The workshop itself was a great success, with around seventy people attending on each of the two days. Several more are estimated to have followed the workshop using the "ESA Telepresentation Tool", a software suite to distribute the live video and audio as well as presentation slides towards the remote participants. This multimedia streaming was transmitted from the ESTEC uplink facility via SESAT satellite. Remote participants were located mainly in France, Italy, Austria and UK. ESRIN also hosted a number of people who were following this workshop.
Issues regarding the interoperability of terrestrial networks with satellite systems and the importance of this for market acceptance were high on the agenda. Included in the discussions, were results of the European Space Agency Telecommunications R&D programme.
The workshop consisted of four presentation sessions. Speakers from across Europe came to answer questions and give insight into a wide array of topics. The workshop concluded with an open discussion during which new encapsulation methods for data transfer over DVB were widely discussed, as was the opportunity to have specific ITT's issued by ESA Telecom in the area of networking.
Held on 13 and 14 May 2003, the purpose of the workshop was to present recent findings and offer a forum to specialists wishing to exchange ideas in the rapidly evolving field of satellite networking. Frank Zeppenfeldt, Communication Engineer and Roberto Donadio, Applications and Standardization Principal Engineer were the organisers and hosts.
