CyberStar Lights Up Satellite Streaming
By Matt Stump
from the June 18, 2001 issue of Broadband Week
While much of the activity in the streaming space assumes wireline connectivity, CyberStar, a division of Loral Communications, is making a name for itself in the satellite streaming business.
"We deliver reach, cost efficiency to reach multiple locations and guaranteed service level commitments," says David Puente, executive vice president and general manager, Business Media Services, CyberStar.
CyberStar counts 350 customers who use the company's satellite network and business services division to link more than 11,000 sites worldwide. About 40 percent are using videostreaming in some form, Puente says.
CyberStar has or plans to launch a range of satellite streaming products, including live streaming and on demand services, IP overlays, distance learning, file transfer and web manager applications, he says.
Cyber also is building a worldwide fiber backbone that will complement its satellite network, which gives it more transmission platforms in its arsenal.
Puente says the average CyberStar customer is a global company with more than 3,000 employees in 25 or more sites. "We mix and match services to meet business needs," Puente says.
One customer might tape a training session, uplink the signal to CyberStar, which distributes it to the company's conference rooms in branch offices around the world. For those that can't reach the conference room, CyberStar would encode the content in MPEG, and send it out on 56 kbps phone lines to traveling salespeople, for instance. CyberStar also might encode the content into an IP stream, so it can be delivered directly to workers' desktops, Puente says.
Although satellite is CyberStar's core technology, it's building a worldwide fiber backbone to supplement its aerial reach. "We've built a hybrid strategy. We use fiber, satellite wireless and integrate solutions for our customers," Puente says.
Work in London, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco on the fiber backbone is being completed. "We have tier 1 connections to ISPs," Puente said. "We have our own hosting facility."
CyberStar charges by the hour for live streaming delivery, storing content and transferring files. Companies also can buy suites of pre-packaged services, Puente says.
Puente believes CyberStar will ride the anticipated enterprise streaming growth wave. "We intend to be participating in a very large way," he says. "We have an installed base. We have customer service in place. We're more like an ISP with satellite experience."
And the challenges streamers face in wireline delivery only help CyberStar's cause. "I'm not sure it will ever go away," Puente says, of backbone congestion that can cripple a live streaming application. That's why CyberStar is comfortable in the space it occupies for its business customers. "Satellite is a secure delivery system [which is there] anytime they need to use it."
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