSAT, broadband, and maritime satellite terminal technicians, engineers, users, and operators. The program, which is endorsed and recommended by the major satellite operators, delivers a highly-effective blend of simulator-driven, interactive, self-paced online knowledge training, verification of hands-on skills, and optional supplementary classes. In the MENA region, GVF’s Master Trainer is Mazen Nassar, whose day-job is Chief Executive of MenaNets, and from 12:45 Mazen will be a contributing speaker on the subject of ‘Improper Installations and Training & Certification’.
An examination of ‘Wireless Interference and the Satellite Industry Spectrum Initiative’ will follow at 2:45pm, after which, at 3:30pm, featured speakers including Louis Dubin, Vice-President, Product Management, Comtech EF Data; and, Martin Coleman, Executive Director, sIRG will discuss ‘Unidentified Carriers and Carrier ID’. Finally, at around 4.15pm, ‘Dysfunctional Networks, Network Validation & Benchmarking’ will be examined by Riaz Lamak, President & Director, Magdi Bagh Computers, and India Correspondent, GVF.
Sponsorship for all the above 2013 GVF MENASAT programs has been generously provided by: Eutelsat, Hughes, O3B Networks and SES.
GVF programs during CABSAT 2013 are not limited to the meeting room. The CABSAT exhibition halls over 12th to 14th March will feature the GVF @ CABSAT 2013 Exhibition ‘Product Quality Program’, featuring the importance of product quality as a key factor when selecting satellite communications earth station equipment.
Recently, leading manufacturers throughout the world have begun to submit their equipment to international industry-endorsed tests to facilitate the delivery of higher-performance systems. Earth station equipment that has been submitted to approval measures conducted in co-ordination with the GVF Product Quality Assurance (PQA) Framework will also be spot-lighted in the CABSAT exhibition halls as well as during the MENASAT @ CABSAT Summit.
This feature of CABSAT 2013 is of tremendous value, both to the communications industry and the broadcast and telecom user communities. As satellite communications have become more popular, the number of earth stations entering the marketplace has increased dramatically. With millions of fixed and mobile satcom terminals now planned for production, GVF's Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) represents the global satellite industry – including satellite operators, earth station manufacturers and integrators – as they coordinate industry testing and type approvals that help characterize the quality of satcom equipment. Information about type approvals, and those products that have already been tested, will be a center-piece of the CABSAT 2013 program.
The MENASAT @ CABSAT Summit will include presentations on the GVF PQA Framework and how it serves as a path through which manufacturers can have their equipment type-approval tested. This will provide an excellent opportunity for the Middle Eastern satellite communications industry to learn how they can take advantage of the program and apply approved products to the solutions offered to their customers.
The main advantage of type approved products is that satellite end users are able to introduce antenna systems that have demonstrated compliance with industry-approved specifications. Users will be able to examine those products in the CABSAT exhibition halls, where a Quality Products Trail will help identify exhibiting manufacturers who have approved earth station products. The approved products available in the CABSAT exhibition will include systems designed for broadcasting and consumer broadband, as well as enterprise-class terminal equipment for fixed networks and for state-of-the-art communications on aircraft, trains, ships, and other vehicles.
The GVF MRA, which is the industry mechanism through which the approvals are coordinated, provides guidance for manufacturers and satellite operators pursuing GVF MRA Testing & Satellite System Operator Type Approval for VSAT equipment. To prepare for the CABSAT program, please visit www.gvf.org/approvals.
Other features of GVF’s CABSAT week will be:
- GVF Installer Training Hands-on-Skills-Test (H.O.S.T.)
GVF/MenaNets Training Facility, Jebel Ali Free Zone | 15th March | Times to be confirmed
- GVF/MenaNets Evening Reception
Venue to be advised | 13th March | from 19:30
If interested readers would like to attend the GVF MENASAT @ CABSAT 2013 Summit you are invited to register by contacting me at martin.jarrold@gvf.org
--------------------------------
Martin Jarrold is Chief of International Program Development of the GVF. He can be reached at martin.jarrold@gvf.org
