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September 2011
EADS acquires Vizada IN THIS ISSUE in $1bn takeover satcoms EADS Astrium, part of the giant EADS Group, is to buy satcom services provider We don’t need VSAT – Vizada for almost $1 billion – a deal which brings a major new player, organisation Reederei Buss – 8 with considerable resources, into the maritime market Fleetwide FleetBroadband for ADS Astrium has entered into defence and related services. Harren & Partner – 14 an agreement to acquire Vizada In 2010, the Group – which also E from Apax France, a French comprises Airbus, Cassidian and Moving from legacy Inmarsat services privateE equity fund and Vizada's Eurocopter in addition to Astrium – to FleetBroadband – is it worth it? – 18 majority shareholder, for $960 million. generated revenues of €45.8 billion Vizada’s forecasted revenues for and employed a workforce of nearly Port Wi-Fi and seafarer welfare – 2011 are $660 million, with $95 mil- 122,000. lion EBITDA, from more than 200,000 The Group reportedly has a net report from ICSW – 24 users worldwide. cash surplus of approximately €11 The acquisition is subject to cus- billion, and has recently spent €2.75 tomary regulatory approvals. billion buying out BAE System's 20 software EADS has pointed to growing per cent stake in Airbus. demand for maritime services as one Fred.Olsen – going green driver for the deal, describing the Apax with trim technology – 36 market as “a perfect cornerstone for The sale of Vizada marks the end of Astrium to develop its commercial an interesting foray into the maritime InterManager’s Shipping satellite communications business.” satellite communications market by KPIs – ready for roll-out – 38 “This acquisition marks a further Apax Partners. step towards the realisation of EADS’ The company originally purchased Software as a Service for maritime – 40 strategy to balance platforms with France Telecom Mobile Satellite ‘This (deal) will generate significant services, develop business in North Communications, the satcoms arm of synergies’ – Marwan Lahoud, EADS America and diversify its workforce,” France Telecom, for €60 million electronics and said EADS chief strategy and market- (approximately $75 million at the ing officer Marwan Lahoud. time) in July 2006, and followed that According to Inmarsat’s yearly navigation “This is clearly an accretive trans- with an agreement to acquire Telenor results at the time of the acquisitions, action for EADS shareholders and Satellite Services for a further $400 Stratos had a market share of 46 per Raytheon Anschütz joins Safebridge will generate significant synergies.” million at the end of the same year. cent of Inmarsat business, with Astrium Services offers Telecom This immediately created one of Telenor Satellite Services (TSS) and online training system – 44 Services, Secure Satcom Systems, and the world’s largest satellite communi- France Telecom Mobile Satellite Geo-Information Services, with cations service providers (which Communications (FTMSC) holding a Marine Aids to Navigation – 2025 and Vizada to become a fourth business would soon be rebranded as Vizada), combined 38.1 per cent. beyond – 48 line within Astrium Services provid- but more significantly it also meant Speculation at the time pointed to ing a range of fixed, handheld and that Apax was in control of what was, a further Apax bid for Stratos itself, AIS – towards to future mobile solutions. effectively, the second largest distrib- which, if such a bid had been made EADS Astrium is part of the EADS utor of Inmarsat services, behind and been successful, would have – Dr Andy Norris – 50 Group, a major force in aerospace, Stratos. continued on page 2 “One Unique Interface” - Pietro Amorusi, Chief Information Officer, d'Amico Società di Navigazione S.p.A. © 2009 DUALOG AS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL RIGHTS AS. © 2009 DUALOG
From its headquarters in Rome, d’Amico Società di Navigazione S.p.A. operates more than 40 cargo ships in a worldwide trade. The ships are equipped with a combination of Inmarsat Fleet, FleetBroadband and VSAT systems.
“We faced numerous challenges managing our ships due to the diversified communication structure. Dualog Connection Suite is a single and unique interfacing tool.” says Pietro Amorusi, CIO of d’Amico. “The new solution has directly improved our efficiency and, it saves us money.”
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SATCOMS
continued from page 1 creted a company with control of an enor- mous 84 per cent of the Inmarsat market – and put the company in an extremely strong negotiating position when it came Vol 12 No 1 to purchasing satellite airtime. Perhaps mindful of this, in early 2007 Digital Ship Limited Inmarsat announced that it had agreed 2nd Floor, to provide $250 million in financing 8 Baltic Street East to Canadian investment company London EC1Y 0UP, U.K. Communications Investment Partners www.thedigitalship.com (CIP), to fund a deal to purchase Stratos. In return for this loan Inmarsat was PUBLISHER granted the option to acquire 100 per cent Stuart Fryer of Stratos, an option it subsequently exer- EDITOR cised in 2009. Rob O'Dwyer: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3410 This move immediately removed the email: [email protected] threat of Apax taking control of a large DEPUTY EDITOR majority of the market share for Inmarsat Julie Ann Chan. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 3414 business, that would have significantly EADS Astrium was selected by Inmarsat as the prime contractor for the Alphasat I-XL email: [email protected] shifted the power dynamic in the whole- satellite, planned for delivery at the end of 2012 CONFERENCE PRODUCERS saler/distributor relationship. Karl Jeffery: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3405 However, a further important conse- email: [email protected] quence was that, for the first time, 2011 revenues for Vizada, the purchase tractor for the Alphasat I-XL satellite, Cathy Hodge: Tel +44 (0) 20 7253 2700 Inmarsat was in direct control of part of its price represents approximately 145 per planned for delivery at the end of 2012 and email: [email protected] distribution channel – something which cent of that figure. intended to augment the existing has had a major effect on the current mar- In contrast, Telenor Satellite Services Inmarsat-4 L-band network. ADVERTISING itime satcoms market. (TSS) was bought by Apax for 106 per cent Astrium also has experience construct- Ria Kontogeorgou: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3401 This has been demonstrated by of annual revenues, while France Telecom ing Ka-band satellites – KA-SAT, delivered email: [email protected] Inmarsat’s recent moves to introduce its Mobile Satellite Communications to Eutelsat, was launched successfully at PRODUCTION Global Xpress upgrade product, (FTMSC) was valued at only 38 per cent of the end of 2010, though this satellite is not Vivian Chee: Tel: +44 (0)20 8995 5540 XpressLink, via what it called its “direct revenues. being used to provide maritime services. email: [email protected] distribution” channel – Stratos and recent TSS revenues for 2005, the most recent As such, the company could potentially EVENTS acquisition Ship Equip. results prior to that original takeover, design and construct its own constellation Diana Leahy Engelbrecht At the time of writing, no further non- were $376.9 million, with FTMSC record- of satellites, be they Ka-band or L-band, if Tel: +44 (0)118 931 3109 Inmarsat owned distributors have been ing revenues of $201 million for the same it should so wish, which could then deliv- email: [email protected] named as partners in providing this service. period, a total of $577.9 million. er services for sale to the end-user market CONSULTANT WRITER Vizada responded to this by launching a Compared with this figure Vizada’s by its Vizada division. Dr Andy Norris (navigation) similar competitive product, without an $660 million forecast would therefore rep- Coming at a time when speculation is [email protected] inclusive Ka-band upgrade but with a resent an increase in revenues of approxi- growing about whether Inmarsat may take DIGITAL SHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS shorter contract length that would allow mately 15 per cent over the course of direct control of its own distribution chan- GBP £150 per year for 10 issues customers to switch to Global Xpress when Apax’s involvement in the company. nel, such a move by Astrium would repre- Subscribe online at it is launched, should they so wish (see As already mentioned, EADS has huge sent an even longer chain of control – from www.thedigitalship.com Digital Ship August 2011 issue, page 1). cash reserves and has been involved in a design and construction of the satellite or contact Stephan Venter on As such it would seem that the slightly number of acquisition moves over the last right down to billing for crew e-mail traf- [email protected], unusual situation of competition between twelve months. Adding Vizada to the fic on commercial ships. tel +44 (0)20 7017 3407 Inmarsat and its own distribution channel Group’s stable will help the business to It would also mean that the margin that will play a major role in maritime satcom diversify, to some extent, into the servic- a company like Inmarsat has to pay to a UPCOMING CONFERENCES pricing in the near future. es sector. satellite construction firm like Astrium, or DIGITAL SHIP SINGAPORE These changes in the satcom distribu- Some analysts have said that this will Boeing in the case of the Global Xpress Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore tion channel are perhaps an inevitable help the company to move away from any project, would be eliminated from the 18 - 19 October 2011 conclusion of the way that the technology over-reliance on military revenues, as gov- development of the satellite network DIGITAL SHIP KOREA used to provide Inmarsat services has ernments look to cut spending with the should it be completed ‘in-house’. Bexco, Busan evolved over the last decade. weakening of the global economy. In essence, Vizada would have access to 28 October 2011 (during Kormarine) FTMSC and TSS, as well as Stratos, It has also been suggested that the fact a satellite network provided by Astrium at DIGITAL SHIP ATHENS were originally part of a large group of that most Vizada billing is done in dollars ‘cost price’, rather than the ‘cost + profit’ Athens Metropolitan, Athens separate companies known as 'land earth will help the company to reduce its US amount that a satellite operator like 22 - 23 November 2011 station operators', which owned the land currency risk, given that most of EADS’ Inmarsat or Eutelsat would have to pay. DIGITAL SHIP ISTANBUL earth stations that communicated with costs are in Euro. While the ‘cost price’ of the satellites Pera House Inmarsat satellites. would no doubt be substantial, with all 1 December 2011 However, with the launch of the Future plans other things being equal removing the Inmarsat-4 generation of satellites, used to EADS’ plans for the Vizada business in the additional profit margin cost that would Printed by run the FleetBroadband network, future are not yet entirely clear at this usually be demanded by the satellite con- The Manson Group Ltd Inmarsat began to operate its own land stage, with little having so far been said by struction firm for the delivery of its service Reynolds House, 8 Porters' Wood earth stations, which somewhat weakened those involved while they await full com- would certainly allow a satcom provider Valley Road Industrial Estate the commercial and strategic strength of to be more competitive on pricing to the St Albans, Hertz AL3 6PZ pletion of the deal. U.K. the distribution partners. However, it seems safe to assume that end-user. With Inmarsat’s contracts with its dis- the company has not spent close to $1 bil- Of course, creating such an operation No part of this publication may be repro- tribution partners, in their current form, lion without having a plan in place to and managing such a complex distribution duced or stored in any form by any mechanical, electronic, photocopying, expiring in 2014, it will be interesting to make a significant return. channel would presumably create a num- recording or other means without the see how these various strategic acquisi- So what can EADS, and in particular ber of additional difficulties, so whether prior written consent of the publisher. tions and product launches affect the next the Astrium business unit which Vizada EADS Astrium would consider such a Whilst the information and articles in stage of evolution in the maritime satcom will become part of, offer to expand the move remains to be seen. Certainly, any Digital Ship are published in good faith sales channel. profit making potential of Vizada? such intentions could only be discussed and every effort is made to check accura- Astrium is certainly one of the world’s after the Vizada deal is fully completed. cy, readers should verify facts and state- Financials biggest satellite manufacturers, and was, in However, one thing is sure – a powerful ments direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher can The approximately $960 million purchase fact, responsible for the construction of the new player, with huge financial clout, has accept no responsibility in this respect. price for Vizada represents a significant three Inmarsat-4 satellites that act as the entered the maritime satcom market. Any opinions expressed in this maga- return for Apax on its initial $475 million backbone of the FleetBroadband network. Whatever its next move, it is bound zine should not be construed as those investment in creating the company. In addition to this, the company was to have a significant impact on vessel of the publisher. Based on the $660 million forecast for also selected by Inmarsat as the prime con- communications. DS
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SATCOMS NEWS
Marlink and Vizada introduce FleetPhone packages Globalstar receives seven new satellites
www.marlink.com The first of these, the Oceana 400, www.globalstar.com The delivered satellites will be part of enables the use of five standard phones or the third scheduled launch of Globalstar's Marlink has announced a new offer under integration into a PBX system. Globalstar has announced the receipt of second-generation satellites. which the company will provide cus- The larger Oceana 800 features seven second-generation satellites from "With this milestone delivery of satel- tomers who use its Inmarsat FleetPhone integrated Bluetooth, a GPS receiver, track- manufacturer Thales Alenia Space, which lites, Globalstar continues to proceed, on service with a free terminal, while parent ing and instant message reporting via SMS, have been shipped to a pre-launch prepa- schedule, with preparations for our third company Vizada has unveiled a range of and the 505 emergency calling feature. ration facility at the Baikonur second-generation satellite launch expect- new services for the handset. Vizada, meanwhile, has announced its Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ed in early October," says Tony Navarra, The Marlink FleetPhone offer is open to intention to provide e-mail and data trans- Six of the spacecraft will undergo president, global operations Globalstar. all one year subscribers of the prepaid fer capabilities to users of Inmarsat's new preparations and testing for an October "With a total of eight satellites now in Vizada Universal Card. maritime handset. launch executed by Arianespace, who use Baikonur, we have also started prepara- Marlink’s deal includes a free crew The company says that its various com- the Soyuz launch vehicle, which has suc- tions for our fourth satellite launch which handset and call blocker, which restricts munications services, such as SkyFile Mail cessfully launched Globalstar satellites on is now expected to take place prior to the crew to prepaid traffic, and customers can and Satellite Direct, will be able to be ten occasions. end of the year." choose between two different terminals, applied to the unit (as well as the which are both free of charge. Universal Card). Vizada’s version of FleetPhone will also Inmarsat launches IsatData Pro be offered with a crew calling promotion package. www.inmarsat.com data terminals, including integrated GPS Voice services, voicemail, text and e- www.skywave.com as well as digital and analogue ports for mail messaging will all be possible over the connecting sensors to relay data such as FleetPhone, while a supplemental voice Inmarsat and SkyWave Mobile fuel levels, engine temperature and speed. line can be included to allow the captain to Communications have jointly announced “The M2M market is set to continue its have a dedicated private communications the launch of IsatData Pro, a low data rate rapid growth globally, but it is currently line while the crew maintains their own machine-to-machine (M2M) service for under-served by services that cannot match lines for personal or professional calling. managing and communicating with the increasing data demands,” says Drew PBX integration will mean that calling remote assets. Brandy, director of land services at Inmarsat. between the different phones located on a IsatData Pro offers up to 10,000 bytes “By supporting a significant increase in ship will be supported. sent to and up to 6,400 bytes sent from the the size of M2M messages, IsatData Pro Vizada says that it has already received device, transmitting a 100-byte message in will provide better visibility of business pre-orders for the system from service less than 15 seconds, or a 1,000-byte mes- operations, allow for risks to be managed Marlink offers free terminals to providers who wish to supply the unit to sage in 45 seconds. more effectively, and deliver enhanced subscribers of the prepaid Vizada their maritime customers. The solution uses SkyWave all-weather efficiencies.” Universal Card
advanced and technical functions such as Marlink VSAT for Simon Møkster Shipping transfer of critical data to offices ashore," said Jostein Vik, electrician and teacher www.marlink.com lite communications to facilitate an exten- dents to stay in touch with family and aboard the MS Gann. www.mokster.no sive range of business critical applica- friends while away at sea. "It is also essential for us to offer crews tions,” says Gunnar Løtveit, IT/data "People working in the global mar- the provision of reliable satellite communi- Marlink has announced the renewal of its supervisor for Simon Møkster Shipping. itime sector now rely heavily upon con- cations aboard our vessel, to enable students VSAT contract with Norwegian offshore “Marlink, including its support team at nectivity for a range of applications, from gain valuable true-to-life experience, which vessel operator Simon Møkster Shipping, Eik teleport, is able to ensure outstanding everyday e-mail and voice calling to more is vital to the success of the programme." for a further five years. control of its services, offering us the flex- Simon Møkster Shipping operates pri- ibility and reliability we need to operate marily in the North Sea within the areas of effectively.” platform supply, anchor handling, sub In other news, Marlink has also donat- sea, Ro-Ro cargo and emergency services. ed a package of Sealink VSAT system The company has worked with Marlink hardware to the Norwegian maritime for over ten years. training vessel MS Gann, which provides Under the agreement, Marlink will training programmes to prepare school continue the provision of its Sealink leavers for a career at sea. VSAT services aboard 18 existing vessels. Marlink’s VSAT services will provide Additionally, the company has agreed MS Gann with up to four voice channels to supply the service to five new vessels and always-on bandwidth to support a scheduled for construction in 2011 and range of applications, enabling students 2012. and teachers to stay in touch via the web- “Flexibility and quality of services is an based learning system ‘It’s learning’. important factor for us as we require satel- In addition, the services will allow stu- Simon Møkster Shipping chose Marlink for a further five years
Globalstar CEO Peter Dalton has to the Italian mainland via its re-seller Iridium second-quarter results retired, with executive chairman and for- channel. mer CEO Jay Monroe resuming his opera- One Horizon Group has appoint- www.iridium.com pared to $3.2 million for the second quar- tional role as CEO on an interim basis. Mr ed Helen Stalker as director of marketing. ter of 2010. Dalton will remain as a special advisor to Ms Stalker was previously commercial Iridium has reported its financial results The company reported second-quarter the interim CEO to assist with transition director of global satellite phone services, for the second quarter and reaffirmed its total revenue of $95.9 million, which issues until September 2011. Mr Dalton is director of marketing strategy and com- growth outlook for the full-year 2011. grew 14 per cent compared to the compa- also retiring as a member of Globalstar's munications and BGAN marketing man- The company has specified a growth rable period of 2010. board of directors. ager for Inmarsat. Earlier in her career, of 25 per cent year-over-year in total “Connectivity is one of the single Globalstar Europe has also she held positions with Orange, billable subscribers and attributes this to biggest driving forces in our daily lives,” announced that it has signed an autho- Ionica, Gartner Group and NCR. the strength in machine-to-machine says Matt Desch, CEO Iridium. rised distribution agreement with (M2M) data, handheld voice, as well as “Our vision, with the world's furthest Sailornet S.R.L., a provider of satellite Netted Iridium and Iridium OpenPort reaching network, is to connect people, www.globalstar.com communications services in Italy. customers. assets and organisations all over Sailornet will act as a national distributor www.onehorizongroup.com Iridium’s net income for the second the world in the ways they expect to for Globalstar’s suite of duplex products quarter of 2011 was $11.7 million, as com- be connected.”
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SATCOMS NEWS Asian Navy C-band order for Orbit SES completes FBB installation www.orbit-cs.com “OrBand’s compact footprint and light weight were instrumental in securing the for BP VSAT antenna manufacturer Orbit deal, as it allowed the deployment of Communication Systems has announced a global C-band VSAT to a wider range of www.ses-marine.com contract with an unnamed Asian Navy to vessels, including smaller ships which provide its OrBand (AL-7107) maritime C- could not fit any of the larger industry- Ships Electronic Services (SES), a maritime band VSAT system. standard systems.” communication and navigation electronics The OrBand antenna features a 2.7m “From commercial cargo ships and provider, has announced the completion radome, which Orbit says requires less navies that need global coverage and fast of a contract with BP Shipping. Under the deck space and is 30 per cent lighter than installation times, to oil and gas support agreement SES has supplied 25 ships with many other similar VSAT systems. vessels that struggle to fit the larger C- Thrane and Thrane’s FleetBroadband 250 This antenna is being marketed at com- band systems, OrBand offers an innova- Orbit’s OrBand antenna and radome is systems. mercial maritime customers as well as mil- tive solution for maritime customers that being provided to an Asian navy The installations were completed on itary users. require high-performance VSAT systems schedule taking place all over the world “This is another major order for our with a small footprint.” during short-term docking for engine recently launched OrBand system and The antenna supports extended OpenAMIP protocol. room upgrades at short notice. serves as a confirmation of the ground- C-band and extended Ku-band frequen- The company says that the units can be “We have worked with SES as our sup- breaking performance and value of the cies, as well as multiple RF feeds. shipped for installation as a single, fully plier for many systems, including the system,” said Yosi Albagli, president, Automatic beam switching (ABS) is also assembled and tested unit in a standard 20 FleetBroadband upgrades for a number of satellite communications at ORBIT. possible through the use of the standard foot container. years. We believe this to be an economical solution with technical back-up and after sales service,” says Bob Ball, electrical superintendent BP Shipping. Project to explore transparency in broadband services “We are delighted that BP Shipping has once again chosen SES as their leading Holland Marine Equipment Association the communication link between ship supplier of communication equipment,” www.outsource-it.nl (HME) in 2007, and comprises of shipown- and shore. adds Colin Anderson, a Director of SES. ers, shipping companies and various mar- The study will include Inmarsat, “Both in the past and recently with Broadband@Sea has announced plans to itime suppliers, including satellite com- Iridium, VSAT and hybrid broadband the upgrade to the Thrane and Thrane improve transparency in maritime broad- munications providers. solutions and contain comparisons on FleetBroadband systems, we have provid- band service pricing by launching a proj- In 2008 Broadband@Sea published a coverage, upload and download speed, ed continual technical support for the ect that will compare the merits of various similar comparison of maritime broad- monthly fees, contention ratios, terminal entire BP fleet. This recent contract proves services from different providers. band costs, however the platform dimensions and other aspects affecting that SES’s reputation for excellent cus- The project is to be executed by now intends to update this with an the price/quality ratio of maritime tomer service and cost effective solutions Outsource-IT Management, a partner in overview of the continuously changing broadband. continues to stand.” the Broadband@Sea platform. prices for maritime broadband, whilst The new comparison results will be Broadband@Sea was initiated by taking into account various aspects of presented in Q4 of this year. Stratos adds Port-IT antivirus to AmosConnect
www.stratosglobal.com tion, and it is hoped that the creation of trials, the Port-IT Antivirus has proven www.port-it.nl a combined service will reduce the to be a reliable service that can help amount of data traffic sent over satellite ensure a secure onboard IT infrastruc- Stratos Global is to integrate the Port-IT in managing these processes, minimising ture. It is a valuable complement to our Antivirus system, from Dutch maritime IT airtime costs. AmosConnect product portfolio,” said provider Port-IT, into its AmosConnect The Port-IT Antivirus service operates Ian Canning, VP global product market- product portfolio, where it will form on clustered server systems and uses ing at Stratos. the basis of Stratos’ AmosConnect Anti- custom antivirus updates from ESET “For years, Port-IT has been an impor- Virus solution. NOD32, with vessel-based license man- tant contributor to our AmosConnect This new version of AmosConnect agement and administration via an platform. This agreement will help us BP’s British Cormorant is carrying a Anti-Virus will be used to protect IT online portal. continue to benefit from their contribu- Thrane and Thrane FleetBroadband networks from the threat of virus infec- “Through several successful customer tion in the coming years.” 250 by SES
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SATCOMS We don’t need VSAT
Progressing satellite communication technology and continuously growing demand for data have made VSAT an appealing option for some. However, many companies still believe that their data usage does not justify the investment. Swen Kleinau and Frank Schoone of Buss Data GmbH, part of organisation Reederei Buss, a German shipping company, told Digital Ship why they don’t need VSAT
eer-based organisation Reederei newest technology straight away.” one had broken so that we didn’t have “Another advantage with Buss, managing a fleet of nearly 90 “Whilst the newbuilds were supplied enough spare parts to send. Also, the FleetBroadband is that the dimensions are LLvessels, is in the process of imple- with FleetBroadband, I had a look at the spare parts had to be sent from the office significantly smaller. To send out other menting a major change in its satellite rest of the fleet last year. An assessment of because in most cases there were none systems we would have to use bulky lug- communication systems. Over half of the the communication requirements of our available locally,” recalls Mr Kleinau. gage, which needs to be dispatched sepa- company’s fleet has been equipped with fleet showed me that we had very high “Our key consideration was that there rately. That costs a lot of time, whereas in FleetBroadband so far, and the roll-out communications costs with our solutions, was a new technology available that case of an emergency the FleetBroadband is continuing. Mini-M and especially with Fleet 77. In would promote the company’s business antenna can be treated as hand luggage.” The shipping company has been addition we found out that we had and that would provide less repair costs,” “We also foresee problems in finding advised in this process by its in-house mar- extremely high costs of repair for the Fleet he adds. “Besides, the benefit of better VSAT qualified technicians to maintain itime software and hardware solutions 77 systems, mainly because we had to crew retention played into choosing a new the equipment and be at hand if there is company, Buss Data, which, as organisa- send out a lot of technicians.” communication solution as well.” trouble. These problems do not occur with tion Reederei Buss’ outsourced IT depart- “We notice that a lot of shipping com- FleetBroadband.” ment, has become a valuable partner. panies don’t take this approach,” says Mr FleetBroadband vs VSAT Mr Schoone further stresses the impor- Buss Data’s deliberations on a new Kleinau. “Not every company employs a Buss Data draws on 15 years of experience tance of service availability for the compa- satellite communication solution started specialist, like Buss Data, who monitors in optimising communication processes ny as a main factor in its decision-making with the impending construction of a the satellite communications market and and systems in the shipping industry. process. number of new vessels in 2008/2009, the newest developments and who is able This expertise and the company’s focus “When we buy hardware we do not which organisation Reederei Buss decided to advise on this.” on improving its operational efficiency primarily focus on the price but we look at to equip with a modern satellite commu- has resulted in a customised communica- the service coverage. That’s the critical nication system that would satisfy the A new satcom is needed tion strategy for the shipping company point,” he says. “What use is cheap hard- company’s demand for data traffic. When organisation Reederei Buss decided that encompasses tailor-made software, ware for us if there is no service? If we In addition to the newbuilds, the exist- to deploy a new satellite communication strict crew training and planned mainte- have to send out a technician just once, we ing fleet, having previously employed technology on its entire fleet, cost calcula- nance. It is the implementation of this have lost the benefit of buying cheap.” Inmarsat Mini-M as well as Fleet 77 sys- tions played an important role, but it was strategy across the entire fleet, in combina- “Nowadays, the pressure is so high – if tems onboard its vessels, was to imple- Buss Data’s technical considerations that tion with the new technology that has satellite communication is missing, it sim- ment the new technology in a roll-out tipped the scales. enabled Buss Data to minimise its commu- ply has to be fixed in the next port. There starting in early 2011. Swen Kleinau, IT Buss Data had experienced certain nication costs. are no ifs or buts.” manager, Buss Data, recalls the thoughts recurring difficulties with organisation Prior to deciding on the new satellite at the outset of the implementation. Reederei Buss’ prior communication tech- communications solution, Buss Data pro- DIY FleetBroadband “Satellite based communication is the nology. Mr Kleinau notes that the Fleet 77 jected its communication traffic demand installation most important medium for shipping system especially was so prone to prob- for the coming five years. The comprehen- Buss Data has devised a strategy for the companies nowadays and the charterer lems that Buss Data had to stock spare sive comparison contained the estimated parent shipping company, organisation demands round-the-clock availability of parts in the office. traffic demand as well as pricing struc- Reederei Buss, that keeps communication communication technology,” he says. The bulky spare parts had to be con- tures, coverage areas, technical specifica- costs at 0.5 per cent of the vessel’s budget. “This is why we decided to make a major signed by a special carrier, which was time tions and available service networks for In order to economise on expenses Buss investment into a comprehensive mod- consuming and costly, and technicians the different solutions. Data introduced a number of measures, ernisation of our systems.” had to be sent out to the vessels in order to The traffic requirements are based on ranging from tailor-made manuals for a “We are building a lot of new vessels install them wherever the problem the company’s usage policy. Buss Data’s crew-conducted FleetBroadband installa- and didn’t want to install an outdated occurred. communication strategy encompasses a tion, carefully planned maintenance and Fleet 77 preliminarily and for a lot of “More often than not, by the time one number of methods and technologies to particular crew training, to the use of effi- money. Instead we wanted to settle for the spare part had been dispatched the next minimise the traffic amount, which has cient bespoke software. been estimated to average 50 MB per vessel “When we look at other shipping com- per month. On this scale Buss Data deter- panies, especially if we take over vessels, mined that a FleetBroadband solution is we see that our communication costs are more economical than a VSAT package. very low in comparison. Other shipping Additional factors in favour of companies invest 3-4 times more than us FleetBroadband were the fact that organi- for standard communications,” says Mr sation Reederei Buss vessels require glob- Kleinau. al coverage, which VSAT does not offer, “They don’t do more than us but there and Buss Data’s conviction that the VSAT are a number of factors which drive their technology would be less sturdy with its costs, such as the wrong email program, larger antenna and amount of technology incorrect settings, and insufficient training inside. Technical problems were not of the staff using the different communica- expected with the deployment of tion equipment.” FleetBroadband. Buss Data’s strategy on minimal com- “The FleetBroadband in our office munication costs covers every stage of the provides spare parts, which we can send process, and the economisation starts as out to our vessels if this is the quickest early as the installation of the way of replacing a faulty part,” comments FleetBroadband system. Mr Kleinau Mr Kleinau. explains how he studied the ins and outs “In an emergency we can pick up the of the new technology. spare part and fly over to where it is “When we received the first newly built needed and plug it straight in. This plug- vessel we had a close look at the Frank Schoone and Swen Kleinau run tests and train staff on their office FleetBroadband and-play is extremely economic,” adds FleetBroadband installation to see how it Mr Schoone. worked and how it had to be set up, and
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SATCOMS
office before it is sent out to the vessel. The technician service department for bridge settings cannot afterwards be changed, equipment at Buss Data, managed by thus security breaches during the installa- Mr Schoone. tion have not been an issue for Buss Data. The bespoke system allows the compa- Mr Schoone illustrates how the crew ny to track the life cycle of its hardware, puts the system together. “The actual such as computer, gyro, radar and satellite installation is very straightforward,” he communication systems. All new devices says. “We have constructed a base adapter are entered into the software with informa- made from stainless steel. This ensures tion covering the date of their initial opera- that the crew onboard has no ‘hotwork’, tion, the guarantee, the battery life, fixed no drilling or welding to do.” check-up dates and an expected life-span. “The old Fleet 77 is uninstalled and the “One click makes all the hardware adapter simply screwed onto the old base. deployed on the entire fleet visible, Then the new FleetBroadband antenna is including its history, executed repairs, screwed into the adapter. There is basical- service records, maintenance periods, ly not much that can go wrong.” expiry dates for warranties, battery life A FleetBroadband installed in the office helped Buss Data to develop a DIY manual Buss Data’s experience with this DIY and much more. This data allows for an for the deployment method has been entirely positive and no unparalleled overview,” says Mr Kleinau. problems have been encountered during A specific time frame is set for each we had a very comprehensive introduc- The technology department created a the ongoing roll-out so far. The company component. Once the ‘use-by’ date is tion from our FleetBroadband supplier, detailed and foolproof set up manual, has found the crew very supportive as reached the hardware is exchanged. This Imtech Marine,” he says. which is sent out to the vessel together they are eager to avail themselves of the routine replacement, even of fully func- “This was important to us since with the FleetBroadband equipment. The new technology. tional devices, has been devised to largely FleetBroadband was a completely new manual contains a picture-by-picture The complete set up of a new prevent repair costs. technology and we wanted to deploy our explanation of every single step, including FleetBroadband system is thus done with- Buss Data has found, from experience, vessels in the best way possible. Further how to plug in the antenna cable, how to in one working day without any addition- that most components are thus exchanged we wanted to minimise the risk of hidden attach the shrink hose or how to configure al costs other than the delay in port. before they break and before the mainte- costs. We even placed a FleetBroadband the FleetBroadband. nance costs exceed the rest value of the into our office so we could run tests on it, “The set up is made so easy for the Hardware management equipment. for example with new software. This also crew,” explains Mr Kleinau. “Our unique Once the new equipment has been If difficulties occur and repairs become allows for FleetBroadband training in four-page manual reads like a storybook. deployed Buss Data employs further necessary, Buss Data has developed a our office.” We have covered all eventualities and methods to minimise the communication strategy for keeping repair costs to a min- In addition to learning as much as pos- answered all questions.” costs. One example is a planned mainte- imum, whereby the crew has been sible about the deployed systems, Buss “In addition, we set up 24-hour support nance scheme, which includes a hardware instructed to email a detailed description Data developed a DIY strategy of imple- hotlines for IT and hardware questions management system that contains the of the fault to the office together with a menting the technology using thoroughly during this period, so that any problem entire fleet’s technology specifications. request for technical assistance. instructed crew, without a technician hav- can be solved immediately.” This has been developed by Buss Data Buss Data says that more than half of ing to be present onboard. The equipment is preconfigured in the and is utilised through Navicom, the the repair requests from the vessels are
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SATCOMS
successfully dealt with via email. Often, SkyFile email client, which compresses all The software developed by Buss Data, the support finds that a problem stems emails. Buss Data’s main provider, such as OrderStar, RouteStar, MaintStar, from a simple cause such as a loose screw Vizada, has also set up a size restriction ClaimStar, requires regular data transfers. or connection, and is easily fixed. according to the company’s specifications. However, the programmes have been Buss Data is saving on repair costs by If an email exceeds this an error message designed to send only data classified as sending out spare parts to the vessels and instantly notifies the user. important. In addition, pictures are auto- through a careful selection of, and good “Our email software features a function matically reduced to the smallest possible communication with, the crew. that changes the information of an email size containing all information. “When a vessel reports a problem that to only plain text when it is sent to vessels. Even though remote maintenance has can be fixed by sending out a spare part, I In addition, the size of outgoing attach- been made more feasible through the quickly write an instruction for the crew ments is visible to the user, thus enabling introduction of FleetBroadband, Buss and send it off,” says Mr Kleinau. “This him to minimise it,” says Mr Kleinau. Data has not replaced its previous way of solves the problem in most cases and is In addition, the onboard computers solving technical problems. still much cheaper than having to pay for are configured to prevent the download “Over the last 15 years we have mainly a technician to go.” of regular automatic software updates, done service by email, where other ship- “Another reason why we do not usual- like chart updates or the company’s own ping companies would have flown a tech- ly need to send out a technician or even software products. Instead the installa- nician to the vessel, and have very good use remote control is the fact that organi- tion is adjourned until the ship reaches experience with it. In about 95 per cent of sation Reederei Buss is able to rely on very the next port, to where a CD with the the cases we get the problem fixed via skilled and profoundly trained crew. We update is dispatched. email,” says Mr Kleinau. have never had to fly anywhere because of Ultimately, Buss Data sets much store by “In the remaining cases of software fail- a computer problem. We have always carefully instructing and coaching its ures we use a tool called Teamviewer, been able to solve these by maintaining employees. Staff onboard as well as in the which allows us to have direct access to sound communication.” office are trained in the use of the new com- The installation of FleetBroadband has the PC onboard from the office. “As a shipping company you have the munication equipment. This essentially reduced costs to a third of what they were Teamviewer only transmits what is shown choice to hire cheap, basically trained crew focuses on priming the employees’ under- with the prior system on the monitor, no other data, and is there- from some manning agency. Organisation standing of marine communication sys- fore very efficient. And we make sure that Reederei Buss has decided to focus on tems, including their costs and limitations. sending a document that the vessel has whatever we have to do to fix the comput- experienced and well trained crew and a “The internet generation has grown up not already received the information, or if er uses a minimum of transferred data, lot of the seafarers on our vessels have knowing quasi limitless connection avail- attachments can be reduced in size, for e.g. small update files.” been with the company for many years. ability and speed and is not used to think- example, by using our own pdf shrinker. “Remote access via FleetBroadband is We trust them implicitly.” ing twice,” says Mr Kleinau. “Crew start- We make sure our staff know not to use still more economical than flying out to ing to work now don’t know that an MB high resolutions when sending images.” the vessel. Of course we have to assess Tweaking the software, can easily cost $10 USD.” “The internet is a hot potato. One has how important the problem is and if it can coaching the crew “At Buss Data we train and instruct to think thoroughly about the benefits of be resolved using emails. If not, it is useful Another way for Buss Data to further both our office staff on shore and the crew allowing internet access and take all relat- to have this kind of monitoring tool at economise on costs is to minimise its opera- onboard to handle communication conser- ed security issues into the equation,” says hand too,” adds Mr Kleinau. tional traffic using software specifically con- vatively. That includes a careful review of Mr Kleinau. The implementation of FleetBroadband figured to meet its particular requirements. the content sent.” has also had positive implications for The company utilises the Vizada “We train our staff to check before Costs reduced to organisation Reederei Buss’ crew. 30 per cent Mr Kleinau reports that “our seafarers Buss Data’s decision to embark on a are happy that we have introduced a new FleetBroadband implementation fleetwide satellite communication system that pro- was predominantly based on the compa- vides them with cheaper airtime rates on ny’s goal to minimise communication their prepaid cards and better communi- Conference to be conducted with simultaneous translation costs. Even though the implementation cation, and they appreciate that we do this in Korean and English has not yet been concluded, Buss Data has even in times of economic crisis.” already assured a gratifying result. Digital Ship Korea 28 October 2011 “By introducing FleetBroadband we Future plans have been able to reduce our already com- However successful the roll-out of the Bexco, Busan, Korea (During Kormarine) paratively low communication costs to a FleetBroadband system has proved, Buss third of what they were with the prior sys- Data has not ceased planning ahead. The world’s leading conferences for information technology in the commercial maritime industry tem. This makes the FleetBroadband Although the new solution is hoped to Who Should Attend? implementation very economical,” says last for a minimum of two to three years, Digital Ship is pleased to announce the launch of Mr Kleinau. the company is giving consideration to Managing Directors the first Digital Ship Korea on 28 October 2011, “In addition, we have not had a single evolving technologies, such as the recently CIOs which will explore the major issues impacting and incident with the FleetBroadband necessi- announced Inmarsat Global Xpress. IT Directors concerning the maritime IT & Communications tating repair expenses. The introduction of “We will monitor the market and our Directors of industry - including satellite communications, Communications FleetBroadband onto our vessels has activity closely over the next few years software development, electronic charts and Purchasing Directors already paid off through the savings on and then decide if an additional VSAT or a navigation, piracy, manning and training, IT to Fleet Managers repair costs.” different new solution has to be deployed reduce costs and improve efficiency, safety Crewing Managers Apart from the cost reduction, the inte- on the vessels,” explains Mr Kleinau. and quality assurance, and many more. Technical Managers gration of FleetBroadband has had a tangi- “Whether Buss Data will consider Vessel IT Managers ble impact on operations. Global Express or not will depend on SHEQ Managers The amount of data traffic has Inmarsat’s politics. We will think about it For more information, and to see the full And anyone else involved increased, with Buss Data’s average traffic only if our communication costs reach the in using IT and communica- programme please visit www.thedigitalship.com. tions in a shipping being less than 50 MB per vessel per critical limit. As long as communication environment... month before the exchange of communica- costs do not drop to $ 1/ MB we will Only KRW695,000/US$650 to book now. To register your place now tion systems, increasing to around 50 MB monitor our attitude towards communica- go to www.thedigitalship.com or mail [email protected]. 10 percent discount on average today. tion closely.” for registrations before For information about sponsoring this event contact [email protected] The company attributes this increase in With the strictly efficient cost minimi- September 30th data traffic to the improved bandwidth, as sation system Buss Data and organisation With thanks to our sponsors well as the fact that the crew can send Reederei Buss are employing, it seems more data and that the charterers make unlikely that the company will have to more use of the better communication reconsider its choice of satellite communi- possibilities. cation soon. However, ongoing progress In addition, organisation Reederei Buss in technology and the present competitive vessels enjoy a wider variety of software environment in satellite communication under the new technology which also solutions may entice the Leer-based com- increases the amount of data transferred. pany to think again. DS
Digital Ship September 2011 page 12 p1-29:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 15:18 Page 13
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SATCOMS Fleetwide FleetBroadband for Harren & Partner
Harren & Partner’s deployment of FleetBroadband across its fleet is nearing completion. The roll-out, encompassing the company’s fleet of 57 vessels, has delivered a number of benefits as well as throwing up a few new challenges. Caspar Graf von Spee, company director, has told Digital Ship about his experience with the new technology
erman shipping company, Har- Mr von Spee. “We found we had an aver- results in more people coming back.” Another significant difference is seen in ren & Partner, realised towards age traffic of 20 MB per vessel per month Overall, Harren & Partner has not seen, the improved connection speed. Mr von GGthe end of 2008 that its shipboard and took into account that it will rise a bit, in its experience, that providing communi- Spee says that with the old systems Harren communications system was in need of which it did. Now that we are implement- cation options plays a significant role in & Partner paid for connections that never replacement and decided to execute a ing FleetBroadband, however, we already crew retention, and believes that the dif- reached the promised speed, whereas fleetwide upgrade, introducing Fleet- have an average traffic of 50 MB per vessel ference between the varied satcom solu- under FleetBroadband the company pays Broadband to replace its existing Inmarsat per month.” tions is barely relevant to the crew. significantly less and avails itself of a faster services. The company has identified two rea- and more reliable connection. So far around 40 FleetBroadband sys- sons for the unexpectedly steep increase. Benefits and challenges With the new communication technolo- tems have been deployed onboard the One is that the FleetBroadband system of a new satcom solution gy and the higher throughput Harren & company’s vessels. The remaining ships facilitates the throughput of a much high- So far, Harren & Partner has been happy Partner deemed it wise to put certain con- will be continuing the exchange of their er data volume, and the other is that the with the results of the implementation. trol systems in place to ensure that usage systems on a one-by-one basis. implementation of the new satcom solu- The expected expense reduction has been did not get out of control and result in The Bremen-based company started its tion has generated a change in how the realised and the company has been able to unexpected bills. roll-out by substituting the fleet’s existing vessels are being operated. minimise its communication costs from The first step was to control the opera- technology, Inmarsat Mini-M and “With the implementation of the new around $40-50 per MB using the Inmarsat- tional traffic. In order to prevent an unnec- Inmarsat-B systems, for the new satcoms. systems, the crew has adjusted its behav- B system to around $10 per MB using essarily high volume of data traffic all auto- In a final step Harren & Partner has now iour towards satellite communication. We FleetBroadband. matic software updates were disabled. In also started disposing of its remaining just don’t think about whether to send a With the new system, an average of 50 addition, Harren & Partner installed an Fleet 77 systems. certificate or not, we just send it,” explains MB is transferred per vessel per month. To antivirus system as well as a firewall. A fur- Mr von Spee. what extent this is crew generated is, ther control provision was implemented Choosing a new satcom Surprisingly, crew retention, often men- according to Mr von Spee, difficult to which restricted the accessible ports. The driving factor in Harren & Partner’s tioned as a major driver in satcom gauge. He is however not concerned about The company also agreed with its decision on which satellite communication upgrades, has not played a role in Harren & the possible increase in private use. provider to implement a notification sys- technology to employ was the costs. Partner’s decision, as Mr von Spee explains. “We do not monitor the costs for the tem which would signal when a certain Caspar Graf von Spee, director, Harren & “The crew had the possibility to use the chat cards that the crew uses privately to amount of traffic had been reached within Partner, recalls how data transfer efficien- email systems before and they have got the use the telephone,” he says. “With regards a set time frame. This enabled Harren & cy, in particular, affected the company’s possibility now,” he says. “The difference is to data traffic, email use etc, it is probably Partner to review the traffic, assess what ultimate choice. that, with FleetBroadband, we have free less than 10 per cent of the overall traffic had caused the excess costs and take “We had a look into our communica- email now. The system we employ, called that is used for private purposes. We do appropriate measures. tion costs with regards to the data traffic crew mail, is free of charge for them.” not analyse that.” Harren & Partner has further started to and we found out that it amounts to more “It’s difficult to measure the effect on the “I appreciate that this easy communica- instruct its shore side staff and shipboard than 80 per cent,” he says. “And it turned crew if you provide a free email system as tion possibility is available for the crew crew to use the new communication sys- out that the old systems and the slow opposed to a prepaid one. I appreciate hav- and that they can contact their families tems carefully. The officers are trained to speed traffic was really driving the costs ing this availability but I cannot say if this and loved ones at home.” improve their awareness of the technolo- high. Therefore we decided to exchange the systems for a new technology.” Having assessed the overall demand and its monthly communication volume, Harren & Partner proceeded to look into different FleetBroadband and VSAT options. There were two main reasons why the company chose FleetBroadband over VSAT. “VSAT is the most cost efficient system when you have a lot of traffic,” he says. “Harren & Partner does not use communi- cations technology to the extent where a VSAT would be needed. We have estimat- ed that at present our vessels have a traffic amount of around 30 - 40MB per month on average.” “Another reason for choosing FleetBroadband over VSAT was the way our vessels are operating. We don’t know where the vessel will be tomorrow. FleetBroadband, as opposed to VSAT, operates worldwide. The coverage on VSAT systems is a bit troubled and less reliable.” Harren & Partner calculated that, with the estimated amount of traffic, a FleetBroadband system would be the most cost efficient solution. However, those cal- culations have proven to be too conserva- tive as the throughput is already exceed- ing estimations before the roll-out has even been completed. FleetBroadband has delivered a higher connection speed and a cost efficient communication solution for Harren & Partner “It was realistic during that time,” says
Digital Ship September 2011 page 14 p1-29:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 15:19 Page 15
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SATCOMS
the operation.” which had previously been the only way on our needs. We have different categories Having achieved a very satisfactory to resolve technical problems. This had of communication on various vessels and result overall, the implementation of the proved to be not only time consuming but some vessels are very intensively commu- FleetBroadband has nonetheless caused a also costly. nicating due to their operational functions’ few difficulties. Mr von Spee elaborates on Difficulties arising from the implemen- needs,” says Mr von Spee. the challenges during the deployment. tation of the FleetBroadband system, as “For those vessels we would consider “The installation downtime caused a well as all other IT related problems, are implementing a different technology problem, as did security issues with now initially assessed through the VPN depending on the individual needs. But regards to network security risks,” he says. before any measures are taken. For Harren we will monitor the technology as it devel- “We had to deal with these problems, & Partner the VPN has thus proved to be a ops as well as our own needs in terms especially since the systems were not very useful addition. of traffic.” designed to work together without expla- “We wanted to be able to handle prob- Having successfully gathered first- nation and training. The computers are pre- lems remotely by having a look at the sys- hand experience of implementing designed to look for updates every now tem and seeing if we could fix the problem FleetBroadband, Harren & Partner has and again. If an internet connection on a instead of sending someone out. Normally valuable advice for shipping companies vessel is used, it is a costly experience.” these systems are stable but there are vari- looking into a new satcom solution. “Another challenge was to introduce ous small changes that can be affected acci- The company has found that the most the crew to the use of FleetBroadband and dentally by the crew,” says Mr von Spee. basic, and simultaneously most important, ‘Now we are implementing instruct them to employ the new systems “Ashore we often can’t imagine how first step is to assess all of the many rele- FleetBroadband we already have average accordingly. We underestimated the diffi- annoying it can be to be left alone with a vant variables and make careful calcula- traffic of 50 MB per vessel per month’ – culties of training the crew in the use of malfunctioning system and there is tions before reaching a decision. Caspar Graf von Spee the new satcom.” nobody within 3,000 miles able to help. Besides the acquisition costs for the And the crew is not really trained for com- technology, says Mr von Spee, a company gy, and measures such as the use of com- Using the new technology munication systems. It’s not their job. should assess the possibility of support pressors are recommended to keep the Higher connection speeds and a cost effi- They are users.” from shore, the service network available, traffic down. cient communications solution were the Technological progress and the recent and of course the operating costs. The sys- For additional cost control on the crew targets for Harren & Partner in the deci- announcement of Inmarsat’s Global tem should further be sourced from not side, the crew mail solution was restricted sion to install a FleetBroadband system. Xpress Ka-band service (available from only one supplier but from many, in order to text messages. Moreover, the system These have been successfully achieved. 2013) suggest an even broader range of to ensure a variety of choice. would not accept attachments. However, the company has moved communication options via satellite in Whether FleetBroadband proves to be a “We do not see this as a disadvantage beyond its initial plans and set up a virtu- the future. long lasting choice for Harren & Partner since there is not really much that the crew al private network (VPN) connecting the Harren & Partner, enjoying the benefits remains to be seen. Unexpectedly steep would want to send apart from what they office in Bremen and the company’s fleet of its improved satcom solution, is also growth in traffic, as well as the expected can write down. The main thing is that the of vessels. taking the possibility of moving on to improvements in technologies and pricing crew is always able to communicate,” The decision to establish a VPN was Global Xpress into consideration. structures, could be cause for a re-think. explains Mr von Spee. predominantly based on the potential to However, the company has very decided However, for the time being the German “These measures lead to sufficient cost support the fleet from the office rather views on the topic. company has made a choice which it can control. Communication is there to serve than having to send a technician onboard, “It’s a cost decision and it all depends strongly recommend. DS
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SATCOMS Moving to FleetBroadband – is it worth it?
With satellite communication costs continuing to fall, utilising the additional efficiencies possible with the latest technology can mean that upgrading from a previous generation of satcom system can have a significant effect on monthly expenditure. Roger Adamson, Stark Moore Macmillan, examines the possible return on investment for Inmarsat customers considering an upgrade
uring 2011 Inmarsat initiatives to drive the cost of FleetBroadband DDvoice calls to $0.55/minute have led to significant changes in Inmarsat Inmarsat Fleet FleetBroadband pricing. F55/F77 Market prices of standard, non-dis- counted, voice rates have correspondingly fallen by more than 40 per cent from er levels of voice traffic but these lower Inmarsat-B or Fleet terminal and; In cases where vessels are transferring greater than $1.10/minute to around savings are only of the order of a few the approximate percentage split similar amounts of data and voice the sav- $0.66/minute. per cent. between voice and data traffic ings are accounted for by the differential Coupled with this has been a less dra- An average user can now expect return Using the tables and charts provided here in price of the services used. matic, but steady, decline in the price of on investment (ROI) in less than 11 you will be able to calculate how much Typical prices and percentage savings standard IP data during the first half months when installing a FleetBroadband you can save on your monthly airtime bill gained by moving from Inmarsat-B and of 2011. FB250 system, down from 15 months prior and also the payback period when Inmarsat Fleet to FleetBroadband can be It is estimated that there are currently to price changes. installing a replacement FleetBroadband seen in the table above. circa 8,000 maritime Inmarsat-B terminals Typical Inmarsat Fleet users with a FB250 unit. still in operation worldwide. Given a mer- 40:60 split of voice and data traffic and Inmarsat-B chant fleet of a little over 40,000 vessels spending $1,500 per vessel per month can Comparison of different To demonstrate the savings that can be this means that 1 in 5 vessels operating expect to see cost savings rise from 25 per systems realised using FleetBroadband in place of today may be equipped with an Inmarsat- cent to 45 per cent. As with Inmarsat-B There are in the region of 8,000 Inmarsat-B Inmarsat-B, we will take the example of a B system. higher levels of data utilisation will realise systems still in operation in the commer- typical vessel spending $1,500 per month It is further estimated that there are higher savings. cial maritime sector. Such systems are now on its Inmarsat-B communications. more than 12,000 Inmarsat Fleet terminals An average user can expect to see a approaching the end of their operational We will assume that the vessel is also in operation within the world’s mer- ROI in the order of 13 months when life and ship operators should be consider- spending 60 per cent of this amount on chant fleets. implementing a FleetBroadband FB250 ing replacing them. data traffic and 40 per cent on voice traffic. Both systems provide voice and data system, down from 24 months prior to Upgrading these terminals to As can be seen from Table 1 (below) solutions which are slower and more price changes. FleetBroadband will provide ship opera- this equates to a monthly utilisation of 40 expensive than Inmarsat FleetBroadband. The above savings and payback peri- tors with far greater operational efficien- megabytes of data and just over 400 min- Ship operators with Inmarsat-B or ods are calculated using FleetBroadband cies through access to more and faster data utes of voice. Calculating the cost per Inmarsat Fleet terminals can realise very standard airtime rates, with no contract services and applications. megabyte using Inmarsat-B is done by significant savings by switching from commitment. Greater savings still can be Typical usage patterns also show that first ascertaining the time needed to trans- these legacy systems to FleetBroadband. achieved when using FleetBroadband in significant cost savings can be realised by fer 1 megabyte of data. Additionally, FleetBroadband also pro- conjunction with monthly data bundles, upgrading to FleetBroadband. Inmarsat This meant taking the theoretical vides access to enhanced data services Shared Corporate Allowance Plans Fleet F55 and F77 users can also realise sig- maximum throughput of a 9.6 kbps unavailable on these legacy systems. (SCAP) or entering into a hardware and nificant cost savings from faster and link (72 Kbytes/minute), adding an With the new pricing levels typical airtime purchase deal. cheaper data services offered by overhead of 10 per cent to cover hand- Inmarsat-B users with a 40:60 split of voice The following article provides compre- FleetBroadband. shake time etc. and then dividing that and data traffic, and spending $1,500 per hensive data on the savings that can be Research undertaken by H2OSatellite throughput figure (65.5 Kbytes/minute) vessel per month, can now expect to see made when switching to FleetBroadband shows that typical monthly vessel satellite into 1 megabyte. monthly cost savings increase from 39 per across a range of monthly vessels’ expen- communications expenditure equates to This gives a figure of 15.63 minutes to cent to 57 per cent when switching to diture and splits of voice and data traffic. approximately $1,100. Vessels fitted with transfer 1 megabyte of data at a cost of FleetBroadband. In order to use this information to examine Inmarsat-B show an average monthly $22.67. In our example the vessel spends Higher savings are still seen with high- your own company’s situation, you will spend in the region of $1,500, whilst $900 on data traffic equating to just under er levels of data utilisation but this is no need to know: FleetBroadband equipped vessels have 40 megabytes. longer as pronounced. Correspondingly approximately how much your vessel an average monthly expenditure just Table 2 (below) highlights the corre- lower savings will be achieved with high- spends per month on using its below $1,000. sponding cost of the same usage pattern
Digital Ship September 2011 page 18 p1-29:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 15:39 Page 19
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SATCOMS
with FleetBroadband. A saving of $857 / ranges, however a more detailed exami- As can be seen from Table 4 (below) split, and the dashed lines to ascertain the month ($1,500 - $643) or 57 per cent can be nation of a range of monthly expenditure this equates to a monthly utilisation of 47 payback period for a FB250. realised under this scenario. bands from $500-$2,000, in increments of megabytes of data and just over 522 min- Continuing our example above the The graph above (left) shows the $100, is shown in the ‘Comparison Tables utes of voice. The cost per megabyte for monthly communication saving is just monthly savings that can be made by – Inmarsat-B’ (see next page). Inmarsat Fleet using MPDS (Mobile under $700 ($679) and the payback period switching from Inmarsat-B to For each of the expenditure bands from Packet Data Service) is calculated by mul- is 13 months. FleetBroadband at monthly Inmarsat-B $500 to $2,000 we have calculated a saving tiplying the per megabit charge by eight. The payback period is similarly based expenditures of $1,000, $1,500, and $2,000. of between 54 per cent and 59 per cent. Given an average figure of $2.20 per upon a JRC 25 FB250 with a typical retail The graph additionally provides the pay- Based on these figures we would see megabit for Inmarsat Fleet MPDS the per price of $7,600 plus $1,500 for the back period resulting from upgrading to payback periods ranging from 33 months megabyte charge is $17.60. onboard installation – in total $9,100. FleetBroadband FB250 across the corre- ($500 per month, using 70-100 per cent Table 5 (below) highlights the corre- The example given here provides only sponding expenditure ranges. voice) down to 8 months ($1,900 per sponding cost of the same usage pattern three Inmarsat Fleet monthly expenditure In order to use this graph first ascertain month, 50 per cent split on voice and with FleetBroadband. A saving of $679 per ranges, however a more detailed exami- your Inmarsat-B expenditure and the data). month ($1,500 - $821) or 45 per cent can be nation of a range of monthly expenditure split of this expenditure between voice All calculations have been made realised under this scenario. bands from $500-$2,000, in increments of and data. using standard, non-discounted, The graph above (right) shows the $100, is shown in the ‘Comparison Tables Use the left hand primary vertical axis FleetBroadband rates. Further savings can monthly savings that can be made by – Inmarsat Fleet’ (see next page). to read off the monthly saving that can be be realised from data bundle plans, switching from Fleet F77/F55 to For each of the expenditure bands gained by switching to FleetBroadband. Shared Corporate Allowance Plans FleetBroadband at monthly Fleet F77/F55 from $500 to $2,000 we have calculated a Use the right hand secondary vertical (SCAP) or lease purchasing equipment expenditures of $1,000, $1,500, and $2,000. saving of between 43 per cent and 47 per axis, the voice/data split, and the dashed and airtime. The graph additionally provides the cent. lines to ascertain the payback period for a payback period resulting from upgrading Based on these figures we would see FB250. Fleet F77/F55 to FleetBroadband FB250 across the cor- payback periods ranging from 43 months Continuing our example above, the To demonstrate the savings that can be responding expenditure ranges. ($500 per month, using 100 per cent voice monthly communication saving is just realised using FleetBroadband in place of To read this graph first ascertain your and no data) down to 10 months ($1,900 over $850 ($857) and the payback period Inmarsat Fleet (F77 or F55), we will again Fleet F77/F55 expenditure and the split per month, 70 per cent data usage). just under 11 months. take as an example a typical vessel spend- of this expenditure between voice and All calculations have been made The payback period is based upon a ing $1,500 per month on its Inmarsat Fleet data. using standard, non-discounted, JRC 25 FB250 with a typical retail price of communications. Again, use the left hand primary verti- FleetBroadband rates. Further savings $7,600 plus $1,500 for the onboard instal- We will also repeat our assumption cal axis to read off the monthly saving can be realised from data bundle plans, lation – in total $9,100. that the vessel is spending 60 per cent of that can be gained by switching to Shared Corporate Allowance Plans The example given here provides only this amount on data traffic and 40 per FleetBroadband. Now use the right hand (SCAP) or lease purchasing equipment three Inmarsat-B monthly expenditure cent on voice traffic. secondary vertical axis, the voice/data and airtime.
Digital Ship September 2011 page 20 p1-29:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 15:42 Page 21
Digital Ship
Inmarsat-B Monthly Data & Voice Usage Conclusions $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 $1,100 $1,200 $1,300 $1,400 $1,500 $1,600 $1,700 $1,800 $1,900 $2,000 From examining these figures it is clear to Data Voice MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins 0% 100% 0 345 0 414 0 483 0 552 0 621 0 690 0 759 0 828 0 897 0 966 0 1034 0 1103 0 1172 0 1241 0 1310 0 1379 see that, in the majority of cases, 10% 90% 2 310 3 372 3 434 4 497 4 559 4 621 5 683 5 745 6 807 6 869 7 931 7 993 7 1055 8 1117 8 1179 9 1241 FleetBroadband offers a more cost-effec- 20% 80% 4 276 5 331 6 386 7 441 8 497 9 552 10 607 11 662 11 717 12 772 13 828 14 883 15 938 16 993 17 1048 18 1103 30% 70% 7 241 8 290 9 338 11 386 12 434 13 483 15 531 16 579 17 628 19 676 20 724 21 772 22 821 24 869 25 917 26 966 tive option for vessel communications 40% 60% 9 207 11 248 12 290 14 331 16 372 18 414 19 455 21 497 23 538 25 579 26 621 28 662 30 703 32 745 34 786 35 828 than legacy Inmarsat systems. 50% 50% 11 172 13 207 15 241 18 276 20 310 22 345 24 379 26 414 29 448 31 483 33 517 35 552 37 586 40 621 42 655 44 690 60% 40% 13 138 16 166 19 193 21 221 24 248 26 276 29 303 32 331 34 359 37 386 40 414 42 441 45 469 48 497 50 524 53 552 Even at the most basic level included in 70% 30% 15 103 19 124 22 145 25 166 28 186 31 207 34 228 37 248 40 269 43 290 46 310 49 331 52 352 56 372 59 393 62 414 this analysis, spending $500 per month 80% 20% 18 69 21 83 25 97 28 110 32 124 35 138 39 152 42 166 46 179 49 193 53 207 56 221 60 234 63 248 67 262 71 276 using only voice services on Inmarsat-B, a 90% 10% 20 34 24 41 28 48 32 55 36 62 40 69 44 76 48 83 52 90 56 97 60 103 63 110 67 117 71 124 75 131 79 138 100% 0% 22 0 26 0 31 0 35 0 40 0 44 0 48 0 53 0 57 0 62 0 66 0 71 0 75 0 79 0 84 0 88 0
company would still stand to save $272 FleetBroadband Equivalent Cost Monthly Expenditure Using Inmarsat-B every month by switching to the more Data Voice $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 $1,100 $1,200 $1,300 $1,400 $1,500 $1,600 $1,700 $1,800 $1,900 $2,000 modern FleetBroadband technology. 0% 100% $228 $273 $319 $364 $410 $455 $501 $546 $592 $637 $683 $728 $774 $819 $865 $910 10% 90% $225 $270 $316 $361 $406 $451 $496 $541 $586 $631 $676 $721 $766 $811 $856 $901 In such a situation the biggest issue is 20% 80% $223 $268 $312 $357 $402 $446 $491 $536 $580 $625 $669 $714 $759 $803 $848 $893 the upfront investment required to move 30% 70% $221 $265 $309 $354 $398 $442 $486 $530 $574 $619 $663 $707 $751 $795 $840 $884 40% 60% $219 $262 $306 $350 $394 $437 $481 $525 $569 $612 $656 $700 $744 $787 $831 $875 to the new system, but the returns seem to 50% 50% $217 $260 $303 $346 $390 $433 $476 $520 $563 $606 $650 $693 $736 $779 $823 $866 be swift – again, based on a $500 per 60% 40% $214 $257 $300 $343 $386 $429 $471 $514 $557 $600 $643 $686 $729 $771 $814 $857 70% 30% $212 $254 $297 $339 $382 $424 $467 $509 $551 $594 $636 $679 $721 $763 $806 $848 month spend on an Inmarsat-B system, 80% 20% $210 $252 $294 $336 $378 $420 $462 $504 $546 $588 $630 $672 $714 $755 $797 $839 the user would make a return within 90% 10% $208 $249 $291 $332 $374 $415 $457 $498 $540 $581 $623 $664 $706 $748 $789 $831 three years. 100% 0% $205 $247 $288 $329 $370 $411 $452 $493 $534 $575 $616 $657 $698 $740 $781 $822 Higher-level users could expect to see Inmarsat Fleet F77/55 Monthly Data & Voice Utilisation $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 $1,100 $1,200 $1,300 $1,400 $1,500 $1,600 $1,700 $1,800 $1,900 $2,000 payback from their investment even soon- Data Voice MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins MB Mins er than that. 0% 100% 0 435 0 522 0 609 0 696 0 783 0 870 0 957 0 1043 0 1130 0 1217 0 1304 0 1391 0 1478 0 1565 0 1652 0 1739 For a company that has $10,000 avail- 10% 90% 3 391 3 470 4 548 5 626 5 704 6 783 6 861 7 939 7 1017 8 1096 9 1174 9 1252 10 1330 10 1409 11 1487 11 1565 20% 80% 6 348 7 417 8 487 9 557 10 626 11 696 13 765 14 835 15 904 16 974 17 1043 18 1113 19 1183 20 1252 22 1322 23 1391 able to invest in a satcom upgrade we 30% 70% 9 304 10 365 12 426 14 487 15 548 17 609 19 670 20 730 22 791 24 852 26 913 27 974 29 1035 31 1096 32 1157 34 1217 believe that this would represent a 40% 60% 11 261 14 313 16 365 18 417 20 470 23 522 25 574 27 626 30 678 32 730 34 783 36 835 39 887 41 939 43 991 45 1043 50% 50% 14 217 17 261 20 304 23 348 26 391 28 435 31 478 34 522 37 565 40 609 43 652 45 696 48 739 51 783 54 826 57 870 strong incentive to move to the latest 60% 40% 17 174 20 209 24 243 27 278 31 313 34 348 38 383 41 417 44 452 48 487 51 522 55 557 58 591 61 626 65 661 68 696 technology. DS 70% 30% 20 130 24 157 28 183 32 209 36 235 40 261 44 287 48 313 52 339 56 365 60 391 64 417 68 443 72 470 76 496 80 522 80% 20% 23 87 27 104 32 122 36 139 41 157 45 174 50 191 55 209 59 226 64 243 68 261 73 278 77 296 82 313 86 330 91 348 90% 10% 26 43 31 52 36 61 41 70 46 78 51 87 56 96 61 104 66 113 72 122 77 130 82 139 87 148 92 157 97 165 102 174 100% 0% 28 0 34 0 40 0 45 0 51 0 57 0 63 0 68 0 74 0 80 0 85 0 91 0 97 0 102 0 108 0 114 0 This article has been adapted from a Monthly Expenditure Using Inmarsat-B FleetBroadband Equivalent Cost whitepaper commissioned by satcom Data Voice $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 $1,100 $1,200 $1,300 $1,400 $1,500 $1,600 $1,700 $1,800 $1,900 $2,000 service provider H2OSatellite, and pro- 0% 100% $287 $344 $402 $459 $517 $574 $631 $689 $746 $803 $861 $918 $976 $1,033 $1,090 $1,148 10% 90% $285 $342 $399 $456 $513 $569 $626 $683 $740 $797 $854 $911 $968 $1,025 $1,082 $1,139 duced by maritime marketing agency 20% 80% $283 $339 $396 $452 $509 $565 $622 $678 $735 $791 $848 $904 $961 $1,017 $1,074 $1,130 Stark Moore Macmillan. All Inmarsat 30% 70% $280 $336 $392 $448 $505 $561 $617 $673 $729 $785 $841 $897 $953 $1,009 $1,065 $1,121 40% 60% $278 $334 $389 $445 $501 $556 $612 $667 $723 $779 $834 $890 $945 $1,001 $1,057 $1,112 pricing information has been provided 50% 50% $276 $331 $386 $441 $497 $552 $607 $662 $717 $772 $828 $883 $938 $993 $1,048 $1,103 by H2OSatellite. www.h2osatellite.com, 60% 40% $274 $328 $383 $438 $493 $547 $602 $657 $711 $766 $821 $876 $930 $985 $1,040 $1,095 70% 30% $271 $326 $380 $434 $489 $543 $597 $651 $706 $760 $814 $869 $923 $977 $1,031 $1,086 www.starkmooremacmillan.com. 80% 20% $269 $323 $377 $431 $485 $538 $592 $646 $700 $754 $808 $861 $915 $969 $1,023 $1,077 90% 10% $267 $320 $374 $427 $481 $534 $587 $641 $694 $748 $801 $854 $908 $961 $1,015 $1,068 100% 0% $265 $318 $371 $424 $477 $530 $583 $635 $688 $741 $794 $847 $900 $953 $1,006 $1,059
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Digital Ship September 2011 page 21 p1-29:p1-14.qxd 13/09/2011 10:37 Page 22
SATCOMS Global Xpress development continues
Inmarsat has reached agreement with a launch provider to carry its new Ka-band satellites into orbit, and confirmed the first customers for Global Xpress via its ‘upgrade path’ package XpressLink
nmarsat has signed a contract with ies will commence before this antenna is "Our analysis of customers who have IIInternational Launch Services (ILS) for available, in which case it will supply one migrated to FleetBroadband shows consis- the launch of the three Inmarsat-5 satel- of its current products which also includes tently that average data usage per ship is lites that will provide the network for its Ka- FBB failover from Ship Equip VSAT for a increasing in response to the capability of band Global Xpress system, and agreed the fixed fee. the faster service. Usage growth will grad- first new contracts for its XpressLink Ku-to- These installations will then be upgrad- ually offset the revenue impact of service Ka-band upgrade service. ed to XpressLink at a later time at no extra migration, while the number of ships yet The satellite launches, scheduled for cost to the customer. to migrate is rapidly falling." 2013-14, will use the ILS Proton launch “This service brings communication "While we remain confident in the vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in speeds for maritime users a long step longer term prospects for our maritime Kazakhstan. The three 702HP Ka-band towards speeds that are common for land business, we now expect the impact of satellites are currently being built by based offices, and should open up a new migration to last longer than previously Boeing. way of thinking about communication,” anticipated and this will have an effect on Inmarsat is investing an estimated $1.2 said Mr Gillesen. maritime results for the remainder of the billion in the Global Xpress programme, “I think now is a good time to act for year and possibly the early part of 2012." which includes launch costs. shipowners who have been awaiting these Inmarsat also notes that its recently ILS was also the launch partner for the developments in maritime communications.” introduced package-based pricing plans successful launch of Inmarsat’s most have been targeted at improving maritime recent satellite, the third Inmarsat-4 used Financials revenue growth, and claims that these to provide the FleetBroadband network, The announcement of these agreements have proven effective in retaining busi- from Baikonur in August 2008. was also joined by the publication of ness at risk from alternative service “Selecting a launch services provider is Inmarsat's interim financial results for the providers. a critical part of realising our Global The Boeing-built Inmarsat-5 satellites will first six months of 2011, which has seen a "In the short period since we began Xpress vision,” said Andrew Sukawaty, be launched by ILS modest revenue increase of 0.3 per cent on offering such plans, we have won orders chairman and CEO of Inmarsat. maritime services compared with the first from ship operators for over 150 vessels to “Our agreement with ILS shows that “The cost/benefit have reached a very six months of 2010 ($178.2 million com- be upgraded to FleetBroadband combined we are well on track with our aggressive attractive level and we are very glad cus- pared with $177.7 million). with a pricing plan," the company said. programme for Global Xpress, with serv- tomers now see the benefits in this solution.” These results show a continuing shift "In almost all circumstances, these ice planned to start in 2013. We have part- Inmarsat launched XpressLink as a away from voice services and into data, plans will result in significantly higher nered with ILS and Khrunichev for previ- bridge to its Ka-band Global Xpress service. with voice revenue declining by 4.1 per revenue per ship for Inmarsat, but much ous launches, and look forward to a suc- XpressLink offers a managed service of cent compared with 2010 while data rev- of the revenue benefit of these upgrades cessful campaign for Inmarsat-5.” VSAT from Ship Equip bundled with enue increased by 1.9 per cent. will only be realised in future periods." FleetBroadband that provides 512 At $131.3 million, data services revenue Reaction to this news in financial circles XpressLink kbps/512 kbps bandwidth (to and from is more than three times that achieved was not positive, with Inmarsat’s share Inmarsat has also announced, through its the ship), with a minimum guaranteed from voice services, at $46.9 million. price dipping dramatically after word of Ship Equip subsidiary, that it has agreed data rate of 128 kbps. All Ku-band and L- In a statement Inmarsat said that rev- these results reached the markets. Several contracts with two shipowners for the band traffic is included in the monthly fee. enues have been adversely impacted by agencies reported that the published rev- delivery of 28 XpressLink systems, the Customers who sign up to XpressLink customer migration to FleetBroadband, enues were less than had been expected by new flat-fee service launched by Inmarsat will also receive a free upgrade to the Ka- where pricing is typically lower than the analysts, causing Inmarsat stock to dip in July offering combined Ku- band service when it is launched. older services being replaced. dramatically. band/FleetBroadband connectivity for Generally this will involve the use of a 5,607 FleetBroadband terminals were Closing at 488.90p on August 3rd, the $2,999 per month. new Sea Tel 1m Ku-band antenna when installed during the first half of 2011, of evening before the announcement, the The two independent shipowners have installing the XpressLink service, with this which 2,727 were activated in the second shares dropped to a low of 366.40p on not been named, though Ship Equip told antenna scheduled to be available in early quarter. August 4th before beginning to recover. Digital Ship that one is located in the Asia 2012, that can be upgraded to Ka-band Voice to e-mail substitution and, to a The share price then stabilised to trade region and one in the EMEA region. through the replacement of some internal lesser extent, competition from alternative between approximately 440p and 450p “XpressLink has been enthusiastically components. providers were also cited as having con- during the second half of the month, embraced by the market, and customers However, in the case of the 28 systems tributed to lower than expected revenue before picking up again to pass 485p at the have been quick to respond,” said Ship to be supplied by Ship Equip under these growth in 2011. beginning of September, recovering Equip CSO, Gilles Gillesen. new deals the company says that deliver- According to the company's statement; almost all of its lost value. DS
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SATCOMS Port Wi-Fi and WiMAX - Implications for seafarer welfare
In a report commissioned by the International Committee on Seafarers’ Welfare, Dr Olivia Swift, Greenwich Maritime Institute, examines the availability of wireless web access in world ports, and some of the implications for the global population of seafarers – as well as the maritime industry as a whole
ommunicating with home is of was also a common complaint, as was the the number of welfare workers taking to the internet via port-wide wireless paramount importance to seafar- fact that access to e-mail for personal use mobile WiMAX onto ships in this way, the systems. CCers and their welfare. was often dependent upon the goodwill of numbers of seafarers benefiting from the Comments included these from two Being able to stay in touch with family the captain. technology would remain modest. port authorities – “It would be very posi- and friends can have a significant positive Given the limited availability of e-mail In contrast, WiMAX or Wi-Fi that cov- tive for seafarers if they could have access effect on seafarers’ mental wellbeing while at sea, Mr Kahveci reports seafarers using ers the entire area of a port, including its to Wi-Fi in our ports”, and “The seafarers they are away from their loved ones for satellite phones as their main method of waters in which ships are harboured, has can use the internet at the seamen’s mis- several months at a time, often working in communicating with home, which are the potential to reach many more seafar- sion. It would of course be good if they small crews with limited shore leave. expensive, followed by personal mobiles ers, enabling them to connect to the inter- could use also the Wi-Fi when they are In countries such as the Philippines, (primarily for texting) when in range of a net and communicate with friends and onboard. We have to look at that.” from where more than 330,000 seafarers signal. family via e-mail, social networking sites Despite these enthusiastic examples, originate, anxieties about perceived social and applications such as Skype. the interview data suggests port-wide costs of labour migration are widespread Shore communications As well as offering vast improvements wireless networks to be rare. among politicians, scholars and the public If able to go ashore while in port, seafarers to the lives of existing seafarers and their Of ports responding to the survey, 32 at large. Correspondingly, the Philippine can take advantage of varying communi- families, this technology would also make per cent had port-wide Wi-Fi and 10 per state and communication companies pro- cation facilities in seafarer centres. seafaring a more appealing career choice cent had port-wide WiMAX. 26 per cent of mote improvements in communication While some centres only provide phone among younger generations for whom those ports with neither reported having technology as benefiting the Filipino fami- cards for use in the nearest public phone internet access is embedded within day- plans for this technology in the future. ly, as well as the wider society and nation. box, others are equipped with computers to-day life. Of those ports with port-wide wireless It follows that, beyond the Philippines, linked to the internet, or with Wi-Fi sig- It follows that improving seafarers’ networks, 58 per cent allowed seafarers similar levels of optimism surround com- nals to which seafarers can connect using access to the internet is critical in address- access to the networks, of which 38 per munication technology and its potential their own wireless-enabled devices. ing the global shortage of officers. cent gave seafarers access for free. to lessen the social costs of separation It is not clear what percentage of seafar- Although these figures reflect relatively among migrants’ families, including those ers sail with personal laptops; one welfare Study low numbers of ports, they offer encour- of seafarers. worker interviewed during this research The research conducted for this aging signs that some ports are furthering At present, seafarers’ access to the in the Port of Antwerp, Jorg Pfautsch, esti- International Committee on Seafarers’ seafarers’ welfare by allowing them access internet and phones aboard ship is both mated almost all officers to have laptops, Welfare report combined an online survey to this technology. limited and expensive. compared to 20-30 per cent of ratings – of port authorities with semi-structured Taken in conjunction with the inter- In E. Kahveci’s 2007 report, Port-based although he and others considered this interviews with a selection of individuals, view data, the survey data informs this Welfare Services for Seafarers, for the number to be rising. mostly representatives from port authori- report’s discussion of the benefits and Seafarers International Research Centre at A new development affecting seafarers ties and welfare organisations. issues surrounding port-wide Wi-Fi and Cardiff University, he cites just 16 per cent is mobile WiMAX, a wireless network The survey asked respondents whether WiMAX in relation to seafarer welfare. It of seafarers having access to e-mails technology that differs significantly their ports had (or had plans for) a port- is hoped that the report will equip the onboard, even though seven out of ten from Wi-Fi in the way in which it operates wide wireless network, whether seafarers wider industry to then take this discussion seafarers felt access to e-mail to be impor- – Wi-Fi typically offers a maximum range could access it and at what cost. forward. tant. of 50m indoors and 100m outdoors while Where ports lacked port-wide wireless 40 per cent of officers had access to e- WiMAX provides wireless reception over networks the survey questioned respon- Supply and demand mail, compared to just 3 per cent of rat- greater distances. dents about their reasons for not having The main reason respondents gave for not ings, although this access was usually A small minority of welfare organisa- such technology. In cases where ports had having port-wide Wi-Fi or WiMAX was a restricted to work usage. Those who were tions have begun to take mobile WiMAX port-wide wireless networks but seafarers lack of demand. able to access e-mail for personal use were technology on ship visits so that crew can were unable to access them, the survey “We are not against it,” said an IT man- often limited in the length and number of connect to the internet via their personal investigated reasons for this lack of access. ager at Associated British Ports, “it’s just e-mails they could send and some had to computers without having to come Interview and survey comments never come up.” pay to send and/or receive e-mails. ashore. showed several port authorities to support These comments relate to a second A lack of privacy in the use of e-mail While there is potential for growth in the principle of allowing seafarers access main reason respondents offered for lack- ing port-wide network technology – “it is too expensive.” Several port authorities interviewed were unable to justify the cost of establish- ing port-wide Wi-Fi or WiMAX since they could not see how such an initiative would deliver revenue in return. Consequently, these respondents felt a port-wide wireless network would only result if sufficient demands were made of ports. To quote from an employee at the British Port of Felixstowe: “We have over 800 acres here; the cost of establishing a network would be colossal. We prefer to keep our frequencies for business use; pro- viding a port-wide network for seafarers’ use would have to be forced upon us. I’ve ICSW survey results – What are the main reasons against implementing port-wide Wi-Fi and/or WiMAX? (left); and Can seafarers use not heard of British ports offering such the port-wide Wi-Fi and/or WiMAX to use the internet? (right) a thing.”
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The following comments from port offi- To date, seafarers have required a log- provide access to non-port workers for connection is not used by the Wi-Fi users.” cials in various countries indicate others’ in and password from a Port Telecom fear of attack from hackers in nearby “The second reason why security is not concerns about expense. office in order to use the system (and it is apartments wanting to use the network for a problem is that, for our own ships, con- According to Lourens Visser, head of therefore unclear how many seafarers are free, which would compromise the core nection to the corporate network is not information division, Port of Rotterdam, able to use the system), but the company purpose of the Wi-Fi: CHE connectivity.” only encrypted on Wi-Fi, but also uses Netherlands: “We have a vast area here in has imminent plans for seafarers to be able Mark Brennan, IS manager at the Port end-to-end IPSEC VPN tunnels (a special Rotterdam with a number of propagation to both pay for and access this information of Taranaki, also notes that: “We have par- security protocol). During 2011 security issues: buildings, large ships and moun- via SMS on their mobile phones. tial Wi-Fi coverage, for internal port com- will be enhanced even further by authenti- tains of coal and ore, etc. To have port- In Singapore, seafarers and other users pany use in areas where wired infrastruc- cating every individual PC that wants cor- wide Wi-Fi would be a vast investment will pay to use the port-wide WiMAX ture is not available.” porate network access.” with doubtful added value. I doubt it after the system’s trial is completed, while “Were we to open this out to users out- In the port of Singapore the WiMAX would bring equivalent increase in traffic; Pieter Bakker of the Ports of Auckland side of the port company, there would be signal is provided by a telecommunica- it’s not a strong business case.” speculated that were the port to offer port- potential for internet access abuse, such as tions commercial partner for use by indi- The IT manager at the Port of Tilbury, wide Wi-Fi, it “would need to install soft- downloading illegal content, which would viduals, such as seafarers, and also by UK, said that: “We would need revenue ware and receive payment for internet potentially fall back on the port as the businesses and other organisations operat- on the back of it [port-wide Wi-Fi/MAX]; access.” provider of service and could lead to a loss ing in the port area. we have to think of the bottom line. We Cor Oudendijk of the Port of of the port's internet access.” Users are responsible for securing were approached by a company in Amsterdam, Netherlands, suggested a The security concerns expressed in the information, via security software on indi- London interested in providing a network further way in which a port-wide wireless comments above are twofold – concerns viduals’ devices and security protocols service to the public in the port but it network can contribute to the bottom line about the security of port and ship infor- such as VPN tunnels in the case of busi- turned out to not be worth their while, of ports – by reducing the fees ports pay to mation systems and, secondly, that ports nesses (as used by the Port of Antwerp). given the limited number of potential sub- port agents. would be held responsible for any down- scribers.” loading of illegal material via the wireless Threat to welfare Mark Brennan, IS manager at the Port Security network they provide. organisations of Taranaki, New Zealand, also noted that: The third main reason respondents cited In most national jurisdictions, if not all, Another concern research participants “There would be a minimal cost involved for not providing port-wide Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi providers are not responsible for voiced about port-wide wireless technolo- in setting it [a port-wide wireless network] gy was that it posed a threat to seafarer up. With potentially more capital and centres, either because the technology dis- ongoing maintenance costs (to address the courages seafarers from using centres or management of traffic and content to non- because centres’ welfare workers sell sea- port traffic), we would need approval of farers fewer phone cards. senior management, as it is definitely not The following comment from Jon driven by core business requirements.” Moore, Northport, New Zealand, is illus- Concerns about the cost of port-wide trative of participants’ fears. wireless networks are justified. “The port fully sponsors the seaman’s The Port of Rotterdam estimated that a mission where access to the internet is pro- port-wide Wi-Fi network would cost in vided,” he said. the region of €10m (although this estimate “Whilst we have not dismissed Wi-Fi may have decreased in the two years since throughout the port, I am concerned that it it was obtained by the port). would stop seafarers from venturing In New Zealand, the Ports of ashore. This would then give cause for the Auckland’s partial Wi-Fi network cost mission to close its doors and we already NZD$0.5m and port-wide Wi-Fi in the struggle for support from the seafarers.” Russian Port of Vladivostok cost Given the inevitability of technology’s USD$30,000. continuous development, a small minority The cost of installing and operating a of port welfare organisations are respond- port-wide wireless network varies The ICSW survey showed that, at the majority of ports that responded, internet access ing to port-wide network technology not between ports and is largely influenced by was not free for seafarers as a threat but as an opportunity to better a port’s area and topography, which par- meet the welfare needs of seafarers, partic- tially determine the extent of wiring and ularly since limited shore leave means sea- number of antennas required, and by the WiMAX was security concerns: fears that any illegal downloading by their cus- farers are often not able to make use of type of wireless technology involved. a port-wide network would compromise tomers, although employers can be liable seafarer centre facilities in the first place. Inevitably, installing and operating a the secure handling of ship and port infor- for illegal downloading by employees. In the port of Kandla, India, welfare port-wide wireless network is a consider- mation systems. Port authorities therefore need to be clear workers have begun taking mobile able investment and includes the cost of Comments from various ports includ- about the nature of their relationship to the WiMAX with them on ship visits which infrastructure, building permits for ed: “The only issue keeping us from doing potentially multiple categories of people enables crew to connect to the internet antennas, relevant software and mainte- this [installing port-wide Wi-Fi/MAX] is using their wireless networks as well as the using their laptops. nance costs. security”; “It's not a good idea to have Wi- legislation applicable to these relationships Although Kandla is an isolated case However, it is worth noting that port- Fi or WiMAX in port area for security rea- in cases of illegal downloading. study, Mission to Seafarers, which has sea- wide wireless technology does not lack sons”; and “Security reasons do not allow The Port of Antwerp, where port-wide farer centres in 119 ports around the potential for generating revenue, even if it non-employee access to the network.” Wi-Fi has been operating for over two world, is a year into their review of exist- is modest in comparison to the cost of net- Security concerns were also the most years, provides an example of a port that ing wireless technology with a view to work installation. common reason for those ports with par- has secured its wireless network by taking equipping their centres with WiMAX. For the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, pro- tial or port-wide wireless networks to not its own precautionary measures. “We are very keen that seafarers unable viding port-wide Wi-Fi at no cost to all allow seafarers access to it. The success of the port at doing so to come ashore to the seafarer centres are port users, including seafarers, is a mar- Two examples from New Zealand pro- implies other ports could achieve similar still able to communicate with their fami- keting device that helps the port compete vide further insights. levels of security by taking the same or lies,” explained the Mission’s Ken Peters. as a public company. According to Pieter Bakker at Ports of equivalent steps. The Mission is investigating what infra- As such, the port’s Wi-Fi is expected to Auckland: “At this stage we have an infra- “Security is definitely a concern with structure and technology is required, the increase the port’s overall profits, structure that can only host those security Wi-Fi networks,” said Johan Deleu, Port of cost of purchasing and installing such although its success in doing so is presum- checked to be on our network.” Antwerp. equipment, and whether individual cen- ably difficult to measure. “The Ports of Auckland have had port- “There are two reasons why it is not a tres would be able to bear the costs alone. In more tangible terms, the research wide Wi-Fi for almost a decade, which is problem in our setup. Firstly, our infra- According to Mr Peters, the Mission survey suggested ten ports to be charging used to facilitate communication between structure allows us to make ‘virtual net- foresees using a log-in system that would seafarers and possibly other users for container handling equipment (CHE) and works’ that are not connected at all to the allow access to the internet for a limited access to their wireless networks. host systems.” company network; the only ‘way out’ is period (akin to the existing Wi-Fi system In the Port of Vladivostok seafarers “Since the system has suffered interfer- directly to the internet. Even for the inter- in seafarers’ centres), thereby allowing the have been able to connect to the internet ence from other Wi-Fi networks from net access itself, we have a completely sep- Mission to charge appropriately for the via port-wide Wi-Fi operated by Port nearby apartments, as well as attacks on arate connection with an independent service in order to compensate for the Telecom Co Ltd since 2005. the system that prevent access, we do not service provider. The company internet expected decline in revenue from the sale
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of phone cards to seafarers. beyond those that are Wi-Fi or WiMAX Often cargo handling and cranes interrupt This limits the usage to one laptop, which is The Kandla and Mission to Seafarers enabled. the signal. Few seafarers are using addi- usually controlled by the master.” examples highlight some of the ways in v) The significance of existing revenue tional antennas to boost the signal.” Although anecdotal, the comments which concerns about the threat of new from the sale of phone cards is question- In the case of Singapore, feedback was above suggest seafarers to not be benefit- technology to welfare organisations’ via- able. In the port of Kandla, concerns that mixed regarding the extent to which ing fully from existing port-wide Wi-Fi bility can be addressed. port-wide WiMAX would threaten the seafarers are using the port’s WiMAX and WiMAX systems due to a number of These, along with the main advantages welfare organisation’s revenue from the network. reasons that include: of port-wide Wi-Fi and WiMAX to the sale of phone cards have proved mis- One seafarer remarked that his col- i) Issues with the range and uneven operations of welfare organisations, are placed, not least because such revenue is leagues who had recently passed through signal strength of wireless networks. listed below: minimal. Singapore reported that ‘all was fine’ with This is known to be a problem with Wi-Fi i) Shore leave. Port-wide Wi-Fi and As Joseph Chacko, of the Kandla the network. In contrast, comments from in particular. While the Port of Antwerp is WiMAX address some of the problems Seafarer Welfare Association, notes: welfare workers and shipping companies eager to address these limitations as part linked to seafarers being unable to come “….there is not much revenue in selling suggest many seafarers not to be using the of its improvement work, it is important ashore by allowing them to connect to the the card as we sell at very low cost to the WiMAX network at all. that similar measures are factored into the internet aboard ship. seafarers. The people most affected by the According to Christian Schmidt of the maintenance programmes of other port- ii) Adding value to ship visits. In cases WiMAX are the petty traders renting USB German Seamen’s Mission: “Most of our wide Wi-Fi networks. where welfare workers take mobile internet sticks to seafarers at prices as high ratings are using our centres or going ii) Issues of access to the hardware WiMAX aboard ships, or when they pro- as USD$20 per 24 hours of use.” ashore. Some seafarers, who come fre- required for connecting to wireless net- vide information and/or hardware vi) Port-wide WiFi and WiMAX pro- quently to Singapore, use a [3G] dongle works. There are two components to this enabling seafarers to connect to wireless vide their own potential for revenue gen- provided by a company called Starhub, point: firstly, seafarers without personal networks, they add value to ship visiting eration. By using a system in which sea- which allows pay-per-day usage at an laptops are reliant upon limited access to beyond the core service of providing pas- farers pay for log-in details that expire affordable rate.” ship computers to communicate with toral care. after a set period of time, welfare organi- “Some port agents also provide don- home using port-wide wireless networks. iii) Port-wide Wi-Fi and WiMAX sations would be able to raise revenue, as gles for the crew, such as APL in the Brani Secondly, WiMAX networks appear to need not deter seafarers from coming suggested earlier by Ken Peters of the terminal [of Singapore]. In these cases, require additional hardware in the form of ashore. Anecdotal evidence from welfare Mission to Seafarers. seafarers also pay by the day and then a dongle, modem or antenna in order for workers in ports with port-wide Wi-Fi or Given the appeal to seafarers of being return the dongle to the port worker.” seafarers to connect their computers to the WiMAX does not suggest this technology able to access the internet aboard ship, Leonard Harbottle of BW Shipping internet via the WiMAX network. to be deterring seafarers from coming revenue raised in this way has the poten- supported the impression that seafarers In Singapore, port agents are reported ashore. tial to amount to more than that currently are not fully benefiting from the port’s to provide every ship visiting the port For example, Jorg Pfautsch of the earned from the sale of phone cards. WiMAX. with a dongle for connecting to the port’s German Seamen’s Mission in Antwerp “It is my understanding that that it [the WiMAX. It seems that without additional remarked that: “Plenty of seafarers visit Usage of existing WiMAX] really only benefits vessels hardware, seafarers remain reliant upon the seamen’s club each day to use the networks berthed alongside and within the contain- limited access to the internet via one com- club’s Wi-Fi. Off the ship is more relaxed In ports such as Antwerp and Singapore, er port,” he said. puter controlled by the ship’s captain. and they have time to phone home, surf port-wide wireless networks offer seafar- “We also believe that there are some It is unclear to what extent other seafar- the internet and read the news online.” ers the opportunity to communicate with technical IT issues – it is not a simple case ers in the port are able to access the hard- iv) Port-wide Wi-Fi and WiMAX need home via the internet at no cost, without of hooking up your laptop to a system at ware necessary to connect their laptops to not affect welfare organisations’ revenue having to go ashore. This marks a signifi- no cost. We also believe that there is a limit the WiMAX internet and where responsi- from the sale of phone cards. Again anec- cant improvement in seafarer welfare. on its [the WiMAX’s] range; this is one of bility falls for providing this hardware. dotally, welfare workers in ports with It is worth noting however that seafar- the reasons we are not using it.” port-wide Wi-Fi or WiMAX did not report ers appear to differ in the ease with which “Our fleet, which primarily comprises Wireless expansion a decline in sales of phone cards. they use the networks, with some not tankers, rarely visits the port of Singapore The wider problem of improving seafarer To quote Mr Pfautsch of the German using them at all. This may be the result of but transits the straits on an almost daily access to the internet lies in the limited Seamen’s Mission in Antwerp once more: seafarers still becoming familiar with the basis and we also do a lot of bunkering, number of ports with port-wide wireless “In terms of whether the Wi-Fi encroaches systems that are still in their infancy. storing and crew changes within and networks. Although such systems are not on our revenue from selling phone cards, I Jorg Pfautsch of the German Seamen’s beyond Singapore port waters. Our entire without potential for generating revenue, would say no, not yet – we have still Mission in Antwerp reported that for sea- tanker fleet will have a VSAT [satellite] the cost of their installation remains a enough phone-card customers.” farers who use computers relatively fre- broadband system by the year’s end, major deterrent to their proliferation. Some welfare organisations working in quently connecting is straightforward, which crew can use for free.” In ports with an existing degree of locations with port-wide Wi-Fi or WiMAX while for others it is more difficult. Another BW employee reported similar wireless infrastructure, such as have been able to sell international phone Welfare workers are instrumental in sentiments, saying: “From what I gathered Amsterdam, the cost of developing a net- cards that seafarers use in other ports, as providing seafarers with information they from a few of our seamen and port col- work through which seafarers can use the has been the case in Kandla where the need to connect to the network, along with leagues, none of our seafarers have used internet is significantly lower than that of Seafarer Welfare Association has started port agents. the WiMAX while in Singapore or at any developing such a network from scratch. selling these cards alongside investing in Mr Pfautsch also noted, as did the port, Wi-Fi enabled ports, due to inconvenience However, doing so requires both ports’ mobile WiMAX technology. that the strength of the signal varies accord- and a limited number of users at one time concerns about the security of their infor- In Antwerp, the German Seamen’s ing to “…the ship’s proximity to the Wi-Fi per vessel.” mation to be addressed (using measures Mission is looking to sell prepaid internet antennas, the seafarer’s computer hard- “Normally the system works using a such as those taken by the Port of SIM cards to seafarers for use in other ware and his location on the ship, with the dongle that the port agents provide free of Antwerp, outlined above), as well as the ports. These cards use 3G technology to bridge deck offering the strongest signal. charge to the master; one dongle per vessel. willingness of ports to incorporate the provide internet access via mobile phones. needs of seafarers into their technology “We are receiving increasing numbers strategies. of requests from seafarers for prepaid This sentiment is also shared by some internet SIM cards,” said Mr Pfautsch. other ports, including Rotterdam. “Since the market for these cards is still “We were supposed to be involved in a small in Belgium, we are not yet able to WiMAX trial along with parts of the emer- offer a suitable product at present but we gency services and local government, but hope this will change by the end of the the company that was going to provide year. I have in mind a prepaid internet the signal no longer owned the frequency SIM card for selling in the region of so now we are looking for a new solution,” USD$5-7 with unlimited data download said Lourens Visser, head of information valid for 1-2 days. In time, such a card may division, Port of Rotterdam. replace phone cards.” “At present, we use 3G to communicate In summary, unless port-wide Wi-Fi with our vessels and next year we are and WiMAX become commonplace, wel- changing the mobile signal supplier. There fare organisations look able to continue are concerns about the quality of the signal raising revenue from a range of evolving from the new provider and it might be products, in order to meet the communi- ICSW survey result - Why are seafarers prevented from accessing existing that WiMAX provides a back-up system, port-wide Wi-Fi and WiMAX? cation needs of seafarers in the ports or indeed the primary means of communi-
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cation with the potential of also allowing risks surrounding it, as the main reasons Kandla Seafarer Welfare Organisation communicating for business purposes seafarers access to the internet.” for neither having installed it nor having and Mission to Seafarers, welfare organ- than satellite technology. “I could certainly see how WiMAX plans to do so in the future. isations are encouraged to see port-wide vi) In ports with existing port-wide could play a marketing role for the port In ports where a port-wide wireless wireless networks as an opportunity to wireless networks, there needs to be clar- and how we could combine the welfare of network exists but seafarers are not able to better meet the needs of seafarers rather ity about which organisation(s) is/are seafarers with our own commercial inter- access it, the main reason offered for sea- than as a threat to seafarer centres and responsible for ensuring seafarers have ests. We charge port fees so need to give farers’ lack of access was, again, concerns welfare organisations’ revenue from access to any hardware needed to connect services in return.” about the security of port and ship infor- phone-card sales. to these systems. The situation Mr Visser outlined raises mation systems. It is recommended that welfare organi- This hardware includes dongles, a further obstacle to the spread of WiMAX Among other concerns that research sations keep abreast of developments in modems and/or antennas in the case of technology in ports – the need for a com- participants expressed was a fear that communication products and other WiMAX, and also laptops for those seafar- mercial partner licensed to supply the port-wide wireless technology threatens sources of revenue that could replace ers without their own. WiMAX frequency in the port area. the viability of seafarer centres, either and/or add to the revenue currently gen- Failure to do so means seafarers being In the Port of Kandla, welfare worker because the technology discourages sea- erated from the sale of phone cards. reliant upon accessing the system via only Joseph Chacko describes the need to keep farers from using centres or because cen- iv) Although the cost of port-wide one computer, to which the ship’s captain abreast of new products that would enable tres’ welfare workers sell seafarers fewer wireless technology will be prohibitively determines access. seafarers’ access to the internet aboard to phone cards. high for some port authorities to bear, vii) It is recommended that ports with continue, should the WiMAX signal no Overall, the research found a number ports with an existing degree of wireless existing port-wide wireless networks longer be available. of practical impediments to the prolifera- infrastructure are urged to explore continue to be alert to (or solicit) feed- “The engineer from the current tion of port-wide wireless technology and expanding this infrastructure and open- back about their networks’ performance WiMAX provider assured me that they seafarers’ access to it, as well as a ‘bottom- ing it up to seafarers. and carry out regular improvements and will continue to offer WiMAX,” he said. line’ culture among ports in which the It is recommended that the industry upgrades to their systems. “Meanwhile I have found new technol- needs of seafarers, while not disregarded, consider an incentive scheme by which It is also important that where seafarers ogy: a new 3G router, DIR-457 by D Link, were peripheral to port operations and ports looking to provide seafarers access are required to pay to use networks, the which costs around INR10,000 (which planning. to port-wide wireless networks at little or cost is kept low. may come down in price in a few months) Drawing on the discussion of these and no cost might receive assistance with viii) Given the limited range of port- and a 3G card which is currently provided other issues in the previous sections, the meeting the cost of doing so. wide wireless networks, whether based by BSNL and MTNL [Indian internet serv- following recommendations offer a range v) Shipping companies and their rele- on Wi-Fi or WiMAX technology, it is rec- ice providers] and will be launched by of measures to help address respondents’ vant membership organisations might ommended that owners and other parties other providers all over India.” concerns and increase seafarers’ ability to consider advocating increased port-wide continue to look at ways of improving “You insert this 3G card into the router communicate with friends and family Wi-Fi and WiMAX, which benefit their seafarers’ access to the internet beyond and then carry the same in your pocket while away from home: crews and provide a cheaper means of port waters. DS onto any ship. Once switched on, the i) In ports with existing port-wide device turns the mess room into a Wi-Fi wireless networks, many of the respon- zone, allowing approximately 16 laptops dents’ concerns have been confronted This article has been adapted from the research associate, Greenwich Maritime to be connected to the internet.” and at least partially resolved. original report ‘Developments in ew Institute. Mr Chacko demonstrates the engage- It is recommended that communication Technology & Implications for Seafarers’ The original report, including all refer- ment with changing technology that is be increased between ports in order to Welfare – Seafarers’ access to Wi-Fi and ences, diagrams and further analysis of necessary for seafarers to be able to com- promote the sharing of knowledge, experi- WiMAX in ports’, commissioned by the specific port facilities, is available for municate with their families via the inter- ences and concerns about port-wide wire- International Committee on Seafarers’ download at: http://bit.ly/icswwifi_1 net aboard ship. less and other technology benefiting sea- Welfare and authored by Dr Olivia Swift, Existing and emerging technology, farer welfare, possibly administered by an including Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G and 4G, umbrella organisation such as the offer varying advantages and disadvan- International Association of Ports and tages. Given the differences between Harbours. ports, the solutions for enabling seafarer This would help ports address concerns access to the internet will vary between about the security of port-wide wireless ports. networks, help them source wireless infra- What seems likely to assist ports in structure at competitive rates, provide reaching solutions suited to their specific clarity about the law regarding ports’ lia- creating seaworthy software needs and characteristics is increased com- bility for any illegal downloading by net- munication between ports, including wel- work users, and provide alternative solu- fare organisations working within them, tions should a WiMAX signal provider no regarding developments in technology and longer operate or when new and experiences of using these technologies. improved technology becomes available. This report is intended to begin such a Increased communication between port dialogue. authorities would create a culture of ‘best www.autoship.com practice’ among ports in relation to seafar- Conclusions and er welfare as well as assisting them in recommendations meeting their own information and com- Stability & Strength Assessment Increasing seafarers’ access to the internet munication system needs in as efficient a Cargo Management & Load Planning promises to both improve seafarers’ wel- way as possible. fare and improve recruitment and reten- ii) As well as increasing communica- Ship Design & Production tion rates across the industry facing a tions between port authorities, it is rec- World-Wide Service & Support global shortage of skilled workers. ommended that port authorities work While this research has shown port- more closely with port welfare organisa- wide wireless technology to have consid- tions in order to better use available tech- Catch information erable potential to help increase seafarers’ nology to meet both the welfare of sea- as it happens. access to the internet aboard ship, it has farers and commercial interests of the also highlighted a range of issues needing port as a shared concern. to be resolved in order that their potential Additionally, welfare workers appear be realised. well placed to provide seafarers with the At present, only a minority of ports information and assistance they require appear to have port-wide wireless net- when connecting to existing port-wide works via which seafarers can access the wireless networks. internet aboard ships. There needs to be clarity about which Most commonly, ports without this organisation(s) should bear the cost of technology cited a lack of demand, fol- port-wide wireless networks as well as lowed by concerns about the costs associ- benefit from any revenue they generate. ated with the technology, and security iii) Following the examples of the
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SOFTWARE NEWS Digital Ship Reederei Claus-Peter Offen implements voyage support software CrewInspector for Oceanwide www.gl-maritime-software.com "Generally GL SeaScout, as a system, tal conditions. works very well, giving good assistance The objective of this long term meas- www.crewinspector.com Reederei Claus-Peter Offen has completed with checking the vessel's work against urement campaign is to collect data for www.oceanwidecrew.com the installation of GL Maritime Software’s heavy sea," said Captain Piotr GL's ongoing rule development, with the GL SeaScout 2.0 navigational decision- Kruszewski, commander of the MSC information also to be used by FutureShip, Latvian online crew management system making support system on the 14,000 TEU SAVONA on her last voyage. a GL company, for validation of numerical provider, CrewInspector.com, has newbuilding MSC SAVONA. "It was found helpful with planning the simulation methods with respect to whip- announced the signing of an agreement GL SeaScout, formerly known as the vessel's speed in areas of heavy weather. ping and springing phenomena. with the Dutch crew manning agency, Shipboard Routing Assistance System From my side I have Oceanwide Crew, to provide its propri- (SRA), is an integrated onboard software to emphasise that etary crew management system. that provides ships’ officers with decision- the software is sim- Under the contract CrewInspector will making support, with computations incor- ple and user-friend- manage a full database migration of 20,000 porating seaway measurements, wave and ly, which I appreci- seafarer applications and related informa- weather forecasts, cargo data and other ate very much (we tion such as certificates and seagoing serv- signals. do not need too ice to ensure a smooth transition to the The software informs a ship’s officers sophisticated items new crew management platform. how the ship is responding to current con- which require spe- Additionally, the solution includes a ditions, and displays alarms and warnings cial training, and it is recruitment tool with an automated func- for risk of extreme motions, including not time consuming tionality to register new vacancies, to allo- rolling, slamming and bending moment, in handling). The cate seafarers to Oceanwide Crew clients and allows the officers to simulate differ- manual is written in and vessel owners directly from the system. ent speeds and courses. a simple and under- CrewInspector will also develop an GL says that this will assist officers in standable way." expense controlling/ invoicing tool and then choosing a speed and course that is This GL SeaScout integrate this into the company’s payroll optimised for the individual ship’s hull, installation will programme. with respect to the prevailing seaway and also contribute to “The Netherlands historically are known loading conditions of the ship. a 'Springing & as a very important link within the mar- Onboard the MSC SAVONA the soft- Whipping' Joint itime industry maintaining high standards ware will interface with a radar-based Development Project on crew management as well,” says Andy wave measurement system and will have being run by GL and Lipsberg co-owner of CrewInspector. access to weather forecast and navigation- the Korean shipyard “Meeting customer expectations in al data via the ship’s network. A GL DSME, which aims such a demanding market strengthens SeaScout workstation is built into the to permanently GL SeaScout 2.0 installed on the bridge of confidence in the viability of our business bridge console for ease of access. record environmen- container vessel MSC SAVONA model and the software we market.”
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KVH Norway AS L[h\jiXWii[d][j'D#)'..>ehj[dDehmWoF^0!*-))&)&+)& Digital Ship September 2011 page 31 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:01 Page 3 SOFTWARE NEWS Norbulk installs planned maintenance system www.marinesoftware.co.uk (52,485 dwt), Blackfin (43,246 dwt), of sisters, with the Seastar Endurance car- to automatically update machinery run- Blackbird (43,246 dwt), St Gregory (31,800 rying many machinery items common to ning hours from the Imtech monitoring Marine Software has completed the deliv- dwt), St Andrew (31,800 dwt), St Peter Seastar Empress. system for main propulsion and power ery of its MPM - Marine Planned (31,800 dwt) and St George (31,800 dwt). In other news, Marine Software has generation control systems. Maintenance software system to Glasgow- Norbulk also commissioned Marine also recently supplied the MPM system to This contract also included two sepa- based shipping company Norbulk Software to construct full planned mainte- Imtech Marine & Offshore B.V., for instal- rate MPM user training courses at Shipping, for use on its new built 33,500 nance databases for the nine vessels, incor- lation on two Naval client vessels. Imtech’s Rotterdam Offices, where PC dwt bulk carrier Seastar Endurance. porating all vessel main machinery and Each vessel MPM system was also based system training was conducted for This is the ninth such system delivered statutory items to provide a fully working delivered with a commissioned interface approximately 20 Naval personnel. to Norbulk in the past 12 months, with the scheduled system on delivery. Seastar Endurance joining the vessels Database setup costs were reduced by Seastar Empress (35,000 dwt), Ocean Reef the fact that the vessels comprised two sets STCW information site launched https://portal.emsa.europa.eu/web/stcw ments will also allow the system to pro- duce and publish reliable numerical and EMSA’s STCW Information System statistical data on EU and non-EU seafar- (STCW-IS), a web-based information sys- ers certified by EU Member States. tem designed to provide information on Working in cooperation with partici- both national maritime administrations pating countries (EU Member States and and maritime education and training also non-EU countries providing seafarers (MET) institutions, has been made avail- to work on board EU flagged vessels) the able on the internet for public consulta- system compiles information on a range of tion. related topics. With the STCW-IS, the user can find These include lists of the parties to the relevant information on: EU maritime STCW Convention that are recognised by administrations; EU maritime education, each country, contact information for all training and certification systems; EU entities involved in the implementation of maritime education and training institu- the STCW Convention in each country, tions; EU approved programmes and and the type of training facilities made courses; and career progression schemes available for maritime education and available in EU Member States. training at approved institutions. EMSA (the European Maritime Safety The system can be accessed at Norbulk’s Seastar Endurance will join the Empress in using the MPM planned Agency) says that future planned develop- https://portal.emsa.europa.eu/web/stcw. maintenance system by Marine Software www.marinestar.no Digital Ship September 2011 page 32 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:01 Page 4 Digital Ship SpecTec’s AMOS growing in China www.spectec.net will be equipped in 2012. “We develop databases in Chinese. neering and construction company in According to SpecTec, Yang Ming’s IT We are setting support staff in Taiwan China, offering integrated services and SpecTec has announced that it has suc- department made a big contribution in and Korea.” maintenance for oil and gas exploration cessfully completed the implementation of offering ideas and development on how “We have firmly established ourselves and production projects. AMOS on 40 ships for the Taiwan-based to link AMOS with other internal soft- in this area since 2005, much earlier Under the contract SpecTec’s AMOS Yang Ming Marine Transport ware, such as its internal Ships if we think of the Hong Kong office, Maintenance and Procurement (M&P) Corporation, and has also agreed a sepa- Positioning System. and we intend to continue our growth modules will be supplied to six offshore rate deal to supply the software system to Giampiero Soncini, SpecTec Group in Asia.” support vessels, two pipelay vessels and China Offshore Oil Engineering CEO, notes that this contract is indicative China Offshore Oil Engineering one crane barge. Corporation (COOEC). of the company’s commitment to expand- Corporation (COOEC) will also deploy AMOS M&P will be used to integrate Under the agreement with Yang Ming, ing its operations in Asia. SpecTec’s AMOS solution following the the management of maintenance work SpecTec will supplement the completed “We have increased our local support recent agreement of a new contract. and costs, stock control and purchasing 40-ship installation project by installing its staff in all offices, especially in Shanghai COOEC is the largest offshore engi- onboard the vessels. solution on a further 11 ships in 2011, where we translate software and documen- while the remainder of the 89-ship fleet tation in the Chinese language,” he said. Q88.com integrated with Veson’s IMOS www.veson.com the internal vetting and pre-fixture www.q88.com processes. "Getting ships vetted in a timely man- Veson Nautical and Heidenreich ner is crucial in today’s volatile market,” Innovations, owner of Q88.com, have said Fritz Heidenreich, president of Q88. announced the completion of a project “We are very excited to help charterers to integrate Veson Nautical’s IMOS streamline the vetting process.” (Integrated Maritime Operations John Veson, president of Veson System), with Q88.com’s vessel question- Nautical, also commented that “the inte- naire system. gration between IMOS and Q88 makes it With this integration in place, users can easy for charterers to move quickly from eliminate double entry in using the sys- the gathering of information to the execu- tems, automate manual processes, and tion of business. We’re pleased to contin- make information for new vessels instant- ue delivering value to our clients through ly available to improve the efficiency of this partnership.” Yang Ming Marine has started installing AMOS on its 89-vessel fleet Unlock the Potential of Internet On Board with Dualog® Connection Suite™. © 2011 DUALOG AS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL RIGHTS AS. © 2011 DUALOG Contact the Maritime Communications Experts today about what really concerns you. (+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected] | www.dualog.com www.runelarsen.biz Digital Ship September 2011 page 33 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:01 Page 5 SOFTWARE NEWS AVEVA joins OpenHCM Consortium New CBT tackles accidents in enclosed spaces www.aveva.com them to exchange files and visualise data www.openhcmstandard.sourceforge.net as 3D models. www.videotel.co.uk cises are also included. “AVEVA fully support the use of the It is available in a range of formats - as Engineering software provider, AVEVA, has 3D design model downstream in lifecycle Videotel Marine International, in partner- an interactive CD-ROM, through the com- announced that it is joining the OpenHCM activities and will actively participate in ship with Mines Rescue Marine, has puter-based Videotel on Demand (VOD) (Hull Conditioning Monitoring) Consortium, the development of the OpenHCM stan- launched a new computer based training service, and on VHS/DVD with support- an initiative to increase ship safety though dard,” says David Thomson, solution series, Entry into Enclosed Spaces. ing booklets. transparent electronic processing of strategy manager, AVEVA. The programme delivers what Videotel “There is no excuse for the unaccept- assessment data for the in-service opera- “Based on this standard, we are develop- calls "a hard hitting message to both ship able casualties we have seen recently,” tion of ships and offshore platforms. ing export functionality from AVEVA design board and shore based personnel" which it says Stephen Bond, deputy chairman, The OpenHCM Consortium is develop- applications, and the ability to read and visu- hopes will encourage those working in Videotel. ing a neutral exchange standard to support alise the condition data within our AVEVA enclosed spaces to make sure that the cor- “Again and again we hear of seafarers the exchange of thickness measurements NET information management system.” rect equipment and good safety proce- coming to grief in enclosed spaces. These data for ships in service. The project aims “AVEVA’s unique ability to idealise dures are employed. incidents could have been avoided by an at improving the efficiency of the measure- and filter the production model ensures The package consists of six pro- understanding of the dangers of entering ment process onboard ships already in that our customers’ IP will be protected. grammes covering awareness; preparation enclosed spaces and the critical impor- service through a fully electronic process. Using AVEVA, the information needed and procedures; equipment; enclosed tance of following proper procedures. The main users are shipyards, owners, for further lifecycle activities can be safely spaces entry; emergency procedures and We are convinced that the Entry into classification societies and thickness meas- handed over to ship operators and class rescue; and the correct use of breathing Enclosed Spaces Training Series will help urement companies and the system allows societies without compromising security.” apparatus. Case studies and student exer- save lives.” One Maritime reaches 120 countries in 6 months www.onemaritime.com in efficiently and cost effectively securing industry has welcomed One Maritime so a key part of the reason for our success." provisions, bonded stores, pantry and warmly - a day doesn’t go by without a "This flexibility means our team can work Online ship supply portal One Maritime deck and engine stores worldwide. serious business enquiry," said Torben with any customer or supplier, accommo- reports that its system is now being deliv- The online system includes built-in fil- Brammer, co-founder and CEO of One dating different product views and incorpo- ered into more than 120 countries world- tering which aims to ensure that individ- Maritime. rating additional features. Our customers wide, just six months after its launch in ual customers are provided with only the "In this business one size doesn’t fit all - value the unrivalled cost and efficiency ben- January 2011. information they need from data sources to be successful you need to be flexible, and efits we deliver throughout our relationship The service provides access online or like catalogues, ports, communications make the catalogue work around the prod- with them, and we in turn are committed to by CD to ship stores catalogues and other and vessel tracking information. ucts it contains. This meant investing in a building upon our success and providing information sources, to assist companies "We are delighted that the maritime long development process and that has been them with constant product improvements." CHARTS MADE E PLUS SY Compliant chart data to get you from A to B. All the time. ECDISPLUS from Kelvin Hughes is changing With ECDISPLUS, you can be assured of the the way we navigate. 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The Only Complete ECDIS Solution Digital Ship September 2011 page 34 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:01 Page 6 MUFHXURSHFRP(&',6φ )RUSURIHVVLRQDOVHDIDUHUV 2XU(&',6V\VWHPVDUHRQHRIWKHZRUOG·VPRVW DGYDQFHGDQGIXWXUHSURRIHFKDUWLQJVROXWLRQV DYDLODEOHWRGD\%XWWKHUH·VPXFKPRUHWRLW p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 7 SOFTWARE Fred.Olsen – going green with trim technology Over the last eighteen months shipping company Fred.Olsen has been trialling a trim optimisation system which aims to reduce fuel costs by up to 5 per cent. Amanda Slade, Fred.Olsen Marine Services, told Digital Ship about the company’s experience with the technology n the current shipping market, ‘green’ However, the application of advanced provided a lot of feedback about how the any particular moment represents only technologies are fast becoming one of positioning and the computational abilities system was operating,” she said. half of the process in improving the effi- IIthe most popular innovations for of software systems to the process allows “They took that on board and intro- ciency of the vessel, of course – this must companies that are looking to improve those operating the ship to apply their own duced a number of improvements, and I then be compared to the optimum trim, efficiency while also staying mindful of skills with a higher level of accuracy – and think this process will continue as we try the trim level at which the vessel will their responsibility to protect the environ- thus improve vessel efficiency. to evolve and improve even further going encounter the least resistance and will use ment, both at sea and ashore. “Understanding where your ship is forward.” the least amount of power and fuel. Norwegian operator Fred.Olsen has positioned in relation to the x-y-z axis “If we can achieve an extra 0.1 per cent As the ship’s navigators adjust the actu- always prided itself as an innovator in this has always been very important,” notes in fuel savings, the return is significant al trim to approach the optimum trim the regard, and has a policy of pursuing the Ms Slade. enough to justify the effort.” efficiency of the vessel’s fuel usage will ‘greenest’ technologies available to use “Experienced navigators over hun- increase. onboard its ships. dreds of years understood how their own Technology In the case of the vessels Braemar and Building on a heritage that stretches ship was trimmed, even without the avail- The Marinestar MS system from Fugro uses Boudicca, Fred.Olsen was able to provide back over 160 years to 1848, when Petter ability of these supporting technologies.” two independent combined differential its own optimum trim figures, provided Olsen founded the company, Fred.Olsen “Where this has been advanced has GPS/GLONASS receivers installed on a by the ship yard, for use by the software now operates a wide ranging fleet of ves- been in giving the shipboard navigator a vessel – one forward and one aft – to deter- onboard. However, not every vessel oper- sels across a variety of sectors. tool to understand much more precisely mine ship’s position. With this long base- ator is in possession of these figures rela- Among these are the four vessels that where the ship is in that x-y-z axis.” line, the ship is effectively navigated inde- tive to its own ships. form Fred.Olsen Cruise lines, and over the In addition to this enhanced accuracy pendently at both the bow and the stern. This situation prompted Fugro to update course of the last 18 months the company in trim calculation, the use of these tech- The receivers are also able to share dif- its Marinestar product with the addition of has completed the trial and installation of nologies also reduces the amount of time ferential corrections with each other, vessel trim tables provided by Det Norske a new trim optimisation system from required for bridge officers to decide on adding a level of robustness to the system. Veritas (DNV), to allow the system to be Fugro which it will use to reduce its use of any required changes in their trim man- Fugro operates its own GPS/GLONASS applied on a wider range of vessels. fuel by up to 5 per cent – and consequent- agement, and allows them to focus instead differential corrections service, which is Under this agreement DNV Ship ly produce a significant reduction in the on other aspects of running the ship. integrated into the system and received Hydrodynamics provides technical adviso- carbon emissions created by its ships. “We want to keep the focus on safety, using spot beam antennae. ry services on the calculation of optimum The trim of a vessel affects the total and this has allowed us to provide a tool Using these different satellite systems vessel trim in a range of circumstances. resistance of the vessel through water, so to the navigators on the bridge that they and applying the additional corrections Using information about hull geometry for different loading conditions and speeds can use on an ongoing basis to allow them allows the service to provide a global solu- and loading conditions, DNV carries out there is an optimum trim value. If the ves- an optimum trim assessment using a com- sel is not sailing at or near the optimum bination of two Computational Fluid trim, it is experiencing more resistance and Dynamics analysis tools (‘potential flow thereby using more power and fuel. and ‘RANS’) running on a high perform- Fugro’s Marinestar MS system meas- ance computer cluster. ures the trim of the vessel at sea using sen- The DNV study is required for one ship sors mounted on the ship, and this infor- type and can then be used for any other mation is then presented graphically to sister vessel. the user alongside the speed. This latest version of the Marinestar The software provides the option to system, incorporating compatibility with configure the optimum trim values based DNV’s data analysis, was released in on draft and speed of the vessel, which is March of 2011. compared with the actual ship’s trim to “Some companies may find it difficult advise the user on any changes that would to acquire this trim data, which is why we improve efficiency. have reached an agreement with DNV According to Amanda Slade, safety and who are able to calculate optimum trim security manager with Fred.Olsen Marine based upon hull form analysis and resist- Services, which provides the technical ance calculations,” said Mr Jones. support for the cruise vessels, the compa- Fred. Olsen’s Braemar has optimised its trim using Fugro’s Marinestar MS system “A basic dynamic trim function was ny has been impressed with the perform- included in the software at the beginning ance of this system since an initial trial of the trial with Fred.Olsen, but based installation was performed in March 2010. to do that,” said Ms Slade. tion with a horizontal and vertical accura- upon feedback and requirements from “I think within the first few months we “Within seconds they can look at the cy of 10-15 cm – and having an accurate Fred.Olsen improvements to this were realised that this was something we want- display and be aware of the situation, of real time calculation of the vertical posi- made, in particular to display the opti- ed,” she told us. whether the ship is in good trim or needs tioning of both ends of the ships allows the mum trim for the vessel.” “We are actively pursuing every green adjustment.” trim to be calculated to an accuracy of bet- “We are now making further enhance- technology there is out there, and Fugro Following that first trial installation ter than 5 cm. ments to trim functionality to display a offered us a new option in this regard.” aboard the cruise ship M/V Braemar, The ability to perform these calculations target trim range rather than just a single “Across the spectrum of energy saving Fred.Olsen has since committed to a second dynamically while the vessel is undertak- target figure.” technologies that are available to ships installation, on the M/V Boudicca, which is ing a voyage is where a system such as this “According to DNV’s calculations they now, there are a range of technologies that currently being completed under the man- one can provide value to a navigator, as say that theoretically it should make a dif- can impact on ship efficiency but there agement of the technical superintendent. Haydn Jones, marketing director at Fugro ference of about 2 to 5 per cent in fuel reduc- aren’t a lot of players in the ‘dynamic trim’ While it is still the Marinestar MS sys- Satellite Positioning, explains. tion, based on their mathematical models. market.” tem that is being employed, Ms Slade “It’s not that easy to work out the trim But even a much lower figure would still notes that the software has been cus- with the vessel moving up and down with justify the use of this kind of technology.” Enhancing existing skills tomised in collaboration with Fugro over the waves,” he said. For Fred.Olsen that justification has The concept of operating the vessel with the course of the last 18 months to create a “In the past you could work out the been twofold – allowing the company to the most efficient level of trim possible is tool that is specifically tuned to the vessels’ trim alongside the quayside in port with- continue in its pursuit of the latest ‘green’ not a new one, and is something that nav- particular needs. out too much difficulty, but to try and do technologies, while also providing the igators onboard ship have been doing “Fugro worked with us through this it at sea is the step forward.” added bonus of reduced costs and more intuitively for a very long time. process, we collaborated with them and Knowing the actual trim of the vessel at efficient operations. DS Digital Ship September 2011 page 36 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 8 Blue-C Visit us at IMPA Stand No. 1 September 15-16 QUICKDRAWS AND SHIPPING. When product tanker captain, Frank Zimmerman scales a rugged rock face wall he depends on know-how, experience and the right equipment. No surprises. Predictability is key. Quite similar to last week when he contacted Star Information Systems regarding fleet maintenance updates. Top quality, dependable. SIS – a reliable maritime software partner. www.sismarine.com Onboard software: Vessel maintenance, procurement, asset management, QHSE, project management Office software: Management of fleet maintenance, procurement, projects, QHSE and KPI’s Services: Consultancy and Training Credible. Professional. Dynamic. p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 9 SOFTWARE Shipping KPIs – ready for the roll-out Concluding a six-year development phase, which was completed in June 2011, InterManager’s extensive Shipping KPI Project is ready to be rolled out. The launch of the project at the IMO in London has highlighted some of the major the challenges and benefits of establishing an international standard for performance measurement in ship operation n late 2004 the Shipping KPI Project indicators that made comparisons evaluating the information gathered on start establishing benchmarks for the was initiated by InterManager, for- between companies extremely difficult. In the first level, were set up. industry. IImerly the International Association of addition, there has, so far, been no indus- In order to provide a practical and reli- Besides refining the KPI tool, focus was Ship Managers, in partnership with major try standard against which individual per- able tool, there were several requirements put on securing the acceptance of the stakeholders in the shipping community formance could be benchmarked. that the KPIs had to meet. model throughout the industry, which such as Intertanko, Intercargo, BIMCO, The Shipping KPI Project has been set Firstly, the indicators had to be univer- InterManager deemed vital to the success the European Community and IMO. up to provide a solution to this. sally applicable to all types of vessels and of the project. Key goals were to boost performance Its aim is to standardise the many dif- thus independent of vessel type specifica- Broad recognition and participation improvements internally in companies ferent ways of describing performance tions. would also be needed to allow for repre- engaged in ship operation activities as management, which have previously The KPIs also had to be observable and sentative benchmarking. well as enhancing communication within made direct comparison between compa- quantifiable. This meant that their calcula- Six years after laying the corner stone of the companies and with external stake- nies difficult. tion had to be based on unambiguous, the Shipping KPI Project, it has now been holders. The launch of a pilot project, led by a observable measurements and be execut- completed and launched at the IMO in InterManager says that the Shipping steering committee that consisted of six ed according to a mathematical formula. London. Whereas, during the previous KPIs will allow companies involved in the shipping community representatives, in Further, the parameters had to be two stages, the development of the KPIs industry to easily monitor, assess and January 2005 marked the project’s kick-off, robust against manipulation and therefore was kept within the working group, the compare their operational performance. It the purpose of which was to figure out precisely and unambiguously phrased Shipping KPI website has now been made will also provide a yardstick enabling which methodology of evaluating KPIs leaving no room for ‘favourable interpre- publically available. charterers, shipowners, insurance and would be most effective. tations’. The launch at the IMO has also marked port state control as well as other stake- A CVH (Conjoint Value Hierarchy) In order to reflect the actual develop- the commencement of the last stage of the holders such as P&I clubs, class societies model was selected, as the output from ments in ship management performance Shipping KPI Project, which is expected to and academics to compare different ship this model produced results that were rel- over time, such as improvements and be concluded by April 2014. operators. evant to the prime attributes required – deterioration, the KPIs also had to be suf- In the course of its role as an interna- operational safety and environmental ficiently sensitive to change. The Shipping KPI pyramid tional trade association InterManager has excellence in ship management. Importantly, the KPIs had to be trans- system repeatedly voiced its concern about the The pilot project was succeeded by parent and easy to understand. For the The Shipping KPI Project distinguishes lack of efficiency in communication phase I of the Shipping KPI Project, which participants to interpret their meaning between three different kinds of perform- among stakeholders. Ineffective commu- was launched in January 2006. The main and informative value equally, double- ance indicators which are linked together nication, says the association, has negative focus during that first stage of the project meaning and context-dependence had to and form the structure of a pyramid. effects for both the organisation and for was to establish the indicators that would be prevented. Top of the hierarchy is the narrowest the shipping community. be used. When all parameters had eventually group containing the Shipping According to InterManager, money can This part of the project proved to be been successfully pre-determined in 2008, Performance Indexes (SPI). The KPIs form be saved through more efficient communi- complicated. Due to the near endless phase I was completed and led to the the intermediate layer and the lowest level cation with respect to time as well as amount of data used by the individual launch of Shipping KPI Phase II in March consists of the broadest cluster called manpower. ships and companies it was necessary to 2009. Performance Indicators (PI). KPIs have been in use for a long time start a comprehensive screening process, During the second stage of the project The different levels of the pyramid are and come in many different forms. evaluating the existing parameters’ signif- the KPI definitions were reassessed and based on one another. Whereas the base Traditionally, the companies utilising a icance for the Shipping KPI Project and further developed. At the same time, ves- level is made up of the raw data that is col- KPI monitoring system in the shipping reducing the array of data to a few com- sels started reporting back their data. This lected and entered by the ship operator, industry would choose the parameters mon denominators. growing contribution, soon amounting to the middle section represents calculated individually. After having determined a collection of 700 vessels, enabled the association to values that condense the Performance This diversity has led to a variety of basic parameters, standard KPI categories, elaborate and validate the KPI tool and Indicators into different specific groups. The top level, consisting of the SPIs, represents performance in particular broad areas. Its calculation is based on the KPIs of the subjacent section. Shipping companies, wanting to make use of the Shipping KPI Project, will have to spend some time to familiarise them- selves with the hierarchy of the pyramid structure. In order to enter the correct data, and thus receive significant results that also allow for benchmarking, it is important to fully understand the levels of the system and their informative value as well as the individual parameters. As a first step the data that makes up the Performance Indicators has to be col- lected. The PI are a range of 66 observable and measurable parameters that form the real core of the standard. They are low level parameters and InterManager has paid particular atten- tion to defining them unambiguously. KPIs build up on each other enabling the user to drill down from the top to the bottom to spot the cause of unexpected results They should be easily obtained as most of the PIs are existing measurements in the Digital Ship September 2011 page 38 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 10 Digital Ship shipping industry. or amount of data captured. On a scale the impact of the KPI Shipping Project and that are very important but have in the The information is either gathered by from 0 to 100, where zero indicates unac- hopes for wide acceptance in the shipping past been underrated. InterManager men- the vessel directly or through the office ceptable and 100 outstanding perform- community. tions spending on maintenance and train- where it is bundled. The data can be ance, the Rating allows for easy bench- Shipping KPIs are expected to boost the ing or environmental friendliness as counted, noted down from a machine or marking. performance of participating companies. examples. copied from a chart and is either collected KPIs can be things like budget perform- Thus, InterManager says, they should A long term goal of the project with manually or through implemented ICT ance, dry docking performance and vessel make processes and operations more regards to regulation is to move the focus solutions. availability. transparent, assessable and comparable. away from the present compliance culture Examples for PIs are the number of Ultimately, the KPIs are condensed into The model shall enable the manage- to self-regulation. This, as InterManager crew dismissed, number of collisions, or Shipping Performance Indicators, which ment to spot room for improvement more highlights, will require the Shipping KPIs number of fire incidents. form the highest level of the pyramid. easily and also facilitate benchmarking, a to be successfully used on an industry- This seemingly basic process can cause The SPIs represent performance within comparison against industry standards or wide basis. initial difficulties. Special arrangements broad areas and are expressed as weight- a particular group of competitors. In this regard, the KPI tool is also may have to be set up, where KPIs have ed averages of relevant KPI Ratings on a Another key advantage is the develop- hoped to satisfy newly emerging report- previously not been used. The responsibili- scale between 0 and 100. ment of more efficient communication ing requirements, e.g. on environmental ty of overseeing and executing the process There are seven SPI performance throughout the industry, says performance and corporate social has to be allocated and the person in charge groups: environmental performance, InterManager. Whilst the use of Shipping responsibility. familiarised with the system. Then the data health and safety performance, HR man- KPIs should improve operations and satis- InterManager additionally emphasises has to be concentrated in one central loca- agement performance, navigational per- fy the need to save on manpower, cut costs the Shipping KPIs function as a forum, tion and fed into the system. formance, operational performance, techni- and streamline processes, it will also pro- where members can pursue their mutual Once the data has been collected and cal performance and security performance. vide common ground to communicate interests together and promote and entered into the system, the KPIs on the The main idea of the pyramid structure about KPIs externally. improve industry developments with next level of the pyramid are worked out. is that the user shall be able to easily spot Better communication and improved regards to safety and efficiency. The 34 KPIs are expressions of perform- irregularities or – through benchmarking – operations are expected to not only benefit Industry-wide quality improvement ance in certain aspects of ship operation. room for improvement on the higher lev- the individual companies but ultimately and more transparent communication is They are based on the information that has els. They can then drill down from the top the global maritime industry. further hoped to increase public aware- been collected in the PIs on level I. level right through to the bottom. Moreover, the Shipping KPIs are ness of the shipping industry as well as There are two different ways of This moving from the general to the designed as a tool for charterers. The sys- boost its image. expressing the KPIs. A first one is to company-specific and then case-specific tem will allow for clear distinction between InterManager hopes that the entire express the KPI as a value. The KPI Value data is expected to provide the manage- ship operators and disclose their merits. shipping industry will buy into the is a mathematical combination of the ment with a handy tool to pinpoint the According to InterManager, this should scheme, the response to which is keenly respective PI Values, expressed in a natu- cause of objectionable results. enable charterers to find financially attrac- awaited. ral number. The second way of expressing tive partners that also meet their non- With the launch of the KPI Project the the KPI is as a rating, which simply Benefits for the industry monetary requirements. benchmarking database IMKE has been ranges the KPI Value on a scale between 0 Having invested six years of continuous Through greater transparency the proj- made available online. The ball is rolling and 100. collaborative effort and a substantial ect is further hoped to provide an incen- and it is now up to the maritime commu- KPI Ratings make it possible to com- financial input of around $7-8 million, tive for improvement and bring on finan- nity to support InterManager’s project pare vessels with different characteristics InterManager has high expectations for cial rewards for aspects of ship operations with its participation. DS Digital Ship September 2011 page 39 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 11 SOFTWARE Software as a Service - revolutionising fleet management Implementing a software as a service (SaaS) model can allow companies with a modest IT infrastructure to still enjoy the benefits of the latest software applications, without having to make major investments. This can prove particularly useful in an industry like maritime, writes Christa Thoma, MESPAS hipping companies running tradi- The acronym SaaS first appeared in on demand’. This approach to application Once the infrastructure is put in place, tional technical fleet management February 2001 in an article called Strategic delivery is part of the utility computing the above costs are incurred regardless of SSsoftware are often sobered by the Backgrounder: Software as a Service, pub- model where all of the technology is in the whether the software application is being high investments and operational costs of lished by the Software & Information ‘cloud’ – accessed over the internet as a used or not. running and maintaining the software. Industry's (SIIA) eBusiness Division. service. This could be compared to buying ver- In addition, they are disillusioned by Simply put, SaaS means delivering soft- This is in contrast to the traditional sus renting a car. Even if the car owner the limited additional benefits the soft- ware over the internet, which is used to approach where every application is doesn’t like his car anymore, the full pur- ware offers, for instance in terms of report- provide, support and run the system. licensed, installed, maintained and sup- chase price is due for payment, and the ing functionalities. Not long ago, SaaS was almost exclu- ported on every device or computer. ongoing costs such as insurance, mainte- Although many shipping companies sively limited to CRM (Customer Today, many companies in a variety of nance, new tires and so on are incurred. are thinking about employing a profes- Relationship Management) applications industries have adopted SaaS applica- When the car has reached the end of its sional technical fleet management soft- such as Salesforce. Today, typical SaaS tions. The main aim is to optimise reliabil- useful life, one has to buy another car. ware, they often hesitate to introduce such applications include accounting, E-com- ity and costs by offloading the burden of By contrast, if a car is rented, the driver a third party system. merce, ERP (Enterprise Resource hardware maintenance (i.e. server, net- is committed to it only as long as he wants There are several reasons for this: com- Planning), database applications, project work) and software maintenance, as well to use it. Once the driver paid for that use, panies are wary of the time and costs management, and many other applica- as data backup. there are no further financial obligations. involved in evaluating different products tions. In a 2010 study by ‘Computerworld’, It’s the rental car company’s obligation and implementing the system, as well as Previously, such applications were almost 50 per cent of the respondents to pay for insurance and other disburse- training the users. expensive on-premises products that only mention ‘Cloud’ and ‘SaaS’ as belonging ments to keep it in excellent shape. And In addition, implementing a traditional large companies could afford. to the most important IT issues over the it’s in the rental car business’ best interest software system also means shipping Today, with SaaS, even small compa- next two years. to keep its cars in good shape, or else the companies have to invest heavily in hard- nies can access state-of-the-art applica- company won’t stay in business for long. ware, IT personnel, security, and support, tions for a reasonable fixed subscription SaaS versus on-premises Similar to the above analogy, SaaS pres- on an ongoing basis. fee. The web-based model allows busi- systems ents a low-cost, flexible alternative to the Yet, in times where affordable band- nesses to maintain a single system, and to While there are different SaaS models have-your-own-software approach. The width and increasingly powerful proces- make use of applications operated by serv- available in the market, a few key charac- software is neither installed nor operated sors are simplifying how we do business, ice providers rather than themselves. teristics are common to all SaaS models on the company’s IT landscape, but is many companies are re-visiting the choic- That relieves them of the need to buy, (see table below right). offered as a hosted service. es they made with regards to the type of operate and maintain IT infrastructure When comparing the costs of an on- Employees utilise the application via a software they use, and how they run it. and application software. premises solution with a SaaS solution, web-based frontend, or open an offline Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of SaaS has become increasingly popular one has to be aware of the different cash software client which regularly synchro- the most important recent innovations in for its ability to simplify deployment. It outflows incurred by in-house data cen- nises with the central database. terms of deploying and using software, also permits software providers to sup- tres and server infrastructure: This is particularly important in the and it has eliminated many of the negative port many customers with a single version The direct costs that go with running a maritime industry, i.e. for ships that have aspects associated with running software of a software. server: server, power, floor space, stor- no continuous internet connection. No systems. It is far more cost-efficient to develop age, backups, various licenses, and IT server needs to be hosted at the client’s As a consequence, the Software as a and support one version of a software cen- operations to manage these resources. site, nor do clients have to worry about Service concept is becoming more and trally – and to offer the application as a The indirect costs of running a server: security, backups or installing software more widespread. web-based service – than to maintain a network and storage infrastructure, IT updates on users’ computers. In this regard, this article discusses two variety of software versions locally and on operations to manage the general So how come SaaS providers can pro- things – it explains the pros and cons of a number of servers. infrastructure and data security. vide software at lower costs? SaaS, and takes a snapshot at how the Not only does the SaaS concept allow The overhead costs of owning a server: Traditional applications require a dedi- maritime industry can employ SaaS to for more efficient resource utilisation, it procurement of server infrastructure, cated set of resources to fulfil the needs of improve its technical fleet management also eliminates the high costs of propri- administration and accounting person- just one organisation. This means, with operations. etary hardware and applications, and the nel, IT management, depreciation. traditional systems, each customer covers IT resources to maintain and operate the What is SaaS? infrastructure. On-premises Software The concept of Software as a Service has With SaaS, a software provider licenses SaaS delivery model been in use for a number of years. an application to customers as a ‘service The software is purchased upfront and SaaS suppliers provide customers integrated into the IT landscape of the access to the software via the internet company The software is owned by the customer Software is not owned by the customer; it’s owned by the SaaS provider The software is deployed, managed and The services noted on the left are supported as well as maintained by offered by the SaaS provider as part dedicated in-house IT personnel of the subscription fee The customer provides the in-house The SaaS provider is responsible for infrastructure to support the software, maintenance, upgrades, support and such as servers, hardware, networks and security of the software and security measures infrastructure It’s the customer’s decision whether or not The software provider makes available Source: ‘Computerworld’ August 2010, Top 500 ICT companies in Switzerland. to utilise the latest version of the software. the latest version of the software to all Multiple answers were possible. If so, additional costs are incurred its customers, at no additional costs Digital Ship September 2011 page 40 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 12 Digital Ship On-premises Software SaaS delivery model base on just one platform, rather than no need to provision for future computing CapEx CapEx on many. resources. Costs for hardware, networking equip- No capital expenditure incurred if the 2) Save Time. Speed of deployment: ment, infrastructure and security meas- company already has sufficient internet Benefits of SaaS SaaS solutions are up and running within ures, plus costs for replacements and access The following are what I believe to be the a very short time span. System implemen- upgrades of hardware over time top eight benefits of SaaS. tation, ranging from evaluation to specifi- Purchase and licensing price of soft- 1) Save Money. No up-front costs: No cation, data implementation and deploy- ware, plus recurring costs for software dedicated on-premises servers needed, ment and training, usually happens with- upgrades and no other expensive infrastructure for in weeks as opposed to months or years. Additional costs for licenses and hard- their operation. In addition, there’s no This is because many of the issues relat- ware when the business grows, i.e. tied-up capital for hardware or up-front ed to the implementation of proprietary when new users are added costs for software licenses. software do not apply, and because the Reduced IT costs: Purchasing software software is already in full operation on the OpEx OpEx the traditional way results in significant SaaS provider’s infrastructure. Integration and deployment Subscription fee (e.g. per user, per expenditures for installation, mainte- Additionally, training needs tend to be nance, managing updates and migration minimal as the software must be intuitive Managing, supporting, maintaining the transaction, per month, per year, per software, including deployment of new company) of the data. By contrast, system mainte- and easy-to-use in order to meet the releases nance (backup, updates, patches, security, requirements of its broad user-base. technical support, etc) is already included 3) Access software from anywhere. IT Personnel costs and overheads in the subscription fee of a SaaS solution. SaaS applications are accessible from any- Purchase or renting of floor space for Predictable, low pricing: The pay-as- where with an internet connection. Users server room you-go model incurs significantly lower aboard ships work with an offline soft- costs in comparison with traditional sys- ware client. his own server hardware and care for access the software on the central server tems, and it includes the costs for mainte- 4) Concentrate on core business and maintenance, upgrades, security, backups by using their existing computers. nance, support, and upgrades. increase productivity. Being relieved of and so on. The data remains on the central server; This means: Instead of investing in many IT related issues means that compa- In the maritime industry, sometimes a no need for customers to worry about hardware and purchasing software licens- nies can redirect human and financial server is run for each individual vessel. security, backups, implementing software es, clients pay only for what they actually resources to the company’s core business. With SaaS the magic words are upgrades and other IT related tasks. need, e.g. based on the subscribed applica- 5) Benefit from a flexible and rapidly ‘Economies of Scale’, and the table above This yields tremendous economies of tions and number of users. scalable system. With SaaS, there are no highlights some of the advantages in scale, as only one set of hardware Apart from the relatively low opera- hardware issues connected with an terms of Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and resources (central server) is necessary to tions costs of running SaaS applications, increase (or decrease) of the number of Operational Expenditure (OpEx). meet the needs of all users; a relatively clients also benefit from the fact that users. This means the system quickly A SaaS platform can satisfy the needs of small staff can efficiently and securely future software upgrades are included in adapts to changing numbers of users. multiple customers, using the hardware manage only one stack of software and the fee. This offers a great deal of flexibility, par- and personnel resources to manage just hardware; and developers can build, sup- Positive side-effects: no capital is tied ticularly in the shipping industry, where one single software instance. Customers port and further develop a single code up; capital can be used for other projects; fleet sizes may vary on a regular basis. The trusted name in fleet management software for your 6060,000,000 ton hardwarhardware. software service training consulting integration understanding www.abs-ns.com Digital Ship September 2011 page 41 p30-42:p1-14.qxd 06/09/2011 16:02 Page 13 SOFTWARE 6) High reliability, performance and in real-time through a secure internet con- security. Software applications offered as Driver Outcome nection – no matter when and where they SaaS are hosted in high-capacity, powerful are located. Value for money Reduced duplication and costs and secure data centres. No provider can Crews aboard the vessels work offline Leveraging economies of scale afford to upset its clientele with long reac- by accessing the database onboard, which Increased savings through virtualisation tion times, unavailable services or unse- Allow for ‘measured’ payment (pay as you use) is mirrored to the central server’s data- cured system architecture. Redundant Reduced energy use base ashore. Regular synchronisation as server farms ensure continued availability Ability to reinvest in, and concentrate on, core objectives part of the standard sync schedule of in peak times or in case of a server Adopt, where fit for purpose, modern technologies and each vessel ensures that both ship and breakdown. practices that improve ICT effectiveness and efficiency shore work with the same up-to-date Infrastructure operated by SaaS Flexibility Create a flexible services-oriented environment information. providers outclass customer-operated Rapid provisioning and deployment of services as well as on There is also an added benefit of freeing infrastructure simply because of their demand scalability and elasticity for services & capabilities up resources for other projects. Working focus and size: they’re run by companies with traditional procurement and fleet Operational reliability High resiliency and availability whose core business it is to run complex IT management applications involves many and robustness Standard offering systems. time-consuming and costly issues that 7) Always current and compatible aren’t part of the core competencies of a software. SaaS applications are upgraded typical player in the shipping industry, on the central server. This happens with Issues such as security, data sovereign- providers focusing on the maritime mainly in the area of Information little or no involvement by the customer. ty and inflexibility in terms of customisa- industry. In our view, there are two main Technology (IT). This ensures that all users of the system tion of the software tend to be mentioned. reasons for this. Not so with SaaS. SaaS allows applica- automatically work with the latest ver- When it comes to extremely sensitive data, This is firstly due to the conservative tions to be centrally provided and main- sion, and time consuming updates or particular attention must be paid to data thinking in shipping. The industry is not tained. All clients use the same technology problems due to differing software ver- security and legal issues. known for taking up new technologies and benefit from continual software sions are eliminated. On the other hand, this applies to any fast, they’re more comfortable in the improvements at no additional costs. With SaaS, there is centralised backup, software application, be they traditional or role of followers than in the role of The software is not installed on-site, recovery and archiving. Crews aboard SaaS applications. In terms of data sover- early adopters. but accessed via the internet, meaning the vessels work with an offline version of the eignty, some people may worry about los- Secondly, at the moment, not many software solution is available anytime and application. Regular synchronisation ing physical control over their data. SaaS providers for the maritime industry anywhere. ensures that both software and data are However, experience shows that secu- exist. Most established software solutions up-to-date. rity issues tend to be dealt with more pro- are built on software architecture that Outlook 8) Low entry and exit barrier. Due to fessionally at a dedicated SaaS application cannot be used to reliably and securely Cloud computing services and SaaS appli- the moderate initial costs and the sub- provider than would be the case with in- deliver software applications and data via cations will play an increasingly impor- scription fee, SaaS has a very low entry house solutions. Cloud providers have a the cloud. tant role in the shipping industry in barrier. This enables small to medium vital interest in safe IT environments – Typically, a SaaS software provider is a the future. sized companies to employ professional security problems would soon mean the relatively young company, whose solution It is predicted that more and more busi- software applications which previously end of a SaaS company. is based on a multi-tenant architecture (a nesses will outsource complexity (IT and were too costly and time-consuming to For SaaS applications to work efficient- single version of the application is used hardware concepts) to external service implement for them. ly, access to the internet is essential. Yet, for all customers, i.e. ‘tenants’). providers and data centres. With SaaS, Businesses reduce the risk of being tied this is already a given in today’s business In terms of technical fleet management, these companies will benefit from profes- down with proprietary, under-performing environment – internet access is usually there are two distinctive features the soft- sional software applications without solutions. part of the standard infrastructure. ware must possess: high quality data man- having to worry about all of the hard- For use aboard ships, the SaaS applica- agement and offline availability. ware resources. Drivers and reservations tion is managed offline, and data transfers In terms of data management, the SaaS Regardless of whether financial consid- So what might drive companies to adopt as well as software updates are conducted provider manages – on behalf of all cus- erations or outsourcing complexity are the an SaaS model? A survey done by via regular synchronisation. tomers – the data and documents that are drivers behind employing SaaS, the main Information Week Analytics in 2010 reaf- shared by all users of the application, for priority remains unchanged – the applica- firms several key benefits of SaaS adop- SaaS checklist instance product specifications, OEM tion must be easy-to-use, safe and work tion (see table below left). This checklist, below right, may help you manuals and the like. flawlessly. DS The table above right, from a January evaluate whether a SaaS application is Since this is done centrally and for all 2011 Australian Government, Department appropriate for your company or your clients, the costs for this are very low for of Finance and Deregulation, Cloud project. Any YES answer points you to each client, i.e. definitely much lower than About the author Computing Strategic Direction Paper, also the system more appropriate in relation to if each customer would have to do this on This article has been adapted from the outlines a number of key drivers in the the question. his own. white paper Revolutionizing Technical adoption of cloud computing. While there are many SaaS companies In terms of ownership of the data, cus- Fleet Management in the Maritime However, despite the highlighted in the market, there are only a small tomer-specific or vessel-specific data Industry - How to improve efficiency advantages of SaaS, some reservations exist. number of specialised SaaS software belongs to the customer and not to the sys- and reduce costs by introducing tem provider, and cannot be accessed or Software as a Service (SaaS) by Christa viewed by any other user of the system. Thoma. Ms Thoma is head of corporate Customers, on the other hand, can access communications with software company and download their data in any industry- MESPAS AG, of Zurich, Switzerland. standard format. www.mespas.com. Having offline availability means that office staff can access the central database Digital Ship September 2011 page 42 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 1 Advertorial IPoP – Network Solution for Vessels – Gentay Ltd launches low cost plug-and-play networks for vessels BPL (Broadband via Powerline) technol- CCTV anywhere on board the vessel in computer network access point in the Gentay Ltd focuses on applying ogy has been around for many years, util- proximity to a power source allowing for crew member’s cabins. Combined with a technological solutions from land ising the power grid to transmit comput- monitoring and surveillance of critical global 3G SIM Card or in conjunction based environments to the Maritime er network signals as an alternative to and strategic areas feeding the images with the vessels satellite communication Industry and is continuing to research, fixed wired networks or Wi-Fi networks. directly and in real time to the desired systems, this will allow the crew mem- develop and launch technological However, the existing technology has computer monitor. bers to utilise web applications such as solutions to challenges faced by the suffered from significant limitations in In addition, the iPoP – Network Skype or chat programmes as well as global Maritime Industry. Gentay Ltd signal strength, signal transmission dis- Solutions for Vessels systems will allow email to maintain communication with operates from offices in London and tance as well as frequency interruptions the simple and low cost installation of their family on shore. Singapore. that have proven the existing technology as unsuitable for commercial and indus- trial applications. Significant financial resources have been allocated by global Power Generators and suppliers to upgrade the L3R3 existing BPL technology to enable Smart Grids that transmit real time data of ener- gy consumption from the energy users to 1HWZRUN6ROXWLRQV)RU9HVVHOV the power suppliers. The results of this investment is the latest generation of BPL technology adapted by Gentay Ltd for the Maritime Industry. Currently, the conventional method of installing computer networks on board vessels is by installing fixed network cables between desired access points on the vessel. This is both expensive and time consuming due to the wiring and ducting required. In addition, Wi-Fi networks are limited by the difficulty of the Wi-Fi signal to penetrate metal bulkheads. IPoP – Network Solution for Vessels overcomes these limitations and restric- tions by transmitting the network signal via the vessels existing power grid. The shielded power cables on board vessels have proven ideal for transmitting network signals over distance reliably and with throughput speeds rivalling office networks. Installations conducted on various types of vessels including Bulk Carriers, Chemical Tankers, Gas Carriers, Car Carrier and others have demonstrated conclusively the effective application of this technology to carry the signal to various required locations on board the vessel. This installation of the iPoP- Network Solution for Vessels system does not /RZFRVWFRPSXWHUQHWZRUNVRQERDUGYHVVHOVXWLOLVLQJWKHH[LVWLQJSRZHUJULG require third party installation services and can be done by the on-board crew 3URXGO\%URXJKW7R ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS GICA members gain Raytheon joins Safebridge online training access to AIS tracking www.safebridge.net Management System) providing a mixture AIS integration and data input, integrat- www.portvision.com www.raytheon-anschuetz.com of guided tutorials, examinations and tests ed Navtex messages on the screen, to build confidence and competence in the and integration of weather data and fore- PortVision has reached an agreement with Raytheon Anschütz has become the latest use of the ECDIS. cast symbols. the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association navigation systems supplier to agree a According to Safebridge director, "New requirements in ECDIS training (GICA) in the US to provide access to ves- deal with online simulation training Professor Captain Ralph Becker-Heins, it from STCW 2012, the ISM Code, and con- sel information within the area’s water- company Safebridge, which will see is estimated that up to 500,000 seafarers sequently tough Port State Control regula- ways to the organisation’s members. Raytheon technology available for study will require training over the next tions mean that flexible and hands-on, Members will be able to view GICA within the Safebridge computer based few years. type-specific training is fast becoming waterway alerts and related notices in the training system. More critically, he says that around essential for today’s seafarers," said Prof web-based map display of PortVision’s Raytheon joins fellow ECDIS manufac- 75,000 of these seafarers will require Capt Becker-Heins. Automatic Identification System (AIS) turers Imtech Marine, Sperry Marine training in the short-term given that "As from July next year, the mandatory vessel-tracking service, which combines and Transas in joining the online training existing installations will become the pri- fitting of ECDIS onboard ships will begin. real-time AIS data visualisation and his- programme. mary onboard navigation device and the The legislation will be applied in a rolling torical information with management Safebridge specialises in type-specific first new build ships in the progressive timetable, phased by vessel type and size, tools to deliver an overview of vessel traf- simulation training for the maritime phase-in period, cruise and other passen- starting with new build passenger ships fic in user-defined monitoring zones. industry, and was created to meet the ger vessels, are required to conform from and tankers, but will eventually apply to All GICA members will have web access demand for ECDIS training contained July 2012. almost all large merchant vessels and pas- to PortVision’s map display, where they can in the new STCW 2012 and ISM Code By signing co-operation agreements senger ships." view all current GICA alerts and notices. regulations. with manufacturers, allowing Safebridge "Providing online simulation means the GICA members who are also PortVision The training course allows the user to to use their ECDIS software for simula- seafarer can access hands-on training from customers will be able to see the alerts in a access the equipment in simulation mode tion purposes, the company is providing anywhere in the world, at any time. This single integrated display alongside other over the internet, thus providing familiari- access to training before joining ship not only fits the changing lifestyle of the regularly used PortVision information, sation with the system by practising real- and also offering server-based pro- seafarer but saves the shipping company including vessel position reports, PortVision life scenarios. grammes to re-train on specific installed the time and expense of organising and alerts and current weather conditions. A ‘GuideMe’ function is also included, equipment. scheduling familiarisation training at a “We are pleased to be offering this a learning environment where the user is Following this latest deal Raytheon fixed date and location. From my own valuable service to our members,” said shown, through instruction, the type-spe- Anschütz’ NSC ECDIS and its new gener- experience at sea, I can appreciate the Jim Stark, executive director with GICA. cific features of the system in question. ation of Synapsis ECDIS will be available great advantage this holds for the seafarer, “GICA will be placing alert icons on Interactive tasks are performed under for training via Safebridge. the shipping company and ultimately the PortVision’s web-based map display, and continual assessment, with users guided The Synapsis ECDIS provides full entire maritime industry." annotating them with other useful details to as to when and how they may be using server functionalities with automatic The first Safebridge type-specific provide a variety of timely, actionable infor- it incorrectly. duplication of routes and charts in multi- ECDIS familiarisation courses will be mation that will enhance the value of GICA The type-specific familiarisation cours- ple installations, online chart updating available to the market from Autumn of membership and improve efficiency and es will utilise an LMS (Learning services, automatic route planning, this year. safety on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.” Digital Ship September 2011 page 44 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 3 Digital Ship R Anschütz Kongsberg simulators in Kazakhstan and the US www.kongsberg.com has announced that it will supply its dual- www.star-center.com redundant Advanced K-Pos DP trainer to the Florida-based maritime training facili- Kongsberg Maritime has announced that ty, STAR Center. the company’s Maritime Polaris bridge Under the agreement Kongsberg simulators and Maritime Neptune engine will also supply six Basic K-Pos DP train- room simulators have been selected to ers. The training centre will apply the equip a new state-of-the-art facility in same DP technology used onboard a Kazakhstan. wide variety of offshore support vessels, The Caspian Maritime Training Center cable layers, research ships, cruise ships (CMTC), which opened in July in Aktau, is and other DP-enabled vessels and oil the first maritime training facility in rigs worldwide. Kazakhstan, and is aimed at developing While the Basic DP training system is the maritime industry in the Caspian designed for practising DP operations, region. It was established by Wagenborg the Advanced Trainer satisfies class nota- Shipping and the Maritime Institute tions equivalent to Dynamic Positioning Willem Barentsz, both of the Netherlands. Class 2, including dual redundancy with The Kongsberg simulators are hoped to no single-point failure; failure detection; promote realistic training in normal work- fault isolation; switchover to hot standby; ing and emergency conditions, and and comparison of sensor data between encourage the optimum and efficient use computers. of ships’ equipment. STAR Center will also receive four DP The plan is to provide a mix of training Models, three of which will be twinned scenarios across numerous disciplines, with three Polaris simulator ‘ownship’ including bridge team management, ship- models for use on STAR’s existing Full handling and manoeuvring, radar obser- Mission bridge. The DP models include a vation and plotting, automatic radar plot- supply vessel, a semi-submersible, a ting aids and engine resource and team tanker and a drill ship. management. “We view this important addition to “As the first maritime training facility our suite of simulation training services to in Kazakhstan, we will be offering be of strategic importance to ensuring advanced training for navigators, engi- American Maritime Officers members are INTEGRATED neers, electrical engineers and seamen,” prepared to operate the most technologi- says Igor Valerievich Tyazhkorob, general cally advanced vessels in support of AMO director at CMTC. contracted companies,” says Phil Shullo, In related news, in the US, Kongsberg managing director, STAR Center. NAVIGATION earlier this year after its European debut in 2010. SYSTEMS Kongsberg Maritime has officially opened a new 25,000 m² factory in Zhenjiang, China, established in order to meet the growing demands for systems and products within the Asian shipbuild- ing market. The new factory features sys- tems for the design, project engineering and production of Kongsberg Maritime’s sensors for use in engine monitoring and cargo monitoring applications. L-3 Marine & Power Systems has opened a new office in Brazil. All regional operations will be led by Jonas Synapsis Bridge Control combines most advanced Henrique Lobo, who will serve as director functions with well-proven reliability in one cohe- of business development and report sively developed bridge system. directly to Brian Pope, senior vice president of business development for Ocean Signal SafeSea V100 has been L-3 M&PS. Using the cutting-edge of navigation technology, awarded MED product certification Synapsis Bridge Control provides highest fl exibility Hatteland Display has appointed in system confi guration as well as simplifi ed and Ocean Signal’s SafeSea V100 Korean ECDIS provider, e-Marine predictable operation. GMDSS hand-held radio has been award- LogiX (e-MLX), as its sole agent in ed Marine Equipment Directive (MED) Korea. Under the agreement, e-MLX will product certification from the British offer support for all Hatteland customers Approvals Board for Telecommunications in Korea, as well as providing sales facili- (BABT), meeting the relevant require- ties for its products. ments for a portable survival craft two- www.raytheon-anschuetz.com way VHF radiotelephone. www.km.kongsberg.com www.L-3com.com/MPS Raytheon Anschütz GmbH also reports that it has Ocean Signal www.oceansignal.com D-24100 Kiel, Germany appointed as its CMC Electronics www.emlx.co.kr Tel +49(0)4 31-30 19-0 exclusive Canadian distributor. Ocean www.hatteland-display.com Fax +49(0)4 31-30 19-291 Signal was launched into North America Digital Ship September 2011 page 45 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 4 ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS Training technology upgraded in Tanzania and Turkey NGSCO installs www.transas.com Simulator for 12 Trainees to study ECDIS “The number of educational institutions CCTV across fleet and GMDSS operations. providing manpower to the maritime Transas reports that it has successfully In Turkey, Transas reports that it has industry has rapidly increased in the last www.km.kongsberg.com completed a project to supply a training carried out a ‘Train the Trainer’ course at decade,” commented project manager package including navigational, engine the Maritime Faculty at Dokuz Eylul Associate Prof Selcuk Nas, Deputy Dean of Kongsberg Maritime reports that it has room and GMDSS simulators to Dar Es University, with the aim of updating simu- Maritime Faculty, Dokuz Eylul University. completed delivery of a number of CCTV Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI) in lator trainers on the latest training method- “Moreover, there have been a lot of systems for installation on National Gas Tanzania, and has also completed ‘Train ology and efficient use of simulators. investments in laboratories, classrooms Shipping Company’s (NGSCO) entire the Trainer’ courses at simulator facilities 21 lecturers from 12 different colleges and simulators in order to enable suffi- fleet of eight LNG carrier vessels in the in Turkey. participated in a programme consisting of cient training. Still we see that the most Middle East. Under the contract with DMI, Transas Navigational Simulator and Engine Room important factor is an investment in The project has been managed in con- has upgraded the Institute’s navigational Simulator courses, and also covering ‘human capital’. In other words, highly junction with Unique Systems FZE, simulator to the newest generation Transas developments in ARPA radar and ECDIS, educated, skilled trainers who create Kongsberg Maritime’s local sales agent. Full Mission Ship Simulator NTPRO 5000, innovations in maritime training and new added value by educating seafarers, are Unique Systems FZE will be assisting in with a 270 degree horizontal field of view simulators’ applications. the most valuable resource for us.” the installation and commissioning of the and rear visualisation channel. As a part of this programme a Facebook “With this in mind, we always make CCTV systems, with two vessel refits hav- The simulator features wind-generated Group was created, which allowed for sure that our trainers have the latest knowl- ing been completed already in April, sea states and variable swell models with a communication and information exchange edge in using simulation systems and in another in July and the remaining five user selected sea state spectrum, as well as between the lecturers of different colleges. bridge and engine room operations.” planned over the next few months. vessel and wave interaction, full scene and Each ship’s CCTV system comprises a environment reflection, and three dimen- range of marine grade stainless steel above sional bow waves and propeller wash with deck PTZ (pan, tilt & zoom) and fixed associated floating object interference. camera stations with lowlight (day/night) New grounding, synchronous rolling, viewing capabilities and washers and broaching and other modelling features wipers, along with a multichannel teleme- are included, and integrated with VHF try matrix controller and 350 GB digital and Intercom solutions allowing voice video recorder (DVR), and an additional communications to be made available for control and viewing station. debrief and assessment. New CCTV cabling will be used to The project also featured the supply, install the equipment on the four Al installation and commissioning of a Full Khaznah class vessels – the Al Khaznah, Mission Engine Room Simulator, Steam Shahama, Ghasha and Ish – and existing boiler and Gas Turbine simulators and a cabling will be used to upgrade the four Dokuz Eylul University and Dar Es Salaam Maritime Institute PC based Multifunctional Classroom have both installed new systems from Transas Mubaras class vessels – the Mubaras, Mraweh, Al Hamra and Umm Al Ashtan. The new CCTV systems replace the orig- Two new space-based AIS satellites launched inal ships’ CCTV systems and will be used to monitor critical above deck processes. www.exactEarth.com ership after the successful completion of global vessel monitoring service,” said Kongsberg Maritime and Unique in-orbit testing, which is expected to be Peter Mabson, president of exactEarth. Systems FZE already had an existing rela- Satellite-AIS company exactEarth Ltd, a concluded within 90 days. “Our existing spacecraft have proven tionship with NGSCO, having installed subsidiary of COM DEV International, has These satellites incorporate a new gen- that advanced AIS payload technology systems and performed service and main- announced that it has successfully eration of AIS payloads designed to fur- combined with our proprietary ground- tenance support on many of its vessels. launched two new AIS (automatic identifi- ther improve the company's AIS message based processing results in a significant “The safe transportation of LNG is in cation system) satellites designed to detection capabilities from space. increase in detection capability.” itself a challenging process and it is vital extend its exactAIS constellation and The addition of these new spacecraft “This launch helps ensure that that reliable CCTV surveillance equip- increase the capacity of its global vessel will bring the exactEarth constellation to exactEarth will continue to provide the ment is used to monitor on deck processes monitoring service. five operational satellites. world’s most comprehensive and high and ensure safe operations,” said Dan The two spacecraft were built by “Today's launch marks another impor- performance satellite-based AIS service for Williams, business development manager SpaceQuest, and exactEarth will take own- tant step in the ongoing expansion of our years to come.” at Kongsberg Maritime. “Kongsberg Maritime and Unique Systems FZE secured this contract via a Tideland wins contract with GLAs Pole Star and Absolute competitive tender, based on the quality of in merger talks our marine CCTV systems offering. It’s www.tidelandsignal.com the signing of a three year agreement with very satisfying to work with NGSCO and the General Lighthouse Authorities (GLA) www.polestarglobal.com we look forward to developing our strong American marine navigation aids of the UK and Ireland, with an option www.absolutesw.com relationship with them going forward.” provider, Tideland Signal, has announced to extend. The contract calls for the supply of Pole Star and Absolute Software (includ- Tideland radar beacons, specifically ing Absolute Maritime Tracking Services) SeaBeacon 2 System 6 dual-band racons. have announced that they are in talks As part of a joint-GLA framework about a potential merger of the companies' agreement the racons will be installed respective global operations. around the coastline of Scotland and the Pole Star Space Applications provides Isle of Man. The equipment is intended fleet management and telematics services, to replace older racons as they fail and and is particularly involved in long range will be stored onboard service vessels identification and tracking (LRIT) as the rendering them available for immediate manager of 38 LRIT national Data Centres. installation. In total the company is monitoring the Tideland claims that its SeaBeacon 2 movement of more than 25,000 ships System 6 racon can be programmed worldwide. quickly and easily by the user at sea, Absolute is also a provider of LRIT sys- rather than having to be pre-programmed tems and other vessel monitoring services, in the factory. and manages the Panama LRIT National They offer sensitivity of -50dBm for Data Centre, the world's largest data cen- both X- and S- Band, and can respond tre, monitoring over 6,000 vessels. This The GLAs will use Tideland’s SeaBeacon 2 simultaneously to both X and S-band forms part of the 12,000 ships that Kongsberg CCTV on NGSCO vessels will System 6 for the next three years radars. Absolute is tracking on a daily basis. help monitor critical above deck processes Digital Ship September 2011 page 46 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 5 Loud and Clear The world’s most trusted maritime antenna system An industry leading 99.99% uptime makes Sea Tel the antenna system of choice for every type of vessel. From leisure boating and cargo shipping, to military applications and offshore communications for the oil & gas industry, Sea Tel delivers reliability under the most demanding conditions. In fact more vessels around the world rely on us for their VSAT antenna system than anyone else. Making Sea Tel not only a pioneer in satellite communications, but the world leader in the field for 33 years. www.cobham.com/seatel www.facebook.com/seatel p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 6 ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION Marine Aids to Navigation Strategy - 2025 and Beyond The General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) of the United Kingdom and Ireland have outlined their strategy to deal with evolving technology for the maritime sector as part of IMO’s e-Navigation strategy, and how this will affect Aids to Navigation in the busy waters of North West Europe 025 and Beyond’ is the United The Nautical Institute has stated that 80 potentially be unsafe. Long-Term strategy ‘‘ Kingdom and Ireland’s marine per cent of accidents at sea are caused by This is why the GLAs continue to press Over the last thirty years, there has been a 22aids to navigation (AtoN) strate- human error, while 2008 evidence from the need for an independent, dissimilar huge increase in the availability and use of gy. It has been prepared by the General one of the leading marine insurers directly terrestrial Position, Navigation & Timing technology – positioning, communications Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) of the links the rise in the number of accidents at backup. and information technology – within the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland for sea with human and navigational error. The GLAs’ choice for an independent maritime sector. We have no evidence to their users, partners and stakeholders. IMO’s e-Navigation response is terrestrial Position, Navigation & Timing suggest this rate of change will reduce. Since the publication of the GLAs’ ‘2020 defined as: backup is enhanced Loran (eLoran). We Therefore, the GLAs have followed the The Vision’ the global maritime risk to life, “The harmonised collection, integra- continue to participate in a pan-European UK Government’s horizon scanning best property and the marine environment has tion, exchange, presentation and analysis Loran network on a trial basis in the belief practice in a combination of scenario continued to increase. of maritime information onboard and that eLoran or a derivative provides a reli- development and trend analysis tech- The International Maritime ashore by electronic means to enhance able, accurate, secure and low cost niques to 2038 to support the creation of Organisation’s (IMO) response is e- berth to berth navigation and related serv- enhancement of GNSS derived PNT for ‘2025 and Beyond’. Navigation to enhance berth-to-berth ices, for safety and security at sea and pro- multi modal uses and applications. These techniques do not attempt to pre- navigation and related services, for safety tection of the marine environment.” eLoran, or an equivalent terrestrial dict what will happen. Nevertheless, they and security at sea and protection of the The concept is that all charting, com- backup to GNSS, is a key building block of have helped the GLAs to develop ‘2025 marine environment. munications and navigation information e-Navigation. and Beyond’ by stimulating future con- Without this fundamental change, will be integrated into a coherent presen- The GLAs believe that, if it is delivered cepts as well as spelling out potential given the increasing complexity of navi- tation on the bridge. It will be data-linked along with secure and reliable communi- opportunities and threats. gating around the British Isles, the risks of to shore to give a clear and up-to-the- cations, charting and chart displays and if The GLAs addressed four scenarios collisions and groundings will undoubt- minute presentation of current charts, inci- it becomes mandated by IMO as a univer- based around two axes (see graph below edly increase. dents and shipping. sal equipment carriage, then it will allow, left): The GLAs’ coastal environment is subject to risk assessment, a significant free or constrained movement of people already complex: the Dover Strait is the Strengthening reduction in the current number of Aids to and goods; and busiest and potentially one of the most e-Navigation Navigation and allied to simpler designs focussed or unfocussed technology and dangerous pinch-points in the world; The benefits of e-Navigation in the high- will result in a corresponding reduction in innovation. there are strong tidal currents in the risk areas off the coasts of the UK and the cost of the AtoN service. ‘2025 and Beyond’ broadly assumes a Pentland Firth and large tidal ranges in Ireland are clear. e-Navigation will bring a Contemporary technologies already future where there is free movement of the Bristol Channel; and there are around fundamental change to the concept of provide the capability to deliver much of people and goods and where focussed 255 offshore oil and gas platforms. operations used for maritime navigation. what IMO e-Navigation strategy envisages. technology and innovation allows eco- New plans for up to 7,000 offshore GPS is undoubtedly the primary navi- However, if such technological nomic growth within environmental lim- wind turbines and other tidal or wave gation system at present and will be joined advancement remains uncoordinated, its (Scenario 1). energy installations, as well as marine by other satellite systems such as Glonass, there is a risk that the future development However, other scenarios are also pos- conservation areas around our coasts, will Compass and Galileo. of the global shipping industry will be sible and so ‘2025 and Beyond’ recognises add further complexity to our already Due to the vulnerabilities of the signal, hampered through lack of standardisation the importance of contingency planning in challenging coastal waters. the need for a terrestrial backup to GNSS onboard and on land, incompatibility order to respond swiftly and effectively to These many factors reduce the sea area is widely accepted in IMO but such a sys- between vessels, and an increased and future uncertainties. available to shipping and increase the tem has not been mandated as yet nor the unnecessary level of complexity and cost. Looking forward, it is also important pressure on mariners. Their task becomes global or large region coverage defined. The transition period to e-Navigation that the GLAs develop ways of anticipat- more complex and their room for manoeu- However, until the backup is defined will, by its very nature, carry a degree of ing future risks and challenges, assess in vre ever more constrained as the number there is a clear single point of failure, as e- temporary risk that will require mitigation advance how they might respond and of traffic pinch-points increase, notably on Navigation would rely almost exclusively by the continuing deployment of physical continue to track the external environment the approach to major ports. on satellite navigation systems for its posi- AtoN. to confirm their likelihood. The long-term trend is generally tioning, navigation and timing inputs. Even with the full implementation of e- towards larger ships with an overwhelm- In the e-Navigation environment the Navigation, the GLAs are of the view that Short-Medium term ing over reliance on GPS in the coastal sudden reversion to traditional visual and spatial awareness in inshore and some strategy voyage phase. At the same time, crew radar navigation methods in congested aspects of coastal navigation will remain The short-medium term brings its own sizes have reduced and there is a severe and confined waters is a genuine concern important and thus leading lights, sector challenges and opportunities. shortage of seafarers, superintendents, which may be beyond the experience of lights and buoyage will continue to be a Institutionally, there will be marine surveyors and pilots. future watchkeepers and thus would mix of the AtoN provision. management organisations supported by It is reasonable to assume that technol- appropriate regulation with responsibili- ogy will continue to develop and that ties that include marine science, planning, solutions will emerge which will consoli- policy development, management and date confidence and reliance on the compliance monitoring. integrity of the navigational position. There is also the potential for changes For example, the validation of radar to the Merchant Shipping Acts to define returns by comparing them to identified further the role of the GLAs. objects on the ENC perhaps or a system of From a regulatory perspective it is automatic bearings. expected that the global and regional Nonetheless, if eLoran or equivalent is desire for increased harmonisation of traf- not mandated as a backup to GNSS, the fic management, maritime domain aware- GLAs will be slow to reduce the amount ness, marine spatial planning, marine and nature of the physical AtoN that are operations and the safety of navigation presently deployed and that have served will result in further legislation linked to Future use of AtoN technology will be dependent on environmental factors the mariner so well thus far. protecting the marine environment and enhancing commerce. Digital Ship September 2011 page 48 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 7 Digital Ship implementing measures to reduce the risk engage with other maritime service of the incident happening providers in the UK and Ireland to The Risk Management process com- ensure a coordinated approach to safe prises six steps that follow a standardised ty of navigation in our areas of respon- management or systems analysis sibility. approach: work with local lighthouse authorities Period of Transition: The GLAs will conduct their AtoN reviews to match the increasing 1. Identify risks/hazards; and our neighbouring littoral states to potential for rationalisation depending on regulation, investment programmes, on-board 2. Assess risks; ensure that users receive an effective equipment carriage, AtoN technology, training, risk and volume of traffic 3. Specify risk control options; and seamless service. 4. Make a decision; and provide a stable and resilient Aids to Financially, the GLAs will look to the thrive in our increasingly crowded and 5. Take action; Navigation service for general naviga- United Kingdom and Irish Governments complex coastal waters. 6. Monitor and review tion that meets international standards, to continue to provide a stable mechanism The GLAs’ marine aids to navigation The GLAs will ensure that the appropriate recommendations and guidelines. for funding our statutory responsibilities. vision is for a balanced mix of physical balance between the requirement for a respond to wrecks, new dangers and Operationally, the GLAs will continue and radio AtoNs that will meet the UK’s quantitative assessment is combined with Aids to Navigation casualties in a time- to be driven by user requirements and the and Ireland’s responsibilities as a qualitative approach using the principles ly fashion to minimise the risk to users. need to respond to international and Contracting Governments to the IMO’s of six steps to risk management. engage with international organisations, national developments linked to regula- SOLAS Convention. governments and other bodies to pro- tion, offshore developments and technolo- This mix will support and promote the GLA Commitment mote the harmonisation and standardi- gy, including e-Navigation. introduction of the IMO’s e-Navigation In line with these strategies leading up to sation of Aids to Navigation services. Technologically, new systems will initiative and will deliver a reliable, effi- 2025 the GLAs have committed to a plan ensure that through constant review the allow us to continue to meet our statutory cient and cost-effective AtoN service for of action where they will: Aids to Navigation mix is relevant, reli- responsibilities while improving our envi- the benefit and safety of all mariners. work closely together to maximise their able and cost-effective. ronmental footprint and extending main- The GLAs’ marine Aids to Navigation benefit and impact whilst reducing conduct their activities in a way that min- tenance intervals. strategy for the British Isles between 2010 costs where the safety critical nature of imises their impact on the environment. This will allow the GLAs to reduce and 2025 is: the service allows. When delivered, this strategy will mitigate costs, become more cost-effective and to continue to provide an appropriate consult regularly with users through the risk to provide for the safety of navigation, deliver better value for money. mix of AtoN for general navigation; Joint User Consultative Group, individ- the protection of life, property and the However, managing the lengthy transi- to continue to provide a timely and ual consultative committees and local marine environment, in line with the tion associated with infrastructure deploy- effective response to wrecks and AtoN user groups, to understand their needs, GLAs shared mission – “To deliver a reli- ment and onboard carriage requirements failures; inform them about developments, and able, efficient and cost-effective Aids to is likely to bring its own challenges. to continue to undertake superinten- consider their views to improve the serv- Navigation Service for the benefit and For example, new lights technology dence and management of all aids to ice we provide for all classes of mariners. safety of all mariners.” DS including synchronised lights will deliver navigation in accordance with interna- improved range and conspicuity and tional standards, recommendations and This article has been adapted from the General Lighthouse Authorities of the United allow increasing use of renewable energy. guidelines; Kingdom and Ireland’s ‘Marine Aids to avigation Strategy – 2025 and Beyond’ report. Developments in paint, materials and bat- to introduce e-Navigation AtoN compo- The original paper, including references, can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/2025- tery technology will allow extended main- nents and services in the UK and and-Beyond. For more information on the GLA visit www.trinityhouse.co.uk. tenance intervals. Ireland; At the same time, improvements in PNT to work with users, partners and stake- technology, additional navigational sys- holders nationally and internationally, tems, advances in onboard and shore to promote the safety of marine naviga- equipment, should allow for a reduction in tion based on harmonised international the range of major lights and a reduction in standards, recommendations and 6HUYLFH6XSSRUW offshore buoyage primarily intended for guidelines; the use of SOLAS equipped vessels. Some to embrace relevant technologies as main lights may also be discontinued. they evolve, successfully transfer from 0DQDJHU Conversely however, there may also be old to new technologies and integrate Taunton an increase in AtoN in inshore waters. them into our mix of AtoN for general With improved track analysis from AIS navigation; £47,460 - £53,514 + benefits resulting in better risk analysis for sea areas to improving reliability, efficiency and and the traffic using them, the GLAs will cost-effectiveness while ensuring the The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) plays a vital role in the UK’s continue to cater for and respond to the safety of navigation. maritime defence capability and supporting safe navigation at sea. needs of their users taking into account Period of Transition: The GLAs will con- As an agency of the MoD and a world-leading supplier of navigational charts and their diverse range of vessels and craft, duct their AtoN reviews to match the equipment, experience and competence. increasing potential for rationalisation publications, we are at the forefront of hydrographic digital product development depending on regulation, investment pro- and services to the worldwide maritime community. Future navigation grammes, on-board equipment carriage, We’re seeking a dynamic Service Support Manager to work within our Commercial Ultimately, marine AtoN are an important AtoN technology, training, risk and vol- Division. Managing a team of data and technical experts, you will be responsible and essential component for ensuring ume of traffic for the day-to-day operational management of UKHO’s digital services and their safety of life, facilitating commerce, main- The GLAs deliver their services in a associated delivery systems. In addition to this, you will be expected to contribute taining security around our coasts and transactional environment that comprises to service improvements and strategic planning. ensuring a clean maritime environment. organisations that have an impact on our They are an important strategic business and with whom we deal directly; An experienced manager with excellent communication skills, you must have a resource for the United Kingdom and while the contextual environment com- strong service ethic and fully understand the business needs of UKHO’s customers. Ireland: prises organisations that have an impact Along with proven analytical skills relating to data, knowledge of the e-Navigator they mark both natural and man-made on our business but with whom we don’t Planning Station, Fleet Manager and SAP is beneficial. hazards around our coasts that might deal directly. This is illustrated by the For more details and an application pack, please contact the HR Recruitment otherwise lead to maritime incidents graph above. with loss of life and damage to the The GLAs use IALA risk management Team, The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Admiralty Way, Taunton, environment; techniques when identifying the AtoN Somerset TA1 2DN or call 01823 723353, fax 01823 350493 or visit they provide situational awareness for requirement (type location etc). http://www.ukho.gov.uk mariners, improving the link between Risk management is a term applied to *SVZPUNKH[LMVYHWWSPJH[PVUZPZUK5V]LTILY the physical world and the digital a structured (logical and systematic) world of radio navigation, electronic process for: charts and radio communications; - identifying, analysing, assessing, treat- The MoD is an Equal Opportunities ing, monitoring and communicating risks employer and seeks to reflect the diverse they demarcate areas and routes so that community it serves. Applications are merchant shipping, fishing, leisure for any activity, and; welcome from anyone who meets the stated requirements. users, offshore energy, aquaculture and - achieving an acceptable balance between nature conservation can co-exist and the costs of an incident, and the costs of Digital Ship September 2011 page 49 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 8 ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION AIS – towards the future Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology is now a mainstay of modern navigation, with its use spreading to applications far beyond those originally envisioned – some better than others. Dr Andy Norris looks at the strengths and weaknesses of modern usage of AIS, and how it might evolve in the future n principle, the Automatic Identification the vessel’s name, IMO number and GNSS System can provide excellent naviga- antenna shipboard position, has to have IItional data and is also a unique source been correctly set and maintained. of information to support many govern- Monitoring by coastal authorities has mental and private shore-based activities. considerably improved data accuracy The beauty of AIS is its universality. In since the early days of AIS, particularly fact, it is officially named as the Universal because many impose fines if action is not AIS (UAIS) but this nomenclature has not taken to correct anomalies that have been survived in everyday use, even though it highlighted to the vessel. has probably become more universal than Even so, the system remains vulnerable ever originally envisaged. to newly arising data errors and inaccura- For instance, in the mid 1990s when AIS cies, which can occur at any time. was being conceived, who would possibly Another issue that can affect the have thought that AIS apps with quasi- integrity of AIS is that it is technically global coverage would be available at vir- quite easy to generate spoof signals, tually zero cost to any smartphone user? which, in the hands of subversive users, In fact, probably few had even realised can potentially play havoc with the sys- that AIS data would get used beyond tem, such as by generating false targets. The use of AIS data has become more universal than ever originally envisioned ships, coastal stations and national securi- All these inherent integrity issues have ty departments. led IMO from the outset to caution its use stop all VTS operators from giving ships inevitably arise. Its present-day universality has made it for making collision avoidance decisions. detailed instructions based solely on such This particular topic is being specially of huge benefit to shipping offices and AIS remains unmentioned in the data – or is this hearsay? discussed at a seminar being held by the dockside facilities, as well as providing COLREGs, in effect highlighting its rela- Royal Institute of Navigation at Trinity invaluable statistical data to enhance tively poor integrity – although Rule 7 AIS evolution House, London, on the 8th November. routeing facilities and to improve environ- implicitly requires AIS information to be The future of AIS is intimately linked to For all these reasons there is already mental protection. used in assessing whether a risk of colli- that of e-navigation, which is based on rel- talk about increasing the number of VHF Unfortunately, use has also extended to sion exists. evant high integrity information always channels dedicated to AIS. crime-related activities, including piracy. Of course, radar also has integrity being available to ensure the safe passage The current system is very cleverly The benefits of universality surely greatly issues, such as when targets are obscured of vessels. thought out for today’s use, giving ade- outweigh its possible disreputable uses by clutter and with operator set-up prob- The navigational integrity inherent in e- quate performance to all users but using but it does mean that special precautions lems. However, problematic scenarios are navigation thinking will ultimately ensure miniscule bandwidth resources. concerning AIS need to be taken by vessels generally more easily recognised by users, that the dynamic data input into AIS will However, it is based on messages in certain situations. not least because its operation is entirely be automatically assessed and perhaps being compact and in the more distant However, despite the benefits of the self contained and does not rely on ‘coop- even tagged with an integrity message. future, as more and more information is present-day system it does suffer from a erative targets’ – a highly significant In addition, a separate onboard receiving considered necessary, it may require a significant drawback that generally pre- advantage over AIS. system could continuously and automatical- fundamental rethink. vents the concept being used to its fullest Despite the real concerns for the ly make integrity checks on the actually In essence, AIS is just an automatic dig- possible extent. This is the relatively poor integrity of AIS data it is perhaps ironic transmitted data from own ship. This would ital communications system that requires integrity of its transmitted data – which that its inherent accuracy and information also flag up any nearby system attempting good availability and, in particular, rela- especially compromises its use as a navi- content for vessel-to-vessel encounters to spoof own ship’s transmissions. tively low transmission latency for some gational tool. normally easily beats that of marine radar. The increased integrity possible could of its critical navigational data. When first introduced, the inherent For instance, its range resolution and even make AIS become the prime tool for Perhaps into a mature e-navigation integrity issues of AIS were underlined by accuracy is typically around a few metres, avoiding ship-to-ship collisions and may future it can just become high priority numerous erroneous transmissions from compared to tens of metres for a standard considerably enhance the possibilities for data sent on future standard communica- ships, mainly resulting from actions or, radar. The latency of target turn informa- a greater element of ‘sea traffic control’ in tions channels, whether satellite or terres- indeed, lack of actions by inadequately tion from AIS is normally of the order of a crowded waters. trial based. trained bridge staff, in many cases exacerbat- few seconds but is generally a minute or It is easy to dream up additional AIS In principle, because the bandwidth is ed by improperly performed installations. more from tracked radar data. services, especially with e-navigation in not so highly restricted as present day AIS, Linked to the additional inadequacy of AIS also gives a lot of extra information mind, and a host of new messages are such channels offer very high levels of AIS for many aspects of navigation when about the target that is not available to a already becoming available, including those data security, greatly reducing the oppor- used solely on an IMO-defined Minimum radar based system and the use of VHF fre- for AIS Aids-to-Navigation. However, the tunities for spoofing. Keyboard and Display (MKD), the system quencies means that vessels separated by a currently allocated bandwidth will quickly Aspects such as latency would have to created a very negative initial impact on moderate landmass can often still receive become saturated in some parts of the be carefully controlled but current thinking many shipborne users. AIS signals from each other, whereas their world if all possibilities are used in earnest. on advanced digital communications sys- It is only when AIS data is displayed mutual radar vision would be blocked. In addition, as more and more AIS tems recognises the need for giving data and used knowledgably on other naviga- Of course, it is the combined and intel- Class-B users come on line, they put con- priority to certain categories of message. tional monitors, especially radar, that its ligent use of visual, radar and AIS derived siderable extra pressure on the network, In fact, only a small class of AIS mes- navigation benefits become really useful. information, together with other appropri- which is likely to limit the effectiveness of sages need such high priority. ate navigational data, that maximises the these transmissions in some areas. It is its transmission cost, rather than Lack of integrity total benefits and minimises the possibili- However, it is in everybody’s interest fundamental technology and knowhow, There are a number of integrity issues. A ty of an unnoticed integrity failing in any for small craft to become AIS users, that prevents this prospect becoming major one is that the navigational inputs one system. despite it requiring special techniques to viable in the relatively near future. into the transmitting AIS – the dynamic In particular, it highlights the reliance reduce the display clutter that will But data costs are ever reducing ... DS data – are from individually operating that can be given to the perception of any sensors, which are not normally checked actual situation, enabling decisions to take for consistency by any automatic system. into account the degree of uncertainty. Dr Andy orris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry for a Another is that the system is reliant upon As a note of concern, some vessel traffic number of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech navigation operators remembering to correctly input systems only have AIS information avail- companies but now he is working on broader issues within the navigational voyage related data, such as the destination able to them, at least in some sectors of world, providing both technical and business consultancy to the industry, gov- ernmental bodies and maritime organizations. Email: [email protected] port. Furthermore, the static data, such as their coverage. Allegedly, this does not Digital Ship September 2011 page 50 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:24 Page 9 p43-52:p15-25.qxd 06/09/2011 16:25 Page 10 TRUST AN ANTENNA DESIGNED TO A HIGHER STANDARD. In designing our new VSAT antennas, Intellian engineers started with a clean sheet of paper. Components and systems were analyzed and refined. Intense vibration, shock and stress simulationse liminated potential weak spots. Rigorous quality controls were put in place during manufacture. All done so you get sea-worthy – and trustworthy – performance right out of the box. When you’re choosing an antenna for your VSAT system, specify Intellian. Get a higher standard of performance by design. VSAT Performanc by Design www.intelliantech.com Global Offices Seoul t Irvine t Seattle t Rotterdam Asia +82.2.511.2244 Americas +1.888.201.9223 Europe +31.1.0820.8655