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| SatCom Domes in Situ |
Imagine a super yacht with out the carbuncle style SatCom domes cluttering up the deck. That vision just took a whole step forward towards a deliverable solution in 2015 with the first-ever Transmit/Receive using a Metamaterial Antenna.
‘The ability to deliver bi-directional high-speed Internet connectivity is a key milestone in the commercial development of the flat-panel satellite antenna,” says Roger Horner Group Managing Director of e3 systems the marine electronics company servicing superyachts in Spain, France, Italy, Malta and the USA
Kymeta Corporation, the company commercialising innovative metamaterials-based flat-panel antennas for satellite communications, has announced that it has successfully demonstrated bi-directional high-speed Internet connectivity with a Ka broadband satellite.
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| With Flat Panel in use |
This is the first time a metamaterials-based antenna has established an Internet connection over a satellite link and confirms that Kymeta is ready to move into commercial product development and production.
As Kymeta Corporation’s Collaboration Partner for the yacht market e3 Systems have reported that the demonstration used the Ka-band capacity on Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite on December 15th in Vancouver Canada.
The completion of the demonstration required obtaining regulatory certifications for Ka-band transmissions, made possible through collaboration with Telesat. iDirect provided the modem technologies used in the demonstration.
After initial tests of bi-directional Internet connectivity and video streaming via the Kymeta transceiver equipment, the team also launched a bi-directional Skype video call from a laptop at the demonstration site to Kymeta’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, where a team celebration was held.
Kymeta is expected to have prototype units ready for field trials in 2014 with initial availability of commercial products in early 2015.