Roger Horner is the founder and CEO of e3 Systems since 1996. He has been a contributor for The Islander Magazine since 1997.
The Show season started with Cannes and Monaco, and I attended Monaco for business-to-business meetings. Apart from the crew on the yachts in the port, very few crew have attended the Show in recent years, and it was the same again this year. For service companies it has become a b2b industry show. I have heard that the plan the organisers made over the last couple of years, to provide exclusive access to potential owners and charterers on the first day and to increase the day ticket prices, hasn’t worked well.
On the other hand, I hear the Cannes Show was quite a success.
As always, there is a lot of activity in the satellite world.
Eutelsat has combined its geostationary satellite business with OneWeb’s low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation.
Getting approval from at least two-thirds of Eutelsat’s shareholders was the final step for a merger valuing OneWeb at $3.4 billion.
More than 87% of Eutelsat shareholders voting at its general meeting on 28th September, during the Monaco Show, supported the OneWeb merger.
It comes as competition is heating up between different players in the multibillion-dollar space industry. Morgan Stanley estimates the industry could be worth more than $1 trillion by 2040.
Eutelsat is listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange but has applied for a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.
This now makes the Eutelsat Group a European giant in the satellite industry and the first HYBRID satellite operator with 634 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and 37 Geostationary (GEO) satellites.
OneWeb and Eutelsat were present, with Kymeta and Intellian showing their flat panel antennas, at the Monaco Show this year. We have a couple of Kymeta Peregrine u8 panels on a yacht that was activated briefly in the Med before they set sail for the Caribbean and Florida where there is currently no coverage. As a result, we don’t have any quality service data to report on the performance. The OneWeb service is working in the Med but will not be operational in the Caribbean and Florida for this winter season.
Intellian have recently launched a series of flat panel antennas to work with Eutelsat OneWeb.
Intellian’s Flat Panel Series is a suite of both Pro and Compact user terminals that deliver exceptional performance in sleek, small-footprint, and lightweight form factors. Designed for Land Fixed, Land Mobile, Maritime and Government markets, they look like a fantastic solution for customers globally requiring low profile, easy installation, and high performance.
Through the Pro and Compact Flat Panels, customers have a choice of four different user terminals to address their specific market needs and use cases. Both the Pro and Compact models come in two versatile configurations: a fixed enterprise terminal and a mobility terminal. These Flat Panel terminals are meticulously designed to meet the unique demands of end users, ensuring reliable connectivity everywhere in the world, on land and at sea. They are rectangular and the Pro panel is 96x50cm and the Compact is 54x42cm.
We have introduced yacht specific services for Starlink that are not available from Starlink Direct or other resellers.
We have now added all the Starlink telemetry to our client portal at my.e3s.com, which is free of charge to all our clients. This is in addition to receiving alerts for 50%, 90% and 100% of the data plan usage and then for every $500 of overage used, the user can now view daily data usage for current and previous months, uplink and downlink throughput, latency, obstruction, ping drop rate and signal quality. As with the data usage alerts, we automatically monitor this information and will send warnings if there is a concern developing such as obstruction or high latency. We make sure you are primed ready to answer questions from the owner or guests if there is a service performance reduction or an outage, as happened in September.
We and a client monitored the latency of the service when they transited the Northwest Passage in August, as there were less satellites in those high latitudes where L band and VSAT stops working. Talk to us if you plan high latitude passages as we learned a lot from this exercise as to what you need for perfect communications.
Also, if you are not aware, we can offer the Starlink 5TB Maritime Plan on two panels, which is not available from Starlink Direct.
We can also offer a native connection to enable IPTV streaming from several countries using our eHUB solution, to be launched at METS, as described below.
e3 Starlink Offers
We always have several Starlink offers including free IPTV and one-month free usage. Please contact us to find out the latest.
Latest from Starlink
We, as an authorised Starlink Reseller, can now offer our Service and Maritime Plans on Starlink Standard Panels together with Standard and Business systems. The Standard Panel was previously known as the Roam or RV in the past.
The most flexible Connectivity Management solution eHUB will be launched at METS
There are 4 legs to eHUB:
Connectivity Control: Sophisticated multi-WAN to LAN routing, data management, alerts, data stretching, failover etc.
but also ………
Connectivity Support: 24/7, in person, proactive and active connectivity support, along with prompt security updates as they are released for all electronic systems onboard from our 24/7 Support Operations Centre (SOC).
Cyber Security Support: 24/7, in person, cyber security incident response triage with full back up from Templar Executives.
Native HD IPTV and Streaming: Native HD streaming from numerous countries for IPTV and all streaming services without using a VPN. eHUB provides a local connection to a selected country that can be used for direct Internet connection to run services from that country.
eHUB Cyber Security Support with advanced IT protection for new LEO networks
Due to the advent of advanced Low Earth Orbit (LEO) networks, such as Starlink and OneWeb, there has been a substantial increase in the number of devices and IP addresses utilising the available bandwidth. This significantly increases the yacht’s vulnerability to potential cyber-attacks. As a result, we are introducing with eHUB a continuous cyber security incident response service such that the eHUB client can call our SOC at any time to qualify a cyber security concern.
We are partnered with Templar Executives, a globally recognised, award-winning Cyber Security consultancy offering a world-class portfolio of services and solutions. Serving as a trusted advisor to Governments, multi-national organisations and SMEs, Templar Executives has an outstanding track record in helping clients develop resilient, business-enabling Cyber Security capabilities and bring their extensive experience and expertise to the superyacht community. They are founding members of the international Maritime Cyber Emergency Response Team (MCERT) and have regularly made expert contributions to the BIMCO Guidelines on Cyber Security Onboard Ships.
eHUB’s role in this partnership is to offer first-line 24/7 triage Incident Response. This level of support has become increasingly crucial, especially with the growing number of consumer connections, particularly those from Starlink.
eHUB launch at METS will be on booth 10.400
At METS, we are helping Seabed 2030 develop the crowd in the yacht market for their Crowd Sourced Bathymetry project by offering a free Depth Data Logger to every client who buys a Starlink system from us, or transfers one to us, and every client that signs up for eHUB.
For more information, please contact us or come to see us at METS. We’ll be on booth 10.400 on the right hand side at the entrance to the Superyacht Pavilion Hall, where we will have a Starlink maritime panel mounted on a custom-made ensign staff mount, the Intellian Compact flat panel, Templar Executives, the Depth Data Logger and of course, eHUB!
