Projects

The aim of the project is to develop and qualify through an EM/PFM approach specific modules and building blocks for a competitive PCDU

The objective of the project was to identify the best potential opportunities for European satellite service providers to engage in service delivery over integrated satellite and terrestrial networks.

For now several years, the RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) insertion issue is a very hot topic both in the US and in Europe, and the Command and Control (C2) link is one of the most important technological challenges to be addressed.

Regulatory and standardization bodies (especially ICAO, EUROCAE, JARUS) are making progress on this topic. Nevertheless, the work in front of us is still significant.

CERES study aimed, generally speaking, at supporting this effort and, in particular, at fostering the development of an adequate framework for the development of an appropriate C2 link satellite communication capability, by analysing the potential performances and security requirements as well as standard needs.

Furthermore, CERES complemented this top down approach by a bottom up approach, via the analysis of potential satcom candidate systems wrt. these requirements and needs.

The Workflow and Broadcast Tools product allows broadcasters to improve efficiency and reduce costs by digitising content and providing a number of significant production benefits, before the transmission process.

Development and first pre-operational
assessment of an Interactive TV suite of MHP
applications to reward audiences of TV channels with
extra contents. The core of EDIBS concept is to embed
additional services within the digital transmission stream
using the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) standard for
DVB set-top boxes (STB). By using common digital
satellite transmission technologies, the TV- stations are
enabled to offer additional Program services and new
forms of embedded advertisement within a parallel
program flow.

T@HIS is a telemedical network connecting
physicians and hospitals over a new-generation satellite
network based on the recently launched AmerHis
payload on the AMAZONAS satellite. Within the project
three remote clinics in Amazonas, Para states in Brazil
have been connected to a referral hospital in Porto
Alegre. The dominant type of images transferred over
the system is ultrasound images, acquired from portable
or stationary ultrasound devices.

The objective of the Trapeze project is to
build a satellite tele-education service showcase for
travelling people like those in bargee, circus or
fairground communities. Due to their mobility, these
communities do not have access to fixed communication
lines. The satellite tele-education service showcase is
intended to convince organisations in the EU involved in
the education of travelling communities of the value of
integrating such services into their existing teaching
practices.

The objective of this project is to
implement a dual use network (commercial and
emergency management uses) which is ready at all
times to immediately respond to the requirements of a
crisis or failure of terrestrial connections. A number of
specific hardware and software features will be
developed, typical user configurations built and a pilot
network operated.

Vsatnet.com has developed a basic ADSL-like Internet access service via satellite with brand name: SatXpress.

CollaBOD is an integrated Bandwidth-on-Demand management system developed to control satellite circuits in real time and fill a gap betwen users.

Cost-effective satellite communications by more efficient use of bandwidth is the goal of the IMPSAT project.

PLANET2 aims at providing business and regional aviation with in-flight information updates on weather conditions and hazards, while contributing at the same time to the observation of the atmosphere thanks to in-situ measurements sent from the aircraft to the weather agencies.

The objective of the GAMMA project is to develop and demonstrate a pre-operational A-SMGCS which will provide surveillance and conflict detection services to controllers and vehicle drivers at airports.

VideoSat for Distance Learning (V4DL) aims to exploit satellite broadband and broadcast
capabilities, providing Value Added Services for
Continuing Medical Education and Medical Scientific TV
via Satellite. V4DL carries two major innovations: a
distance learning methodology that binds emotional and
narrative learning theory with video simulation
technology (Edufiction), and an optimised user
experience thanks to a specific Set Top Box capable of
executing the specific eLearning application, managing
the GUI and all data transmission functionalities.

The key-objective of the project was to design and to develop a multifunctional "black box" that consists of an intelligent user terminal router and provides interfaces to multiple communication systems.

Through the MIST concept, isolated and
mobile sites like ambulances and ferries can benefit
from teleconsulting. The Wireless Sickbay element of
the project developed, tested and implemented a
telemedicine solution that can be fitted to a vessel (in
this case the Marine Atlantic super ferry The Joseph and
Clara Smallwood) to allow quick responses to medical
problems from the RCST/IEMN network site in Port aux
Basques, Newfoundland. MIST was dedicated to the
creation of a technology, application, and human
systems model that can be custom fitted to a vessel to
meet its specific requirements.

VERDI is a solution for the provision of
broadband corporate services exploiting Virtual Reality
environment for eLearning and eMarketing. The VERDI
project aimed at delivering a comprehensive solution,
demonstrating the added value brought to corporate
applications and working on the improvement of both
the cost-effectiveness of the service provision and the
perceived quality of the service.

This study will determine the causes of the current problematic situation regarding Conditional Access Systems (CAS). It will detail how the lessons learnt should impact the development of new CAS for broadcast services.

The objectives of the project are the
integration and trial of a communications system that
exploits the unique features of two wireless
technologies, namely DVB-RCS and terrestrial wireless
802.11x. The system is expected to be particularly
relevant to some rural communities, which are suffering,
when compared with urban communities, from a lack of
broadband communications. The new system will
provide a broadband system that is easy and quick to
install. The system can be shared by end users making
it cost effective.

Pacific Skies is dedicated to defining,
developing, implementing and piloting a premium
internet access and corporate services product aimed at
small/medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asia and the Middle
East. The service, branded IPsys Broadband, offers two
way Internet Access for remote corporate sites and is
retailed through ISPs and satellite service providers
specialised in the corporate market. The network will
support services typically demanded by corporate users,
such as virtual private networks (VPNs) suitable for
intranet and extranets.

The primary scope of activities to be undertaken within this project is service evaluation of a combined TDMA/DVB satellite network for Internet/Intranet services.

The 21Net system enables Internet services on board high-speed trains. The system uses several communication technologies to access the internet: cellular, WiFi and satellite.

This project is aimed at designing, implementing and validating a mobile VSAT system at Ku-band for providing passengers of high speed trains with broadband access to internet.

The project " Broadband Satellite
Information and e-Learning Channel for Manufacturers
and Service Companies (SiLC)", intends to deploy
broadband IP services via satellite to provide a new type
of high quality and professional service channel. It will
enable the electronic-hardware manufacturing industry
as well as the consumer electronics industry to
introduce their products to the trade and market
professionals and also to the end consumer.

The STICK Project aims at providing broadband communications capabilities to the Public Protection and Disaster Relief sector.
STICK will be a service that can be easily deployed by minimally trained operators, providing a mobile broadband shared network that can be simultaneously accessed by multiple users with multiple applications fully independent from public networks which may collapse when disaster strikes.

The MUTIS (Multimodal Traffic Information
Services) project is aiming at the attraction of the
Danube waterway through the introduction of new
advanced telematic applications. The work contains two
parts, the first part is the demonstration of the
integration of new communication concepts for the
generation of Traffic Information in the Eastern
European countries, and the second part is the
integration of the generated traffic information in a
MUTIS database.

This project aims to set-up and
demonstrate the "modus operandi" for designing and
providing effective distance learning applications that
exploit the SkyPlexNet satellite technology available,
integrate satellite and terrestrial telecom infrastructures
and prepare for commercial sustainability.

TEMOS' objective is to establish a globally
active satellite based competence network which will
optimise the medical care of humans (tourists and
business travellers) in today's mobile society. This
network will be open for all interested hospitals and
medical institutions such as general practitioners or
assistance companies who agree to accept and apply the
TEMOS quality criteria as developed within the
framework of the project.

The project objective is to design an
integrated service for civil protection departments which
will be based on EO data, GIS technologies and satellite
telecommunications. This project will act as a start-up
for similar service provisions in the case of natural or
man-made hazards or telemedicine applications.

ABARIS enables consumers to order a
wide range of music products from an easily accessible
World Wide Website. Following payment and copyright
clearance these products are multicast to consumers,
using the ASTRA-NET satellite communications service.
ABARIS multicasts music products to customers who are
equipped with a computer connected to a standard
satellite TV dish. Following reception, each track may be
played using a multimedia PC or written to a CD for use
in a standard home or car hi-fi system. The music
encryption scheme employed by ABARIS will protect
artists' and composers' rights by preventing
unauthorised performances or recordings.

DISaV's objective is the design of a
platform to deliver multimedia content to a distributed
audience and to manage the whole content lifecycle.
DISaV meets the requirements of the new advertising
market allowing the distribution of rich multimedia
messages (with videos, audios and images) to a wide
territory. The added-value of the platform is the
possibility of sending audio-video material and data to
screens distributed throughout the territory so as to
have a dynamic grouping of the reception points.

EUROMEDNET provides tele-medicine
services co-ordinated by the Tele-medicine Operational Centre (TOC). The development of EuroMedNet is aimed to create: the physical facilities used to collect, distribute, store, process, and display voice, data and medical images; the applications and data engineering tools, methods, and processes to build and maintain the software that allows the Telemedicine Operations Centre and the Telemedicine Users Client to access and manipulate, organize clinical and medical information; the people and assets which provide the integrating design, management and operation of the EuroMedNet, develop the applications and services, and train others in EuroMedNet capabilities and use.

SkyNurse intends to develop an operating
centre for the delivery of distance education and
residential courses directed at nursing personnel in non-
EU countries in order to employ the trained personnel in
EU hospitals and health care centres. SkyNurse also
aims to improve nursing practice throughout the EU
developing standard distance learning models suitable
for national and international use and preparing learning
materials that will offer uniform education, cultivate a
harmonious professional background and promote
standardized nursing procedures. The project has been
piloted with an actual group of nursing staff in Romania
prior to their recruitment in the Italian healthcare
system.

A DVB-RCS platform with shared hub for multiple service providers.

The REACH project aims to create a cost
effective, commercially viable, medical home care
solution which will include videoconference, remote vital
sign monitoring, and satellite telecommunications
technologies applied to the field of Tele-Psychiatry. The
project makes available a solution that meets the
treatment needs of Assertive Community Treatment
(ACT) teams in Canada and their patients/clients,
determines whether the solution can substantially
reduce the treatment costs of ACT teams by enabling
the teams to substitute many "travel visits" by "virtual
visits". The project aims to assess the solution by
establishing a pilot project that treats 20 real patients.

ESMEE provides a satellite based
eLearning multimedia platform providing real-time audio
and video streaming of university lessons and Internet
based synchronous interaction.

The main purpose of the SAVSI project is
to combine the aspects of several tested-and-affordable
technologies in order to provide a centralised video
surveillance service for locations where terrestrial DSL
connections are not available. These technologies are IP
video surveillance using MPEG compression, wireless
local network and DVB-RCS broadband Internet
connection. Two video-surveillance services are being
developed: surveillance of sensible sites, either as a
nominal surveillance capability or as a means of
redundancy (high-risk sites classified as "Seveso" e.g.
remote train crossings, hydroelectric dams, isolated ATM
machines), and surveillance of large and remote areas
(mountains, borders, jungles, volcanic areas) where
several risks are present (fires, smuggling, rains,
eruption, etc.).

The TESEO project is dedicated to
realising a system of multimedia narrow casting via
satellite. The different multimedia elements (video,
audio, graphics and text) are distributed to receiving
sites situated in different geographical areas and
assembled to form a local information channel branded
for the specific user group. In the pilot phase of TESEO,
the channel is used by hotel facilities to realise a local
information channel distributed via the analogue cable
TV system into each room, providing the hotel's guests
with geographically tailored information.

The objective of the project was to develop Forsway´s one-way Internet over satellite gateway, Mímir, into a carrier grade solution for operators of all sized.

The aim of the Fusion Studio project is to explore the creation and enablement of compelling and commercially attractive content for Multimedia TV.