Presentations on line for Ku-band Multimedia for cars

The project called 'Mobile Ku Band Receiver Demonstrator' was fully supported by ESA and represents an exciting new development in satellite telecommunications. Results were presented to ESA and industry on 25 January 2007 during a one-day event, which included 13 presentations.

All presentations can now be downloaded by clicking under related links at the top-right of this page.

The presentations covered a variety of topics. Recommendations to Content Providers, potential applications, technical descriptions of the unique transport layer and caching system, as well as results of field trials and the latest information on the all important antenna design. The proposed antennas promise 20º to 65º coverage and near 100% reliability in a variety of environments from urban to highway.

Rolv Midthassel, ESA Technical Officer responsible for the project on the challenge now to industry: "We've developed a fully realisable demonstrator offering attractive services, high efficiency, both low investment and low cost while still being technologically advanced. It's up to industry to turn this demonstrator into a commercial success. They won't be alone though, ESA can offer 50% funding plus our years of technical expertise in this field."

Ku-band for Cars The explosive growth of satellite digital radio means that it is already reaching millions of listeners in the USA. ESA and its industrial partners are bringing the benefit of satellite radio to the European automotive market. Differing significantly from its existing commercial counterparts, the ESA developed system can potentially provide not only traditional radio services, but also multimedia content to drivers across Europe.

Final presentation of the project in ESTEC, Noordwijk

Broadcasting over a larger area and to large audiences cost-effectively, the mobile multimedia to cars system can be implemented without requiring an investment in new satellite launches or the deployment of terrestrial repeaters. It offers a highly efficient, low-investment and low-risk approach to the provision of satellite radio services to the automotive consumer market.

Project manager Mr. Loeillet from SES

A group of well-known companies and institutes carried out the demonstration work, with SES Astra taking the lead: BMW, the Deutsche Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR), Dornier Consulting, Deutsche Welle, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Institut für Rundfunktechnik, Technische Universität Braunschweig, and TriaGnoSys.

 

all images ESA