Reverse sale of satellite terminals from
Danish Thrane & Thrane

Two years after its introduction, it turns out that one product has had greater appeal to a different group of clients than was first intended! This is the situation with Danish manufacturer of satellite communications equipment Thrane & Thrane, which launched the Capsat Fleet 77 two years ago, a super-station packed with facilities. Originally, the target group was global deep sea shipping. During marketing and actual sales, a surprisingly large number of terminals were going to mega-yachts, while the owners of deep-sea ships were rather more sceptical about using the terminal.

Thrane & Thrane originally designed the Capsat Fleet 77 (with 77-cm diameter antenna) for large ships, and the Capsat Fleet 55 (with 55-cm diameter antenna) for bigger yachts and smaller ships. There will even be a Capsat Fleet 33 (with 33-cm antenna), aimed at yachts and fishing vessels, which will be launched this spring.

Full facilities
The surprisingly high sale of Capsat Fleet 77 to owners of mega yachts comes with the ever-changing requirements for information flow. The mate of a deep-sea vessel who has communication tasks might download messages twice a day, and is not particularly interested in immediate download of mail or messages. The latter would appeal more to a businessman sailing around in his mega yacht somewhere in the Caribbean. He is keen on receiving mail from his stockbroker, or on receiving a message describing the situation on the New York Stock Exchange. Also, the prestige attached to placing an order for the largest satellite set with the biggest antenna appeals to owners of mega yachts, who have large amounts of money.

The Capsat Fleet 77 station with full facilities, such as voice, ISDN, MPDS and fax with an open line to the satellite (but where only the traffic on the line is charged) is unusual on commercial ships. They are familiar with a system in which they decide to open the line, download, and then close the line again – not to stay online, even if it is sleep mode.

Small station
– We expect a high sale of Capsat Fleet 33 to smaller cargo ships in the coming months, says Christian Kock of the sales department of Thrane & Thrane. There are several reasons, he adds. One of them is that smaller ships are more or less in a wave of compulsory electronic investment (Ship Security Systems and AIS), so the owners go for the cheapest station. The end-user price for a Capsat Fleet 77 station is around USD 21,000, while the Capset Fleet 33 costs around USD 11,000. The facilities also compare more with their traditional way of achieving information flow, says Christian Kock.

Right now, there is a test station mounted on a local scrimp-trawler on the Danish west coast. The owner of the trawler saw no need for this, but has learned to download information about wind, current, and other nautical and meteorological information online. The line goes into sleep mode when the skipper leaves the wheelhouse for deck work.

New headquarters
Thrane & Thrane moved into new headquarters at Lyngby (close to Copenhagen) two years ago, but now the building is becoming too small for the 400 employees. During 2003, the company’s turnover was DKK 610 million (up from DKK 477 million in 2002) with a profit of DKK 82 million.

The company’s products range from maritime communications equipment to landbased installations. It is also producing an increasing amount of aeronautical gear, including communications equipment for private jets. USA is the company’s main target.

//Bent Mikkelsen