Orbital OSINT 36: IBC

Here’s the IBC tour we actually recommend. Not the selfie circuit. The booths where answers change budgets, not brochures.

We cut the cute demos and the free pens. What’s left are the vendors that could save you a truck roll or cost you a season.

Each stop comes with one question that marketing won’t enjoy. Ask it anyway. If they give numbers, keep talking. If they give poetry, smile, nod, and keep walking. We are here for working networks, clean timing, honest SLAs, and gear that survives salt, heat, and panic.

Eutelsat Group

Location: Outdoor 0.A24 and Hall 1 1.A57.

Why visit: They operate both geostationary satellites and a OneWeb low-Earth-orbit network. For maritime, remote broadcast, and pop-up events, a multi-orbit operator can blend coverage with lower latency. We want to see how their wholesale offers are packaged for integrators our size rather than only for very large carriers.

Question to ask: After integrating OneWeb, what will be the concrete reseller margin range for maritime and events in 2026, and will you stop territorial exclusivity practices that block smaller integrators. This forces clarity on channel economics that determine whether we can win bids profitably.

ST Engineering iDirect

Location: Hall 1 1.A49.

Why visit: This is the ground platform behind a huge share of VSAT networks. Their Dialog and Evolution families plus the new Intuition stack define how we automate multi-orbit service, handle failover, and keep operating costs predictable when we mix LEO backhaul with GEO trunks.

Question to ask: When do Evolution and Dialog stop receiving feature-parity upgrades as Intuition advances, and will you publish a firm end-of-life and end-of-support matrix. We are avoiding stranded platforms and surprise upgrade pressure mid-contract.

Net Insight

Location: Hall 1 1.B47.

Why visit: Their Nimbra platform moves live video reliably over variable networks. That maps to our real use when we bond LEO, LTE, and occasional fiber for contribution or remote production.

Question to ask: On a path with one percent random loss and fluctuating round-trip time, what is your measured glass-to-glass latency compared to RIST, SRT, and Zixi using the same presets. We want apples-to-apples numbers before we lock designs.

Media Links

Location: Hall 1 1.B32.

Why visit: A long-time player in uncompressed and lightly compressed transport for big events. Useful when a venue needs a SMPTE 2110 island but the backhaul must traverse cheaper IP or satellite links.

Question to ask: Why should we pick your transport hardware over tuned commodity switches with a PTP aware NOS and software gateways once we cost power, spares, and integration time. This flushes out total cost of ownership versus COTS.

Telestream

Location: Hall 7 7.B21.

Why visit: Transcoding, QC, monitoring, and T and M. If we stitch together satellite contribution, cloud transcode, and OTT delivery, Telestream tends to sit in the middle.

Question to ask: Are flagship products moving to subscription only and what written guarantees do we get for license and codec availability five years out. We want to avoid license surprises when we extend long lived deployments.

Cisco

Location: Hall 14 14.D43 and Hall 3 3.B51

Why visit: Switching and time distribution patterns for IP media fabrics at scale. When we build 2110 cores and PTP domains that survive operator error, Cisco’s validated designs matter.

Question to ask: Versus modern whitebox, what is your deterministic latency per hop in a dual PTP domain at seventy five percent load with a published test report. This exposes whether we pay for measurable benefits or brand comfort.

GatesAir

Location: Hall 8 8.B75.

Why visit: High power transmitters for radio and TV. Even if our focus is IP, many customers keep terrestrial assets for redundancy and rights. Energy and serviceability drive the real bill.

Question to ask: Do your ten year total cost claims include realistic energy prices, spares inflation, and truck rolls. We want lifecycle math rather than lab figures.

LiveU

Location: Hall 7 7.C19.

Why visit: Bonded cellular that now plays nicely with LEO. For field contribution from ships, ports, and pop-ups, this remains a baseline.

Question to ask: What happens to so-called unlimited plans when we bond Starlink with LTE on a moving vessel and cross fair-use thresholds. We want a written policy to avoid mid-show surprises.

Meinberg

Location: Hall 8 8.D45.

Why visit: Precision timing. If GNSS drops or gets jammed near ports and events, we need holdover that actually works in a vibrating rack.

Question to ask: Show phase error charts for 24 hours of GNSS-denied holdover in a maritime cabinet for both OCXO and rubidium. We need proof before we spec timing that everything else will trust.

Bridge Technologies

Location: Hall 1 1.A71.

Why visit: Monitoring from RF and IP through to OTT. When we stitch satellite contribution to internet distribution, we want one view that correlates faults with viewer impact.

Question to ask: How often do your QoE scores raise false alarms under rain fade compared to real viewer complaints. We are testing whether the metrics reflect satellite path realities, not only fiber.

Appear

Location: Hall 1 1.C61.

Why visit: Low latency, power efficient contribution and processing in compact chassis. Good when we need dense, reliable boxes that travel well and avoid software sprawl.

Question to ask: Where is the break even against pure x86 once we price NICs, jitter buffers, 2110 I O, and power over three years. We want combined capex and opex, not only a spec sheet.

Magewell

Location: Hall 7 7.A26.

Why visit: Simple and dependable ingest and IP bridges. Ideal for small crews and edge kits that must just work for weeks without pampering.

Question to ask: Do you publish MTBF and a current list of known issues for heavy NDI and SRT use on Linux. This tells us how many hot spares to pack.

Zixi

Location: Hall 5 5.A85.

Why visit: Software platform and protocol for contribution over unmanaged networks. If we rely on public internet, we need to compare Zixi to SRT and RIST with real data.

Question to ask: What performance guarantees and SLA credits can you offer for intercontinental live sports over open internet without private backhaul. We need teeth in the contract rather than best effort promises.

Haivision

Location: Hall 2 B32.

Why visit: Encoders, field transmitters, SRT gateway, and cloud control with strong adoption in news and sports. Useful when we split coverage between bonded cellular, LEO, and fixed IP.

Question to ask: At 4K and HDR, what is sustained latency and bitrate on a mixed cellular and LEO path and how is packet loss concealed without tearing. This checks performance under the paths we actually use.

GlobalM

Location: Hall 3 3.C36.

Why visit: Orchestration and software defined video networking that runs across multiple clouds and can talk to edge devices. Interesting for lightweight control of mixed public internet, 5G, LEO, and fiber.

Question to ask: What is the SLA and penalty schedule when your end to end orchestration misses a live event handoff between continents over public internet and LEO. We are testing accountability when the network is not ours.