Ultra HD - TELE-satellite International Magazine

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Stephan Schott,
creative mind and
driving force of the
Schott Internet agency.
Seen here in front of a
picture of his very first
VSAT dish which brings
back memories of the
company’s humble
beginnings.
employees is able to generate. Stephan
Schott walks down memory lane: “In our
first year of business we achieved a turnover
of half a million euro, but we have grown
considerably ever since. After ten years we
reached five million in 2009 and for 2010
we expect our turnover to increase to 5.5
million euro.” What kind of services do the
Schotts cover to achieve such remarkable
success?
Stephan Schott explains that “first and
foremost we don’t act as a re-seller who
only distributes existing technology. For one
thing, we independently procured all our
satellite capacity. Even more importantly,
we also developed the technology ourselves
and created our own ‘Satspeed’ product.”
With in-house servers, company-specific
compression processes and dedicated technology
the Schott Internet agency is able
to provide genuine 2-way Internet, which
means that both uplink and downlink are
transmitted via the user’s satellite dish.
“We mainly use the EUTELSAT fleet of
satellites, in particular ATLANTIC BIRD at
12.5 West, EUROBIRD 3 at 33° East, EURO-
BIRD 9 at 9° East and of course HOTBIRD
at 13° East.”
This implies that all data sent via the ‘Satspeed’
service pass through the EUTELSAT
uplink station in Turin, Italy. “However, we
route all data through our own processing
centre in Nuremberg in Germany,” Stephan
Schott hastens to add. “Our processing
centre is linked directly to the Turin uplink
station by way of fibre-optic lines. Our inhouse
technicians also use remote access
for PC and server maintenance in Nuremberg.”
Why are the servers located in Nuremberg
rather than on site? The reason is that
the Nuremberg location is perfectly hooked
up to the Internet backbone network.
“However, this solution also offers an added
benefit: Anybody using our ‘Satspeed’ service
automatically receives a German IP
address.”
Many competing service providers also
fall back on the EUTELSAT infrastructure
but assign Italian IP addresses because
of the Turin uplink station. As more and
more companies use geo-location on their
92 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 08-09/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com
websites – which means they categorise
website visitors based on IP addresses –
it makes sense to use the IP address of a
given country or region.
Is the ‘Satspeed’ service also available
beyond Germany? Managing Director Daniel
Steinlein has the answer. “In Spain, Greece
and Croatia we cooperate with resellers
who offer our service under the ‘Satspeed’
brand.”
In other countries such as Great Britain
and Ireland the Schott Internet agency has
licensed its technical know-how to local
providers. “In these countries the service
carries the brand name of the respective
provider,” explains Daniel Steinlein and
adds that “at the moment we’re negotiating
with potential licensees in Poland, Turkey
and France.”
This is clear proof that the Schott Internet
agency is busily pursuing its European
expansion plans. What started out
as a grossly underestimated niche product
only a few years back has developed into a
market segment in its own right that witnesses
continuous growth.