Satellite

Overview

Reliable and robust modular satellite systems, antennas and components.

Fixed or Mobile

Wide portfolio of fixed and mobile satellite solutions for all applications.

Leading Edge

Featuring the global technology leaders in latest technology, highest performance solutions for the most demanding of applications.

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Although the use of IP networks and fibre are a popular choice, there are many applications where the only viable option is to use satellite. With new compression and modulation technologies and especially the introduction of commercially available Ka Band, satellite is now coming back to steal the limelight and also being considered in a range of new markets.

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Land Systems

We have a range of both flat panel (phased-array) and parabolic antennas for communications in cars, military vehicles, trains and coaches. These can be configured with customer specification for frequency, environment, mechanical packaging and more.

Avionics

Both military grade and commercial terminals for in-flight communications.

Naval & Maritime

Tracking antennas and stabilised platforms for reliable performance at sea, whether on a maritime vessel or an oil rig.


We can supply various elements of these systems (antenna, amplifier, modem, motorisation) or we can provide a complete terminal that is fully compliant and certified by the satellite operator.

SATCOM-ON-THE-MOVE (SOTM)

In a world that is increasingly reliant on communications, having IP connectivity whilst on the move is now becoming a necessity in many situations. These Satcom-on-the-Move products differ from their traditional 'comms-on-the-pause' fixed antenna counterparts in that they will provide stable and robust links on and off-road, at speeds of up to 100kph.

Equipment manufacturers and satellite operators continue to work hard on increasing network throughput and user experience, particularly with the introduction of advanced Ka Band technology. At UR Group we are helping our customers increase their efficiency and productivity in the following market sectors:

Antenna Terminals

We provide a variety of Antenna Terminals for the following application areas

VSAT Systems

We can provide fixed antenna systems that are either mounted on a "king post" or by using a "non-penetrating" mount. They are cost effective, relatively straightforward to install, are normally up to 3.8m in diameter and can be either fixed on to one satellite or can be motorized so that they can look at multiple satellites. There are also options where they can track a satellites beacon or perform full tracking of an inclined orbit satellite.

We can provide outdoor RF systems and weatherproof enclosures for amplifiers, frequency converters, modems etc. Optional de-icing and lightning protection kits are also available. We also offer mobile antennas designed to still be cost effective but also have the ability to be deployed and dismantled quickly for occasional use services. We can provide packing cases or "sat-racks" for easy mobility and come in a range of sizes, typically up to 1.5m in diameter. Along with the VSAT Terminal, we can provide Network Management Systems (NMS) that allow you to dynamic allocate bandwidth and transmission frequencies to remote users. This will increase efficiency of the network and result in cost savings for the end user. Different network configurations (Star, Mesh, Semi-Mesh etc) can all be accommodated along with a mixture of SCPC and TDMA architectures.

TVRO

We can provide a selection of "receive only" antennas up to 2.4m, either fixed or motorised. For monitoring or "turn-around" of television content, we not only provide the antenna but can also provide the de-modulators, de-scramblers, decoders and solutions for either streaming this content over a cable / IP Networks or for simple multi-view monitoring on a large video display.

Roof Mount & Fly Away

These antennas are designed to go on the roof of vehicles or are able to be packed into multiple, easy to carry flight cases. Unlike our SOTM offerings, these antennas have to be stationary to be operated and are designed to be deployed very quickly and reliably. They can range from small 45cm terminals that are designed to be carried by one person in a military / covert deployment all the way up to 1.8m (Ku, Ka, X Band) or 2.4m (C-Band) terminal that will go in large flight cases or on the roof of a vehicle. They can be operated across a range of satellite frequencies and can either be manually aligned or "auto-deploy".

Amplifiers

There is a very large range of amplifiers on the market and selecting the most suitable and cost effective one for your application can be difficult. We supply products in the following categories

Indoor Amplifiers

These are typically used in large earth stations and are rack-mountable and benefit from good air-conditioning and a relatively clean environment. They can either be tube amplifiers or one of the new range of solid state amplifiers that are built in a rack and generate high powers by having multiple units (normally in rack sledges) phase combined. Powers around 1KW (C, X Band) and 500W (Ku Band) are typical. If there is a necessity to keep the waveguide run to a minimum, we can also provide temperature controlled cabinets for mounting these units outside near the antenna.

Outdoor Amplifiers

These amplifiers are designed to be weatherproof and mount outside, either next to or on the antenna. We have a range of amplifiers that can be as small as a 2W transceiver (amplifier and receiver combined) that can fit on the feed arm of the antenna, all the way up to a 800W amplifier that can either have an in-built frequency converter (BUC) or separate IF/L-Band infrastructure.

Military Grade

Often there is a requirement for amplifiers that operate out of the normal commercial temperature range, have specialised connectors or need to meet certain vibration / shock specification. Many of the COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) products that we sell have a military version, please let us know your requirements.

Satellite Modems

Managing the modulation of an IP signal into L-Band for up-conversion, amplification & transmission and then demodulating the satellite signal from the LNB back to an IP signal again is the basic function of the Modem. There are three basic types that we offer:

TDMA Modems

This is typically for a network that has a reasonably high number of remote users (from 30 to 1,000s) and where the demand on bandwidth is fairly low and utilisation per site is very dynamic. We can design a network that will make the cost of the remote terminals very aggressively priced and technically simple to deploy whilst giving high levels of bandwidth management and control at the central Hub site.

SCPC Modem

This "Single Channel Per Carrier" system is designed mainly for point-to-point links where the bandwidths can be very high. The systems we sell use the latest techniques to increase efficiency of the satellite capacity including DVB-S2 modulation (employing the latest S2 extensions), advanced forward error correction, minimal roll off (reduce carrier spacing) and the overlaying of carriers (paired carrier). We can also configure a Network Management System (NMS) at the hub to dynamically manage your bandwidth and remote terminals. Although the main application for this type of modem is "point-to-point", other architectures such as Star and Mesh are also possible.

Spread Spectrum Modem

We also supply a range of more specialised modems that can be used in military applications and SCADA Networks (remote monitoring and control of industrial processes). Let us know if you think your requirement is more than a standard TDMA or SCPC as we are sure to have a solution.

Encoding, Decoding & Modulation

If you have an application that requires the transmission of one or multiple television channels to be transmitted over satellite, then your baseband video and audio needs to be encoded into a compressed format. This could be at a very low compression like JP2000, a mild compression like MPEG2 or a more aggressive compression like MPEG4 (H264).

We have solutions that can manage standard definition (SD), high definition (HD) or ultra-high definition (Ultra-HD or 4K) television signals along with products to stream this content to the internet (PDA, mobile phone etc).

Our designs can include statistical multiplexing techniques that can reduce bandwidth by dynamically changes the bit rate per channel depending on the complexity of the content along with encryption of the content. We also have a range of receivers (IRDs, decoders, transport stream descramblers) that can bring all of this compressed content back to baseband video and audio.

LNA & LNB’s

Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) and Low Noise Block converters (LNBs) are required in the satellite network to bring the signal back down from its transmission frequency (C, Ku, X, Ka Band etc) to an L-Band signal that can be received by the modem or de-modulator.

We can supply a variety of different receive systems from LNA infrastructures with full automatic 1:1 redundancy through to LNBs with standard L-Band or fibre based outputs. The accuracy and stability of these systems can vary greatly so please let us know if you need help deciding.

Frequency Converters, Beacon Receivers & Uplink Power Controllers

Despite the growing trend towards L-Band architectures where the amplifiers and LNAs / LNBs are doing the frequency conversion internally, there is still often a requirement to work at Intermediate (IF) frequencies of 70 - 140 Mhz.

We have a range of rack mount and ruggedized frequency converters that can manage this and full switching and redundancy systems can be designed.

We also have a beacon receiver for tracking the satellite and using data from this receiver, we can modify the uplink power of the amplifier to maintain the link in case of "rain-fade".

FREQUENCY REFERENCES

Having a very stable frequency reference is critical in many of today's satellite applications, particularly in the case of a TDMA network where the remotes have to all be perfectly synchronised. We supply a range of frequency references both rack mount and modular that will give a 10Mhz and 1PPS output that is maintained by either a single or a double oven crystal oscillator and is conditioned by GPS.

We also have a frequency distribution solution that allows you to feed this reference accurately to multiple devices and we also have a military variant that will allow the oscillator to be conditioned by a more accurate, encrypted GPS system (SAASM GPS Receiver module).

If you lose GPS completely, there is a rubidium oscillator option that will give you a much longer "hold-over" period keeping your reference signal accurate to within 2uS drift in 24 hours. The systems also come with a variety of network protocols via the Ethernet port (NTP, SNMP, Telnet, SSH and FTP) along with a variety of input powers (24VDC, 48VDC, 100-240VAC)