Satcom Success in Northeast Passage
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p1-19:p1-14.qxd 23/10/2009 12:00 Page 1 November 2009 Satcom success in IN THIS ISSUE Northeast Passage satcoms Beluga Shipping recently became the first Western company to transit the Thrane reaches 5,000 Northeast Passage with a commercial vessel, without the need for FleetBroadband terminals in less than two years – 4 icebreakers. The company reports that it managed to maintain communications via e-mail and voice throughout its Arctic journey Anthony Veder agrees 14-vessel Ku-band – which could lead to more vessels exploiting this northern route VSAT installation contract – 6 Controlling costs in ICT using VoIP – 13 eluga Shipping of president and CEO of Northern waterways. go, regarded as the Mixing high and low speed Bremen, in conjunc- Beluga Shipping. The ships reported by e- Northeast Passage’s official communications systems BBtion with its com- The two Beluga heavy mail to the Russian adminis- exit in a westerly direction at Seacor Marine – 16 munications providers, lift project carriers tration that they had reached by the Russian administra- Iridium and H2OSatellite, involved in the journey a position at 70° 16.7’ North – tion, on September 12, 2009, has confirmed that it has used the Iridium OpenPort 057° 33.4’ East as they com- with its sister vessel MV software managed to successfully system, supplied by pleted the voyage. Beluga Foresight following maintain satellite connec- on September 16, 2009. tivity and communications The vessels arrived Improving maritime software reliability during its recent transit of safely in Rotterdam on using rejuvenation – 26 the Northeast Passage, the September 19th. Cutting costs and carbon first commercial shipping Passage through the with vessel optimisation – company to do so without waterway is only possible icebreakers. during a six to eight week 28 This route offers a sig- period between August and Online voyage risk nificant reduction in dis- September, when ice has assessment tool tance for vessels travelling thawed sufficiently to allow launched by BIMCO from Asia to Europe, with vessels like the Beluga pair Beluga Shipping noting to navigate the route safely. – 30 that it was able to cut 4,000 “By the completion of nautical miles off the jour- the Northeast Passage electronics and ney from South Korea to transit, and previously the navigation Rotterdam compared with safe offloading of the cargo transit via the Suez canal. in a rather remote area in "We are all very proud Siberia, we have opened LRIT system approved for use on US- and delighted to be the the gate to a seaway which flagged vessels by Coast Guard– 35 first Western shipping will further gain in impor- company which has suc- The route from Korea to Rotterdam via the Northeast tance in the future,” said ENC licensing needs industry Passage (in blue) cut 4,000 nautical miles off a similar cessfully transited the leg- Mr Stolberg. agreement – UKHO – 37 journey via the Suez Canal (in red) endary Northeast Passage and delivered (our) cargo Arctic Beyond the minimum – safely through this extraor- H2OSatellite, for voice The MV Beluga communication how to improve the ECDIS dinarily demanding sea and data links throughout Fraternity passed the Beluga Shipping began – Dr Andy Norris – 39 area," said Niels Stolberg, their transit of the extreme Nowaja Semlja archipela- planning its project to take © 2009 DUALOG AS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL RIGHTS AS. © 2009 DUALOG Michael Mark, Vessel IT Manager for a fleet of 59 vessels, Meet us at Digital Ship Athens 2009 Clipper Marine Services, 11-12 November 2009, Athens Golf Club Dualog® Connection Suite™ - Take Control Copenhagen. p1-19:p1-14.qxd 23/10/2009 12:00 Page 2 SATCOMS continued from page 1 advantage of the limited summer thaw city of Surgut, Russia. window more than 12 months ago. The specialist ice class E3 heavy lift car- In addition to consultations by Beluga riers have up to 360 metric tons crane with meteorologists, masters, chartering capacity, and had generators and 44 Vol 10 No 3 and operations departments, and safety power plant modules weighing in excess and security experts, the company of 200 tons each amongst the cargo. Digital Ship Limited approached its satcom provider Having been the first company to suc- 213 Marsh Wall H2OSatellite to advise on which equip- cessfully use the Northeast Passage as a London E14 9FJ, U.K. ment to carry to run its communications commercial route, Beluga Shipping www.thedigitalship.com at Arctic latitudes. This led to the decision believes that the opportunity to cut great to install the Iridium OpenPort. distances off the common route through PUBLISHER “We knew that Iridium OpenPort was the Suez Canal will mean that others Stuart Fryer the only choice for full coverage in those might soon follow. extreme regions where other systems are “Travelling the Northeast Passage is an EDITOR patchy or non-existent,” said Robert ambitious and worthwhile project since it Rob O'Dwyer: Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 4940 Kenworthy, managing director of offers great advantages for saving time, email: [email protected] H2OSatellite. bunker and thereby money, but also “The system allowed Beluga Shipping reducing environmentally harmful emis- CONFERENCE PRODUCERS to stay in constant touch with its vessels, sions which have to be decreased in the Karl Jeffery: Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 4935 which is essential for safety and security maritime sector,” said Mr Stolberg. ‘The crew were able to send and receive email: [email protected] in an area with drifting ice fields, ridges “The possibility of a direct seaway e-mail and SMS’ – Robert Kenworthy, H2OSatellite Cathy Hodge: Tel +44 (0) 20 7510 4945 and freezing temperatures.” connecting the prosperous European and email: [email protected] “Beluga also has a strong crew welfare Asian markets offers unmatched oppor- focus and the Mail4Crew service (provid- tunities for both strong cargo trade and areas of the planet. ADVERTISING ed by H2O) means that during their much efficient sea traffic, and Beluga Shipping “The Beluga ships provided an excel- Ria Kontogeorgou: Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 4931 needed breaks, the crew were able to send was determined to make the possibility lent testbed to demonstrate Iridium email: [email protected] and receive e-mail, SMS and even postal a reality.” OpenPort’s advanced capabilities in the messages, to stay in touch with home.” Iridium's Greg Ewert, executive vice extreme northern latitudes where other PRODUCTION The Beluga F-class vessels MV Beluga president, global distribution channels, satellite systems cannot reach,” he said. Vivian Chee: Tel: +44 (0)20 8995 5540 Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight, expressed his satisfaction at the successful “This is a pioneering product for the email: [email protected] both 12,744 deadweight tons, carried completion of the project, which allowed maritime industry, and it has been proven crews of 15 or 16 men and transported Iridium to demonstrate the capabilities of to be a robust and reliable system for ships EVENTS power plant equipment destined for the the OpenPort in some of the more remote anywhere on the high seas.” DS Diana Leahy Engelbrecht Tel: +44 (0)118 931 3109 email: [email protected] SpeedCast partnership to aid Orange Asia expansion CONSULTANT WRITER Dr Andy Norris (navigation) www.orange.com On the maritime side, this partnership Asia Pacific, Orange Business Services. [email protected] www.speedcast.com has included the delivery of a maritime “This integration is a business-critical VSAT network supporting the world’s benefit to our customers, enabling seam- DIGITAL SHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS Orange Business Services is expandingits largest offshore company, with a fleet less and robust communications regard- GBP £150 per year for 10 issues satellite and support services in Asia of more than 200 existing offshore sup- less of geography.” Subscribe online at through an extended partnership with ply vessels and an extensive newbuild Nick Dukakis, vice president maritime www.thedigitalship.com SpeedCast, which will include access to programme. of SpeedCast, added: "The synergies or contact Stephan Venter on SpeedCast's local testing facilities as “We are very pleased to be able to between the two companies are very evi- [email protected], well as installation and engineering sup- build on the initial success of our partner- dent and very complementary. It is a great tel +44 (0)20 7510 4937 port services. ship with SpeedCast by developing an pleasure for SpeedCast to be working with SpeedCast has been in partnership increasing number of value added servic- such a leading international telecommuni- UPCOMING CONFERENCES with Orange Business Services since the es that can be transmitted (over satellite), cations company as Orange Business DIGITAL SHIP ATHENS second half of 2007, helping the company such as VoIP, ERP, e-mail and video Services, and to be able to provide them Athens Golf Club expand its satellite and support services among others,” said Eric Ng, vice presi- with the satellite and support services they November 11-12, 2009 across Asia. dent, global communications solutions, need for their expansion across Asia.” DIGITAL SHIP CYPRUS St Raphael Hotel & Resort February 3-4, 2010 CBM, Intelsat and iDirect in maritime VSAT agreement www.intelsat.com Evolution X5 Satellite Router and a marine single provider,” said Bill McKinnell, Printed by www.idirect.net stabilised antenna designed by Marine vice president of CBM. The Manson Group Ltd www.marine-technologies.com Technologies to operate in both Ku-band “Intelsat’s robust infrastructure offered Reynolds House 8 Porters' Wood and C-band. us the cost-effective, scalable and resilient Valley Road Industrial Estate Intelsat and CBM Communications (an Designed specifically to run over this transmission network we required as we St Albans affiliate of Marine Technologies) have network, the CBM Communications appli- looked to launch our Global Broadband IP Hertz AL3 6PZ announced a multi-year agreement cations available with the service employ a platform.” U.K.