Find your code: Alexey Volin, Director General of RSCC, speaks about the first tests of the Russian TV signal encoding system
Russian Satellite Communications Company develops its own encoding system, a comprehensive solution for all satellite TV operators that will replace foreign analogues. “This week, we are running the first tests of the domestic software jointly with the Russian Television and Radio Network”, Alexey Volin, Director General of RSCC and Chairman of the Satellite Communications Industrial Competence Centre, said at the Digital Transformation Forum on 14 March.
Now, the Russian sector faces some other challenges as well, response to which the Competence Centre searches for. They include production of fully domestic satellites, uninterrupted operation of ground control systems, creation of Russian user terminals, introduction of precise point positioning technology in the agriculture, as well as a spacecraft anti-jamming system.
“A year and a half ago, almost all communications satellites were produced according to the “Russian platform with foreign payload” scheme. Within the ICC, we have concluded that Russian companies are ready to create their own payloads. As a result, a fully domestic Express-AMU4 satellite is under construction now. It has been the first project implemented as part of the ICC work”, the Director General of Russian Satellite Communications Company said. The second challenge was to ensure the migration of Satellite Communications Centres (SCC) and Mission Control Centres (MCC) to domestic software, since some foreign partners stopped supporting the software installed at the facilities. “The SCCs and MCCs of our company, Gazprom Space Systems and Gonets have currently switched to fully adapted Russian products”, Alexey Volin noted.
Ground receiving equipment, and especially that for the VSAT network, required special attention. “We have found out that, at the moment, the market employs about 150 thousand foreign-manufactured receivers. That's why RSCC together with RTComm and MIPT think over creation of a Russian replacement of the foreign VSAT-stations”, he added. The biggest challenge that this sector faces is the development of hubs. However, there is already a strong interest on the part of the industry to solving this issue.
One of the promising projects that have been recently accelerated is a precise point positioning technology, first of all, in the cadastre service and agriculture. “We have found a Russian company, which demonstrated the accuracy of 3 cm in static and 8 cm in motion in the recent tests. We have been implementing this project, approved by the ICC, at our own expense at the moment. Many Russian manufacturers of agricultural machines are interested in adopting this technology”, Alexey Volin said.
Stable operation of the Russian communications and broadcast satellite constellation has become especially important in recent months. “Attempts to spoof or jam the TV signal have currently been a common practice. The work on a fully domestic solution capable to neutralize these risks is underway. This refers to creation of the hardware-software system capable to detect a targeted interference in spacecraft operation. We hope that it will be finished by the end of the year”, RSCC Director General concluded.