Speak to anyone in the satellite industry about September and they’ll give you a knowing smile! It’s always an incredibly busy month. The summer is all but over and it’s time to get back to business.
The industry had waited patiently to get back to a full-strength IBC. With the pandemic finally behind us, there was a true buzz to the show this year and despite huge queues and missed flights at Schiphol Airport, the overall vibe was that it was great to be back in Amsterdam.
For the ST Engineering iDirect team, the chance to spend time with customers, partners (and each other) was a long time coming. There’s still no substitute for face-to-face meetings, chance conversations and just to share a drink and some time with people that in some cases we’ve not seen for years.
This year, we had plenty to showcase at our stand.
We introduced the MCX8000:
Our Next-Gen Broadcast Multi-Carrier Satellite Gateway is uniquely positioned to provide a path to support the transport of today´s traditional broadcasts and tomorrow´s OTT services. Built upon industry-leading standards and the trusted technology of the M(DM)6100 and MCX7000 software suite capabilities with DVB-S2X, the Gateway offers broadcast users higher density and reduced cost of ownership.
Watch this video from Advanced Television as Rami Moussawi, our Senior Product Manager, takes Editor Nick Snow through its exclusive features.
We demonstrated the SKYflow ecosystem:
Satellite has not always been the obvious medium of choice for OTT content delivery. However, after being overlooked for many years, this is changing as providers realize the many benefits offered by the technology. During the show, with our partners, EKT, EasyBroadcast, Broadpeak and Quadrille (all situated in nearby stands), we took delegates on a tour of the ecosystem that allows the first end-to-end, multi-vendor B2C use of Native IP – demonstration origination, transport, reception and consumption of live OTT video over satellite. Read more on SKYflow in this white paper.
We held our IBC Sessions:
Our IBC Sessions were back in 2022. The first, hosted by our VP Market Development and Strategy, Jo De Loor, focused on the Trends Driving Our Industry to New Grounds. With more HTS capacity becoming available, service providers are being called upon to ‘raise their game’ – all at a time when demands for higher throughput and more cost-effective solutions are more intense, networks are becoming larger and more complex, and the technology choices are multiplying. We discussed these industry trends and the market opportunities they create for our partners.
Next, our Senior Director Product Management, Darren Pralle took delegates through our Product Strategy and New Innovations. He detailed how we as are responding to market trends and emerging requirements. He outlined our product strategy that will drive continued performance, efficiency and scale and how this enables our partners to leverage their existing investments to capture new opportunities.
Our session on the Bigger Picture of Video Streaming brought together some key panelists: Jordi Joan Giménez,5G-MAG; Annamaria Recchia, Eutelsat; Jacques Le Mancq, Broadpeak and our own Semir Hassanaly as they tackled the hot topic of video streaming. The rise in on-demand viewing and the huge increase in consumption on devices, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, have created the perfect storm for OTT. This session asked the burning questions: How do traditional players and telcos adapt to real video distribution? How do they reach every subscriber with high-quality services without network congestion and the negative impact that has on the viewing experience? How does an OTT ecosystem work in harmony to ensure reliable, high-quality OTT delivery, anywhere in the world?
Finally, our Senior Product Manager Rami Moussawi took the audience through our Media and Broadcast Solutions with a round-up of our full portfolio.
We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to stop at our booth during the show and to those who attended our VIP reception. It was great to see you all in person.
Please look out for a special feature on our Bigger Picture of Video Streaming session, coming very soon.
September in Paris means only one thing – Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week. Taking place every year in the heart of Paris, the WSBW brings together the industry decision-makers from all over the world and from the entire ecosystem. This is the place where business leaders can gain market insights, network, conduct business and conclude major deals.
It was evident during the event that the next generation of satellite communication systems will demand fundamental cloud elasticity, driving us to innovate more than ever before. We’ve been working on the first phase in the development of a virtualized modem that can be deployed on a Microsoft Azure based cloud solution. At WSBW, we announced a successful milestone in our Proof of Concept: the demodulation capability of an iDirect virtualized high-speed SCPC modem running as containerized software on a COTS server located in the Azure Cloud. Our CEO, Frederik Simoens CTO Frederik Simoens delivered his insights on the panel “New Digital Dawn for the Ground Segment” where he highlighted the ways we’re moving towards a fully digitized and virtualized ground infrastructure to enable a true seamless service.
Watch the highlights of the panel session here.
On October 13, at 09.30 EST/3.30 CEST, in partnership with Euroconsult, we’ll be holding a webinar, “Perspectives on Ground Segment Digitalization“. This event aims to take a deep dive into the impact of this on the ground segment. You’ll hear from Frederik and Paul Tilghman, Senior Director of Spectrum Technologies, Microsoft Azure, as they explore the requirements and innovations for a next-generation infrastructure of space and satellite. Register here: Webinar Registration – Zoom