Satellite Evolution (9/23) Q&A with Henrik Axelsson
- newman193
- Sep 14, 2023
- 3 min read
Today KenCast serves the military as well as a growing number of global companies that distribute feature films, live sports events, concerts, digital signage, corporate content, news, educational content, and more. We spoke with Henrik Axelsson, President of KenCast, to find out more about the company’s breakthrough technology and plans for the future.
Q: When was KenCast established and how has the company evolved to meet the changing demands of its customers? Henrik Axelsson: Digital communications are prone to errors, with disruptions lasting from milliseconds to minutes. Missing or corrupt packets can cause the file or stream to be unavailable. Founded in 1993, KenCast’s earliest patents were able to repair degraded data, re-ordered delayed data, and re-created deleted data. It was for these reasons that the US military became one of KenCast’s earliest customers.
As the US Department of Defense (DoD) was building out the Global Broadcast Service (GBS) to provide global connectivity via satellite to US joint forces, issues quickly emerged. The DoD could not reliably send encrypted content to troops on the move and in challenging conditions, and a backchannel was not permitted for security reasons. The military had little choice other than “spray and pray,” sending content multiple times in hopes it would be received.
Carousel delivery is unreliable, time-consuming, and inefficient, especially for multicasting. KenCast offered advanced Forward Error Correction (FEC) and, after testing, was selected as the content delivery solution for GBS.
Q: What are the major challenges facing content distributors and how does KenCast solve them?
Henrik Axelsson: Today, consumers expect endless streams of content anywhere — even in poor infrastructure areas, in planes, or at sea. Distributors face both technical and economic challenges. Weather, interference, obstacles, and moving receivers make errors more likely.
FEC works like a Sudoku puzzle: enough clues (packets) allow the rest to be solved. KenCast’s proprietary FEC supplements original transmissions with redundant packets, repairing lost data.
Example: Movie distributors in the Americas use KenCast Digital Cinema to distribute films to more than 5,000 cinemas in 20+ countries. Movies (up to 1TB) are sent with supplementary packets. Different theaters lose different data in transit, but KenCast repairs it. Millions of films and live events (FIFA World Cup, UFC, Coldplay, BTS) have been successfully multicasted without a hitch.
Q: Who are your customers and what applications does your technology support? Henrik Axelsson: Beyond military and cinema:
Retail/hotel chains use digital signage.
Education distributes teaching/testing materials.
News networks in 99 countries rely on KenCast.
Maritime fleets stream media for crews.
Airlines stream video content to passengers even at 575 mph.
Corporations deliver training.
Humanitarian/military operations and expeditions use Fazzt.
Automotive for real-time updates and entertainment.
All need content distributed reliably, securely, and swiftly.
Q: How does KenCast’s AL-FEC differ from other FEC algorithms? Henrik Axelsson: Traditional FEC (at link level) like LDPC, RS, Viterbi only corrects errors in tiny windows, enough for voice calls or small streams but insufficient for large files.
KenCast’s Application Layer FEC (AL-FEC) works across the entire file, correcting errors lasting milliseconds to minutes, even extended outages. New patented FEC supports moving vehicles: different cars receive different file fragments, but KenCast can reconstruct a complete file without all originals.
Airlines can receive a movie even if they miss an hour of a 12-hour transmission. Live streaming works seamlessly.
Q: How does your Fazzt software work? Henrik Axelsson: Fazzt is a hub-and-spoke system (server + clients), running on almost any hardware. It integrates KenCast’s algorithms and decades of customer-driven features. Most new customers find Fazzt meets their needs “out of the box.”
Q: Are your services customized or off-the-shelf? Henrik Axelsson: Both. Fazzt is versatile and proven, but KenCast also customizes for unique cases. Customers speak directly to the engineers who built the software. KenCast offers assured delivery, with agility and support from testing through operations.
Q: Can you give recent project examples? Henrik Axelsson:
Improving theatrical terrestrial delivery for live events and films to complement satellite networks.
Working with a digital signage hardware provider integrating Fazzt into their player for financial services.
Supporting NOAA by equipping planes flying into hurricanes with data collection.
Collaborating with partners on ATSC 3.0 to deliver content to vehicles moving between TV towers.
Three decades after pioneering content delivery solutions, KenCast continues to innovate and lead in error correction and distribution technologies.
