Interview with Frane Milos-CEO, Luxembourg Office, Amphinicy Technologies

Luxembourg, March 10, 2023--Amphinicy Technologies, a satellite software company from Zagreb, Croatia and Luxembourg, has been at the forefront of innovative software solutions for the satellite industry for over 20 years.  To provide insights on their company and products, Satellite Markets and Research spoke with Frane Milos, CEO of Amphinicy's Luxembourg office.

After over 20 years in the business, how do you see Amphinicy’s position in the industry and in the markets that you serve?

During the more than 20 years that we’ve been in business, we were mostly providing engineering services to the Satcom industry - big operators like SES, institutions like ESA and UN, as well as partnering with VSAT providers like iDIrect, Newtec, etc... Around 10 years ago, we also entered the Earth Observation (EO) domain, mostly providing AIV services for the Copernicus mission (Sentinel fleet). For all these reasons, we have accumulated vast industry expertise. At the same time, we have managed to keep all our senior engineering and management staff in the company. 

Frane Milos

With the rise of the GSaaS (Ground Station as a service) offerings and with the trend of moving telecommunications from hardware into the virtual domain (especially with 5G), we’re now one of the leading companies in the digital transformation of the Ground Segment for Satellite communication. 

We see ourselves as a company with a big competitive advantage in that market with our two products Blink (virtualized software modem) and Monica (M&C and orchestration system for Ground Segment). On top of that, we made significant growth in our Luxembourgish office - especially in providing engineering support for the flagship European Space projects. In addition, in Luxembourg, we’re now focusing on innovations in ground segment virtualization for the SatCom industry.

What are your key achievements and milestones as a company?

About 5 years ago, we started the first serious development efforts on our Blink modem - moving the high-data rate DSP (Digital Signal Processing) and FEP (Front-End Processing) from typical FPGA-based hardware boards into the software domain. Today, we have by far the fastest, fully software-implemented, modem in the world - achieving +4 Gbps of real-time processing speeds.

Such a performance was extremely well accepted by the GSaaS and Cloud providers. We are partnering with leading Cloud Service providers in bringing Cloud as close to the antenna as possible. At the moment we are involved in a number of PoCs for already established, as well as for some NewSpace EO operators and service providers.

With Monica, our M&C solution, we have traditionally been focusing on an institutional market - integrating it as an M&C and orchestration tool for huge governmental projects. A few years ago we have decided to make it more commercially available, and now we already have signed contracts, typically in the broadcast market. The last big RFP we won, and that we’re proud of, was using Monica as a baseline M&C system for Telenor Satellite broadcast teleports.

In the Luxembourg office, we made significant growth in supporting the flagship EU Space projects (especially in the domain of secure and quantum communication), but have also secured funding for the development of Proof of Concepts (PoCs)  in the domain of the SatCom Ground Segment virtualization (e.g. the ViSAGE project). We’re refocusing on the virtualization of not just the SatCom modem, but the Ground segment orchestration as well.

What differentiates Amphincy from your competitors? What value-added benefits do you provide your customers?

We’re experts in both the software and the satellite domain. We will always try to move as many solutions for the Satellite industry as possible into the software. We see this as a big competitive advantage, now when the trend of moving from hardware to software is obvious (just look at the NFV concept in terrestrial communications).

Five years ago we’ve started this virtualization trend in EO data acquisition with Blink, and that’s why, with Blink, we’re an order of magnitude faster than the rest of virtualized software modems.

A similar story is with Monica, - it brings unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and performance into the ground segment M&C, as our engineers are experienced enough to bring the latest, high-performant technologies into the quite conservative market. 

Being on the software side brings extra benefits to the customers - we can customize our solution to their needs very fast, come with a PoC showing that it works on their mission, and then enter into the commercial deal. During operations, we can also provide maintenance, and upgrades very quickly. Such a reaction and lead time is unimaginable in the hardware world.

Having an office in Luxembourg, the centre of Europe, and one of the growing space hubs, also brings the benefits of providing on-site support to our customers.

To read or download a pdf of a MarketBrief report on Software Modem Technology sponsored by  Amphinicy Technologies click here.

At the Satellite show in Washington, D.C. what products and services will you be showcasing?

At the Satellite 2023 conference this year, we will show you Blink and Monica solutions. We are also looking forward to the discussion on our ViSAGE concept, focusing on the virtualization of SatCom.

Therefore, please come and visit us at booth #2451.