Satellite communications “on the move” (SOTM) solutions provide...

director. SOTM solutions are used for digital satellite news gathering (SNG), broadband on trains, emergency response and other applications, she said. Digital SNG through SOTM allows news teams with small vehicles to reach areas where larger vehicles can’t reach, said Miki Barak, director of satellite on the move antennas. It enables news teams “to be first on the scene with a smaller footprint,” he said. In providing broadband Internet on trains, SOTM allows operators to control and monitor the network feed and it provides end users with Wi-Fi access in train cars, he said. Gilat provided satellite Internet service on cargo trains for an experimental project in Africa, Barak said. The company also implemented a collision prevention application collecting and transmitting GPS data and voice to the control center, he said: The application “collected the GPS location of each train and provided the controlling and monitoring of the whole network.” To provide the service, Gilat offers a satellite and cellular combination, he said: This gives better coverage and provides a better user experience “while the train moves at a high speed, and between cities where the areas are less dense with poor cellular coverage.” The solution is enabled by a low profile tracking antenna, which fits on any standard vehicle, said Oren. It also features a block upconverter transmitter that can save costs and allows low power consumption, she said.