NewSat wants eyes in the skies for new surveillance initiatives

11 June 2013

NewSat has been investigating the use of drone technologies to provide surveillance services and will lobby the Australian government for their introduction. NewSat founder and CEO Adrian Ballintine told CommsDay that new initiatives were high on the company's agenda and could be used for applications such as monitoring the coastline or providing information during natural disasters.

NewSat finalised a $611 million in funding for its Jabiru-1 satellite launch in February, but Ballintine said that the effort had taken attention away from other areas of the business, notably its core teleport services. He said with “normality back”, the company would look to continue to expand into new areas.

“The technology based around surveillance has simply got more affordable and better as satellite technology on the ground and in the sky has got smarter. So there is no reason why we wouldn't be advocates in this country for the use of unmanned aircraft or drones for the protection of Australia's coastlines or the provision of services so that you prevent things before they happen,” Ballintine said.

“I think these are things that we would be saying to the government you need to look at and we would be saying also that private enterprise are the best people to provide those solutions,” he added, noting that NewSat had for some time suggested the need for new satellite applications for use in preventing bushfires and other natural disasters.

“The use of protection services via surveillance is not something we should have our head in the sand about. It's expensive but if it causes us to understand, for example, where everything is in the ocean before it gets to Australia, it can sure save a lot of lives,” he said. “If you can provide that technology with a homegrown Australian corporation, that's a good thing because ultimately no-one knows Australia better than the people that work in the country.”

EXPANSION PLANS: Newly-appointed chief commercial officer Scott Sprague also backed the move into surveillance services as a good fit for the company. Sprague yesterday joined NewSat from Asia Broadcasting Satellite in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for managing the global sales, marketing, technical support and operations of value added services.

He was previously with New Skies Satellite when NewSat originally bought the teleport business and said that the core business, particularly its strong focus on enterprise and military customers, was important.

“There's no doubt that a country as large as Australia, with the challenges that it faces both from a security perspective but also from a humanitarian perspective, is going to need to use drones, or UAVs, in order to bring that to the next level. And that's where the satellite industry is going to play an important role going forward,” Sprague told CommsDay.
“One of the things that NewSat brings to that equation is the fact that they have got a strong legacy in that business, they have high security levels with government applications today, both for the Australian government but also the US government, who have some of the highest security conditions in the world.

And so as they go forward, especially the Australian government, they're going to look to work with service providers that can bring reliable secure solutions,” he added.

Sprague will be responsible for leading NewSat's sales growth as well as selling capacity on Jabiru-1. He said capacity in the new satellite will likely be in more demand around 12 months out from the launch date, which is tentatively set for around mid-2015.

As well as ABS, Sprague was previously senior VP of global sales for SES, where he was responsible for leading sales teams and growing global revenues across media, enterprise and government verticals around the world.

WA TELEPORT: CommsDay can also reveal that NewSat is expected to soon announce an expansion of its Western Australian teleport. It is negotiating a lease on land adjacent to its current facility in Perth. The move follows a similar expansion at its South Australian teleport that will be used to support the operations of its Jabiru programme. As previously reported in CommsDay, NewSat will spend $4 million to double its area in Mawson Lakes in South Australia and add networks and infrastructure as well as other enhancements to security and equipment.
Geoff Long, Commsday.