From another Topic:
When I was at the Annual HughesNet Dealer summit a few years ago, they treated us all to a view of the HughesNet Central Command "Network Operations Center" at their National headquarters in Germantown Maryland.
It was truly impressive - like I had always imagined places like NORAD or NASA would look. Huge color LED data displays covering walls from floor to ceiling. System and sub-system graphs on some, weather maps and CNN Headline running on others. About 20 to 30 technicians manning consoles and terminals.
We didn't get to go inside, but we viewed operations from a meeting room gallery above and behind it.
(I would show you a photo but this big guy in a dark suit with an earpiece confiscated my smart phone and smashed it 🙂
Nonetheless, I found an information page and a video tour of the "NOC" from about six years ago. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did being there:
http://www.hughes.com/company/newsletters/spring-2009/a-walk-through-the-national-noc
Also, the manufacturing plant there was a must see. A lot of folks don't realize it but HughesNet gear is proudly assembled in the US. We toured the facility where they actually build, test and ship the modems and radios.
We also toured the repair facility where they receive returned modems and radios, determine failures and causes, recondition and update them, and send them back out.
While we were there, the repairs director happened to mention that an unusually high percentage of radios were being returned because the installers were stripping the hex-head screws that hold the feed throat onto the radio body when changing the radio's polarity setting (adjacent beams have opposite polarities and the radio throat needs to be flipped 90°).
This was happening because the screws could not be easily removed or inserted using a standard, straight-on hex key.
We discussed solutions with the director and, within a day, HughesNet had already sent out a tech bulletin advising all their installers where they could acquire a hex key with a ball end that works at an angle, the same tool they were using in the repair facility. They hadn't realized that install techs weren't carrying that tool already.
Now, THAT was impressive...
