Story ID: 338 SATCOM IS
Satcom Direct to Grow Asia Pacific Presence
By: Ian Sheppard
Caption: Satcom pioneer comes to ABACE after a busy year of innovation and acquisition.
Word Count: 913
Satcom Direct (Booth H226) has helped revolutionize the communications capabilities of the typical business jet cabin over the past 20 years, since it was founded by Jim Jensen in Satellite Beach, Florida. It comes to ABACE after one of its most active years ever, with the launch of SD Pro, roll-out of the SD Wi-Fi Hub, plus the acquisition of Comsat, AircraftLogs and TrueNorth Avionics.
  
Nathan Andrews, regional director for the Asia Pacific, who was appointed to the role last October after many years with the company, told AIN, “We are hoping to take on additional resources in Hong Kong and Australia this year” to help grow the business in the region. “The company has developed rapidly since 2013,” he added, putting part of that down to aircraft owners wanting to upgrade, now that new capabilities are available.
  
Although upgrades are proving popular, and Satcom Direct has a dedicated person in the region advising and assisting clients, Andrews said customers should plan “from the outset” to equip the aircraft at its entry into service. That way you have “a happier customer” and also a less frustrated service provider, he said.
  
Either way, “We can sit down with the customer and their preferred MRO to plan the installation and provide them with the cabin Wi-Fi block diagram, breaking it down into multiple Wi-Fi zones for example.
  
“Then, once we have a draft, we can hand it off to the engineering facility.” He said the time to do the work can “vary widely, but recently we’ve seen a 12-month timeframe. The caveat is how soon the aircraft is going in for scheduled maintenance anyway,” as that would be the best time to do the work, “and how long it takes to get the avionics to them.”
  
Getting on new aircraft platforms such as with Gulfstream is helping given that “now things are a lot more complex, with networks, equipment and so on. The OEMs are recognizing it’s better to do the airframes earlier,” said Andrews.
  
He noted the “great take-up rate” of the Satcom Direct Router and Wi-Fi Hub “and now we have TrueNorth too” offering the Optelity family of satcom systems.
  
SD Pro has provided “an integrated flight operations platform bringing all the elements into one platform—connectivity, maintenance, automatic flight log and data links. You can avoid the pilot having to tally everything up as the data is taken straight off the cockpit avionics to the server. So now you can open up the concept of connectivity much wider than the cabin, to operations, maintenance and so on.” And these don’t impact the cabin (Live TV for example) as they don’t take up much bandwidth.
  
One thing people insist on now is “24/7 connectivity,” said Andrews, who noted, “the airlines are looking at that now, too.” He also predicted that data rates and bandwidth would continue to increase, driven by the increasing uptake of videoconferencing. “People use this a lot now, as you can really go beyond e-mail”
  
“There is a general perception that Asian customers are tech savvy and connectivity hungry,” said Andrews. 
  
At ABACE this year Satcom Direct is focusing on its 20th anniversary “and what the evolution has been,” including explaining to customers and potential customers what the acquisition of TrueNorth Avionics (completed in December) is bringing to the business. With Satcom Direct’s services and equipment widely used in the U.S. and elsewhere, it is making Asia Pacific growth a priority. 
  
For example, Andrews told AIN in late March that the first Asia Pacific customer had signed up for the AircraftLogs web-based aircraft/crew scheduling service. 
  
The company believes it has the market pretty much covered as a reseller, with ViaSat, Inmarsat, Iridium, etc. “And we have just brought on Panasonic as well,” said Andrews. “It gives customers other options and continues our [service/platform] agnostic position, which also allows us to deliver the best solution for the customer depending on their operational requirements.”
  
He suggested that China’s next step may be the addition of an air-ground system. “If the Chinese government wanted to get this done, they would…but one problem Asia may have [overall] is different regulatory regimes, unlike the U.S. and Europe. You can overfly half a dozen countries in a very short space of time—so that might be the biggest stumbling block. But China could do it—assuming there will be a staggering number of airframes eventually.” 
    
SD’s Timeline Highlights
  
1997  Founded by Jim Jensen
  
2002 Became Inmarsat Reseller
  
2004  Designated Iridium Service Provider
  
2008  ViaSat Reseller for Yonder
  
Acquired Honeywell OneLink
  
2009  Became SwiftBroadband Reseller
  
Launched AeroV VoIP
  
OneView (DirecTV)
  
SD Flight Tracker
  
2012  Started International Expansion
  
 Opened Offices in Farnborough, Dubai, Montreal and São Paulo
  
2013 Opened Hong Kong Office
  
 SDR Certificated
  
 Distribution Partner for Inmarsat JetConneX
  
2014 Opened Offices in Ottawa, Geneva and Moscow
  
 GlobalONE IP, aeroXR
  
 SmartSky SP
  
 SDR Selected for Gulfstream new aircraft forward fit
  
2015 Opened Denver Office
  
 New World HQ Opened in Melbourne, Florida
  
 Global VT launch
  
2016 Launched live TV streaming on SD Live at NBAA