An Australian SME has announced it has secured orders from four continents, including Australia, for its satcom-on-the-move terminals.
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Queensland-based EM Solutions has received orders totalling $6 million from customers in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia for the company’s satcom-on-the-move solutions.
The announcement comes after the company's recent successful deployments of both its Taipan land mobile and Cobra maritime terminals.
Product manager for EM Solutions John Logan said these terminals have continued to demonstrate their extensive range of uses across different industries.
"The Taipan and Cobra products continue to be proven across a broad range of applications," said Logan.
"All EM Solutions terminals use closed loop beacon tracking with a monopulse feed to accurately track satellites. The pointing error is measured at the antenna itself so the terminal will keep pointing at the satellite irrespective of any eccentricity caused by the movement of the platform in any direction. Other parabolic terminals use step-track techniques, which need to continually adjust the antenna to peak up on the tracking signals. Our terminals provide more robust pointing, which results in better efficiency of the system in terms of communications uptime, RF performance, and wear and tear on the moving elements."
Defence Connect spoke with EM Solutions Gary Shmith, global director of sales, who explained how their products can access multiple satellites across multiple frequency bands, helping their customers maximise network availability under the most severe operating conditions whether on land or sea.
“Most people think of satellite communication as being from a fixed earth station, pointing up to a satellite in stationary orbit," Shmith said.
"Satcom-on-the-move means you put that earth station on to a moving platform whether it be a ship or a vehicle. Satcom-on-the-move is used extensively in the maritime industry on both commercial and defence vessels and we are specifically focused today as an SME in Australia on manufacturing systems for navy and government vessels like border force."
The company is hopeful its solutions will be selected as part of the $3 billion Offshore Patrol Vessels project, which is currently in its tender process and is still fighting for the opportunity to supply land-based systems to the ADF, having recently been successful in supply of these products to a major European army.
And in more exciting news for the SME, it is releasing a new roll-on roll-off 65-centimetre terminal in October, which will be available in X, Ku and Ka bands and support deployment on any land, amphibious or maritime platform.
"Our engineering and manufacturing teams are kept extremely busy with numerous opportunities being presented for different market applications where the capabilities of our terminals are delivering real value," Shmith said.
"Our on-the-move terminals track satellites more robustly than others and we cover multiple frequency bands. Our customers see this as providing a high level of assured communication from all types of untethered platforms to support mission critical requirements.”