Over the Air · 24 Oct 2024 · 27m
Oliver Potter, COO of Ground Control, explains how satellite IoT bridges the connectivity gap for assets in remote maritime, renewable energy, and climate monitoring applications where cellular coverage is absent. He details the evolution from expensive geostationary satellites to cost-effective Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations, highlighting the industry's shift toward standardized protocols like 3GPP Narrowband IoT to enable cheaper, interoperable hardware. Potter emphasizes that successful deployment requires rigorous data compression and edge AI to manage the high cost and power constraints of space-based transmission, ensuring long-term reliability for critical infrastructure like wildfire detection and tsunami warning systems.
Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.
Engineering & simulationVideoSoft
The company uses VideoSoft to compress video streams locally on the device and report by exception, reducing the amount of data transmitted over satellite to save power and cost.
“we have a partner called VideoSoft, uh, and they help compress locally on our device, um, the, the video stream, help report by exception, uh, and then that can be.”
Speaker 2 · Hear it at 12:26
Engineering & simulationAttenbeam
The company uses Attenbeam's compression algorithm, which uses pattern recognition to codify typical TCP/IP data streams, allowing them to transmit only the codified patterns rather than raw data.
“There's another one we've worked with, a company called Attenbeam, who have a very cool kind of compression algorithm, which essentially looks at your typical TCPIP data stream and looks at sort of pattern recognition effectively and then codifies those patterns to only then.”
Speaker 2 · Hear it at 13:35
Engineering & simulation
The speaker describes using AI on the edge to detect specific events, such as a person, to trigger recording and adjust frame rates, thereby optimizing bandwidth usage.
“But you can also do use a bit of AI on the edge. If I detect a person, I would like to start recording. And then I can determine whether I want, you know, a higher frame to see what's really going on, but I'm going to reduce the amount of movement or I want to see what's actually going on and keep frame rate high.”
Speaker 2 · Hear it at 13:35
companies scaling up
Other shows on the same ground, closest first.
Oscar Delgado of HEAD Aerospace and Raghu Das of Aniara Spacecom discuss the current landscape of satellite IoT, highlighting the shift from expensive legacy constellations to affordable small satellite (CubeSat) networks like Skywalker. They explain the technical and business distinctions between satellite IoT (narrowband, low data) and traditional satcom (broadband), emphasizing that satellite connectivity is ideal for remote assets like agriculture and utilities where terrestrial coverage is absent. The guests stress that successful adoption requires a strong business case, standardization via 3GPP, and hybrid connectivity solutions to integrate satellite with terrestrial networks.
Ian Itz, Director of Iridium’s IoT Line of Business, explains how Iridium’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation provides global, low-power connectivity for IoT devices in remote areas where terrestrial networks fail. He discusses the differentiation between satellite providers based on constellation architecture, highlighting Iridium’s 66-satellite network’s reliability for safety-of-life applications like Garmin inReach and GMDSS. Itz also outlines key growth sectors such as precision agriculture, mining, and environmental monitoring, while noting challenges like high costs and the industry’s shift toward standardized, multi-radio modules to drive mass adoption.
Alastair Williamson, CEO of Wyld Networks, explains how his company provides affordable, low-power satellite IoT connectivity by connecting LoRaWAN sensors to low Earth orbit satellites. He details the engineering challenges of mitigating interference in the unlicensed ISM band and highlights use cases in agriculture, supply chain, and energy where global coverage is critical. Williamson notes that Wyld Networks is preparing for a commercial launch in the second half of 2022, aiming to unlock a massive market for remote IoT devices.
Alastair MacLeod, CEO of Ground Control, discusses the current state of satellite IoT, distinguishing between today's viable use cases and the hype surrounding emerging LEO networks. He explains that while satellite connectivity is available for critical applications anywhere on Earth, true economic parity with terrestrial cellular for low-power, small-form-factor devices is likely 5 to 10 years away. MacLeod highlights key challenges including high unit economics, power constraints, and the complexity of hybrid satellite-cellular implementations, noting that reliability and security are major drivers for adoption. He advises engineers to focus on criticality and business cases rather than just technical feasibility, predicting market consolidation among LEO operators in the next five years.
Maarten Engelen, CTO of Hiber, explains how his company leverages low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide global IoT connectivity for remote applications. He details the technical trade-offs in satellite design, including orbital decay, thermal cycling, and the use of star trackers for attitude determination, as well as the regulatory complexities of securing frequency licenses. Engelen also describes the Hiber modem module, highlighting its ultra-low power consumption, small form factor, and the strategy of handling all international certifications to simplify deployment for customers in industries like agriculture and logistics.
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