SATCON – the Satellite and Content Delivery Conference & Expo features applications for satellite, content delivery and communications including video, voice, data and internet over satellite, fiber and hybrid networks. Held at the Javits center on the 29th and 30th, the show brought together vendors selling everything from cables to services.
The predominant devices at the show, of course, were satellite dishes, most made for rapid assembly and easy transport. There were also dish systems made for man-portable applications such as remote site communications and military.
There were also a lot of satellite phone systems on display, with briefcase antennas for a better signal.
One of the most interesting things I saw at the show was the new Air Force Space Badge, sported by one of the military visitors to the event. The Colonel and I had a nice chat about convergence, which is one of the reasons the Air Force created the badge to unify the various space-oriented disciplines.
Smartalix, you don’t fool me for a second. The reason you go to these conferences is for the lovely dishes.
RBG
Was there much or any presence of folks working with free-to-air [FTA] satellite services?
May end up being the only way I’ll ever get access to the English Al Jazeera telecasts.
These were all telecomm and broadcast oriented people, I believe.
Looks like Col Shearer. Great man he is. I used to work under him in ICBM operations. I’m sure he told you the party line about the new Space Badge. The rank and file space and missile operators hate the damned thing though. We think it looks like it belongs on the front of a Chrysler. It’s a convergence of the old Space Operations Badge and the ICBM Operations Badge. The ICBM badge was bad ass and was a mark of distinction. Alas, the ICBM badge is no more and is replaced by that goofy thing. The pilots hate the new badge too because it looks too much like pilot wings, although the official word is that those are “space contrails” rather than wings.
Alix:
Yeah, I was crammed into a room with Steve Ballmer and 100 of the industry leaders at the Microsoft Vista Launch that day.
The badge reminds like something out of star trek.
Looks like a fun show.
Any Space babe floating around.
Rich
Rich,
Indeed the the badge looks very much like something from Star Trek. Alas, it does not make the cute little beep with you press it.
I did say that the badge could have been classier, that ray-gun shit ages rapidly. Oak leaves, lighting bolts and such are timeless.
The older version of the Space Ops badge had the delta and orbits but was surrounded by a wreath… the Missile Ops Badge consisted of a stylized rocket also surrounded by a wreath. Also the older Missile Ops badges were only worn by those who had actually operated the space and missile systems. Acquisitions officers managing space contracts can wear this new badge even if they never actually work at a systems console. Bah!
Were they showing anything like Al Franken’s dish mounted on a motorcycle helmut rig from SNL?
Ha! Being that the Air Force is the least soldierly of the armed forces anyway, this new “Star Trek” badge is just one more thing to make jokes about them for.