UPDATE, JUNE 6, 2017: Kymeta has tapped e3 Systems as the exclusive global distributor in yachting for its mTenna flat-panel antennas. A handful of megayachts are already testing the antennas. Even more will do so over the next three months, throughout the Med, the Caribbean, and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Read on for our original article.
The long-awaited alternative to the Mickey Mouse-like satcom-dome effect is finally commercially available. Kymeta, which has been working on the solution for more than three years, releases mTenna this May.
Kymeta, a mobile-communications specialist focused on flat-antenna technology, has been consulting yacht designers and builders throughout the process. (See “Bye-Bye, Unsightly Satcom Domes, Hello Flat-Panel Antennas.”) It realized that satcom domes didn’t just pose aesthetic issues. They also weigh a few hundred pounds, further containing moving parts. These affect design, construction, and maintenance. The mTenna, by comparison, is less than 100 centimeters in diameter and has no moving parts. It’s also far lighter in weight.
Kymeta avoids moving parts because it employs metamaterials-based technology. Metamaterials are artificial materials that can affect light or sound waves in ways that natural ones cannot. With mTenna, the technology “steers” the antenna beams. In addition, mTenna supports both transmitting and receiving signals on a single aperture. By contrast, multiple antenna domes handle the jobs aboard yachts, doing so for decades.
This is the first time technology offering these benefits has been available for yachts. It’s a first for the satellite industry across the board. too. In fact, yachts aren’t the only beneficiaries. Trains and even civilian armored vehicles are just two other examples of eager recipients.
Rest assured that the antennas are proven to work. About a year ago, Kymeta shipped mTenna prototypes out to a number of megayachts that had offered to test them. Back then, too, the plan was to roll out commercially available units come this spring.
Kymeta is now taking orders for those shipments. Note that you request a custom installation, and that you don’t have to mount mTenna on your mast. Due to the flat structure and the steering technology, mTenna can go directly on the superstructure.
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