Since joining an engineering crew, I’ve grown accustomed to the modern toys and haven’t really had too much of a background in how things used to be. An example of this is the BGAN. Short for Broadband Global Area Network, this is the tool that is used when no cell service exists or no satellite truck can reach the desired area in time.

TV in 15 mins

On my first (and so far, only) trip abroad, a producer asked me, “How long before we can hit the satellite?” Me, being as green as can be and also trying to grasp the severity of a 9.0 earthquake in Japan, said, “It shouldn’t take too long” Well I was right and I was wrong. Our flyaway dish took about 4 hours to get up and running, once all crew had landed. But a BGAN terminal would have only taken a few minutes to set up and running, provided there was a power source and somewhere dry enough to keep the equipment from getting soaked by the rain.

But this equipment is clunky, heavy and doesn’t keep up with the future since SD is all it is capable of handling. Aside from bonded cellular devices (TVU, LiveU, etc.) I’d like to know what other options or possibilities are there for a satellite transmission unit that is lightweight, HD and streamlined? Doesn’t have to be cheap but I’d be curious what’s available now and what’s in the works.