Delivering innovative solutions to create a better-connected and safer world

Veronica Martin caught up with Selim Bouri, Vice President at Airbus Secure Land Communications to discuss GITEX 2022 and the company’s plans for the region.

Can you tell our readers about some of the solutions and partnerships during GITEX this year?
This year we’re focusing in a new of solution, a multimedia communication platform that focuses on the public safety and businesses critical needs. This year is all about integrating platforms with new applications in order to allow our current customers and new ones to use not only the communication level that we provide traditionally, but also to collect every kind of information they want, put it all on the same platform and share it with all the people that need to have access to it.

This year we are also showing one of the stars of the show who is a robot dog. The robot is not only a dog, but a completely integrated platform. It comes with full integrations to sensors, cameras, geo localization and positioning. All of this is integrated into the communication system, which means if the robot detects a specific site or behaviour into sensor, it will detect specific kind of activities.

If the artificial intelligence detects a certain number of combination of elements, it will automatically create a bubble, a group call with all the people that are around and generate a message. It may send real time video feed and real time information, allowing all the teams that are around who need to be involved to have immediate access to that information, and even coordinate the robot for specific actions.

In the last 12 months, how has your company performed in the MENA market? Has your company ventured into any new markets/countries?

Globally we have performed very well. We were very busy during Covid-19 and it proved to all of us that communication is more important than ever. We have seen all the incredible and important work done by public safety, first responders, doctors and it’s very important for us to support all of these people, their communication systems and collaboration platforms. We are also very present in airports, which are very busy again after the pandemic. We have also been supporting special events with our solutions, such as the Olympics in Beijing.

We are trying to expand in Africa, which is not an easy continent, but with a lot of opportunities. We are trying to invest more in Africa, and in Middle East, where we have been present in almost every country since a very long time.

We have a new set of solutions around ANET, which is a collaboration platform that we would like to develop with mobile operators. We’ve signed a first deal with BSN in India and also with Saudi Telecom.

Which technologies and IT trends are the forefront of driving innovation for your business?
We see a lot of new technology and a lot of new things arriving today, but at the end of the day, it’s all about collecting data. We are not anymore in the big data world, but in the hyper massive data world. The issue is not anymore about having access to data. Everyone can have access to any kind of data. The data now is becoming the danger because we see a lot of false data, a lot of disinformation.

Our duty here is trying to make sure that not only we collect the right data, but we protect them, we encrypt them end to end to make sure that it goes to the right person. The impact of the usage of communication and data that is bigger and bigger every day and we need to make sure that this usage is more secure than ever.

Can you tell our readers what differentiates your company from your market rivals?
There are different communication suppliers worldwide, but only one that can provide you everything from the satellite to the aircraft, to the helicopter, to the communication system. And this is us.

The key advantage we can provide to our customers is the ability not only to provide our solution, but to integrate it with the whole communications system, which we can integrate it, for example, with our satellite offering. We operate the largest constellation of optical and radar commercial Earth observation satellites available on the market today.

Our Airbus Constellation offers decision-makers integrated, sustainable solutions that promote operational performance, enhance security, optimise mission planning and operations, improve resource management, and safeguard the environment.