Monday July 17, 9:04 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Sirius Communications NV
Sirius Communications Reaches Into Space on NASA's Shuttle And the International Space Station
Hardware, Software and Services Enable Clear Communications Without Interference for New Wireless Video System
BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- With CDMA customers in 25 countries here on Earth, Sirius Communications NV announced today that its technology will move into space as part of the NASA space shuttle and International Space Station wireless video system. Sirius provided flight hardware, consulting services, development support and software for the project. Anticipated first flight is for mission build 4A scheduled in late 2000.
Video data from a helmet-mounted camera is provided to crewmembers inside the Space Shuttle Orbiter. The extra vehicular camera video system has three cameras integrated into the astronauts' helmet. These are controlled by a command signal transmitted from the International Space Station or the Orbiter.
The camera technology is provided by Broadcast Sports Technology, Inc., utilizing technology from the Racecam used in NASCAR and IRL racing. Broadcast Sports is developing the RF camera system including the payload bay s-band antenna arrays, transceivers, and the ERCA RF camera system.
``The power flux density of the Sirius' CDMA solution is undetectable on the earth and by Low Earth Orbit satellites also active in the same frequency bands,'' said Michael Katzmann, president of Broadcast Sports. ``The close to ideal performance of the Sirius Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum approach allows a reliable command link to the Extravehicular Mobility Unit Radio Frequency Camera Assemblies.''
Sirius Communications provides Broadcast Sports Technology with flight hardware, consulting services, development support and software. Sirius Communications has a long track record of delivering technology for the European Space Agency ESTEC.
``By electing the CDMA modulation scheme from Sirius Communications, Broadcast Sports ensured the greatest compatibility with existing services in the UHF band that the command link operates,'' said Kristoffel Mulier, Sirius' director of sales and marketing. ``The highly integrated and low-power CDMA chip secures the communication link creating a seamless system.''
About Sirius Communications
Founded in 1996, Sirius Communications is a fabless semiconductor company that spun out of IMEC, Europe's largest independent microelectronics research institute. The company develops spread spectrum application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the wireless, wireline and satellite communications markets. Sirius also licenses its CDMAx(TM) wideband transceiver intellectual property (IP) to foundries and telecommunications companies. Sirius' engineering team has extensive experience with Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology and holds several patents. The Company's CDMA chips implement Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum techniques and can function in a wide variety of CDMA telecommunication systems. Sirius Communications NV is headquartered near Brussels, Belgium, with sales offices located throughout the world. Sirius Communications was a founding member of the UMTS Intellectual Property Association and is a member of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA). More information on Sirius Communications is available at siriuscomm.com .
SOURCE: Sirius Communications NV |
