Inside Intelsat
Intelsat’s long-anticipated move to Tysons finally happened. To see what a modern office looks like, we toured the satellite communications firm eight days after moving in. (Don't you love that new building smell?)
The company, which moved from DC’s Van Ness neighborhood, looks out onto the Beltway, Tysons Tower plaza, and Route 123, where the new Silver Line is. Communications VP Dianne VanBeber says 18% of the 550 Intelsat employees there are public transit commuters. Bonus: the retail in the surrounding area will be a completely new thing for them.
Dianne says employees have been holding meetings on a roofless space on the top of the 20-story building. So what is Intelsat? The 50-year-old company has 50 satellites 22,600 miles above earth. Its customers in over 200 countries and territories use satellites to deliver most TV channels, including cable. In emerging markets, it provides the broadband infrastructure for the wireless networks for phone calls and data networking. It also provides the satellite needs for broadband on planes.
Dianne says the HQ’s flow is helping employees see more of each other. There’s no cafeteria (who needs one when you’ve got Tysons?) and employees had the option of getting a desk that converts from sit down to stand up. (We hear sitting is the new smoking.) Near this five-story staircase is the hub (no photos allowed) where engineers control the company’s satellites, which stay within a rectangular space on the equator as wide as the distance from DC to Baltimore. The six-person team also controls 25 additional satellites for companies like Sirius XM Radio. Tens of thousands of data elements come from each satellite and software is constantly measuring their location.
Hanging in the office’s large conference room is the first communication satellite in the world. (Big round one hanging on the left.) It’s a functioning satellite and served as back-up for the one that was launched in April 1965. The “early bird,” well known in the satellite industry, could provide services for one TV channel or 64 simultaneous phone calls. Next to it is a new satellite Intelsat will launch next year. It’s one-tenth the size seen here and can handle 25 gigabits, which is thousands of TV channels and broadband. (And still nothing on.)
This space window plays an 18-minute digital video detailing the Intelsat satellite fleet and even shows how satellites are aging. Their average life in space is 15 years, but Intelsat saw one go for 23. They eventually move slightly beyond the geostationary orbit and hang out in a graveyard orbit. (That's where we hang out before our morning cup of coffee.) Intelsat also has Arthur C. Clarke’s original document from the '40s outlining how physics could allow satellites to orbit the earth. Dianne says most of its satellites require very little fuel because of physics. (Physics, gravity in particular, is also why we prefer a sitting desk to standing.)
Intelsat employees will have direct access to the Tysons Tower plaza seen below. It’s the 55k square feet of community space connecting the residential, office, hotel, and retail spaces going up in this area. Three restaurants—Eddy V’s, Earl’s Kitchen & Bar, and Bushel to Barrel—will be there along with Shake Shack, a massive Christmas tree in December, an ice rink, Friday concerts (starting today), and a farmer’s market. The pedestrian-friendly space is 33 feet above anything with wheels.
