Editor's Note

To celebrate five years chronicling EMS SATCOM and satellite communications, we’ve put together a special “triple issue” of Channels. It’s also in part to make up for the missing edition this summer. Much has transpired since May, which is why this edition offers the largest number of stories we’ve ever produced with the greatest number of contributors.

At Channels we like to show you the world as we see it and 2009 has not been a pretty picture as some of our contributors explain. As the professionals know this is cyclical business and the good news is the signs that the smart players are preparing for the recovery. With this in mind, we are extremely fortunate to have four special regional opinion articles on the state of the aviation industry. It has been battered this year but there are some signs of hope. Rob Seaman, Jean Menard, Phil Rose and Brendan Gallagher offer their own perspectives and opinions on the aviation market from various vantage points.

People news abounds in this edition, including the addition of two new account managers. Ray Villar joined us on the first day of NBAA while Tim Roberts joined us just three months ago. They each bring a unique experience, as does Jose Rodriguez in answering our Five Questions quiz [link to “Five Questions”]. You are also lucky to have the opportunity to meet the Customer Sales and Service team. You’ve probably already talked to one or more of them on the phone, and the good news is that when you call EMS SATCOM you will reach a real live person.

Our latest people news concerns Dr. Neil Mackay, former General Manager of EMS SATCOM. He was appointed CEO of EMS Technologies (our parent company) in November and also became member of the company’s Board of Directors. Our Channels 2006 article about Dr. Mackay can be found here, but since the writing of that article he served most recently as the company’s COO. Before that he was EMS Technologies EVP of Strategy, focusing on Mergers and Acquisitions. In this post, he guided four key acquisitions, Akerstroms Trux, Sky Connect LLC., Formation Inc., and Satamatics Global Ltd. Together these acquisitions added approximately $90 million to EMS’s overall revenues and significantly deepened the company’s rugged mobile computing, aero connectivity and asset-tracking reach and capabilities.

A number of new products were announced over the course of 2009. EMS Sky Connect unveiled its Forté AirMail at NBAA. Iain Ronis furnishes a comprehensive profile of the product and how to get the most from it. The HSD-Xi SwiftBroadband Channel extension terminal [link to “Our Latest Addition”] adds capability to the already capable HSD-440 High-speed Data Terminal. The HSD-440, by the way, was selected by an Asian-based airline as part of a solution to provide airborne connectivity [Link to “Looking to the East”]. And, people already using an eNfusion SwiftBroadband® system will be interested to learn how to create a secondary PDP context. Our Customer Support Expert Wilson (Weijian) Jiang wrote this procedure that when implemented will help improve the performance and voice quality of your eNfusion system.

EMS SATCOM’s sister divisions are also moving along with their businesses. While EMS Formation has created a lighter, higher capacity In-flight entertainment server for its customer Lumexis, EMS Global Tracking, the newest division will be providing a force tracking solution to the European Mission in Afghanistan. The new division combines EMS’ former Search and Rescue and Tracking and Messaging business units and Satamatics to offer a broader range of solutions to both military and civilian markets than they did individually.

There are also a couple of fun must reads. One, “The Last Degree”, is Major Megan McGrath’s tale of trekking to the North Pole. By the time this is in your email box, McGrath, sponsored by EMS Global Tracking, will be challenging herself with a solo trek to the South Pole. And speaking of poles, Ever wonder what it would be like for St. Nicholas (AKA Chris Kringle, Santa and Father Christmas) to travel through airport security on December 24? We offer some light hearted speculation.