Australian Customs Coastwatch

TC Communications, has worked with the Australian Customs Coastwatch division to enable it to become a world leader in border surveillance using ground breaking satellite technology.

Customs Coastwatches’ surveillance resources section was discussing with TC Communications the need for a system that would allow them to send live video via satellite from Customs Coastwatch planes patrolling our waters, directly to the Customs National Surveillance Centre in Canberra.

The Customs Coastwatch video project is a vital part of the Federal Government’s “Protecting our borders” election commitments. Funding of $177.3 million over four years was provided in the 2002-03 budget. The project will see a multimedia satellite communications system installed into a fleet of five De Havilland Dash 8 aircraft. This allows video, still pictures and other data to be transmitted live from aircraft to the National Surveillance Centre in Canberra for threat assessment. Two of the aircraft have already been fitted with the technology and the enhanced communications system was launched by the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, on 12th December 2002 at the National Surveillance Centre.

‘This is a groundbreaking project’ said Todd McDonell, CEO of TC Communications. ‘This type of capability has, until now, only been available to offshore military organisations using their own satellites. Now, the Australian Coastwatch service can provide instant video and multimedia information from their aircraft operating anywhere in its operational area.

This project has been the result of the co-operation of a number of industry specialists. The entire project has been handled by existing Coastwatch aviation contractor, Surveillance Australia with TC Communications providing the satellite solution, equipment, expertise, training and helpdesk functions. Working with recognised world-leading partners such as EMS Technologies, CMC Electronics and Scotty Corporation, TC was able to customise a solution that enables air, land and sea operations to be linked directly via the Inmarsat network.

“This is a ground-breaking application of Inmarsat Swift64 satellite communications, and it revolutionises coastal surveillance efficiency” said Tony Busby, general manager of aeronautical business at Inmarsat. “This is the first time that satellite communications have been used in this way by long-distance customs or coastguards, and the project is being watched very closely by other governments around the world.”

TC Communication prides itself on being the only satellite communications provider within SE Asia that can provide a high speed data connection in the Air, on Land and at Sea. As such, it has ensured that the Coastwatch system will eventually be able to exchange information between all its operations – including patrol boats, aircraft and mobile ground operations. This will enable a far quicker reaction and response to any operation as well as a more efficient use of resources – TC’s Deployable Bandwidth technology can be depended upon to deliver multimedia information from any air, land or sea platform to key decision makers for immediate action.