October 2023

How the NewSpace Industry is Developing

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Andrew Ball

The NewSpace industry is rapidly growing. To unpack the changes going on in the industry we spoke to Harriet Brettle, the Head of Market Analysis and Business Intelligence at the European Space Agency, on Episode 19 of The Satellite & NewSpace Matters Podcast. Harriet is responsible for the analysis of markets relevant to the satellite communications and space solutions markets, giving her some excellent insights into the way the industry is developing. Here’s what she said:

Is there anything that’s particularly exciting you about the industry at the moment?

One of the things I really enjoy about working at the European Space Agency is the breadth of opportunities I have to look at within the space sector. One day I might be looking at understanding the potential of optical communications and how that can transform the satellite industry. The next day, I could be looking at how we can use satellite communication for disaster responses. The day after that I could be considering a completely different question that we haven’t even thought about. The variety of areas that we work with is what really hits home. For me that’s the role that space plays in everyday life. Our industry isn’t sitting in isolation, it’s incredibly connected to and impactful for the rest of the world. I’m excited to be working in the satellite communications area. Understanding the role that satellite communications plays is something I really enjoy.

What are you most excited to see in the future of the satellite industry?

Change is the only certain thing, right? That couldn’t be more true for the SATCOM sector at the moment. We’re seeing huge market changes. We’re also seeing how satellite operators and the space industry are reacting to all of that market change too. I don’t want to predict the future because we’re always wrong in some way, but I’m really excited to see how things are going to play out. We’re in a very disruptive, exciting time for SATCOM so I’m looking forward to seeing the innovative ways that new and existing players are going to take on those new challenges.

Do you think there is enough demand to sustain all of the players currently looking to enter the market?

We’re seeing a whole host of new actors come in and disrupt the market. They also say history repeats itself, right? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a wave of satellite constellations come onto the market, but I think it is different this time. There are a few things that are driving that. One is timing. In terms of where the smallsat technology is now, we’re now seeing launches at a cadence we couldn’t have even imagined just a few years ago. The scale at which we’re able to deploy satellites and the amount of funding that is going into the space sector is phenomenal.

It’s not just the amount of funding that’s going into particular companies. Jeff Bezos has said publicly that he’s planning to sell a billion dollars of Amazon stock every year to fund Amazon’s project Kuiperthe, which is a great example. That’s the kind of funding that most startups could only dream of. There’s a huge amount of focus on Starlink, but we’re still to see those business cases close. It’s one thing to get the constellation up in orbit, it’s another thing to be able to sell those services at a price point customers are willing to pay.

We’re also seeing projections for huge increases in the demand for data going forward. From the new conversations around LEO we’re also expecting to see a huge influx in capacity and supply coming onto the market as well. Satellite operators are able to charge to realise that opportunity. I don’t think it’s a slam dunk, but I think we’re seeing a huge amount of progress from a number of different operators, which is very exciting.

To learn more about the state of the NewSpace industry, tune into Episode 19 of The Satellite & NewSpace Matters Podcast here.

We sit down regularly with some of the biggest names in our industry, we dedicate our podcast to the stories of leaders in the technologies industries that bring us closer together. Follow the link here to see some of our latest episodes and don’t forget to subscribe.

FYUZ 2023 Summary Blog

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Alistair Wilson

This year, Fyuz returned to Madrid for three days of talks and networking, with a focus on Open RAN technology. Here are the key takeaways, straight from the neuco team:

Day 1:

FYUZ ‘23 kicked off with a bang when Ericsson’s EVP and Head of Networks, Fredrik Jejdling, entered the stage for the first big announcement. He announced that Ericsson has 1 million radios ready for deployment in Open RAN. While Fredrik was hesitant to commit to a timeline, it seems that late 2024 is the earliest we will see the upgrades deployed on the market.

The next significant announcement came from Vodafone’s Andrea Dona. Andrea revealed that Vodafone currently has 16 live sites in the Southwest of the UK, providing connectivity through Open RAN. This is a truly cross-vendor platform that reaches over 100,000 people. They not only expect to increase the number of sites to 24 by the end of October, but also anticipate that these systems will outperform their legacy equipment in all key performance indicators (KPIs).

The big takeaway from Day 1 is that although progress in Open RAN has been slow, it’s no longer just a concept; it’s here. Although there is still a long way to go before Open RAN technology becomes the norm, it’s exciting to see it come to fruition.

Day 2:

The second day of the conference focused on the challenges of Open RAN and multi-vendor engagement. There was a significant discussion about how operators will need to oversee relationships with multiple vendors, and a big question mark hung over the accountability of the vendors in such a scenario.

AI was another central topic. Open RAN and automation are interconnected, but there isn’t a comprehensive understanding across the industry when it comes to automation. Therefore, a substantial effort is needed to attract talent from other areas to meet growing demands from the connectivity industry.

Day 3:

Day three placed a significant focus on the use cases of Open RAN and how it can help expand into other areas of connectivity, such as private wireless and indoor connectivity. The panel rightly pointed out that 80% of device usage occurs indoors or in a vehicle. This means that a substantial portion of the mobile connectivity market isn’t being reached.

While Wi-Fi effectively provides connectivity in these hard-to-reach places, and will therefore remain the dominant connectivity method, questions arose about Open RAN’s place in the connectivity ecosystem. The multi-vendor nature of Open RAN allows operators and vendors to take their equipment indoors. Coupled with the fact that neutral hosting is inherent in Open RAN, this could make the transition between indoor and outdoor connectivity seamless.

Summary:

Overall, this year was a bit slower than anticipated. Vendors are slowly getting on board with the process, and operators are even slower to invest. However, through industry bodies such as the Telecom Infra Project, the wheels are slowly but surely turning. We’ve seen a lot of positivity about the future of the industry, and we all hope it will start to pick up pace in the coming years.

Changes in the Sport Media Sector

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Tim Meredith

The sports media sector has been massively impacted by the changes in viewing patterns that have emerged across the Content & Media industry. On Episode 20 of The Content & Media Matters Podcast we were joined by sport media veteran Ed Abis, who is the Managing Director at Dizplai. Ed has led an extensive career in the live sports and media space, having worked with Burnley FC and ITV, even helping Nike with their collaboration with Manchester United Soccer schools. Today Edie is focused on data visualisation solutions for the media and sports market. He shared his insights into the changing landscape of the sports media industry.

What has had the most impact on the sports media space in terms of the evolution of technology and the way we consume sports since you joined the industry?

I worked for the Perform Group (now Stats Perform) when they were at the forefront of creating sports streaming. We were working with global sports durations, and helping them to develop their commercial story and effectively monetize their content. I’ve worked with other companies during this advising fever as well, helping organisations get accessibility to their live sports, because it was felt that the sports broadcasting world would only focus on the biggest sports.

I was lucky enough to work with a great number of people and organisations where we were learning together and from each other. That was effectively a sports streaming revolution, because we were doing things that no one was doing before. Sometimes it went wrong, but not through having the fear. We innovated and I think immeasurably moved the industry forwards.

What would you say are the biggest challenges facing the sports media market today?

There is so much choice now. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens over the coming years in terms of what some entities will do. We’ve seen what’s happened with the merger between Discovery and BT Sport and there’s changes afoot there at a high level. I think it makes it difficult for consumers because they need to have so many subscriptions, because everyone in the house has a different preference. That is a challenge. But the opportunity as a consumer is to pick and choose what service I want to go and buy, which also means I have a choice that I’ve never had before. That’s exciting for consumers. I remember my days of working with The Equestrian Federation, which has a very niche audience, but they have a very high net worth and a very engaged audience as well. Their content won’t always be on the BBC or any other major broadcast because they’re not a major event supplier, but there are people who really want to watch it, and TEF can offer that simply and easily.

What are you most excited about for the future of sports media?

If certain things go to our competitors we all push each other. There are certain direct and indirect examples – one that we worked with is SkySports and their boxing, where we’ve worked with our product team and their product team to create an interactive boxing scorecard. That isn’t necessarily something new – there’s been some web based voting applications around for years – but what we’ve done is create an end to end solution so the audience feels a part of when they’re watching the boxing. They scan a QR code, and they are scoring the fight round by round. Producers understand that they need this payoff of saying to the audience, ‘This is how you are all voting for this fight right now’. I want to see more interactive innovations like that.

To learn more about developments happening in the sports media sector, tune into Episode 20 of The Content & Media Matters Podcast here.

Inside Space Congestion Solutions

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Andrew Ball

As the NewSpace industry grows, so does the amount of debris surrounding the planet. On The Satellite & NewSpace Matters Podcast we were delighted to be joined today by Siamak Hesar, the Co-Founder and CEO of Kayhan Space. Siamak has a PhD in aerospace engineering and extensive expertise in astrodynamic and operational flight dynamic fields. His company’s purpose is to create a next generation autonomous spaceflight capability with the mission of making space safer. We asked Siamak about how Kayhan Space is contributing to the challenges of space congestion and how that informed the creation of his company. Here’s what he said:

If you’re alluding to space congestion and space debris, it’s a very big problem. There are multiple aspects for me when we talk about solutions. To give you some context in terms of how the industry is growing – since the dawn of the space age, humanity as a whole has launched around 11,000 satellites into orbit. That has directly resulted in over a million pieces of debris and artificially generated micro meteorites. That’s made up of all the extra stuff that gets thrown out of satellites and collision debris. That is obviously a big problem, but we are not stopping there.

One exciting aspect of this industry is that we are growing so fast. I have no issue with that growth, but we do need to be mindful of the fact that that growth needs to be accompanied by the right processes and capabilities to support it so that growth is done safely. In the next decade alone there are different estimates and forecasts which predict that we are going to send around 100,000 satellites into orbit. That’s 10 times more satellites in just one decade than everything that we have done in space so far. That creates a big challenge.

There are different aspects of addressing this problem. The analogy that I always use is that when it comes to space traffic management, we are in the same boat as air traffic control, where initially there were midair collisions that resulted in people sitting down and thinking about the creation of a traffic control system. The reason that the air travel industry is at this scale right now is because back then we decided as a society that we needed regulations and processes that allowed the industry to scale safely. We are in the same situation right now in the space industry.

In terms of Kayhan’s offering, we are a technology company, so our role is to provide technical solutions or technology that can help the industry scale safely. We do that by automating the processes that satellite operators can use to fly safely and coordinate with each other.

To learn more about Siamak’s career and experiences, tune into Episode 18 of The Satellite & NewSpace Matters Podcast here.

WSBW Summary Blog

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Andrew Ball

So, another fantastic WSBW Summit has been and gone and the neuco Executive Search team have finally been able to find the time to debrief on what was an incredible show. It was another sold-out event and there was a palpable buzz around the Westin with a huge number of topics taking centre stage at the summit, both on the panels and in the hallways and meeting rooms dotted around the venue.

We’ve summarised a few of the key talking points from the event below.

Direct to Device:

Unsurprisingly, direct to device solutions were the hot topic of discussion throughout the show. While it seems universally agreed by most in the industry that there certainly is a market, there seems to be little consensus on just how big that market will be and just how long it will take to realise the potential of these services.

Where’s the money?:

You will, I’m sure, have seen several announcements for funding rounds during the summit. However, something we heard from a few different people was that there seems to be a dwindling appetite for larger funding rounds that some of the more established start-ups need right now. As the NewSpace market begins to mature, and with substantial prior investments still awaiting a return on investment, investors are understandably becoming more cautious.

Starlink:

LEO connectivity has been a hot topic for a few years now but there was one provider that was spoken about more than any other and there didn’t seem to be many panels that didn’t touch on at least a brief discussion of Starlink. What is obvious is that the theme of the discussion has certainly shifted, there are no longer questions around the viability of such solutions and now much more of a focus on how other providers will differentiate their offering from Starlink in order to mop up the obvious demand.

GEO Still Has a Part to Play, Especially for Regional Operators:

While LEO certainly dominated discussions, it’s obvious that GEO is not dead yet. There were a number of regional operators all shunning LEO platforms in favour of GEO as the need for a lot of capacity in a small footprint means that it is still the platform of choice for them. A further show of support for the GEO market came with the announcement of an additional $28m in funding for Swissto12 to keep up with the demand for their HummingSat platform.

We’re already counting down the days until next year’s event, can’t wait to see you all there!

IBC 2023!

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Sara El Mahjouby

IBC 2023 and its over 43,000 attendants were able to enjoy the ever-evolving landscape of the broadcast and media industry, with an increase of 16% when compared to last year. The neuco team itself has been growing, and our own Tegan Valeny participated in the DPP panel, discussing the impact of peak remote working.

Being my first ever trade show, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see all the tech in person and getting to know industry experts, demonstrating the importance of building long-lasting relationships throughout the industry.

The most prominent conversations included talks of monetisation, sustainability, and, of course – AI! Throughout the industry, media organisations are not only honing in how to drive profitability but also how AI can be used to affect monetisation, through personalised advertising and user targeting.

As well as this, sustainability seemed to be a bigger topic than in previous years, with various companies engaging with this by making their video streaming platforms climate-conscious.

Not only was this my first time ever attending a trade show, but also Amsterdam – this was truly a trip of new beginnings! The architecture, canal and general atmosphere of Amsterdam was fantastic, as was the food and the laughs we shared throughout the neuco team.

As a whole, IBC 2023 was fantastic. Being a history fanatic, I am keen to see how IBC 2024 will be different, what topics will become more relevant, and to see how the industry will expand!