by Cara Lewis | Jun 12, 2023 | News
🚴♂️ WHEELIE BIG RIDE: DAY 2 🚴♂️
The updates and pics have been flying in over the weekend! Let’s check out what the trio have to say about their second day…and their visit from Sally Dale from our partner NSSLGlobal!
🚴♂️ Starting Oakhampton, the lovely Sally Dale from our partner NSSLGlobal joined us for the first leg. It was lovely to catch up, share the journey, and it was a real boost to the team!
🚴♂️ We are getting into the swing of things; the X1 and the antennas were up and running, Dave Inglis was brilliant at setting up all things DDK ready for David Mckay at DDK HQ to track us to accuracies of less than 5cm!
🚴♂️ When we stopped off at Tiverton and Bridge Water, we met some lovely locals who donated to the charities. We can’t thank them enough!
🚴♂️ Climbing Cheddar Gorge was a real highlight of the day, with stunning views easing the pain of the climb.
🚴♂️ A few hours later, we descended to Bath, and the descent was amazing until we realised we had to climb it again the next morning!
🏆 ‘Richard of the Day’ goes to…. Kenny! For forgetting his GoPro at the beginning of the Cheddar Gorge, he turned back to pick it up; on his return…. we found out it ran out of battery! Worthy of a Richard moment for sure – there definitely seems to be a recurring theme here Kenny! 🤣
by Cara Lewis | Jun 12, 2023 | News
🚴♂️ WHEELIE BIG RIDE: DAY 1 🚴♂️
Well, folks, it’s somewhat been a bit of a learning curve for the dynamic trio over the past few days! Let’s check out what they have to say about their first day…
🚴♂️ Cornwall is hella hilly!⛰️ We knew there was a fair amount of elevation to cover but were not prepared for how relentlessly up and down it was.
🚴♂️ Our training ride speed of 25km/h is ambitious! We ended up with a long 12hr day (including cake breaks! 🍰)
🚴♂️ Garmin navigation is pretty good…when followed (more on this below)
🚴♂️ Don’t clasp your hands in front of you when posing for a photo of the back of your tops; it can have unintended consequences!
Overall though, it was a really good day; after the initial push through the weather, the hedgerows of Cornwall thankfully protected us from the majority of the wind!
David Inglis (Bailey) Inglis played a blinder at getting ahead of the “peloton” and snapping us in action 📸. And at the end of the day, we crossed into the “Sally Dale” territory of Devon and rolled into the hotel in Okehampton.
To celebrate all aspects of the challenge, we decided that each day a special shout-out should be made to the biggest doughball of the day…aka the Richard of the Day🏆 Today’s award goes to…Kenneth Anderson for ignoring his Garmin and his two colleagues shouting at him as he went the wrong way, then proceeding to crack on for a good mile before realising he was on his tod!
by Cara Lewis | Apr 17, 2023 | News
LIVERMORE, Calif. – April 17, 2023 – Topcon Positioning Systems announced it has made a strategic investment in DDK Positioning Ltd, an Aberdeen based specialist in GNSS receivers and PPP correction services. DDK Positioning delivers services exclusively over the Iridium® network to provide global precision positioning services that can augment GNSS constellations to significantly enhance their accuracy for critical industrial applications. Terms of the investment are not being disclosed.
“For a number of years, Topcon has been a supplier of core GNSS components to DDK Positioning to deliver their MAX services. With the expansion and growing success of this business, specifically in the Marine sector, a closer cooperation will ensure optimal integration for the highest possible accuracies and performance in the most demanding applications,” according to Ian Stilgoe, VP of Emerging Business at Topcon.
Kevin Gaffney, CEO of DDK Positioning, stated, “This partnership provides an extraordinary opportunity for our two companies to work together in pursuit of our shared ambition — providing a robust, resilient and truly unique GNSS positioning service. We are extremely excited about partnering with Topcon and it’s a great fit for DDK Positioning, not only will it allow us to continue to develop best in class positioning services, we will also be able to continue to grow the company and expand our services globally.”
About DDK Positioning Ltd
DDK Positioning offers truly global, resilient delivery of precise GNSS positioning services to a number of markets, including; Marine and offshore survey & construction and IoT. The Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) correction solution enables clients to precisely locate and track their assets globally. Furthermore, a positioning accuracy of less than 5cm can be achieved, compared to the standard GPS accuracy of ≈10m. The uninterrupted delivery of the service, along with independent integrity of position, ensures a higher level of confidence in the accuracy of position and is what differentiates the company from our competitors. DDK Positioning was formed in Aberdeen, UK in 2016 and has an exclusive partnership with Iridium.
www.ddkpositioning.com
About Topcon Positioning Group
Topcon Positioning Group, always one step ahead in technology and customer benefits, is an industry leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of precision measurement and workflow solutions for the global construction, geospatial and agriculture markets. Topcon Positioning Group is headquartered in Livermore, California, U.S. (topconpositioning.com, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook). Its European head office is in Capelle a/d IJssel, the Netherlands. Topcon Corporation (topcon.com), founded in 1932, is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (7732).
# # #
Press Contacts:
Topcon Positioning Group
Staci Fitzgerald
corpcomm@topcon.com
+1 925-245-8610
DDK Positioning
Cara Lewis, Marketing Manager
clewis@ddkpositioning.com
+44 (0)7720 216073
by Cara Lewis | Dec 14, 2021 | Blog Post
Delivering GNSS Augmentation over a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation provides both cost and efficiency benefits for vessels operating globally in the Offshore Energy sector. Using a LEO constellation reduces the risk of potential downtime due to its unique structure which provides a very robust, resilient and truly global communications service to deliver GNSS.
All existing GNSS Augmentation services currently use geo-stationary (GEO) satellites which are roughly 35,000km (22,000 miles) above the earth’s surface, whilst Iridium LEO satellites are approximately 780km (485 miles) above the Earth’s surface. One of the many key advantages of using a LEO satellite constellation over GEO is that LEO satellites offer stronger signals and faster connections through smaller antennas with lower power requirements.
GEO satellites only provide coverage to around 65° N/S, with the GEO signal losing strength as the user tracks away from the equator. The LEO constellation provides truly global coverage and is a totally seamless service. The Iridium LEO service has 66 operational satellites plus 9 spares, it is a fully meshed service with built-in redundancy, with the user always seeing 2 to 4 LEO satellites at anytime, anywhere in world. There are 6 orbital planes spaced 30 degrees apart, 11 satellites per plane, 60 degrees coverage cone per satellite providing 100% coverage at the surface including coverage at the poles.
In addition, Iridium replaced all 66 operational and 9 spare satellites in 2019, without any disruption to the service and is one of the largest commercial satellite constellations.
The LEO network uses L-band frequencies to communicate with the users. These frequencies are more resilient to weather than the Ku / Ka band frequencies used by most GEO networks, providing reliable communications even in adverse conditions in the air, on the sea, or on the ground.
Together, the LEO satellites create a global mesh of coverage. In space, each satellite is cross-linked to four others, providing advantages in reliability and resiliency. These cross-links provide network optimisation and redundancy, ensuring that data can be rerouted and transmitted at the fastest possible speed no matter what happens on earth or in space. A vessel will always be connected to 2 – 4 satellites anywhere in the world thus reducing the risk of masking or blocking when operating near a large structure, such as a rig or platform.
GEO satellites are also subject to an increased risk of masking, as they remain in the same place above the earth’s surface, so if a user loses signal on the GEO satellite through masking the user will remain masked until they move. Whilst LEO satellites are in constant orbit resulting in less risk of masking.
LEO communications also provide the opportunity of a 2-way comms capability – a feature no existing providers currently have. This allows remote monitoring and provides direct [or automated] user quality control and diagnostic feedback, as well as advanced enable/disable for smart billing. Additional advantages include configuration and customisation of the receiver remotely and the ability to provide software upgrades, if needed, therefore reducing the need for an expensive engineer to attend the vessel offshore.
Current Precise Point Positioning (PPP) GNSS suppliers use GEO satellites to deliver augmentation to customers. GEO satellites are a single point of failure; having a new GNSS service delivered over LEO solves ‘redundancy’ problems. Until now, there has always been a risk of communication outages, which may result in costly downtime and with vessel rates costing thousands of USD per day, any amount of downtime can be very costly.
Iridium’s LEO satellite constellation is relied upon by the Federal and Civil Aviation Authorities for aircraft safety and is utilised to deliver the Global Maritime Distress Safety System for maritime safety. The same constellation is now being utilised to deliver PPP GNSS augmentation which provides a truly global, intelligent and independent service which can eliminate the single point of failure for the customer.
A LEO delivery mechanism provides a unique, global and resilient network minimising the customers exposure to risk, cost, and stress.
If you want to learn more about DDK Positioning’s unique global GNSS service, delivered via LEO, please contact us.
