Products, Sponsorships and Events

Evosat is still pursuing opportunities to give back to the community with sponsorships of many out of the ordinary charitable expeditions. Evosat has been involved with the Kingsley Holgate on many of his expeditions, providing Kingsley and his team with satellite communications for their many trips around Africa. This time Kingsley  and his team will be going on The Great African Rift Valley Expedition, with the Humanitarian Objective of using adventure to improve and save lives. One of the main objectives will be to aid the Unite Against Malaria organisation. Evosat is very pleased to yet again be sponsoring Kingsley Holgate with Satellite Communications, and wishes him and his team all the best on their next Great Adventure.

The second half of 2011 has been very busy with new products hitting the market from Inmarsat and Beam. In previous posts I have talked about the Beam Docking Solutions for IsatPhone Pro, and Inmarsat and Beam have now come out with the Oceana and Terra units that form part of the Global Satellite Phone Service (GSPS) from Inmarsat.
The Ocean unit is essentially the new Fleetphone device for Maritime use. There are two units, the Oceana 400 and 800, the former being the entry level unit. Both units offer voice, text, and low speed data for ship board communications. The Terra 400 and 800 units are land devices, again offering voice, text and low speed data in office type environments. Keep watching the GSPS space as new products and accessories are being tested and brought to market on a regular basis due to the successful roll out of the Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro.

Photo : Ian Roman/Volvo Ocean Race

In early December, the Volvo Ocean Race will be coming to sunny South African shores in the Cape Town leg of this well-known round the world ocean race. Evosat, together with Inmarsat, will be hosting events during the weekend for many of our customers. It should yet again be a very exciting weekend for all. All the yachts in the VOR are equipped with satellite communications equipment (FleetBroadband) from Inmarsat. Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband service takes media coverage of the race into a whole new era. Faster transmission speeds deliver better quality live broadcasts – the first HDTV transmissions from yachts in the middle of the ocean. If you want to find out more, take a look at this link: www.volvo.inmarsat.com/index.html

Photo : Ian Roman/Volvo Ocean Race

Evosat Sponsorships

Evosat has two new sponsorships on the go. Firstly, Evosat is sponsoring Hanli Prinsloo (www.hanliprinsloo.com), a world class Freediver based in Cape Town. Hanli holds 11 South African records for freediving and competes at the highest level all round the world, including this year’s Freediving World Champs. Hanli is also an environmentalist, and campaigns tirelessly to raise awareness for marine ecological issues. Evosat has provided Hanli with all the mobile satellite equipment including the Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro, BGAN and Fleetphone. Hanli uses her satellite equipment from Evosat to keep in touch with the rest of the world from all the different places and environments that she finds herself.

A Year In The Wild (www.yearinthewild.com), is a yearlong expedition round 31 of South Africa’s game parks, by photographer and journalist, Scott Ramsay. His expedition is best summed up by Scott himself, “From 12 June 2011 to 30 June 2012, I’ll be exploring and documenting the wild places of South Africa. The goal is to promote the conservation of the country’s natural wonders, by sharing my photos, videos and blogs with the world via social media. I’ll travel to 31 of South Africa’s most special wilderness and wildlife areas. In these unique areas, I’ll be interviewing rangers, community leaders, environmental and cultural activists, ecologists, scientists, researchers, travellers and school kids. Ultimately I’d like to raise awareness of African wilderness – and why it’s important to the people of the continent and the world. Evosat has provided Scott with an Inmarsat BGAN terminal (Explorer 500) to keep in touch from the more remote places he will be visiting.

On a slightly different note, Inmarsat has launched some new services with the Global Satellite Phone Services portfolio which I will be highlighting in my next post. However, I will also have updates regarding Hanli and Scott, as well the latest from 7 Summits Seven Flights.