January 2015

Various space products from MESL Microwave. Photo: MESL Microwave [Via Satellite 01-07-2015] On Dec. 31, 2014 Com Dev International closed its purchase of MESL Microwave for approximately $19.3 million. The acquisition, announced on Dec. 12, was for 100 percent of the Scotland-based company. MESL Microwave designs components and subsystems for radar, communications, defense and aerospace…

Rob Ruijter, non-executive director at Inmarsat. Photo: Inmarsat. [Via Satellite 01-07-2015] Inmarsat has appointed Robert Ruijter as a non-executive director for the company. Effective Feb. 1, 2015, Ruijter will join the board of directors, where his diverse background in the commercial and financial sectors is expected to bring positive insights. A certified public accountant in…

[Via Satellite 01-07-2015] Semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics has started shipping its Ultra-HDp60 quad-core System-on-a-Chip (SoC) Integrated Circuits (ICs) (STiH314/318 and STiH414/418) to customers. Designed for use in Set-Top Boxes (STBs) the SoCs can decode Ultra-HD video using High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) at 60 frames per second with 10-bit color depth streams from all main video-encoder…

Eutelsat 3D entering the thermal vacuum chamber for testing. Photo: Thales Alenia Space. [Via Satellite 01-06-2015] Strong demand for satellite services will continue to drive the need for satellites and launchers, upping the competition for satellite and launch contracts over the next 10 years, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan. In the research…

NeuralStar delivers fault-tolerance, centralized management, scalability,high-level visibility and cyber security for true enterprise network management. Photo: Kratos [Via Satellite 01-06-2015] Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has recently received several new modifications and an option exercise under an existing contract from the U.S. Air Force, totaling approximately $41.5 million in value. Work under these new awards…

Digital rendering of the SWOT satellite. Photo: Thales Alenia Space [Via Satellite 01-06-2014] The French Space Agency CNES has selected Thales Alenia Space to build the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, a joint demonstration mission between CNES and NASA. Thales Alenia Space is creating a new platform for the satellite that enables a…

Satellite television in a hummer. Photo: KVH [Via Satellite 01-06-2015] KVH Industries has released a low-profile five-inch high satellite TV antenna for vehicles with height restrictions such as luxury SUVs, family minivans, charter coaches, and emergency vehicles. The TracVision A9 antenna can track DirecTV and Dish satellites for access to television content across the continental…

The Dish 4K Ultra-HD set-top box named the 4K Joey. Photo: Business Wire [Via Satellite 01-06-2015] Dish Network announced the launch of its first Ultra-HD Set-Top Box (STB). Named the 4K Joey, the unit is designed to easily integrate with Dish’s Hopper Whole Home HD Digital Video Recorder (DVR) system. The Dish 4K Joey is…

New MACOM DOCSIS 3.1 Compliant Power Divider. Photo: Business Wire [Via Satellite 01-06-2015] MACOM announced a comprehensive new portfolio of passive components for DOCSIS 3.1 compliant Cable TV (CATV) and broadband Internet systems. This new product family, spanning upstream and downstream transformers/baluns, couplers and power dividers/combiners, forms a broad portfolio of passives specifically designed to…

[Via Satellite 01-05-2014] As we begin 2015, the January issue of Via Satellite takes an in-depth look at timely topics such as how the International Telecommunication Union’s Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14) will influence the satellite industry, why Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) could influence Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) operators, and how new technologies such as High Throughput…