It’s a whale of a tale for a satellite service company involved in the second year of helping a West Coast scientist broadcast his research subjects around the world.
You could even call it a real “killer app” — Calgary-based Quick Link Communications Ltd. (QLC) and its client, the non-profit Pacific Orca Society in British Columbia, are working together to provide live, real-time streaming video and audio of frolicking killer whales in a remote strait off Vancouver Island.
The convergence of Internet and satellite technology delivers footage including peaceful underwater shots of fish and waving kelp beds to breaching pods of orcas.
Whalewatching certainly isn’t the core business of QLC, but CEO Chris Lewis believes the project demonstrates how his company can provide advanced high-end communications service in remote, unserviced areas – attractive features in various industries including the energy sector, forestry companies, agricultural operations and even retailers, who can use the multi-casting technology to send one message to several locations at the same time.
The company’s stated goal is to become Canada’s premier satellite access service provider, and the whale contract is one way to showcase their abilities.
“It’s a neat project,” says Lewis. “It really brings a high-tech edge into how society is able to view habitat and nature through technology.
“Our ability to mirror the same type of services we have in the oil and gas sector out to clients like Orca is very strong,” he says. “The remoteness and the lack of infrastructure is an area we focus on quite heavily. Oil and gas is there, unique projects like the Orca are there, and a number of others.”
QLC has also helped sponsor past expeditions to Mount Everest and through the barren Empty Quarter in Arabia. But the Pacific Orca Society, which funds the work of whale researcher Dr. Paul Spong’s ORCALAB on 20-kilometre-sq. Hanson Island in Johnstone Strait, is the Calgary company’s first paying client in B.C.
Several video cameras and hydrophones have been installed to record the movements, social interactions and acoustics of about 190 killer whales, which return to the strait each summer and fall.
Audio and video is converted by a computer into digital data and real-time encoded. Using a gas generator and a solar-powered panel, a satellite dish built on a rocky outcrop of nearby Cracroft Island transmits the data over QLC’s satellite network to its network operating centre in Calgary, and the information is then routed terrestrially to a sponsor’s server in Japan where the images and sound are broadcast over the Internet.
“If you look at the remoteness of the facility, it is an excellent example of how satellite performs very well in those types of environment,” says Lewis. “It’s really the only solution the Orca Society had within its ability to receive services.”
Lewis adds that while QLC is focused on growing its domestic satellite network within the Canadian marketplace, he’s happy with the exposure the whale project is giving his company in the Far East and around the world. The company already has extensive international experience in providing services in remote areas like Siberia, Africa and the Middle East.
Cassy Weber, QLC’s director of marketing and corporate development, agrees Orca Live is “not your typical high-tech project.”
“It’s an extreme example of an area that is as remote as remote gets,” Webber says.
“The key thing is that we are an end-to-end broadband satellite solution provider. We don’t just give them the pipe . . . We’re very much a telco-class company where you just tell us what you want, and we make sure you get it, and it’s seamless.”
Web Watch:
www.qlccom.com
www.orca-live.net
www.orcalab.org
