The January issue of Via Satellite celebrates the winners of the first edition of the Via Satellite Excellence Awards. These impressive individuals and forward-thinking companies represent what it takes to succeed in our industry. In this issue we also explore Lockheed Martin\u2019s plans to re-enter the commercial satellite business, in both the manufacturing and launch arenas.<\/p>\n
As a preview, we bring you the top quotes from Via Satellite\u2019s January issue:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a school, but the curriculum is outdated and the staff under qualified. The most glaring problem is that they were cut off from the rest of the world. It was at that moment that it occurred to me that we are in a position to help make a difference. That difference would be in the form of a satellite link and a wireless network throughout the campus, which would provide free voice circuits, Internet access to provide current lesson plans for the school along with HD video conferencing to be used between the clinic and teaching hospitals here in the United States and abroad.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Jim Gilbert, CEO, On Call Communications.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I became CEO, Norsat was losing millions of dollars per year, and had significant debt, so it was a sink or swim situation for me as a leader. I had to turn the company around, and so I made a lot of tough decisions to reduce operating expenses. Enacting major change is never easy and I faced a lot of opposition, but it has certainly been worth it.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Amiee Chan, CEO, Norsat.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI remember the first frequency coordination meeting I attended in 1992, from which I came back with- out any progress. At that time, Measat\u2019s prime orbital slot of 91.5 degrees east seemed almost impossible to coordinate. Gradually, I learned to be more realistic in terms of actual usage of satellite parameters and what we try to obtain during coordination procedures. Concurrently, I learned to have a certain degree of flexibility in the design of satellite payloads and antenna to avoid potential incompatibility with adjacent satellites.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Ali Ebadi, SVP, space systems development, Measat.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cBaby boomers are beginning to exit the work force. The hardest part is getting in the door. Today the space industry is not as sexy or popular as it was during the space race. Shuttle launches used to be shown on the major news net- works and the entire country celebrated at the giant scientific leaps made by mankind. Now, media tends to focus on failures. \u2026 It is up to the engineering community to promote through science and math volunteerism to encourage the next generation.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Colin Marker, engineering project manager for spacecraft bus, Boeing Satellite Systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe migration from L-band service to VSAT continues to accelerate and we are finding that even ships with a crew of 20 or 30 are asking for bandwidth levels over 512 Kbps. Three years ago they would have been satisfied with a 64 Kbps service, so this demonstrates the trend for constant connectivity and an exceptional amount of capacity over the major shipping routes. Passenger vessels have moved from a typical 1-2 Mbps to double or triple that level in the past two years.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Rick Simonian, president, maritime solutions, Harris CapRock Communications.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to develop our core platform for greater scale, throughput and efficiency. One significant area of focus will be developing our next-generation Network Management System. This will be a critical expansion of platform \u2014 one that will enable our partners to reach new levels of business and network performance, while giving them innovative tools to continually deliver differentiated value to their customers.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 David Bettinger, CTO, iDirect.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe see strong market expansion in 2014 for the Exede live news and events service. \u2026 The real potential for market expansion is in the largely unserved live entertainment streaming, which we expect to be an exciting arena in 2014. The next level is to apply the high-capacity Ka-band approach to content distribution as well. The granularity of the spot beam system allows for highly-efficient local content distribution.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Stefan Jucken, director, strategic business development, ViaSat. <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI think that it is important for the government to consider the contractor\u2019s demonstrated ability to deliver quality satellite communication services at cost-effective prices. Selecting a provider solely on the basis of cost (via LPTA) means that the user could suffer significant degradation of capability if that provider does not deliver a product with enhanced, mission-oriented features. There should be more careful thought as to what \u2018best value\u2019 means to the end user.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 David Greenhill, president, Satcom Direct.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Australian government has shown interest in continuing to provide support for NBN services going forward. While we do not have any commitment yet, there is a possibility that they will extend the service.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 David Leichner, VP of corporate marketing, Gilat Satellite Networks.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt will be a different Lockheed Martin Space Systems company going forward. So, a little bit of it is timing. We need to get our price point down. You will know when we reach that point because we will be winning.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Linda Reiners, president, commercial ventures, Lockheed Martin Space Systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The January issue of Via Satellite celebrates the winners of the first edition of the Via Satellite Excellence Awards. These impressive individuals and forward-thinking companies represent what it takes to succeed in our industry. In this issue we also explore Lockheed Martin\u2019s plans to re-enter the commercial satellite business, in both the manufacturing and launch arenas. 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