p1-21:p1-14.

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March 2013

Globalstar launches final IN THIS ISSUE

second-gen satellites satcoms
After years of ups and downs, with stock market stutters and reports of satellite App Stores and price wars
problems, Globalstar is ready to start a new chapter after completing the – the year ahead at
launch of the final six satellites in its second generation constellation Inmarsat – 8

What to do when you

G
lobalstar has successfully Initial satellite in-orbit testing is Globalstar’s first-generation satellites.
launched its final six new currently underway. All six spacecraft “I am pleased to announce the suc- have more data – 14
second-generation satellites were reported to be operating normal- cessful final launch of our second-
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in ly immediately following the launch. generation constellation,” said Tony
Kazakhstan. This mission was the fourth and Navarra, president of global opera-
Crew communication
The Globalstar satellites lifted off final launch for the new network, tions for Globalstar. survey reveals
aboard the Soyuz launch vehicle with completing Globalstar’s plan to orbit “In 2006, we set out to be the first interesting results – 18
the Fregat upper stage on 24 second-generation satellites. mobile satellite services company to
Wednesday, February 6, 2013. Globalstar has previously launched successfully deploy a second-genera-
Launch services
Arianespace confirmed that, as
provider 18 second-generation satellites in
launches that occurred on October 19,
tion constellation of LEO satellites.
This extraordinary undertaking took software
planned, the upper stage accurately 2010, July 13, 2011 and December 28, years of dedicated effort and a singu-
injected the six second-generation 2011, all of which have already been larly focused mindset to complete
satellites into their targeted low earth placed into commercial service. the mission.”
DNV and GL agree merger deal – 22
orbit of approximately 920 km, and This second-generation of satellites Jay Monroe, CEO of Globalstar, Putting trust in the internet – 26
that all six satellites were successfully has been designed and manufactured added, “We fully expect Duplex serv-
acquired following separation from by Thales Alenia Space with a service ice to be restored to the high level of Competing in a new
the Dispenser and Fregat Upper Stage. life of fifteen years, twice that of quality that Globalstar customers his- era of marine terminal
torically enjoyed.”
“We thank all of our employees
management – 28
and partners who were able to make
this successful launch possible,
including launch services provider electronics and
Arianespace and satellite contractor
Thales Alenia Space.”
navigation
Globalstar expects to place these
final six second-generation satellites UK switches on GPS backup – 32
into commercial service by this sum-
mer, with the first two being raised Danish ECDIS deals
and placed into service by the end for Transas – 36
of February.

Finance E-navigation – a web-based

The Soyuz launch vehicle successfully lifted off from Kazakhstan This successful launch has crowned a approach? – Dr Andy Norris – 38
on February 6. Photo: Arianespace positive start to 2013 for Globalstar,
continued on page 2
www.reformstudio.no

“A Brand New World” Tormod Johannesen, IT Manager Wilson Ship Management, Bergen

”We are deploying Dualog Connection Suite on 83 ships in less than 12 months with only good feedback from the vessel
users and office staff ”, says Tormod Johannesen, the IT Manager of Wilson Ship Management in Bergen.

“Dualog Connection Suite is a modern and flexible product and this fact, combined with
internal planning, has brought us into a brand new world in a minimum of time”, adds the
happy IT Manager.

www.dualog.com
(+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected]
p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:04 Page 2

SATCOMS
continued from page 1
which recently reported that it had increased confidence in Globalstar as price of $1.00 for a period longer than that
reached an agreement for a new round of we continue with final preparations permitted by NASDAQ listing rules.
financing through the sale of up to $30 for our fourth launch of six new satellites Despite this, the company says that it
million of its voting common stock to in February.” intends to once again obtain a listing for
Vol 13 No 6 investment fund Terrapin Opportunity. Under the terms of the transaction, its shares on a suitable stock exchange in
The company says that it has obtained a Globalstar can draw up to $30 million over the future.
Digital Ship Limited “committed issuer managed equity the 24-month period once a registration “The board of directors carefully delib-
2nd Floor, financing facility” under which it may sell statement it has agreed to file with the SEC erated, over an extended period of time,
8 Baltic Street East chunks of its voting common stock to becomes effective. the advantages and disadvantages of
London EC1Y 0UP, U.K. Terrapin from time to time. Globalstar will be able to determine the effecting a reverse stock split in order to
www.thedigitalship.com “This facility provides us with funds to timing, price and amount of the stock sales seek to regain compliance with
help finance our capital obligations over itself, which will be based on the compa- NASDAQ’s listing qualifications, and
PUBLISHER
the next two years,” said Mr Monroe. ny’s share price over time. decided that doing so was not in the com-
Stuart Fryer
“The structure of this facility gives us This announcement followed disap- pany’s or its stockholders’ best interests at
EDITOR flexibility and pricing control that we can pointing earlier news towards the end of this time,” said Mr Monroe.
Rob O'Dwyer: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3410 use to manage the potential dilution of 2012 that Globalstar’s common stock “We remain keenly focused on the exe-
additional equity.” had been delisted from the NASDAQ cution of our satellite communications and
email: [email protected]
“On the basis of the past year’s stock market. spectrum strategies to drive stockholder
CONFERENCE PRODUCER revenue and profit growth and our exe- NASDAQ took this action due to the value. We fully intend to seek listing on an
Cathy Hodge: Tel +44 (0) 20 7253 2700 cution on our long-term strategic plan, fact that Globalstar's common stock had accredited exchange as soon as it is feasi-
email: [email protected] this financing demonstrates investors’ been trading below the minimum bid ble to do so.” DS

ADVERTISING
Ria Kontogeorgou: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3401
email: [email protected] VSAT roll out for De Poli Tankers
EXHIBITION SALES www.marlink.com responsible for management of the VoIP adapter, Ethernet switch, antenna
Young Suk Park: Tel: +44 (0)20 3287 9317 tankers, and began with the installation of and ACU, as well as an XChange network
email: [email protected] De Poli Tankers BV has recently complet- WaveCall Ku-band VSAT services aboard and traffic management unit.
ed a communications upgrade project the chemical tanker Miro D. This configuration is identical to the
PRODUCTION which has seen a series of new VSAT Marlink and Maritime Performances systems subsequently installed on five
Vivian Chee: Tel: +44 (0)20 8995 5540 installations aboard its vessels. have worked together for over three other De Poli Tankers vessels as part of the
email: [email protected] Based near Rotterdam, De Poli Tankers years, starting initially with Inmarsat upgrade project.
operates a fleet of six IMO 2 chemical FleetBroadband services, and most The bundled package supplied by
EVENTS MANAGER
tankers, two LPG tankers and one Ice recently collaborated on the integration of Marlink has already been deployed on
Diana Leahy Engelbrecht
classed 1A chemical/ethylene tanker. standardised Ku-band VSAT packages on more than 100 other vessels over the
Tel: +44 (0)118 931 3109
The communications project was car- De Poli tankers. course of 2012, and combines VSAT and
email: [email protected]
ried out by Marlink in close co-operation The Miro D VSAT installation, which MSS connectivity services that can switch
CONSULTANT WRITER with De Poli's in-house affiliate company took place in Riga, Latvia, featured a 1 automatically via the XChange platform.
Maritime Performances BV, which is metre Ku-band antenna, iDirect modem, XChange also allows the shipping com-
Dr Andy Norris (navigation)
pany's shore based staff to connect to the
[email protected]
ship and manage its communications.
DIGITAL SHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS “We have good control of the available
€180 per year for 10 issues connectivity,” said Ardi van der Wagt, IT
Subscribe online at specialist at Maritime Performances.
www.thedigitalship.com, “We can manage the internet access
contact [email protected], based on time slots for the crew, which
means they are able to focus on the job at
or phone Diana Leahy Engelbrecht on:
hand but have freedom to communicate
+44 (0)118 931 3109
when off duty, which is the important part
UPCOMING CONFERENCES of ensuring they are happy on board.”
DIGITAL SHIP HAMBURG “Vizada XChange helps us to manage
Magnushall, Hamburg the connectivity in this way, especially
27-28 February 2013 with the new update which allows us to
manage access during specific hours or
DIGITAL SHIP CYPRUS
create allocated time slots for users.”
Magnushall, Hamburg The De Poli vessels have installed Ku-band VSAT and network management technology
23-25 April 2013
DIGITAL SHIP @ NOR-SHIPPING
5 June 2013 Hybrid broadband for Scandinavia Globalstar has signed a Value
Added Reseller (VAR) agreement with
Printed by www.net1.se other marine activities in the region. Wireless Innovation, which will now
The Manson Group Ltd www.ancylus.com “At a time when the shipping industry market the Globalstar SmartOne device to
Reynolds House, 8 Porters' Wood is suffering from an economic down-turn, the maritime and transportation sectors
Valley Road Industrial Estate
St Albans, Hertz AL3 6PZ
Ancylus AB and Net1 have entered a strate- we are happy to help their businesses by throughout the EMEA, particularly to cus-
U.K. gic partnership in order to offer a hybrid substantially lowering the communication tomers involved in asset tracking.
broadband solution to the Scandinavian costs,” says Ulf Harderup, CEO of Globe Wireless and Arimar have
No part of this publication may be repro-
and Nordic maritime markets. Ancylus. entered into a long-term cooperation
duced or stored in any form by any
mechanical, electronic, photocopying, The hybrid offering will include Net1’s “The shipping industry is increasingly agreement to provide Globe Wireless
recording or other means without the wireless broadband service to vessels getting dependent on high speed internet products and services to Italian flagged
prior written consent of the publisher. operating close to Scandinavian shores (at and voice, both for business and for vessels and other Mediterranean maritime
Whilst the information and articles in a range of 50 – 60 Nautical miles) or in the leisure. By introducing the hybrid solution customers. As part of this agreement,
Digital Ship are published in good faith region’s ports. we are both increasing the data speeds Arimar will act as the billing agent for
and every effort is made to check accura- Once the vessels leave the reach of the and decreasing the costs.” Globe Wireless Italian flagged vessels.
cy, readers should verify facts and state-
wireless network the communication Net 1 uses the NMT 450 frequency and
ments direct with official sources before
acting on them as the publisher can switches over to broadband via satellite, covers approximately 95 per cent of
www.globalstar.com
accept no responsibility in this respect. provided by Ancylus. Sweden's land area, reaching up to 120
www.wireless-innovation.co.uk
Any opinions expressed in this maga- The companies say that this service is kilometres from the coastline. www.globewireless.com
zine should not be construed as those aimed at sectors like short sea trade, the The network is supplied by Ericsson www.arimargroup.com
of the publisher. fishing industry, offshore projects, and and state Teracom operators.

Digital Ship March 2013 page 2

p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:04 Page 3

Sailing at sea and always online_

Fastest
speeds in the
industry
now available
8Mb / 1Mb

Please contact NSSLGlobal Ltd

www.nsslglobal.com
[email protected]
+44 1737 648 800
p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:04 Page 4

SATCOMS

‘Business Class’ service from KVH

www.kvh.com and Android devices, millions of which products.
are sold every year.” Users can manage a range of aspects of
KVH reports that it is launching new “Connectivity services that don’t the service from this unit, and will be able
Unrestricted Rate Plans featuring what it embrace these new technologies will not to set up distinct, firewalled networks for
calls 'Business Class Service' for its mini- be able to keep up with the new cloud- operations and crew use.
VSAT Broadband network. based services and other exciting innova- KVH says that it is also offering inter-
The Business Class Service will provide tions we are sure to see in coming years. net café and VoIP calling card services to
unrestricted, prioritised, multimegabit KVH is constantly working to improve help the crew self-manage their use of the
service with unfettered access to all inter- our service to ensure we provide our cus- service. Transmission optimisation and
net applications and protocols, including tomers with the connectivity they need.” onboard caching, least cost routing and e-
streaming media formats, Voice over IP KVH says that, rather than block high- mail management are additionally avail-
(VoIP) services like Skype, and media- bandwidth services or limit access able as part of the CommBox solution, at
heavy websites. through deliberately reduced speeds, its the owner’s discretion.
KVH says that the new service will be new usage-based rate plans provide a In related news, KVH has also recently
“competitively priced” when compared to defined amount of data in a monthly pack- announced that it has doubled the capaci-
other shared maritime VSAT services. age and give the customer the opportuni- ty of its mini-VSAT Broadband network in
“The launch of our new Business Class ty to buy more service if the package the Caribbean region.
Service culminates a two-year initiative to threshold is exceeded during the month. This capacity increase was provided as
upgrade our network, increase our capac- Heavy users can accordingly consume part of its ongoing global network ‘Connectivity services that don’t embrace
ity, integrate network management capa- as much bandwidth as they desire because upgrade involving deployment of new technologies will not be able to
bilities into our core product offering, and they are paying for that additional service. Variable Coding, Spreading, and keep up’ – Brent Bruun, KVH
devise unrestricted rate plans that provide Further, with these new plans, KVH says Modulation (VCSM) technology provided
unprecedented performance while also it will dynamically monitor usage and can by ViaSat, KVH’s partner in the mini- our modulation technology that enables
being cost effective,” said Brent Bruun, add satellite capacity as required. VSAT Broadband network. us to handle transmissions much more
executive vice president of KVH’s Mobile Bundles range from 5 GB to 40 GB, with This major upgrade to the network fol- efficiently, thereby increasing the amount
Broadband Group. additional gigabytes starting from $200 lowed closely after previously announced of data that our network can carry.”
“We’re working hard to keep up with ($0.20 per megabyte), offering speeds up improvements that increased capacity in “Thanks to our end-to-end design
the exponential growth of the internet and to 4 Mbps. Europe by more than 60 per cent. approach, we are able to upgrade the soft-
mobile data services. In the past five years To support the Business Class Service, “The Caribbean region upgrade is part ware in our large population of fielded
there has been an 18-fold increase in the KVH has incorporated the features of its of our planned expansion to support the TracPhone systems over the air, providing
use of mobile data, while more than half of CommBox Ship/Shore Network Manager increased demand of our rapidly growing a future-proof solution that we continue to
all internet traffic is now video. There are into the integrated below decks unit of its customer base,” said Mr Bruun. improve as we add new features and net-
more than 700,000 apps for iPad, iPhone new TracPhone V7-IP and TracPhone V11 “We are rolling out a new version of work enhancements.”

IMO secretary-general visits IMSO Station711 crewtalk

to discuss tech development integrates Multi-voice
www.imso.org existed between the two Organisations www.station711.com
since May 1982, revised following the pri-
Koji Sekimizu, the Secretary-General of the vatisation of Inmarsat in 1999. Station711 has announced that its
International Maritime Organization IMSO and IMO enjoy reciprocal crewtalk solution has been integrated
(IMO), has paid a visit to IMSO observer status at the meetings of each with the FleetBroadband Multi-voice
(International Mobile Satellite Organisation, and exchange information service.
Organization) headquarters in London to on their activities and programmes of As a result of this integration project
discuss “matters of mutual interest”, in work in the field of maritime communica- up to nine simultaneous voice calls will
particular in the field of the future of mar- tions for maritime safety and efficiency of be available via the service, which the
itime communications and how new tech- navigation. company says should increase both oper-
nologies can support the sustainability of Mr Sekimizu also met the executive ational and personal communication
the maritime sector. chairman of Inmarsat, Andrew Sukawaty, accessibility.
An Agreement of Cooperation has during the visit, and visited the Inmarsat The Station711 crewtalk solution offers
Satellite Control Centre. operational and pre-paid voice services,
“The working relationship between allowing different profiles to be allocated
IMSO and IMO is most important as it to different users and onboard extensions.
recognises the crucial role that GMDSS The system integrates with the existing
plays in the safety of life at sea, and the onboard PBX to the FleetBroadband ter-
important improvement that its moderni- minal and ensures that all crew phone
sation over the next few years will bring to calls are routed through the prepaid sys-
shipping,” commented Captain Pacha- tem from dedicated voice lines, or from SAILOR users can access Multi-voice with
Vicente, director general of IMSO. the PBX extensions. This allows the sys- a firmware upgrade
“In addition, as LRIT Coordinator, tem to be used to manage telephony
IMSO continues to work closely with IMO usage and costs as well as the Multi-voice Multi-voice services.
in ensuring the system is efficiently imple- capability. “Station711's crewtalk solution is tai-
mented and fits the purpose for which it Up to nine simultaneous voice lines lored to address varied onboard needs
was created.” can be used with FleetBroadband 250 or and challenges faced by crews at sea,”
Mr Sekimizu also added that “our 500 terminals, and up to four simultane- said Ohad Har-Lev, managing director
exchange of views about a number of ous voice lines with FleetBroadband 150. mobile satellite services at RRsat, parent
issues surrounding satellite communica- Thrane & Thrane Sailor terminal users company of Station711.
tions for ships reconfirmed the established can create a fully-integrated crewtalk and “The integrated solution allows ship-
value of our partnership which is funda- Multi-voice solution with just a firmware ping companies to take advantage of the
mental to the activities of both update. For other FleetBroadband termi- Multi-voice service to increase the com-
Capt Esteban Pacha, director general Organisations to maintain sound legal and nals, additional hardware can be used mercial and operational onboard produc-
of IMSO, and Koji Sekimizu, secretary administrative frameworks for sustainable alongside the terminal to access the tivity and significantly enhance crew
general of IMO, during the visit shipping.” additional telephone lines with the welfare through this proficient solution.”

Digital Ship March 2013 page 4

p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:05 Page 5

DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF MARITIME COMMUNICATIONS

home

office

crew

bridge

engine
suppliers helpdesk room

Keep in touch_

+31 (0)183 401025 | [email protected] | WWW.OCEANSAT.COM

p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:05 Page 6

SATCOMS

SpeedCast buys Elektrikom 20-mile comms system launched in UK

www.speedcast.com Europe and worldwide.” www.buzzconnect.co.uk/marine
www.vsat.nl Joining the SpeedCast Group,
Elektrikom will be able to offer its mar- UK-based Buzz Marine has launched
Hong Kong based SpeedCast Ltd has com- itime customers a wider portfolio of prod- HubbaX, a mobile broadband system
pleted, with the support of its majority ucts and services and to better serve its specifically designed for the marine envi-
shareholder, TA Associates, a buyout of global customers’ needs in Asia. ronment which it says will offer ADSL
Elektrikom Satellite Services, a satellite Elektrikom will also benefit from equivalent broadband speeds for vessels
communications service provider based in SpeedCast’s certified field engineers, able operating up to 20 miles offshore.
the Netherlands. to support maritime services and antennas Using patented aerial technology and 3G
Elektrikom will be combined into onboard vessels and platforms. networks, HubbaX will provide WiFi inter-
SpeedCast’s maritime business unit to Elektrikom’s worldwide satellite com- net access onboard, as well as voice access
form part of one maritime satellite com- munications infrastructure will be added via VoIP, without a satellite connection.
munications service provider. to SpeedCast’s existing global network, An integrated data SIM is used to cre-
Elektrikom has provided satellite and adding an overlay network which will ate a WiFi hotspot, though the unit can The HubbaX system creates
wireless-based communications solutions provide redundancy and backup as well also be wired via an Ethernet port to con- a Wi-Fi hotspot onboard
to the maritime industry since its founda- as introducing new options for nect to multiple devices such as laptops
tion in 1985. The company is headquar- SpeedCast’s global customer base. and iPads. ed to your favourite devices,” said Steve
tered in Rotterdam. “The acquisition of Elektrikom by The IP66 rated HubbaX can be mount- Smith, managing director of Buzz Marine.
The company has delivered a range of SpeedCast is a very positive development ed with a standard one inch marine anten- “It’s simple to add on the telephony
Ku-band and C-band VSAT systems as for our customers, our partners and our na mount, and is powered by a 12v DC service to make the most of the connec-
well as L-band services, in addition to employees,” said André Eerland, manag- power pack. The unit is also protected by tion. With connectivity provided by our
wireless technologies and a range of other ing director, Elektrikom. industry standard security protocols WEP, Hubba marine broadband range it is now
IT solutions. “There are significant synergies WPA and WPA2. possible to add a landline equivalent
“SpeedCast is well established as the between the two companies, with two “The HubbaX offers an economical solu- phone service to your boat even at sea.”
leading provider of maritime communica- leading technology platforms, iDirect and tion by utilising 3G networks to access an The antenna dome houses a quadruple
tion solutions in Asia,” said Pierre-Jean Comtech EF Data, and worldwide cover- internet connection on the move, and up to antenna system and offers typical download
Beylier, CEO, SpeedCast. age, which will greatly enhance our ability 20 miles offshore, that can be easily connect- speeds of 7 Mbps and uploads of 1 Mbps.
“While our services are global, we to deliver customised solutions to meet
wanted to strengthen our presence in our customers’ needs.”
Europe to further support our partners in
this key region. With its strong position in
Mr Eerland will remain with the
merged entity and will serve as head of
Intelsat signs Global IP deal
the most important European shipping maritime globally. www.intelsat.com and maritime customers.”
hub, Elektrikom is an ideal fit.” This acquisition follows shortly after Intelsat did suffer a recent setback in the
“With the acquisition of Elektrikom, we SpeedCast's acquisition of Australian Intelsat has announced that Spain-based scheduled roll-out of its global broadband
are well positioned to deliver a higher Satellite Communications (ASC), a satel- satellite communications provider Global mobility platform with the announcement
level of service and support to SpeedCast lite communications service provider in IP has signed multi-year agreements to that the launch of its Intelsat 27 satellite at
and Elektrikom customers’ vessels in Australia. provide broadband service to its maritime the end of January had failed, approxi-
customers in the Indian Ocean region. mately 40 seconds after lift-off.

Second ship signed to O3b service Global IP will use capacity on Intelsat
22 at 72° East, Intelsat 702 at 33° East, and
A Zenit 3SL launch vehicle was carry-
ing the satellite, built by Boeing, which
the IntelsatOne terrestrial network to offer was to operate from 304.5º East, an orbital
www.o3bnetworks.com “Cruise ship guests expect the same the services. location currently occupied by Intelsat 805
quality voice and internet services they The Spanish company will collocate its and Galaxy 11.
O3b Networks has signed a second multi- experience on land,” said Bill Martin, chief DVB-S2 high-throughput platform at The satellite was designed to serve cus-
year deal with Royal Caribbean Cruises to information officer for Royal Caribbean Intelsat's teleport in Fuchsstadt, Germany, tomers in the North Atlantic, as well as
provide satellite broadband services aboard Cruises Ltd. enabling access to the IntelsatOne infra- North America, South America and
one of its cruise ships, Allure of the Seas. “We are proud to be the first cruise line structure and Intelsat's satellite fleet. Europe.
More than 8,000 guests, staff and crew to offer guests and crew aboard our inno- The agreements enable Global IP to Sea Launch will establish a Failure
members travelling the Caribbean will use vative Oasis class of ships connectivity introduce worldwide Ku-band maritime Review Oversight Board to determine the
the service for connectivity at sea. services that are in a league of their own.” services to customers in Africa, Europe, cause of the failure.
Royal Caribbean was the first to agree a “This latest agreement underlines our the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Service to customers on Intelsat 805 and
deal for O3b’s forthcoming maritime offer- confidence in O3b Networks and the “These agreements add multiple strate- Galaxy 11 will not be interrupted as a
ing O3bMaritime, for the Allure of the Seas’ game-changing level of connectivity it is gic beams to our global network that are result of the unsuccessful launch, and
sister ship, Oasis of the Seas, last summer. set to provide aboard our ships.” highly optimised for advanced mobility Intelsat notes that both the satellite and
applications in the Indian Ocean region,” launch were fully insured.
said Jesus Barber, general manager for “We are clearly disappointed with the
Global IP. outcome of the launch. The cause of the
“Collocating our hub in Fuchsstadt failure is unknown, but we will work close-
gives us access to IntelsatOne and the ly with our launch and manufacturing
world's largest satellite fleet, enhancing partners to determine the necessary next
and extending our services to our oil, gas steps,” said Intelsat CEO David McGlade.

KNS launches latest VSAT antenna

www.kns-kr.com also available for high power Block Up
Converters, which enables the antenna to
Korean antenna manufacturer KNS Inc operate in harsh environments, and it has
has launched its latest VSAT antenna, the been built to meet military vibration,
new SuperTrack X10Mk3. shock and EMI/RFI standards.
The X10Mk3 is designed with a rotating KNS’s SuperTrack series of VSATs are
polarizer and operates at Rx: 7.25-7.75 built on the company's own 3-Axis plat-
GHz; Tx: 7.9-8.4 GHz. It includes a brake form that allows them to constantly track
system, shock absorbers and high torque and lock in on satellite sources.
motors, and is anodized to eliminate cor- The antennas are able to gyrate along
Royal Caribbean Cruises will use the O3b network to deliver high speed internet rosion. the X, Y, and Z axes and move more than
onboard two of its ships An external air conditioner option is 90 degrees per second.

Digital Ship March 2013 page 6

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SATCOMS

App Stores and price wars

– the year ahead at Inmarsat
The beginning of 2013 has not been dull for Inmarsat – excitement over the latest emerging details on the network
infrastructure it is developing for Global Xpress, scheduled for its first launch later this year, has contrasted with customer
anger over another round of price rises. Digital Ship spoke to the man at the centre of the storm – Inmarsat’s Frank Coles
rank Coles, head of Inmarsat beginning to become more defined.

F Maritime, doesn’t seem to be the type

of man that enjoys the quiet life.
While he has the privilege of spearhead-
The SEP will feature a Cloud platform,
offering centralised user databases, por-
tals, billing and interconnections, present-
ing the biggest change in the way Inmarsat ed through a single IP connection for GX.
satellite services are to be delivered since it The shoreside network infrastructure
came into existence more than 30 years will have a single IP address, while a Cisco
ago, with the introduction of the Global hardware unit on the ship, called the
Xpress Ka-band service, he is also the man Shipboard Network Service Device (NSD),
who has had to face up to the angry protes- will offer interfaces to terminals, local
tations of disgruntled customers as the equipment, PBXs and analogue telephones.
company has restructured its pricing in The shipboard unit will also be used to
such a way that those using the lowest data administer user authentication and
volumes have felt the most discomfort. enforce access controls, and will provide
Significant changes to the cost of Fleet the user with the ability to do automatic
services and the standard Pay As You Go download and installation of applications,
(PAYG) FleetBroadband package were and the immediate ability to update or
introduced in May 2012, and led to an out- patch software.
cry among some users at industry events Being involved in the development of
and on internet forums. an infrastructure like this marks a com-
Mr Coles himself was accused of abus- pletely new departure for Inmarsat, hav-
ing a monopoly position and disregarding ing for so long been focused merely on
the enduring loyalty that many customers running its satellite network and deliver-
had shown to the satellite operator during ing traffic from ships to its distribution
its lifetime, squeezing them for profits channel on shore, and back again – but it is
while the shipping industry was suffering a change that Mr Coles says makes him
an unprecedented downturn. “extremely excited.” ‘If you imagine the Apple scenario, where you go to the App Store and you buy your
However, having weathered the storm “The agreement with Cisco is much applications – it’s the same principle’ – Frank Coles, Inmarsat
of 2012 and maintained creditable finan- larger than just an agreement. It’s a strate-
cial results over the course of the year, it gic relationship where they are going to and the ability for third parties and our vation and pricing plans are among the fur-
seems that life at Inmarsat was getting a provide a network service device on board partners to build the applications onto,” ther details that are yet to be finalised.
little too easy – and so, at the close of the the ship, rather like a Cisco router but one said Mr Coles.
year at the Inmarsat partner conference in developed especially for Inmarsat, at least The network service device on board Shore portal
Hungary, Mr Coles had the job of intro- on the content side,” he told us. will be designed to be the central point One of the most interesting aspects of this
ducing a new range of price changes to the “Data is growing exponentially. managing a number of different on-ship new communications infrastructure that
market, set to take effect in March 2013. Historically, Inmarsat had LESOs (land functions. will be put in place for the GX launch is
The reaction from some customers, at Earth station operators) where all we did “First and foremost it will manage the the creation of a shoreside portal which
least publicly, has been less than enthusi- was delivered our traffic from our satellite handover between the Ka- service, the GX bears a number of similarities to the Apple
astic, as most industry watchers might down to a LESO. At FleetBroadband level, service, and the FleetBroadband, so it will App Store, and will be used to deploy soft-
have predicted. And so, with 2013 only we became the LESO, but we still had a automatically run the two. It’s a dual con- ware and other services on the ship via the
just underway, Mr Coles is set to suffer the complex connectivity to our channel that stellation redundant service which we satellite communications system.
slings and arrows of outraged forums, not required them all to go off and develop want to run seamlessly for the customers, Essentially, this will see a range of
to mention industry gatherings around individual boxes with their own firewalls in a package with applications available approved ‘Apps’ being hosted within a
the globe, once again. and so on.” from third parties as well as our channel,” Cloud environment, where users can con-
The quiet life? Not quite. But to be hon- “We are just taking that one step fur- said Mr Coles. nect, search for and select various types of
est, I’m not sure he would want it any ther, to complete the network and then “It will be the onboard media centre, software packages for use on their vessels.
other way. provide an interface in one place where onboard management of the firewalls and “If you imagine the Apple scenario,
they can build as many applications as all of the controls for that. It’ll also be a where you go the App Store and you buy
Cisco deal they want and differentiate from each conduit into all the systems on the ship for your applications and then they reside on
While the issue of pricing, to which we will other on the quality of their applications IT services.” your phone – it’s the same principle,” said
return later, may fuel more emotive discus- and quality of services they provide.” “We’re developing a story, this is new to Mr Coles.
sion in the short term, what is of more sig- The system that is being designed is not us as well. This started off initially as a mar- “So your phone, your Android phone
nificance to the maritime industry in the something that would only work with itime idea, for Global Xpress, but because or your iPhone, is like the (Cisco) network
longer term is Inmarsat’s plans for it’s Global Xpress in particular, but is being of its power and because of how good it is service device and the App Store is like
Global Xpress service, and particularly the developed initially with Global Xpress in in the breadth of flexibility we’ve embraced what we have on our portal ashore.”
new direction it is taking in developing a mind. It will include a Cisco router similar it across the organisation. I’m not the father “Depending on the application, we will
complete communications infrastructure in to those that can be bought today, but with of this, I’m certainly one of the strong driv- both push services to the ship and pull serv-
conjunction with partner Cisco. Inmarsat software inside. ers now but I think these discussions were ices, it will be both a push and pull network.”
Cisco has been tasked with the devel- While the software included on the being had before I came.” Basic access to this portal will be open,
opment of what will be called a Service Cisco ‘box’ on the ship will be made to As Mr Coles describes it, the onboard but then split into various silos where
Enablement Platform (SEP) for Global Inmarsat specifications, it is Cisco itself that ‘box’ has already been developed, as well application providers will be able to con-
Xpress (GX) following an agreement of a will be responsible for the development. as much of the related infrastructure, trol who has access to their products.
partnership deal between the companies “Cisco will do it. You will have the net- based on existing Cisco technologies, but “We’ll have a partner section where
in 2012. work service device on board the ship has to be modified to fit into the Global you can access it by username and pass-
With the first GX satellite scheduled to which will talk to a portal ashore, which Xpress infrastructure and to talk to the word, for instance, where our partners,
be operational by the end of this year, the will run the network and have all the Inmarsat billing system. our valued added partners and current
form that this new system will take is now billing systems and the activation systems Mr Coles notes that details like SIM acti- distribution for GX, will develop their

Digital Ship March 2013 page 8

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p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:05 Page 10

SATCOMS

own applications and host their own serv- with the applications they’ve developed is “The business model is not completed “Those are the value adds where you’ll
ices like billing and chat cards and any- port them to the portal. In other words, yet, but that is one of the items under dis- build your portal to this box. The GSM
thing else that they do just for their cus- write the programs so that they work cussion,” he said. product will be able to connect to the box
tomers,” explained Mr Coles. through the portal,” he told us. “It’s likely that we will have some sort and work the same way as it does on their
“Then there is a third party section “It just means that there will be appli- of commission structure, though it’s not current service – that’s a value-add. We
where you might have media applications, cations available, third party and partner going to be the same size or share as just want a stable platform.”
monitoring applications, weather applica- applications available, that you will be Apple’s, I think Apple takes 30 per cent or
tions, engine monitoring, cargo monitoring. able to subscribe to. You don’t try to rein- something. We are not going to be any- Benefits
Anything you can think of will reside there. vent the wheel. If the ship owner has his where near to that number.” To Mr Coles’ mind, the most obvious ben-
It’s very flexible, the owner will decide if he own software, there’s still a means to pass “But, for instance, we’ve been in touch efit of the kind of infrastructure that
wants to buy one of those services, and he that data backward and forward from his with nearly 50 application providers. We Inmarsat is trying to create is to reduce
can subscribe to it on the platform.” program residing in his office.” have entered into NDAs with quite a num- complexity for the ship operator in rolling
“If he subscribes to it, then any soft- “You still have to use the (Cisco) box, ber of these who are all very interested in out IT systems onboard – or simply, to
ware that will be on the router on the ship and you have to write a connection into the the ability to develop their application and borrow a phrase from the late Steve Jobs,
will then be activated. Digital Ship could network. That would have to approved by provide their wares in this community.” to ensure that “it just works.”
have its own app. So, if the owner says Inmarsat. We not going preclude (applica- Of course, one group of providers that “I think it will be a cheaper to roll out
that the ship can have a copy of Digital tions), but we want to just make sure you may not be thrilled by this arrangement are and even cheaper to maintain,” he said.
Ship and he subscribes to it on the applica- built the right links into the system.” those that are selling various types of “The big problem with the VSAT serv-
tion, then every month it will be distrib- Mr Coles insists that, once an applica- onboard satellite communications ‘boxes’ of ices to date has been the complexity of the
uted to the ship. The box onboard the ship tion is of a required level of quality the their own, offering firewalls, traffic manage- installation on board. When you add the
will make it available to the crew to read.” vessel operator could connect whatever ment and a host of other related services. complexity of rolling applications out,
Cisco will manage the shore portal for a they want to the satcom connection. In Mr Coles’ view of the future there will choosing which is the right one – where do
number of years under the agreement, “The intention is to build a community be room for only one such ‘box’ onboard you go for that sort of thing?”
before turning responsibility over to “The idea of having one platform, which
Inmarsat. Inmarsat will distribute the Cisco is a community platform where you bring
box, and ongoing support will be provided together the pipe that delivers it as well as
by Inmarsat and the distribution channel. the services, allows the ship owner to know
“Cisco are building this whole infra- that (a) he as got the choice of applications
structure with our team,” said Mr Coles. and (b) we are trying to simplify the instal-
“Towards the middle of this year we lation on board for everybody.”
will then release the programming APIs On the flip side, there are other benefits
(application programming interfaces) so to Inmarsat itself that make this an attrac-
people can build applications to reside on tive proposition, as Mr Coles notes.
our community platform. We are “Certainty of quality; scale; and our
enabling, or powering the global connec- channel distribution partners can focus on
tivity behind it.” what they do best – which is servicing the
“(Application providers) will have to customer and building applications for the
develop their product to our specification customers,” he said.
and our quality – that part is the same as “In the current FleetBroadband DP
Apple. We will have a test laboratory by the (distribution partner) structure, they have
middle of this year, where we will test it and a lot of time and effort spent on keeping
provide them with all the documentation The App Store model should make installation of applications simpler up this connectivity, having an IT infra-
and interface programming requirements, – but may also impose restrictions on what can be connected to the network structure, billing services.”
and then we will have the certification “Every time we made a change they
process so that we will sign off those appli- portal for the sharing of data and informa- the ship – the one provided by Inmarsat as have to change their billing services. It’s
cations which can reside on the platform.” tion, where we will enable it and deliver it part of the satcoms installation. just tighter integration (with the new
and power it - not to control it, other than “If you look at the FleetBroadband mar- infrastructure).”
Total control on quality,” he said. ket today, there may be 20 ‘boxes’ there, In the long run, with the substantial
While the creation of this comprehensive “Android, for instance, doesn’t have as all claiming to have the latest singing and investment that Inmarsat has made into
network infrastructure should help to many controls in place on the phones, so dancing technology,” he said. building this new network platform, it is
ensure quality and simplicity in connect- what you have is Android working in a lot “They will be redundant. But the serv- conceivable that it will also be applied to
ing applications to the communications more free way on different phones and ices they provide will not. What we’re try- other Inmarsat communications products,
system on the ship, it does also lend itself therefore not always as well. Apple have ing to encourage them to do is to port their such as FleetBroadband. While Mr Coles
to similar criticisms to those that have been much more strict on getting quality and the products they have on accepts this as a possibility, he notes that
been levelled by some at Apple. approvals on the apps. The result is a those boxes into this new network.” there are no current plans to do so.
The eco-system within which Apple’s much more stable platform.” “In theory they can plug their box “Initially it won’t be for
products operate does not allow users to “Where they’ve slipped up is where straight into the back of our box, but if FleetBroadband, though it will apply to
take too much control over the technology they have tried to develop applications of they port them to us, then each person the FleetBroadband working with Global
they have purchased, and prevents appli- their own, like Maps. We’re not going to doesn’t have to have their own portal talk- Xpress. But as we move forward it’s quite
cation providers from offering their prod- try and reinvent the wheel - why would ing to our portal. There are three partners possible that we will use this to work with
ucts directly to the consumer without we try and do that? Somebody else can do that I can think of who want to sell their FleetBroadband as well,” he said.
agreeing to Apple’s own terms. the charts, somebody else can do the radar application in the main area.” “You can do it with anything, I mean,
Should the GX network follow this monitoring. Cobham and Intellian will While some of these services, for my vision of this, down the road, is that
model closely, those working in the mar- build applications so they can lookup their instance firewalls, will already come as you will have iPhone applications and Mac
itime IT sector, as well as users with their terminals, and so that they can sell it to the standard on the Cisco onboard unit, Mr applications, or heavy data applications or
own particular requirements and ship owner so that they can lookup the Coles believes there are still significant less data applications. So people might pro-
favoured pieces of software, may feel con- condition of their terminal, or to our chan- opportunities for providers of rival ‘boxes’ duce a lighter program and a heavier pro-
cerned that they could potentially be nel partners so that they can lookup the to offer their services to GX customers. gram, depending on which channel they
excluded from the infrastructure should condition of the terminals.” “Everyone has a firewall now. It’s kind want to use to deliver the message.”
they not meet Inmarsat’s demands. Another criticism levelled at Apple by of like, yesterday’s value-add is tomor-
When pressed on this point, Mr Coles application developers is the commission row’s requirement. Those are no longer Price wars
insisted that the similarities to the Apple that the company charges on every appli- what I call ‘value-adds’, they are things With the long term development of the
App Store begin to diverge at this point, cation purchased through its store, you have to have,” he said. Global Xpress network covered, it was
and that he doesn’t intend to see anyone thought to be around 30 per cent of the “But a smart chat card that works on time to return to the more immediate issue
‘locked out’. price of the App. internet and phone and e-mail for the of pricing – and specifically the restructur-
“No, it doesn’t mean that at all, we Mr Coles concedes that the GX infra- crew, that’s a value-add that some of the ing on Fleet and FleetBroadband service
want to maintain quality, that is the main structure is likely to follow a similar partners have and others don’t. GSM, as a costs that Inmarsat is set to put into effect
thing we have to do. What we’ve said to route, though he expects the percentage handset that works on board a ship – at the beginning of March.
the partners we’ve had conversations with charged in each case to be lower than that’s a value-add that some of our part- As was the case with the changes in pric-
is that what we would like them to do what Apple demands. ners have and others don’t.” ing introduced in 2012, the reaction in some

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SATCOMS

quarters to this new strategic move has ‘yes, we do’. We put our prices up for a they are not created by Inmarsat.” and that’s what the ship owner wants.”
been less than favourable, with established number of reasons, one is to take account “That is the sum total of it. We “Well, we need to make up our minds
Inmarsat customers venting their anger on of the rising cost of doing business in other increased the Standard Plan rate because if on what he does want. FleetBroadband
online industry discussion groups. areas. Another is the increasing cost of people use us a backup for VSAT, we want has never been cheaper, if you commit to a
When asked why it was necessary to doing our business, the employees and it to be painful. We also did it because our bundle, it has never been cheaper. I think
make further changes less than 12 months resources. And the other is – are we get- costs have gone up and we need more we perhaps got the PAYG rate wrong in
after an initial price rise, Mr Coles begins ting value from the products and services money to take care of our costs, just like the very first place when we launched
by attempting to draw a distinction we are providing?” everyone else.” FleetBroadband. I mean, there’s signifi-
between the two distinct service areas the The specific changes that have been cant value in this.”
company is involved with – safety and made, which will kick in on the 1st of Market reaction In the end, Mr Coles, and Inmarsat,
commercial communications. March, include a 10 per cent increase in the Whatever the direct impact on customers’ believe that they have made decisions and
“Inmarsat Maritime, as a team and as an cost of sending data over the Fleet service. satcom budgets might be following these followed a strategy that will be in the best
organisation, has a commercial aspect to it “This is because it’s a service where peo- price changes, it must have been clear to interests of the company. Ultimately, it will
and a safety aspect to it. The safety aspect, ple are already moving to FleetBroadband Inmarsat and Mr Coles that there would be the tens of thousands of customers using
because of our history as an IGO and then anyway,” said Mr Coles. be many in the industry that would not Inmarsat’s Fleet and FleetBroadband prod-
private and then public, we were always “It is a percentage increase, it’s an increase take the news well – particularly after Mr ucts who will decide whether those choices
just there. For a long time we were the only to our distribution channel and what they Coles had told this very magazine, in an were the right ones.
communications provided,” he said. mark it up afterwards is up to them.” interview for our August 2012 issue, that it “I know some of the criticism is because
“The safety part we take extremely seri- Inmarsat has also increased prices on was “hardly likely that there’ll be any the shipping industry is, in itself, facing a
ously, the GMDSS part, and that’s the part its Standard Plan on FleetBroadband, the increase in prices in the near future.” tough time. But they’ve also enjoyed years
where I think the ship owner and our cus- Pay As You Go plan, which has a mini- Mr Coles responds by admitting that of very high profits as well,” said Mr Coles.
tomers believe that Inmarsat, to some mum fee. this did not turn out to be the case, and “We are making strategic and required
extent, belongs to them. And they’re right, “It retails in the market for around $150, that he misspoke on that occasion. changes in pricing. As we discussed in the
we do belong to them from a safety per- depending on which channel partner you’re “Well, I erred when I said it, I’m not the past, I believe that you can spend a little
spective. However, we are now a publicly going through. We have not changed the only one who makes a decision at bit more on communication and actually
traded company that has shareholders standard minimum fee at the wholesale Inmarsat. I made a mistake,” he said. deliver operational efficiency to your busi-
and we need to deliver shareholder value level, but we have increased the rate you “I’m on what you’d call a hiding to noth- ness, and I can go on for a long time on
too, and like any other business we have pay per megabyte afterwards. In the mar- ing on this. But I’ll argue that that. So we’re not really making an apolo-
employees who look for pay raises, we ketplace it has probably gone from $12 to FleetBroadband has never been cheaper. I gy for running our business profitably,
have rising costs of running our business, $14 per day, up to that,” said Mr Coles. get these arguments that I see appearing on and our channel has also benefited from
leases that we need to pay for, infrastruc- “That’s what we’ve done; we have not LinkedIn and other places that the ship some of the differences.”
ture around the world that we need.” changed any of the other plans, our old fish- owner doesn’t want to buy the 200 MB “It’s not so much about the diatribe on
“So when we make decisions about ing and leisure plans which we advertised package, he doesn’t need any more data. LinkedIn or whatever you wish to call it,
running our business, we look at ‘do we last year came to an end on January the 1st But then the same arguments and the same because people have their own agendas,
need to put our prices up to run our busi- and we have new plans for that. There are people in the next paragraph are talking and that’s fine. If I’m the one everyone
ness?’ and some of these decisions are 25 and 50 megabyte plans in the market, but about VSAT and ‘all you can eat’ packages, loves to hate, so be it.” DS

Hybrid comms provides free internet on Stena Line TSBc in THOR

www.marlink.com Whenever the vessels are within range, comfortable and convenient for passen-
branding move
the public internet on board switches gers as we can,” explains Calle Sedelius, IT www.telenorsat.com
Stena Line has implemented a hybrid automatically to the fastest service avail- support specialist, Stena IT.
communications system from Marlink to able, using a lower cost carrier for free “Internet connectivity is vital in this Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) reports
provide improved free internet connectiv- passenger connectivity. day and age but provision of free Wi-Fi on that the company is to consolidate all of its
ity for passengers on seven ferries serving The implementation of CoastalRoam board for hundreds of users is very hard satellite capacity under the THOR name.
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish routes. follows a recent user trial, aboard the to achieve cost-effectively. With This means renaming TSBc’s payload
The CoastalRoam system is a specially Stena Danica ferry, on its route between CoastalRoam, we are able to confidently on Intelsat 10-02, with the aim of making it
developed addition to the Marlink Sealink Sweden and Denmark. offer the service and balance the cost ver- easier for customers and the external com-
customised VSAT services already in use Stena Line operates 20 routes with a fleet sus the high levels of customer satisfaction munity to immediately identify the TSBc
aboard the ferries, integrating satellite, 3G of 38 vessels including fast ferries (Stena we get from it.” satellite fleet and capacity at its orbital
and 4G for Norway, Sweden, Poland, HSS), traditional combi-ferries, RoPax fer- Stena Line says that it aims to continue home at 1° West.
Germany and Denmark. ries for freight and passengers, and RoRo the CoastalRoam roll out across more As such, the company's satellite fleet
The system is also capable of integrat- ferries purely for freight in Scandinavia, the routes as soon as it can find telecom will now consist of THOR 5 T1, THOR 5
ing other carrier technologies, such as Wi- North Sea and the Irish Sea. providers with satisfactory 3G and 4G T2, THOR 6 K1, THOR 6 K2, THOR 10 02
Fi and WiMAX. “Our goal is to make any voyage as coverage and competitive prices. S1 and THOR 10 02 S2.
In other news, TSBc reports that Morten
Tengs has been appointed as the new CEO
of the company.
Mr Tengs previously held the position
of senior vice president at Telenor Group’s
regional office for Asia, in Bangkok. He
succeeds Cato Halsaa, who is to retire this
summer.

Implementation of the system followed a trial on the Stena Danica Morten Tengs, new CEO at TSBc

Digital Ship March 2013 page 12

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p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:17 Page 14

SATCOMS

What to do when you have more data

Shipping companies have a variety of different reasons why they might want to increase their volume of data traffic.
However, one of the most interesting aspects of new technology deployments is how users often begin to
introduce new applications far removed from their original intentions. Denis Dorigo, Norbulk Shipping,
told Digital Ship about his company’s experiences with expanding data

T
he argument over how much data Many of those who see data transmis- its own vessels engaged in regular trade
is ‘enough’ for shipping compa- sion as an unnecessary expense are between Canada and the US.
nies tends to be split into distinct nonetheless being persuaded to improve The major driver behind this project
camps, to a greater or lesser extent. the technological infrastructure on their was the company’s desire to provide
One group, which might be loosely ships to offer greater levels of access to improved internet access for its crews, to a
described as ‘traditionalists’, look on the those serving onboard, with ‘crew com- level that wasn’t really possible using the
transmission of information from ship to munications’ often mentioned as a driving Iridium OpenPort systems it had installed
shore as something to be minimised and factor in new installations. on the ships, which at that time had a stan-
restricted, an irritating cost most happily An interesting side effect of this devel- dard contract for 50MB and 300 voice min-
avoided. opment is that these reluctant techies may utes per month.
The rationale behind this train of prove to be the missing link in expanding Implementing the system simply
thought is often based on the belief that the use of IT in shipping. involved affixing a small antenna on
the core processes required to operate a Vessel operators that invest in new lev- the ship, with a cable to connect into the
shipping company have run perfectly well els of connectivity for their ships to satisfy network.
for decades without a non-stop trail of e- crew demands will undoubtedly look to Since those four ships in particular had
mails flying back and forth to the ship. wring as much value as possible from mobile phone reception for a long part of
Another group, often more enthusiastic these systems and will look to apply them their voyages, being in range of the coast
about the adoption of new technologies, to other areas where operational improve- of the US and Canada, 3G and 4G mobile
see data as a precious and necessary ments might be achieved. phone services offered the company the
resource that is fundamental to achieving Should these new applications prove to ability to significantly increase its data
operational efficiency. be of benefit, it is likely that they will slow- traffic without a huge additional cost – in
Shipping companies operating in this ly find their way into the standard proce- fact, a subscription of a few hundred dol-
camp will have ships equipped with the dures of more and more organisations. lars per vessel covered 12 gigabytes of
latest gadgets and gizmos, high-speed data transfer per month.
‘With this we manage to roam at about
connectivity and widespread access to Driving improvement Obviously, moving from 50MB to 12GB
$0.60 per MB’ – Denis Dorigo, Norbulk
communications across the vessel. Norbulk Shipping is one example of how adds a significant amount of leeway in
Sometimes this attitude will be influ- the introduction of technology to improve what can be offered to crews to communi-
enced by the specific requirements of the crew communications can lead to even cate with shore. However, once these sys- sumption, the sky really starts to become
company’s own customers, or by the belief greater unexpected gains on the opera- tems were installed and running on these the limit.”
that a strong link to shore is imperative in tional side. four ships Norbulk began to realise that “What data do you want from the ship?
maintaining the highest level of efficiency In 2012, Norbulk Shipping Group, a the potential benefits to be had in other You can do anything – maintenance sys-
in operations. ship management company with offices in areas were significant. tems, purchasing systems, forms, all those
However, recent years have seen an in- Glasgow, Saint John (New Brunswick) In an interview with this magazine last kinds of things. It just makes life much
between group, mixing elements of both and Riga, which has 70 vessels under full year following the roll-out on those four easier,” he said, at that time.
of these mindsets, emerge in growing technical management including tankers, ships (see Digital Ship August 2012 issue), Mr Dorigo was so impressed in fact
numbers in shipping, in direct response to bulk carriers, Ro-Ro’s and multi-purpose Norbulk IT manager Denis Dorigo noted that, subsequent to that interview, he
increasing concerns over manning levels / reefer ships, began a project to install 3G that: “with vessels that have high-speed began to look at how he might be able to
and the availability of qualified crew. data communications services on four of data, where you don’t look at the data con- extend similar capabilities to other ships
in the fleet, and embarked on another
communications project to do just that.
That project is now entering its closing
stages, and will see all of the ships in the
Norbulk fleet equipped with 3G commu-
nications equipment onboard by the end
of the first quarter of 2013.

Extended capabilities
With the extended roll-out reaching its
conclusion, Mr Dorigo spoke to Digital
Ship once more to describe the process and
the change in strategy that led from crew
internet into a range of other operational
areas.
“The whole idea came from what we
did with our Canadian fleet, basically to
give internet access to the crew with some
3G modems,” Mr Dorigo explains.
“(After those experiences) we were
thinking of trying to do it fleet wide, how-
ever that posed some problems, with
roaming charges more than anything. You
can’t really find a contract with anyone
that makes sense to give full internet
access to the crew while they’re in port.”
“(Finding a contract covering a number
of different countries) proved to be almost
Using the 3G system, a roll out of procurement software onboard can be done for £30 mission impossible. I think they have spe-

Digital Ship March 2013 page 14

p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:17 Page 15

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p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:17 Page 16

SATCOMS

didn’t take long for the other potential “The only way that we can reach back
applications of the technology – particu- to the ships was through TeamViewer and
larly in the area of remote access and con- things like that, which makes the whole
trol – to become apparent. remote control process a bit of a nightmare
“It was immediately after the roll-out – you need to remote access TeamViewer,
on the initial four ships that we started to and then from TeamViewer you need to
notice this,” said Mr Dorigo. start to ‘hop’ and remote control other
“Initially it was supposed to pick up machines, so you’ve got three or four
large e-mail attachments instead of pick- screens on your screen.”
ing them up over satellite. We work with “Now we have a VPN to our office
Dualog and with them large attachments here, and to the ship. (Setel) set the whole
are automatically placed in a container thing up, but once the VPN is up and run-
until the 3G router comes into reach and ning, and we established the VPN
we’ll pick up all those messages.” between our office and their office, it
“Of course, we had some kind of inter- opens up the SIM cards to us.”
est in being able to connect back into other As an example of one specific new
ships and doing proper work, but we process the additional technology has
could barely patch things up using slow allowed the company to adopt, Mr Dorigo
comms, with the Inmarsat systems or the points to the use of KVM (keyboard, video
Iridium systems where it’s very slow to and mouse) systems onboard the vessels –
remote control machines.” a simple but hugely effective way of
The benefits of using the 3G system to remotely controlling what’s happening on
remotely connect to the ships introduced the ship.
advantages that outweighed any of the “This is a little box that you plug into
improvements that the company had the back of your computer between your
KVM technology allows those on shore to directly control onboard systems
expected in its crew communications. screen, mouse and keyboard, and then
“We have noticed that it just saves us so you plug it into the internet. Then from the
cial deals between Canada and the US, but added some cost to the routers, which cost much time and effort, and travel costs more other side you can see what’s happening
if you decide to do anything else, especial- about $300,” said Mr Dorigo. than anything. These were things that were on the machine,” he explained.
ly being based here in the UK, you just “In fact, I think it’s under $400 per unit a big part of this before,” said Mr Dorigo. “You don’t need the operating system
can’t get a good 3G roaming deal. ” with the firmware included, if we calcu- “Of course, you also have the language or anything like that. If the machine is
Eventually, after much searching, Mr late the whole thing. I think we paid about barrier and the knowledge barrier (when down, for example, you can ask the cap-
Dorigo managed to agree a suitable deal $8,000 on the firmware.” trying to offer remote support without direct tain to plug it in, and we use the KVM
with a company in the UK called Setel, Development of the system proceeded access). You can make as many instructions over IP and have fixed IP addresses so we
that supplied Norbulk with Vodafone SIM at a breakneck pace, with the final version as you want to try and talk the crew through can VPN in, and we can see what the fault
cards on a specially structured Pay As You ready to go within two months. some problems, but it’s difficult.” may be.”
Go deal. “We started discussions back in August “We’ve noticed now that we can do full “Previously you would prepare and try
“With this we manage to roam at about last year and the firmware revision that Danaos (procurement system) installa- to gather as much information as you can
$0.60 per MB,” he told us. we currently have is the November one. tions for about £30 on the 3G router. The before you go to the ship, then you would
“For our fleet, it’s cheaper to do that Then we did a lot of in house testing. We server was placed on board, and from get there and discover that the informa-
than use satellite. The price per MB had four or five units here in the office and there we took over with remote control tion that they gave you was incorrect and
depends on where you are roaming, but in we were trialling it,” said Mr Dorigo. and installed the various schedulers and you’re there with the totally wrong parts.
the most popular ports around the world “When we reached the stage of being synchronisation modules. So we could Now, of course, we can check it ourselves
$0.60 is the price.” fairly happy then we deployed four units either have a million problems trying to and go there with the proper parts. All we
“We queried our databases to see to ships, just to make sure everything is tell the crew what to do or you go and do require is the captain to spend 10 minutes
where our ships normally are, and in most plug and play as we wanted it. After that it yourself when the ships are near with us plugging in this KVM, and from
cases we are able to get the best rates. It we placed the rest of the order.” enough. Now we do all of that remotely.” there we can take it ourselves.”
was difficult to find a good deal, because “We asked for several things that we One of the particular benefits that Mr This particular way of working, using
of course we’re not doing it through were interested in. If, in the future, new Dorigo has identified in the service it is KVM, is not particularly data intensive –
Vodafone directly, we’re doing it through features are required we will ask for the using from Setel is the provision of a stat- something that is always welcome in the
a third party, and they balance out firmware to be upgraded, but for now we ic IP address on the ship that it can use to maritime environment.
between the high roaming places and low are fairly happy with it. All the testing we connect for remote access. “We’ve done some initial testing and
roaming places, and I suppose that’s how have done, we haven’t found any prob- This allows the company to establish a really we’re finding that with 70 or 80 MB
they make their money.” lems as such. It has a robust firewall on it, secure VPN as a base for its sessions, and you can be on it for hours,” said Mr Dorigo.
Mr Dorigo notes that this type of we’re fairly happy with it.” allows for the use of specific access tools. “You can greatly reduce all the colours
arrangement wasn’t just a new departure Initially, Mr Dorigo had hoped to get “The Wavetec system on the original and the screen resolution, we can control
for his company, but also for the commu- some of his industry colleagues at other four ships (in the US and Canada) will things like that. We’re still trying to keep
nications provider. shipping companies involved in the proj- give you a public IP address, but it’s one of the cost down, but we want the speed.”
“The SIM card deal, I’m the first one ect, to help to spread the development cost those public IP addresses with NAT (net- It is also worth noting that, having got-
that asked for it. They never had that kind – though it soon became apparent that work address translation) so you will ten a taste of what could be achieved by
of request before,” he told us. outside interest was lacking. never be able to reach back to the ship,” extending its communications options to
“I’ve seen some internet offers for vari- “When we were doing the firmware said Mr Dorigo. the ships, Norbulk has now also increased
ous things that I looked at, where you and everything we were trying to see if we
could cap your roaming charges, and I was could get a big bulk order to reduce the
quite happy with them until I discovered price, I did offer some colleagues who are
that you couldn’t connect back in to the working in the industry with me to join
ship’s system. So I had to keep looking.” me, but not that many people were inter-
Having reached an agreement with a ested,” he noted.
communications provider on the 3G serv- “So we’ve done it alone, the whole
ices, the company also had to create an thing.”
infrastructure that would allow the ships’ “The idea initially was that the more we
networks to connect when in range. ordered the smaller the price would be, so
Norbulk decided to do this by creating we could split the various costs. But I
its own 3G ship routers, which would use placed my order and split it between my
standard industrial hardware but would ships, and it still made sense.”
be loaded with firmware specifically creat-
ed for its purposes. Remote access
“The initial cost for us was on the While the main driver for Norbulk in
firmware, we developed the firmware rolling out 3G technology to its ships was
with our colleagues in China and that The system uses standard 3G routers, but with specially developed firmware
to provide internet access to the crew, it

Digital Ship March 2013 page 16

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Digital Ship
its standard Iridium satellite communica-
tions package that it uses outside of 3G
bled by the crew too, you don’t need
cranes or anything like that, so it may
Kordia extends Aussie comms contract
coverage areas. make sense. I’m talking to some people. www.kordia.com.au work refresh project that will see major
“We discovered that we had started to We may do a trial on a few ships and see components of the network, including the
exceed (the 50 MB allowance). People just how it goes.” The Australian Maritime Safety Authority transmitters, receivers and control system,
keep asking for more and more data, and One way or another, Mr Dorigo (AMSA) has extended its current contract replaced over the next 18 months.”
it has to happen now,” said Mr Dorigo. believes that in the future, the amount of with Kordia Solutions Australia on a multi “AMSA congratulates Kordia on their
“It’s the regulations, but also our data required to effectively run a shipping term basis, that could see the relationship record of sterling service and looks for-
clients. The more you give them, the more company is only going to increase. continue for a further ten years. ward to partnering with them into 2018
they want – which is fine. The 200 MB “It’s the only way forward for every- Kordia designed, built, maintains and and beyond.”
package from Iridium is a good deal, so it body,” he said. operates the High Frequency (HF) mar- Frequentis Australasia is to provide
makes sense.” “Even if you’re an owner-manager, itime communications network for technology for use in the provision of the
“We’re hoping not to go over that, but you’ll still want all the data, but for us, our Australia’s Search and Rescue Region, a GMDSS in Australia, under contract with
the more you open things up the more clients are asking for more and more and critical element in the delivery of the Kordia Australia.
people want.” more, and it has to be now. So for us it Global Maritime Distress and Safety In fulfilment of this deal Frequentis will
makes sense to look at new systems that System (GMDSS) across one of the largest provide its MCS3020 plus VCXiP and T&T
Future projects are cheap to run.” ocean areas in the world, covering approx- Rel 2.6 covering DSC, voice communica-
Having already started to see the compa- “We’re working with budgets and need imately 52 million sq km. tion, scheduled weather fax transmission,
ny’s data usage rise, and with it discov- to make proposals on how to move for- As part of the agreement, a number of scheduled voice broadcast for weather
ered new ways to use that data to create ward, and I suppose some kind of always- key network elements will be refreshed, reports and navigational warnings.
new operational benefits, Mr Dorigo is on connection is the only way forward. But taking advantage of new and improved A maritime Radio Telex Service
continuing to look forward to evaluate it’s a lot of money, and there are still a lot of technologies. (NBDP) is also included.
where Norbulk might be able to further ships that aren’t making a lot of money.” “The refreshed contract builds on a All services are implemented utilising
extend its capabilities in the future. In the end, the major maritime stum- relationship spanning 10 years of excellent HF radio technology and a satellite based
The goal is to do things cheaper, quick- bling block remains – convincing those service to AMSA and the maritime indus- IP communication network.
er and easier – though he notes that, with the money that they can, in fact, try,” said Amanda MacKinnell, manager The Australian SAR (search and rescue)
unfortunately, ‘cheaper’ is often a very make more money implementing new planning & business support, Emergency region is a massive area covering 11 per
key word in these decisions. Having said technologies than continuing on with less Response Division, AMSA. cent of the world’s surface. The project
that however, in the right circumstances efficient systems. “The extension provides for continued will be delivered in 2013 and includes a
and with the right package there are com- “If you propose something like this to operation of the service, as well as a net- long term maintenance contract.
munications deals which could be tempt- your clients they probably laugh at you.
ing to the company. It’s one of those things,” said Mr Dorigo.
Keep your finger on the pulse with our
“We spotted some cheap VSAT pack- “But I know they will be pretty happy
weekly e-mail newsletter and our online
ages, around the $1,000 per month mark with this 3G project. Once we get past
network for maritime IT professionals
that we might look at. For $1,000 per these bad times and people start to make
month, we’re going near to that anyway for money again, maybe it will be an easier
our 200 MB on Iridium,” said Mr Dorigo. option to talk about. For now, we do the www.thedigitalship.com
“These new VSAT units can be assem- best that we can and see how it goes.” DS

Digital Ship March 2013 page 17

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SATCOMS

Crew communication survey

reveals interesting results
A recent Crew Communications survey for the maritime industry has found that 68 per cent of crews are now
connected, and that 70 per cent are willing to pay for access, writes Roger Adamson, Stark Moore Macmillan

F
or many years the safety of ships Group by Astrium in December 2011. In Average Total Spend by Service
and crews drove developments in the second quarter of 2012, keen to
maritime satellite communications. address the lack of real data from seafar-
The huge investments in satellite infra- ers, Astrium Services set out to undertake
structure required by organisations such as a comprehensive survey of officers’ and
Inmarsat, and the complex nature of the ratings’ usage of, and requirements for,
technology, translated into costly terminals crew communication solutions in the com-
and airtime for ship owners and operators. mercial shipping sector.
Until recently, traditional L-band servic- “The objective was to establish a clear
es dominated and there was little choice picture of current crew communications
when it came to the type of communica- requirements, the level of access to com-
tions system fitted, but the advent of VSAT munications, what crew paid for these
networks and Inmarsat FleetBroadband services and how they paid for them,”
has ushered in a new era of higher-band- says Tilmann Michalke, senior product
width – and with it, new opportunity. manager crew communications at
Ships are now becoming highly function- Astrium Services.
al remote offices, integrated with corporate “Many shipping companies face staff
networks and other applications, including retention issues and these solutions can
those to improve vessel management, and, represent an attractive incentive to crew
importantly, extend the communications members.”
infrastructure to personnel on board. “Astrium currently provides the most Carriers Inc. and CF Sharp Crew sailed on commercial vessels in the Dry
Crew welfare and communications has advanced pre-paid and crew communica- Management Inc. Bulk, General Cargo, Container, Gas / Car
been a consistent driver in the develop- tions solutions portfolio on the market. These two companies handle the Carrier, Offshore, Passenger and Tanker
ment of satellite communication products The only way we can ensure it remains so arrival and departure of approximately sectors.
and services for some years. The signifi- is by understanding today’s and tomor- 47,000 crew per annum, providing officers 62 per cent of the respondents served
cant upswing in web and social network row’s needs of crew and ship-owners, and and ratings to over 1,000 vessels in the on commercial cargo carrying vessels
usage means that the expectations of the building propositions for their different Tanker, Gas, Bulk, General Cargo, whilst 38 per cent of respondents served
new generation of seafarers are markedly requirements and budgets.” Container, Offshore, Car Carrier and on Passenger vessels.
different than those of their predecessors. To undertake the ambitious study, Passenger sectors. The majority of respondents (75 per
However, whilst ship owners and Astrium Services turned to my company, We were fortunate to be working with cent) were aged between 25 and 44 with
operators are focussed on communica- Stark Moore Macmillan, based on our two such respected companies who were only 6 per cent less than 24 years in age.
tions as a key plank of their crew reten- experience in data collection and interpre- extremely keen themselves to understand This latter group also had the lowest per-
tion strategy, actual qualitative and quan- tation, having previously undertaken the crew communications landscape, and centage of officers of any age group. The
titative research among crew themselves studies, both independently and in associ- the quality and volume of the data from largest concentration of officers (43 per
is comparatively rare, and certainly ation with industry partners, to address respondents was unprecedented. cent) was in the 35-44 year age range.
unavailable on any significant scale. gaps in understanding and identify trends The survey was completed by 960
within the maritime sector. Filipino officers and ratings departing the Findings
Crew survey In order to deliver the volume of sea- Philippines to commercial vessels during Chief amongst the findings is that access
Astrium Services’ new Business farer responses necessary we worked in 2012. to communications equipment onboard
Communications division was created fol- conjunction with two major Philippine The sample group consisted of 12 per shows an improving picture, with 68 per
lowing the acquisition of the Vizada crewing agents, Philippine Transmarine cent officers and 88 per cent ratings who cent of all respondents stating that they

Monthly Expenditure by Sector Payment Methods at Sea

Digital Ship March 2013 page 18

p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:17 Page 19

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p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:17 Page 20

SATCOMS

Percentage of Seafarers with no Access had access to communications equipment had access to free services compared with
to Free Communications - by Sector most or all of the time they were at sea. 65 per cent of officers.
30 per cent of respondents said that Access to credit cards was significantly
they had access only sometimes, and just 2 more widespread amongst officers than
per cent indicated that they were never ratings and officers had a greater tendency
provided access. to use online payment methods such as
In terms of communications services online banking and PayPal. This suggests
generally provided onboard for crew, it is that they not only had access to a wider
those sectors with high data requirements range of payment methods but could also
that provide the greatest level of onboard access these online services readily whilst
communications. at sea.
Probably as a result of its widespread However, in general the overall picture
use of VSAT technology, the Passenger is similar for officers and ratings, with
sector provides crew with the highest lev- deductions from salary, cash and crew
els of communications equipment, whilst payment cards still favoured onboard.
those sectors with lower data require- When it came to their appetite for
ments and less advanced communications internet whilst at sea, overall 68 per cent
infrastructure had fewest services avail- of the group answered that that they
able to crew. would be prepared to pay to access inter-
Despite having access to these services net content, increasing to 80 per cent for
whilst at sea, 46 per cent of respondents the officer subset.
were not provided with any form of Perhaps less surprisingly, when asked
free communications services by ship to identify the top websites they would
operators. visit if access were granted, Facebook was
The service most often provided free of the most popular and the first choice of
charge to seafarers was text-only nearly half of all respondents.
e-mails, with no attachments. However, In addition, just under half of all
Percentage of Services Provided Free to Crew this was only available to 20 per cent of respondents said that they would be pre-
respondents. Other services were typically pared to pay to access on-demand media
available free to less than 15 per cent of services consisting of video and audio
respondents. podcasts, but there were marked differ-
This lack of free communications whilst ences between ages and ranks, both in
at sea is further reinforced by responses by their appetite and willingness to pay for
sector. Ironically, it is the Passenger sector, such services.
with the greatest range of service provi- Officers were more prepared to pay
sion, that provides the least free of charge than ratings, with 61 per cent indicating
access to crew. they would pay, compared to 47 per cent
66 per cent of respondents from the for ratings. Ironically, it would seem that it
Passenger sector were not provided with is the older, higher-ranking seafarers who
any free communications services at all, have the money and inclination to spend
and crew in many major commercial sec- on services who are being provided the
tors also fared badly. most access free of charge.
Only in the Offshore sector, where
qualified crew are in short supply and Spread the word
charterer requirements dictate high band- For any ship owner, operator or maritime
width satellite solutions, are crew commu- satcom supplier the full data offers a time-
nications widely available free of charge. ly and fascinating level of detail about the
Crew were questioned as to their pre- requirements of seafarers in an environ-
ferred method of access to crew communi- ment rapidly being transformed by digital
cations and the answer across all vessel technology and expectations.
types, ages and ranks, was clear: via the Astrium believes that, with the advent
use of a laptop with a Wi-Fi connection. of new high throughput satellite networks
Call quality was rated the most impor- including IridiumNEXT, Inmarsat’s
tant element of service delivery, followed Global Xpress and Intelsat’s EPIC, the
by price, security and privacy. results offer the type of insight required to
However, when questioned about their develop the solutions and the crew reten-
spend on communications both at sea and tion strategies of the future.
in coastal waters, there was a strong diver- “Clearly this data is extremely valu-
gence between officers and ratings. able, but it’s key that the voice of seafarers
Provision of Free Services: Officers vs Ratings Respondents’ average actual spend was is heard by ship operators and solution
$150/month, which, as a fraction of dis- providers,” points out Tilmann Michalke.
posable income, represents approximately “That’s why we took the decision to
17 per cent of officers’ disposable income share some of the key findings with the
and 40 per cent of ratings’ disposable maritime industry as a free whitepaper.
income – but in reality, officers’ spend was By doing so we hope to give those who
approximately twice that of ratings’. took part in the survey the best chance of
The highest levels of expenditure on seeing a real benefit from it.” DS
crew communications were made in the
Passenger, Tanker and Car Carrier sectors.
There was no discernible difference
About the Author
between levels of access to communica-
Roger Adamson is CEO of maritime
tions services granted to officers com-
marketing company Stark Moor
pared to ratings, which indicates that com-
Macmillan. This article is based a
pany policy on access is being applied
whitepaper commissioned by satcom
evenly between the groups.
service provider Astrium Services, and
There were, however, significant differ-
produced by Stark Moore Macmillan.
ences in the provision of free services,
You can download the full Research
with officers being provided with more
Whitepaper free of charge at:
free communications services in general
http://goo.gl/9Q4WB
than ratings. Overall, 50 per cent of ratings

Digital Ship March 2013 page 20

p1-21:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:20 Page 21

Ship Shape

t Reliable pole-to-pole global coverage All your maritime communications reporting for duty
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Delivering email, weather, crew calling
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Iridium Pilot delivers reliable, high-performance global voice and data
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t Best value installation and airtime peace of mind — no matter where you are.

www.iridiumpilot.com
p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:25 Page 1

SOFTWARE

DNV and GL to merge

www.dnv.com Hamburg our decision for this partner-
www.gl-group.com ship is based on the complementary fit
of DNV and GL as well as the joint ambi-
An agreement has been signed to merge tion for innovation and quality of both
DNV and GL, creating a new entity called companies.”
DNV GL Group. “As a long-term oriented shareholder
The DNV Foundation will hold 63.5 per we consider this partnership to be the con-

Best Man in Place. cent of the new organisation, while GL's

owner Mayfair SE will hold 36.5 per cent
of the shares. The new company, with a
tinuation of our successful investment in
Germanischer Lloyd.”
In related news, the German Aerospace
combined turnover of approximately €2.5 Center (DLR) and GL have renewed and
billion, will be headquartered in Høvik, expanded a strategic innovation coopera-
outside of Oslo, and registered in Norway. tion agreement between the organisations,
DNV GL Group will be organised as a to jointly identify and develop new tech-
Norwegian limited company (AS), with nologies and applications for the shipping
the transaction now requiring approval industry.
from competition authorities. The agreement will build upon the
“We see this as a good strategic match. cooperation of the two partners which
The two companies have a common set of began in 2010 with joint projects that
values and complementary strengths,” aimed at addressing ship emissions,
said Leif-Arne Langøy, the chairman of indoor navigation, advanced materials
DNV's board of directors. and wave prediction via satellite.
“Both have strong brands and solid “The maritime industry has begun to
market positions as well as a reputation take a hard look at the ways in which it
for high quality and strong integrity. operates, especially in the area of energy
There were negotiations between DNV efficiency and the use of new fuels,”
and GL both in 1999 and in 2006 on closer explained Dr Pierre C. Sames, head of
cooperation. I am very pleased that the GL's department of research and rule
timing now seems to be right.” development.
DNV GL Group aims to operate in the “With optimisation of ship hydrody-
maritime, oil & gas, energy and business namic performance becoming rapidly
assurance sectors, with the maritime busi- standard, we now see the optimisation of
ness unit to be headquartered in ship structures as an additional target,
Hamburg, Germany. with a view to applying modern non-steel
Oil & Gas will be headquartered at materials, and this is certainly a field
Høvik, while Energy will be headquar- where bringing together creative minds
tered in Arnhem, the Netherlands, with a from both our industries can result in the
hub for renewables in Bristol, UK, and emergence of new and innovative ideas.”
Business Assurance in Milan, Italy. GL and the DLR Institute of
“DNV is the partner of choice for Communications and Navigation are both
GL,” said Guenter Herz, chairman of founding members of the 'Network for
Mayfair SE. Maritime Applications' at the Research
“Besides DNV's clear commitment to Port of Rostock.

Hinrich Stahl, Maryland GmbH; Erik van der Noordaa, CEO of GL Group;

GL CrewManager. and DNV CEO, Henrik Madsen

Software and IT services company Star Information Systems (SIS)

Let GL CrewManager support you in optimally manning your vessels Inatech has appointed Alok Sharma as today announced that Erik Sarmento
and in making intelligent use of your crew pool, while assuring full European head of sales for its recently Staubo has joined the company as head of
compliance with rules and regulations like MLC 2006. launched Marine Solutions Unit. Based at oil & gas. This appointment sees Mr
the company’s UK headquarters, Mr Staubo rejoin SIS, having spent three years
Sharma will be responsible for the at the company up until January 2006 as
GL CrewManager – part of most innovative and comprehensive European sales of Inatech’s ShipTECH area manager for the organisation’s ship-
software portfolio in the maritime industry. Shipping Solution, used to manage the ping activities.
procurement process and manage risk,
and Inatech’s BunkerTECH Bunkering
Solution, developed to manage bunker www.inatech.com
www.gl-maritime-software.com fuel. www.sismarine.com

Digital Ship March 2013 page 22

p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 15:23 Page 2

Digital Ship
NSC to leverage condition monitoring data CMA goes for ShipServ
www.gl-group.com costly and time-consuming, especially in www.shipserv.com major container company to the ShipServ
the case of piston overhauls for large community,” said Lars Bratshaug, VP
German shipping company NSC diesel engines. The dismantling and re- ShipServ has signed a new deal with CMA sales EMEA for ShipServ.
Schifffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Cie. KG assembling of the engines always holds Ships, the wholly owned fleet and crew “To bring such a highly-respected
(NSC) is to use Condition Monitoring the risk of damaging a system which is management subsidiary of the CMA CGM operator onto TradeNet really demon-
(CM) data to reduce the number of open- running well.” group, for the provision of e-commerce strates that ShipServ is the preferred part-
up inspections across its fleet. GL offers the CM survey arrangement services. ner in this sector. We look forward to
A survey arrangement with for crank-train bearings and pistons of 2- CMA Ships will take advantage of a working with CMA Ships as they use
Germanischer Lloyd on the main diesel stroke diesel engines, as well as for rotating number of new modules available on TradeNet in the future.”
engine pistons of 49 GL-classed vessels auxiliary machinery, such as centrifugal TradeNet, including e-invoicing and e- ShipServ says that, with more than 15
will see condition monitoring trend data, pumps, electric motors, fans and purifiers. logistics. containership owners and operators trad-
for example from regular inspections The Marseille-based company is cur- ing on its system, it has close to a 50 per cent
through the scavenge ports of large 2- rently responsible for the procurement share of vessels in the liner sector. These
stroke diesel engines, documented in elec- activities of around 100 container vessels, companies include AP Moller-Maersk,
tronic forms provided by the engine and will connect to ShipServ through its Mediterranean Shipping Company,
designer and presented annually for current BASSNet fleet management soft- Seaspan Corporation, NYK Line, CSAV
analysis at GL's head office. ware suite. Group, K Line, MISC, Matson, Crowley
After evaluation and assessment of the “We are delighted to welcome such a Lines Reederei and Claus-Peter Offen.
data, according to the engine designer's
instructions and class rules, a statement is
sent back to the superintendent and for-
warded to the vessel. This statement can
Chinese shipping company
then be recognised during the next annual
class survey performed by GL surveyors. in AMOS deal
If there are no indications of areas of
concern with the machinery, the surveyor www.spectec.net Maintenance and purchase orders will
is encouraged to credit the respective com- be centralised within the fleet, and con-
ponents - without resorting to a further SpecTec has agreed a deal to proceed with nected at the company’s Head Office. The
open-up inspection. an AMOS installation project for Shanghai system will also be used to keep ships’
“The prevention of unnecessary open- Jinjiang Shipping Co. Ltd (JJ Shipping). stock items under control.
up inspections and surveys is one of the The collaboration agreement covers an SpecTec will install the AMOS software
significant benefits of the CM survey initial AMOS installation order for eight on the eight ships over the course of 2013.
arrangement,” says Dr Jörg Rebel, GL’s Diesel Engine Pistons are among the items ships. The installation project covers JJ Shipping specialises in near- sea
condition monitoring expert. that can be monitored under the new Maintenance, Purchasing and Stock international container transportation and
“Open-up inspections and surveys are arrangements Control modules of the software. conducts Yangtze River feeder services.

Upcoming events
CYPRUS HONG KONG
23 - 25 April 2013 30 - 31 October 2013

DIGITAL SHIP @ NOR-SHIPPING ATHENS

5 June 2013 27 - 28 November 2013

SINGAPORE KOREA
1 - 2 OCTOBER 2013 13 - 14 MAY 2014

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: [email protected]  +44 20 3287 9317  + 44 118 919 7827

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Digital Ship March 2013 page 23
p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:26 Page 3

SOFTWARE

Videotel polishes garbage program Seafarers app

http://videotel.com “Garbage isn’t high on the agenda Annex V will have an enormous impact on launched
for many senior executives in most busi- the ways ships handle their waste and
Videotel reports that it has updated its nesses,” says Nigel Cleave, CEO of demands an entirely new approach to www.itfglobal.org/seafarers-trust
Garbage Management training pro- Videotel Marine International. waste management. The whole onus of
gramme in response to new updates to “But for shipowners and shipmanagers responsibility has changed. Effectively, The ITF Seafarers’ Trust has published a
MARPOL Annex V that entered into force the prevention of pollution and the proper the regulations are now about preventing smartphone app, focused on seafarers’
on January 1, 2013. management of waste is a key issue. the discharge of waste at sea.” needs.
“Where in the past most categories of 'Shore Leave' is an offline app, which
garbage could be discharged in limited allows seafarers to store the contact details
circumstances, that rule has been reversed of all ITF Seafarers’ Trust centres around
and most waste streams may now not be the world. The data for the app has been
discharged at sea except under certain supplied by the ICSW.
strict conditions. In addition, written evi- The current version is available for
dence of compliance must be readily Android, via the Google Play store, and
available.” through Blackberry's Appworld. An
Videotel notes that, under the new leg- iPhone version is expected to be available
islation, shipowners and operators must shortly.
now plan their whole garbage manage- The app allows seafarers to contact the
ment strategy in advance, with the empha- nearest seafarers’ centre in a few clicks,
sis on minimisation and disposal in port and ask for transport, telephone cards or
reception facilities. any other kind of assistance provided.
Port control officers are empowered to
inspect ships for compliance, and where
there is clear evidence that the Master and
crew are not familiar with procedures
relating to the prevention of pollution by
garbage the vessel can be detained until
this is rectified.
The new Garbage Management train-
ing package from Videotel demonstrates
how to comply with the revised regula-
tions on garbage collection, processing,
storage, disposal and record-keeping
using the Garbage Record Book.
It also presents good practice guidance
to assist Masters, officers, ship operators
and owners to reduce and manage self-
generated garbage more effectively.
It is available through Videotel on
Improve your knowledge of garbage with Videotel Demand (VOD), DVD, CBT and Workbooks.

Regs4ships expands digital service

The App provides a range of information
www.regs4ships.com ship containing the required flag state doc- cal publication requirements, which for seafarers visiting global ports
umentation along with amendments and means vessels can carry the discs on board
Regs4ships has announced the launch of updates to the international legislation. An and dispense with regulations printed on
the 17th flag product for its Digital
Maritime Regulations Service.
update dashboard illustrates any changes.
The compliance solution is recognised
paper.
Additional flags are being prepared for
Seagull
Regs4ships will offer a Vanuatu regula-
tions product that contains all relevant
by flag states and the IMO as being digi-
tally equivalent for their carriage of nauti-
launch in 2013 and the 18th product will
be launched in the spring.
announces new
flag state documentation along with digi-
tal copies of SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW, CBTs
ILO Conventions and EU Legislation.
Customers will have access to Vanuatu www.seagull.no
maritime Acts, regulations, bulletins, fleet
safety letters and forms. Seagull has announced the release of six
The system also offers the option to new CBT titles to add to its library of
subscribe to additional IMO and interna- Computer Based Training (CBT) modules.
tional regulatory guidance, codes and con- The new titles will be available for both
ventions, including the IMDG Code. onboard and online training.
The Vanuatu flag state regulations have Seagull has also updated and revised
been added to those of 16 of the world’s six of its existing CBT titles.
most popular flag states, including The new titles cover Bunker Fraud;
Panama, the Red Ensign Group flags, Development of Heavy Weather; Safe
Liberia and the Marshall Islands. operation and maintenance of Grinding
The Digital Maritime Regulations serv- wheels; Anchor Mooring procedures;
ice provides fleet managers, HSEQ execu- Seafarer Appraisal; and Behavior Based
tives and DPAs with access to a web- Safety.
based version of the product, while ves- The titles that have been revised
sels can utilise the service by subscribing include Ship General Safety; ISM Code;
to a compliance disc service. Vanuatu is the 17th flag to be added to the service Flue Gas Plant; Vessel Structural
Bi-monthly update discs are sent to the Condition; IALA Buoyage; and Marine
Fuel Properties II.

Digital Ship March 2013 page 24

p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:28 Page 4

Digital Ship
TORM to implement Sertica 4th Annual Digital Ship Hamburg
www.sertica.dk Up until now the Technical Division
and its departments has used a multitude
27 & 28 February 2013, Magnushall
Danish shipping company TORM has of different systems for technical mainte- A full range of presentations, discussion panels, workshops, case studies
signed a contract with Logimatic to imple- nance, support, purchasing, documenta-
and networking events are planned for 2 days for you to meet Germany’s
ment the Sertica solution as its Fleet tion and certificates, vetting and safety
Management System. functions – following the implementation,
experts in satellite communication, maritime IT and navigation technology.
TORM’s global operation includes the the Sertica system will be used to manage
operation of approximately 130 tankers all of these areas.
and bulk carriers, and the new system will Having one single global platform
be used to manage maintenance, safety, should allow the Technical Division to
performance and protection of the envi- have a greater overview of the operations
ronment. of the company, while also simplifying
TORM’s Technical Division will be the data management. It will also include a
primary users of the software. dry-dock module.

Book your
seat now!
Contact details:
For programme enquiries, If you would like to register for For information on sponsorship
please contact: this event, please contact: or exhibition, please contact:
Irina Darie Narges Jodeyri Youngsuk Park
 +44 20 7017 3417  +44 20 7017 3406  +44 20 3287 9317
 [email protected]  [email protected]  [email protected]
Michael Paarup, CEO of Logimatic; Hans Christian Jensen, sales manager, Logimatic;
and Allan Rasmussen, vice president of fleet & newbuilding support, TORM

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Digital Ship March 2013 page 25

p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:26 Page 5

SOFTWARE

Putting trust in the internet

We are entering the critical phase of the Age of Trust for maritime e-commerce as mechanisms help overcome
the issues of doing business over the web, writes Mark Warner, ShipServ

ccording to a survey carried out

A in the US by market-research firm

Harris Interactive last year, 98 per
cent of people distrust the internet.
The firm surveyed 1,900 Americans,
yielding the overwhelming statistic that
they have little trust in the information we
find and use online.
Thankfully, the Internet and Social
Media Use in Shipping survey we carried
out at the end of last year with 150
shipowners, managers and key suppliers
wasn’t quite as pessimistic and showed
that companies are slowly but surely trust-
ing the internet as a platform for business.
But it did reinforce the fact that trust is
vitally important in an online environ-
ment.
Traditional trade over the centuries has
been shaped and standardised through a
number of associated sectors and institu-
tions that have acted as middlemen to
help us trade on a global scale.
Institutions such as banks, insurers and
dealers have provided mechanisms to
help us buy and sell and also provide
information to help us to learn and most
importantly TRUST our trading partners.
Let’s face it, trust always has been and
always will be at the core of business rela- Maritime companies are increasing their usage of the internet to do business, and have developed
tionships, whether online or offline. a growing level of trust in completing transactions online
Arguably it becomes more prominent in
the online environment, especially if a
transaction is carried out without any eras/ages of e-commerce that have devel- the first five years of connectivity, we Growing trust
prior face-to-face contact. oped in the last thirteen years: were able to begin to expose this informa- But trust and the internet have not always
When the internet came along in the Connectivity, Information and Trust tion through the creation a supplier direc- made for easy bedfellows. In the early
late 1990s there was talk about disinterme- When ShipServ launched in 2000, we tory providing the ability to match buyers days of the internet, users simply didn’t
diation, even in the shipping industry, but went through a period of five years of with relevant suppliers according to trad- understand it or failed to grasp its poten-
this didn’t happen as fast as we all helping to connect both buyers and sup- ing history. tial, and there are still many even now that
thought, as the trust mechanisms were pliers, which can now be described as the The information period and the cura- prefer to ignore it.
missing from the new digital world that age of connectivity. tion of data aided by social media has Even as its influence has grown, many
needed to be put in place first. Once we had enough buyers (shipown- gained growth and traction over the last business users have remained wary of
ers and shipmanagers) connecting with five years, and we are now entering the embracing e-commerce and the internet as
Changing eras suppliers across the globe, came the age of age of trust – and this is where the tech- a staple means of doing business. If you
From our perspective in shipping e-com- sharing, curating and using information. nology provided by the internet can be were to place shipping’s adoption of e-
merce, we can now see three clear Using the knowledge gained through really powerful. commerce on the classic technology bell

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Digital Ship March 2013 page 26

p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:26 Page 6

Digital Ship
curve, it would still only be in the early But as trust still continues to guide
majority phase. behaviour while users are online and
But the internet has shaken off its grow- using e-commerce, new trust mechanisms
ing pains and has emerged into something are helping to bridge the gap with tradi-
new, driven by the phenomenon that is tional offline business relationships.
social media and the plain fact that busi- The growth of eBay, Amazon and
ness users are familiar with using Amazon TripAdvisor has been built on the ratings
and e-Bay, so are now more trusting in a and rankings of their community of users
B2B context. and these are now common in B2B.
Our survey last year showed that a lack Reviews were only part of the trust
of trust is still the biggest barrier to ship- mechanisms that we implemented at
ping companies using the internet to ShipServ alongside TradeRank and
trade, but this has decreased dramatically Verifications, enabling buyers to gauge
from the previous surveys in 2010 and each supplier by their activity and recom-
2011. mendations from peers.
The same survey showed that the issue Now users not only know what suppli-
of lack of understanding of using the inter- ers say they do, but can see what they
net to trade has decreased substantially actually do through their trading history
from the previous two years. and also see what others say they do
This shows a very noticeable shift in through reviews and brand verification –
attitude in the understanding of the bene- which ultimately means that they have
fits associated with e-commerce as people three separate but important trust mecha-
are no longer asking why they should use nisms to judge whether they are worth
it but asking how they can use it to gain trading with.
the biggest advantage. And as the Age of Trust continues, it
This is a seismic change and was high- will be vitally important to keep develop-
lighted by the fact that 85 per cent of users ing further tools and services that will
felt that e-commerce in shipping would increase the ease of trading with partners
increase over the next 12 months. around the globe. DS

About the author

Mark Warner is business development director with maritime e-commerce
provider ShipServ. He has previously worked as deputy editor on Lloyds
Shipping Economist, content manager for Lloyds List, and head of digital
for Informa’s Maritime and Professional Division

The trusted name in fleet management

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www.eagle.org

Digital Ship March 2013 page 27

p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:26 Page 7

SOFTWARE

Competing in a new era of

marine terminal management
The latest generation of terminal optimisation technology is helping third-party terminal operators
to streamline key self-assessment and reporting procedures now mandated by major oil companies
– making the process more efficient than ever before, writes Jason Tieman, PortVision
erminal operators have a new set System (MTIS) initiative, which is aimed trends that can be used to target resources wants to win business from OCIMF mem-

T of challenges to navigate, thanks to

expectations that were recently set
by the Oil Companies International
at improving marine terminal safety and
environmental protection standards.
The MTMSA document includes best
in priority areas.
A fundamental element of effective
safety management is risk assessment, and
ber companies, and it has been speculated
that it will become mandatory in the future.
The MTMSA guide will be joined in
Marine Forum (OCIMF). practice guidance based on current interna- the OCIMF believes that use of the guide 2013 by the final two elements of the MTIS
With the goal of improving safety and tional legislation and recognised industry will also assist terminal operators in initiative: the Marine Terminal Operator
environmental protection standards guidelines and codes of practice. In addition, demonstrating that risks have been identi- Training System (MTOTS), and the
throughout the industry, the OCIMF the online version includes supplementary fied, analysed and reduced to a level that Marine Terminal Assessor Accreditation
recently published its Terminal information via a ‘Help’ facility to assist is as low as reasonably practicable. Programme (MTAAP).
Management and Self Assessment users when completing the assessment. The MTMSA guide also can be used by Among the most challenging MTMSA
(MTMSA) guide, which establishes stan- elements to benchmark, monitor, evaluate
dardised Key Performance Indicators and improve are those having to do with
(KPIs) and best practices that terminal vessel and dock activities.
operators can use to assess management This includes KPIs regarding vessels,
system effectiveness for berth operations their movements and their contracted per-
and the ship-to-shore interface. sonnel, as well as the safety and efficiency
Major oil companies will be using this of the dock’s layout and various dock oper-
guide to evaluate their own terminals and ations including scheduling, liquid cargo
those of prospective third-party operators. transfer activities, and communication and
Those operators who fail to upload their information sharing both inside the organi-
results to the OCIMF database and achieve sation and between the dock team and var-
high enough scores may find themselves ious port and harbour entities.
losing business to competitors who do. These KPIs can be more easily moni-
While the oil majors may have ample tored, reviewed, optimised and reported
resources with which to implement an using maritime enterprise business solu-
MTMSA program throughout their own tions with Automatic Identification
company managed terminals, smaller System (AIS) based vessel tracking.
third-party operators serving these organ-
isations are likely to find the process chal- How technology can help
lenging, costly and time-consuming. Terminal process optimisation platforms
Now, these small- to medium- sized have already been used for OCIMF KPI
operators can speed up and simplify sev- measurement related to TMSA guidelines,
eral important MTMSA measurement and adopted by approximately 90 per cent of
reporting tasks – and improve their scores all tanker operators.
– using the same terminal process optimi- For instance, enterprise business solu-
sation platforms that are already widely tions have provided a platform for moni-
used to improve visibility, accelerate key toring and assessing fleet-related TMSA
terminal processes and activities, and pro- KPIs that involve high levels of data inte-
vide an enterprise view of operations gration, a collaborative approach to man-
across multiple sites. aging voyages, and the ability to move
The latest terminal enterprise software information across departments.
suites combine a database of both real- Now, similar benefits can be realised by
time and historical vessel movement data terminal operators who must implement
with dock management, scheduling, the extensive MTMSA guidelines.
analysis and reporting tools. The latest terminal optimisation solu-
These kinds of platforms have been tions can provide a web-based service
implemented by most major oil companies platform that integrates vessel tracking,
and a large number of terminal operators to dock management and analysis in a single,
improve scheduling, vetting, logistics, loss convenient operational dashboard for
control and demurrage management, while Modern technology is vital in managing the movement of vessels in and out of oil terminals marine terminal operators.
streamlining activities associated with front Platforms such as these can be used by
line dock activities and management. OCIMF members as well as non-member
These platforms can similarly be used The format of the MTMSA guide is con- both OCIMF members and third-party petrochemical refineries, third-party mid-
to expedite many important elements of sistent with that of its forerunner, the terminals (including non-member termi- stream facilities and other marine terminal
the MTMSA process, specifically in the OCIMF Tanker Management and Self nals) to develop their own internal review organisations to optimise marine opera-
area of vessel and dock operations span- Assessment (TMSA) guide. The MTMSA methodology, and to continuously improve tions in the petrochemical supply chain.
ning many terminals. guide replaces the OCIMF’s earlier Marine their safety and environment performance Terminal process optimisation plat-
Terminal Baseline Criteria publication, while identifying and sharing best practice forms are designed specifically to enhance
The MTMSA Guide and provides the industry with a uniform around their terminal network. visibility and improve terminal business
The hard copy MTMSA publication and structure recognised by oil majors for self- Additionally, terminal operators are management, analytics, reporting and
an eBook version are available from assessment of terminal activity. encouraged to submit the results of their operational safety and efficiency.
Witherby Seamanship International, and According to the OCIMF, the MTMSA self-assessments online to OCIMF’s cen- Combined with purpose-built dock
the web based program can be found on self assessment process encourages ter- tral database for distribution to recipients management tools, these platforms sup-
the OCIMF’s website, at www.ocimf.com. minal operators to review performance by approved by the terminal operator. port dock scheduling, comprehensive
The MTMSA Working Group describes means of the key performance indicators While this is currently a voluntary dock activity logging, and business intelli-
the guide as “a significant milestone” in its (KPIs) that are detailed within the docu- process, it is likely to become a de facto gence reporting.
larger Marine Terminal Information ment. Analysis of this data will establish requirement for any terminal operator that They also provide real time opera-

Digital Ship March 2013 page 28

p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:26 Page 8

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p22-30:p1-14.qxd 08/02/2013 12:26 Page 9

SOFTWARE

tional benefits such as predictive ETA of They should also enable response and
inbound vessels, and real-time alerting of task duration times to be benchmarked and
stakeholders based on dock schedule reported, so that this information can be
changes. In addition, they can be used to shared with contractors and used to review
streamline MTMSA KPI evaluation and and measure performance. All event-based
reporting in the following areas: KPIs are captured once they have been
Management, Leadership and identified and agreed upon for use.
Accountability – Policies and Procedures Port and Harbour Operations
Challenge: This element includes KPIs Challenge: The MTMSA guidelines
and best practice guidance related to have established KPIs and best practices
maintaining vessel compatibility criteria for this element in areas including infor-
for each berth, demonstrating that nomi- mation exchange between the vessel and
nated vessels accepted by the terminal terminal before the vessel berths, and the
meet minimum standards of safe opera- terminal’s ability to ensure that all internal
tion, and that there are vetting procedures and external interested parties (i.e. the
in place to confirm operational safety. Port Authority, agents and pilot associa-
Solution: Terminal process optimisation tions) are aware of any changes to the
platforms with AIS-based vessel tracking water depth.
enable managers to automatically record Another KPI focused on the participa-
and share dimensional criteria for each tion by terminal management/personnel
berth and indicate the most current vetting in company and industry port and termi-
condition of all nominated vessels. nal operation forums to share experience.
The platforms also provide direct links Solution: Terminal process optimisa-
to both the USCG Port State Information tion platforms should provide a predictive AIS tracking data can be a significant aid in effectively monitoring ship traffic
Exchange and Q88 Vessel Detail Database ETA function that allows terminal man-
to ensure easy access to information about agers to meet best practices regarding enable the terminal to monitor traffic also can be used to collect information
nominated vessels’ operational safety. their readiness to commence berthing movements and, if necessary, take precau- about dock utilisation, dock events, and
Management of Contractors operations. They also should enable termi- tionary action. Identified personnel other details about each job.
Challenge: This element’s KPIs and best nal managers to record and share informa- should also be trained in the use of speed- This input should be available to feed
practice guidance cover the monitoring tion about water depth for each berth. of-approach equipment, which may various performance analysis reports that
and assessment of contractor perform- Some providers hold user summits for include features to indicate the vessel’s can be used for process improvement in
ance. This includes establishing require- terminal management and personnel that angle of approach. alignment with MTMSA guidelines.
ments for formal reviews at defined inter- provide a forum for them to share their Solution: Terminal process optimisa- Operations at Buoy Moorings
vals using appropriate KPIs that are iden- experiences. tion solutions should provide real-time (Supplementary)
tified and agreed upon for use in monitor- Terminal Layout – General data and up to five years of historical ves- Challenge: The KPIs and best practices
ing contractor performance. Challenge: This element identifies, sel data in areas of interest around the ter- for this element are focused on clearly
Solution: AIS based terminal optimi- among other things, the need for terminal minal, which can be used to study the establishing requirements for a visiting
sation platforms with dock management managers to study the impact of passing impact of passing traffic. vessel’s non-routine activities (such as
tools allow consistent collection of con- traffic on vessels moored alongside, and to These solutions should also trigger near clearing hoses with water for maintenance
tractor-related, event-based data associat- deploy speed-of-approach equipment. real-time alerts regarding improper speed purposes) prior to its nomination.
ed with the ship-to-shore interface. Procedures should be in place that or angles of approach, which can be deliv- Solution: Terminal process optimisa-
ered by e-mail, text messages, or a warn- tion solutions allow ship-specific informa-
ing siren. tion to be collected and shared.
Ship/Shore Interface Terminals Impacted by Ice or Severe
s at Challenge: One KPI in this MTMSA ele-
Visit u 13
Sub-Zero Air Temperatures
0
OTC 2 17 ment focuses on the need for terminals to (Supplementary)
t h 19
Boo have ready access to information from Challenge: This element’s KPI related
remote reading tide gauges and current to terminal procedures for scheduling
meters. tanker arrivals and departures. These pro-
creating seaworthy software Solution: Terminal process optimisa- cedures should take into account ice con-
tion platforms can be used to monitor ditions and severe sub-zero temperatures
information from tide gauges and current to avoid besetting.
meters, and to alert personnel when docu- Solution: Terminal process optimisa-
mented limits are being, or are at risk of tion platforms with dock management
being, exceeded. capabilities can be used to schedule vessel
Transfer Operations visits well in advance of their arrival.
www.autoship.com Challenge: This MTMSA element Ideally, they should also provide informa-
includes KPIs related to the systematic tion about current weather conditions,
inspection of the berth and equipment and calculate the estimated departure time
Stability & Strength Assessment prior to each vessel’s arrival, and the mon- based on volume and pumping rates.
itoring of independent cargo surveyors to Terminal operators will be expected to
Cargo Management & Load Planning ensure that their activities comply with all meet these and other OCIMF guidelines in
Ship Design & Production applicable requirements. the coming months, as the industry strives
World-Wide Service & Support Performance should be analysed at reg- to improve safety and environmental pro-
ular intervals to identify opportunities for tection standards.
improvement. These challenging vessel- and dock-
Catch information Solution: Terminal process optimisa- related elements can be expedited by
as it happens. tion platforms with dock management
capabilities can be used to collect informa-
implementing terminal optimisation plat-
forms that are already widely used to
tion in a consistent manner regarding streamline and improve a variety of
pre-arrival inspection events, and store marine terminal operations throughout
them in a dock log for future review. They the petrochemical supply chain. DS

About the author

Jason Tieman is director of operations for terminal management technolo-
gy provider PortVision. This article has been adapted from a whitepaper
entitled ‘Competing in a ew Era of Marine Terminal Risk Assessment and
Management’

Digital Ship March 2013 page 30

p31-40:p15-25.qxd 08/02/2013 15:06 Page 1

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION Digital Ship

ECDIS workbook from Transas WR Systems agrees China and Korea deals
www.transas.com Using the Navi-Sailor software running www.wrsystems.com sors and an integrated Particulate Matter
in real time, the content follows the (PM) sensor.
Transas Marine reports that it has pub- requirements set by the various Flag States WR Systems (WR) reports that it has WR has been recently awarded a patent
lished an ECDIS Workbook, for use with and provides 16-18 hours of study fol- agreed a number of new construction con- on this PM sensor, which allows measure-
Transas ECDIS demo software. Both the lowed by an online test. A manufacturer- tract awards to supply multiple ship sets ment of soot and particulates ‘outside of
Workbook and software are available as approved certificate is delivered immedi- of its Emsys emissions monitoring system the exhaust stack’ – something the compa-
a free download from the company’s ately and automatically upon successful to shipyards in China and Korea. ny claims is a “world first”.
website. test completion. The company says that the value of “We developed Emsys for two reasons,
According to the STCW 2010 Code, Completed IMO 1.27 generic training is these contracts exceeds $1 million. firstly to demonstrate to the industry our
ECDIS training is mandatory for all deck a pre-requisite before starting the The Emsys system was introduced in capability to design a robust high-tech
officers serving on board ships fitted with Safebridge online ECDIS familiarisation September 2010 and is a second genera- sensor which overcomes the traditional
ECDIS equipment. training course. tion emissions monitoring technology sys- reliability and maintenance issues with
The main goal of the ECDIS Demo The online training programme costs tem featuring laser based multi-gas sen- first generation EMS systems, and in addi-
Workbook is to provide a vessel’s crew €185 for a single log-in. Discounts are tion, we were determined to earn a solid
with the knowledge and understanding available for fleet training or prepaid reputation for equipment performance
required for the use of Transas’ Navi- packages. and dependable, affordable service,” said
Sailor 4000 ECDIS and Chart Assistant “As the programme for the mandatory WR president, Dave Edwards.
Utility. carriage of ECDIS progresses and more “We are now working with the world’s
The workbook is designated for information is emerging from Port State largest shipbuilders in Korea, China and
nautical officers and other persons in Control checks, the need for effective, Japan, in addition to oil majors, drilling
charge of navigational tasks, and available and accessible ECDIS familiari- contractors, cruise ship operators, contain-
consists of both theoretical and practice sation training is becoming ever more ership operators, LNG operators and
components. apparent,” said Ulf Steden, managing scrubber manufacturers amongst others.”
Transas says that, during 2012, it director of Safebridge. “Our commercial maritime team has
trained hundreds of seafarers and issued “This latest release increases our ability grown extensively since Emsys was
1,005 ECDIS certificates through its own to meet the market’s needs for one of the launched, culminating in the recent open-
training infrastructure, including the major ECDIS manufacturers and we will ing of our Commercial Maritime
award of 144 instructor certificates for be adding to our portfolio again in the Technology Centre in Jacksonville,
qualification of in-house trainers at ship- very near future.” Florida, which specialises in manufactur-
ping companies and training institutes, as Course bookings can be made via the ing full navigation bridge suites and serv-
required by some Flag States. Safebridge website, where corporate ice/support of marine electronics world-
In related news, online training clients with fleet bookings can manage the wide. Our success in supporting suppliers
provider Safebridge has also released its training development of their officers ‘We are now working with the world’s of scrubber systems has meant we are
own ECDIS familiarisation training pack- from within their corporate account, allo- largest shipbuilders in Korea, China and becoming the de-facto standard for these
age for the Transas Navi-Sailor 4000. cating courses to individual officers. Japan’ – Dave Edwards, WR Systems applications.”

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Digital Ship March 2013 page 31

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ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION

UK switches on GPS backup

www.gla-rrnav.org Differential corrections from this
Reference Station are broadcast using the
Ships in the UK’s Port of Dover, its Eurofix Loran Data Channel, message
approaches and part of the Dover Strait Type 10. The Dover DLoran Reference
can now use eLoran radio navigation tech- Station has been assigned ID number 101
nology as a backup to satellite navigation in that message format.
systems like GPS and Galileo. In order to obtain positioning accuracy
The ground based eLoran system pro- at the 10m level both ASFs and differential
vides alternative position and timing sig- Loran should be used.
nals for improved navigational safety. The GLA says that the Dover area, the
The IOC Dover installation is a differ- world’s busiest shipping lane, is now the
ential-Loran (DLoran) Reference Station in first in the world to achieve this initial
the Dover area. This unmanned installa- operational capability (IOC) for shipping
tion has been accommodated within exist- companies operating both passenger and
ing infrastructure and is monitored cargo services.
remotely along with the General The commencement of this new service
Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and represents the first of up to seven eLoran
Ireland (GLA) routine 24/7 monitoring of installations to be implemented along the eLoran coverage extends into the Port of Dover Approaches and
Aids-to-Navigation. East Coast of the United Kingdom. Dover Strait Traffic Separation Scheme
The DLoran reference station deter- The Thames Estuary and approaches
mines local navigation corrections and up to Tilbury, the Humber Estuary and McNaught, chief executive of Trinity ships on the Dover/Calais route.
monitors local service integrity for eLoran. approaches, and the ports of House, “but signals from eLoran transmit- “Accurate real-time positional informa-
The corrections and integrity status are Middlesbrough, Grangemouth and ters could also provide essential backup to tion is essential for the safe navigation of
made available on the eLoran Data Aberdeen will all benefit from new instal- telecommunications, smart grid and high ships with modern electronic charts,” said
Channel as an integral part of the eLoran lations, and the prototype service at frequency trading systems vulnerable to Captain Simon Richardson, head of safety
broadcast signal. Harwich and Felixstowe will be upgraded. jamming by natural or deliberate means.” management at P&O Ferries.
These can be used by the ship’s receiv- Although primarily intended as a mar- “We encourage ship owners and “Satellite navigation systems are vul-
ing equipment to improve the accuracy of itime aid to navigation, GLA says eLoran mariners to assess eLoran in this region nerable to degradation of signal strength
positioning and to alert the mariner in the could become a cost effective backup for a and provide feedback to the GLA on its and our ships have also experienced occa-
unlikely event that the position cannot be wide range of applications that are becom- performance.” sional loss of signal. We welcome the
trusted for navigation. ing increasingly reliant on the position P&O Ferries will be one of the early development of a robust alternative to
In order to use the new service, and timing information provided by satel- companies to take advantage of the serv- provide redundancy in real-time position-
Additional Secondary Factor (ASF) data lite systems. ice, having installed an eLoran receiver on al information and we see eLoran as the
should be obtained from the GLAs and “Our primary concern at the GLA is for its new vessel Spirit of Britain, based at most effective solution to countering the
stored within the user’s eLoran receiver. the safety of mariners,” says Ian Dover and one of the largest passenger problem.”

Snowflake to work on S-100 Indonesian coastal awareness

www.snowflakesoftware.com cations for electronic chart data based on
enhanced by Xanatos system
the recently published S-100 standard. www.xanatosmarine.com Xanatos Marine’s TITAN Voyager system
Snowflake Software has been awarded a Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) which converts that data to an encrypted
contract by the United Kingdom are used in ECDIS, and currently a wide Xanatos Marine reports that it has success- signal.
Hydrographic Office (UKHO) to provide range of formats exist for the exchange of fully conducted a trial on sixteen Using a Rockwell Collins radio, this
an open standard Geography Markup route information. However, a requirement Indonesia Maritime Police (IMP) vessels of data is then transmitted to Jakarta. The
Language (GML) encoding and profile for has now been identified to create a stan- a system that can transmit AIS and ARPA data received at IMP headquarters is
a basic route specification S-100 based dard basic route specification to sit along- targets surrounding the vessel over 2,000 decrypted and displayed by Xanatos
maritime data specification. side the new ENC Product Specification km back to headquarters. Marine’s TITAN Sentinel VTS software.
This work builds on Snowflake’s previ- based on S-100 and the ISO/OGC open AIS data generally has a transmission The patrol vessels are then displayed
ous involvement in implementing the standards for geospatial data products. range of approximately 60 NM, but in real time on the national overview
International Organization for Snowflake was initially contracted to Xanatos Marine says that the company screen along with all AIS equipped
Standardization (ISO) Model Driven review the draft specification and has and partners have come up with a way of vessels and ARPA targets surrounding
Approach to managed GML application now been tasked to provide an optimised extending this for the IMP, to cope with those vessels.
schema design and optimisation for use in GML application schema and profile the fact that the country has a lengthy Xanatos Marine, through local agents
practical applications and web services. which it says could potentially be used coastline and it was neither cost efficient PT Transavia Utama of Jakarta, says it is
The International Hydrographic across other S-100 GML maritime vector nor practical to place AIS base stations planning further installations on patrol
Organization’s (IHO) Transfer Standard product specifications. along its length. vessels and strategically selected ground
Maintenance and Applications Snowflake has also been contracted by The solution has seen sixteen of the stations equipped with AIS, Radar and
Development Working Group (TSMAD) is the UKHO to provide extensive XML and Maritime Police Vessels equipped with CCTV to provide complete situational
currently developing new product specifi- GML training to UKHO staff. radar and AIS, with data being sent to awareness.

Transas received RINA and tors. The Transas Navi-Trainer tinue to serve as a non-executive director Navigational and other related products.
Lloyds Register approvals to perform Professional 5000 has now been certified of the board. Mr Peters has previously The agreement covers all Admiralty Digital
Radio Communication equipment survey as a Bridge Operation Simulator Class A worked as CEO of Telefonica UK and Products specified under ‘Admiralty
and VDR/SVDR Annual Performance with class notation ‘Integrated simulator Deutsche Telekom Ltd. Digital Distributor’ (ADD) status.
Testing. The RINA certification authorises system, NAUT AW (SIM), DYNPOS –
Transas service engineers to perform AUT (SIM), HSC, TUG, ICE, AHTS’ and ChartWorld and SevenCs have
inspections of vessels’ Global Maritime Dynamic Positioning Simulator Class A as moved to new premises in Germany, right
Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) com- per the latest edition of Standard for opposite the BSH (German Hydrographic www.transas.com
munication equipment and annual per- Certification of Maritime Simulators No. Office), at Atlantic House, Zirkusweg 1, www.dnv.com
formance tests of Voyage Data Recorders 2.14 January 2011. 20359 Hamburg. www.rina.org
(VDR/SVDR). www.lr.org
Pole Star has appointed Andrew SRH Marine Electronics has www.srhmar.com
Det Norske Veritas (Norway) Peters as chief executive of the company. signed a distribution agreement with the www.polestarglobal.com
has also issued statements of compliance The appointment follows the retirement of United Kingdom Hydrographic www.chartworld.com
for Transas navigational and DP simula- interim CEO, Colin Hook, who will con- Office (UKHO) for Admiralty

Digital Ship March 2013 page 32

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ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION Digital Ship

SAM supplies Viking Line four control/monitoring workstations
around the vessel and a ship-wide net-
work for monitoring access via portable
In addition to these systems from SAM
Electronics, Navis Engineering has also
delivered its dynamic positioning system
www.sam-electronics.de connects to multifunction workstations multifunction workstations. to the Viking Grace.
in the engine control room and on Also interfaced via redundant connec- The DP system delivered by Navis
SAM Electronics reports that it has the bridge, while L-3 Valmarine’s tions to the communications network is an Engineering is a non-redundant DP0 (joy-
equipped Viking Line’s new 57,000-gt pas- Valmatic Platinum integrated automation Emergency Shutdown System (ESD). An stick control system) solution comprising
senger ferry, Viking Grace, with a NACOS system will provide control of all machin- independent facility based on the same two control stations located in the wheel-
Platinum integrated navigation control ery, and includes added capabilities for platform, it operates its own process con- house wings.
system, together with a Valmatic Platinum vessel power management and emer- trol station communications network, It will be used mostly for docking the
integrated automation system from its gency shutdown. remote IO units, hard-wired control pan- cruise ferry at points on the Turku –
associate company, L-3 Valmarine. In addition, the system also includes els and associated workstations. Mariehamn – Stockholm route.
Built by STX Finland, at its Turku yard,
and designed for cruising the shallow
waters of the Finnish and Swedish archi-
pelago, Viking Grace is the world’s largest
LNG-fuelled ferry.
Having entered service in January 2013
the vessel will be able to operate in com-
pliance with stringent 2015 Baltic regula-
tions on gas emissions.
The NACOS Platinum bridge system
comprises four S- and X-band radars
linked to a series of five Multipilot,
Chartradar and ECDIS pilot multifunction
workstations for control of all main radar,
ECDIS and conning operations, in addi-
tion to those for automatic steering and
voyage planning.
Supplementary workstation consoles
and displays are located at starboard and
port wing areas as well as in the captain’s
cabin. Secondary sensors, consisting of
AIS, VDR, DGPS, doppler log and
echosounder navaids, also include SAM’s
new Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm
System (BNWAS).
A dedicated communications network The Viking Grace has been installed with a number of new navigation technologies

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Digital Ship March 2013 page 33

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What do these market

leaders have in common?

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p31-40:p15-25.qxd 08/02/2013 15:07 Page 5

Digital Ship
Maersk Training implements Kongsberg sims
www.km.kongsberg.com emergency situations prior to a mission. ing director at Maersk Training Brasil. dling, DP courses as well as other types of
This ensures that all possible scenarios can “Our new simulators will be highly maritime courses to meet the needs of the
Maersk Training’s new centre in Rio de be planned for, for every different opera- flexible so our experienced staff will be Brazilian market for all companies in the
Janeiro, Brazil is to implement integrated tion,” said Hans Dürke Bloch Kjaer, manag- able to develop customised anchor han- maritime and offshore maritime industry.”
DP, navigation, and offshore operations
simulators from Kongsberg Maritime.
The delivery to Maersk Training Brazil
Treinamentos Maritimos LTDA is under a
non-exclusive frame agreement signed by
Kongsberg Maritime and Maersk Training
13 months ago, which covers supply of
simulators and on-going support for a 10
year period.
The first multiple integrated simulator
delivery within this frame agreement was
to Maersk Training’s centre in Svendborg
– Maersk Offshore Simulation And
Innovation Centre II - which opened in
November 2012.
The contract for this new delivery to
Brazil was signed August 2012, with an
extension in December 2012.
The Offshore Vessel Simulator at
Maersk Training Brazil will be operational
in the second quarter of 2013, and will be
integrated with a K-Pos Dynamic
Positioning Simulator.
The contract also includes a Long Term
Service Support (LTSSP) agreement ensur-
ing delivery of support and new software
versions for a five year period.
“The maritime industry will benefit from
training on these state-of-the-art Kongsberg
simulators, since offshore crews and spe-
cialists can practice on procedures and The Brazilian centre will see a similar simulator set-up to that at Maersk’s MOSAIC II Training Centre in Svenborg. Photo Credit Maersk

For 12 years Digital Ship magazine has provided the digital

community of the world’s maritime industry with the latest
news and developments, including satellite communications,
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Digital Ship March 2013 page 35

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ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION

Danish ECDIS deals for Transas school ships and three hovercrafts.
The school vessels are used to train offi-
cers in navigation, with a crew consisting
www.transas.com ECDIS on five of its vessels. the Swedish Navy fleet. of 10 people. The vessels are 26 metres
Navi-Sailor 4000 Dual ECDIS will again Transas will supply Dual Navi-Sailor long and 6 metres wide.
Transas has agreed a couple of major be installed, this time on five L-Class 4100 ECDIS with Radar overlay, includ- The Hovercrafts are a part of the
deals in Denmark, with the announce- tankers. A ‘Back of the Bridge’ station will ing project management, integrated logis- Armed Forces’ amphibian battalion with a
ment of contracts for the supply of also be added on each of the ships, which tics support and system safety process crew of three. The vessels are 22 metres
dual ECDIS to both Eitzen Chemical A/S will provide access to three fully opera- implementation. long and 11 metres wide and can carry 50
and TORM. tional ECDIS stations. The equipment will be installed on five fully equipped soldiers.
The deal with Eitzen will see Transas The ECDIS ‘Back of the Bridge’ plan-
supply and install the Navi-Sailor 4000 ning station comprises a 24-inch Panel PC
Multifunction Display Dual ECDIS on 28 including Transas Navi-Planner with full
vessels and upgrade the Transas Dual voyage plan functionality along with the
ECDIS on six existing vessels to the latest ECDIS software.
hardware and software standards, over Installation has already been complet-
the next two years. ed on the vessel TORM Louise, and the
The package for each vessel includes companies say that the remaining four
two 26-inch Hatteland monitors, RS6B vessels should be equipped over the next
computers, radar overlay and firewall few months.
enabling a direct connection between the Transas has also upgraded eight other
vessel’s satellite communication equip- ECDIS-equipped TORM vessels with its
ment and the ECDIS. latest hardware and software versions.
After the installations all vessels will In related news, Transas reports that it
operate using the Transas ‘Pay As You has also received an order to supply its
Sail’ chart concept, which will provide Navi-Sailor ECDIS systems to the Swedish
the Eitzen Chemical fleet with a licence Armed Forces.
and access to install, view and pre-plan After an evaluation period, the
using official (S)ENCs without any addi- Swedish Defense Material Administration
tional cost. (FMV) has selected Transas to implement
The company will only pay for the ‘best ECDIS onboard eight Swedish Armed
scale charts’ actually used for navigation Forces vessels.
monitoring. The project is the first in the series of
Eitzen will install dual ECDIS on 28 vessels, and upgrade
TORM meanwhile is to install Transas initiatives to implement ECDIS across
a further six existing installations. Photo: Eitzen

US centre joins GET-Net Satellite AIS data goes online

www.transas.com ing 2011 and 2012. http://shipmaps.exactearth.com how a combination of situational informa-
The Academy has successfully imple- tion and empirical satellite data can be
Resolve Maritime Academy, a subsidiary mented ECDIS and multifunctional navi- exactEarth has launched a new website combined to gain insight and knowledge
of emergency response and vessel salvage gational displays at all levels of simula- called Ship Maps, which aims to demon- about key maritime issues.
company Resolve Marine Group, has tion, including classrooms with twenty- strate the applications of satellite-AIS (S- A Layers menu allows users to toggle
became the first major training centre in one ECDIS workplaces and part task AIS) data in solving real-world issues on and off the various data layers by
the US to join the Transas Global ECDIS ‘mini-bridges’ with visualisation, full mis- across the maritime industry. clicking on check-boxes. Each data layer
Training Network (GET-Net). sion systems, and bridge wing simulation The site combines maps and multime- in Ship Maps has its own styles and
Transas GET-Net is an international for precision docking using ECDIS. dia to provide interactive tours of the colours representing different attribute
partnership between Transas and ECDIS Resolve Maritime Academy will pro- world’s oceans, showing how ship move- characteristics.
training providers whereby the training vide generic and Transas type-specific ment information is being used in areas Features drawn on the map include
centres receive specified instructor train- ECDIS training and certification. like Arctic monitoring, casualty alerting physical shipping data, such as Positions
ing and have to pass a quality audit. “Resolve is exceptionally pleased to and fishery monitoring. In each area users and Tracks, which may be clicked on for
The ECDIS training is based on a join with Transas as a partner in training,” will see a simple map with sample ship feature information. Information icons
Germanischer Lloyd certified training said David Boldt, simulator group manag- traffic information collected from space. and Passage Zones are included, as well as
course which follows the ECDIS IMO er at the Resolve Maritime Academy. More information can be overlaid using Shipping Density maps, Wave Heights,
Model Course 1.27, and is fully compliant “The Transas GET-Net programme is a various map layers, building greater con- Aquatic Species Distribution, Exclusive
with STCW 2010. great way for us to access markets we oth- text into the ship map and demonstrating Economic Zones, and Ice Extents.
Admission to the Global GET-Net erwise would find difficult to reach. This
ECDIS training network follows the strategic partnership allows Resolve to
implementation of full mission and class- meet the STCW 2010 objectives and all
room simulators from Transas at Resolve’s Flag State requirements for ECDIS Type
17th Street facility in Fort Lauderdale, dur- Specific training.”

An ECDIS classroom at the Resolve Academy – now part of GET-Net Visitors to the website can access historical data gathered by satellite

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ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION

E-navigation – a web-based approach?

The continued evolution of maritime satellite communications, and the consequent increase in the availability of online
access at sea, could play a significant role in the development of IMO’s e-navigation strategy, writes Dr Andy Norris
he e-navigation programme has Included is the need to handle reactive that created the original Inmarsat system. that mitigate costs into the future.

T been ongoing at IMO since 2006.

The initial stages of the programme
have not been aimed at rapidly instigating
information from authorities, ship opera-
tors and other vessels, not least vocal
interaction. It also needs to be integral
Such a model was effectively aban-
doned by governments in 1999, with
Inmarsat becoming a private organisation.
The first is that digital transmissions
costs per byte of data steadily decrease
with time. The second is that the amount
new hardware and practices but have effec- with an enhanced GMDSS service. The provision of a suitable connectivity of digital data seen to optimise business
tively concentrated on developing a new It is highly relevant to note that the infrastructure would probably have to be efficiency is ever increasing.
coordinated structure and mindset for mar- activities on such a list are all web-consis- based on encouraging commercial Into the future, the e-navigation ‘statu-
itime navigation and its related communi- tent. If all ships already had access to the providers to provide suitable services. tory’ cost of communications could there-
cations, based on the latest technical under- internet the basic ‘low-level’ technical The use of satellite based systems for a fore be a very minimal extra amount com-
standing and practical experience. infrastructure for e-navigation would web-based e-navigation service does pared to the total spend.
Shipping in the 20th century – in com- effectively be in place. appear to be the basis for a good technical Perhaps the statutory implementation
mon with all other areas of life – was epit- Concentration could then immediately solution. In principle, some existing sys- of e-navigation would be effectively gov-
omised by the numerous introductions of be applied to aspects specific to e-naviga- tems may already be able to support such erned by when the associated communica-
entirely new concepts in technology, tion, such as the provision of the data a service. tions costs are considered to be interna-
many arising out of the basic research into sources, the necessary e-navigation user The advent of advanced terrestrial tionally acceptable – admittedly not an
electromagnetic theory undertaken in the applications and the detailed integration mobile phone networks, such as 4G, also easy target to set, both practically and
latter half of the 19th century. of navigational sensor data. provides a possibility for its professional politically.
In general, developments resulted in This is not implying that e-navigation use by vessels in many coastal areas. For any solution, the requirements for
new standalone items of specific function- should be based upon open access to any These would be accessed through an e-navigation need to be geared to the prac-
ality. Because of technological constraints source of information on the World Wide appropriate transceiver, not by a simple tical and affordable bandwidth available.
there was little physical integration with Web. It needs to be aimed at the secure use handheld phone. Despite the apparent technical capabili-
other equipment apart from due consider- of high integrity data from official or Operators of such networks may see a ties of evolving satellite and shore based
ation being given to their respective oper- approved sites. commercial advantage in getting better web-accessible systems for e-navigation, it
ating positions. does seem appropriate to have an emer-
For instance, new items of ships’ radio gency backup system, albeit with a limited
communications equipment were succes- capability.
sively introduced and updated but In the initial phases of implementation
remained as entirely separate identities. perhaps these should just be the present
Radar was entirely standalone in con- day VHF and MF systems. Of course, such
cept and so were other newly developed systems would be needed in their present
navigational electronic instruments such as form during the presumably quite lengthy
the log, gyro and LF positioning systems. transition into an e-navigation world by
However, from about the late 1970s all vessels.
integration increasingly became a driver These systems could feasibly continue
of the technological world, prompted by to serve as a last resort safety system, not
the ever-growing capabilities of digital Shipboard web access would provide a ‘low level’ infrastructure for e-navigation least covering the potential worst-case sce-
processing. Not least, new equipment nario of all satellite systems becoming
could exchange data with other systems If a web-based architecture was adopt- seawards coverage if their services were to inoperable due to an extreme burst of cos-
with ever increasing sophistication. ed for e-navigation it would then natural- be used by passing vessels. mic radiation.
Much of life in the early 21st century is ly evolve alongside the mainstream tech- The future e-navigation communica- A programme to eventually modernise
epitomised by previously unimaginable nical capability of the web. tions requirements for SOLAS vessels these systems into a proper integrated
levels of technological integration, not It would consequently not have its should perhaps just specify certain mini- backup role in the true age of e-navigation
least leading to our business and social capabilities virtually frozen to the techno- mum requirements for web connection could then be planned.
lives becoming increasingly web-centric. logical constraints of its first implementa- systems, whereby a defined probability of A further major consideration is the
No new base technology has been tion as has tended to happen with present- appropriate network connection over the strategy needed to deal with small vessels
required to achieve this – just ever evolv- day maritime communications systems. whole voyage is ensured. entering an e-navigation world. Can VHF
ing capabilities in such areas as digital Future technological enhancements These would include such essential for such vessels be generally replaced by a
processing, communications, sensors and being mainstream would be cost-effective items as minimum data speeds and maxi- 4G-based system and its future derivatives?
user interfaces. to implement, with long and well-publi- mum delay times, as well as needing With good coastal coverage of 4G this
In the maritime world it is the e-navi- cised overlaps in the compatibility of old appropriate integrity. is perhaps feasible – but what about other
gation programme that is attempting to and new – perhaps analogous to the ongo- The instantaneous choice of communi- areas?
ensure that advantage is taken from both ing evolution of mobile phone systems. cations system in any circumstances Another possibility, into the future, is
the technological and philosophical However, for e-navigation to take this would normally be made on ship by an the increased use of small or handheld sat-
aspects of full integration. apparently obvious route, emphasis needs automatic process, taking into account all coms systems. But will the associated costs
to be put on a cost-effective implementation. the appropriate factors, such as availabili- of these ever become acceptable and is
E-navigation and the web ty, required bandwidth, urgency, integrity there available and suitable spectrum for
Effective integration will give bridge Access to the web and cost. their extensive use?
teams and associated shore staff all the The strange reality is that in many parts of Nevertheless, the onboard e-navigation
necessary information to make safe, clean the world most manned vessels, from the Practical considerations system of SOLAS vessels could readily be
and cost-effective navigational decisions. tiniest leisure vessels up, probably already A big issue is the cost of communications. designed to give adequate integration to
E-navigation basically relies on compe- have web access when in waters adjacent The present-day use of such systems as VHF communications with small vessels,
tent human navigator skills, complement- to reasonably populated coastlines, at least VHF and MF for statutory communica- at least giving access from any e-naviga-
ed by easy access to relevant and integrat- in the form of a smartphone. tions is effectively free of charge. tion compatible workstation.
ed data. It uses data from both onboard However, the real issues involved with Commercial satellite and phone systems A conventional web-approach to e-nav-
and remote sources of information. using the web for safety-related services are not. igation certainly seems to warrant detailed
Such sources range from the very slow- are maintaining high integrity connectivi- However, there are two related factors study. DS
ly changing – such as charted information ty over the complete voyage at an afford-
and sailing directions, to the regularly able cost.
Dr Andy orris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry for a
changing – such as meteorological and To achieve this it is highly unlikely that number of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech navigation
Maritime Safety Information and to highly a specific worldwide web-based commu- companies but now he is working on broader issues within the navigational
dynamic sources – such as onboard navi- nications system would be set up by gov- world, providing both technical and business consultancy to the industry, gov-
gational sensors. ernments along the lines of the thinking ernmental bodies and maritime organizations. Email: [email protected]

Digital Ship March 2013 page 38

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