Since my November column, it has been a busy month with a lot of travelling! Last month I had just finished a week at the Monaco Show and had moved onto the Superyacht Technology Conference in Barcelona.
Superyacht Technology Conference
This was my first visit, albeit my colleagues had visited last year. We decided to support Jack Robinson, as we totally endorse the idea of specialist service company shows, so we took a booth.
During the pandemic we at e3 decided that “Yacht Shows” should get back to what they were originally conceived as, which was to sell and charter yachts. As such we believe the organisers should focus heavily on making it easy and comfortable for potential purchasers to visit. This is what the organisers of Monaco have done by putting the day ticket prices so high and having a VIP Day on Wednesday. Yacht owners feed our industry which is why they should be given this dedicated access. The “Yacht Show” organisers have always added the service companies as a second income stream, and we have always been treated as second fiddle.
As such, there is now definitely space for a specialist superyacht technology event, combining new technology launches with a conference.
The best new tech launch that caught my attention at the Conference was from VBH. They call it “Invisible Technology” and it certainly is! Televisions and remote controls can be fully integrated inside materials like natural stone and wood, and they appear from what is a wooden panel or a marble wall! Extraordinary! It blew my mind trying to work out how it works.
The development of this technology arose from a survey of their clients and two of the comments were: a) we don’t like the residual black panels/plates that are left on the walls when the TV is off and b) we don’t like using iPads as remote controls.
The Big Wriggle Charity Cycling Event down to Sa Calobra and back.
After the Conference it was back to Mallorca for our cycle event. There is a full write up in this issue by my colleague Hamish, who together with Mat organised the event, with sponsorship from Fraser and Speedcast. As you will read and see it was a great success, everyone enjoyed it and we raised nearly €3,000 more for Yachting Gives Back. Look out for the next event in April next year. Take a look at the fantastic event video https://e3s.com/inside-e3/media/
October used to be a quiet month after the Monaco Show with just three days for the Pinmar Golf, but not the case anymore as Monaco was followed by the Superyacht Technology Conference, then the cycling, followed by the Inmarsat Conference in London. Then it was onto Fort Lauderdale to visit our new office and then to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) to support our USA team to present an educational workshop on the next generation of satellite communications, at The Bahia Mar Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
New office in Fort Lauderdale.
At the end of September, we closed our office in Coral Springs and have moved to Fort Lauderdale alongside the New River. This is the view from our office. This is a fantastic location and brings us much closer to our clients and is very accessible to FLIBS.
Educational Workshops @FLIBS22
If you are a regular reader of this column over the last few months, you will be aware of the LEO Super Broadband Updates I have been providing. This resulted in us writing a White Paper on the subject which has been viewed hundreds of times on-line.
My colleague Mathieu Cros and I ran two, one-hour, Educational Workshops on the first afternoon of FLIBS, which was effectively our White Paper – Live!
We are moving at a rapidly changing pace in the satellite industry, and we have been asked by our clients so many questions about the new LEO constellation Starlink from SpaceX, as well as changes with MEO and GEO constellations, that we felt that the emphasis at FLIBS should not be selling a product, nor a solution, but promoting impartial education to Captains, Engineers and Systems Integrators on what they can expect to see on their boats regarding satellite communications in the short and long term.
Each session was well attended, and we were really pleased by the feedback.
One attendee said: “Thank you for the opportunity to attend. It was a great presentation, very factual and excellent reactions from the clients. Education is key and these events are a perfect platform”.
Satellite Communications – LEO Super Broadband Update 5
Starlink quietly introduce data cap plans
This month Starlink have quietly mentioned they will be introducing high-speed data caps for US users. Starlink have added new language to their terms of service about users receiving a monthly allocation of “Priority Access”.
Clearly, they are preparing to impose high speed data caps for Starlink users in the USA to address the growing congestion woes facing the service.
According to the new policy, residential, business and the new Starlink mobile plan users will receive a “monthly allocation of Priority Access” with fast internet speeds, but once they exceed the specific limit, speeds could be reduced if the surrounding area is already full of other data hungry users.
Effectively, it appears that with the capacity they have, which is limited, they are going to introduce a Fair Use Policy, to manage the expectations of users. They did this in August in France by slowing down the service to users once they had exceeded 250GB.
Viasat VS3 GEO Update
In December the first of the three massive Viasat VS3 F1 satellites will be launched, coincidentally by SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
These satellites are the largest and most powerful satellites ever launched. They will all provide 1Tbps which is multiples more than the nearest current largest satellite.
VS3 F1 Americas will be in service for maritime in July/August 23 followed by VS3 F2 EMEA for maritime in Sept/October 23 and VS3 F3 APAC for maritime in April/May 24.
The key features that come with this new service are:
- 50Mbps streaming
- A new Intellian NX conversion kit to avoid purchasing a proprietary antenna
- Evolution toward month-to-month contracts
- 4 x breakouts USA, Spain, UK, Germany for national IPTV breakouts
Next stop is METS! We have Intellian and Viasat with us on our booth at METS this year, so come and talk to us, especially if you are building a new yacht.
Roger Horner – e3 systems
e3 VSAT or SUPER DATA
+34 971404 208
