It gives me great pleasure to announce that we are celebrating e3’s 25th birthday this year! Back in January 1996, I was a liveaboard yachtie looking for premises in Palma for my new business idea. In the process, I discovered an existing engineering business that was struggling. I took on what was left of that business, and incorporated a new limited company at the same time. I asked an ex-London graphic designer friend and fellow yachtie, Malcolm Hall of Compass Design, if he could come up with some brand image ideas for the new company. I gave him a “brief” which included the key words: marine, electronic, electrical, engineering, and from that he created our e3 logo. As soon as I saw it, I said, “that’s it!!” It was a bit of luck that very soon afterwards, lower case “e” became the letter used to represent anything to do with the internet and electronics, starting with email and now including everything from e-bikes to e-readers. All these e’s have revolutionized our lives during the intervening 25 years. Malcolm has tuned our logo many times in that period, the latest version being this celebratory one…
How TV dependent have you become?
This month I want to talk about TV, as it has become a very important part of our lives during the pandemic. With all the lockdowns, isolation and shielding we have been experiencing, wherever we are, we have found ourselves looking for more and more entertainment at home, and the TV has become the window we look through. Most people get their news updates from online sources, but we turn to our TV screens for live sport, movies, TV series, box-sets, exercise workouts, meditation sessions and yoga, to name but a few. No doubt this trend will continue just as long as going to the cinema, attending live sports events, going to the gym, going to the pub or going out for dinner is restricted, which may be for many months yet.
As you will know, live sports events are happening now. There may not be any actual spectators at these events, but fortunately we can still enjoy them at home, albeit with artificial crowd noise designed to enhance our viewing experience. The list below provided by our TV team shows a good selection of live sports events taking place this year, and some of the ways you can watch them on TV. Our team specialises in providing the TV required for you and your guests, wherever you may be cruising.
Currently showing
- Australian Open Tennis – on Eurosport and Sky Italia
- Prada Cup and Americas Cup sailing – on Sky UK, Sky Italia and YouTube.
- 6 Nations Rugby Union – on UK BBC/ITV.
Upcoming Events 2021
- Tennis – Roland Garros, US Open, ATP Masters and Wimbledon – BBC and Sky Italia.
- Golf – PGA Tour, US Open and Ryder Cup – Sky UK and Sky Italia.
- Formula One season starts on 28/03/21 – Sky UK and Sky Italia
- Moto GP, Moto2, Moto3, World SBK – Sky Italia.
- Tokyo Olympics – on freeview channels worldwide.
- English Premier League – matches split between Sky UK, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and, occasionally, BBC. All matches on Sky Italia.
- UEFA Champions League – all matches on BT Sport and Sky Italia.
- UEFA European Cup 2021 postponed from 2020 – from11/06/21 to 11/07/21 in cities across Europe. BBC/ITV and RAI/Sky Italia.
- UEFA Europa League – BT Sport and Sky Italia.
- UEFA Europa Conference – Sky UK and Italia.
- Bundesliga – BT Sport and Sky Italia.
- Scottish Premiership – Sky UK and Sky Italia.
- Winter Sports, Dakar Rally, Snooker and much more – Sky UK and Sky Italia.
As you can see, Sky Italia probably provides the most comprehensive live sports coverage, and can be received throughout the Med even with an 80cm antenna.
In addition to the TV being the window on live sports, TV-based entertainment using streaming services such as catch-up, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and all the various versions of iPlayer enable us to binge watch TV series and movies whenever we want.
As we believe TV will be more important than usual in our lives for the foreseeable future, here is a brief summary of what is required to receive both conventional and streaming TV on a yacht in European waters. This includes the components and services we provide to make this work for you.
Satellite TVRO reception requirements: Cobham or Intellian stabilised satellite dish and low loss TV distribution with, for example, Sky UK Offshore or Sky Italia decoder. Of course, you need to be under the respective satellite footprint with the correct size of dish.
Streaming TV requirements: a good quality and fast internet connection is the main requirement. Some services also require a national VPN, although you can watch e3 Freeview (UK) and Kartina (Russian) without this. NowTV (UK) and DirecTVNow (USA) require a national VPN. Apple TV boxes or logins may be uploaded with streaming apps such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney+. Be aware, if you are using a small black box IPTV solution with hundreds of international channels, subscription sports and movies, then it is probably illegal. These illegal services are being hunted down by the authorities, so do be careful.
Meet the e3 Team
Nancy van der Steen, Operations Administrator
My name is Nancy, I started life in a small village, Bingelrade, which is in the very south of the Netherlands, very close to the Belgian and German border. I lived there with my mum, dad, and sister until I was 22. I always enjoyed all things engineering and therefore I decided to go to technical school – during this period of my life I was surrounded by cars and brommers (motor bikes). After finishing school, I was offered a job at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam where I joined the technical project department calibrating instrumentation on strain gauge balances for wind tunnels. Mostly we worked for the navy, army and Fokker (Dutch Aeroplane builder 1912-1996).
Unfortunately, after a few years Fokker went bankrupt and I lost my job. Luckily, a fantastic opportunity came my way in the form of Royal Huisman Shipyard. I started working in the systems engineering department but very soon I took advantage of another opportunity and became the PA to Alice Huisman before finally heading up the PR department, a job that not only took me around the world but introduced me to the yachting world!
Photo @2004, PR team Royal Huisman Shipyard, from left to right Evert van Dishoeck, Nancy, Alice Huisman and the late Michael Koppstein.
(photo courtesy of Alice Huisman)
It was during this time that I met my (now) husband who lived in Palma which made my step moving from the Netherlands to Mallorca in 2008 a quite easy one. After I arrived in Palma I worked initially for an electrical company, however after giving birth to our gorgeous son in 2009 I left this position. After a short time, I decided to look for a new opportunity and while I was sending out my CV to various maritime companies, I came in contact with Diane Franklin, our e3 HR Director. Diane and I had met previously at boat shows during my time at Huisman, and I never forgot her (luckily neither did she!). We decided to meet up for a coffee, I still remember that day, a very sunny morning on a terrace in Santa Catalina.
At that time Alan Walker, e3’s Group Engineering Director was looking for an assistant to set up a Helpdesk, I was interviewed, offered the job and to this day I still work for Alan, 10.5 years later! I am part of the Operations team, supporting our Group Engineering Director, Engineering Manager, SOC (Support Operation Centre) and our VSAT and IT engineers. My work ranges from planning jobs to organising travel, logging hours worked, invoicing, taking support calls etc. I absolutely enjoy my job. I love the spirit of our directors, always thinking ahead, new ideas, new challenges, new products, nothing is too much; they invest in us and the company, you feel part of a family… our e3 family.
Looking back, you see that a lot of things happen in life that is not planned. I never thought I would end up on this amazing island, having a beautiful family, great friends, spending most of our free time on the water. My husband still works closely with Royal Huisman and that makes me so proud that via him the shipyard is still partly in my life as I don’t like goodbyes, so this way I still have close contact with my old colleagues who visit the island regularly. I am now looking forward to the future at e3 and seeing what technological advances can be made……. The engineer in me still loves it!
Roger Horner
For further info on e3 VSAT and SUPER DATA
e3 systems
+34 971 404 208
