www.satellite-evolution.com | January/February 20208

Engineers of the Future

Photo courtesy of STN

STN: Inspiring the engineers oftomorrowThe satellite sector is very much an aging industry; highly experienced engineers are increasinglycoming into their retirement years, and not being replaced with enough new talent. This is aproblem industry wide, but particularly in the teleport market, as outlined by Andrej Lovsin, CEOat STN.

The youth represent our future. It’s often said, but it is thetruth – and therefore it is so important that we, as an industry,acknowledge and encourage ambition in the teleport industry.Ours may be a niche sector, but it has so much to offer andit’s such an exciting industry to be involved with, especiallyat the moment. Look at the developments that are going on –high throughput satellite (HTS), the emergence of massivelow Earth orbit (LEO) constellations and a shift from ourtraditional video business to data. It’s an exciting time to beinvolved in an industry that has had to re-invent itself andensure that its unique capabilities remain relevant.

Since our teleport was established, STN has always beenvery keen to engage young minds and to eventually enablethem to progress to a career in engineering. We have oftenheard the lament that there are not enough young peoplecoming into our industry and that things need to change,and at STN, we agree. It is critical that we encourage the

next generation to take an interest in technology as it is setto play a critical role in our future and our evolving userrequirements – 5G, M2M, IoT, the Cloud, virtual networksand AI, machine learning and data trading.

Educational handAs a progressive and forward-thinking company, we havealways extended an educational hand to the next generationof technical experts. STN has collaborated closely with theUniversity of Ljubljana, Slovenia, over the last 11 years andwe open our doors on an annual basis to professors andtheir students studying the field of engineering, of radiation,optics and to other young people who might be inspired by atour of our teleport.

Assistant Professor Boštjan Batagelj, Ph.D has visitedSTN many times with his students who find it to be extremelyvaluable. “My interest in collaborating with STN increased in

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www.satellite-evolution.com | January/February 202010

Engineers of the Future

Photo courtesy of STN

2009, when I was part of the group of people in Sloveniawho established a Centre of Excellence in the field of spacetechnologies,” said Professor Batagelj. “Now we have anestablished collaboration between the University of Ljubljanaand STN for more than 10 years. We collaborate byexchanging measurement equipment, ideas, knowledge andof course annual visits to the company by students from theInformation and Communication Department at the Facultyof Electrical Engineering.”

Professor Batagelj also commented on the reaction thatthe tour provokes from the students: “Their increased interestis reflected in the many questions they have when viewingthe company’s premises,” explains the Professor. “Themultitude of questions and the exact professional answersof the STN engineers usually prolong the visit for at least anadditional hour. Of course, they are most fascinated by thelarge number of satellite dishes located at the companypremises. And last but not least, the expertise of the STNengineers, who make all this broadcast-over-satellite work,and keep it working 24/7.”

Encouragingly, the Professor also sees an increase inthe number of women taking up engineering careers,something that STN is keen to promote through its visits. “Atthe Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana thepercentage of female students has been increasing in thepast 10 years,” said Professor Batagelj. “We are very happywith this shift and know some very professional femaleengineers. Their dedicated work leads them to great rewards.They have a lot of enthusiasm and strong commitment toproblem solving.”

Time in the fieldSpending time in an environment in which we are constantlyinnovating demonstrates how young people themselves candevelop and focus on future technology, shaping the ideasthat will take us into the next, exciting era.

STN also reaches out further to the Vocational College ofTelecommunications and Lecturer, Dr Patrik Ritoša, a mentorof our latest group of visiting students, explained how theygained great insight into the teleport business from their visit:“From the business model overview, through to thecommunication and technology segments, to the

management system, it was very interesting,” said Dr Ritoša.“It was fascinating to see some of the many externally heatedand electromechanically-driven 9m large satellite antennason site, which are connected to the communication centrewith a massive array of video transcoders for the preparationof video streams. We got to see how it was all monitored andcontrolled from the management centre on numbers of TVmonitors for video quality, transport state and alarms.”

The visit to STN stimulated interest in the complexcommunication chain of worldwide video content delivery. Thestudents were inspired by the variety of different technologiesused such as satellites, optics, packet transport, coding andthe overall business model employed by STN.

Sometimes, inspiration comes from seeing someone thathas taken a similar journey. When the University welcomedSTN into its classrooms to deliver a presentation to itsstudents, an ex-student, Jurij Blazin, who joined STN freshfrom the University and now holds the position of TechnicalDirector, was only too happy to share his experience.

“When I first heard about STN I had just graduated fromthe college of Telecommunications,” said Jurij. “The companywas really one-of-a-kind in the region and I found both thetechnology and the business intriguing. It was all very high-tech and even at that time the industry was evolving quicklyand with it came the speedy growth of the company. Icontinued to further develop my education in the fieldthroughout my years with STN under the mentorship of oneof the owners and I was very proud to return to the collegewhere I studied to present who we are and what our businessis to the current students as Technical Director.”

The communication and broadcast challenges that faceus are significant, yet very exciting. The way in which wecommunicate, the way we use devices, the way we consumethe Internet, how we access information, how data is obtainedand processed is all changing rapidly, and we need to beequipped for these changes. Therefore, we must be sure thatwe, as an industry, encourage and mentor young up-and-coming engineers that have a passion. We must nurture themso that they feel inspired for the future and want to be theforce for change. At STN, we are proud to support our futuretelecommunication and broadcast engineers, both male andfemale, and to enable them to grow and thrive.

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