Operator of specialist seismic streaming vessels signs multi-year contract for ultra-high bandwidth, low-latency data services across globally dispersed vessels

Speedcast, a global communications and IT services provider and the world’s largest Starlink Authorized Reseller, today announced the implementation of an all-LEO solution across the fleet of TGS, a leading global provider of data and intelligence to the energy industry.

Speedcast’s all-LEO solution is being deployed across TGS’ global fleet of high-capacity, multi-sensory streamer vessels and Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) operations designed to capture data from seismic surveys. The connectivity solution centers on Starlink’s new Dedicated Service, designed to deliver superior performance for high-bandwidth use cases, including the highest tier of prioritization and even lower latency, jitter and packet loss. Eutelsat OneWeb and other LEO resilience WANs are all orchestrated by Speedcast’s SIGMA intelligent edge compute platform Elite version.

The new Speedcast solution enables the near real-time transmission and remote cloud processing of a full integrity seismic data set of up to 10 terabytes a day at sustained upload speeds of 1Gbit/s, replacing the traditional method of transporting physical media from the vessel.

This reduces the need for significant amounts of High-Performance Computing (HPC) onboard, along with the corresponding support model. Additionally, highly qualified, experienced processing geophysicists can now perform the processing onshore instead of working shift patterns on an offshore rotation of several weeks. Access to new onshore cloud processing through this new all-LEO system dramatically speeds up the availability of data for TGS clients.

Starlink Dedicated Service offers the highest throughput options, lowest packet loss, and most stable performance compared to Priority plans. Dedicated beam allocation significantly increases the ability to sustain speeds.

During live testing of eight Starlink Performance kits on the Dedicated Service, Speedcast achieved peak upload speeds of 950 Mbps. Starlink Dedicated Service resulted in three to four times performance increase versus normal bonded Starlink Global Priority.

“Digitalization at TGS is measured at the vessel, not in the strategy deck. The constraint has never been the data we can record; it’s the data we can move,” said Jérôme Cousin, Vice President Enterprise IT at TGS. “Speedcast’s all-LEO solution and our cloud-first operating model work together: The combination of high-performance connectivity and our cloud operating model allows us to securely manage and process ever-larger seismic datasets at unprecedented speed, reducing reliance on physical media and enabling near real-time data delivery. By creating a global communications platform across our fleet, we can simplify  operations, centralize specialist expertise, and accelerate the delivery of high-quality insights to our clients wherever they operate. That’s how we deliver critical intelligence to energy customers worldwide, faster,” Cousin concluded.

“Speedcast is pleased to partner with TGS to power their global fleet with ultra-high-speed connectivity,” said James Trevelyan, EVP Global Sales at Speedcast. “The new, all-LEO system dramatically speeds up the availability of data for TGS clients without compromising operational reliability in these challenging environments. We look forward to our continued partnership ensuring TGS’ success.”