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

GSPS Incoming

Last month Evosat attended the Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro Bootcamp held in the UK. The purpose of this training course was to get the relevant members of the launch Distribution Partners up to speed with both the handset itself and the GSPS service. Evosat was able to get a first look at the IsatPhone Pro handset, and make a brief call, which went very well. The IsatPhone Pro promises to be a user friendly and functional satellite phone, with capabilities to match and sometimes beat other competitors in the market.

Some of the useful points of the IsatPhone Pro are: it has in built GPS functionality, and the coordinates can be sent via text to a mobile number or email address. In most areas the satellite phone has walk and talk functionality, which makes it very easy for even an inexperienced user to use. The antenna cuts off satellite searching when not deployed- so therefore saves battery time, which is one of the most important aspects of any satellite phone.

In the past few posts we have met some of the Evosat staff who have been with the company for quite a while, so in this post I thought we should meet some of the new members of the Evosat team. Marco Almeida has been in the Telecoms game for the past 10 years, the last 5 of which ahve been with Inmarsat. His primary role at Evosat is as an Account Manager, however he also supports theEvosat Ops team with his knowledge of the Inmarsat BSS. His main claim to fame however, is an amazing beef espetada done South African Braai style!

Shaun Bates has joined the team to augment the Ops division- giving the guys much needed support in their own areas, but also taking on various products himself. He is currently heading up the Evosat MWC product . Shaun also fits in well with the Evosat team as he can speak a mixture of normal English and “Matrix” English- which helps the non technical understand the technical.

The people of Evosat

This month I thought I would talk more about some of the staff here at Evosat. The team has been growing over the last couple of months, in response to the rapid growth that Evosat as a business has experienced,  so I will start with some of the staff who have been with us for almost the duration of the Evosat lifespan.

Gary Jaftha is a lead Account Manager in the Sales Department. Gary is what’s known as the Salesmen’s Salesman. If he hasn’t called you yet, don’t feel unloved, he is getting to you. Gary was the first recruit at Evosat, and has grown not only his own business portfolio but has been a massive influence on the growth of Evosat. On pretty much every continent there are at least a handful of people who not only know Gary, but have bought satellite services from him.

Adiel Abader is the part of the technical and support team at Evosat. Very much like Gary, there are people around the world who know his name, but for the reason that no matter what time of day or night, he will take care of your problem. Adiel is another essential cog in the Evosat machine, as he epitomises the Evosat ethos and work ethic- any customer big or small, gets his attention when needed, and the words “ no I can’t” do not appear in his vocabulary.

Now for a quick update on the products and services of Evosat. GSPS is still on schedule for launch in June, I will be attending a training course at the beginning of April, so should have some excellent feedback after that. MWC as expected has been a great success and is being added to the portfolio’s of many customers already. On the Vsat side of the business, which is something new for Evosat itself, the business is starting to grow. Carrier2Carrier (our sister company) has obviously been at the forefront of Vsat for quite a while, but it has only been recently that Evosat has decided to move into that field, largely due to customer demand. This is an integral string to our bow as it means we can offer everything that our customers need.

That’s all for this month- next month more news, and more introductions to the people that make Evosat one of the worlds best.

Happy New Year.

Well I hope you have all had been stuffed full of turkey and had an exceptional New Year party. Now it’s time to get stuck in for 2010! As we are all slowly getting back up to pace I thought I would start gently this year with some upcoming highlights for Evosat in 2010.

Evosat has numerous in house and customer projects on the go from last year. I have already spoken about Evosat’s MWC (Morale and Welfare Comms) project in detail. This should be up and running, commercially, by the end of February- well done to the technical team for all the efforts last year and over the Christmas period to get the valuable service afloat. It will not only make the lives of Evosat customers better, but will also be another step forward in the world of Satellite Communications.

I have also mentioned the GSPS service from Inmarsat, which is the new handheld satellite phone service being launched this year. As a launch DP, Evosat is very involved in getting these exciting new satellite phones into the market. The process has certainly gathered momentum, and I look forward to giving further updates this year.

I also want to give a quick update regarding Lee MacNamara who is rowing across the Atlantic Solo. He has begun his journey- however, he is experiencing difficulties with his water maker. Luckily he had his FleetBroadband terminal to keep in touch and keep his support teams updated. They have had to tow him back to land for some repairs- but no doubt he will head off soon. Good Luck Lee!

All in all, it looks like another promising year for Evosat . With numerous new projects, products and services available, the sky really is the limit for Evosat in 2010. Satellite Communications has become a constantly improving market, and Evosat aims to stay ahead of the pack all the way.