DShipMay12

TT he International Hydrograph-ic Bureau (IHB) has issued acircular with updated infor-

mation on the results of an ENC DataPresentation and Performance Checkinitiated in October 2011 to examinethe performance of ECDIS systems,which notes that only one-third of themanufacturers’ systems reportedwere functioning as expected.

According to the circular, by theend of February the IHB had receivednearly 500 reports from sea, covering15 out of approximately 25 recog-nised manufacturers of type-approved ECDIS. It notes that the 15manufacturers represent “by far themost popular brands of ECDIS beingused at sea today.”

Out of these ECDIS installations itis noted that “about a third of themanufacturers’ systems reported tothe IHB appear to function as expect-ed in the checks.”

“A further third of the systems dis-play all significant underwater fea-tures, including underwater obstruc-tions, but the isolated danger symbolrequired to be shown under certainconditions is not always used.”

It continues: “This issue is unlikelyto have a significant impact on safenavigation. Most of the remainingthird of the systems reported to the

IHB failed to display some significantunderwater features in the 'Standard'display mode.”

“Under various conditions, mostlyrelated to safety depth settings andother variable factors, these underwa-ter features can include some types ofwreck and other obstructions. Allthese features are displayed in the'Full display' or 'All display' mode.”

Recommended checksAs a result of these display issues,and the potentially serious conse-quences if mariners are not madeaware of shortcomings in some

ECDIS equipment being used at sea,the IHB Directing Committee isencouraging all Member States topromulgate the information con-tained in the circular to all seafarersusing ECDIS.

All mariners using ECDIS areencouraged to check their ECDISequipment using the IHO ENC DataPresentation and Performance Check,available at http://bit.ly/wZjzCD.

This will enable them to determinewhether their ECDIS requires that thedisplay be operated in 'full display'mode in order to display all impor-tant charted features.

The circular particularly notes thatusers of certain older models of JapanRadio Co. Ltd (JRC) ECDIS equip-ment should check compatibility oftheir systems using this PerformanceCheck, after JRC confirmed that earli-er versions of its ECDIS were not displaying some types of wreck andunderwater obstructions (includingstranded wrecks) in any displaymode.

For these models of JRC ECDIS,the mariner must navigate in con-junction with paper charts in order toensure that all wrecks and underwa-ter obstructions can be identified.

JRC has already issued a noticealerting its customers to this problem

IN THIS ISSUE

May 2012

electronics and navigation

continued on page 2

software

satcomsInmarsat pricing changes – Letter tothe Editor from AMMITEC – 4

Optimising the communication solutionat Reederei Wessels – 6

V.Ships to promote mini-VSAT to its fleet – 10 Cobham makes Thrane & Thraneacquisition approach – 14

DNV buys software firm COEX – 19

Teekay goes live onVeson system – 20

AET to install energy and emissions management technology – 24

Only one in three ECDISfunctions as expected - IHB

Transas launches ‘Pay As You Sail’new ENC service – 28Navigation e-Volution – 36

Why e-Navigation? – 41

Approving the future – Andy Norris – 43

A check on the performance of data displays on ECDIS systems by the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) has produced some alarming results,

with the organisation reporting that only one-third of reports it received showed the equipment to be functioning as expected

One issue highlighted by the study wasthat a significant number of ECDIS didnot always show the required isolated

danger symbol when expected

(+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected]

Cyprus based and German owned Intership Navigation operates close to 80 ships in a global trade. Intership has implemented Dualog Connection Suite to manage and control the data traffi c to and from all its ships. Th e company has more than two years of experience with the new software.

“It is easy to install, the crew handles their private crew mail on their own, and our IT department has the complete overview via the web”, says the experienced IT Manager Pawel Bury.

And even more important, Pawel adds “Dualog are easy to talk to. Th ey are small enough to listen, but big enough to be responsive.”

“It is easy!”Pawel Bury, IT Manager, Intership Navigation

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SATCOMS

Digital Ship May 2012 page 2

Vol 12 No 8

UPCOMING CONFERENCESDIGITAL SHIP SINGAPORE

Suntec Convention Centre22-23 May 2012

DIGITAL SHIP HONG KONGKITEC, Kowloon

10-11 October 2012DIGITAL SHIP KOREA

Bexco, Busan, South Korea30-31 October 2012

Digital Ship Limited2nd Floor,

8 Baltic Street EastLondon EC1Y 0UP, U.K.www.thedigitalship.com

PUBLISHERStuart Fryer

EDITORRob O'Dwyer: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3410

email: [email protected]

DEPUTY EDITORJulie Ann Chan: Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 3414


CONFERENCE PRODUCERCathy Hodge: Tel +44 (0) 20 7253 2700


ADVERTISINGRia Kontogeorgou: Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 3401


PRODUCTIONVivian Chee: Tel: +44 (0)20 8995 5540


EVENTSDiana Leahy EngelbrechtTel: +44 (0)118 931 3109


CONSULTANT WRITERDr Andy Norris (navigation)

[email protected]

DIGITAL SHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS€180 per year for 10 issues

Subscribe online atwww.thedigitalship.com,

contact [email protected], or phone Diana Leahy Engelbrecht on:

+44 (0)118 931 3109

No part of this publication may be repro-duced or stored in any form by anymechanical, electronic, photocopying,recording or other means without theprior written consent of the publisher.Whilst the information and articles inDigital Ship are published in good faithand every effort is made to check accura-cy, readers should verify facts and state-ments direct with official sources beforeacting on them as the publisher canaccept no responsibility in this respect.Any opinions expressed in this maga-zine should not be construed as thoseof the publisher.

continued from page 1

www.nykline.com

NYK has decided to introduce an onboardbroadband communication system on all ofits containerships, with the aim of reducingCO2 emissions during ship operations.

Onboard tests of the broadband com-munication system started in October 2010on various types of vessels, producing asignificant amount of data which NYK hasapplied to its IBIS (innovative bunker andidle-time saving) project.

The IBIS system has been implementedon NYK containerships with the aim ofachieving optimal ship operation andreducing CO2 emissions, through thetransfer and analysis of large volumes ofreal-time data between ship and shore.

The broadband communications sys-tems will be used to facilitate these trans-fers in the future.

NYK says that, during its tests, the newsatcom systems also enabled the acquisi-tion of more specific weather and sea-cur-rent forecast information on board,improving the automatic transmission ofship operation data and facilitating shipoperation monitoring on land.

The improved connectivity alsoallowed for greater information-sharingand communication between staff on landand onboard the vessels.

Based on these results NYK has decid-ed to proceed to install the system on allits containerships, in furtherance of thegoals of the IBIS project.

The company says it will also introducethe system to car carriers, bulkers, tankers,and LNG carriers.

The IBIS initiative is aimed at puttinginto practice methods for safe operation andfuel reduction that were initiated underNYK's medium-term management plan'More Than Shipping 2013', announced inMarch 2011, which includes plans to sharereal-time information between ships andshore and pursue optimal ship operation toreduce fuel consumption.

The company says that the introduc-tion of an onboard broadband communi-cation system will not only contribute to areduction in CO2 emissions during shipoperation but will also bring fringe bene-fits, such as allowing crew members to communicate with their families via the internet.

Printed by The Manson Group Ltd

Reynolds House, 8 Porters' WoodValley Road Industrial Estate

St Albans, Hertz AL3 6PZU.K.

MTN Satellite Communications(MTN) has added two executives to itsmanagement team, with Robert Wise, pre-viously an engineering vice president inHP's public cloud computing effort,assuming the newly created position ofchief innovation officer, and former headof Intelsat General, Susan Miller,becoming executive vice president ofstrategy & corporate development.

ORBIT Communication Systemshas appointed Kevin Zervas to head up itsmaritime satellite communications salesand business development activities acrossNorth America. Mr Zervas has previouslyworked with maritime VSAT companiesAzimuth Unlimited and Sea Tel.

Thuraya has elected a new board ofdirectors, to serve a three-year term.

Mohammad Hassan Omran of Etisalatwill act as chairman, with Khalid AhmedBalkheyour of Arabsat appointed as pres-ident and CEO. Michael Butler, formerCOO of Inmarsat, and Charles Moore,president of Lockheed Martin, havealso been added as independent directors.

KVH has opened a new motion test-ing facility for its satcom antennas, includ-ing a custom-made hexapod motion simu-lator and curved wall of windows offeringa clear view of relevant satellites. The newbuilding is adjacent to KVH’s world head-quarters in the US, and will support allTracPhone and TracVision products.

e3 Systems has announced that ithas signed a partner agreement withAage Hempel International,whereby Aage Hempel will offer e3’s com-

munication services through its offices inSpain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Portugal, Maltaand Panama.

Applied Satellite TechnologyLtd (AST) is to open a new VSATMaritime Broadband Solutions Centre inSingapore on the 1st May 2012, to specifi-cally serve the Asia Pacific Region.Operating from the existing AST Asia PTELimited Singapore office, the direct arm ofAST Singapore, the new Centre will be runby Henrik Jacobsen as managing director.

www.mtnsat.com

MTN Satellite Communications (MTN)has announced version 2 of its MTNWorldwide TV service for cruise passen-gers and crew.

MTN Worldwide TV is a digital, multi-channel television service for the maritimeindustry delivering programming fromeight US and international television net-works including BBC World News, CNBC,Fox News, MSNBC, Sky News, Sky SportsNews, Sport 24 and E! EntertainmentTelevision, as well as offering special eventprogramming such as Premier LeagueSoccer and onboard events.

It uses MTN's satellite network of threeoverlapping satellite beams that integratewith a cruise ship's existing TelevisionReceive-Only (TVRO) antenna andonboard video distribution system.

The latest version of the system candeliver entertainment programming andspecific cruise content streaming to Wi-Fienabled devices such as laptops, tabletsand smartphones.

Cruise lines equipped with the servicewill be able to integrate additional videoand audio content such as shore excur-sions, ship and port information andonboard vendor advertising.

“With MTN Worldwide TV, passengersand crew can now access entertainmentand news programming, and other con-tent, from anywhere on the ship using per-sonal mobile devices - from lounging bythe pool or in the comfort of their room,”said Brent Horwitz, senior vice presidentand general manager of MTN's cruise andferry services business.

“Further, this new mobile service willkeep crew morale high and help increaseproductivity while at sea.”

To date, the service has broadcast 770sporting events and more than 2,000 hoursof live programming to 19 cruise linesaround the world.NYK aims to use broadband communications to improve efficiency and reduce fuel

NYK to introduce broadband to container fleet MTN upgrades maritime TV service

and has made an upgrade package avail-able. The notice from JRC can be down-loaded at: http://bit.ly/Hhb2XW, whilethe JRC upgrade package can be down-

loaded from: http://bit.ly/w76VYw.In all cases where the ECDIS is found

not to operate as indicated by the IHOENC Data Presentation and Performance

Check, seafarers are advised to contact theECDIS manufacturer or their ECDIS main-tenance organisation to seek relevantupgrades to their equipment.

www.mtnsat.comwww.orbit-cs.comwww.thuraya.comwww.kvh.comwww.e3s.comwww.aagehempel.comwww.satcomms.com

DS

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SATCOMS

Letter to the Editor – Inmarsat pricing changesAs of May 1, 2012, Inmarsat will be mak-ing a number of changes to the pricingstructure used to charge for its satellitecommunications services.

These will affect products across theboard, from its existing and evolved serv-

ices such as Fleet up to its flagshipFleetBroadband offering. Depending onthe service used and the contract type thiscould mean increasing or decreasing costsfor different types of Inmarsat customers.

Details of the exact pricing changes,

and how they will affect vessel operationcosts, can be obtained directly fromInmarsat partners.

In response to these pricing changes,AMMITEC, the Association of MaritimeManagers of Information Technology and

Communications based in Greece, haswritten an Open Letter to Inmarsat, whichit has sent to Digital Ship.

This letter is reproduced in full below,and is followed by Inmarsat’s directresponse.

Dear Sirs,

As the association for IT Managers withinthe Greek Maritime Industry, AMMITEC,on behalf of its members, wishes to raiseserious objections regarding the recentlyannounced re-structure of maritime pric-ing which is due to be implemented as of1st May 2012 by Inmarsat Plc, and there-fore its distribution partners.

Our main objections refer to the fol-lowing elements, which we expect to beaddressed by Inmarsat Plc in the form ofan official response which will be placedin the open domain for all AMMITECmembers to access.

1. The ~15% increase on Inmarsat-C(distress capable) Telex communications,which are a legal IMO (flag-stateenforced) requirement to be used on allmerchant vessels, and for which there isno alternative, is totally unacceptable.

AMMITEC feels this is a blatant abuseof monopoly and should be immediatelyreferred to such intra-national organiza-tions (IMO COMSAR) to be dealt with,should it be implemented. In this regardwe will also be bringing this to the atten-tion of the Inmarsat IMO regulator,IMSO.

2. The ~15% increase on Existing andEvolved communications systems (inparticular Fleet F77, launched in 2002) is ablatant push to remove existing userswith ‘older’ equipment from theInmarsat-3 satellites and force migration

onto the Inmarsat-4 platform. This ‘eco-nomically imposed migration’ is approxi-mately 5 years earlier than is normal forsuch a hardware migration, especially asno end of life for Fleet services has beenannounced to date. Being GMDSS capa-ble, Inmarsat is obliged to give at least 5years notice prior to closure – in lieu ofthis, migration by stealth will not be tol-erated by AMMITEC.

Clearly, this action is either to allocateexisting spectrum bandwidth to new rev-enue streams and markets, or it is so thatthe Customers are forced into unwanted,overpriced and lengthy contracts for thenewer products, which, in our view, isboth morally questionable and potential-ly anti-competitive. The argument ofmoving from older, redundant systems,and the price increases being reflected bythe older infrastructure, is mostly invalid,as by this definition the last telephonecalls on E&E systems would cost severalthousands of dollars per minute.

3. The drastic alteration of pricing forthe new FBB systems will result in anunsupportable rise in costs in an industryalready operating at little, or zero, profitmargin on daily rates. The previousimplementation of new communicationsystems, such as switching to F77 fromSat-B, was a stable and sustainable modelthat led to balanced implementation andcost models. It allowed for the time con-suming cost planning and comparison ofsystems in the market, and projected to bein the market, taking several years tofully implement and expected to have asystem life of approximately 10 years. A

lot of shipping companies have selectedFBB equipment based upon the originalpricing model and now the facts arechanging. With the model no longerbeing valid, every IT manager may haveto re-evaluate the ROI costs that FBB sys-tems would be, under the newly imposedscheme.

The change in the pricing structure, thatis being forcibly pressed upon IT depart-ments and owners, breaks this 30 year sta-bility and, at best, leaves the customerbase wondering when the ill-wind ofchange will again herald another price risestraw for the proverbial back. Again, in thecurrent economic climate how canInmarsat Plc’s moves be commercially andmorally justified, raising base subscriptionlevels on the Standard FBB plan by some 3times their current rate, and raising the perMB cost when they clearly know mostmerchant vessels operate on this plan?Clearly the answer is to raise revenue atthe expense of their customer base, whichat this time is relatively captive.

Moreover, the substitution of themoney bundles with data allowanceswill lead to a further 20% - 30% increase,depending on the amount of voice foreach vessel. We all know that most com-panies spend only 50-60MB out of the125MB of the previous entry plan, butthey could consume the rest of theirmoney bundle in voice minutes. Nowthat voice is NOT included in the entryplan, there will definitely be an increasein monthly invoices, with an approxima-tion of around an extra $150-$200. Thisgives an increase of almost 30%. There

will also be a considerable amount ofunused data being charged for, with anaverage unused amount of between 150and 140Mb per vessel. We could, there-fore, be paying effectively $700 for 50MB– that is $14/MB!

4. The alteration in the billing incre-ments for Fleet, mini-M and other E&Esystems, which were forced upon cus-tomers last year, led to an increase ofapproximately 6%. How is a further 20-30% increase justified in retaining cus-tomers in a difficult marketplace withalternative communication solutions,whereby FleetBroadband is supposed tobe the latest generation and more eco-nomic alternative?

In general, AMMITEC and its mem-bers find that the handling of the pricingrestructuring shows a blatant disregardfor the long-term loyalty and trust that,up until a couple of years ago, the major-ity of the shipping world has had inInmarsat and its maritime offerings.

We welcome the chance to openly dis-cuss these issues within the GreekMaritime community with a representa-tive of Inmarsat Plc, and the widerMaritime community, who are all equallyaffected, through Digital Ship and its con-ferences, or through an open web semi-nar or similar event.

Yours sincerely,

AMMITEC (Association of MaritimeManagers in Information Technology

and Communications)

Letter to Inmarsat

Sir,

May I begin by thanking the editor ofDigital Ship for the opportunity to addressthese points directly.

I would also like to point out thatInmarsat has never been able to discussprices in a public forum. Our partners wantthe ability to set their own retail prices. Sowe are not avoiding discussing prices; weare contractually bound to not disclosewholesale airtime rates or price changes.

Let me also be clear that we continue tooffer safety services for free. We are welladvanced with plans to enableFleetBroadband to support GMDSS, andthat safety service will also be free. Ourcompetitors do not support GMDSS.Why? Because despite their bluster in thepress and social media, our competitorsknow that they can’t match the reliability,quality and global coverage of Inmarsat.We are still the gold standard for safety atsea, and we take great pride in that.

Some time ago we reviewed the pricingfor our Existing & Evolved (E&E) services,and chose to end the volume discountscheme, which rewarded a small group ofpartners over the majority. We replaced

this with discounts directed to customers.We believe this is a fairer solution.

We have increased the price of ourE&E services. This is not connected withany plans to close the Fleet service – wehave always complied with the requirednotice period for the closing of our servic-es. This is not migration by stealth; wehave no need, as record numbers are tak-ing up FleetBroadband. Our customersare driving the speed of transition, not us.

Rather, the price increase for E&Ereflects the fact that these are old services.For example, Fleet 77, one of the newestof our E&E services, is already 10 yearsold. With increasingly fewer users, wemust adjust our prices. No business inany other sector would act differently.

When FleetBroadband (FB) waslaunched, the rates were half those of E&Eservices. To that extent, shipowners havealready benefited from significant savings byswitching to FB. The price of our Very LargeAllowance package has actually decreasedin the recent price change too. New pack-ages are about increasing choice and flexi-bility; so overall, where FleetBroadbandis the primary service, costs are reduced.

Where we have increased the price isfor the pay-as-you-go standard plan. This

again reflects standard business practice ofcharging more where a customer requiresthe flexibility of using an on-demand serv-ice. We have asked for a $3 per day com-mitment, and in return users get access tothe world’s most reliable and high-qualitymaritime communications service. Thisannual fee – $1,095 – is roughly equivalentto 1.5 tonnes of bunker oil. We are confi-dent that effective use of theFleetBroadband system, such as betterengine monitoring and weather routing,will save many multiples of that amount offuel in the course of a year.

The price increase to the standard planmay seem unattractive to a shipownerusing FleetBroadband as back-up for acompeting VSAT system. But ourXpressLink service now offers savings bycombining our own VSAT with unlimitedback-up via FleetBroadband – all with theguaranteed free upgrade to Global Xpresswhen it rolls out from the end of 2013.

We have also removed voice commu-nications from the ‘money bundle’. Theprevious arrangement was not goodvalue. It conflated voice communications(primarily driven by crew use) with theuse of data communications (primarilyoperational). This causes uncertainty for

shipowners. Changing the money bundleso that it covers data only gives more flex-ibility for shipowners to handle voice anddata separately. It is also industry stan-dard; VSAT operators do not includevoice in their money bundle.

Inmarsat is listening to our customers.We recognise that some of these pricechanges will be difficult for smaller ves-sels, and so we will be introducing a smallboat package to which they can transition.

We are investing in the future; invest-ments that are fully-funded already. Our$1.5bn investment in Inmarsat-4 hasbrought significant benefits to the globalmaritime community, and we are certainthat our $1.2bn investment in GlobalXpress will be a true game-changer in mar-itime communications. Both investmentsdemonstrate the continuation of our 33-year support for the world’s mariners.

We remain committed to our customersin these difficult times and our maritimeservices will continue to be competitivelypriced and globally available.

Regards,

Frank ColesPresident, Inmarsat Maritime

Inmarsat’s response

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SATCOMS

The family owned German shippingcompany, Reederei Wessels, has along tradition in maritime ship-

ping. Ever since its founder, Dr GerhardWessels, designed the modern cargo linersthat form the basis of modern bulk andcontainer coasters, the company has main-tained a keen interest in applying the lat-est in ship design and operation technolo-gy throughout the company.

Although the management of ReedereiWessels has changed since, the currentpersonnel have continued to try and max-imise efficiency in operations. Energy effi-cient ship models and novel propulsionsupport technologies, such as the SkysailsKite System, are among the advanceswhich have been tested and employed bythe company in recent years.

Reederei Wessels has also been keen toinnovate in its use of information technol-ogy, evidenced by a decision first reachedin late 2003 to completely overhaul andmodernise its communications technologyinfrastructure.

The predominant drivers of thisprocess were to improve cost effectivenessand maximise the company’s operationalefficiency.

Reederei Wessels wanted to achievehigher quality in its communication, bothunder regular circumstances and to sup-port the vessels in an emergency, via voiceconnection to the office. It was also look-ing for an improved method of transfer-ring attachments between ship and shore.

Another factor that played a role inReederei Wessels’s decision-makingprocess was crew retention. ReedereiWessels felt the need to move forwards inthis respect in order to remain competitiveand attractive as an employer.

“Good and experienced crew is hard tocome by,” notes Arno de Groot, IT man-ager at Wessels Reederei.

“We, as a shipping company, need tooffer them substantial communicationbenefits in order to attract them, thus, e-mail is not enough anymore. Nowadays,crew want to read their local newspapers,they want to stay in touch with their lovedones at home and to stay more connectedto the world outside the vessel.”

While providing these services is animportant consideration, Mr de Grootadmits that they came as a secondary con-cern compared with the operationalrequirements.

“Our decision to implement the com-munication structure that we have onboard our vessels nowadays was mainlymotivated by business reasons rather thancrew welfare and crew retention,” he said.

“For us it was most important to find asolution that fits our operational needs,especially with regards to data volume,speed and costs; and that can be imple-mented easily and maintained without toomuch trouble.”

This process would include the imple-

across its fleet in 2005. This move created some initial benefits,

particularly with regard to the fact that theIridium terminals were configured to onlyconnect to the internet if data or an e-mailwas waiting to be transferred, which meantthat the unnecessary connection fees of theprior solution could be eliminated.

Under the Iridium system, the totalcosts per vessel could be reduced to underUS$200, including the monthly fee and the

data transferred."Our Iridium contract stipulated a fixed

fee of between US$27 and $33, dependingon the SIM, with an additional 3 to 5 MB ofdata. With a reduction of email communi-cation costs by more than 50 per cent, thesolution with Iridium terminals turnedout to be the most cost-effective solution,"says Mr de Groot.

However, the satellite communicationssystem was not the only change at thisstage. In order to further reduce commu-nication costs, Reederei Wessels also per-formed a series of modifications to itsstandard forms.

Prior to this all standard forms had beenin Microsoft Office format, which was com-paratively costly, since a standard A4 pageof about 47 kb, transferred from shore tovessel or vice versa using the Inmarsat-Ctechnology, would cost around US$5.

To improve on this Reederei Wesselsimplemented the Globe Forms TemplateFile standard forms that were availablefrom Globe Wireless, under which onlythe exchangeable data in the standardform is transferred.

The software requires the relevant datato be fed into an MS Word template, an A4page with 180 data fields which is subse-quently compressed to an Adobe PDFdocument, reducing the 47 kb Word for-mat to a 16 kb PDF.

The software then further optimises thePDF document to create a 2 kb GlobeForms Template file.

"Globe Wireless uses Adobe AcrobatV7 in combination with GlobeForms V2.xto 3.x with the vessels of our fleet. With 2kb, the transfer of which would only costUS$ 0.21, a standard form A4 page is pret-ty small," says Mr de Groot.

"Through the implementation of thistechnology we managed to cut the amountof data transferred down to a fraction of

what it used to be. That was a good prod-uct in 2005, and it transferred the mostimportant data smoothly for some time.”

Software connectionsHowever, after a number of years of whatthe shipping company describes as a fruit-ful partnership with Globe Wireless,Reederei Wessels started to look into fur-ther optimising its systems, and this stan-dard forms solution in particular.

As Mr de Groot notes, the fact that allstandard forms had to go through twoseparate compression processes created anassociated margin of error, and the ship-ping company was keen to simplify theprocess further.

“The individual compression stepsrequire high accuracy to minimise the riskof data loss," he says.

“Under our Globe Wireless setup, weneeded three files for each form revision.This opens up room for mistakes. On top,the workload for our staff was quite highand we wanted a simplification. This iswhy we decided to go a new way.”

This ‘new way’ involved the implemen-tation of a Java coded Adobe solution tosimplify compression of the standardforms, developed in-house and usingAdobe Reader 10, as a base for the newcompany standard forms.

The system features a number of Java-based modifications to adapt the softwareto the company’s shipping-specificrequirements, and has proven to be a pow-erful tool according to Mr de Groot.

The simplified compression processrequired only two transformations and noadditional software formats, while the useof Adobe Reader 10 does not incur a licencefee. Mr de Groot also notes that the instal-lation on board the vessels went smoothly.

"On top, the implementation of thisAdobe Reader based software has beenbeneficial for the crew," he explains.

"In order to send off the completedstandard form they only need to press onebutton: ’send to e-mail’. It really is as sim-ple as that."

"We wanted to avoid our crew havingto spend a lot of time on additional soft-ware, when their actual job is sailing thevessel. It is not necessary for them to bedistracted from their task and we reallycan support them with this new software."

To simplify further, some of therequired data is fed into the standard formautomatically as soon as the crew choosestheir vessel's name in the software.

For example, if a main engine measure-ment form with integrated data and textfields needs to be sent from the vessel tothe office and the crew enters the vessel'sname, the main engine type is automati-cally inserted into the standard form.

Additionally, the software recogniseswhich fields are required to be filled in forthis type of engine. Spare fields, on theother hand, will be blocked so that the

Optimising the communication solution

mentation of a variety of new softwareand hardware components on the compa-ny's 45 vessels, as well as in the mainoffice. As such, there were a number ofkey questions which needed to beanswered before work could begin.

“We crucially needed to find out,” saysMr de Groot, "which type of our vesselsrequires what kind of communication sys-tem, what amounts of data will need to betransferred in the future, and how can we

organise this process most efficiently andmost cost effectively."

“In order to achieve this we did somethorough testing on a few selected vesselsbefore deciding to roll out a solution on theentire fleet. Only then did we assess andensure that the chosen solution also offereda communication solution which would beacceptable and attractive for our crew.”

With this plan in place the company setout on a comprehensive overhaul of itssatellite communications system, a projectcovering nearly ten years in maritime sat-com development.

From Inmarsat to IridiumReederei Wessels had been using Inmarsat-C terminals as its main means of commu-nication prior to the start of the communi-cation solution modernisation in 2004.

As Mr de Groot notes, these solutionshad a number of disadvantages, which thecompany hoped to solve through theimplementation of new hardware andsoftware. The most significant of thesewere the comparatively high costs, whichwere partly due to the pricing structure.

However, since the system was config-ured to connect at regular hourly inter-vals, regardless of whether or not therewas data or e-mail to be sent, even withoutany traffic between ship and shore these‘empty connections’ created a monthlyminimum cost of US$200.

"The monthly costs of Inmarsat-C termi-nals were very high, and we wanted to finda cheaper solution," explains Mr de Groot.

During a process that took approxi-mately six months, Reederei Wesselsresearched a variety of satellite communi-cation possibilities and conducted trialswith two alternative systems before decid-ing to implement a Globe Wireless solu-tion, including the company's Ring PageService and standard Iridium terminals,

German shipping company Reederei Wessels, has, over the last 10 years, migrated from Inmarsat C, to an Iridium solution, and on to Fleet 33 and FleetBroadband in the search for greater efficiency.

Arno de Groot, Reederei Wessels, spoke to Digital Ship about the ups and downs of this decade of progress

Reederei Wessels ships have used a range of different satcom systems over the last 10 years

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Visit www.marinesoftware.co.uk or email [email protected]

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SATCOMS


Public Spot support, and is used to pro-vide the crew with wireless connectivity.

"Before, the crew had to stay in oneplace when communicating with theirloved ones," says Mr de Groot.

“Now, they can move about and havemore privacy. This option is very wellreceived and we are happy to be able tooffer it."

The downside with the Lancom systemis the fact that the virtual private networkrequires remote control, with a direct con-nection to the firewall and a public IPaddress, which the shipping companyfinds costly on FleetBroadband and GSM.

The Stonegate FW315 unit is similar,with the main difference being the supportof GSM/UMTS Wi-Fi sticks by default.

"Another huge benefit," explains Mr deGroot, "is that we have very close contactto the manufacturer, Stonegate. If we wantto introduce changes or if we need addi-tional hardware sticks the support isalways available for us."

Both firewalls are remotely managedcentrally, from the Reederei Wessels office.

“This is a huge time saver as it avoidssending IT specialists out to the vessels.Instead, we are able to modify all rules andpolicies from shore,” explains Mr de Groot.

Some smaller vessels, currently 16 of thecompany’s 45 ships, use the DualogDuacorePro Firewall instead of the twohardware firewalls. This software createsan internal and an external network, whichare connected through Dualog IP Control.

The advantage of this completely con-trolled network is that only selected traf-fic, for example e-mail, is transferred tocertain IP addresses.

"We can choose exactly which traffic wewant to allow to be transferred to the exter-nal network, where it is sent via InmarsatFleetBroadband; all the other traffic is auto-matically blocked," says Mr de Groot.

“The reason for our using DualogDuacorePro Firewall is that the installa-tion and configuration requires less timethan the hardware firewall solutions withintegrated router. Another very simplereason is that the smaller vessels that usethe Dualog solution, in contrast to ourother vessels, very rarely sail close to theoffice and it was therefore easier andcheaper to simply send out the softwarerather than to send a technician incurringexpensive travelling costs to install a hard-ware firewall.”

Over the course of its modernisationproject, which has continued for justunder a decade, Reederei Wessels hasequipped its vessels with a satellite com-munications solution that it is functionaland sufficient to meet its current needs.

However, as the company’s migrationthrough the various satellite systems hasshown, the need for shipping companiesto keep continually modernising and opti-mising never ends.

“The data volumes are rising constant-ly,” concludes Mr de Groot.

“If it wasn't for the advanced technolo-gy on board and the need to offer a decentcommunication solution to our crew inorder to retain them, we would still needhigher data volumes in order to fulfil thenumerous regulations that are continu-ously evolving.”

“We will certainly further continue toadvance our solutions in the future.”

crew cannot make any entries. Reederei Wessels has also used Adobe

Reader 10 to create a database storage sys-tem for the office. Data from the vessel iscentralised for the office’s technical inspec-tion, where it is automatically convertedinto a PDF file using a standard template.These documents are used for filtering andanalysis purposes in the office.

“Data can, for example, be filteredaccording to vessels, forms, minimum/maximum values, time from/till,”explains Mr de Groot.

“In addition, this tool enables us tosend alerts when critical values arereached after a filter has fired.”

“This technology has helped us bringdown our communication costs and weexpect that the simplification for the crewon board will be very well received.”

Aside from the changes to its formsusage, the overhaul in Reederei Wessels’communications infrastructure has alsoincluded changes in its e-mail system.Previously, the company would send e-mail via Globe Email (GCC), but has nowchanged to Microsoft Outlook as its e-mailfront end, connected to the Dualog com-munications management software sys-tem, on some of the vessels.

"This gives us the possibility to use allavailable default interfaces,” Mr de Grootexplains.

“A further benefit is simplificationthrough the Microsoft MAPI default emailclient. This opens the Outlook Email ClientFront End and attaches the standard forms,for example on weather routing, where weuse SPOS Weather Routing Software,directly to the e-mail, the master does nothave to select a folder or anything. There'snothing else to do for the master."

Back to InmarsatAs with all types of technology, the passageof time changes the operating landscapeand systems that were previously cutting-edge inevitably begin to lose their lustre incomparison with new innovations.

At Reederei Wessels, after a number ofyears using the Iridium system the compa-ny began to reconsider its satellite com-munications hardware once again. Thiswas partly motivated by the fact that theIridium terminals, that had been in use forsix years, were generally not deemed to bepowerful enough for the changing operat-ing environment.

As a result Reederei Wessels decided tomove back to Inmarsat and its newer gen-eration of terminals, and over the courseof the next three years equipped 13 vesselswith Inmarsat Fleet 33.

"The Inmarsat Fleet 33 terminals pro-vided us with active antennas, which was a great development for us," says Mrde Groot.

However, the company soon realisedthat the implementation of Fleet 33 wouldnot fully live up to its expectations.Instead of achieving a better data transferrate and a drop in costs by using morepowerful hardware, the data transfer rateonly amounted to half of the projectedvalue (9600 baud), and the costs increased.

"Our vessels had a lot of e-mails to trans-fer, especially our 12 new vessels that arestill within the guarantee period and thecommunication costs of the company even-tually amounted to between US$600-

US$1100 per month,” Mr de Groot explains.In order to solve the problem of the

increased costs the shipping company decid-ed to use the MPDS (Mobile Packet DataService) available with the satcom system.

"We did not fully believe in this tech-nology and had some doubts," recalls Mrde Groot. "This is why we chose to test thesolution carefully."

After carrying out a trial period withtwo different software suppliers to man-age the satcom link, Reederei Wesselsdecided to implement the DualogConnection Suite, which would be used toblock unwanted traffic and compress data.

As Mr de Groot notes, the Dualog sys-tem offered higher data compression thanthe company had experienced with GlobeWireless’ GCC, and helped the companyto reach its desired data transfer rate.

“Consequently, the monthly costs weredecreased to between US$400-US$500(including Dualog's monthly softwarefee),” remembers Mr de Groot.

“The Dualog Connection Suite solvedour connection speed problem and thecost issue to our full satisfaction. In addi-tion, the implementation has brought anumber of further advantages for us."

Among these benefits is the Dualog.netinterface, which allows the shipping com-pany to change settings on board its vesselsremotely. This is particularly useful for thesynchronisation of folders, for example forthe Skysails Fuel Performance Monitor.

"For us it is very important to be able tomonitor when the vessel was last connect-ed, for example in order to send or receivee-mails, and whether the task was success-fully completed," notes Mr de Groot.

“In addition, we can see all configura-tion changes and updates, such as modifi-cations of black and white lists.”

Through the Dualog.net office interface,staff at Reederei Wessels can monitor pend-ing e-mail messages for all vessels individ-ually, with information such as sender, sizeof the e-mail and date and time when themessage was sent all available.

“This function enables us to identifysignal problems from the satellite equip-ment,” explains Mr de Groot.

“We have established a 20-minute turn-around time for Dualog operating vesselsto fetch their e-mails. If a message is pend-ing for a longer time than that, we knowthat something must be wrong and canstart looking for the cause.”

Next generationAlthough satisfied with Fleet 33 at the timeof the implementation, Reederei Wesselsdid not stop looking for further improve-ments and modernisation, and the latestchange in hardware has been to introduceInmarsat FleetBroadband, which was ontwo previously used vessels in 2009/2010and on its new built vessels in 2011.

"We are very happy with this solutionand it is working smoothly," says Mr deGroot. "With FleetBroadband we have abetter network quality that we used tohave with Fleet 33. This is something thatis very important for us."

Among the advantages of theFleetBroadband system, from Mr deGroot’s point of view, has been the abilityto use IP protocols, creating better connec-tivity to other systems, such as theSkysails Fuel Performance recording

equipment, as well as the possibility ofusing a public IP address, which is espe-cially important for remote support.

The FleetBroadband solution also offersincluded data volume contracts, whichReederei Wessels felt was necessary in orderto keep the data consumption under control,as well as an option to introduce SIM-cardcut off limits to prevent runaway costs.

However, Reederei Wessels has foundthat the implementation of theFleetBroadband solution has also had cer-tain disadvantages.

Mr de Groot has found that the IP hand-set blocks one LAN port, necessitating thecreation of network groups – a complica-tion that Reederei Wessels would ratherhave done without. The fact that the con-nection is always available also requiresstaff to be disciplined with their internetusage, as there is no internal protection.

“There is no firewall inside theFleetBroadband terminal," explains Mr deGroot. “We wanted a protection that wecould configure to block ports and proto-cols to our exact specifications.”

Lastly, the shipping company says thatInmarsat's pricing policy, under which itsays it is charged for ¼ MB for every connec-tion that is initiated from a FleetBroadbandterminal, has significantly contributed tothe company’s communication costs.

Flexible hardwarefirewalls

To mitigate one of the issues it has hadsince installing the FleetBroadband solu-tion, Reederei Wessels decided to installhardware firewalls, filtering devices thatblock certain unwanted traffic. There werea number of particular requirements thecompany had when choosing a system tomanage this process.

"The worst example of hardware fire-wall technology is if the unwanted trafficgoes through the satellite before it isblocked," says Mr de Groot.

"This is when we are charged for whatwe do not want. With the solution that wehave now all unwanted traffic is blockedimmediately before it even goes up to thesatellite and only certain designated com-munication, for example e-mails to theoffice, is allowed to pass through."

"For the moment we only want to allowe-mail traffic to be sent from the vessel."

The shipping company chose Lancomand Stonegate devices for the firewall sys-tem, despite the fact that they are not mar-itime-specific technologies.

"Even though shipping business is nottheir core discipline and thus outside thecompanies' default setup environment, thesupport was excellent," says Mr de Groot.

"In addition, these manufacturers giveus the option of remote support from theoffice.”

The Lancom model 1751 UMTS com-bines the hardware firewall with a routingfunction. The routing unit detectsUMTS/GSM networks and automaticallyswitches when coverage is available. Thisway, the vessel can avail itself of addition-al network coverage in ports.

The device has an extra slot to connectan additional external antenna, which hasproven useful where coverage is patchy in port.

The Lancom unit can also be combinedwith an additional piece of hardware for DS

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VV .Ships, the world's largest inde-pendent ship manager withapproximately 450 vessels under

full technical management and serving afleet of over 1,000 with various marineservices, has selected the mini-VSATBroadband service from KVH as its pre-ferred satellite communications solution.

V.Ships manages various vessel typesincluding tankers, dry bulk carriers, gasand chemical carriers, containerships,cruise ships, and offshore vessels, and willnow promote the use of the KVH serviceto its customers through SeaComElectronics, a fellow member of V.Group,V.Ships' parent company.

SeaCom will handle installation andtechnical support for vessels that decide toimplement the service, with support fromKVH's key account manager, NielsReuther, from the KVH EMEA headquar-ters in Denmark.

"Connecting ships with onshore net-works offers exciting new ways to bringship and shore-based operations closertogether, to improve efficiencies, to man-age operating expenses, and in generalmake a better onboard life for officers andcrew," said Stephen MacFarlane, informa-tion systems director at V.Ships.

"We plan to use the mini-VSATBroadband network to deliver navigation-al, safety, and real time weather data, offerinternet cafe and VoIP calling to help fur-ther enhance crew morale, enable onshoretechnical experts to collaborate on repairswith their colleagues at sea, and to connectships to onshore networks using'ShipSure', our enterprise resource plan-ning software developed by V.Ships."

The KVH system was selected after itwas evaluated by SeaCom on more than adozen of its managed vessels, according toNeil Sayce, SeaCom managing director.

"The small, relatively lightweightantennas are much easier to place, do notrequire a crane, and can offer a greaterchoice in finding a clear location to min-imise obstructions by the ship's super-structure," he said.

"Freight and installation costs arereduced and experience to date has shownthe TracPhone V7 system is quicker andeasier to install than traditional VSATequipment.”

“The standard fit would be the V7, butthe options offered by the V3 and the newV11, providing global C/Ku-band serviceon a 1-meter antenna, make KVH an idealpartner to work with given the variedneeds of a large, managed fleet.”

The mini-VSAT Broadband serviceoperates on a web of 14 Ku-band satellitetransponders, which can be extended withoverlaid coverage from three global C-band transponders for the V11 service tocover 95 per cent of the Earth's surface.

The system operates using spread spec-trum technology on antennas startingfrom 37 cm for the Ku-band service and

from 1 metre for the combined C/Ku-band coverage.

"We have created a truly next genera-tion maritime broadband system,designed from the ground up to deliverfast, high quality VSAT service on a glob-al basis, covering 95 per cent of the Earth,including all of the world's shippinglanes," said Svend Larsen, managingdirector of KVH's European operations.

"Our spread spectrum technology isfast and reliable, and has very low latency,making it extremely well suited for run-ning networked applications. We aredelighted to be working with V.Ships, oneof the world's leading and most innova-tive ship management companies to bringnext generation broadband services totheir customers' vessels."

KVH says that it is now working withV.Ships in making presentations toV.Ships customers to introduce them tothe mini-VSAT Broadband service.

Satcom experiencesOne of V.Ships’ customers already usingthe KVH service is Nordic AmericanTankers, which has installed the commu-nications system on thirteen of its tankers,most of which are Suezmax, and with afourteenth soon to be equipped

The ships are among the 36 vessels pro-vided with technical management byV.Ships Norway, along with other ship-ping companies across Norway, Greeceand Asia like Frontline, Fred Olsen,Mercator Line, Brightoil Shipping, Polyar,and AET (American Eagle Tankers).

V.Ships Norway currently has two dif-ferent VSAT suppliers providing commu-nications to these ships, specifically those

in Norway, as Hans-Petter Jensen, IT man-ager at the company, explains.

“When it comes to VSAT we have start-ed with the Norwegian clients. They havebeen more interested in the technologyand have seemed to be more adaptable tonew systems,” he said.

“After our experiences with the systemswith our Norwegian clients we will start tointroduce it to our other clients as well, inAsia and Greece and everywhere else.”

V.Ships Norway has installed KVH’sTracPhone V7 Ku-band systems on theNordic American Tankers vessels, com-bined with FleetBroadband 250 units as aback-up.

“Today we have a speed of 128/128kbps,” said Mr Jensen. “It’s not a lot, sowe will increase it to 256/128 kbps in the

near future. And we will probablyincrease it more as we utilise the systemmore and more.”

There have been a number of differentdrivers that have led the company toinstall VSAT, and V.Ships to make VSATits preferred choice, as Mr Jensen recalls.

“The main reason we are doing this isbecause we want the crew to have the pos-sibility to communicate more with theirfamily and friends, and of course we’d likeour maintenance systems, our ECDIS sys-tems to be updated,” he said.

“We’d like to have the possibility toincrease the amount of data we are trans-ferring back and forth to the vessels with-out any big surprises to our clients when itcomes to costs. To do so we need to have afixed price.”

Other technology drivers includedimproved access to training, giving seafar-ers access to materials on demand, and

providing greater access to structuredcourses, including professional distancelearning providers.

“We’d like for our crew to be able to domore training online, and things like that,”said Mr Jensen.

Installation successThe first installation of the KVH systemwas completed in October 2010 on theNordic Hawk, which was followed byapproximately one installation per monthover the following year.

“Our vessels are doing long voyages, soit can be a little bit difficult to plan it – theyare not in port every day, let’s put it likethat,” noted Mr Jensen.

“Sometimes it can take two or threemonths before the ship is in a good posi-tion for installation. So you also need arobust system which doesn’t need a lot ofmaintenance.”

“So far we’ve had a few minor issueswith the installations, especially withsome of the connectors, which we hadsome problems with, but these have beensolved by KVH quite well, and at themoment all systems are up and runningwithout any hassle.”

One of the ways in which V.ShipsNorway has been able to minimise anyproblems in the installation process hasbeen through the creation of a standard-ised package of equipment, already con-figured before it arrives at the ship.

“In the beginning we supplied the sys-tem as parts that had to be installedonboard. But that’s not a very good idea,and today we’ve changed it so we havethis rack, a 19-inch rack, with a UPSinstalled, an insulation transformer, andthe KVH CommBox,” said Mr Jensen.

“Everything is inside one rack, pre-con-figured from KVH and delivered like thisonboard. So it’s just a matter of connectingthe cables and off we go. It’s locked with akey, so nobody can fiddle around with itwithout permission.”

Once the physical equipment is in placeand the system is properly installed andconfigured onboard, the next step is tomake sure that the security of the networkis protected from problems like unautho-rised use, viruses, or other malware.

V.Ships Norway uses a firewall systemto manage its communications, thoughthis approach has evolved as the companybecame more experienced with the equip-ment onboard.

“We started with D-Link firewalls, butthey made our lives miserable, becausethey needed too much maintenance if wewanted to change the configurations, andif we changed the model we’d have to cre-ate new config files every time. It wascheap, but it was not the best idea,” saidMr Jensen.

“Today we have changed to having theCommBox on the vessels for that. We havedifferent rules in the firewall, for the KVH

SATCOMS


Shipmanagement company V.Ships has agreed a deal with KVH that will make mini-VSAT the satcom service of choice for any future installations

V.Ships to promote KVH mini-VSAT to its fleet

Nordic American Tankers is one of the V.Ships customers already using KVH mini-VSAT

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:04

introduce local phone numbers onboardthe Nordic American Tankers ships, thusreducing the cost of phone calls to the shipfrom land based offices.

“We have Norwegian phone numbersonboard the Nordic vessels, KVH can alsodeliver UK numbers and Singapore num-bers for us too. Since the Nordic ships arefor a Norwegian owner, we haveNorwegian numbers,” said Mr Jensen.

“We also have a crew calling solutiononboard that I would say is reasonablypriced, and the crew likes it.”

Having achieved these results using theKVH service on the Nordic AmericanTankers fleet, V.Ships will now present thesatcom system to other ships in its manage-ment pool – and may see a significant numberof vessels moving to VSAT technology.

Digital Ship


antenna we have some content filtering,but not very much. We let the crew surfand we have Wi-Fi onboard.”

“Behind the firewall itself we have aHP managed switch, where we have con-nected all of our equipment. From the HPswitch and out to the rest of the network,everything is similar on the vessels. If weinstall a VSAT from KVH or if we install aFleetBroadband, the infrastructure behindthe firewalls is the same.”

Operational benefitsWith the VSAT service installed on thesevessels, V.Ships has been able to introducea range of different services and applica-tions onboard which have created a hostof benefits, both on the operational sideand for the crew, that have helped to con-

vince the company that this type of tech-nology should be promoted throughoutthe fleet.

“When it comes to VSAT we don’t haveto worry about any compression of the e-mails, we can allow any size of e-mails.We can do remote support for the com-puters onboard without any big issues.We can let the crew surf on the internet,”said Mr Jensen.

Wi-Fi connectivity has also been intro-duced onboard to make it easier for thecrew to access the communications sys-tem, though this is controlled by theMaster, who can make the decision as towhen it is available.

“The Wi-Fi is not on 24 hours a day, itis up to the Captain. Sometimes when heneeds the full speed himself he shuts it

www.euroconsult-ec.com

Consulting firm Euroconsult has forecastthat the number of satellite communicationsterminals in the global maritime market willnearly double over the next decade, with acompound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7per cent over the 10-year period.

In the second edition of its 'MaritimeTelecom Solutions by Satellite, GlobalMarket Analysis & Forecasts' report thecompany says that, while MSS terminalsare still expected to account for the major-

ity of terminals deployed over the decade,VSAT service providers should gain sig-nificant market share in terms of revenueduring the period.

"Onboard bandwidth requirementskeep growing, driving the maritime mar-ket in a direction quite beneficial to satel-lite communications," said Wei Li, seniorconsultant at Euroconsult.

"Fully integrated IP applications pro-viding internet access, audio and videostreaming, and the integration of shipsinto corporate networks generate signifi-

DS

Maritime satcoms to continue growthcant capacity demand at sea."

Euroconsult says that the number of ter-minals used for global maritime satellitecommunications grew at around 6 per centin 2011, while revenues at the satellite oper-ator level increased by over 7 per cent.

The total size of the market reachedabout 317,000 active terminals in 2011,generating more than $1.4 billion in rev-enues at the service provider level.

The report also suggests that the prolif-eration of new Ka-band services, such asInmarsat's planned Global Xpress net-

work, could expand the maritime marketfurther. Euroconsult projects that by 2021the VSAT market will account for themajority of satellite-based maritime com-munications revenues.

Overall, it is predicted that the mar-itime satcom market will grow at a healthyrate over the next decade, but not as rap-idly as in recent years. The expected slow-down of revenue growth will mainly bedue to decreasing airtime unit and equip-ment prices with the overall improvementof technology.

down,” said Mr Jensen. “We give the password to the Wi-Fi to

all of the Superintendents, so they can useit when they are visiting when the ship isin port.”

The VSAT system has also made thetransfer of files from shore to ship, for var-ious operational purposes, a simpler andmore cost effective process than was pre-viously possible.

“We use a QuickFile functionality inthe CommBox to do file transfers, thingslike ECDIS files and big reports or what-ever we need,” said Mr Jensen.

“We update the antivirus system on adaily basis, to the server, and then it is dis-tributed down to all of the client computers.”

Voice calling has also been overhauled,with V.Ships Norway having been able to

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SATCOMS


Cruise lines to install onboard mobile phone service www.mcp.com

Norwegian shipboard mobile phone serv-ices provider Maritime CommunicationsPartner (MCP) reports that it has agreed anew telecommunications contract withNorwegian Cruise Line, covering theentire existing fleet as well as two new-builds, and an extension of its deal withPrincess Cruises.

The MCP service allows passengers touse global roaming capabilities on theirmobile phones onboard ship, for voice,text and mobile internet, which is thenbilled to their home carrier.

The deal with Norwegian Cruise Lineincludes the provision of cellular telepho-ny and prepaid services to passengers andcrew, with the ships to be equipped with anetwork allowing for future migration to3G and LTE technologies.

“The mobile communication needs ofour guests are changing rapidly,” saidRoss Henderson, Norwegian’s vice presi-dent of onboard services.

“We were impressed with MCP’s pro-gressive attitude towards innovation -making MCP the best fit for Norwegianmoving forward. As part of Telenor, MCPcan tap into a wide range of other onboardcommunications services.”

Fred Sorensen, MCP’s managing direc-tor for the Americas, also expressed hissatisfaction that the company was extend-

ing its reach in the American market.“This deal reinforces our position as

the industry’s most innovative onboardcommunications provider and adds a fleetof cruise ships to our growing family ofvessels,” he said.

“This is another step in the right direc-tion for MCP in the US and is a positivedevelopment for the cruise operators,their passengers and crew members.Clearly, the major industry players areseeking to meet their customers’ demandsby providing the best possible modernand future-proof communications systemsavailable on the market today.”

Meanwhile, Princess Cruises is extend-ing its use of MCP’s wireless communica-tions service by adding the systems to thenew vessel Royal Princess and her sistership being built at Fincantieri shipyard in Italy.

The service has already been implement-ed on Princess Cruises’ 16 other vessels.

The contract also includes the provisionof CrewSIM, a service which allows crewmembers to make and receive voice calls,texts and mobile internet at discountedrates.

The new vessels, due for delivery in2013 and 2014, will, like Norwegian, be fitted with an antenna network designedto enable an eventual migration to 3G andfuture technologies.

“We’ve been working with MCP for

over three years now and are very pleasedwith their level of service and commit-ment to excellence,” says Tony Kaufman,Princess Cruises’ senior vice president ofcommercial affairs.

“It is clear that MCP is focused onfuture growth and future technologies.Having a partner like MCP that we cantrust to handle this aspect of our opera-tions allows us to provide exceptionalservice to our passenger and crew.”

www.globewireless.com

www.jotron.com

Globe Wireless has signed a distributionagreement to sell Jotron B120 VSAT anten-nas to its maritime customers.

The new antenna will be offered as partof the Globe iFusion VSAT system, com-bined with Inmarsat FleetBroadband.

The Jotron B120 stabilised antenna hascompleted an extensive series of sea trials,performed in the North Sea during thewinter, and can be used in a variety ofcombinations of satellite frequencies andpolarizations, including super extendedtransmit band.

“Jotron is very pleased with thisagreement. It validates our products and solutions we offer to the customer,”said Magnus Vold, managing directorJotron AS.

“Globe Wireless has an excellent repu-tation in the maritime industry provid-ing cost effective, high quality communi-cation solutions. Their extensive cus-tomer base, proven sales and installationcapabilities means that Jotron productsare backed by one of the world’s leadingmaritime communications and IT solu-tion providers.”

‘Major industry players are seeking to meettheir customers’ demands’

– Fred Sorensen, MCP

Globe Wirelessand Jotron sign

VSAT agreement

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:04

www.thuraya.com

Thuraya has launched a dual mode hand-held phone that features both GSM andsatellite capabilities.

The XT-DUAL operates as a standardGSM phone within the reach of terrestrialnetworks, and when out of terrestrial net-work reach operates as a satellite phone ifinside the coverage area of Thuraya’ssatellites.

The unit has a built-in web browser forinternet access directly on the phone,offering data services at 60 kbps, and canbe connected to a laptop or PC for internetaccess. The phone can also be synchro-nized with the laptop or PC.

Talk time of up to 11 hours and stand-by time of up to 160 hours is available. Thephone supports twelve languages, hasmessaging via SMS, MMS, e-mail and fax,Bluetooth, an organiser, media centre, andsupports Java, allowing external programsto be installed on the phone.

The XT-DUAL is splash water, dust andimpact protected, with an IP64/IK03 rating

“Today marks yet another milestonefor Thuraya as a leader and innovator inthe mobile satellite industry,” saidThuraya’s CEO, Samer Halawi.

“The XT DUAL is certainly a step aheadin satellite telephony and a solution that

will transform mobile communications foryears to come.”

“The new phone ensures reliable andseamless communications in one verysleek unit, enabling consumers to benefitfrom the best of the two worlds of GSMand satellite.”

www.linkscape.net

www.kns-kr.com

Korean VSAT antenna manufacturer KNShas announced a strategic partnershipwith LinkScape, to jointly offer a productcalled UltraVSAT.

The companies say that the new prod-uct offers a fully integrated antenna/modem technology system that allows forsimple two-cable installation, with a singlebelow deck unit and no other externalcomponents.

Ku- and C-band coverage is availableacross the Americas, Caribbean, Europe,Asia, as well as other extended coverageareas worldwide.

UltraVSAT will provide both sharedand dedicated bandwidth for yachts, com-

mercial vessels, and cruise ships, usingantennas from 60cm to 320cm.

"We’re constantly finding new ways toimprove connectivity at sea. We’redelighted to be teaming up with the mar-ket leader when it comes to delivering thefastest and most reliable internet service,"said Noah Chung, international salesdirector for KNS.

"With LinkScape’s specialist innova-tion, the ‘UltraVSAT’ maritime package issimplicity itself and provides connectionsfor everyone, worldwide. It’s the perfectcombination for our customers, interna-tional dealers, and distributors."

"We are also excited to be one of thefirst antenna manufacturers to be offeringVSAT bundled solutions to our extensivedealer network."

Digital Ship


www.c2sat.com

www.comtechefdata.com

Comtech EF Data Corporation hasannounced the successful integration ofits LPOD Block Up Converter withC2SAT’s 2.4m C C-band stabilised VSATAntenna.

Comtech says that the LPOD eliminatesthe requirement for the modem to supplya DC power source and a 10 MHz refer-

KNS and LinkScape partner on UltraVSAT

Connect with GSM or satellite using the XT-DUAL

Thuraya launches dual GSM/satellite phone

C2SAT antenna integrates Comtech LPODence to the BUCs and LNBs, while anoptional internal reference and LNB bias Tare included to simplify multi-carrieroperation and provide redundancy.

"The field-proven performance andreliability of Comtech's offering parallelsour commitment to providing robust andreliable systems," said Ulf Sundqvist, headof sales at C2SAT.

"We now offer the LPOD as a standardcatalogue item."

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:04

SATCOMS


CC obham, parent company of Sea Tel,has made an offer to buy the entireshare capital of Thrane & Thrane

after a month of extraordinary develop-ments between the two companies.

In March, Thrane & Thrane reportedhad it had received an unsolicited offerfrom an unnamed third party to buy thecompany, which led the board of directorsto initiate a strategic review process, to becompleted by May 14, 2012.

The proposal, submitted to Thrane &Thrane on 8 February 2012, was at a priceof DKK 420 per share in cash, which val-ued the entire currently issued share capi-tal of the company on a fully diluted basisat approximately DKK 2,418m (approxi-mately US$425m).

Cobham subsequently issued a state-ment confirming that it was the thirdparty that had made the approach, havingbeen in discussion with the board ofThrane & Thrane over the last year with aview to making a recommended offer, butalso stated that it had withdrawn its pro-posal to acquire the company since Thrane& Thrane’s March announcement.

It said that the making of the offer hadbeen conditional only on its recommenda-tion by the majority of the board of Thrane& Thrane and on the board’s agreement toprovide "customary support in order toimplement the tender offer process."

Cobham also noted that "the potentialoffer would have been subject to the stan-dard terms and conditions for such anoffer, but with an acceptance condition ofonly 50.01 per cent of the shares in Thrane& Thrane."

At the time of its initial offer Cobhamidentified Thrane & Thrane as a potentialtarget as part of a strategy that it saysaimed to "build market leadership posi-tions in its strategic business units byinvesting in technology, particularly withexposure to commercial market segments."

As such, it foresaw significant potential

benefits in the combination of its own sat-com business with that of Thrane.

Under the acquisition proposal Thrane& Thrane would have continued to havebeen run by its current management teamin Denmark.

Cobham says it was "disappointed" thatthe board of Thrane & Thrane was unableto recommend its proposal, and had there-fore decided to withdraw its proposal tomake an offer for the company, though italso noted that it "reserves the right toreconsider (this) position at any time."

ReconsideredDespite this announcement, Cobham didnot take long to reconsider its position andwithin a few shorts weeks had proceededto purchase a substantial stake in Thrane& Thrane, buying 25.59 per cent of theshares and voting rights in the company.

News of this purchase came swiftlyafter Thrane & Thrane had announcedthat the chairman of its board of directorssince September 2000, Waldemar Schmidt,had resigned and retired from the compa-ny’s board.

Existing board member Morten Eldrup-Jørgensen was elected as the new chair-man, with Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEOof SAP AG and also currently a member ofthe board, acting as deputy chairman.

Cobham says that, after the announce-ment of the withdrawal of its original pro-posal and the subsequent resignation ofthe Thrane & Thrane chairman, a numberof institutional investors had expressedinterest in selling their shareholdings inThrane & Thrane to Cobham.

This resulted in the purchase fromJupiter Asset Management Limited andother institutional shareholders of1,292,110 shares at a price of DKK 420 pershare (approximately US$74.07) in cash,representing approximately 22.74 per centof the issued share capital, as well as othermarket purchases to bring the total stake

to 25.59 per cent.With this foothold in place Cobham

then proceeded to make a final voluntarycash offer for the remaining shares in thecompany, at the original price of DKK 420.

Cobham says that the offer is final andwill not be increased (except potentially inthe case that another party comes forwardto bid for the company), and that it is seek-ing to work with the board of Thrane &Thrane to achieve a recommendation forthis deal and to facilitate the bringingtogether of the two businesses.

The offer will be conditional only oncustomary and routine closing conditions,and acceptances of more than 50 per centof the issued share capital.

Combined businessThe price of DKK420 represents a premiumof 43 per cent over the closing price pershare as derived from the Nasdaq OMXCopenhagen on the last trading day beforethe original acquisition announcement, anda multiple of 14.8 times EBIT for the twelvemonth period up to 31 January 2012.

Cobham has noted that, if it achieves100 per cent ownership of Thrane &Thrane, management responsibility forthe combined maritime satcom business ofthe two companies, which would includeSea Tel, would be transferred to Thrane &Thrane in Denmark.

“Following our discussions with Thrane& Thrane over the last year, this is an out-standing opportunity to bring together twoworld-class, highly complementary satcombusinesses and represents an attractiveoffer for shareholders,” said John Devaney,executive chairman of Cobham.

“Together, the two businesses couldoffer more customers a wider range ofequipment and increase the support wegive to our service providers.”

“It would be our intention to invest fur-ther in Denmark and, as a mark of ourcommitment, we would transfer manage-

ment responsibility of our largest satcombusiness to Thrane & Thrane in Denmarkon full ownership of the business, andcombine our engineering capabilities tobring new products to the market. Thrane& Thrane would have an enhanced futureas part of Cobham.”

Thrane & Thrane's satcom business hasaround 600 employees located inDenmark, the USA, Norway, Sweden,China and Singapore, working with aglobal network of distributors.

For the twelve months to 31 January2012, Thrane & Thrane generated revenueof DKK 1,092.4 million (approximatelyUS$192.6 million) and profit before tax ofDKK 169.4 million (approximatelyUS$29.9 million).

As at 31 January 2012, Thrane & Thranehad net assets of DKK1,003.7 million(approximately US$177 million) and grossassets of DKK1,721.4 million (approxi-mately US$303.5 million).

Cobham employs more than 10,000people on five continents, and has cus-tomers and partners in over 100 countries.It has acquired nearly 50 companies in thelast decade, including marine satcom busi-ness SeaTel in 2003.

Cobham says that Sea Tel has doubledboth its revenue and R&D investment inthe years since the acquisition.

The company notes that it anticipatesachieving a minimum of £2 million(approximately US$3.2 million) per annumof pre-tax synergies as a result of a takeover,even in the event that a minority holding inThrane & Thrane remains outstanding.

A month of extraordinary corporate manoeuvring has seen Cobham, parent company of Sea Tel, purchase asignificant stake in Danish satcom antenna manufacturer Thrane & Thrane, and move to take control of the entire

business with an offer to the remaining shareholders

Cobham makes Thraneacquisition approach

Should the acquisition be completed, SAILOR and Sea Tel antennas could be developed side by side by Cobham in Denmark

‘We would transfer managementresponsibility of our largest satcom

business to Thrane & Thrane in Denmarkon full ownership of the business’

– John Devaney, Cobham

DS

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:04

Digital Ship


www.marlink.com

www.telenor.com

Marlink has announced an agreementwith satellite provider Telenor SatelliteBroadcasting (TSBc) to renew and increaseMarlink’s Ku-band satellite capacity forthe next three years, as well agreeing anoption for Ka-band capacity on an upcom-ing satellite.

Utilising TSBc’s IS 10-02 satellite, locatedat 1° West, Marlink will use the capacity toservice maritime customers in the Nordic,European and Middle Eastern regions.

The contract will allow Marlink to con-tinue to provide Ku-band coverage in

these areas, with what it calls "signifi-cant" Ku-band capacity on Spot 2 of thesatellite and almost 200 MHz Ku-bandcapacity on Spot 1.

The agreement with TSBc also includesan option for Marlink to use the Ka-bandpayload of the new THOR 7 satellite, whichis planned be operational in early 2014.

The company says that this will pro-vide additional capacity to support theincreased demand anticipated from mar-itime customers in the coming years.

Inmarsat's new I5 satellites for itsGlobal Xpress service will also operate inthe Ka-band, though Inmarsat hasplanned worldwide coverage for its sys-

www.livewire-connections.com

Livewire Connections has launched its latestsoftware upgrade for the Access ControllerFB-10, adding additional functionality to thecommunications management system.

This is the fourth major firmware upgradesince the unit's initial launch in 2009, andincludes changes to Quality of Service (QoS)levels and full auto failover capabilities.

Bandwidth can be prioritised, andmonitored to provide real timegraphs/logs and data usage, and MACaddress reservation has been improved toshow leases, to display the current DHCPleases on the network.

Existing customers can upgrade to thenew software version without charge, withapproximately 400 vessels now equippedwith the Access Controller FB-10.

“We are a proactive company, drivenby our own technical capabilities and cus-tomer demand,” said David Walker, salesdirector for Livewire Connections.

“This latest upgrade is all part of theprocess Livewire Connections goesthrough to help keep our customers at theforefront with regards to managing theiroff-vessel connections.”

The software upgrade is now beingrolled out and is available for existingcustomers to download from theLivewire website.

Access ControllerFB-10 upgraded

Marlink deal extends VSAT capacity

www.gentay.co.uk

Singapore based APL, a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Neptune Orient Line, hassuccessfully deployed the iPoP-NetworkSolutions for Vessels system from Gentayto expand existing ship networks andextend network coverage.

The iPoP-Network system uses the ves-sel’s existing power grid to transmit net-work signals around the vessel, allowingnetwork access points to be created at anypoint on board the vessel that is served bythe vessel’s power grid.

Gentay says that the installation andcommissioning of the equipment can bedone by the onboard ship staff in a matter ofhours, and that it offers high data through-put speeds over industrial grade BPL(Broadband via Power line) technology.

The company notes that the networkingtechnology can be particularly useful forthe installation of Anti-Piracy surveillanceCCTV systems, particularly in line withrecommendations outlined in the recentBMP4 – Best Management Practices forProtection against Somali Based Piracy.

These systems have already been tri-

tem rather than the regional coverage thatwill be available from THOR 7.

"We have enjoyed a long standing rela-tionship with Telenor Satellite Broadcastingwhich has helped us to develop a reliableand trustworthy VSAT service for our cus-tomers in these essential regions," said ToreMorten Olsen, CEO of Marlink.

"Coverage extends from the busy sealanes north of Norway to Northern Africaand the Middle East. Our customers cantherefore continue to rely on us to provideexceptional service and continuity. Whenthe new THOR satellite comes online,Marlink will now be one of the first toutilise this new frequency band."

alled and successfully deployed on vesselsoperated by oil major BP.

“The new opportunities presented bythe iPoP-Network Solutions for Vesselsextend beyond simply creating or extend-ing existing networks on board vessels,”said Martin Nygate, director of Gentay.

“We are currently working with companiesto substantially reduce the need for wiringdata communication links between newequipment installed on the vessel and thebridge by transmitting the required data usingour network, as opposed to the disruptive and expensive need to lay new data cables.”

APL deploys iPoP Network technology

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:04

SATCOMS


II ntellian has launched a new Ku-bandVSAT antenna which will be upgrad-able for use with Inmarsat Global

Xpress Ka-Band after that service islaunched, while Inmarsat has alsoannounced that it has signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding with ImtechMarine to become the first Value AddedReseller of Global Xpress.

Intellian’s 1 meter, 3-Axis Ku-bandv110GX antenna features an optimisedKu-/Ka-band antenna reflector andradome which the company says can be"easily" changed to be used with theGlobal Xpress service after Inmarsat’s I-5Ka-band satellites are launched and oper-ational in 2014.

The modular GX Conversion Kitincludes the GX BUC/LNB assembly, GXFeed Assembly and GX ACU, incorporat-ing the modem.

The pedestal and new mounting archi-tecture have also been designed to supportconversion to Ka-band by manuallyreplacing the RF Module and Feedhorninside the radome.

The GX BUC/LNB assembly is attachedto the rear side of the reflector, with norequirement to re-balance the system.

Once the ACU is replaced and poweris supplied, the system will be immedi-ately ready and operational for theGlobal Xpress service. A gyro-free satel-lite search function enables the v110GX toacquire and lock onto the satellite with-out requiring separate input from theship’s gyro-compass.

Intellian says that the entire conversioncan be done in the field with minimal timeand expense.

Intellian has also developed an antennacontrol program, based on its AntennaRemote Management System (ARMS) andSoftware Development Kit (SDK), toenable remote monitoring and control ofthe antenna, for service providers, opera-tors and end users.

In addition, the v110GX is equippedwith the Intellian Global PLL LNB as stan-

dard, which is capable of receiving allglobal Ku-band satellite signals by usingprogrammable L.O. frequencies.

The company notes that the technologyshould help operators to deal with anychanges in the future operational regions oftheir vessels or changes in serviceproviders, as they would no longer need tochange the LNB in their Ku-band antenna.

Users can define the required LO (LocalOscillator) frequency or select from a pre-programmed LO library in the Intellianantenna control unit. The PLL LNB incor-porates user programmable support of anunlimited number of LO frequencies.

The set up procedure can be handledusing remote IP access, and the unit is alsocompliant with OpenAMIP to allow con-trol from the iDirect Hub infrastructure.

Designed and manufactured byIntellian specifically for marine VSAT, theGlobal PLL LNB has a highest frequencystability of + 10KHz as standard, and willoperate over the a range of standard LOfrequencies, as well as any special dedicat-ed frequencies.

The new LNB is now available as stan-dard for all Intellian Ku-band VSAT seriesantennas.

"We are extremely pleased to haveIntellian as an official Global Xpressequipment manufacturer," said FrankColes, president of Inmarsat Maritime.

"Their upgradable version of their cur-rent 1m Ku-Band antenna, combined withthe development of native Ka-Band 60cmand 1m antennas, provides maritime cus-tomers with choices today and in thefuture."

The v110GX will be commercially avail-able from July 2012.

This is the second upgradeable Ku- toKa-band antenna announced for theGlobal Xpress service, with Sea Tel’s 4012system, announced in 2011, scheduled tobe commercially available by the end ofQ1 2012.

Imtech MarineIntellian has also recently signed a globaldistribution and service agreement withImtech Marine, the company which hasbeen named as the first Value AddedReseller of Global Xpress, covering a seriesof VSAT and TVRO products, includingthe Intellian v110.

Inmarsat’s agreement with the Dutchcompany builds on Imtech’s existing expe-rience of offering FleetBroadband, VSATand integrated maritime services, in par-ticular through its Radio Holland brand.

It will now also make Inmarsat’sXpressLink product available through itsnetwork, providing a bundled package of Ku-band VSAT and L-bandFleetBroadband that will be automaticallyupgraded to Global Xpress when the Ka-band network is launched.

“Global Xpress will be a world-first inmaritime communications, and we aredelighted that Imtech will be a frontrun-ner in offering this solution to the mar-itime market,” said Eric van den Adel,managing director of Imtech Marine.

“We already enjoy a strong workingrelationship with Inmarsat, and this MOUis a significant step in bringing our twocompanies closer.”

“The combination of Inmarsat Ka- andL-band with Imtech Marine’s remote mon-itoring solutions and our extensive net-work of 88 offices in 25 countries willdeliver real benefits to our customers.”

Outside of its agreements withInmarsat and Intellian, Imtech has alsorecently signed global distribution andservice agreements for VSAT satellitecommunication and satellite TV (TVRO)products with antenna manufacturersJotron and Thrane & Thrane.

Via its Radio Holland subsidiary,Imtech Marine already had existing relationships with these partners, whichhave now been extended to include VSATand TVRO.

All of Imtech Marine's 80 worldwidebranches will be able to supply, install,commission and service the antenna sys-tems from these manufacturers, andarrange airtime services.

Jotron SatCom of Norway has signedan agreement including its Jotron B120VSAT antennas, while the agreement withThrane & Thrane covers the Sailor 900VSAT and Sat TV antennas.

"Global VSAT gives ship owners a reli-able, cost effective maritime broadbandcommunication solution. We will take careof the complete spectrum of this innova-tive technology worldwide, from supplyto service and maintenance," said Mr vanden Adel.

"The VSAT connection is part of anintegrated service and maintenance infra-structure which enables remote monitor-ing and maintenance. This service takesplace via our 24/7 service desks inRotterdam, Houston and Singapore."

"In line with our strategy, we are theconnectivity and maintenance partner forour clients throughout the total life cycleof their ship, during construction, retrofitand throughout the operational phase bymaintenance and repair. We have chosenfor a selected number of suppliers withwhom we are proud to have a strategiclong-term partnership."

Intellian’s new v110GX antenna can beupgraded from Ku-Band to Ka-band by

replacing a few components

The last month has seen some new developments for Inmarsat’s upcoming Ka-band service Global Xpress, with Intellian launching its Ku- to Ka-band upgradable antenna and Imtech Marine coming on board

as the first confirmed reseller for the service

Intellian antenna and Imtech agreement bolster Global Xpress

www.arubanetworks.com

Hurtigruten, Norway's coastal shippingservice and cruise line, has deployed anew mobile network based on the ArubaMobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE) archi-tecture from Aruba Networks, to deliverWi-Fi and internet services to employeesand passengers.

"At Hurtigruten we are always lookingto enhance the customer experience, andquality wireless connectivity for our

passengers and conference users is a clear winner with everyone," said RagnarNorum, communications manager at Hurtigruten.

"Whether our customers are simplytravelling between ports, on a full 12-day voyage, or using our increasinglypopular on-ship conference facilities, we believe that our new Aruba infra-structure, complemented by the ArubaClearPass Guest visitor and guest man-agement system, will deliver the service

level our passengers expect."Hurtigruten has operated regular ship-

ping services along the west coast ofNorway for nearly 120 years, and todayhas 14 custom-designed ships that offerboth a regular logistics service fromBergen in the south of Norway to Kirkenesin the north, as well as passenger cruises.

A typical installation on a Hurtigrutenship is comprised of Aruba's Mobility con-troller and 802.11n wireless access points.

Passengers can self-register for guest

access using Aruba's ClearPass Guest visi-tor management system, which is alsoinstalled on each ship.

"Wireless connectivity for laptops,tablets and smartphones is now expectedby customers staying in a hotel or onboard ship," said Andreas Ferm, regionaldirector, Nordics and Baltics, for Aruba.

"Though not the first cruise line to offerwireless, the approach they have taken,combining high speed internet access withAruba's Wi-Fi and visitor management, isforward thinking."

The communications package was pro-vided to Hurtigruten by Scandinavian sys-tems integrator, Intelecom Group AS.

Wi-Fi connectivity for HurtigrutenDS

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:10

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:11

SATCOMS


www.iridium.com

Iridium has announced the completion ofthe satellite preliminary design reviewphase for its next-generation satellite con-stellation, Iridium NEXT.

With the planned commencement oflaunches for the satellites now approxi-mately three years away, this phase con-cludes the preliminary design and specifi-cations for all elements of the satellite sys-tem, including payload, main missionantenna, feeder links and cross links.

“The foundation for Iridium NEXTsatellite design is complete,” said ScottSmith, executive vice president, IridiumNEXT.

“By successfully finalising the firstphase of the programme design process,our engineers and partners, under thedirection of our prime contractor ThalesAlenia Space, have now begun the

detailed design phase, which includesbuilding prototype hardware of all ele-ments, including satellites, antennas andground infrastructure.”

“We have an amazing, innovativegroup of partners - the Iridium NEXTMission Team, as we call it - and we areconfident in the tremendous progress wehave made on the world's most significantcommercial space programme.”

After completing the preliminary designphase Iridium and its partners will nowbegin constructing engineering modelunits that will be used to verify the designand performance of the system prior to thestart of full construction in 2013.

Among the prototypes under construc-tion are the constellation’s feeder linksand cross links, which will be responsiblefor communicating to ground stations andbetween satellites, respectively.

Payload and main mission antennaswill also be built andtested to ensure reliabil-ity, resilience and com-patibility.

After the first set oflaunches in 2015,Iridium hopes to com-plete the replacement ofits current constellationwith Iridium NEXT andhave the system fullyoperational in 2017.

www.navarino.gr

A new Voice over IP service has beenadded to the INFINITY communicationsmanagement system offered by Navarino.

The company says that using the VoIPservice in conjunction with INFINITY willallow ships to communicate with theoffice at a minimal cost, or at no cost at allunder some conditions.

The VoIP system is set up to allow shipoperators to use an office switchboard tocall a vessel as if it was a regular officeextension number.

Ships can call the office the same way,without dialling any country prefix, andconnect directly to the extension of theperson in the office they wish to contact.

Navarino says that the VoIP serviceleverages bandwidth efficiencies createdthrough the use of INFINITY for dataexchange.

Through caching, the company saysthat the INFINITY system can create what

it calls a “bandwidth surplus”, that can inturn be allocated to the Voice over IP serv-ice – allowing both office and vessels tocall each other at no additional cost.

“We are very pleased to have the abili-ty to provide VoIP calling to our cus-tomers,” said Panos Tsikopoulos, com-mercial director of Navarino with respon-sibility for distributing INFINITY.

“We know it has taken numerous hoursof research and development from theINFINITY team to come up with a solu-tion that not only provides significantvalue and savings to customers in thesedifficult times for the shipping industry ingeneral, but also does not sacrifice qualityfor cost.”

“As a matter of fact a unique characteris-tic of INFINITY’s VoIP is that the voice qual-ity of the new service is equal, if not better,to that of the regular FB voice channel.”

INFINITY VoIP is available now as astandard free-of-charge upgrade to usersof the INFINITY system.

The design stage of the Iridium NEXT satellites is now complete

VoIP to INFINITYIridium reaches NEXT phase

www . t h ed i g i t a l s h i p . c om

Keep your finger on thepulse with our weekly

e-mail newsletter and ouronline network for maritime

IT professionals

p1-18:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:12

SOFTWARE Digital Ship


us to adjust to our customers’ needs and tocooperate widely with leading softwaresuppliers in the maritime market."

Karl-Erik Johannessen, CEO and co-owner of COEX, also commented on howhe believes the acquisition move will ben-efit existing COEX customers.

"Our goal has always been to delivercost-effective solutions that help the mar-itime industry to be more effective," he said.

"By becoming a part of DNV, westrongly believe that our customers willenjoy the unique competence found inDNV and our enhanced offering to themaritime industry."

www.videotel.com

Videotel has launched a new ContinuingCompetency Manager (CCM) tool,designed to assist shipping companies inmanaging training and competence.

The CCM aims to manage competencedata at every level, from junior ratings toMaster or Chief Engineer, and provides aCPD (continuing professional develop-ment) life cycle which moves and pro-gresses with those individuals.

Detailed crew training schedules andreports can be created as companies plan,train, assess, record and report all of theirtraining activity.

The system has been in developmentfor five years, and uses cloud-based tech-nology to provide training and assessmentthrough Videotel’s web-based FleetTraining Administrator (webFTA) portal.

“The challenge to the maritime indus-try is clear,” said Nigel Cleave, VideotelCEO.

“The Manila Amendments coming intoforce are intended to make sure that thehighest standards of seafarer competenceare maintained globally. The old days ofprescriptive learning are gone, replacedby competency based programmes, usingcontinuous assessment against bench-marked standards.”

“Videotel’s wide range of top qualitytraining material delivered throughVideotel on Demand (VOD) and ournewly launched secure web-based VODOnline, delivers against that objective,ensuring safe, efficient and cost-effectiveoperation on ships the world over.”

In other news, Videotel also reportsthat the United States Coast Guard(USCG) in Yorktown, Virginia, has takendelivery of three Videotel on Demand(VOD) units to be used in the training ofPort State Control Officers.

The units are pre-loaded with marinesafety and operational training videos,computer-based training materials (CBT)and instructional courses, and will be usedby the USCG to augment existing PortState Control Office training.

“We are delighted to be supporting theUSCG's efforts,” said Mr Cleave.

“Towards the end of last year weworked with the US Department ofHomeland Security's Customs and BorderProtection agency to develop a trainingprogramme which offered a new andupdated approach to US Port StateControl.”

“We welcome the opportunity to onceagain contribute to the training needswithin this complex and important environment.”

www.dnv.com

www.coex.no

DNV has signed an agreement to acquireCOEX AS, a company based in Bergen,Norway, offering software systems for themaritime industry.

The move will see DNV's Navigator soft-ware system enhanced through integrationwith COEX's web-based Vessel InformationPortal for ship management, providing arange of additional functionalities.

DNV Navigator, recently selected byWallem to be installed on 190 ships, isused to assist in managing port opera-tions, allowing more than 1,200 port clear-ance forms to be automatically filled inwith ship data, significantly reducing theamount of paperwork required onboard.

COEX and DNV have already workedin close cooperation for a number ofyears, and share a number of commonshipping customers.

"With the acquisition of COEX AS, weaim to radically improve the way we pres-ent and deliver our services," says OddArne Haueng, managing director of DNVMaritime Partner.

"We see a great potential to increase ouroffering to the shipping industry by furtherexpanding the DNV Navigator portfolio interms of both content and functionality."

"We will continue to focus on opera-tional issues and promote integration withother back-office systems. This will allow

Competency management tool launched by Videotel

DNV acquires COEX

Nigel Cleave, Videotel, and Rear Admiral Linda Fagan, USCG, mark USCG’s adoption of the VOD system

‘We see a great potential to increase ouroffering to the shipping industry’ – OddArne Haueng, DNV Maritime Partner

www.amarcon.com

The newbuild 50,000 dwt vessel HYSY278, managed by the Dutch heavy cargotransporter Dockwise on behalf of theChinese Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd(COOEC), is to install the OCTOPUS-Onboard system from Amarcon.

The application will be used for the pur-pose of motion monitoring, response pre-diction and heavy-weather decision sup-port during heavy cargo transportations.

This recent appointment is the six-teenth order from Dockwise for an OCTO-PUS-Onboard installation, with the firstinstallation performed six years ago on

the semi-submersible heavy transport car-rier Transshelf.

In 2011 OCTOPUS-Onboard installationswere completed on all fifteen Dockwise ves-sels. In addition to the onboard decision sup-port application, the HYSY 278 shall beequipped with a motion measurement sys-tem based on three motion sensors, to enablereal-time measurement and display ofmotions in multiple locations on the vessel.

All the collected data (measured andforecasted motions) can be made accessi-ble on the internet via the OCTOPUS-Online system, to allow the operationsdepartment on shore to continuouslymonitor the status and location of the fleet.

Chinese Offshore vessel to install OCTOPUS-Onboard

p19-26:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:19 Page 1

www.veson.com

Teekay Corporation has now gone live onthe Veslink system from Veson Nautical,the companies report.

Veslink is a web-based service thatallows ships to exchange real-time datawith onshore offices.

Teekay installed Veson Nautical’sIntegrated Maritime Operations System(IMOS) in September 2011 and has usedthe system, which can be combined withVeslink, to standardise vessel reportingand performance analysis for its fleet ofmore than 75 tanker and LNG vessels.

“The Veson staff has been great to dealwith through the integration process.Everyone was very helpful in meeting ourneeds and timelines,” said Greg Davidson,commercial systems manager at Teekay.

“By the time we have completed theintegration of IMOS and Veslink in ourconventional fleet, we will have approxi-mately 65 vessels using Veslink.”

Since Q3 2011, Teekay has used IMOS

as its voyage management and accountingsystem for various ships in its 143-vesselfleet, including Aframaxes, Suezmaxes,LNG Carriers, Product Carriers, and

Shuttle Tankers.The addition of Veslink is aimed to help

Teekay to exert more control over the sub-stantial amount of mission-critical infor-

mation generated by the fleet – using thesystem, data is entered onboard in a struc-tured way, vetted by voyage operators foraccuracy, and then automatically import-ed into IMOS.

This data is then used to generatereporting metrics which Teekay sees as crucial for benchmarking fleet performance.

This integration of systems has alsoimproved interaction among the compa-ny's chartering, operations, and account-ing departments, with Teekay noting thatit is already seeing improved vessel andcargo information, reduced manual entry,and minimal data errors.

“As one of our most valued clients andpartners, we’re very excited that Teekayhas added Veslink to enhance its vessel-to-shore communications,” said John Veson,president of Veson Nautical.

“Just as IMOS optimises the front-officeworkflow, Veslink carries that optimisa-tion through to the data collectiononboard the vessel.”


Teekay goes live on Veson system

Teekay will use Veslink to transfer data from its ships to its software systems on shore. Photo: Teekay

Activity codes added to FuelTrax

SOFTWARE

www.fueltrax.com

Nautical Control Solutions (NCS) reportsthat it has added the ability to enter activ-ity codes for automatic coupling of fuelusage numbers to location, date, and timeto its FuelTrax fuel management system.

Wind and sea states are also includedin the software’s calculations.

FuelTrax monitors fuel flow and fueltank levels, and provides wheelhouse mon-itoring to allow for real-time throttle adjust-ments to help reduce fuel consumption.

“This effort started with our offshoresupport vessel customers, who have to logvarious activities each day as part of theircharter requirements with petroleum com-panies,” said Anthony George, CEO of NCS.

“The process is manual and can involvedifferent paper-based forms created in-house or provided by the oil company. Itis not a difficult task but can be tedious,particularly at the end of a shift.”

“Day-to-day work can interfere with theprocess and the very nature of manual entry

can introduce errors that can be compound-ed when these forms are sent to shore formanual entry into another system.”

FuelTrax’s activity logging functionaims to simplify this by offering drop-down menus and pre-defined informationfor coding of time slices.

Preloaded activity codes can be appliedusing a mouse, with the data then auto-matically offloaded each day during a nor-mal FuelTrax data transmission.

The activity codes are then paired withfuel data by date, time, latitude and longi-tude for reporting of vessel activitiesagainst fuel usage.

“By combining accurate fuel usage withthe codes, customers have a clearer pictureof how the vessel and crew are using fuel,”said Mr George.

“How much fuel do we use duringdynamic positioning? Anchor handling?Waiting on weather? Waiting on an asset?Finding slop in the schedule or in thedaily work routine that wastes fuelbecomes easier.”

Kongsberg buys software company www.kongsberg.com

www.jotron.com

Kongsberg Maritime reports that it hasacquired 100 per cent of the shares in fleetmanagement software company JotronConsultas, and will create a new productgroup consisting of all previous JotronConsultas employees based at KongsbergMaritime’s premises in Horten, Norway.

The company believes that Jotron’s C-Loading software application will comple-ment its K-Gauge cargo controland tank management systemsin particular, with C-Loadingnow set to be integrated intoKongsberg’s K-Chief IntegratedAutomation System and the K-Gauge operating platform.

Kongsberg says that this willresult in it being able to offer anenhanced cargo control andmonitoring system with a fullyintegrated load calculator.

The Jotron Consultas FleetManagement software applica-tion will also be used to addcontent to the new KongsbergMaritime ship@web concept.Ship@web allows a vessel’sadministrative network, or theoperator’s on-shore network, todisplay data from an automa-tion system over the internet viaa customisable web browserapplication.

“Jotron Consultas’ C-Loading softwareand Fleet Management Software, in partic-ular, are both a strategic match forKongsberg Maritime,” says Morten Hasås,executive vice president - merchantmarine, Kongsberg Maritime.

“These established products expandour ability to provide ‘Full Picture’ deliv-eries, where Kongsberg Maritime is capa-ble of developing and installing ship-wideintegrated networks covering all majortechnical systems.”

Software company Tero Marine AShas established its first subsidiary outsideNorway, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in theUK. The offices will be headed up by man-aging director John Straughan, who hasbeen part of the Tero Marine team for over15 years.

www.teromarine.no www.sismarine.comThe software aims to make fuel management more accurate by simplifying data input

Star Information Systems (SIS)and BlueCielo have entered into a part-ner agreement which will allow SIS to sellthe BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise soft-ware to ship and rig managers worldwide,to complement its Star Information &Planning System (Star IPS).

Morten Hasås, Kongsberg Maritime, and Rune Hagen,Jotron Consultas, mark the acquisition

p19-26:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:14 Page 2

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www.aveva.com/marine

STX OSV is to standardise its engineeringand 3D design work across ten of its ship-yards on the AVEVA Marine software sys-tem, having purchased more than 100additional software licences.

These shipyards are in various loca-tions in Brazil, Romania, Norway andVietnam.

"We are pleased to confirm our firstproject’s critical path in the designprocess was reduced by 30 per cent," saidMagne Bakke, chief operating officer, STXOSV AS.

"AVEVA Marine has improved andreduced the time of our engineeringdesign process. At the same time, forinstance, we can integrate and work on a3D model during initial vessel design as

well as engineering tasks. We then reuseand refine this information during thedetailed design and production engineer-ing phases."

"With AVEVA Marine we achieveintegrated hull-outfitting, global worksharing and it supports late designchanges. This was key in our decision tostandardise on AVEVA Marine for allengineering, hull 3D and outfitting 3Ddesign work. As a result, we’ve made the strategic decision to roll AVEVAMarine out across ten shipyards aroundthe world."

AVEVA Marine is a set of integratedapplications created specifically for theprocesses of the engineering and designof ship and offshore structures, designmanagement and the generation of accu-rate production information.

www.atobviac.com

AtoBviaC Plc reports that it has intro-duced a new Anti-Piracy Routeing Tool aspart of the BP Shipping Marine DistanceTables.

The Anti-Piracy Routeing system isbased upon information on piracy activityobtained on a regular basis from Joint WarCommittee bulletins, and from specificrouteings requested by ship operators.

All routes calculated are navigable, tak-ing account of the need to keep suitabledistances off shoals, wrecks, coasts andobstructions, and also avoid oil fielddevelopment areas.

The routes arereviewed weekly andupdates are issued attwo-monthly intervals,or more frequently ifsignificant changes needto be made.

"The Anti-PiracyControl allows shipoperators to makeinformed decisions onvoyages which mayneed to avoid piracyareas," says CaptainTrevor Hall, director ofAtoBviaC.

"With the amount of uncertainty in theindustry and the depressed freight ratescurrently being experienced, the implica-tion of avoiding piracy has to be carefullymeasured."

"The AtoBviaC tool enables the shipoperator to select routes based on themost current intelligence, and accuratelycalculate the time and fuel implicationsof the voyage. In many cases this canwork out to be considerably more accu-rate than the other available options andprovides a level of self-determinationthat is missing from other solutions."

Anti-Piracy tool from AtoBviaC

Magne Bakke, STX OSV, and Richard Longdon, AVEVA, mark the deal with colleagues

STX OSV extends use of design software

AET to install energy and emissions management system

A journey from Suez to Singapore, with anti-piracy routeing on

www.napa.fi

AET has ordered the NAPA-DSME Powersoftware system for installation on fournewbuild 319,000 deadweight tonne(DWT) VLCC vessels.

The systems will be installed at DSME’sshipyard in South Korea, with the sched-uled delivery of the first of these vesselsset for January 2013.

NAPA-DSME Power has been designedas part of a collaboration between softwarehouse NAPA and Korean shipbuilder

Daewoo Shipbuilding & MarineEngineering Co. (DSME), with the compa-nies claiming that it can be used to save upto 5 per cent of a tanker’s fuel costs.

Using sensors integrated withinDSME’s latest tanker designs, the systemmonitors energy efficiency, emissions, fuelconsumption and trim.

This data is immediately accessible toofficers onboard, along with weatherupdates, arrival times and other key performance indicators to inform decisions and enable efficiency optimisa-

tion in real-time.The software can also be used to assist

in maintaining compliance with energyand emissions monitoring and reportingregulations, which are anticipated to growover the next few years, not least throughthe upcoming Ship Energy EfficiencyManagement Plan (SEEMP) legislationthat takes effect from January 1st 2013.

"With tightening environmental regula-tions and increasing operational over-heads, the maritime industry continues toface an evolving and challenging market,"

said Matti Salo, president, NAPA forOperations.

"At NAPA, we are committed to devel-oping products that deliver tangible bene-fits to customers, directly supporting theirability to effectively manage this cycle of change."

"In choosing NAPA-DSME Power, AEThas selected an innovative approach tooperations management that will providethem with the ability to benefit from fuelefficiencies whilst simultaneously manag-ing their environmental impact."

www.eniram.fi

Eniram has launched its new OptimumSpeed Assistant (OSA), an onboard decision support tool used to determinea vessel's optimum speed profile for each voyage.

The software builds on Eniram’sexisting Dynamic Trimming Assistantprogram, which uses real time data toassist operators in optimising vesseltrim.

The company says that the applica-tion's ability to combine real-time infor-mation about prevailing sea conditionswith historical data in determining theoptimum speed profile should reduce theneed for a crew to build in ‘buffer’ timeand vary engine speed to ensure on-timearrival in port, a practice which is not fuel efficient.

Calculations are displayed via a dash-board with a colour-coded ‘traffic light’system.

OSA was developed and tested incooperation with Eniram's cruise cus-tomers, and draws on data collectedfrom 100 vessels, with 200 billion signalscollected and analysed from over 60,000sea days.

The results of these tests showed that there was the potential for a vessel

to make a 2 per cent saving on fuel by adjusting speed alone. Eniram saysthat, by adding propulsion and trimadjustments, operators could expect to achieve annual fuel-related savings of3 per cent.

“Optimum Speed Assistant showsquick gains in efficiency,” says EniramCTO, Henrik Dahl.

“For a typical vessel such as a cruiseliner, payback time is significantly lessthan a year. We see that our OptimumSpeed Assistant together with DynamicTrim Assistant will be key elements ofany vessel’s energy efficiency plan(SEEMP).”

“These tools, coupled with EniramPerformance Management, will guide ourcustomers to achieve best performanceand reporting of emissions and follow upof EEOI.”

“It is not enough simply to optimise theengine loads for each engine, as the shipends up consuming more energy.Obtaining the best efficiency on a passen-ger vessel usually means operating at con-stant speed and using the engines at lessoptimal loads than those for which theyare designed.”

Eniram says it will also release anEngine Optimisation product towards theend of this year.

Eniram launches Optimum Speed system

SOFTWARE

p19-26:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:15 Page 6

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www.portinfo.co.uk

Shipping Guides Ltd has introducedFindaportCD and FindaportAPI, two newproducts designed to simplify access toport information.

These products are in addition to thecompany's Findaport.com service, anonline port information resource launchedin 2010.

The Findaport series of products com-bines information contained within theGuide to Tanker Ports, The Ships Atlasand port information publication Guide toPort Entry.

Information on over 9,000 ports, har-bours, terminals and marine places aroundthe world is available via the two new

products, as well as over 5,000 port plans,over 1,000 port photos and over 2,500reports of actual conditions experienced.

FindaportCD provides desktop accessto port information where internet accessis not available, and is re-issued everythree months to registered subscribers.Users can also check for interim updates ifa network connection is available.

Up to 26 different search criteria canbe combined to enable subscribers tospecify their preferred port requirementsand generate lists of places meeting thoserequirements.

FindaportAPI is a software servicewhich can be used to integrate port infor-mation from Findaport.com into otherinformation systems or websites.


SOFTWARE

www.vesselsvalue.com

VesselsValue.com has added an 'eBroker'to its online valuation service, which cov-ers tankers, bulkers and containers.

Built over the past four months, eBrokerallows users to access information on theworld fleet and drill down into real timevessel ownership. The data can be dynami-cally displayed on graphs and charts.

The company says that, whilst valuationsfor both individual vessels and fleets remainthe core service offering, it aims to expanduse of its database to provide sales stats,fleet stats and other market information.

VesselsValue.com was launched in May2011, and to date the system has performed115,000 individual ship valuations.

www.abs-ns.com

ABS Nautical Systems reports that it hassigned two new contracts in Greece, withMillenia Maritime Inc. and TMS TankersLtd, and a further contract with OttoCandies LLC, a marine transportation andtowing company based in Louisiana, forits NS5 Enterprise software.

Both Greek companies will implementthe company’s applications under the ABSNewbuild Program, which offers free software to ABS-classed vessels built after

1 January 2009.Millenia Maritime will install the Hull

Inspection and Maintenance & Repairmodules from the NS5 Enterprise softwarepackage on nine of its ABS-classed chemi-cal carriers.

These modules will be used to track thecondition of a vessel’s structure through-out its service life and generate preventivemaintenance plans for the crew on board.

TMS Tankers will use the software toimprove its ability to provide informationto its crews, as well as generating reports

to allow for better analysis.TMS will use the Hull Inspection mod-

ule on 37 of its ABS-classed vessels. Otto Candies will implement the

Maintenance & Repair module on 20 of itsoffshore supply and diving vessels.

The NS5 package will be used toreplace the existing in-house system, as away to improve audit efficiencies.

The planned maintenance program canalso be used to identify ship maintenancetrends and plan for future maintenancework.

New contracts for ABS-NS eBroker added tovessel valuation site

eBroker - now online

INTERSCHALT maritime systems AG is one of the leading suppliers of maritime systems and

electrotechnical equipment, automation and information technology for the shipping and shipbuilding

industry. The cooperation with Telespazio S.p.A. enables INTERSCHALT to provide complete

systems, installation and implementation of hardware and software as well as airtime for satellite

communication. Telespazio is the European leading company for satcom services with more than

30 years of experience in the satellite communication market. It provides broadband access to

30,000 satellite terminals on land and offers its high standards of maintenance and operation in

the maritime market for the cargo, cruise and oil & gas segments.

We are seeking an ambitious

Sales Managerto sell our USP maritime broadband satellite communication solutions and services to shipping

companies worldwide.

Responsibilities:

• Generate new business by prospecting, pursing and closing sales opportunities, scheduling client

introductions, meetings and presentations as well as preparing proposals

• Develop and execute strategies for sales and pricing

• Attend to customer inquiries and manage the whole sales process

• Provide customer and market feedback and competition information as well as prospect needs

to R&D department

• Expand existing customer relationships including customer visits worldwide for negotiations

and presentations

• Increase market share and promote business activities by planning and attending roadshows and conferences

• Sales reporting

Qualifications required:

• Degree in Engineering or Information Technology

• Minimum of five years experience as a sales manager with proven track record of achieving budget goals

• Ability to conduct persuasive presentations at all management levels

• Experience in the maritime market preferred

• Strong negotiation and communication skills

• Self-motivated, result-oriented and persistent personality with proactive behaviour

• Strategic mind-set and excellent business understanding

• Work location will be Schenefeld near Hamburg with 50% travelling

We offer a dynamic and exciting professional environment with opportunity for professional and

personal development. You will have a large opportunity to influence the activities of an innovative

company with high ambitions. Please send your application to

INTERSCHALT maritime systems AG

Human Resources • Anette Heppke

Osterbrooksweg 42 • 22869 Schenefeld (near Hamburg) • Germany

E-mail: [email protected]

For further information please visit us at

www.interschalt.de

Innovation for shipping

Satellite Communication Solutions

in cooperation with

www.harrispye.com

Harris Pye reports that it has success-fully used its 3600 3D scanner to surveythe engine room of Neva River (exCelestine River), a 'K' Line LNG Shipping(UK) Ltd LNG carrier, for pre-ballastwater system CAD design, selection andinstallation.

The project involved a full 3D scan of the engine room in order to ascertainthe best system for a ballast water treat-ment installation. The scan enablesHarris Pye engineers to create three-dimensional images of the entire engineroom, and create various ballast water

treatment models. The entire engine room survey report-

edly took less than 5 hours.The scan gathers point cloud data

which is then processed by Harris Pye’sNaval Architecture team throughAutoCAD in order to create multiplewalkthrough 3D models from the scans.

Diagram generation, thermal stressanalysis and flow designs are all then cre-ated to accurately model pipe and steelwork, clash-detect new modelled partsand optimise design.

"By being able to create walkthrough3D models for our clients, we can savethem an enormous amount of time and

money, because the modelling allows usto test different options with absoluteaccuracy," said Harris Pye’s new productstechnical manager, Ben Wise.

"It negates all the usual time consumingsurvey and design work. And when thebest solution has been selected, we knowwith absolute certainty that the equipmentwill fit perfectly, down to the last bolt.This is of prime importance on-board ves-sels, where space is at a premium."

"Ultimately this allows us to do a com-plete ‘virtual test’ – to assess the systemprior to workshop or site fabrication –which negates the risk of fabrication errorsand the ensuing high costs for our clients."

3D laser system used for ballast water treatment installation

Port information products launched

The information from the Findaport website can now be integrated into other systems

p19-26:p1-14.qxd 13/04/2012 16:15 Page 8

p27-44:p15-25.qxd 13/04/2012 16:24 Page 1

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION


www.transas.com/PAYS

Transas has become the latest company tomove into the ‘Pay As You Sail’ ENClicensing arena with the launch of its newproduct which will allow vessels toinstall, view and pre-plan using officialENCs before they have to pay to licensethe charts.

Approval for the ‘Pay As You Sail’(PAYS) service has been granted by PRI-MAR and IC-ENC, after the completion ofsuccessful sea trials and verification byDet Norske Veritas (DNV).

Traditionally, ship navigators have hadto select and purchase charts prior to eachvoyage using what is commonly called‘pre-licensing’, with the licence periodbeginning as soon as the chart was opened.

With the Transas PAYS solution thevessel will have a licence and access toinstall, view and pre-plan using officialENCs provided in (S)ENC format, in areaswhere the necessary PAYS permissionshave been obtained, without any addition-al cost.

Readers of Digital Ship may be familiarwith other ‘Pay As You Sail’ type systems

previously launched into the commercialmaritime market, from Dutch companyDatema and, more recently, Norwegianprovider NAVTOR.

One of the major differences betweenthese two products is the method used totrack when the vessel has entered a chartarea, to begin the licence period. With theDatema product a tracking unit isinstalled onboard the vessel, while NAV-TOR uses AIS data or direct polling byInmarsat-C to establish the whereaboutsof the ship for licensing purposes.

The Transas ‘Pay As You Sail’ serviceadopts a third approach, whereby record-ing and reporting of charts used is done byextraction of data from the Transas Navi-Sailor 4000 ECDIS logbook, and vesselsonly pay for charts actually used for navi-gation monitoring.

Using this method, only charts that havebeen displayed on the screen together withship’s position or generated navigationalalarms will be subject to licensing.

In principle, Transas says, this shouldsee a vessel licensing the “best scale chartsonly”, and not all charts and scale bandsunder the keel.

The service also includes functionalityfor accessing chart licences and correc-tions online with the ECDIS.

The ‘Pay As You Sail’ system commu-nicates via a firewalled Transas Gatewayfor licensing, corrections and to send chartreports. The Transas Gateway operates viaa secure internet connection from the ves-sel’s Navi-Sailor 4000 ECDIS to theTransas Chart Server.

This configuration also allows forremote support and maintenance on theECDIS from shore.

“With the official Transas AdmiraltyData Service (TADS) SENC-service devel-oped in cooperation with the UKHO,Transas ‘Pay As You Sail’ gives the vesselaccess to the most cost and time efficient(S)ENC service on the market and the best(S)ENC coverage available for navigationand planning,” said Anders Rydlinger,Transas Marine navigation product devel-opment director.

“Transas’ ‘Pay As You Sail’ servicecomplies with UKHO requirements.Besides the vessel’s internet connection,no extra communication equipment ortracking service is needed.”

www.cambridgepixel.com

Cambridge Pixel, a developer of sensorprocessing and display solutions, hasintroduced its SPx-ECDIS radar kit, whichaims to allow systems integrators buildingWindows-based ECDIS for commercialships to add a variety of data interfaces

Transas launches ‘Pay As You Sail’ licensing for ENCs

An artist’s rendering of a navigationalbroadcast tower. Photo: Ursanav

Integration toolkit targets ECDIS manufacturers to their equipment.

This includes options to introduceradar interfacing, scan conversion, chartdisplay, target tracking, a GlobalPositioning System interface andrecord/replay functionality.

The company says that the launch of this product is a result of IMO's intro-duction of the mandatory carriagerequirement for ECDIS, to be phased infrom July 2012.

"The migration of paper chart naviga-tion to ECDIS navigation – as a result ofthe regulations – has resulted in a frenzyof activity among the big bridge systemmanufacturers and suppliers of stand-alone ECDIS systems for the retrofit mar-ket," said David Johnson, managing direc-tor of Cambridge Pixel.

"Our toolkit – which contains many ofthe components needed to build a totalsystem – is likely to be attractive to systemintegrators, particularly those developinga truly localised in-country ECDIS offer-ing but also to any new entrant lookingfor a low risk way into what is a sizeablemarket."

For radar display, the product includesa radar scan converter, which presents a

configurable Plan Position Indicator (PPI)radar display image. The scan converterprovides different options for combiningthe radar with application graphics, allow-ing for underlay/overlay graphics fromnavigational charts.

For chart display, the ECDIS applica-tion itself can be used, however SPx-ECDIS does also offer an S57 chart display capability.

A built-in target tracker processes theradar video to extract and follow targets ofinterest, manually or automatically.

The areas of target acquisition can beprogrammed as latitude/longitude poly-gons or the software can use a built-in mapdatabase to support acquisition of targetsat sea, with video returns over land beingautomatically suppressed.

"We have already been approached bysystems integrators who are keen to useour building blocks as the basis for an in-country ECDIS solution," said Mr Johnson.

"Our SPx-ECDIS toolkit is appealing asthey are not locked in to one supplier andso have the freedom and flexibility to buildand customise their own local languageECDIS system to meet the needs of localship owners."

www.ukho.gov.uk

The United Kingdom HydrographicOffice (UKHO) has announced new ENC(Electronic Navigational Chart) coveragein Vietnam, providing greater navigation-al detail for the region.

The three new ENCs cover the portsand approaches to Vung Tau, whichincludes the main container port of CaiMep, and are only available through the

Admiralty Vector Chart Service.UKHO says that the new ENCs have

been produced in response to increasingdemand from shipping companies forchart data for the region.

"Vietnam continues to outperformmany economies around the world.Increased shipping trade plays a key rolein maintaining that growth so fully com-pliant digital coverage of this area is animportant addition for many shipping

companies," said Guy Edwards, head ofAdmiralty Asia Pacific, Singapore.

"We worked closely with our col-leagues in the Vietnam Maritime SafetyAuthority to produce these ENCs to coverthe key hub of Vung Tau and containerport of Cai Mep, which represent a majorgateway to trade in southern Vietnam."

The Admiralty Vector Chart Servicecontains over 11,500 ENCs and coverageof over 2,950 of the world's ports.

UKHO adds Vietnam ENCs

On-air tests are being conducted from theformer Loran Support Unit site in NewJersey, as a result of a CooperativeResearch and Development Agreement(CRADA) between the US Coast Guardand UrsaNav, which could lead to the sys-tem being offered as a potential back-up tothe Global Positioning System (GPS).

One of the CRADA’s goals is toresearch, evaluate, and document a wire-less technical approach as an alternative toGPS for providing precise time.Additional on-air tests are planned at var-ious sites throughout the United States.

Broadcasts will test several differentfrequencies, waveforms, and modulationtechniques, including advanced methodsof LF data delivery, with reception ofthese broadcasts planned at both on-shoreand off-shore locations.

UrsaNav has joined the project as aprovider of Low Frequency AlternativePositioning, Navigation, Timing, and Dataservices, including eLoran TimingReceivers, and has partnered withSymmetricom, a company specialising inprecise time synchronisation, and Nautel,a supplier of RF transmitters.

This announcement has been wel-comed by the General LighthouseAuthorities of the UK and Ireland (GLA)as an addition to the new set of low-fre-quency (LF) services being trialled on bothsides of the Atlantic.

The GLAs say that a 'sky-free' timingservice, like the one UrsaNav will be radiat-ing in the US, is already available in trialmode across the British Isles and some otherparts of Europe using the GLAs' prototypeenhanced Loran (eLoran) system, plus com-bined GPS+eLoran timing receivers.

In addition, the GLAs hope that eLorantransmissions may, in the future, supportnavigation using eLoran as a complementto Global Navigation Satellite Systems(GNSS) such as GPS. eLoran can providea nation-wide data channel, that will benefit from the techniques being devel-oped to give higher data capacity LF data transmissions.

Back-up to GPSback on the

agenda

The toolkit can be used by systemintegrators developing ECDIS

p27-44:p15-25.qxd 13/04/2012 16:24 Page 2


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www.kongsberg.com

Sea trials testing a new IntegratedControl System (ICS) developed byKongsberg Maritime for OlympicCommander, a new Multi PurposeSupply Vessel (MPVS) built at KlevenYard in Norway, have been successfullycompleted.

The ICS aboard Olympic Commanderfeatures a one touch control system forBallast & Cargo tank operations as part ofthe Kongsberg K-Master workstation onboard, which also integrates DynamicPositioning, thruster control and automa-tion systems to be controlled by a seatedoperator.

The one touch control can be used forall cargo systems, including drybulk, liq-uid, oils and others. Other systems underK-Master control aboard OlympicCommander include VHF/UHF anddeck lighting.

Olympic Commander is the first ofthree MPSVs under construction forOlympic Shipping at Kleven Yard thatfeature the Kongsberg K-Master aft-bridge workstation as the platform for anICS. Kleven Yard has so far ordered inte-grated systems based on K-Master fornine vessels.

“Olympic Commander is a significantdemonstration of the possibilities of theK-Master aft-bridge workstation, as itfeatures for the first time our new type ofintegrated operation interface and touchscreen based automated Ballast & Cargosystem,” says Simen Wadd Johansen,project manager, Kongsberg Maritime.

"We have deliveries to over 20 PlatformSupply Vessels with automated cargooperations based on K-Master on ourbooks, so Olympic Commander and ourwork with Olympic Shipping and KlevenYard is an important foundation for com-ing projects."

The system installed on the Olympic Commander can be operated by touch screen

www.exactearth.com

Canadian company Global SpatialTechnology Solutions Inc. (GSTS) hasagreed a deal with satellite-AIS providerexactEarth to use its global vessel trafficmonitoring system.

Under the agreement exactEarth willprovide its global shipping data feed,exactAIS, to GSTS to aid in the creation ofa maritime vessel management capabilityfor vessels chartered by Resolute ForestProducts.

This will include analysis of vesselmovements from port to port through theuse of the space based vessel tracking dataprovided by exactEarth.

"The vessel information data providedby exactEarth enables us to provide intel-

ligent solutions for vessels at any point onthe globe, including the Arctic regions,"said Richard Kolacz, president and co-founder of GSTS.

Funding from the Government ofCanada, through the Fed Dev Enterpriseprogramme, has supported the develop-ment of this system through an award toGSTS.

"We are delighted to be involved in thisimportant project," added Peter Mabson,president of exactEarth.

"We are beginning to see more andmore examples of where the global natureof our unique data products can beapplied, and it is particularly pleasing tobe able to support this vital work aimed atdeveloping sustainable solutions andreducing environmental impact."

www.portrevel.com

French shiphandling school Port Revelhas equipped two of its eleven modelships with sensors for measuring totalenergy consumption during a givenshiphandling operation, as part of a‘Green Shiphandling’ initiative.

Trainees at the facility are being chal-lenged to carry out operations with a tar-get level of fuel consumption (and conse-quent emissions) that is set by the Centre’sinstructors.

The model ships include the Otello, amodel of a 335m, 8,500 TEU container carri-er, and the Q-Max, a reproduction of a 345mLNG carrier with a capacity of 266,000m3.

The ships are precisely reproduced to a1:25 scale and are equipped with indica-tors giving rudder angle, engine speed,ship speed and heading, wind speed anddirection, and other parameters.

Most of the ships are equipped withbow and stern thrusters and operationalanchors, to behave like real ships as far asis possible.

The tugs are controlled by the pilot viaa remote-control system.

Since Port Revel first opened more than40 years ago, a large number of American,Canadian and European pilots havepassed through its facilities, with morethan 6,000 pilots and captains havingtrained there since 1967.

Sensors to shift training focus to ‘green’ ops

www.witherbyseamanship.com

Witherby Seamanship International has pub-lished an ‘ECDIS Procedures Guide’, con-taining recommendations regarding the useof ECDIS for navigation for voyage planningand while at sea, designed to accompany aship’s safety management system (SMS).

The company says that the guide con-tains a framework, with supporting infor-mation and checklists, to help companiesimplement best practice in the use ofECDIS and meet regulations require navi-gating officers to adopt and adhere to newwatchkeeping routines and practices to

support its use.Information on most aspects of ECDIS

operation is included, such as type-specificcourse content and log examples for manualcorrections, spot checks and chart updates.

The guide has been written by MalInstone, director at ECDIS Ltd, in responseto requests from its own customers.

“Many of the ship owners who wereearly adopters of ECDIS approachedECDIS Ltd directly, requesting our assis-tance to help them develop and imple-ment robust operating procedures for useonboard their ships and appropriate to themake of ECDIS in use,” he said.

ECDIS procedures guide published

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HanseNautic GmbH Hamburg · Germany +49.40.37 48 11 0 [email protected]

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Saab has received an order from theDutch authority Rijkswaterstaat for thedelivery of AIS (automatic identificationsystem) services.

Saab will provide the system as part of theDIAMONIS project (Dutch Inland AISMonitoring System), in partnership withlocal company Tein Telecom, which will beresponsible for implementation and support.

The contract includes the delivery ofapproximately 40 AIS base stations, a net-work solution and a web-based presenta-tion system, and is is valued at over SEK20 million (approximately US$3 million).

This also includes a number of futureoptions, such as a possible expansion ofthe system.

The implementation of the DIAMONISproject will take place over 18 months.

"Saab is a market leader within the AISdomain and the system will increase safe-ty significantly throughout the extensiveDutch inland waterways," said LarsBergholtz, managing director for SaabTransponderTech AB.

"Rijkswaterstaat is a highly competentauthority that has produced a detailedspecification for the project, meaning thatour well-established system solution willbe enhanced even further in terms of func-tionality and performance."

www.bcgsim.com

Buffalo Computer Graphics (BCG) reportsthat it has completed the first phase of adelivery to provide the US ArmyTransportation School in Virginia with amulti-function classroom capable of run-ning simulations for GMDSS, Radar,ECDIS and AIS training.

The classroom set-up has beendesigned utilising standard Windowsdesktop computers running multiple BCGvirtual simulation packages.

The initial classroom installation con-

sists of two instructor positions (one con-nected to a Smart Board / projector) and15 student workstations all running BCG’sVirtual GMDSS training software.

Four tabletop GMDSS simulator con-soles have also been delivered, each sup-porting two students, bringing the totalclassroom capacity to 23 student trainingpositions.

The GMDSS simulator supports Area 1-Area 4 communication using all virtu-alised equipment, with voice communica-tion taking place via a VoIP network. Bothinstructor stations and all student stations

are networked together to allow fullyinteractive operation.

The next phase of this project willinvolve an upgrade of the classroom tofacilitate ship navigation training. BCGwill install PCRadar (the company’sARPA radar simulator), an IMO approvedECDIS, and a virtual AIS receiver at the 15student positions.

Each of these programs will interact, asthey do onboard a vessel, allowing stu-dents access to a full complement of navi-gation sub-systems, though still under thecontrol of the instructor.

US Army school installs simulation training systemDutch AIS contract for Saab

French company Kenta reports that it willbe presenting its new system for maritimedata broadcasting – NAVDAT(Navigational Data) – during the 16th ses-sion of the Sub-committee onRadiocommunications and Search andRescue (COMSAR) of the InternationalMaritime Organisation.

NAVDAT aims to introduce a numericalmaritime communication system accessibleto smaller tonnage vessels worldwideusing the universal 500 kHz frequency, andis the result of a collaborative project calledIPBC (Internet Protocol for BoatCommunications), headed by Kenta.

Kenta says that the data transmissionrates offered by NAVDAT extend theservice provided by the current global sys-tem, NAVTEX, and assumes the samemajor functions (navigational warnings,weather forecasts and emergency infor-mation for shipping).

However, the company claims thatNAVDAT offers an increased speed oftransmission and improved processingquality by providing access to a range ofadditional data, in text format but also inthe form of images and graphs.

This data is set to include meteo-oceanographic information in the form ofcharts (e.g. isobaric) or numerical data(e.g. regular updates on the position of theeye of a tropical cyclone), reports showingmapped positioning of ice and icebergs,warning reports relating to piracy, andother information relating to maritimesearch and rescue.

The NAVDAT system also offers arange of broadcasting options, whether itis to all vessels or to vessels sailing withina specific geographical area, and has anencryption option for transmitting confi-dential information.

During trials carried out in 2010 onboard the Pont Aven, a vessel owned byBrittany Ferries, the signals transmittedfrom an experimental station near Brest inFrance were clearly received as far as CapeFinistère and the south of the Irish Sea.

These results prompted discussionwithin Working Group 5 of theInternational Telecommunications Unionregarding the use of this frequency band.

A joint initiative by the AgenceNationale des Fréquences (ANFR – FrenchNational Radio Frequency Agency) andKenta resulted in an ITU-R-M recommen-dation in November 2011 and the ITU’srecognition of transmission by the systemon the 500 kHz radio frequency.

This is the same frequency which wasused 100 years ago by the Titanic to trans-mit its SOS at 23:40 hours on 14 April 1912.

During the 2012 WorldRadiocommunication Conference (WRC)that followed, 153 countries signed up tothe exclusive use worldwide of the 500kHz band by mobile maritime services.

As a result of these developments,France is now preparing to give a jointpresentation to IMO with Germany,Belgium and Romania on the NAVDATsystem and will propose the setting up ofa dedicated working group.

NAVDAT to be presented to IMO

www.nautissim.com

VSTEP has agreed a contract with the sim-ulation centre of the Technical Universityin Varna, Bulgaria, for the delivery of twoNAUTIS Bridge Simulators and class-rooms with desktop Navigation andEngine Room Simulators.

The new simulators will include aNAUTIS 360° full mission bridge (FMB)simulator and a NAUTIS 120° bridge sim-ulator, as well as a simulator classroomwith six desktop stations.

Each bridge simulator and desktop sta-tion can be employed in common or spe-

cial training areas including ship-han-dling, collision avoidance, ECDIS,Radar/ARPA, AIS and other navigationalaids.

The FMB simulator can also be turnedinto an azimuth tug simulator with theship controls able to be exchanged, allow-ing the University to conduct training on avariety of ships and propulsion types.

For the University’s engineeringdepartment, VSTEP will also deliver fivedesktop Engine Room simulators forengine room operation and proceduretraining.

"We did a thorough investigation of the

state-of-the-art maritime simulators on themarket and selected NAUTIS for its highquality, ease of use, flexibility and cost-effectiveness," commented MitkoAleksandrov, vice rector, TechnicalUniversity of Varna.

"The user-friendly software tools pro-vided by VSTEP will allow our studentsand teachers to not just become goodsailors, but also ship designers, hydrody-namics engineers and hydrographers."

As part of the project, VSTEP willinclude exercise areas like the Port ofVarna, the Bosporus and the DardanelleStrait on the simulators.

Bulgarian University to install sims

p27-44:p15-25.qxd 13/04/2012 16:24 Page 4

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Online training for Raytheon ECDIS

Hatteland Display is launching itslatest product range, Series X, available asa Display or a Panel PC (a computer inte-grated inside the display casing), in sevensizes. Features include Glass DisplayControl (GDC), optional optical bondingtechnology, wide screens, LED displaysand multi-touch functionality.

Lilaas AS has agreed its first repre-sentation deals for its levers and joysticksin Asia, with a service partnership andagency agreement with Z-PowerAutomation, Singapore, and a separatedistribution deal with Shanghai EJHGroup.

E-navigation company NAVTORhas appointed Frode Klepsvik, formerdirector of the Norwegian

Hydrographic Service, to the com-pany’s board of directors. The appoint-ment follows on just two months after thearrival of Tor Svanes, the founder of C-MAP Norway, in the position of man-aging director.

MSG MarineServe has been grant-ed Liberian Flag State approval for itsSTCW compliant generic ECDIS trainingprogramme. This is in addition to existingGerman Flag State approval previouslygranted by BSH.

The MSG MarineServe operatedECDIS Training Consortium(ETC) has expanded through an agree-ment with STET Maritime in Singapore toact as its local partner. MSG will provideits ECDIS training courseware, systemsand Train-the-Trainer courses to STETMaritime to use for training, as well as cer-tificate authentication and trainee data-base services.

The ECDIS Training Consortium(ETC) has also reached agreement withthe Sir Derek Bibby MaritimeTraining Center (part of BibbyShip Management Group) inMumbai to act as its local partner in thatregion.

In addition, MSG MarineServehas been appointed as official trainingagent by Danelec Marine, to provideECDIS training services locally and worldwide.

W R Systems has appointed DaveEdwards as president and chief operatingofficer (COO). Mr Edwards replacesfounder Raymond Yu, who retired inNovember 2011.

Alphatron has opened two offices inSzczecin and Gdynia in Poland. MichaelBytomski will act as manager ofAlphatron Marine Poland. Alphatron hasincorporated the company formallyknown as Epa Comsea and all its technicians into its organisation as part ofthis move.

UK based ECDIS Ltd has announceda new partnership agreement with JapanRadio Company (JRC) to delivergeneric and type specific training on JRCECDIS software. Delivery of courses onJRC ECDIS has begun and ECDIS Ltd saysit has already delivered JRC training onseveral continents.

ECDIS Ltd also reports that it hasopened a new purpose-built training facil-ity near Southampton in the UK. The larg-er facility means that the company willnow have greater capacity to providegeneric and type specific training on avariety of different ECDIS manufacturers’software.

Kongsberg Maritime’s Chinadivision has opened its new premises inShanghai. The new office includes a newtraining centre, incorporating a trainingroom, simulator room and instructorroom, and is accredited as a DP operatortraining centre in accordance withNautical Institute standards.

Kongsberg Maritime also reportsthat its Neptune Cargo HandlingSimulator has been approved to the latestDet Norske Veritas (DNV) stan-dards. The Class A approval covers theship models available within the systemand joins recent DNV certification for thecompany’s Engine Room and Navigationsimulators.

Kongsberg Maritime’s China office in Shanghai

Frode Klepsvik, new man at NAVTOR

Series X, from Hatteland Display

ECDIS Ltd’s new premises in Southampton

www.lilaas.nowww.marineserve.dewww.navtor.nowww.wrsystems.comwww.alphatronmarine.com

www.ecdis.orgwww.jrc.co.jpwww.hatteland-display.comwww.kongsberg.com

www.alewijnse.nl

Alewijnse Marine Systems has launched aRaytheon Anschütz Online ECDISFamiliarisation Course, which will enablenavigators to complete their officialECDIS training online for this particularbrand of ECDIS.

One of the first customers for the serv-ice will be Vliet Shipping, which currentlyhas two 3,850 DWT coasters under con-struction at Damen Bergum whichAlewijnse will fit with Raytheon Anschützbridge systems.

The Alewijnse online package willallow navigators to undertake an eighthour training course remotely, over theinternet.

They will be able to log in at any timeand then pause whenever they wish, pro-vided that they complete the course with-in three weeks.

A credit card login is used to check thatthe person is actually who they claim to be.

Following completion an approvedfamiliarisation certificate for the RaytheonAnschütz ECDIS is issued.

www.selexelsag.com

SELEX Elsag, a Finmeccanica company,has agreed a contract with tug operatorSVITZER to carry out annual radio and Automatic Identification System(AIS) surveys on all of its 90 UK-basedvessels.

SVITZER operates from sixteen loca-tions around the United Kingdom, manyof which align with SELEX Elsag Marine’sregional office network.

To comply with statutory regulations,vessels must undergo an annual radio sur-vey and AIS survey to ensure all manda-tory radio safety equipment is fully func-tional and fitted with in-date batteries, tosafeguard operations should the vesselencounter difficulties.

The work will be done by SELEX ElsagMarine radio surveyors, with reports andfindings sent to Lloyds Register to issuethe relevant annual certificate on behalf ofthe UK authorities.

Selex Elsag agrees 90-vesselSVITZER deal

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www.gsa.europa.eu

Galileo, the European satellite naviga-tion system, has passed a significantmilestone in its development, with theworld’s first successful reception of theencrypted Galileo Public RegulatedService (PRS) signal from the first Galileosatellites (launched in October 2011).

Septentrio and QinetiQ, working inpartnership with the European SpaceAgency (ESA) and their industrial part-ners, received the signal on a Galileo PRSTest User Receiver (PRS-TUR) jointlydeveloped by Septentrio and QinetiQunder an ESA contract.

For the reception test, the receiver wasinstalled in the Galileo Control Centre atTelespazio facilities in Fucino, Italy andoperated by technical experts from ESA.

This new development builds on pre-vious advancements in the project, fromthe first laboratory demonstration of thePRS signal acquisition and tracking in2006 through to the first successfulGalileo end-to-end system test, includingthe Galileo Ground Mission Segment(GMS) and its key management facilities,satellite and PRS-TUR, in 2011.

"This is the most important milestonefor Septentrio since the reception of theworld’s first Galileo signal from space onJanuary 12, 2006 with a Septentrio receiv-er," said Peter Grognard, founder and

CEO of Septentrio Satellite Navigation. "We are honoured and grateful for the

excellent collaboration with ESA.Septentrio is marking another industry-



Galileo passes signal milestone

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first on the Galileo programme, and willcontinue playing a key role in this excitingand ambitious European project."

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Development of the Galileo navigation system passed a significant milestone as test signals were received from the satellite network. Photo: ESA

p27-44:p15-25.qxd 13/04/2012 16:40 Page 8

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Electronic navigation systems, and ECDIS in particular, are set to grow in importance and form the standard for vessel navigation over the next few years. How will these changes affect safety and bridge operations at sea?

Digital Ship spoke to Petter Brandt, Stolt Tankers, about the e-Volution in navigation

Navigation e-Volution

With the mandatory carriagerequirement for ECDIS set to bephased in from July of 2012, the

whole landscape of vessel navigation is setto change over the next few years.

Competence in the use of this electron-ic equipment has become a prerequisitefor modern seafarers with the ManilaAmendments to the STCW, and the nextfew years will see an enormous demandfor navigator training to add familiarisa-tion with technology to the traditionalskills already learned as a cadet.

Opinion is divided on how the intro-duction of ECDIS will affect bridge opera-tions – will the systems add to situationalawareness and improve safety, or willcrews struggle, in the early stages at least,to adapt to a new way or working?

Stolt Tankers operates approximately 80of its own ships, and a number of others ontime charter. The company has been usingECDIS for a number of years on its vessels,as early adopters of the technology, and assuch is in a good position to welcome thecarriage requirement for the equipment.

However, the company is not treatingthis change in the regulations as a revolu-tion in navigating – rather, it is seen as anevolution, as Petter Brandt, navigation

superintendent, Stolt Tankers, explains.“The ships we built at the end of the

1990s, already then they were prepared togo fully paperless. They had dual ECDISonboard,” he told us.

“But we didn’t do it in those daysbecause, in a way, the world wasn’t readyfor it. We had all the hardware, we had thesoftware, we had the people, but in someways we still weren’t quite ready. Todaywe have a growing number of ships oper-ating in worldwide trade using very fewpaper charts.”

“We all know what ECDIS is, there is alot of buzz and there are discussions goingon about ECDIS, and we have the upcom-ing rules and regulations forcing us to useit. Is it really something new? Why arepeople so concerned about the introduc-tion of ECDIS?”

The art of navigationThe art of navigating ships on long voy-ages is not new – humans have been find-ing their way around the seas for millen-nia, applying many principles that are stillrelevant today.

Technology has changed, and the infor-mation sources available on ship haveexpanded, as seafarers strive to improve

the accuracy of their positioning and thesafety of their passage.

“Way back we had celestial navigation,that’s really an old thing going back 2,000,3,000, 4,000 years. People would lie on thehills drinking wine and would see giraffesand other types of animals up in the stars,and eventually they managed to find theirway using these stars,” noted Mr Brandt.

“The compass is another one, we don’treally know how old it is but it revolu-tionised the art of navigation. Charts haveexisted for millennia, but up until quiterecently they were a military secret and theproperty of the one who made the chart.Sharing a chart with somebody else washigh treason up until about 200 years ago.”

“Determining time and figuring out theconcept of longitude was also a significantstep forward towards the art of navigationwe see today.”

Moving forward from these very earlynavigational methods, the discovery ofelectricity was an important step in open-ing up the potential to power the deviceswe have on modern bridges.

“Electricity hasn’t been around forever,and without electricity would we be ableto navigate the way we do today?Probably not. Though we had been navi-gating for a few thousand years withoutelectricity,” said Mr Brandt.

“Gyrocompass, radar, GPS, AIS, ECDIS– they’re all brand new inventions. Butwe’ve been perfectly able to navigate theseas for centuries or even millennia with-out these things. So how have theychanged the way we do things today?”

Mr Brandt argues that most of theseelectronic innovations, while changing theoperational processes on the bridge, havenot fundamentally changed the core con-cpts that underlie competent navigation.

“(ECDIS is) said to be the largestadvance in navigation since the radar in the1950s. What do we do with it?” he said.

“With the charts we all used to use, theywere used to see what’s out there and getan idea of where you can go. You wouldalso use it to figure out how you will getthere, how long it will take, and so on.”

“Looking at an electronic chart, it’s alsoshowing you what’s out there, and youuse it to see where you are and where youare going, what’s around you and howyou are going to get there. The conceptsare pretty much the same.”

Mr Brandt highlights this by notinghow the differences in how a seafarer per-forms the voyage planning function usingan electronic chart or a paper chart are lesssignificant than may be expected.

“The way you do it, practically, is per-haps a little bit different but from a con-cept point of view there’s absolutely nodifference,” he said.

“Generally speaking, you need to seewhere you are, where you are going, if it’s

going to be deep enough or if there are anydangers along the route. Position fixing,plotting, bearings, ranges, distances – youcan do it all completely manually on thepaper chart as well as on the ECDIS.Nowadays there is compass bearing equip-ment available that can send your bearingselectronically direct into the ECDIS.”

“Electronic might be easier, but manualis just as accurate and the result is thesame. Either way, you still need to plot theposition lines. Whether you do that by‘click and drag’ or you do it with a penciland triangle, the concepts are the same.”

Voyage planning is only one of a num-ber of navigational functions that, despitethe use of updated technologies in theirperformance, rely on fundamental con-cepts that have been familiar to marinersfor generations.

“Technology has changed – but theway things work hasn’t for a few thou-sand years. The concepts are all the same,”said Mr Brandt.

“You still need to be very suspicious,and maybe you need to be a little moresuspicious these days when the machinesare doing things for you. You still need todouble check position, just because theGPS is plotting your position doesn’tmean that’s where you are – as little asplotting your position on a paper chartmeans that’s where you are.”

“You still need to think ahead and planahead, because if you don’t do that youwill become a passenger on your ownship; instead of you driving the shiparound it will drive around with you –and this is a very dangerous situation.”

Changes in approachWhile the basic concepts of navigationmay not change significantly through theuse of changing technology, the process ofapplying those skills will start to shift, andthere will be differences in vessel opera-tion that seafarers will need to adapt to.

“Automatic position plotting – that’s amajor difference,” said Mr Brandt.

“It’s ‘Click and drag’ instead of usinga pencil and divider – if you have thick,fisherman’s fingers then maybe using acomputer might be difficult, but beingfamiliar with the concept of computers isa necessity.”

“In the old way of doing things youwould put your position on the chart andthen 20 minutes later you’d start wonder-ing where you have been and where youare now. On an electronic chart system it’sa live view, more or less.”

Another significant difference is in thechart itself, moving from a large, fold-outpiece of paper to an electronic displayshowing one particular portion of a chartat a time.

“Instead of having a big pile of papercharts of different scales, you have every-

Electronic navigation may be new – but many of the fundamental concepts ofnavigation still apply

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thing in one view. But you still need to usedifferent scales of charts, zooming in andzooming out instead of flipping papercharts back and forth,” said Mr Brandt.

“A lot of people complain ‘you can’tlook ahead, you can’t see 10 or 15 miles infront of you, you only have a smallscreen’. They want a 60 or 70 inch screen,the same size as a paper chart. But that’swrong thinking.”

“You could have an enormous screenon the bridge but that won’t change theresolution, the amount of information willstill be the same. The resolution will be thesame as on a regular sized screen, theinformation will be the same. So you needto understand the concept of zooming inand zooming out, and how informationlayers change.”

As Mr Brandt notes, changes like thesedon’t require the operator to change theway they think about navigation, but willneed them to adapt to performing theirtasks in a new way.

“The task of navigation has nowchanged from trying to figure out whereyou are now and where you are going, toseeing where you are and figuring out ifthat is true!” he said.

“It’s more about monitoring and look-ing to see if the machines are trying tocheat you. That requires quite a significantshift in the mindset of the operator,because it’s so easy to become complacentand just ride with the ship instead of driv-ing it.”

The trade-off for the mariner in havingto suffer the pain of change in moving toelectronic systems is the significant benefitof reduced effort in chart updating, and thesimplified process of voyage planning witha wider array of available information.

“Anybody who has worked onboardand has been correcting charts knows howpainful and time consuming and boring itis, and how easy it is to make a mistake.That has effectively been wiped out now,”said Mr Brandt.

“We’ve been studying our own crew,and I’ve interviewed probably six or sevenhundred of them, and the conclusion is that,on average, on a deep sea ship, you spendsomewhere around 800 hours per year onchart correction and voyage planning, ifyou have a folio of, say, 1,000 to 1,200 chartslike we carry on our deep sea ships.”

“That’s a cumbersome task for officerswho are nowadays more or less drowningin all the mandatory and otherwiserequired paper work. So saving time is amajor contribution here, which is – if youthink about it – a quite unusual effect of anew regulation.”

Mr Brandt has also seen that routeplanning is now performed much quickeronboard, and the technology can assist inavoiding danger – if used correctly.

“You have an automatic checking tool,for example, but there are some trickyaspects, there is some hidden informationin the chart,” he said.

“On every chart you have informationin the margin, but on the ENC a lot of it ishidden as metadata, which means youneed to look for it to find it. If you don’tknow that information exists, you don’tknow that you need to go looking for it orextract it, and then you will miss it.”

That being said, Mr Brandt does believethat the use of electronic navigation sys-

tems has made vessels safer and will con-tinue to enhance the ability of the naviga-tor to become aware of, and avoid, dan-gers at sea.

“In the old days you had variousinstruments, and you put the picturetogether in your head, which is a moredemanding and error prone task thanmost people think or believe,” he said.

“On the electronic chart it all comesinto one view, which helps you get a muchbetter situational awareness.”

“You don’t need official ENCs for this,you just need a general chart system(ECS) with some kind of chart data – offi-cial or unofficial – as a backdrop. Havingyour position live, roughly in relation toland masses and to traffic in the areas cov-ered by the radar, helps a lot to tell youwhere your ‘exits’ are in case of a difficulttraffic situation.”

Away from the bridge, Mr Brandt hasalso seen financial benefits for the ship-ping company as a result of employingECDIS onboard, with Stolt Tankers nowspending less on electronic charts than itdid on sailing with paper.

“We’ve seen a significant improvementon our deep sea ships, we are looking at acost reduction of about one-third whenusing only ENCs compared to using papercharts,” he said.

“Paper charts are not free, a collection ofcharts like we have on our deep sea vesselscould cost you about $35,000, and that’sbeing replaced every five years. ENCs arealso expensive, if you want to buy the samecoverage on ENCs you’re probably lookingat about $200,000, but you don’t buy thatmany ENCs. You buy the ENCs you needfor the voyage. That way you can reducethe costs significantly.”

“It’s also giving you increased flexibili-

ty, because you can go wherever youwant. You can have all of the chartsonboard but you only pay for the ones youneed when you need them. If you need togo somewhere else you buy a licence forwhere you need to go, and you’re up andrunning. If you don’t have the papercharts you need for the new destinationyou’re in trouble – you can’t go there.You’d have to fly them out or bring thecharts out on a pilot launch.”

Electronic challengesOf course, while any new technology maybring with it a range of benefits, generallythere will be a number of challenges thatneed to be overcome to maximise the ben-efits of moving from one way of workingto another.

Stolt Tankers has had to deal withmany of these challenges over the course

of its experience with electronic naviga-tion systems. One of the most pressing ofthese is the issue of system availability –compared to paper, computer-based tech-nologies are a lot more prone to breakingdown.

“On the technical side, how do we keepthe system running and what if it fails? Weall know what computers are like today,sometimes they just decide that they don’twant to work for you anymore and shutdown,” said Mr Brandt.

“Hardware reliability can be covered indifferent ways, one simple way is byredundancy, having multiple systems. Theregulations say you need two ECDIS sys-tems onboard (to remove paper charts), butif you have three you will be even moresafe, from a commercial point of view.”

“If you have two systems and one goesdown, what do you do then? Do you repairit? Will you be able to get the spare parts?

That depends on where you are. Do you getthe paper charts? That also depends onwhere you are. So having a third unit is, theway I see it, very cheap insurance. From apractical point of view it also makes sense,as you really need three units onboard –one to keep next to each radar and one atthe chart table for planning.”

Virus protection is another key issuethat can seriously affect the electronic nav-igation systems on the bridge, particularlyECDIS, if precautions are not taken.

“Getting viruses on the systems is morecommon than most people think. Talkingto technicians and service engineers I hear that this is a pretty big problem,” saidMr Brandt.

“In most cases it will not affect the sys-tem that much, but as it builds up whatnormally happens is that it steals proces-sor power and the system will be moreand more sluggish and slow.”

“How do viruses get into the system?Normally not through email, normallythey come in via USB devices. When youstart transferring data using USB devices,or even people plugging in their own USBdevices to install stuff, it can happen.”

In this regard Mr Brandt insists thatproper anti-virus protection is a necessity– however, introducing anti-virus soft-ware then raises the question of whether asystem is still type-approved if usedtogether with an anti-virus software thatwas not part of the original installation.

“Maybe, maybe not,” said Mr Brandt.“When you have your system type-approved it’s approved with that particu-lar OS, with that hardware. If you installadditional software it might make the typeapproval void.”

“So you need to figure this out, find asystem that is approved with virus protec-tion or have strict procedures to protectyour system from USB devices.”

Making sure that the correct charts areavailable on the ship as ENCs is anotherissue that needs to be considered – seafar-ers need to make full use of the softwaresystems that run in conjunction withECDIS to make sure they are managingtheir chart folios correctly.

“Whether you’re navigating with papercharts or ENCs, you always have to usethe charts with the best scale. How do youknow which is the best scale available?You need to compare the chart cata-logues,” said Mr Brandt.

“That’s not an easy task unless youhave the right tools. There are chart man-agement systems on the market todaywhere you can easily compare the ENCcoverage with paper charts, and see ifthere’s a paper chart with a better scale.You need to use that.”

“I understand that most of the equip-ment manufacturers still don’t bother toomuch about this, if they have even thoughtabout it. Most refer back to the chart agent,and the chart agents look a bit puzzled asthey don’t seem to understand the issue.”

UpdatingHaving the correct charts available is acontinuous process – even after the chartsare licensed they must be updated as newdata is made available to remain in com-pliance for navigation.

As Mr Brandt previously noted, theeffort involved in this process is vastly

One of the major benefits of using ECDIS is chart updating, which can save hundreds ofhours per year when compared with paper charts

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reduced through the use of electroniccharts – however, another challenge stillremains in getting the data from the shoreto the ship so that this updating facilitycan be taken advantage of.

“Do I send it by CD or by e-mail? Do Idownload it? ENCs are heavy loads, eachENC can be 5-6 MB – how much does thatcost? Do I need to keep my charts up todate all the time?” said Mr Brandt.

“With paper charts there’s a gentle-men’s agreement that six, seven, eightweeks lagging is not a problem becauseyou have to allow reasonable time for themail to reach the ship.”

“But now when you have connectivityby satellite you can just download them –why didn’t you do that? Because it’s goingto cost a fortune – $10,000 to $15,000 permonth if you’re not careful. Do you oryour chart agent have mechanisms inplace to monitor and control this?”

The applicability of Temporary andPreliminary (T&P) Notices with correc-tions for charts is another issue that needsto be considered – something that MrBrandt describes as a ‘hot topic’ when itcomes to ENCs, which he feels requiresclarification from authorities.

“T&P Notices apply to paper charts,but do they also apply to ENCs? Do youhave to plot your temporary and prelimi-nary notices on ENCs? I think ‘No’ –because look at it the other way round. Doyou have to do your ENC updates on thepaper charts? That’s ridiculous, so whyshould you then apply updates the otherway round?” he said.

“ENCs are approved, officially recog-nised charts. Paper charts are officiallyissued and approved charts. They haveexactly the same status. So why should wethen be forced to do quality control ofwhat the hydrographic offices are doing –or not doing?”

“SOLAS requires hydrographic officesto provide us with the required updates. Ifthey don’t do that then we can’t beblamed. They should provide us with theupdates in a convenient way. We have toeducate the world about that and IHO andIMO need to make sure everyone involvedlives up to and follows the set standards;T&P notices do not exist in any of the rel-evant standards governing ENCs andECDIS and nor should they – and an

update is an update. People onboardshould not have to worry about this – theyshould only have to load the latestupdates and leave it at that.”

TrainingAnother area that is a ‘hot topic’ is seafar-er training in electronic navigation sys-tems, with competence levels a matter ofgreat concern when it comes to ensuringsafety at sea.

Mr Brandt highlights the issue by refer-ence to a recent accident investigationreport that uncovered a dangerous lack ofsituational awareness on behalf of thecrew on the ship in question.

“A tragic accident happened a fewmonths ago, where a container ship randown a coastal vessel, at the loss of theentire crew. The OOW on the containership didn’t even notice that somethinghad happened,” he said.

“In the MAIB investigation report, anofficial authority, I found one quiteremarkable comment which said thatthere is no connection between certifica-tion and competency. There’s no relation-ship at all.”

“So what they’re actually saying is toforget about STCW, it’s got no connectionto reality. And this is not the first time theysay this, it can be found in more reportsfrom MAIB.”

Another concern that Mr Brandt raisesis the issue of continued assessment andassurance of competence after a licencehas been issued, to make sure that awatchstander still possess the skillsrequired to safely do their job.

“Unfortunately, regulations typicallyonly permit authorities to revoke a licencein cases of accidents as the ones men-tioned above,” he noted.

“In a situation where, for example,someone takes an exam to upgrade alicence but fails on e.g. COLREGs, thisperson will not get the higher licence.However, there is, as far as I know, nolegal room to also revoke the currentlicence, despite the fact this person doesn’tknow something that should be ’breadand butter’.”

“Administrations and the world in gen-eral put a lot of pressure on us owners,saying we need to fix this – it’s not ourfault, it’s the shore side establishment whocan’t train people properly in the firstplace, why should we suffer from that?”

Navigation futureLooking forward, Mr Brandt believes thatthere are a number of areas ripe forimprovement that would help to make elec-tronic navigation more beneficial to ship-ping companies, and the industry at large.

“What I would like to see is maybeimproved chart coverage, though it hasimproved significantly over the years, andimproved communications to get thecharts onboard,” he said.

“And of course, HO's need to get theiract together and shift their focus fromprofit towards safe navigation as their toppriority by giving us flexible access tocharts at a reasonable cost.”

“Another thing for developers, andmaybe for IMO, extracting ‘hidden’ infor-mation needs to be easier. Today you haveto actively look for quite a few things, andI think there must be ways of getting easi-er access.”

Mr Brandt is hopeful that improve-ments in satellite communications tech-nology will help to make the updatingprocess more cost effective, by bringingper-MB prices down to a lower level.

“The communications cost today isholding us back,” he said. “We’re stilloperating successfully, but it would make

life a lot easier having direct connectionsonboard.”

“There are systems out there, but willthe infrastructure manage and cope if allof today’s fleet go online? I’m not sure –would be interesting to hear what the net-work owners/operators have to say.”

Mr Brandt believes that there is alsofurther room for improvement withregard to the user interfaces currentlyemployed on ECDIS equipment, and theinformation sources feeding into the navi-gational display.

“Many are relatively easy to work withbut there’s still work to do, especiallywhen it comes to traditional navigation,”he said.

“All systems today are basically built towork using only GPS. There’s so muchmore we can do with a chart system todaythan just navigating on it, and there aremore factors that can be brought into it.”

“That said, I do not believe in the wide-ly discussed ‘S-mode’. I think this wouldonly hamper development. Better then tomake pilots bring their own laptop ortablet with their own chart system andhook it up to the ship’s sensors.”

With this new age of ECDIS and elec-tronic navigation set to become a majorpart of navigation for the next generationof mariners, Mr Brandt suggests that ship-ping companies take advantage of theopportunities available to then to improveoperations and enhance safety.

“Don’t be afraid of technology, there’s alot of scepticism out there but there’s noth-ing wrong with the technology, it’s beenaround for decades. I started my career onships that were more or less ready to gopaperless 20 years ago – but we’re stillalmost not there,” he said.

“The technology is there to help you,figure out how it works and make friendswith it. It does help having good connec-tivity, but it’s not necessary. It still works.What is maybe more important is to investin people.”

“We often focus on the hardware butwe need to invest in the people as well,especially looking at the general compe-tency problems in the industry today, it’seven more critical. The methods havechanged, but the concepts are all the same.It’s not that much of a revolution, is it?Maybe more like a natural e-Volution.” DS

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p27-44:p15-25.qxd 13/04/2012 16:41 Page 14


Digital Ship

e-Navigation is coming – though the implications of this initiative, and what it might practically mean for maritime stakeholders, are still not widely understood. Fred Pot, Marine Management Consulting,examines some of the current and future developments that will form the backbone of this new system

Why e-Navigation?

‘‘WW hy e-Navigation?’ reallyhas meaning only for thefew of us who understand

what e-Navigation will be. My guess isthat less than 500 people in the worldtoday can claim to do so. For everybodyelse ‘What is e-Navigation?’ is a far morerelevant question.

Why do so few of us understand e-Navigation? I blame part of the problemon the ‘e-Navigation’ name.

For most ‘e-Navigation’ conjures upimages of on-board electronic navigationinstruments. They associate e-Navigationwith boxes and miss its much wider scope.To them it seems that, with mandatorycarriage of Radar and AIS and soon ofECDIS, e-Navigation is close to reality.

This misconception is a clear threat toimplementation of e-Navigation because,for it to be successful, we need broadly-based recognition both of what it is andwhat its benefits are.

A small step might be to give it a namethat better captures it. For example,‘Marconi’ might be better because it cap-tures digital communications (albeit prim-itive) that allow information sharing andcollaboration as well as automatingadministrative tasks. An even better ideamight be to appropriate the ‘EfficienSea’name, because it conveys e-Navigation'sbroad impact.

The overall goal of e-Navigation is get-ting ships safely, securely and efficientlyfrom berth to berth in an environmentallyfriendly way. The high-level answer to the‘Why e-Navigation?’ question is that itwill improve our ability reach the overallgoal more often.

To understand how e-Navigation willdo that we have to dig deeper into the rea-sons why not all voyages are accom-plished safely, securely and in an environ-mentally friendly way.

Gaps and solutionsStatistics show that human error is theroot cause of about 60 per cent of colli-sions, allisions and groundings.

Incident investigations point to a num-ber of causes of these errors. To get to thebottom of the errors, IMO’s e-NavigationCorrespondence Group (CG) identifiedmariners and shore-side users and askedthem to enumerate problems they experi-ence in discharging their responsibilities.

The problems (‘Gaps’) were captured ina (rather large, 47 page) table (GapAnalysis – see note 1). Gaps can be sum-marised in eight major categories:1. Bridge lay-out/ergonomics problems2. User unfriendly and unreliable bridge

equipment3. Lack of task oriented presentation of

relevant decision support information on work stations (on-board and ashore)

4. Lack of (position) sensor accuracy indications (on-board and ashore)

5. Alarm handling problems6. Too much time required to perform

administrative tasks� Identifying, gathering, searching

and updating relevant documents (ENC’s, Guides, etc.)

� Generation of ship reports for Coastal States’ Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) purposes

� Shore-side processing of ship reports (Security, VTS, Environmental Monitoring, etc.)

7. Incomplete/unreliable information presented on MDA systems

8. Language issues particularly in voice communications

While e-Navigation users are expected toultimately shape solutions that addressthese gaps, the CG will assess the costs,benefits and risks of an initial set of 30 high-priority solutions and will include them inthe Implementation Plan. Addressing thesegaps will pave the way for users to shapesolutions that address other gaps.

We don’t know yet which solutions theCG is considering but the Chairman of theCG (see note 2) indicates that they will bemade public sometime later this year.

If you read the detailed descriptions ofthe gaps you can make an educated guesson what the actual solutions will look like.A few examples of likely solutions are:1. Automatic downloading, installing

and updating of relevant Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC’s) and other (searchable) documents like port guides, VTS guides, light lists, pilotage charts, etc.

2. Task oriented geo-spatial presentation on the navigation screen of:a. Relevant Maritime Safety

Information (MSI) using intuitive symbols

b. Safety contours based on a water-way’s tide-corrected bathymetry that is received from shore

c. Weather and sea-state forecasts along with the recommended route

d. VTS traffic flow plan (sequence, routes and speeds) through con-gested waterways

3. Close coupling of a Pilot’s Portable Unit (PPU) with the ship’s navigation systems

4. Close coupling of the ship’s navigation systems with VTS for Navigation Assistance Service (NAS)

5. Remote inspection of a ship’s naviga-tion systems (position accuracy, make/model and software version)

6. Automatic ship report generation, transmission and processing for Coastal State MDA purposes

7. Manoeuvring and mooring decision support tools based on highly accurate shore-based (position) sensors

InfrastructureThe infrastructure technology required toimplement many of these solutions isreadily available. In fact some solutionsare already available on a few of the moresophisticated ships.

They tend, however, to be vendor spe-cific and proprietary. For e-Navigation toreach its overall goal, solutions will needto be made available to the great majorityof ships and share a common, non-propri-etary Information Technology (IT) andcommunications infrastructure that can beused for multiple solutions.

Designing, developing, testing androlling out this infrastructure is a majorundertaking. Even though it clearly isIMO’s prerogative to establish standardsfor the best infrastructure, it probably willrely on others to propose alternative infra-structure designs.

‘Others’ in this context could well be ITand communications systems vendors(represented by their Member State dele-gation).

What will the e-Navigation infrastruc-ture look like? What will solutions like theones mentioned above require?

At minimum they probably will requirean on-board (plain vanilla) IT infrastruc-ture (LAN, servers, back-up servers,routers, Integrated Navigation Systemand other workstations, etc.) and a com-munications infrastructure that builds onthe existing GMDSS, the existing satellite(Inmarsat, Iridium, etc.) and the existingcommunications network that currentlyconnects sensors (i.e. GPS, AIS, Radar,etc.) with the navigation work station (i.e.Integrated Navigation System or ‘INS’).

e-Navigation solutions will likely besoftware applications that run on the on-board servers, and will be accessible

(with proper authorisation) from anyworkstation.

It is likely that existing bridge equip-ment will need to be upgraded to enablesolution applications to address gaps. Forinstance, INS, at least currently, cannotpresent MSI in a geo-referenced formatand sensors don’t generally indicate theiraccuracy or the results of Built-In IntegrityTests (BIIT).

Shore-side, solution application soft-ware will likely run on office and cloud-based servers that are accessible (withproper authorisation) from any connectedworkstation (i.e. PC, iPad, etc.). On-boardsolution applications will use the new e-Navigation communications infrastruc-ture to automatically, reliably and secure-ly exchange data with shore-side solutionapplications.

StandardsThe geo- and time-referenced S-100 proto-col will be used not only for ENC’s but forall navigation related information (MSI,Tides, Currents, Port & VTS Guides,Lights Lists, Weather Forecasts, etc.). Thiswill ensure that ship and shore-basedsolution applications use a common proto-col to exchange data.

By implication, all bridge and shore-side equipment will need to be able to,natively, process S-100 formatted informa-tion or use an external gateway that trans-lates the S-100 formatted information toand from the current common communi-cations protocol (IEC 61162) or the equip-ment’s proprietary protocol.

Apart from the S-100 protocol, IMOwill have to develop standards for thesecurity, quality, reliability, timeliness, theuser interface and the (task oriented) pres-entation of information that solution serv-

e-Navigation displays will integrate more information than is available with ENCs today

p27-44:p15-25.qxd 13/04/2012 16:41 Page 15



ices will provide. Even though such stan-dards should be common rather than pro-prietary, vendors will probably need toplay a key role in defining them.

IMO will need to establish many morestandards before e-Navigation solutionscan be implemented. An important one isa single, world-wide standard for shipreports that are acceptable to all CoastalStates’ MDA authorities and non-govern-mental organisations.

IMO’s efforts in this area (Conventionon Facilitation of International MaritimeTraffic/Single Window Concept) are astart, but have a long way to go beforethey become acceptable to every CoastalState without a long list of exceptions.

IMO will also need to publish standardsfor e-Navigation-compatible equipment.

Such equipment will need to pass ausability test, it will need to be able tocommunicate with the local e-NavigationIT infrastructure, it will need to share theresults of its Built-In-Integrity Test (BIIT),sensors will need to communicate theiraccuracy, and bridge and shore-side workstations will need to present task orientedgeo- and time-referenced (S-100) informa-tion using intuitive symbols (much likethe current INS standard).

IMO will rely on Member States’ partic-ipation in (IEC, IALA, IHO, etc.) WorkGroups to bring equipment performancestandards up to e-Navigation standards,but the current process is too cumbersomeand lengthy. Furthermore it is too expen-sive and time consuming for vendors tocertify their equipment.

The process will need to be streamlinedto enable vendors to release new versionsof equipment software two or three timesper year to accommodate new require-ments, improve performance and fix bugs.

To ensure that vendors will be able toperiodically roll-out software upgradesfor their equipment, they will probablyneed to be included to a greater extent inthe standard development process thanthey have been.

The service life of e-Navigation hard-ware will probably be shorter than the

current norm because eventually softwareupgrades, that enable the equipment toadd more and more features, will reachhardware performance limits (i.e. process-ing speed, memory, storage, input/outputoptions, etc.).

FundingDesigning, developing and testing the e-Navigation infrastructure is a majorundertaking. IT and communications ven-dors may be interested in funding thedevelopment of infrastructure proposals ifthey can look forward to collecting usagefees once their design has been tested,accepted and implemented.

e-Navigation infrastructure proposalswill likely be tested in test beds such as theMarine Electronic Highway (MEH) in theStrait of Malacca, that is partially fundedby the World Bank, and the ACCSEAS testbed in the Greater North Sea Region. Thelatter is currently being designed and isexpected to have a budget of about €6 mil-lion, funded mainly by North SeaRegional, Coastal State and Port Agencies.

Similarly, if they can look forward tocollecting usage fees, ENC publishers andother vendors may be interested in fund-ing the design, development, certification,distribution, training and marketing of e-Navigation solution services that takeadvantage of the infrastructure.

Once the e-Navigation infrastructureand solution services have been thorough-ly tested and new minimum carriagerequirements have been adopted by Flag-,Coastal- and Port-States, ship owners andshore-side authorities will be required toinstall and maintain on-board and shore-based e-Navigation IT infrastructure, or tomodify the current infrastructure.

They will, also, be required to upgradebridge and shore-side equipment (sensors, work stations, etc.) to make it e-Navigation-compatible. Furthermore,they most likely will be required to pur-chase a minimum set of e-Navigationsolution services and will have the optionto purchase additional services.

The cost of updating equipment per-

formance standards will probably befunded by IMO-, IALA- and IHO-MemberCountries and by other internationalorganisations, as it traditionally has.

Development of e-Navigation-compati-ble equipment standards differs, however,from development of traditional equip-ment standards in that they will need to beestablished for all bridge and shore-side e-Navigation equipment almost simultane-ously and that the standard developmentprocess needs to be streamlined.

It will be necessary to replace currentprocesses and procedures with a newprocess that allows for dynamic, ratherthan the current, basically static, perform-ance standards. The budget for doing sowill, therefore, need to be significantlylarger than it traditionally has.

Implementation and Roll-out

From the description of e-Navigationabove it should be obvious that it will berolled out over time. Full implementationwill take many years; however, it is likelythat some e-Navigation solution serviceswill be implemented in the not too distantfuture.

Roll-out is likely to start with solutionservices that do not require upgrading ofbridge equipment and could be imple-mented with an early, still incomplete(prototype) version of the e-Navigation ITand communications infrastructure.

An example is automatic downloading,installing and updating of relevantElectronic Navigation Charts (ENC’s) andother (searchable) documents like portguides, VTS guides, light lists, pilotagecharts, etc.

To roll out this solution, publishers ofthese documents would need to reformatthem to fit the S-100 format, publish theirsubscription offers, fulfil subscription

requests and set up automated processesand procedures to update documents forsubscribers.

General awareness of e-Navigation, notonly of what it is but particularly what itsbenefits are, is going to be crucial whenkey decision makers are approached tocontribute time, effort and funds to imple-ment it. If its nature and benefits are wide-ly known then key decision makers aremore likely to support its design, develop-ment and implementation.

Who are the stakeholders? Apart fromthose who will directly benefit from it(mariners and shore-based operating per-sonnel) there are many who will benefitin-directly. Completing more voyages in asafe, secure, efficient and environmentallyfriendly manner will benefit all concernedand should appeal to a wide audience.

The author hopes that this ‘Why e-Navigation?’ article will contribute in asmall way to its awareness but a muchwider audience will need to be informedto generate discussions and enthusiasm.

A formal e-Navigation awareness planshould be developed soon to identify theaudiences, the appropriate communica-tion channels for each audience, the mes-sage to be conveyed and to assess theaudience’s e-Navigation awareness beforeand after.

As a first step it might be appropriate tostage a press event around the unveilingof the 30 e-Navigation solutions for whichthe CG will pursue implementation.

About the AuthorFred W. Pot is principal of Marine Management Consulting and can be reachedat [email protected]. Mr Pot acts as co-chair for the 2012 e�avigationConference, along with Capt. Robert G. Moore, who also contributed to thisarticle

References1] The current version of this document

is available at http://bit.ly/It5lsvAnnex 2, Page 25

2] Mr. John Erik Hagen, Regional Director, �orwegian Coastal Admin-istration

DS

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AA primary role of IMO, as stated inArticle 1(a) of its Convention, isto “encourage and facilitate the

general adoption of the highest practicablestandards in matters concerning maritimesafety, efficiency of navigation and pre-vention and control of marine pollutionfrom ships.”

Ever since its inception in the late1950s, IMO has particularly achieved thisby its member states formally agreeingPerformance Standards for key shipborneequipment.

These typically concentrate on safetyand user-centric requirements, rather thanbeing detailed technical specifications.Today they form a very comprehensive set,especially on the bridge, where they coverall navigational and communicationsequipment, statutorily or optionally fitted.

Even bridge fitted systems that are notof direct interest to IMO, such as ECS,need to meet certain general standards,ensuring that they will operate withindefined environmental conditions and,even more importantly, that they will notinterfere with other bridge equipment.

IMO relies on specialist internationalstandards organisations, such as theInternational Electrotechnical Commission(IEC) and the International StandardsOrganization (ISO) to publish equivalenttechnical standards that meet each of thePerformance Standards of IMO.

These are used by manufacturing com-panies for designing the equipment andby type approval authorities to test thatmanufactured equipment fully meets IMOrequirements.

This process has worked very well overmany years but it is interesting to specu-late on the changes that may be necessaryas we enter an e-Navigational world.

ECDISECDIS has been leading the way in mak-ing people think about type approval intothe future, especially with numerous sys-tems now being fitted in anticipation ofIMO’s 2012-18 programme for its carriageon many classes of ship.

The increased usage of ECDIS isemphasising that advanced software-based electronic equipment is not part ofthe older ‘fit and forget’ world of naviga-tion and communications systems.

Typically, other equipment is useduntil a fault becomes apparent, which ini-tiates a repair and its return to service.

ECDIS is rather different. Its ENC datahas to be updated on a weekly basis and ithas to be ensured that the system is alwaysrunning an appropriate version of itsoperating software.

In particular, ECDIS must be able todisplay features to the latest IMO/IHO‘portrayal’ requirements, not least to con-tinue to meet mandatory chart carriagerequirements.

For instance, in 2007 the IMO portrayalrequirements changed to includeParticularly Sensitive Sea Areas andArchipelagic Sea Lanes. Older ECDIS sys-tems are unable to display these correctlyunless the software has been updated.

As a direct result of the issues that arosewith these particular additions IMOissued SN.1/Circ.266, which stresses“ECDIS that is not updated for the latestversion of IHO Standards may not meetthe chart carriage requirements ...”

The Circular particularly underlines theneed for manufacturers to provide anupdate mechanism and for ship owners andoperators to put in place suitable measuresto ensure proper software maintenance.

The Performance Standards for ECDISinclude an explicit requirement for a facil-ity to allow its software to be updated.

This is also important because the over-all complexity of ECDIS increases the like-lihood for manufacturer instigated soft-ware updates, perhaps to correct anom-alous behaviour of the equipment inunusual circumstances.

Unfortunately, because of the commonpractice for other bridge equipment, manythink that ECDIS is configured for life andthat only newly installed equipment has tomeet the latest standards.

The 2006 IMO circular, MSC.1/Circ.1221, is often quoted where it states that “aproduct manufactured during the periodof validity of the relevant Type ApprovalCertificate need not be renewed orreplaced [on the vessel] due to expirationof such Type Approval Certificate.”

For ECDIS, it is clear that SN.1/Circ.266also has to be taken into account.

Into the futureAs bridges properly enter the world of e-Navigation it is essential that bridge sys-tems are able to cope with evolvingrequirements, especially in their ability todisplay information correctly.

In such an information-led world wecannot wait 10-15 years for older equip-ment to be replaced, as we typically dotoday, very belatedly allowing the receiptof up-to-date information.

Unfortunately, this state of affairs isexactly what is happening as AIS mes-sages evolve and what individual ECDIS,radar and AIS MKDs can display.

To a certain extent improved technolo-gy will help the situation. For instance, inthe foreseeable future the data standardsfor ECDIS will be changing from IHO S-57to S-101.

This gives the major advantage thatchanges or additions in the portrayal ofchart information are effectively embed-ded within the ENC updates, negating theneed for equipment-specific softwareupdates for such changes.

IMO has decided to use the same basicdata structure for all e-navigation data,

following the IHO principles defined in itsstandard S-100, on which S-101 is based –S-101 only covers hydrographic data.

In principle, this will mean that afterreceiving the latest ‘IMO’ update disc,future e-Navigation bridge equipmentwill be able to display and correctly usethe latest messages, symbols and data,without needing any change in equipmentsoftware, which should considerably sim-plify and speed up the process of change.

However, some future changes willundoubtedly lie outside this simplifiedprocess and it is also inevitable that thecomplex software-based approach of e-Navigation will continue to necessitateupdates to correct anomalous operation.

A couple of important issues for theimmediate future need to be tackled asthey are relevant for today’s ECDIS. Thefirst is for manufacturers and shippingcompanies to agree on a proper businessmodel for the update process – not least,how is it to be funded so that it happens?

The second is putting in formal checksthat the process is being adequately han-dled, which needs to involve both portand flag states.

Some serious consideration is neededfor both of these issues.

Type approval In a future e-Navigational world IMOwould perhaps concentrate itsPerformance Standards on its basic struc-tures and functions.

This would, for instance, include navi-gational sensors and network require-ments, together with the standard opera-tion and display of primary tasks such ascollision avoidance, route monitoring andshore reporting.

Perhaps one aim would be to ensure bet-ter consistency than today in the basic oper-ation of key bridge equipment. Thedetailed type approval process for suchequipment and applications would per-haps be very similar to present procedures.

At a second level, other official bodieswould specify how specialist data shouldbe displayed and used on auxiliary taskstations displays – not the basic onesdefined by IMO – generally in associationwith other official data, such as ENCs.

A good example would be the special-ist real time information system neededfor entering a certain port or a crowdedpassage. Another might be a display ful-filling specific local pilotage needs,replacing the need for a carry-on portablepilot unit (PPU).

These applications would meet certainminimum IMO requirements geared to the

safe use of displayed data but would bemainly driven by the requirements of theparticular official body, which would alsomandate the approval criteria in accor-dance with IMO guidelines.

The approval process would perhaps besimpler for such ‘Level 2’ applications com-pared to IMO mandated ‘Level 1’ apps.

A third level of applications would beprovided entirely commercially, perhapstypically aimed at the financial efficiencyof shipping. Such ‘Level 3’ apps couldinclude route optimisation software andcomprehensive passage planning systems.

Similarly to Level 2 apps, these wouldalso run on auxiliary workstation displaysin association with official data, such as ENCs.

They would mandatorily meet mini-mum IMO requirements to ensure basicsafety, perhaps by self certification, butthe general lack of detailed requirementswould allow innovative and rapid devel-opment to meet evolving requirements.

Perhaps the IMO view of such Level 3apps would be that they can be used withcare, provided basic navigational andsafety decisions are made with referenceto IMO mandated Level 1 apps, support-ed where necessary by ‘other authority’Level 2 apps.

Such a division of apps would result inthe relative stability and familiarity ofbasic IMO-defined functionality, whilegiving freedom for other authorities toevolve specialist applications and forindustry to provide innovative solutions,within defined safety and compatibilityconstraints.

When it comes to having electronic equipment on the bridge of a ship, type approval and performance standards arekey in making sure that systems are reliable and don’t interfere with the working of other technologies. These

standards need to keep growing and evolving as e-Navigation develops, writes Dr Andy Norris

Approving the Future

DS

Dr Andy �orris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry for anumber of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech navigationcompanies but now he is working on broader issues within the navigationalworld, providing both technical and business consultancy to the industry, gov-ernmental bodies and maritime organizations. Email: [email protected]

Updates to ENCs could carry changes oradditions in the portrayal of chart

information, to update onboard equipment– but other systems may require a more

complicated updating procedure. Photo: NOAA


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