Michael Weixler, Head of Strategic Business Development
In 2024, ND SATCOM demonstrated its drive and ambition with a multi-faceted approach: new product launches, new marketing campaigns and strong strategic investments in the next generation of highly secure and resilient products and networks. In turn, metrics ranging from total revenue to customers trained grew, reflecting a robust business environment.
We kicked off 2024 with our new website, which impressed our customers with its modern design and ease of use: www.ndsatcom.com.
At events such as AFCEA in Bonn and MSPO in Kielce, as well as with campaigns for our defence portfolio, we raised brand and product awareness in 2024. The part of the ND SATCOM exhibit that garnered the most attention at all events was the Multi-Band FlyAway Terminal MFT 1500 with its variants: manual and motorised, military frequency bands and integrated antenna control by the embedded SKYWAN modem. The unique feature of this terminal is its wind resistance; operating in very strong winds and severe storms. At subsequent events, we presented versions of the larger trailer-based transportable terminal used by some NATO partners. It was definitely an eye-catcher.
The next major event for the ND SATCOM team was our NDS Factory Event in June. With the motto “Xperience the NDS Factor” as part of our new image campaign, we opened the doors in Immenstaad to our customers from all over the world.. The live demo "direct-from-helicopter" video stream was one of the highlights and surprised our guests. At the panel discussion of the popular topic “How good is your satellite network without security?", our partners participated with valuable insights. We also presented the new NDS image video for the first time, which continues the story from the 2019 campaign and reflects the different business units of ND SATCOM (Broadcast, Government and Defence). This generated a lot of excitement and interest.
Fostering stability and growth
The key financial figures for 2024 are up again compared to the previous year. The support business, including the Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) for our Business Unit Defence, was the solid foundation for this successful year.
Over a number of years now, the business has proven to be highly profitable and resilient even against unpredictable events such as Covid. As much as the Ukraine war is a humanitarian catastrophe, the increase in defence spending in Europe in the last years and the commitment of NATO and Europe to continue to build on this approach in the coming years will result in further business growth and opportunities.
Installing Reliability
For challenging deployments for a large governmental network, we demonstrated a new resilient network design based on SKYWAN capabilities, including additional geo-redundant and site-redundant DVB-S2 hubs.
Together with the SKYWAN production partner we increased the volume and the number of units delivered to customers. The stellar performance of 100% on-air stability of installed SKYWAN networks and no station downtimes this year underscored again our claim “Installing Reliability”.
Our strong and stable product portfolio gave the team room to focus on new research activities, new product development, and pilot demonstrations in sensitive satcom-use cases.
Serving existing customers and developing new markets
SKYWAN is a reliable solution in maritime satcom networks on ships where our “NDS Factor” has a long history that we will extend to “at-the-water-surface” and “below-the-water-surface”. We achieved our first proof-of-concept with a SKYWAN solution targeting submarines.
The campaign "Under-The-Rotor“ for our SKYWAN helicopter solution was ongoing in parallel to the approval processes and flight demonstrations, such as at our Factory Event in June with a live video transmission from the starting helicopter to a large video wall.
Extending the portfolio of solutions and products
As a VSAT modem company, we have kept our promise of providing SKYWAN maintenance over the product life cycle.
To further increase our Ka-band sales we worked on the upcoming Ka4GOV – our motorised Ka-band antenna with integrated SKYWAN. We presented this new antenna model in late May at Cabsat2024 and to the commercial broadcaster community in September at IBC fair.
New capabilities were added to the Antenna Control Unit Series ACU 6000. This was integral to the MFT1500 where the ACU logic was merged into the SKYWAN modem to reduce components, cabling and “Size, Weight and Power” (SWaP), and to increase usability and reliability.
In the domain of secure networks we had international guests from LuxGovSat, Cysec/F and GISS/PL on our Factory Event panel discussion: “How good is your satellite network without security?”. In addition to these valuable insights, ND SATCOM is actively working on a Quantum pilot project (driven by the QuNET initiative and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) to demonstrate Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)-based encryption using SKYWAN.
Resiliency and security are addressed in the international SIGMA project (an EU/EUSPA funded programme for GOVSATCOM) using SKYWAN in a multi-band, multi-satellite scenario with cellular 5G multi-path links for public safety organisations. The SIGMA project is ongoing with live demonstrations planned with selected end users in European countries in the coming months.
Late in 2024 we received a research grant by the German Federal Ministry of Interior and Community to develop a deployable 5G Stand-Alone (SA) infrastructure for public safety organisations. It will demonstrate 5G Stand-Alone cells with roaming capabilities between deployed ad-hoc cells where cell interconnection is either via a fully-meshed SKYWAN backbone or via microwave links.
ND SATCOM Outlook: Xperience the NDS Factor
Not only did ND SATCOM grow its business in 2024 but also its staff. With offers accepted by young people for training and study as well as the hiring of experienced applicants, we successfully rejuvenated our team to continue to provide the superior level of innovation and service our customers seek.
Our ideas to design and produce new integrated solutions with partners resulted in challenging test and demonstration activities in Europe and on other continents. We “Live the NDS Factor” every day.
Last but not least: At the June Factory Event we presented to key partners the first operational setup of SKYWAN 5G with its more powerful successor – SKYWAN 7X. Stay tuned.