New York
Javits Convention Center
November 14 -15, 2012
Attendance: 6,077
Exhibitors: 300+
Media and analysts: 52
Calysto Overview
The 11th annual SATCON conference in New York City was held just two weeks after super storm Sandy hit the New York tri-state area, and there was some concern about whether the lingering effects of the storm would impact attendance. However, the show went off without a hitch, with increased attendance of 6,077. The show was co-located with the JD Events Content and Communications World (CCW), with SATCON focusing on milsatcom, next generation satellites, satellite content delivery, mobile satcom and commercial satellite applications.
What were the main topics of discussion among attendees this year? New frequency bands, hosted payloads, the role of satellite in a multi-screen world and, of course, the BIG ONE – disaster response.
“In part, we were able to witness the sheer force of this storm on a national scale when Hurricane Sandy was at its peak because our satellite communications infrastructure is engineered to sustain operations and meet availability specifications that other systems may not be able to withstand,” noted conference organizers in their announcement, Satellite Communications Takes On a Super Storm:
“During the most intense period of the storm in the New York region, the evening/night of Monday October 29, 2012, going into the early morning of Tuesday October 30, 2012, broadcast and cable television program distribution service continued to be delivered to consumers because the satellite backbone, some 22,300 miles above the earth’s equator, was able to sustain operations in a near seamless way. Maybe the point of transmission origination changed from New York/Northeast based teleports to earth station centers hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from the center of the storm. But satellite transmitted uplink service can shift from one location to another when events of weather, or other unforeseen calamity may force a “Disaster Recovery” television operation switch to take over from a primary television operations center to assure program distribution continues. We probably saw this example at a number of companies during the time of Hurricane Sandy’s intensity, but it did not stop the ability for U.S. television providers to deliver its content to consumers because satellite services were able to persevere through this most epic storm.”
One of the most timely conference sessions this year was “Disaster Response: The Role of Satellite Communications.” In addition to the unfortunate relevancy of some of the sessions, attendees overall commented favorably about the quality of the SATCON program. Conference tracks covered government and military, satellite broadcast and media, and the satellite industry.
The SATCON keynote address was given by Lt. General Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). Other speakers were Susan Irwin, President, Euroconsult USA, SATCON Conference Chair; Steve Collar, CEO, O3b Networks Limited; Daniel Goldberg, President & CEO, Telesat; Pradman P. Kaul, CEO, Hughes Communications; Leo Mondale, Managing Director, Inmarsat Global Xpress; and Mark Rasmussen, Regional Vice President, North America Sales, Intelsat.
Overall, there was a good representation from satellite-specific media, including Satellite Executive Briefing, Satellite Finance, Satellite Markets, Talk Satellite, Satellite Markets and Research, SatNews Publishers and SPACE.com. So far, we don’t see a great deal of coverage, but there will inevitably be write-ups in the near future. This show does present a good opportunity to meet with media covering the satellite ecosystem.
As for social media metrics, on Twitter, there were 899 followers between and CCW handles; over 350 tweets with #satconexpo and / or #ccwexpo during show.
The exhibition hall itself had good traffic, with more than 300 companies, including Ericsson, Foxcom, GlobeCast, Globecomm, Hughes, Intelstat, and Motorola.
SATCON has a strong turnout, and is a good show to consider for those from government/military, media and entertainment, telecommunications, commercial, mobile satellite and enterprise organizations.
Articles of Interest
“Military Will Ride Commercial SATCOM for a ‘Long Time'”
Satellite Today
November 15, 2012