September 2008

Transcription

September 2008

September 2008
Satellite launch brings
FleetBroadband global
I
The Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite was successfully
launched on August 19th
forward to the global availability of FleetBroadband,
which it has now confirmed
as being scheduled for the
end of February 2009.
With the launch of the
final satellite now over
with, Piers Cunningham,
head of maritime business
at Inmarsat, is looking forward to the company com-
pleting the rest of the necessary steps to bring the
technology on-line.
"There is a whole
schedule of activity in
place, within the launch
schedule there are a significant number of steps to
occur," he told us.
"The fundamental step
is the launch, once that is
satcoms
Bernard Schulte
Shipmanagement tests
FleetBroadband - 8
Five months and two postponed launches after originally scheduled, the last
of the satellites required for Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband global network has
successfully entered orbit and is ready for deployment - and the company can
now confirm that FleetBroadband will be available worldwide in February 2009
nmarsat has confirmed the successful
launch and acquisition of the third Inmarsat-4
satellite, the last major step
in the three-satellite network required to bring its
flagship FleetBroadband
service global.
The
satellite
was
launched on a Proton
Breeze M rocket from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan at 11.43pm BST
on 18th August (4.43am
19th August, local time).
Inmarsat's tracking station in Fucino, Italy was
able to track the satellite
while it was still coupled
to the Breeze M launch
vehicle. Launch provider
ILS confirmed successful
spacecraft separation at
8.46am BST on 19th
August, after a 9-hour and
3-minute mission.
The I-4 F3 satellite will
now undergo several weeks
of comprehensive tests and
manoeuvres before being
positioned in geostationary
orbit at 98º West.
Inmarsat can then look
IN THIS ISSUE
IT strategy at Wallem Shipmanagement - 10
A VSAT upgrade at CCC - 14
done the worst of the danger is over - attaching your
most valuable asset to 700tons of explosives is always
the most risky part!"
"Now we're concentrating on drifting it into an
in-orbit testing position,
where it will be given a
thorough shakedown in
terms of testing its subsystems, making it work over
the satellite access stations. Then it will be drifted into its operational
position, along with the
movement of the additional satellites, to form
the new constellation."
Following the launch
approximately a week to
ten days was required for
deployment, including the
initiation of solar panels
and the extension of the
reflector dish.
This extremely delicate
procedure, that includes
about 80,000 separate
movements, takes about
seven days, before the
satellite can start pulling in
power from the solar pan-
Wireless VoIP - the GSM
calling alternative - 16
software
SpecTec to launch AMOS2
at SMM exhibition - 22
From cost to profit - safety management - 24
How to buy the
right software
system - 28
e-Purchasing and profitability - 33
electronics and
navigation
VDR - the next generation - 45
Mandatory ECDIS - the future - 48
ENCs for an ECDIS world - with UKHO
and Jeppesen Marine - 51
e-Navigation - IMO’s
grand plan - 55
Maritime IT at SMM 2008 - Preview - 59
continued on page 2
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(+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected]
BridgING the gap
p1-20.qxd
05/09/2008
11:02
Page 2
SATCOMS
Vol 9 No 1
Digital Ship Limited
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els and Inmarsat will have the ability to
transmit onto the Earth's surface, where
testing will begin.
"The satellite itself has already undergone one of the most extensive simulated
space testing procedures of any satellite
constellation, it's already spent the equivalent of 150 days in simulated space conditions being tested," noted Mr Cunningham.
"We know it's ready to go, and once the
satellite's in position there'll be some formalised testing over the satellite access
station, then it'll be a matter of throwing
the switch and the traffic will start to flow.
It's exactly the same as we did for the F1
and F2 as well."
Once testing is completed Inmarsat will
begin making plans for the repositioning
of its three satellites into the positions
required for its FleetBroadband global
coverage beams.
This will necessitate some service
downtime as these movements take place,
which Inmarsat expects will constitute no
more than a few hours before the satellites
are in their correct orbit and ready for long
term operation. The date for this down
time is yet to be confirmed.
Inmarsat service users will not be
required to make any adjustments to their
equipment during the changeover period.
Delays
This latest satellite is the third in the I-4
constellation, concluding a decade of
development and a $1.5 billion investment. The current constellation of two
Inmarsat-4 satellites covers 85 per cent of
the world's landmass, and the third I-4
will now complete global coverage for
Inmarsat's broadband services.
The Proton Breeze M is one of the few
launch vehicles capable of lifting the I-4
satellite - the size of a London doubledecker bus and weighing six tons - into
geostationary transfer orbit.
This successful launch will be a relief
for Inmarsat, having twice had to delay
the deployment of this third satellite. An
original launch date in April 2008 was
postponed pending an investigation, after
an earlier mission using the same launch
vehicle developed a problem.
Once that investigation was completed
and corrective steps were taken, Inmarsat
had rescheduled the launch for August
14th, only for this slot to be cancelled to
allow for the replacement of a launch electrical component.
Now, finally, almost five months after
originally planned, Inmarsat has the last of
its next-generation satellites in orbit, and
can look forward to the global roll-out of
FleetBroadband.
"You could always argue that one might
have liked for things to have been accelerated, as is always the case with everything,
but the fact is that we have maintained our
unblemished launch record, and we now
have the global constellation complete,"
said Mr Cunningham.
"There's an element of satisfaction and
relief that everything's gone to plan,
but that's short lived, now it becomes a
case of executing our plans that we've had
in place."
The company has, over the course of
the summer, been involved in a number of
Maritime Field Evaluations (MFEs) with
some of its existing customers, testing the
tions, and so on," said Mr Cunningham.
"GSM picocell technology has seen a lot
of interest, an increasing number of parties
are wanting to use their picocell technology over FleetBroadband. Then other applications like optimisation of content, acceleration - I think we're really on the cusp of
big changes, once it becomes an incumbent
technology people will evolve more applications that we haven't seen before."
Take-up
Previous problems with the
Proton Breeze-M rocket had caused
the launch to twice be delayed
FleetBroadband system in different
regions around the world, and Mr
Cunningham says that he has been
pleased with the performance so far.
"The technology is working superbly
well," he told us. "The feedback that we're
getting from the MFEs shows that the
indicative IP performance of both the
FB500 and FB250 is, in some cases, outstripping our expectation, it's been better
than we thought.
"The edge of coverage performance and
performance across the whole spectrum of
the satellite footprint seems extremely consistent. I think it's better to under-promise
and over-deliver, rather than vice versa!"
Mr Cunningham notes that the companies involved in the MFEs have really
embraced some of the new capabilities
available through the use of IP on the
FleetBroadband system, changing the way
they operated in comparison with what
they could do using existing Inmarsat
services.
"With the IP backbone there's much
more use of web-based interface access,
rather than client-ware onboard ships,
though they can still use those existing
applications and enjoy the faster and more
economical service compared with previous generations," he said.
"One of the elements that came out was
use of the streaming channels, there were
instances where some of the tanker operators actually used the streaming channels
for video conferences so their senior management could address the vessels directly. That's something we haven't really
seen before."
"To a high degree, it's still a niche activity as opposed to something that's widespread, but it was something that was a little bit surprising."
Inmarsat also saw its test customers
begin to incorporate other new applications into their operations that would not
have been efficient or cost effective over
Fleet and other services.
"We've seen innovative technologies
like remote diagnostics, where people use
cordless cameras to send video imagery
back to shore so they can see real time
damage or requirements for modifica-
Digital Ship September 2008 page 2
Despite the fact that FleetBroadband is not
yet a global service, Mr Cunningham says
that Inmarsat has seen a reasonably high
adoption level for the new technology, and
is hopeful that the roll-out of the global
network will improve this even further.
"Take-up of FleetBroadband has, to a
high degree, outstripped our expectations," he told us.
"We considered the fact that the (lack
of) Pacific Ocean Region coverage may
prohibit some users from adopting it,
however, we can say now that the run rate
has been above expectations. I think it will
accelerate now when we have the global
service provision."
"There are other factors that go into people migrating across, the main one of which
is that people will adopt the technology not
for technology's sake, but when they're
ready. That might be to gain an operational
advantage or just as a natural progression
from what they are using currently. No
doubt (having global coverage) will help,
the fact is that you can take one standard
now and use it globally over any oceanic
area, you fit and you can utilise it to the
same standard no matter where you are."
Even purely in terms of global availability and consistency of service Mr
Cunningham notes that FleetBroadband
will be a marked improvement on its predecessors, removing restrictions on what
you can and can't do.
"We don't have to worry about saying
'you can't use data in these spot beams,
and voice over there'," he said.
"We've taken the smaller terminals,
which did have those limitations, and given
them 'big global beam' capabilities."
So far take-up of FleetBroadband has
mainly been seen in the retrofit market,
though Inmarsat expects that newbuilds will
begin to incorporate the technology as yard
specifications change over the next few years.
"The newbuild market's an interesting
one, you'll only get the first glimpses of light
in the newbuild market as the shipyard
specs get changed," said Mr Cunningham.
"In reality there have been a number of
owners that have changed their yard
specs to reflect the new technology, but in
our experience it takes about 12 to 24
months for the newbuilds coming out of
the yards to really reflect the newly
launched technology."
"This is purely because the drawings,
equipment profile and all of those things are
set long before the new technology comes
out - no doubt we will start to see that shift,
but it's not going to happen overnight, as
much as it might with the retrofits."
Summer in the City
The launch of the final I-4 satellite has not
been the only big news emanating from
Inmarsat's City Road headquarters in
London over the last few months.
Digital Ship
The company was involved in a 'will
they or won't they' takeover bid involving
its largest shareholder, US investment
company Harbinger, which has resulted
in confirmation that a takeover offer will
be made if regulatory clearance for such a
deal is achieved.
Talks between the two companies concerning a possible takeover were initially
confirmed on July 7th, which caused ripples in the market and pushed Inmarsat's
share price up 12 per cent. This proved a
false dawn however, when only two
weeks later the talks were officially halted,
causing the stock to slide back.
However, Harbinger subsequently confirmed that an offer will be made, and
details about its plans for Inmarsat following a takeover began to emerge at that point.
Harbinger currently owns 48.43 per cent
of SkyTerra, a US satellite network company
that has already been involved in cooperative agreements with Inmarsat in the past.
It appears that Harbinger intends to
utilise the combined capabilities of these
two satellite companies, including
SkyTerra subsidiary Mobile Satellite
Ventures (MSV), to offer a new range of
services in North America.
"With its global satellite fleet and complementary plans for next generation satellites, Inmarsat offers a compelling strategic
fit with SkyTerra, and its subsidiary MSV,"
said Harbinger, in a statement.
"MSV, together with MSV Canada, is
developing an integrated satellite-terrestrial communications network to provide
seamless, transparent and ubiquitous
wireless coverage of the United States and
Canada to consumer handsets."
"In an effort to realise additional value
embedded in the combination of both companies' radio spectrum, MSV and Inmarsat
recently signed a cooperation agreement for
L-Band operations in North America."
"The proposed (takeover) offer would
allow MSV and Inmarsat to increase substantially the scope of their existing cooperation, further enhancing spectrum efficiency to support the development of an
integrated satellite-terrestrial communications network in North America, based on
MSV's patented ancillary terrestrial component technology."
Despite this statement, Harbinger is
aware that it will have to receive regulatory clearance for such a takeover before the
deal could go through, and estimates that
this could take anywhere between 12 and
18 months.
The company stated: "Assuming an
acceptable conclusion to the Regulatory
Approvals process, (Harbinger) intends to
enter into negotiations with the board of
Inmarsat regarding the terms of an offer
and endeavour to seek the recommendation of the Inmarsat board."
"(Harbinger) expects that any offer, if
made, would be made to shareholders of
Inmarsat in the second half of 2009 and
that such an offer would be completed as
quickly as possible thereafter."
Business as usual
In the meantime, while Harbinger continues with the regulatory approvals process,
Inmarsat insists that it will carry on
'business as usual', and will deal with any
movement by Harbinger when the time
comes.
Inmarsat released its Q2 2008 financial
results soon after this takeover activity,
and reaffirmed its market position with a
strong showing, indicating growth in a
number of business areas.
Second quarter revenue from the maritime sector increased 4.5 per cent year
over year, with maritime data revenue up
6.5 per cent. Maritime voice revenue was
almost static, growing by 0.1 per cent,
though this can be partly explained by the
discontinuation of the Inmarsat-A service
at the end of 2007.
The company also saw activations of
Fleet and FleetBroadband terminals during the second quarter exceed expectations, with installations of these systems
up over 37 per cent year over year.
The remainder of 2008 could see
Inmarsat begin preparations to become
involved in takeover activity of its own,
with the call option it currently holds over
its own largest distributor, Stratos, set to
come into effect in the new year.
Inmarsat will be able to exercise this
option as of April 2009, and it has noted
that it "probably will" proceed with the
deal. This would give the company control
of its own distribution for the first time, and
would represent a major change in the way
that the satellite operator does business.
Inmarsat says it is still examining how
such a move would work, and to what
degree the companies would be integrated
or left as they are. Both sides are keen to
stress that 'business as usual' will continue
for the time being, and that there is currently no management interaction
between the two companies.
April 2009 will also see renegotiation of
all of the distribution agreements that
Inmarsat currently has in place with its
other distributors, which is bound to lead to
a major shake-up in the way that Inmarsat
products are presented to the market.
With all of these developments still to
be played out, and the global roll-out of
FleetBroadband finally approaching, 2009
is set to be a very busy year for Inmarsat.
"There's never been a dull year, and I don't
think there ever will be, the pace of evolution
is so quick," said Mr Cunningham.
"If we look back at the maritime side
since Fleet launched in 2002, every year
has had some innovation, enhancement,
delivery, tweak of some sort."
For the moment, however, the Mr
Cunningham is just pleased that, after the
delays and launch problems, its final I-4 satellite is in the air and primed for operation.
"It's bought, paid for and up there,"
he said.
"We're ready to go now, the constellation
is complete, and people can be assured of
global FleetBroadband service provision
2020. We think that's good enough!"
DS
Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement
speaks about its experience with FleetBroadband during the Maritime Field
Evaluations - see page 8
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Visit us during SMM at Stand 390, Hall B6
SATCOMS
L-3 Communications acquires
G.A. International Electronics
Becker in Iridium OpenPort deal
www.umc.becker-marine-systems.com
www.iridium.com
www.L-3Com.com
L-3 Communications has announced that
it has acquired the six corporations of G.A.
International Electronics Group, a USbased marine electronics business.
G.A. International Electronics Group
provides sales and service of marine electronics equipment for navigation and communications onboard commercial tankers,
freighters and cruise liners operating within the United Sates and in the Caribbean.
The businesses will be combined into a
single unit and renamed L-3 G.A.
International, which will be integrated into
the L-3 Marine and Power Systems Group.
Headquartered in Miami, G.A.
International has branch offices in New
Jersey, Florida, Texas, California,
Washington and Alaska, covering all ports
within the continental United States,
Mexico and the Caribbean.
In addition, G.A. International provides a full range of services for integrated
bridge systems, radars, radio communications systems and a variety of other shipboard navigation and communications
sensors and systems.
"G.A. International Electronics represents a natural addition to the L-3 Marine
& Power Systems group providing a sales
and service capability that allows us to
meet the quick response time our customers require in order to meet their
aggressive schedules for service and support," said Steve Kantor, president of L-3
Marine and Power Systems.
"G.A. International is very synergistic
with other companies within the L-3
Marine and Power Systems group, adding
a complimentary capability to our existing
marine navigation offering with a legacy
of customer satisfaction in the cruise ship
and commercial fleet industries."
G.A. International also serves as the
exclusive dealer for L-3 SAM Electronics
navigation products in the US.
Becker Marine Systems Communication
has entered into a global distribution partner agreement with Iridium, to integrate,
optimise and distribute the Iridium
OpenPort marine satellite system.
Under this agreement, Becker Marine
Systems is integrating the Iridium
OpenPort service with its umc.connect
optimisation server and umc.global network managed services.
Becker says that the use of its wireless
optimisation protocol and a context sensitive compression algorithm will "dramatically optimise" the throughput of Iridium
OpenPort.
The umc.connect skylink Iridium
OpenPort+ service being offered by
Becker comes with integrated managed
services, such as unified messaging for email, SMS, fax, secure VPN tunnelling,
distributed shipborne/shore based firewall, Antivirus, Anti Malware and Anti
Spam protection.
Other optional managed services for
remote administration and support of PCs
and servers on board, automated content
distribution and synchronisation, and
the integration of a Telephone Auto
Exchange, are also available.
"Iridium OpenPort completes our comprehensive, cost effective and industry
leading set of umc.global network ship to
shore communication services," said
Thomas Müller, managing director of
Becker Marine Systems Communication.
"Combined with the throughput
enhancements, the cost optimised routing,
the managed security services, the content
distribution and remote management
services, which are integrated with the
umc.connect optimisation server, Iridium
OpenPort is refined for the advantage of
the maritime users."
Digital Ship network
Iridium reports growth as satellite
partners are chosen
www.iridium.com
Iridium Satellite has announced its financial results for the second quarter 2008,
showing a 22 per cent increase in revenue
and further gains in earnings and subscriber numbers.
Total revenue in Q2 was $81.7 million,
up from $66.7 million in the same quarter
last year. EBITDA (Earnings Before
Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and
Amortization) was up 28 per cent to $25.8
million for the quarter, while subscriber
numbers year-on-year rose from 203,000
to 280,000.
"For our fifth consecutive quarter, we
posted double-digit increases for all the
important metrics - revenue, earnings and
subscriber gains," noted Matt Desch,
Iridium CEO.
Iridium has also announced that it has
selected two companies - Lockheed Martin
and Thales Alenia Space - to participate in
the final phase of its procurement process
for the company's next-generation satellite
constellation, 'Iridium NEXT'.
KVH Industries has hired Brent
Bruun as its new vice president for business development. Mr Bruun, formerly of
Ses Americom, is expected to be
involved in KVH's planned worldwide
rollout of its mini-VSAT Broadband satellite communications service.
The Blue FPT powerboat, sponsored by
satcoms company Navarino Telecom,
has won the Round Britain Powerboat
Race 2008, in a time of 20 hours, 36 minutes, 47 seconds. Panos Tsikopoulos, commercial director of Navarino, served on
www.navarinotelecom.com
www.minivsat.com
Join the online community for the maritime IT sector - get in
contact with colleagues, renew friendships, meet possible
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Have you joined yet? Register FREE at:
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Iridium says it chose Lockheed Martin
and Thales Alenia Space as a result of their
"innovative constellation design concepts;
demonstrated understanding of performance requirements and capabilities; and
preliminary cost estimates for the manufacture and launch of Iridium NEXT."
The final phase of the selection process
will last approximately nine months, and
is anticipated to result in the award of a
full-scale development agreement for
Iridium NEXT with one prime contractor
by the middle of 2009.
"We are extremely impressed with our
finalists' technical and creative design recommendations, as well as with their ideas
for important enhancements to our existing service offerings," said Mr Desch.
"Both are identifying ways of meeting
our Iridium NEXT requirements using
advanced technology concepts. These concepts will help us realise cost-effective
ways of providing enhanced products,
services and capabilities for our current
customers, as well as for those new customers we plan to serve in the future."
the Blue FPT as co-driver and throttleman
on the nine-day, 1,400 nautical mile race
around the British Isles.
Navarino's Panos Tsikopoulos
served on the Blue FPT
Digital Ship
Stratos in Japanese joint venture
Selex in £1.6 million deal
www.selex-comms.com
www.stratosglobal.com
Stratos has formed a new joint venture
company with satellite operator JSAT
Corporation (JSAT), to be called JSAT
MOBILE Communications Inc.
JSAT MOBILE will bring Stratos' portfolio of mobile satellite services (MSS),
including both Inmarsat and Iridium services, to the Japanese market.
Officials of Stratos and JSAT said
JSAT MOBILE will begin offering mobile
satellite services later this year to end
users that operate internationally. By the
first quarter of 2009, JSAT MOBILE
expects to receive all necessary regulatory approvals to provide its MSS portfolio
for use in Japan and on Japanese-registered vessels.
The companies say that they will be
ready to offer Inmarsat FleetBroadband
services to the market once it becomes
globally available.
The Inmarsat I-4 F3 satellite was
successfully launched on August 19.
Once tested and operational, the I-4 F3
will form a completed constellation
(together with its two sister satellites
that are already in orbit) to deliver
full and seamless global coverage
of all the latest Inmarsat broadband
JSAT and Stratos will jointly offer FleetBroadband services in 2009
mobile satellite
FleetBroadband.
services,
including
Stratos president and CEO Jim
Parm said, "In JSAT MOBILE, Japanese
businesses will find a large local team
that is intimately familiar with their
requirements."
"It will combine a dedication to the
Japanese market with a strong sales
and support network to ensure all MSS
solutions are deployed quickly and cost
efficiently."
SELEX Communications has been awarded a £1.6m contract by Astilleros
Zamakona, to supply and install navigation, communications and entertainment
systems on board six new build vessels,
with the option of an additional two vessels, for Vroon Offshore Services.
SELEX Communications had previously completed the supply and installation
of VSAT equipment onboard nine new
builds for Vroon, and was also awarded a
contract to supply and retro fit Sea Tel
equipment and airtime services for 15 support vessels in the fleet.
This most recent contract is potentially
worth approximately £2.2m for all eight
vessels. Installation will take place over
four years, with the first in this series of
new builds due to be completed in 2009,
two more in 2010, three in 2011 and an
optional two in 2012.
The installations will take place at the
Astilleros Zamakona shipyard in Bilbao,
Spain, with SELEX Communications' engineers on hand to run the project.
The supply of entertainment equipment includes Sea Tel's 4004E 'TV at Sea'
system, as well as flat screen televisions,
DVD players and stereos.
The communication systems encompass both radio and satellite equipment
including the Sea Tel 4006 VSAT TX/RX, a
SAILOR System 5000, an Iridium system
and a variety of Phontech equipment.
Navigational aids include JRC X and S
band Radars, ECDIS (electronic chart display
information system) and AIS. Safety products
such as the Broadgate VER4000 (S-VDR),
SAILOR SART II and EPIRB will also be fitted.
WMS in SeaMobile acquisition
www.seamobile.com
Wireless Maritime Services (WMS) has
announced that it is to acquire certain maritime wireless assets of SeaMobile Wireless,
a division of SeaMobile Enterprises, to
enhance the provision of its maritime
mobile phone services.
WMS is itself already a joint venture of
AT&T Mobility and SeaMobile Enterprises.
WMS now aims to expand the combined companies' at-sea wireless mobility
communications offerings, which already
include communications services for more
than 115 cruise ships and long-haul ferries
throughout the world.
WMS will acquire SeaMobile Wireless
master services contracts, onboard wireless
telecommunications equipment and shore
side infrastructure as part of the deal. Financial
terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"After several years of running the businesses as two completely separate and distinct operations, we recognised a tremendous opportunity to serve customers much
more effectively by combining the strengths
of WMS and SeaMobile Wireless," said
Leighton Carroll, CEO of WMS.
"Under this agreement we greatly
expand our wireless coverage footprint
and bring the benefits of over 300 worldwide roaming agreements to the legacy
SeaMobile Wireless fleet. This will allow a
vast majority of mobile phone customers
worldwide to use their wireless phones
seamlessly when aboard cruise and ferry
ships that provide WMS wireless voice
and data communication services."
Other benefits to customers include
access to approximately 30 mobile phone
carriers that allow prepaid services to
work on ships. Usage charges are determined by their home carrier and are billed
on their regular monthly statement.
The transition of assets to WMS will be
seamless to cruise and ferry ships, as no
onboard equipment will need changing or
replacement.
"We believed that the best way for
SeaMobile Enterprises to realise the potential of our maritime wireless business was
to fully integrate our operations into the
WMS joint venture," commented Jack
Donohue, president of SeaMobile Wireless
and a co-founder of SeaMobile Enterprises.
"Our broader vision of providing at-sea
and remote location communications, connectivity and content services throughout
the world continues to advance with our
maritime wireless services now being
offered exclusively through our joint venture with AT&T Mobility."
The WMS joint venture is governed by
a board of directors consisting of representatives from AT&T Mobility and
SeaMobile Enterprises.
SATCOMS
SingTel goes global with VSAT
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is branching out from its home base, having launched a new globally
available VSAT service in conjunction with SES NEW SKIES that will offer SingTel’s range of services on a worldwide
scale. Digital Ship spoke to Titus Yong, SingTel vice-president of satellite, about the company’s decision to go global
ingapore based communications
company SingTel is moving away
from its traditional stronghold in
the Asia-Pacific region to launch a new
global VSAT (very small aperture terminal) service, which it hopes will help to
widen its presence into new markets
around the world.
The new service is a joint venture with
satellite operator SES NEW SKIES, and the
company is excited about the prospects of
extending its existing offerings from its
home region to a wider audience, says Titus
Yong, vice-president of satellite, SingTel.
"SingTel has been providing maritime
broadband VSAT services with regional
S
'We have received encouraging responses
in Europe and Africa' Titus Yong, SingTel
coverage for over two years," he told us.
"We are pleased to work with top-tier
global satellite service providers such as
SES NEW SKIES to extend our reach to
provide seamless and secure worldwide
coverage over all major shipping routes."
Mr Yong explains that this move is a
consequence of the evolving business
environment that the company has seen in
the maritime sector, and the further
changes it expects in the future.
"Analysts believe that the shipping and
transportation industry can reduce costs
and be more responsive to business changes
by exploiting the full communications capabilities of the internet [1]," he said.
"Thus, it is important for maritime
communications infrastructure to evolve
beyond basic narrowband speeds and provide the same capabilities and user experience as land-based broadband services."
"We have introduced the Office-At-Sea
suite of maritime broadband solutions to
cater to the growing complexities of business needs in the industry."
SingTel's VSAT offering includes a
range of communications services, which
include applications for corporate needs
as well as options for crew calling.
"These solutions enable vessels to
communicate seamlessly and cost-effectively with their headquarters on land,"
said Mr Yong.
"These solutions include 'always-on'
unlimited broadband internet access, email, low-cost Voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls,
Radio-over-IP (RoIP), GSM onboard and
ship surveillance."
"Crew members can also enjoy 'alwayson' unlimited broadband internet access,
low-cost voice over IP calls, e-mail service,
web-browsing and GSM onboard. These
solutions enhance crew welfare by allowing seafarers to stay in touch with their
loved ones while at sea, providing them
the same quality of user experience that
they enjoy at home. This is critical to
attract and retain talents in the maritime
sector and is especially true for the next
generation of seafarers who are better
educated and technology-savvy."
The service is being offered to the market
at a range of different speeds, up to 1 Mbps,
with different coverage area packages.
"Sea-going vessels have typically used
narrowband services with speeds of up to
128kbps on a pay-as-you-use basis," said
Mr Yong.
"With SingTel global VSAT services, the
bandwidth can be up to 'Mbps' speeds.
Currently, SingTel is offering always-on
bandwidth speeds from 64kbps to 1Mbps."
"We are able to provide both regional and
worldwide coverage. This includes the three
oceans and all major shipping routes."
Mr Yong also notes that SingTel's communications set-up has a strong security
focus, based around a controlled network
system that connects the data from the
satellites to the IT infrastructure ashore.
"The solution provides a secure private
global platform through SingTel's
ConnectPlus IP-VPN MPLS network," he
explained.
"Through this connectivity, monitoring
and control signals are transmitted in a
secure manner to the central network
operation centre (NOC). Customers also
have the option to have their data transferred to their land-based offices in a
secure manner through the SingTel
ConnectPlus IP-VPN MPLS network."
"With this, customers will enjoy peace
of mind knowing that sensitive shipboard
information and data applications such as
e-mail will be safe from the threat of hackers and terrorists."
Automatic switching
One of the features of SingTel's service that
Mr Yong believes will be attractive to
shipowners that have been unconvinced by
VSAT offerings in the past is the availability of an automatic beam switching capability, whereby the onboard antenna automatically switches to a new satellite when it
moves into a different coverage footprint.
"There are two antennas in use," Mr
Yong told us. "There is the 1.5m C-Band
stabilised antenna which was designed by
SingTel and weighs 350kg. There is also a
2.4m C-band stabilised antenna which
weighs less than 1 tonne. SingTel uses
SeaTel's stabilised antenna systems."
"Automatic beam switching enables the
stabilised antenna system to switch automatically from one satellite to another
satellite with minimum downtime."
"In the past, VSAT deployments on vessels such as container ships required timeconsuming re-configurations of the satellite
communications equipment when the vessels move from one ocean region to another."
Mr Yong says that the company has so
far received a positive reaction from the
market to the launch of this service, and he
believes that the different pricing options
available can make VSAT an attractive
proposition for companies in different
industry sectors.
"Since the launch of our global maritime VSAT service and Office-At-Sea
solutions, we have received very encouraging responses from customers around
the world, including Europe and Africa,"
he told us.
"To date, we have carried out installations on vessels from the Middle East and
Denmark. We are confident of maintaining
this momentum in the coming months."
Mr Yong continued: "SingTel has come
up with various business models to suit the
needs of the shipping companies. The
approximate monthly fee is therefore
dependent on the business models and can
range from US$2,000 - US$8,000 per month,
either leasing or purchased models."
"The service can be subscribed through
SingTel's global sales offices in 37 cities
across 19 countries. In addition, we have
dedicated maritime partners in the Middle
East, Europe and Asia Pacific to serve our
customers. We are also evaluating potential channel partnership at the moment."
The company is hopeful that demand
for VSAT will continue to grow as its global service develops further.
"Analysts believe that the maritime
VSAT market will grow from an estimated
base of 2000 vessels today to 15,500 vessels
by 2012 ," [2] said Mr Yong.
"They believe broadband at sea will be
widely adopted, as ship owners seek to provide better conditions for their crews.
Hence, we are very optimistic about the
growth potential of the industry and look
forward to transforming the way our maritime customers operate. We want to enable
them to take their business to the next level."
SingTel is also a major distributor of
Inmarsat products in the Asia Pacific
region, and Mr Yong believes that the
global availability of FleetBroadband,
which has moved closer with the launch of
the final Inmarsat-4 satellite, will help to
bring broadband satellite communications
into the maritime mainstream.
"The global launch of Fleet Broadband
is in line with market trends, and should
increase competition in the maritime communications market," he told us.
"It is likely to increase awareness of
maritime broadband's benefits and accelerate its market penetration. The service,
which comes with a number of features, is
offered at an attractive price."
Comms academy
Outside of its new broadband services,
SingTel has also recently been involved in
the launch of a new training facility in
Singapore, which aims to promote better
understanding of the different technologies
available for maritime communication.
"As part of our commitment to accelerate technological innovation in the region,
we have established a facility at the
Singapore Maritime Academy known as
SatCom@SMA," Mr Yong explained.
"As the first of its kind in Asia Pacific,
the centre has been set up to demonstrate
real-time broadband communications
between ship vessels and their offices on
land via satellite, as well as provide the
maritime community a glimpse of SingTel's
vision for the maritime industry."
Part of SingTel's work at this facility
includes inviting other external technology suppliers to get involved in showing
how broadband systems can change and
improve the way maritime organisations
do business.
"One of our key priorities is to collaborate with an ecosystem of application
providers to deliver greater value to customers in meeting their evolving communication needs," said Mr Yong.
"As such, the centre serves as an innovation hub for live testing of various
applications such as e-surveillance, voice
over IP, GSM-at-Sea and other solutions
by the industry's leading solution
providers. Apart from the development
and technology sharing initiatives, we also
work closely with our partners in joint
sales and marketing outreach efforts."
"In addition, SatCom@SMA is a proof
of concept lab that enables our customers
to experience the benefits of our wide
range of applications and always-on maritime broadband infrastructure through
simulation of satellite communications
between vessels and their onshore office."
"With technological advancements in
maritime communications, the shipping
community can certainly look forward to
bringing its communications infrastructure into the 21st century."
DS
[1] Here Mr Yong is referring to a
Gartner Industry report from December 1999, entitled 'Economic Effects
of Electronic Commerce on five
vertical sectors'.
[2] These figures are based on the
Commsys Maritime VSAT report 1st
edition V3.2, from 2008.
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SATCOMS
FleetBroadband at Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement
With its final satellite launched, and preparations for global availability taking shape, Inmarsat has been
conducting a number of Maritime Field Evaluations of its FleetBroadband service to evaluate
the performance of its flagship offering. Digital Ship spoke to Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement,
one of the customers involved in the tests, about the FleetBroadband experience
s part of the ongoing roll-out of
the FleetBroadband communications system, ultimately culminating in full global availability of the
service at the end of February next year,
Inmarsat has recently conducted a number
of Maritime Field Evaluations (MFEs)
with some of its international customers to
put the technology through its paces and
see how it copes with the rigours of modern maritime business.
One of the companies that was selected
for these tests was Bernard Schulte
Shipmanagement, and its vessel Marianne
Schulte. The ship was installed with a
FleetBroadband 500 terminal, by Thrane
and Thrane, operated via communications
services from Stratos (supported by
Telaccount Overseas), and sent out onto
the oceans to test the performance of the
new technology.
Adonis Violaris, director of Telaccount
Overseas and group marketing and communications manager with Bernard
Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), noted
that he was initially impressed with the
ease with which the vessel was broadband-enabled.
"The installation was very easy, it only
took a few hours to install the
FleetBroadband 500 onboard the vessel,"
he told us.
"Two people climbed up, no cranes or
anything. The antenna is something that
can be carried with four hands up to the
deck. It also has a very small below decks
unit, with everything we need to connect
to our network."
"We installed the system onboard the
Marianne Schulte mainly because of the
location where the vessel was trading, an
area that was covered by Inmarsat, but
also because we wanted to look at ways of
having good control over what's going on
A
onboard the vessel."
Once the system was fully installed,
BSM prepared to switch over its operational applications to the new communications system, moving from its existing
analogue Inmarsat-B service to the full IP
connectivity of FleetBroadband.
"A week before the installation the
Inmarsat-B on the vessel went totally out
of order, as strange as it sounds," said
Mr Violaris.
"However, we were very happy to see
that the existing e-mail platform that we
were using was still functioning over
FleetBroadband. We only had to make
some minor changes, to do with connecting to the IP infrastructure (a new feature
of FleetBroadband that was not part of
Inmarsat-B)."
With the switchover complete, BSM
began to look at ways it could test the
capabilities of its new network, and see
how much communications power it
could squeeze out of the new terminal.
"We did VPN connections, FTP file transfers, remote access from the office to the vessel, and vice versa," Mr Violaris explained.
"We also tested all of the other software
that we previously had onboard that needed to have access to the internet, or transfer packets with e-mail. These were all
tested, and they were a great success."
Open access
Since it was operating as part of an
Inmarsat evaluation project, BSM decided
to relax some of its communications controls and let the crew take advantage of
the broadband connection for the opening
few weeks.
"We did web browsing, and use of private e-mail like Yahoo or Hotmail," said
Mr Violaris.
"During the two months while we were
testing we allowed one month of unlimited access to everything someone could
think of as if we were on shore, since
Inmarsat was paying!"
"We wanted to see how much it would
cost by having always on connection with
unlimited access. They could use their email, chat programs like MSN, and even
Video Conferencing."
"So we made everyone onboard happy,
at least for a month! After that we put in
restrictions, that apply to every other ship
in the fleet, mainly that there is no web
browsing for the time being, but we will
start allowing them to use web pages that
are necessary for the master to visit, and
crew e-mail onboard the vessel."
While the crew was delighted to have
free access to their personal e-mail, the
additional communications options were
also appreciated from an operational point
of view. The master of the vessel was
asked for his own personal evaluation of
the system, which was sent to the
Telaccount Overseas office in Cyprus, and
he was full of praise for the new service.
He said: "The FleetBroadband is an excellent communications equipment, and
friendly to use. It has the capacity for fast
data sessions / streaming and clear voice
calls. It can also send large sizes of data files.
Having 24hr on-line access to the latest maritime information / world news provides
safety and welfare to the seafarers onboard."
The shore based management was also
pleased with a number of the new capabilities made possible by the improved communications system, which allowed for
greater control over what was happening
out at sea and helped to ensure the crew
was more content.
"Remote access to the vessels is very easy,"
said Mr Violaris. "We have linked in connections to the vessel, we can get on the main
server and make the changes that we want.
With the connections that we had before this
would have been almost impossible."
"Any applications that require high
bandwidth or high data transfer, this is
also possible now. We don't need to have
shipping-oriented applications anymore,
where we were trying to use the Mini-M
2.4 kbps connection we had."
"We can improve crew welfare by giving
access to the internet and access to e-mail,
in some cases chatting on MSN or VoIP, the
possibilities are there. I'm sure this will definitely improve the crew welfare."
Issues
Much to the delight of the crew, free internet access was allowed during the test period
Over the course of the testing period there
were a number of issues that BSM identified as potential concerns with having
FleetBroadband onboard. Chief among
these was the worry of having to run a
more complex IT infrastructure in a
remote location like a ship.
"Maintaining IT systems on board with
limited resources was our major concern,
The FleetBroadband 500 was carried
onboard and installed in a few hours
as operators," said Mr Violaris.
"We all know what it takes ashore with
the IT we have, the routers, the firewalls this also applies on our ships now. Having a
FleetBroadband, you can understand how it
is necessary to have these things onboard."
"I can tell you that, for the last two
months (of the testing), thankfully we did
not have any problems maintaining this IT
system on the ship. That's something we
were very sceptical and worried about,
about having an open line to the outside
world, or having remote access from the
office without having someone with IT
knowledge onboard our ship."
Other potential pitfalls that had concerned the company initially have proven
easier to deal with than they expected.
"Other concerns included the possible
abuse of the 'always on' satellite connection,
but the Land Earth Stations now provide
nice dashboards which you can access from
the office and put in the restrictions that you
want to apply," said Mr Violaris.
"If you don't want them to use the web,
or don't want them to use voice or the
ISDN channel, it's very easy. A click there
in the dashboard and it's gone."
"Another issue then is that the more
you use the internet, the more you need it.
We all know how it works, when you provide something like that people will definitely make use of it."
Billing
Apart from these operational concerns, Mr
Violaris also had an issue with every vessel operator's pet hate - satellite communication costs.
"Controlling the costs is not easy," he
told us. "High usage costs are a concern,
and there's a complicated tariff structure
which makes it nearly impossible to
choose what plan you want, whether you
Digital Ship
will use standard or SCAPs (Shared
Corporate Allowance Package) plans."
"Under the tariff structure, on the
Marianne Schulte, the crew were not very
happy with the voice calls cost. The tariffs
that are provided by Inmarsat on
FleetBroadband for voice calls are still very
high, compared to the Super Quite Time that
we had with Mini-M or even with the normal peak time."
"In this case we have
installed a Mini-M on the vessel in order to let the crew
make their voice calls like they
have in the past. Inmarsat definitely needs to do something
on that as wherever there is
FleetBroadband onboard a
vessel you will have unhappy
crew."
Mr Violaris also noted that
allocating costs that accrue
under shared allowance packages, and making sure that
crew charges are attributed to
the correct person, had
proven difficult during the
evaluation period.
"There are still no split
billing
facilities
for
FleetBroadband, and you
have to be careful as to what
services you give to the crew
and what you give to the
master," he told us.
"For the time the people are
on the PC, someone might
browse the CNN website,
someone else might browse
something else. For a voice
call the billing is easy, and
even for e-mails. If you allow
web browsing it can be a problem. In many countries looking at people's personal data is
not allowed, on an invoice you
can't show the web addresses
that they visited."
"Doing billing and splitting costs is one of the most
important things, and I still
haven't seen that working.
None of the providers, none
of the land earth station
operators provide something
like that."
"Splitting the costs to owners, managers, crews, it's an
issue that's important. We at
Telaccount Overseas (which
manages communications for
BSM) are in the process of
developing a system together
with our business partners to
solve the splitting issue and
overcome this problem."
Despite these issues,
which appear to be mostly
administration based and
could be improved by
Inmarsat as the service progresses, Mr Violaris has been
happy with the performance
of the technology, and
believes that it could prove
very beneficial to companies
that can extract value from
broadband connectivity.
He believes there are a
number of key areas that a
company should explore to determine if
this is indeed the right step for its business.
"Ask yourself key questions before you
step into the broadband environment," he
said. "What are the applications that you
want to use? Are you willing to work over
the internet the same way as you exchange
information in your offices? What are the
communication requirements of these
applications?"
"What does your company want to
improve? What connectivity type and IP
addressing do you require? Do you have
any additional traffic volume requirements? Do you want the corporate security policy automatically enforced on board
of your vessels?"
"Are you able to control the additional
traffic by establishing effective controls
onboard and the office? After all, even 432
kbps is not enough for 20 crew without
established controls."
"These are the questions that someone
has to examine before they change over to
broadband. And that's true for any broadband, not just FleetBroadband."
DS
SATCOMS
Creating value - IT strategy at Wallem
How much should you pay for your broadband satellite connectivity? Patrick Slesinger,
CIO of Wallem Shipmanagement, says he wouldn’t mind paying $20 per minute if he can extract $40 worth of value from using the system. Digital Ship looks at IT strategy, the Wallem way
ew would argue that information
technology has the potential to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of businesses in almost every type
of industry.
Satellite communications allow for the
instantaneous transmission of data
between vessels and on shore offices,
while sophisticated software systems can
organise this information in any number
of different ways to allow shipping companies to make faster decisions as to how
to organise their assets.
However, these IT systems themselves
cannot create competitive advantage for
those who use them - it is the planning
and processes organised by the people
who run these companies that can, if correctly supported, increase the profitability
of the organisation.
Patrick Slesinger, CIO and director of
Wallem Shipmanagement, has lived by
this philosophy through all of his experiences with maritime technology, and firmly believes that having a definite strategy
in place is the only way that a vessel operator can gain tactical value from its IT
investments.
"Our strategy is to enable the business
through a value driven and creative use of
IT," Mr Slesinger explained.
"It is not about bits and bytes. People
get very hung up about CPU cycles, quadcore and dual-core, and what have you.
That's not what IT is about."
"It's about creating value - delivering efficiencies and capabilities to the business."
F
Planning
The first part of the company IT strategy
needs to include plans detailing how the
company expects to develop over the coming years, and the demands that will place
on any IT systems that are installed.
implementation of the current generation.
There is little point in implementing a system today if you don't know what you're
going to do with it. One thing is guaranteed, once you've computerised a functional area, you will never go back to
paper, so you must be able to look three,
five, or ten years into the future."
Part of this planning involves the creation of multiple alternative solutions that
could be implemented to fulfil any particular function, to make sure that all of the
options have been considered before the
chequebook comes out.
"We demand three solutions every
time," said Mr Slesinger. "Why? Because
human beings, all of us, are lazy."
"The first solution you come up with is
guaranteed to be the easiest, but not necessarily the best. I demand from my staff
that we have three solutions, and they tell
me why the solution they're putting forward out of those three is best."
"We have to remain flexible, dynamic
and scalable. You can imagine how the
conversation would go if I told my managing director 'sorry, we can't take those
five ships, because they don't have the
right IT'. We have to be flexible, and we
have to be scalable."
Implementation and
delivery
Having selected the most appropriate system to suit the long term needs of the
business, the next step is to arrange for the
delivery and implementation of the technology. This requires a whole new level of
planning and examination if it is to be
done correctly, Mr Slesinger told us.
"Implementation
is
not
about
installing systems," he said. "We need to
be creating solutions, looking at processes. It's not good enough to successfully
'IT is about creating value - delivering efficiencies and capabilities to the business' Patrick Slesinger, Wallem Shipmanagement
"If you're not going to make a significant difference by implementing the system, don't bother. If you are going to make
a significant difference, it's going to have
an impact on the culture of the organisation. So change management, and culture
change management, is very important.
Process documentation and training is a
big part of that."
The implementation process, just like
the IT system itself, needs to be flexible
enough to deal with the changes that are
sure to occur within the business over the
course of the project.
"The business needs will also change
over time, so be realistic about what it is that
you're trying to achieve," said Mr Slesinger.
"Keep delivery cycles short - 3 months is
good, 6 months is the maximum."
"Don't just automate things - if you just
purely automate a process, all you're
going to do is increase cost, because the
“There is little point in implementing a system today if you don't know what you’re going
to do with it. One thing is guaranteed, once you've computerised a functional area,
you will never go back to paper.”
- Patrick Slesinger, CIO and director, Wallem Shipmanagement
"This has to be part of the corporate
strategy, solutions are not implemented
overnight," Mr Slesinger told us.
"You have to have a clearly documented strategy which looks at the three-to-five
year time period. If you implement a system today without a corporate strategy,
you'll be looking at the needs today never mind that it's going to take you a
year to implement that system."
"We plan the next generation before the
install a piece of software."
"There's a cost and a value of getting the
data right, and it's underestimated. People
go out and buy the software, start the installation, but don't focus on the base data."
"For an average system I'd say that 40 to
50 per cent of the cost of implementation is
getting the data right. If you're spending a
million dollars, you sure as hell better
have another $500,000 to get that system
running."
existing legacy system is probably fully
depreciated."
A successful implementation will be
fundamental to generating a return on any
investment in IT, and that success will in
turn be heavily influenced by how thoroughly the company understands the true
cost of ownership of the systems.
"TCO and ROI - what do they mean in
the real world?" said Mr Slesinger. "You've
got to involve the cost of the users, and
you've got to involve the cost of the
processes - you can't just look at TCO and
ROI from a system standpoint."
"Suppose a software costs me $10, and
another $2 per year to run it. My TCO over
three years would appear to be $16. But
that's not the case."
"All of the users using that system, you
need to take their salaries into account.
Why? If you implement a bad, inefficient
system, you're going to need more staff.
That will increase the cost of the system
and the process."
"You must know the cost of these systems, and understand the cost of the
process, to know the TCO and the ROI."
Even taking these costs into consideration, a company will need to plan how it
will deal with any changes that will occur
in its organisation to change potential
returns into improvements in efficiency
and effectiveness.
"If I implement a system for you, and
I'm going to deliver a 50 per cent gain in
efficiency, the ROI, quite clearly, is that
efficiency gain," Mr Slesinger explained.
"Or so you might think. But that's just
the potential ROI. You've got four people in
your department, so if there's a 50 per cent
gain in efficiency you've got one of three
choices - you can go out and get twice the
business, you get rid of half of the staff, or
you run at 50 per cent efficiency."
"I can't get that business for you or
make you fire people, so realised ROI is
totally different to potential ROI. The end
user needs to share that responsibility."
This responsibility also needs to
include the courage to admit mistakes and
step back from decisions that are plainly
not working, says Mr Slesinger.
"We plan, we check, we execute, we
check, we deliver, we check, and then we
do a reality check," he told us. "Did we
actually deliver what it was that the business needed?"
"One of the most important things, and
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MINIMUM COST, MAXIMUM
CONTROL OF YOUR SATELLITE
COMMUNICATIONS
Advanced E-mail Connectivity
Full Communications Suite
RAPIDOMAIL 5.0
• See features on the right
INSTANT MESSAGING
• Context and presence information
Users can see who is online and available for contact
Client software available for PC’s, laptop, mobile
phones, Blackberry’s, PDA’s
• Real time communication
• Store and forward function to send messages to users
not currently online
• Conference / chatroom facilities
• Full conversation history and archive
• File and document transfer facility
• Interface with shore based PDA / Blackberry devices
FAX
• Sends and receives faxes as e.mail
• Each vessel is allocated a unique fax number allowing
senders to use standard fax services
SMS
•
•
•
•
Simple to use interface
Send individual and group messages
Receive SMS replies
Long text function allows you to type long messages which are split and sent in sequence
• SMS Delivery notification - be alerted when a message
you send has not been received
INTERNET ACCESS
• User profiled secure internet access
• User authentication defines which websites or web pages
can be accessed by the user on the post paid account and
which on their personal pre paid account
• Caching and pre-fetching
• Content filtering
• Content security
• Full log reporting
COMPANY INTRANET
• Web based access
File sharing
Web links
Active directory synchronisation
Data import
FTP file transfers
• Input information directly to shore side servers
Improves operation efficiency
No costly daily update files
Custom designed form templates
• Automatic creation of back up onboard vessel for future
reference
• Easy to update – information can be added or removed
instantly
BILLING & REPORTING
NEW RAPIDOMAIL 5.0
• Up to the minute access to current vessel costs
• Per-user billing of service use; splits your terminal bill
into usage by user account
• Pre-paid and post paid billing
• Quota limits for post-paid service usage
• Real-time updates of session cost
• Full visibility of service use for accounting and cost
control
• Pre-paid account top-ups using Virtual PIN or online
Credit Card authorisation
NEW Advanced features
• Instant automated retrieval of mail received into ships
shore-side mailbox
• Auto-sync – synchronises dial up connections and starts
moving data within 3 seconds
• Antivirus – with automatic updates, average size 20kb
per day
• Crew pre-paid data cards
REMOTE SUPPORT
• Quickly establish remote control with minimum data cost
• Access for AND Group support personnel and shipping
company IT administrators
• Drag and drop two way file transfer
• Service unattended machines
• Extensive system snapshot with remote diagnostics
• Reboot and reconnect
BACK OFFICE
• Service access is controlled by shore-side managers, via
our web-portal
• Detailed service usage billing reports available online
• Enterprise class fully hosted email servers
• Email Spam and virus filtering
• Sophisticated email filter rules with whitelist / blacklist
and size constraints
• Web filter with virus, spy-ware and mal-ware protection
• Shore-side IP firewall to block unwanted traffic
• Fine grain control of web site access from the server
• Enterprise class private hosted Instant Messenger server
SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED FREE
• IPSIGNATURE & RAPIDSOMAIL SOFTWARE is FREE OF
CHARGE, there are no monthly fees or licence cost, users
only pay for airtime incurred
Other Features
• Automated set up procedure, all settings can be
maintained and updated shore side
• Advanced data compression – compresses data by 90%
• Enterprise class antivirus and spam filters
• Full archiving
• Point of failure restart
• Automated file transfer protocol to interface with
existing applications
• Split billing capability
• Web based reporting including;
• Up to the minute vessel costs
• Connection history – access to Inbox and Outbox
records
• News and weather reporting service
For further information e-mail
[email protected]
Tanners Bank • North Shields • Tyne & Wear • NE30 1JH
Tel: +44 (0) 870 444 9679 Sales: +44 (0) 870 444 9681
www.and-group.net
24/7 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
• AND Group provide full 24/7 support for all of our
software products. Our support personnel have a
minimum of 5 years experience in satellite
communication systems
New sales, service and support centre
AND Maritime Satellite Solutions Hellas MEPE
opens in Athens 1st September 2008,
contact: [email protected] for further details
Digital Ship
something that IT professionals tend to be
very bad at, is killing projects that do not
deliver what is needed. 'We've spent $1
million on this, I can't kill it, that would
look like a failure'."
"If you've spent that money and it's
going to cost you another $100,000 per
year to run a system that delivers no
value, surely you're better off to kill it than
to make that cost $1.1 million, then $1.2
million, then $1.3 million. You have a system that's not delivering value, that you
have to maintain. That's just costing more
and more money."
Data
With the new IT system fully implemented, and strategically organised to flexibly
adjust to the company's changing needs,
the organisation will now have a fresh
supply of operational data or a host of
new capabilities that need to be leveraged
to the firm's advantage.
Once again, planning is a key element
in turning this data from information into
value, Mr Slesinger told us.
"Not all data is created equal," he said.
"Not all data has to be ashore within a
nanosecond, you have data classes. Some
data doesn't change, some data is semidynamic, some is dynamic, and some is
ad-hoc."
"If we look at semi-dynamic data, say it
changes once a month, what's wrong with
sending it over the ‘747-net’? You may be
familiar with that, it goes by the initials
UPS and DHL. Static data is getting
refreshed, and refreshed, because people
do not understand that it is data that is
embedded into the process."
"Ship's mail is a perfectly ok way to distribute static and semi-static data. For
dynamic data, think about what basis you
are sending it under. People send Excel
spreadsheets, and make it look nice by
embedding the company logo - do you
need to send that ashore?"
While the advent of faster and cheaper
satellite communications systems have
made the transfer of data easier than ever
before, Mr Slesinger worries that consideration is not being to given to whether or
not that transfer is necessary.
"I remember something I said in 1994,
which is a long time ago - 'It is no longer a
question of can we have the data available
and inherited across multiple applications
and processes (shore and / or vessel), now
the question is …What data should be
where, when and why?'" he said.
"A lot of people have said 'we need real
time data ashore'. But how many offices
actually run 24/7? If the data arrives in the
office at 6pm on a Friday it's going to get
looked at at 8am on Monday. You just
paid a massive premium to have data sitting there for 48 hours."
"If the data is going to be analysed, can
you do this analysis onboard the vessel,
and just send the results? If it's for aggregation, what's the reporting cycle? You
need to be process aware. Look at what
you're trying to achieve from the process,
and then reengineer your data needs."
The use of online applications is one
example where Mr Slesinger feels that the
available technical capabilities are ahead
of the actual needs of the industry.
"The current generation of maritime
packaged software is generally optimised
for store and forward, because that's the
world we live in," he said.
"What processes really require online
connections? Store and forward creates
resilient processes, that's the nature of it.
Online processes are more vulnerable and
prone to disruption."
While satellite communications systems such as VSAT may offer the enticing
proposition of 'all you can eat' data transmission at a fixed cost, Mr Slesinger is
wary of relying on such promises for critical processes.
"Always-on isn't always on, even if the
satellites are working perfectly there can
be a failure aboard the vessel," he told us.
"If you have a process that works over
always-on, I can guarantee you that some
of the time they won't work."
"You can use the bandwidth because it's
free, you can give free calls to people on the
vessel. Well, the only way that a call will be
free is if you don't pay the staff. There's no
such thing as free airtime. If you have an
always-on connection you will always use
the bandwidth, it just happens."
"Cheap minutes and megabytes do not
add value. I'd be quite happy to spend $20
per minute over satellite if I was getting
$40 worth of value. I don't care what the
cost is, I care about the return on making
that expenditure."
"The best way to save money is to not
spend it, so ensure that your IT choices
add value to your business today, and for
the future."
Supplier Relations
and their nearest competitors, with ticks
and crosses of what they have that the others don't. It doesn't matter how many ticks
you have, it's about the ticks I want."
Mr Slesinger also points out that this
partnership has to work both ways, and
that shipping companies may need to be
careful what they wish for when it comes
to technical demands.
"Suppliers only develop what we ask
for," he said. "If you look at systems like
Microsoft Word, where the average user
will use only 10 or 20 per cent of the functionality, it's because someone turned
round one afternoon and said 'I require this
functionality or I won't buy your system'."
"Developers don't go and spend money
on things they think we're not going to buy,
so someone, somewhere, asked for that
functionality. Suppliers are a long term
partner, and need to be treated as such."
Mr Slesinger also believes that it is beneficial to develop a number of different
partnerships with vendors in the industry,
and to get the 'best of breed' from all of
those available.
"One stop shops may not be the best
value proposition," he told us. "In Wallem
we have a crew solution from one supplier,
planned maintenance from another, and so
on. We add value by having the best in
class vertical. Don't just tick the box, think
of the business process, and of value."
"We always buy before we build systems ourselves. A lot of people turn
around and say 'with the number of vessels you have, why don't you write your
own planned maintenance system'. The
Mr Slesinger believes that choosing a
satellite communications provider, just
like choosing any other type of IT vendor,
needs to be based on partnership, where
the suppliers can take a profit by providing value to the vessel operator.
"We, as a ship owner, manager, charterer and so on, need our vendors to be able
to tell us what our costs are at any given
time, and how they've expanded," he said.
"We need them to stay around too,
that's one of the most important things,
the partnership. We want to talk to people
on the level of a strategic partnership, and
that's where we'll get the value."
"We need to know their strategy and
direction. When you partner with a supplier it is a long term relationship, so you
need to understand their strategy and
direction. Where are they going, what is
their plan, and is their plan aligned with
your strategy?"
With a software provider, Mr Slesinger
suggests that this partnership should also
include provisions to deal with potential
problems in the future.
"Put the source code into escrow, and
put together user groups - if the organisations goes out of business, and we've seen
it happen to some large organisations, if
you've got the source code you can go to
developers with it when you need support," he told us.
"Ensure your ability to be able to integrate, to be able to get your data out of the
system. If you can't get your data out you
can be held to ransom. And don't buy
'brochureware' - who hasn't been to a hotel
that didn't quite match up to how it
looked in the brochure?"
"Buy the features you need, I hate suppliers putting grids together with them
time to market, the support costs, the ability to be able to deliver best practices
across a wider user community - these are
some of the reasons."
"If we cannot find the maritime application to meet our needs, we 'marinise' a
terrestrial application - we'll find an
industry that has an analogous process,
and we'll take that and marinise it. That
might be as simple as changing what
appears on the screen, from 'warehouse' to
'vessel', for example. We only really build
if nothing is available."
With the careful planning of these steps
in the IT strategy, shipping companies can
position themselves to extract the maximum value from their satellite communications and software systems.
However, Mr Slesinger warns against
complacency despite any successes, as
change is always waiting around the corner.
"Technology has a nasty habit of evolving quicker than the business processes
that use it," he told us.
"The next 'best thing' will come, without the users asking for it. The engineers
will design it and they'll see if the owners
will pay for it. It'll happen."
"But how are we going to derive value?
I want to work with the communications
providers to find how we're going to drive
value out of FleetBroadband or VSAT, or
anything else."
"There's some interesting technology,
but what are the applications, what is the
'killer app'? It's down to the communications providers to create value. Help us to
help you."
DS
SATCOMS
A VSAT upgrade at CCC
When the bills for its communications system began to pile up, CCC (Underwater Engineering) S.A.L.
began to look for a satcom alternative - and found it could more than halve its monthly bill by switching
to VSAT (very small aperture terminal). Capt Derrick Green of CCC told Digital Ship about his VSAT experience
onsolidated Contractors Company (Underwater Engineering)
S.A.L., or CCC, is a provider of
offshore construction and subsea services
to the offshore and Oil and Gas industry in
the Middle East.
A major part of this business involves
the transfer of large amounts of data, to
run various applications onshore and
keep the data-hungry oil and gas customers happy.
So when Derrick Green, marine
superintendent with CCC Underwater
Engineering, joined the company and was
tasked with captaining the newly-built
CCC Pioneer he was shocked to find the vessel equipped with communications technology that was more than a decade old.
"The CCC Pioneer was my command for
approximately two and a half years, she's a
dive support vessel (DSV), and she works
almost exclusively in the Persian Gulf and
on the west coast of India," he told us.
"When she was built in 2005 she was
delivered with a standard configuration,
with a single Inmarsat-B. At that time the
management of the company felt that
would be sufficient, but as time moved on,
of course, that changed."
Having a mere 9.6kbps available to perform all of the ship's duties for its clients
came as a surprise to Capt Green when he
arrived aboard the CCC Pioneer.
"I joined the ship in September of 2005,
went on board and had a look around, and
said 'nice boat - where's the VSAT?'" he said.
"They said 'we don't have one, we don't
think we need one'. I said 'yes, you do' they
said 'no we don't' - so I said 'ok, we'll see'."
"Most of the companies that I had
worked for had been European companies, and a lot of these companies looked
at VSAT when it was first introduced and
saw that it was the way to go. So most of
the ships that I sailed on were equipped
with VSAT."
Capt Green was certain that the kind of
work that this vessel would have to perform, and the level of data transfer that
would be expected between the ship and
shore, would prove to be too much to handle for the satcom system.
"A DSV is a floating construction site
with engines," he said. "We have engineers on board, we have project managers
on board - you name it we've got it. And
when you're working for people like
Aramco, Occidental, QP, and Maersk,
you're working on very large and very
expensive projects that have very tight
time schedules."
"The ability to transfer documentation
in that environment becomes very, very
important, and you don't have time to
wait around for a 9.6kbps connection to
deliver a 2.6MB file. People tend to get a
little bit annoyed."
C
The e-mail system that had been set up
by the company operated using the Dualog
system, and Capt Green was happy to see
that this could perform quite adequately
over the Inmarsat-B connection.
However, as time went on, other communications requirements onboard the
vessel began to take their toll, and
strained the resources available over the
satellite terminal - particularly with
regard to the budgets.
"As the Inmarsat-B telephone calls and
data charges started to climb, I started to see
a little shift in emphasis," said Capt Green.
"A life at sea is difficult enough, but
when you can't call your home, or you
can't send an e-mail home, that makes it
doubly hard."
"Then of course there was the ability to
transfer information back and forth, big
files, management of change documentation, all those types of things."
With these potential benefits in mind,
CCC decided to implement the Sealink
VSAT communications system by
Marlink.
"The solution that we ultimately decided upon was a Ku-band system, that runs
The radar antennas on the CCC Pioneer had to be raised four metres
to accommodate the VSAT terminal
"The thing that basically broke the
camel's back, so to speak, was a $13,500
phone bill. I took this to the general manager of the company and said 'there you
go, $13,500 - with a VSAT you'd spend
$4,800'. He said 'right, do it'."
VSAT advantages
Capt Green was thankful that this basic
financial lesson had been enough to convince the company to move to VSAT, but
notes that this was just one of a number of
areas that he hoped would see some
improvement through an upgrade of the
satellite communications.
"There are several reasons why I was
pushing for VSAT, and some of the management were pushing for it," he
explained. "One of these was cost, simple
as that - $13,500 versus $4,800. You don't
need to be an MIT physicist to figure that
out."
"The other thing that came into it was
that my crew were basically composed of
Indians, Pakistanis, and people from other
developing countries. To make a phone
call home for them at $1.50 per minute,
they couldn't really afford it, and for a person on a two year contract at sea to have
no contact home…..that was another big
reason to do it."
down to the below-deck equipment and
interfaces with our PABX onboard," said
Capt Green.
"It's a good system, with 256 kbps up
and down, and provides good coverage
and reasonable speed for the approximately 30 PCs on that network. Ok, if
everybody's online at once, like anything
else the speed will drop down, but if it's
seven or eight people at once, you get
good speed."
Capt Green has found that the 256kbps
capability has been much better suited
to the particular requirements of the CCC
Pioneer than the previous communications
set-up.
"Inmarsat-B has saved a lot of people's
lives over the years, and it's very good, but
as a medium for regular communication it
got pricey, and the speed wasn't what we
required," he said. "The ability to run VPNs
over Inmarsat-B just wasn't there either."
"In our industry, you have to have
planned maintenance systems, and the
computer has to have planned maintenance systems, and these all rely on the
ability to transfer information back and
forth on a daily basis, if not two or three
times a day, in order to meet the ISM conventions. This was a part of why we needed to install it."
Installation
While Capt Green has been happy with
the results of this switch to VSAT, getting
the system installed on the vessel was not
quite as straight forward as he had first
anticipated.
"We went up on to the monkey island
and looked at where we were going to put
this thing," he said. "What we discovered
were that there were several limitations
that you have to be careful about."
"One is the X- and S-band radars. You
don't want them in the same plain as your
VSAT, so we had to juggle some radars
around. Which we did."
"Being a construction ship, and having a
bunch of welders onboard, I said 'right boys,
we need to lift those radars'. So off they went
to the monkey island with a bunch of steel,
and moved my radars up four metres, so we
could install the Ku-band."
With the antenna installed, the VSAT
was connected to a Cisco router, with the
maintenance and purchasing system allocated a dedicated port to send and receive
information.
The company has also connected the
ship's dynamic positioning system to the
communications, for remote monitoring
by the equipment manufacturers.
"This basically means that the manufacturer can dial-in to the ship and do a diagnostic on the ship while it's operating,"
said Capt Green.
"If we're having a problem, or if we
have an update to do to the software, we
can literally just dial-in. When you start
dealing with $50,000 or $70,000 per day for
the ship, and they can fix problems in 20
minutes dialling in through the VSAT,
that's a lot better than spending five days
waiting for a technician to fly in. For us it
was a no-brainer."
The company has also seen an immediate
reduction in its communications bills, and
has also been able to offer a whole new range
of options to the crew to keep in touch with
their loved ones at home, an improvement
that has particularly pleased Capt Green.
"It's been a bit of a 'touchy feely' thing,
the management wanted to see whether it
was going to be beneficial to the company
or whether it was going to be overly
expensive," he said. "But I'm happy to note
that the telephone bills were cut in half."
"The crew now have e-mail whenever
they want it, and they have the ability to
call home, and that's one of the big advantages. The Pakistani crew, for example,
went from $1.50 per minute to $0.13 per
minute. The Indian crew went from $1.50
per minute to $0.06 per minute to the cities
or $0.07 outside. I call Halifax, Nova
Scotia, and it's $0.02 per minute for me."
"And, of course, the ability of the engineers onboard to transfer data went
straight through the roof."
Digital Ship
Further upgrades
Despite enjoying this range of benefits
since the Ku-band was installed on the
vessel, Capt Green is already eager for the
next upgrade, to a C-band VSAT system.
"The compromise (when we decided to
go for VSAT) was to install a Ku-band,
that's been operational now for about a
year and a half," he explained.
"One of the things we did
notice with Ku-band is that
there are certain limitations. I
first wanted the management to get a C-band VSAT,
but they wanted to start off
just putting their toe in the
water and get Ku-band,
which works great 90 per
cent of the time."
"The problem with Kuband, especially in our area,
is that things like haze, sandstorms, and atmospherics,
will degrade the signal quite
substantially, so there are
times that the Ku-band goes
down and we can't use it. Cband doesn't have that limitation, it'll work fine any
time. Our upper management has decided that Cband is the way to go."
CCC is currently progressing with its C-band
VSAT implementation plan,
and expects to have a new
dome installed on the vessel
by the end of the summer,
2008.
"It will bring other advantages, it will allow us to connect our personnel system so
we can track crew members'
certification and the like both
on the ship and ashore, and
it will add the ability to
crank the speed up," Capt
Green explained.
"And, of course, there's
the fact that it's worldwide
and we don't have to worry
about moving from the
Persian Gulf to the west
coast of India, and needing
to switch satellites."
"That was one of the factors in moving to C-band,
there are areas in the world
where there just isn't coverage of Ku-band, but with Cband we don't have that
problem, so we're making
the move. In 2011 we'll be
taking delivery of a new vessel, and that vessel will have
a C-band installed on it from
the start, and will be fully
integrated."
Capt Green says that he
intends to learn some lessons
from his experience of the
previous VSAT installation,
and get the system up and
running at maximum capability as quickly as possible.
"One key thing is avoiding blind sectors, where the
satellite can't see the dome,"
he said.
"Unfortunately, when we
first installed this, I managed to put it in
the wrong place, so that when we're on a
north-westerly heading we had a dead
spot. Learn from my mistake, if you're
going to put it somewhere build a mast
and put it up high, as high up as possible."
"What we'll be doing in December,
we'll be putting on a new gantry-type
mast, and the new C-band, which has a
2.5m diameter, will be up at the top.
That'll eliminate the blind spot."
"We also talked about using dual
domes, using a switch network down
below so when the signal drops below a
certain level it automatically switches
over. However, then we'd be back up into
the $13,000 per month range - and that
kind of defeats the purpose!"
With these precautions already built
into the plans, Capt Green is excited about
the possibilities that might result from
moving to a higher-speed, globally accessible system.
"This has been one of the best moves
we've ever made," he said. "It makes
a world of difference to everybody
onboard."
DS
SATCOMS
Wireless VoIP - the GSM alternative
An Austrian start-up has launched a wireless VoIP maritime communications service that it hopes will rival onboard
GSM as a crew calling solution. Digital Ship spoke to Peter Martin, CEO of 7CCell, about this new technology
ewly formed Austrian maritime
communications
company
7CCell is aiming to bring a new
dimension to the crew calling market with
the launch of its Com4Crew communications service, a system that uses Voice over
IP (VoIP) protocols to offer low cost phone
calls to mariners.
N
emulate, to some extent, the GSM experience for seafarers on deep-sea voyages,
without having to create a GSM network
on the vessel.
"In this industry it's very common to
make direct comparisons to other vendors,
and as a company that promotes mobile
communications for crew the most com-
providers, in the sense that the system is
designed to run over VSAT, rather than
the Inmarsat Fleet 33 which carries the
BOW service.
"What we need is a broadband connection that allows us to funnel the VoIP, and
at the moment I think that this is only
viable, with reasonable cost, over VSAT
solutions, which are flat rate," he told us.
"With FleetBroadband everything is too
expensive."
Set-up
'GSM is an old technology - VoIP is different' - Peter Martin, 7CCell
The system works by setting up a wireless network onboard the vessel, which
then carries signals from compatible handsets over the internet to connect with the
telephone exchange ashore. The system
can operate over satellite links of bandwidth greater than 64 kbps.
Peter Martin, president of 7CCell and
formerly CEO of Nauticast, says he is
excited by the potential impact that this
service may have on the maritime communications market.
"Long ago, I looked into the GSM market in the shipping industry," he told us.
"I quit my job at Nauticast because I
wanted to start this new business, I was
doing some consultancy work for a mobile
operator on a cruise line project, and I
couldn't understand why they were so
adamant about entering a market that is so
saturated. But as I was from the commercial marine market I started thinking about
doing that for crew communications."
"I saw (maritime GSM provider) Blue
Ocean Wireless come about, and thought
there must be a need for this, since I'm
not the only one thinking about it. We
serve the same needs, but have a completely different approach."
Mr Martin says that 7CCell is aiming to
mon comparison now is with GSM
providers," he explained.
"Basically you can say that the services
that we offer are the same, and more. It's
like mobile phones, with both depending
on a satellite connection to carry the signals, so we have the same limitations
on the satellite side as any GSM provider
is facing."
"However, GSM is an old technology, it
will be there but you won't get anything
else out of it than you already get. VoIP
is different."
While Mr Martin mentions Blue Ocean
Wireless (BOW) as a potential rival, the
7CCell set-up probably bears a closer
resemblance to other maritime GSM
The 7CCell system works by connecting a
wireless network onboard the vessel to the
satellite system, via a specially developed
gateway that manages the communications process.
Like land based VoIP systems, the communications travel via the internet into the
telephone exchange, where the call can
then be connected with any required
phone number.
Users access the system by taking out a
personal subscription with 7CCell, which
will then allocate a virtual 'phone number'
to that person. To make or receive calls the
crewmember just needs to have a VoIPcapable handset and they are ready to go.
The system can also handle multiple
connections simultaneously, allowing
groups of seafarers to make calls at the
same time, depending on the set-up.
"You can access it with just VoIP
phones, like Skype phones, but we are also
offering a dual-mode handset, which is a
GSM handset that is also capable of WiFi
VoIP calls," Mr Marin explained.
"The dual-mode phones range from
about $250, depending on the functionality
you want. The single mode handsets are
about $100. We have an intelligent gateway, that is an access point and gateway at
the same time, that can handle a large number of additional access points. It's not limited to just one access point. If you want to
add an extra access point it costs very little,
just a couple of hundred dollars."
"Every seaman can become a subscriber, where he would get his own calling ID. It's like you have with your cell
phone, but it's not a SIM card. We assign a
fixed line number to him, not a mobile
one, so if you call the person you don't pay
to call a mobile network, you just pay a
fixed line cost."
"For the seafarers themselves there is
no subscription fee for the standard calling IDs. They can choose from four country codes, which are Italian, Romanian,
German or from the UK, considering what
will be the best cost for their family calling
a fixed line number in these countries.
This is something that GSM providers
cannot offer."
The benefit of having a land-based number, rather than a mobile one, will be felt by
the seafarer's family and friends rather than
the mariner onboard, as it should reduce
the cost of placing a call to the vessel. The
option also exists for those on land who
want to stay in touch with their seafaring
loved ones to join the service as subscribers, to reduce call costs further.
"When the family members can become
subscribers to our service, then they can
use it like Skype, where they buy credit
and from their PC, or if they have a WiFi
phone, they can initiate calls from shore to
the ship," Mr Martin told us.
"Then the cost is even less, they will
pay maybe $0.04 per minute."
"There's no monthly subscription cost
for the seafarers, they just register with us,
get their number assigned, and buy prepaid credit. He then pays a per-minute
charge, for outbound calls it's $0.99, from
ship-to-shore, and to receive calls it's
$0.75. It can also be offered on a post-paid
basis if the shipowner says 'ok, I'll take
care of the bill on the account'."
Additional services
SMS will also be available through the
service, which Mr Martin says will be in
the range of about $0.50 per message.
GPRS, used for mobile e-mail on devices
like the BlackBerry, is not supported, but
alternatives will be available.
"GPRS is not supported on the WiFi
network, but there will be an e-mail application for the handset," he said. "We're
working with the e-mail gateways and
SMS gateways so you'll be able to work
with all of these messages."
"We're also looking at voice SMS, where
you record a minute of voice and send that
to a server where it can be accessed by your
family. The cost for that would be like the
cost of SMS, because it's not time critical
like the voice, you can collect these 'voicemails' and send them at once."
“In this industry it’s very common to make direct comparisons to other vendors,
and as a company that promotes mobile communications for crew
the most common comparison now is with GSM providers.”
- Peter Martin, president of 7CCell
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One of the main benefits that this system, and GSM communications, can offer
is privacy for crewmembers who would
like to speak privately with those at home,
and Mr Martin sees this as a huge benefit
in any crew calling system.
"For calling people onboard, the first
thing is that you give them mobility to use
their own individual handset, but it also
enables them to receive calls," he said.
"If you have a fixed Inmarsat or Iridium
phone somewhere nobody will phone it.
Then the calling party has least cost routing to get connected to the person
onboard. With this system they can be
anywhere onboard where there is a WiFi
signal."
One advantage that Mr Martin does
see his system offering to maritime operators is the avoidance of potential complications with an onboard GSM network
interfering with the rights of terrestrial
mobile operators as the vessel gets closer
to shore.
An onboard GSM network on a ship
has to shut down once it comes within 12
miles of the coast of any state, so as not to
infringe upon the GSM licences awarded
to operators within that territory. WiFi
does not carry such a restriction, so the
VoIP system can continue to operate in
areas where GSM can not.
"It's a competitor to GSM, but the main
difference is in the operation of the system," said Mr Martin.
"A vessel that has GSM onboard has to
turn it off close to shore in order not to
interfere with the local licensees. The WiFi
network is completely different, there's no
limitation to its use, wherever you are."
"If the vessel can connect to port
WiMax, like in Singapore, then the VoIP
can be channelled over the WiMax on the
terrestrial tariff of a couple of cents. SMS
will be available too, and internet access
will be available in the next year, with user
accounts for internet use."
On the corporate level, the Com4Crew
service will also offer wireless communications between handsets onboard the
same vessel, and ship-to-ship calling within the same fleet.
"We can offer closed user groups, so
one vessel can be a closed group where
people onboard the vessel can call each
other on the phone, and the calls will not
be sent over the satellite and switched in a
Filipino GSM network, it will be switched
in our box," said Mr Martin.
"In principal you could roll out the system over the entire vessel, put in a lot of
access points, and you have your internal
communications."
"Ship-to-ship is the same, if the
shipowner has more than one ship on the
system, if he pays the satellite airtime then
we give him the calls from ship-to-ship for
free. If we have to pay for the satellite airtime, of course we will have to ask for
something for that, but if not it's free."
A VoIP phone like this one will allow the seafarer to make or receive calls
on their own private number
Costs
7CCell is offering its service through two
different models, where a shipowner can
buy the equipment outright, or sign a fixedterm contract and pay in instalments over
the contract lifetime, or use the equipment
through a leasing arrangement.
"The vessel can either purchase the
hardware, or there will be a certain kind
of subscription to operate the equipment
onboard, where we keep certain rights
and titles to the equipment," said
Mr Martin.
"Whether it's leased on a monthly basis,
or the shipowner says they want to pay it
off at once because they’re not interested
in extending their OpEx for the next five
years, whatever the model is we can deal
with it."
"The equipment cost is less than $10,000
per vessel, if we do it on a monthly basis,
for a five year contract, it's going to be
something like $200 to $250 per month."
Of course, theoretically shipping companies could set-up WiFi-based phone
networks onboard the vessels themselves,
without the need for an external service
provider.
With a wireless router connected to the
vessel's internet link, a crew member
could make calls via the free Skype VoIP
service on any laptop, or could even buy a
handset for about $150 to make calls without a computer.
Skype calls to land-based phones in
most parts of the world are generally less
than $0.10 per minute, and if the ship did
not have to pay any more for the internet
connection, having unlimited data usage
via a fixed fee VSAT system, it could
prove a cheap calling alternative
Skype can also be used to create a land
based phone number to accept calls that
are then routed to a VoIP handset, for a
small monthly fee, so the convenience of
having an inbound number on a mobile
handset could be achieved.
However, while this would offer most
of the same services without a large
expenditure on equipment, Mr Martin
points out that Skype does not operate
well over satellite connections, as it was
not designed to cope with the latency
involved in sending signals from a ship
into space, and back down again.
Skype was developed for use over terrestrial systems, and the lightning-fast broadband connections available in most homes
and offices today. The 7CCell gateway is
specifically designed to work in a maritime
environment, where much slower speeds
over expensive satellite systems are the only
way of creating internet connections.
"With a Skype phone, the voice quality
with the latency over the satellite will not
work, there are a lot of limitations with
that," Mr Martin told us.
"The VoIP protocol we use is standardised and optimised for use over satellite.
Setting up a Skype network like that
would be rather difficult."
Mr Martin also points out that the internal communications service offered by
7CCell, which bypasses the internet connection, would not be possible over Skype.
The 7CCell system is currently undergoing testing with trial customers in
Germany, Norway and Cyprus, and the
company notes that one of these trial customers has already committed to
installing the service on one of its newbuild vessels, due for delivery in 2009.
"We have some pilot customers who
have agreed to do installations, which will
continue during September," said Mr
Martin.
"We have tested the entire quality of
service, with the latency over the satellite we measured up to 900 milliseconds of
latency over the satellite and still managed
to have a very good quality of voice service. With GSM, if it goes above 500 milliseconds the quality is not good. So we
believe we have a good service to offer."
The company has also recently been
chosen by WiFi supplier Aruba Networks
to act as its exclusive maritime distributor.
Mr Martin is hopeful that these installations are just the beginning of a new wave
of interest in crew communications, and
on-board VoIP calling.
DS
Visitors to the SMM exhibition can
visit the 7CCell stand, number 436, in
hall B7 for a live demonstration of the
VoIP calling system
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Digital Ship
SOFTWARE NEWS
Carnival implements AMOS/Mimic CBM system Bunkers (Gibraltar) installs planned maintenance
www.spectec.net
www.james-fisher.co.uk
Carnival UK has deployed a combined
AMOS/Mimic condition based maintenance system across its fleet, with nine
vessels reported to have successfully completed the implementation.
SpecTec, developer of the AMOS software system, and James Fisher, the company responsible for MIMIC, recently
announced a partnership agreement to
jointly market and deliver condition based
monitoring systems.
James Fisher had been invited to submit a proposal to Carnival UK with a view
to installing a condition based maintenance system that would measure and
monitor changes in patterns of machinery
behaviour through parameters such as
vibration, pressure, current, and heat.
With further investigation of the
requirements of the company it was decided that, rather than install a new system as
a replacement for its traditional planned
maintenance set-up, Carnival UK should
look to complement the existing system
with improved technology.
James Fisher then worked with both
SpecTec and Carnival UK on the project
to develop an integration of its CMMS
(computerised maintenance management
software) and CM (condition monitoring)
systems.
The merger of AMOS and Mimic has
allowed AMOS to become a fully-fledged
condition-based maintenance system that
enables planning and undertaking of CBM
tasks, with the results of the task fully
incorporated into maintenance planning.
Vibration data and process parameters
are being collected on up to 90 assets
onboard each vessel. The data is then
uploaded into the Mimic CM system and
fully accessible through the AMOS CMMS
system, thereby allowing condition monitoring to influence the day-to-day maintenance programme.
As part of Carnival UK's maintenance
strategy, outsourcing the diagnostics and
monitoring of machinery also helps to maximise asset availability and vessel operational efficiency. In this regard, James Fisher
provides monthly analysis reports that
report machine condition back to the superintendents and chief engineers.
In other news, SpecTec reports that its
Cypriot office has signed another new
contract with Ocean Ship Management,
based in Athens, Greece, for the AMOS
system.
AMOS Business Suite has since been
installed in the Ocean Ship Management
office and on board the first vessel, the
MCP Athens. The next two vessels will be
delivered in 2009.
Mini Container Pool, or MCP, is a commercial pool of same-type feeder vessels,
founded in Cyprus in July 2005 by a small
number of ship owners who decided to
invest into a series of 630 TEU feeder vessels.
MCP now has 27 identical sister vessels.
The ships will all be technically managed by management companies Ocean
Ship Management and Österreichischer
Lloyd Ship Management (Cyprus) Ltd.
US Maritime Administration to use PortVision
www.portvision.com
AIRSIS has announced that its PortVision
service has been selected by the US
Department of Transportation's Maritime
Administration to provide maritime data
analytics and historical reporting for its
MarView internet portal.
Under the subscriber agreement,
Maritime Administration employees will
have access to PortVision through the
MarView portal. External MarView users
will be able to individually subscribe to
PortVision through AIRSIS' existing federal GSA schedule.
MarView users will be able to use the
system to access the 1.5 billion record data
warehouse maintained by PortVision,
which includes individual vessel location
reports for AIS-enabled vessels, as well as
vessel arrivals, departures and passings
for major ports and waterways across
North America.
The system also includes an animated
playback feature, to analyse historical vessel movements, and offers business intelligence reporting to follow vessel and terminal activities.
Under the Agreement, AIRSIS will host
the PortVision platform for the Maritime
Administration in addition to providing system integration and engineering services.
UECC installs planning system
www.quintiq.com
Short-sea carrier UECC is to install a planning and optimisation system from
Quintiq for its Europe-wide operations.
Quintiq's Advanced Planning and
Scheduling (APS) solution will provide
real-time key performance indicators to
the company, presented on personalised
screens, enabling it to make optimal planning decisions that can be fine tuned as
new information emerges.
UECC hopes that this will improve
communication between its Fleet
Operation and Customer Service processes, enabling efficient planning of cargo to
vessels.
The company will then be able to optimise vessel setup and utilisation by taking
into account the cargo to be shipped and
the capacity at the individual terminals.
Development began in mid-June 2008,
and the companies say they expect to see
savings approximately four months after
going live.
Craig Jasienski, managing director of
UECC, said: "Customers are asking us for
cost-efficient solutions, to reduce operation cost, for increased flexibility and
capacity, and for more real-time information sharing. With Quintiq we can provide
customers with optimal solutions,
improve operational efficiency and reduce
cost in our value chain."
www.marinesoftware.co.uk
UK based Marine Software Ltd reports that
it has recently provided Marine Planned
Maintenance (MPM) systems to Bunkers
(Gibraltar) Limited, which operates the two
tankers MT Europa Venture (43,368 gt) and
MT Europa Supplier I (4,270 gt).
Bunkers (Gibraltar) Limited has also
commissioned Marine Software to provide a full MPM database set-up for both
tankers, covering all survey and non-sur-
Europa Supplier has a new planned
maintenance system
vey maintenance.
Installation of the system included an
initial ship visit to collect the various
schedules while the setup process was
conducted back in the UK. This process
was then completed on-site during final
system installation, along with full user
based training.
Bunkers (Gibraltar) Limited were provided with an office based system, allowing for the regular exchange of data
between their ship and office modules, as
part of the package.
Marine Software has also been working with Svitzer UK, to provide their
Superintendent Engineers with individual
laptop Marine Project Management software, to ensure that dry dock specifications can be closely monitored and updated on-site during vessel refit periods.
Once docking is completed, the
finalised work can ~be uploaded onto the
central server for future use. Marine
Software has trained more than 20 Svitzer
UK Superintendent Engineers at their
Kent based training facility as part of
this contract.
SpecTec and Stratos in AmosMail agreement
www.spectec.net
www.stratosglobal.com
SpecTec and Stratos have reached an agreement for SpecTec to become the sole owner
of AmosMail, the satellite e-mail system.
Under the terms of the agreement,
SpecTec has the right to sell, use, develop
and modify Amos Mail, and has the total
ownership of the name and its trademark.
Stratos will continue to retain all rights relevant to AmosConnect.
SpecTec will look immediately at the
existing features of AmosMail 7.4, the currently sold version, and compare it with a
list of enhancement requests given by
existing customers.
SpecTec's intention is to release, as soon
as possible, a new version containing the
most important of these enhancement
requests.
SpecTec also reports that it has signed a
cooperation agreement with the National
Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU), which
will include sponsorship of classroom
hardware and up to 100 licences of its
AMOS business suite software modules.
NTOU will now have a dedicated
AMOS Training Room, where up to 60
students will be able to simultaneously be
trained in the use of SpecTec's software.
"SpecTec are proud and privileged to
be involved with NTOU in sharing its
knowledge through the delivery of training via the use of its AMOS Software," said
James de Vroome, executive vice president, SpecTec Asia Pacific.
"The importance of such organisations
as NTOU is pivotal to the success of the
Maritime Industry in obtaining skilled
men and women who will contribute to
the industry both directly and indirectly."
PRISCO installs CBM system
www.rovsing-dynamics.com
Bulk liquid operator JSC Primorsk Shipping
Corporation (PRISCO) reports that it has
installed monitoring solutions from Rovsing
Dynamics on eight new oil tankers.
The Russian tanker operator will apply
the OPENpredictor technology to monitor
the bearing wear of the MAN B&W
engines on its eight new Ice Class crude oil
carriers.
According to technical director
Konstantin Globenko, PRISCO decided to
install bearing wear monitoring for several
reasons.
"The main engine is critical for our
tanker operations, so we want to make
sure that it works around-the-clock without problems," he explained.
"We are also looking to change our main-
tenance strategy to Condition Based
Maintenance to avoid open-up inspections.
These are critical for our operations, and we
experienced problems due to crew or shiprepair yard mistakes during inspections."
"We believe that with installation of
bearing wearing monitoring PRISCO will
not only get economic benefits, but - and
this is even more important - our fleet will
be provided with an additional system to
ensure safe and environmental friendly
tanker operation."
The eight crude oil carriers are part of
an ambitious new building programme,
which will add 15 tankers to PRISCO's fleet
between 2008 and 2010. Two of these are
166,000 dwt Suezmax tankers with 6-cylinder MAN engines, six are 104,000 dwt
Aframax tankers with 7-cylinder MAN
engines.
SOFTWARE NEWS
SpecTec launches AMOS2
SpecTec is set to launch a brand new version of its flagship software product with the unveiling of initial test
customers for the AMOS2 Enterprise Management package at the end of September. Digital Ship spoke
to SpecTec CEO Giampiero Soncini about what the market can expect from this new technology
wenty-three years after the release
of the DOS based planned maintenance and purchasing system
AMOS-D, and eleven years after the introduction of the Windows and SQL based
AMOS Suite, SpecTec is set to launch the
latest incarnation of the system, AMOS2
Enterprise Management.
AMOS2 is currently undergoing testing
with a number of existing SpecTec customers, ahead of a full market release of
the software package in early 2009. The
names of these customers, and their views
on the new technology, will be unveiled at
the official launch at the SMM exhibition
in Hamburg on September 24th.
Giampiero Soncini, CEO of SpecTec,
told Digital Ship that the development of a
new version of the company's flagship
product has been a result of natural evolution in the technological processes of modern maritime operators.
"It's almost a must every ten or twelve
years to update the software that you
have, you need new tools, need to make it
compatible with other systems, things like
that," he explained.
"Of course, AMOS1 is Vista compatible
and always possible to be upgraded, but
there comes a point where you have to
stop the upgrades and really write something new."
"It's like a building that becomes too
old, if you want to keep adding more
floors eventually you'll have to redo the
foundations. With AMOS2, essentially we
have rebuilt the foundations of the software to make it more robust and add more
features. It will have more modules and
features than AMOS1."
The demand for these new features and
modules has been a direct result of changing regulations and procedures in the
maritime domain, which have placed new
burdens on the information technology
systems operated by shipping companies.
The increasing flow of data within the
organisation, and outward to various
authorities, has necessitated a change in
the way that the various system modules
work together.
"The demand on the software capabilities in the last five years has skyrocketed,"
said Mr Soncini. "If you take the period
between 1985, when SpecTec was born,
and 2002, the major basic change has been
the ISM code. In the last five years we
have had so many rules and regulations
come in, we've had TMSA, ISPS, and
many other things."
"Every one of these requires a different
module, which can be independent or can
be integrated, but if you want to integrate
it with the other functions you have to
have a platform that takes this into consideration and makes things uniform."
T
"For example, if I have a software that
handles personnel, and another that handles the maintenance jobs, I want to be
sure that the two of them are linked
together so I can do the jobs with the people that I have on board."
Integration
The keyword behind this redevelopment
is integration, connecting various systems
and modules within an organisation to
make the exchange of data easier, and
open up flexibility in the way assets can
be managed.
"What we've done is completely rewritten the software to include the possibility
of using an API (application programming
interface), which is the possibility of linking AMOS with any other software. You
can transfer information from any other
software to AMOS, and back again. It
sounds like an obvious, logical thing, but
there is a lot of new technology behind it."
"That's what the customers asked of us,
that it wouldn't be such a specialised function as before to link AMOS with other
software."
One aspect of the integration idea that
AMOS2 will include a completely new risk assessment module,
as well as a range of other new features
"AMOS2 is a multi-office system,
where AMOS1 was one office and many
ships, AMOS2 is many offices and many
ships," said Mr Soncini. "Because of this
we call it an Enterprise Management system, rather than the Business Suite title
for AMOS1."
"Before, if we had requests from our customers to say 'I have ten ships I want to move
from the office in Hamburg to the office in
Cyprus', we had to transfer the ships with a
very complicated methodology."
"Today it can be done completely within the system itself. I think this is quite a
novelty, and I don't think many of our
competitors have this done to the completion level that we have."
One particular area of integration that
Mr Soncini is pleased with in the new system is the ability to integrate the maritime
software platform with a number of different regional accounting packages.
"In the past people tended to follow the
idea of buying a one-stop solution, and
today this is still strong but without the
accounting," he told us. "People want to
have local accounting systems, in
Germany they want SAP, in Britain they
want Sage or whatever else."
was included in the project from the very
beginning was the incorporation of
Shipdex compatibility into the software
system.
Shipdex is a standard protocol, developed by SpecTec in collaboration with
Intership Navigation and Grimaldi
Naples, that aims to allow technical manuals to be produced in electronic format,
to be instantly uploaded to planned maintenance and other systems.
"It's completely Shipdex compliant, we
have a new module called AMOS data
manager, which is saleable to anyone who
wants it, competitors, manufacturers, and
so on, that automatically creates documentation in Shipdex format," said Mr
Soncini. "Then you can simply download
it into AMOS or any other software."
"It's also ShipServ aware, MTS aware, ecommerce ready - it has all of the features
that we slowly introduced into AMOS1. It
integrates with everything I know!"
SpecTec has also focused on developing a platform that will be open to different customisations, which can be integrated into the package in the future as needed, without a great deal of difficulty.
"The customers always asked for them
before, but it caused problems because
when you did the customisation you'd have
to upgrade the software," said Mr Soncini.
"We've built AMOS2 in such a way that
whenever anyone in the office builds a
customisation it is immediately incorporated into the upgrade. It will still be possible to customise anything the customer
wants but it will not block or slow down
the upgrade, or make it more costly."
New features
AMOS2 will contain all the modules
already present in AMOS1, which have
been configured to be more complete, more
scalable and more customisable, while also
introducing some new modules and features to facilitate operations in a more technologically advanced marketplace.
One of these new features, which Mr
Soncini believes is one of the fundamental
improvements over the existing software,
is the ability to issue notices of events to
employees anywhere within the organisation that will track them wherever they log
into the system.
"What we have implemented in
AMOS2, that doesn't exist in AMOS1, is a
complete notification feature in every
area, which means that for every single
action that you are performing you can
notify people who need to know about it,"
he said. "The strongest feature is definitely
the notification part."
"It follows you around, if a master is
ashore while very important news about a
procedure is released, the software will
track when the master comes on board,
and as soon as that happens he will be
notified that there is a new procedure he
has to follow up. On any ship in the fleet,
he will be followed up."
This notification feature has also been
supplemented with new modules in other
operational areas. The Quality & Safety
part of AMOS2 now contains full Risk
Assessment, Vetting and Inspection modules, which are not included in AMOS1.
"There is a completely new risk assessment module, there is a completely new
audit and inspection module, and we have
completely redesigned the maintenance
part so that today it is an asset management system where it is possible to transfer equipment from one ship to another,"
said Mr Soncini.
"Also, we are now the owners of AMOS
Mail again, and this has been done on purpose to better integrate the functionalities
into ship to shore communications."
Roll-out
AMOS2 is essentially an upgraded version of AMOS1, and as such SpecTec has
decided to make the new software available for free to its existing AMOS1 cus-
Digital Ship
tomers that have a subscription to its
update service.
"While we have invested a considerable amount of money into AMOS2, this
comes to every existing customer as an
upgrade, basically free of charge," Mr
Soncini explained.
"If you have our subscription plan,
where you pay a yearly fee for software
upgrades and support, you
can move onto AMOS2
whenever you want. It's
simply like getting a new
version of AMOS1. About 75
or 80 per cent of our customers are on this plan."
With the first test customers of the full AMOS2
system now set to be
announced, Mr Soncini says
he expects that other potential users will begin introducing the new software
from early 2009.
"I would say that from
the first quarter of next year
new customers will start
getting AMOS2," he said.
"For existing customers
AMOS2 is an upgrade,
there's a migration plan
which is almost 90 per cent
automatic. We have built a
replication engine that will
convert all the data from
AMOS1 to AMOS2."
"I don't see any existing
large customers moving to
AMOS2 for the next one or
two years. AMOS2, right
now, is probably about 60
per cent of what AMOS1 is
today. In the first quarter
next year it's going to be
probably about 85 per cent,
so it's going to be the middle
of next year before we have
the total quality of modules
and features."
"AMOS1, as it's mature, is
almost bullet proof, it's tested in nine languages in 40
countries. I would say that
AMOS1 and AMOS2 will be
almost identical in terms of
completeness in one year's
time."
"After that, any existing
customers may want to
upgrade, but we will support AMOS1 at a minimum
until 2015, because we have
customers today that have
one hundred ships and are
building ten new ships they want to continue with
AMOS1 on the new vessels."
Upgrading to the new
software should be possible
with just a few days work
for existing AMOS1 customers, which Mr Soncini
says can be done with
almost
no
operational
downtime.
"The principle is that you
upgrade the office, and then
the application we have
built will allow communication between AMOS1 and
AMOS2," he explained.
"Then you upgrade the ships at your
leisure. The upgrade on the ship takes
just a few hours, though if the customer
wants new modules you may need to
plan some training."
"Upgrading an office will take maybe
up to five days. Normally we try to do it
over the weekend, we get them to stop on
the Friday at noon and we work round
the clock to make sure everything goes
smoothly, and hope to have the system
installed by 9am on Monday."
Users who are comfortable with the
AMOS1 system should also be able to
operate most of the modules contained in
the new system almost immediately.
"Almost no training is required, the
main need for training is on the new
modules, but most of them are more relevant to the office anyway, the audit trails,
risk assessment, TMSA, and so on," said
Mr Soncini.
"The look and feel is extremely similar.
It's going to be much easier than when we
moved from AMOS-B to AMOS for
Windows."
DS
SOFTWARE
From cost to profit - safety management
While avoiding accidents is a fundamental concern for all in the maritime industry, with the right tools ship owners could
also stand to make a profit from improving safety in their operations. Effective reporting and safety information systems
could hold the key to improvements in both safety performance and financial results, writes Haakon Dalan, BASS AS
espite a growing body of evidence proving the relationship
between improved safety performance and positive financial results,
many shipowners continue to embrace old
ways of thinking about safety and risk
management.
Traditionally, shipowners have looked
at safety management as a cost issue; costs
related to accidents, such as repairs, compensation and medical treatment, costs
associated with prevention, such as purchasing safety equipment and investing in
crew training, and costs connected to maritime legislation, compliance and intrusive
inspections by international and regional
authorities.
In addition, many shipowners, including those who invest significant time and
resources into prevention, continue to
view accidents as unavoidable acts of fate.
But in the past years, a new understanding of safety management has
emerged. The industry has recognised that
the costs associated with accidents far
exceed costs related to prevention, and
that a structured safety management strategy can yield substantial returns.
For the first time, the industry is beginning to understand that there is no contradiction between safe operations and efficient, profitable fleet management; the
two goals are compatible and interlinked.
And by committing resources towards
safe operations and efficient fleet management simultaneously, shipowners can
increase their chances for success.
This article explores how shipping companies can improve profits if they address
and manage safety in a systematic manner.
Outmoded paper-based systems, or the
use of stand-alone data systems are helpful, but cannot achieve real results across
the organisation. Such systems often
reduce safety managers to 'bookkeepers'
rather than 'drivers' of fleet-wide
improvements and knowledge-sharing.
While such simple systems may give
executives a false sense of control, they
remain dependent on an individual to
track a lot of detailed safety information
on a full-time basis. Such an organisation
model often creates an environment
where 'islands of information' become
scattered throughout the organisation,
thus being of little use.
Safety managers with access to all the
important information need tools and systems to improve processing and analysis.
They will also benefit from systems which
allow them to disseminate their findings
to the right people so actions can be taken
to improve operations across the fleet and
the organisation.
Without involving the organisation
itself in the process of performance
measurement, improvement planning,
and execution and follow up, it is difficult to imagine how 'bookkeeper' safety
D
managers can achieve safe operations.
To improve on this scenario, we need
to address:
1. Why accidents happen and how these
relate to other factors influencing operational performance
2. Why so many accidents, near-accidents
and non-conformities are not reported
3. What the real costs of accidents are, and
how they affect the company's bottom
line
4. How to identify and prioritise improvement actions to achieve the highest
returns
5. How to establish company-wide
improvement plans
The conclusion is that ship owners and
ship operators can significantly improve
both safety performance and financial
results if they utilise effective systems for
the reporting and management of safety
information, and take a holistic approach
to ensure 'lessons learned' are applied
across the whole organisation.
is to survive, and the guiding principle of
business economics is not the maximisation
of profit - it is the avoidance of loss."
To take this concept from theory to
practice, it is necessary for any company
to establish a common and practical model
across its organisation for defining and
understanding 'loss, cause and effect'.
there are a fair number of such incidents in
a year. Many of these are reported, but a
large number are not reported at all.
Thanks, in part, to a focus on safety
issues from regulatory bodies, enforcers,
charterers and the public, knowledge and
awareness of safety is gradually improving in the shipping industry. But, quite
Accidents and loss
Over the last five years, the shipping
industry has used the word 'accident' to
describe a broad range of events.
Previously, accidents were defined as
belonging to one of a number of categories, including 'injury', 'death', 'collision', 'grounding', 'fire', 'explosion', etc.
Today, an accident is more generally
considered to be an undesired event
which results in a 'loss'.
Loss is a term which can be used to
describe the following: Harm to personnel
(e.g. injury, death); Harm to property (e.g.
any damage to material such as the ship,
equipment, third party, etc.); Harm to
process (e.g. any downtime or interruption to operational processes and service);
and Harm to the environment (e.g.
marine, air, coastal landscape).
As such, a ship's detention by Port State
Control is an interruption to the ship's
operations, resulting in loss of time which
may impair the vessel's ability to trade.
This is definitely a 'loss' to the company.
Likewise, unexpected rejection of the
ship by a potential charterer (on the grounds
of substandard conditions or practices) is
also a loss to the shipowner, often with significant negative monetary consequences.
Oil spill incidents, damages to third
party property or own, or injury to personnel are other loss-resulting events,
ranging from managing grief to direct
costs, loss of time and goodwill to the
extra effort management must devote to
correcting and restoring the situation.
If we look at the factors that cause loss,
there is a strong relation between the management of safety and how well the company is managed for efficient operational
performance.
Peter Drucker, the well-known management guru, said: "The first duty of business
Systematic encoding of information can enable ship operators to track incidents
from 'loss' to necessary improvements in the 'management control system'
One such well-defined and logical example is this Loss Causation Model (pictured),
inspired by the model of DNV/ the
International Loss Control Institute (ILCI)¹.
Using loss causation models like this
one, the fleet and the organisation ashore
are able to understand why accidents happen, agree on how to measure loss in a
consistent manner and to follow a logical
sequence from the actual loss (or incident)
backwards to the causes of the loss and,
eventually, all the way back to the factors
in the company's management control system that need to be improved.
By strengthening management reporting, improvement planning and actions
around a loss causation model, shipowners and ship operators will find it easier to
identify improvements that should be prioritised in the company's action plan for
the next 6 to 12 months.
A systematic way to handle this process
helps management to allocate resources to
those initiatives that will have the greatest
impact on safety and operational performance across the fleet. Without any such system, it is likely that safety management systems will have less effect on the actual
operations of the fleet, or worse, may allow
such issues to be treated haphazardly.
The challenge of getting
incidents reported
Before one can systematically analyse and
take action to improve safety, shipowners
must gather information (facts) about the
accidents, near-accidents and non-conformities across the fleet.
In companies of all sizes and operations,
certainly, there is still reluctance in shipping to report events.
Eight years ago (in 2000), the Nautical
Institute in the UK conducted a survey
where 3,000 participants were asked why
so many events go unreported.
The results were not very encouraging.
The three most cited reasons were: Not
enough time/ resources; Fear of adverse
effect on career; and Fear of losing job.
After examining the issue more closely,
I believe these reasons can be attributed to
the typical challenges companies face in
handling incident reporting in a systematic and constructive manner.
The following experiences are common: A lengthy internal process for registration of events and duplication of entries
prevails; Poor understanding of 'loss control principles' and the nature of accidents;
Delayed or lack of feedback (or negative
feedback) from the office to the one who
reported the event; and almost non-existent Experience Transfer ('Lesson
Learned') to the other ships in the fleet.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the
Nautical Institute recommended that ship
owners should do what they could to ease
the making, sending and analysing of
reports, and that they should ensure rapid,
useful, accessible and intelligible feedback
to the reporting community (the fleet).
Costs of accidents
The costs of accidents can be quite significant, and often involve cost-elements that
one does not initially think about.
Marine insurance usually covers direct
costs, but the deductibles ('own risk'),
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SOFTWARE
management time, decreased productivity, loss of goodwill and loss of potential
new business, as well as other factors, eat
into company profits.
To expedite insurance settlements, it is
necessary to keep good track of the costs
of damages and undesired events. In most
companies, this is regarded as an accounting/ insurance issue, and the information
is not linked with other safety information
or used as a basis to prioritise safety
improvement initiatives.
Bottom line results are affected by the
costs of undesired events. To put it in perspective, it is useful to compare how much
revenue one has to generate to compensate for the loss.
Suppose a company is operating
around a profit margin of 20 per cent they would need to make $2.0 million in
charter income to cover the loss of
$400,000 in undesired events.
This is quite significant, and usually
something that would draw the attention
of any top management as it equals 80
days of trading at $25,000 per day.
In essence, when accidents occur, the
company pays a price ('the costs of the
accident'). The only thing it gets in return
is the information about the accident and
the events which lead to the event - information that can be used to prevent similar
accidents in the future.
It is up to the management to use that
information and to decide whether to act
on it or not.
Prioritise actions
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There are two ways for organisations to learn from accidents.
One is the methodical
investigation and careful
review of each incident using
the Loss Causation Model to
diagnose what immediate
causes and root causes
allowed the incident to occur.
Most shipping companies
take this seriously - and for
major incidents in their fleet,
they devote significant time
and resources into analysing
all the information that is
available.
Another way to get information out of accidents is to
analyse the data to look for
trends. For example, trend
analysis can show that a large
number of incidents involve
the use of certain equipment
or materials, involve people
with inadequate levels of
experience or occur in a certain type of operations, time
of the day, or similar.
Again the Loss Causation
Model is essential, in order to
ensure systematic encoding of
the information and enable
ship operators to track the
incidents from 'loss' to necessary improvements in the
'management control system',
and use the data in a logical
and meaningful manner.
It is my view that shipowners should learn to put a price
on accidents and measure
them in dollars and cents.
This is not to suggest that
shipowners should apply cost
models on accidents which
result in personal injury or
death - there can be no measure of grief. But by being able
to measure and visualise the
costs of accidents, it is possible for safety managers to get
the necessary top management attention and consequently get the resources and
backing to implement company-wide and fleet-wide safety
improvements.
If we consider the Pareto
Principle (20 per cent of incidents account for 80 per cent
of loss), it makes sense for
shipowners to assist safety
managers to focus company
initiatives, action plans and
resources on the areas where
the efforts will have the
largest impact on its safety
performance.
A safe operation is an effi-
Digital Ship
cient and cost effective operation - and this
will render good results on the company's
bottom line.
Continuous improvement
Once accidents are reported, analysed
and appropriate actions are planned for,
a new challenge arises - implementation.
Naturally, the required actions will most
often involve personnel and
organisational units outside
the direct influence of the
safety manager. To achieve
implementation, top management support alone will not
suffice.
Safety managers also need
a practical way to establish
action plans, where responsibilities and timelines are
assigned to the right people.
The action plan can be
merged into the company's
annual operating plan, be
included in a portfolio of
company projects, or be separately managed. In any
case, it is essential that this is
taken beyond the planning
stage by insisting that those
responsible for actions, subactions, status reviews, etc.
issue
regular
progress
reports and remain committed to measuring safety performance.
Significant gains can be
achieved in company performance and financial
results if safety is managed
across the fleet, and in the
shore-based organisation, in
a more systematic manner.
If such proposals are put
on the agenda in management
meetings, safety managers
will soon get a wider role to
drive continuous improvements across the fleet and the
company, rather than being
reduced to mere custodians of
safety information and audit/
inspection results.
However, shipowners face
greater challenges in achieving these improvements than
conventional land based
industries. They recruit from
different geographical locations, often have high
turnover rates, and their
organisational units (the
ships) are constantly on the
move and difficult to reach.
The industry faces significant challenges in improving
safety, and these challenges
demand a much more systematic and holistic approach
than before. At present, is it
difficult to imagine how these
demands can be met without
more investment into IT solutions.
Robust software systems
are required onboard and
ashore - systems which
enable synchronised data, so
that shipowners can have
access to efficient reporting,
the capability to analyse data for trends in
a logical manner, and the tools to plan and
follow actions for improvements and submit experience transfer to the entire fleet.
This will render improvements in safety and operational performance, facilitate
knowledge sharing across the organisation, and in time, create a safer, more profitable industry.
DS
Notes
1 "Practical Loss Control
Leadership" by Frank E.
Bird, Jr. and George L.
Germain, published by
Institute
Publishing,
ISBN-0-88061-054-9.
Haakon Dalan started his career with Wilh.Wilhelmsen ASA
in 1991, and was responsible for the development of Barber
Ship Management's Safety and Quality Management System. He has also acted as a member of the Code of Ship
Management Standards Committee of the International
Ship Managers' Association (ISMA, now InterManager).
Mr Dalan is currently responsible for product management at the maritime software company BASS.
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SOFTWARE
Buying the right software
Purchasing a software system for any company can be an expensive business, and has potentially disastrous
consequences if a poor choice is made. Having a well thought-out procedure is the first step
in conquering the Everest of IT selection, writes Martin Nygate, Ulysses Systems
ince the introduction of packaged
business software to the market in
the early 1980s, companies and
individuals have been struggling with the
challenges posed by these innovative new
products.
These struggles focus not only on the
definition of requirements but also the
methods used to identify, evaluate and
select the most suitable product that meets
the need of the company.
The results have been varied, from
global success and market leadership on
one hand, to crippling defeat - sometimes
even insolvency, on the other hand.
The productivity gains and efficiencies
promised by software vendors have materialised for some companies, but this is
offset by the seemingly bottomless pit of
investment that has been the experience of
less fortunate companies.
Why is this? Why is it that some companies have benefited from the IT revolution,
yet others have not? And, what can you do
to make sure that both you and your company do not fall into the same bottomless pit
that too many others have tumbled into?
S
Purchasing methods
Purchasing products is a well researched
and documented area. Depending on the
company's policies and procedures, purchases of low value items often required
only superficial purchasing procedures, but
more valuable capital investments required
much greater scrutiny and involvement
from different levels of management.
The dilemma facing companies
intending to invest in high value and
often mission critical goods and services
has been the focus of sophisticated purchasing procedures.
Request for Information (RFI), Requests
for Proposal (RFP) and Request for
Quotation (RFQ), have all been used
extensively to identify the item that meets
a company's requirements in the most cost
effective fashion.
However, the paradigm has shifted.
Purchasing business software is as remote
from buying conventional goods as selecting
a business consultant - so why are we often
using the same methods to select software as
our ancestors used in buying machinery?
Buying products traditionally relies on
identifying a list of quantifiable features
such as speed, weight, height, output, and
so on, to provide a matrix of comparison
that, when combined with cost, can deliver an indication of the choice product.
However, software inherently has very
few similar quantifiable metrics. Software
by its nature is an intangible. At its most
basic level, software is a list of instructions
embedded into a CD that costs less that $1
to produce.
In many cases, the CD is not enough to
ensure that the desired outcome is
achieved. We need help - services, in the
form of consultancy to configure the software to our own unique requirements.
With no tangible quantifiable metrics to
compare one software solution to another
so that we can compile the magical comparison matrix, how can we be sure that we are
purchasing the right software for our company - an often mission critical application?
First, we need to stop trying to adapt
antiquated and non relevant conventional
purchasing practices to a category of
investment that has no precedent in commercial life.
We have to rethink the conventional
process of selection through personal preference and persuasion by flashy demonstrations and sharp salesmanship, and
instead focus on a sound strategy.
tional return on your investment.
For example, is meeting regulatory
requirements or increasing efficiency NOT a
root cause challenge? Reducing wastage by
X per cent, or increasing the ratio between
managers and their subordinates from 1:10
to 1:15 - this is a quantifiable challenge.
During the 1980s and 1990s, software
development was often hard coded, with
little ability to adapt. Hence, companies
investing in software solutions were
required to change their internal, well
structured and time tested business
processes to meet with the prescribed
Why do we need
software?
This question is asked time and again,
often by board members who are not yet
comfortable with the concept of software.
Many senior board members started their
professional career without the use of software and the natural reluctance to change
means that they are inherently suspicious
of any revolutionary business tools.
All too often critical software investment decisions are held up in the boardroom because of the inabilities of the internal sponsor to clearly articulate why the
company needs software, and the financial and operational benefits this investment will deliver to the company.
Software investment is driven by various factors, internal and external, such as
regulatory pressures, transparency, access
to strategic information and even the simple desire to align your company with the
rest of the industry.
So how do I make sure that I buy the
right software for my company? Here I
will suggest a four step approach.
1 - Scoping Document
A scoping document needs to be drawn as
the first and most important element in
the selection process. This document is at
the heart of any requirements identified. It
is, in comparison to conventional purchasing process, the 'technical specifications' of
the requirements.
However, it is much more than that. The
scoping document is formulated as the
foundation on which the whole decision to
purchase software is built, and as such it
needs to well designed, solid, yet sufficiently flexible to evolve with the process.
This document identifies the challenges facing the company at the root
cause level and not at the superficial
level. These challenges need to be quantified in tangible (financial) and intangible
(operational) terms so that, whatever the
decision may be, at the post implementation stage you can obtain clear and definitive indications on a financial and opera-
Choosing mission-critical business applications is not quite as simple
as walking into the local computer software store
This document will have the added
advantage of quantifying, in financial
terms, the tangible benefits of any software solution, so that you will have a clear
indication of the value, and therefore the
cost, that you are willing to invest in any
software purchase.
No doubt that the creation of such a
crucial document is difficult, it requires
careful consideration and situation analysis, as well as the ability to identify current
challenges and future goals.
In the absence of this document, it makes
no difference what software you ultimately
decide to purchase since you will never
have the information you need to quantify a
success or failure of the software purchase
at the post implementation stage.
2 - Vendor Selection
The most common and established
method of reviewing any potential software vendor that could meet the challenges set down in the scoping document,
is to search the internet.
No doubt that this is the most cost effective and simplest method, and in the majority of cases, this is the correct way to proceed.
Combined with internal market experience and perhaps attendance at industry
specific exhibitions, companies should
have few problems drawing up a short list
of companies that promote targeted software solutions to industry verticals.
Before drawing up this list, companies
often focus on the option of developing
software internally or via outsourced software development companies.
This is most often the focus of companies that have strong internal IT departments with internal competence for software development. However, the buy vs.
build deliberation is to a large extent no
longer relevant.
processes of the software developers.
With the rapid sophistication of design
and development in software, second generation software was designed and built
that takes into account the requirement for
flexibility.
Second generation software focused on
the ability to configure companies' unique
business processes to the operations of the
software - simply put, the software adapted itself to the companies' business needs.
The culmination of these developments
established a new breed of vertically targeted, industry specific, packaged software platforms that offered an alternative
to the build vs. buy deliberations.
The contemporary approach is Buy
AND Build - Buy the appropriate software
platform and Build your business processes with the in-built tools provided by the
software vendor.
Using the selection criteria set down in
the scoping document, this will allow you
to configure the software to face the challenges identified.
3 - Vendor Evaluation
Having identified the leading vendors in
your vertical market, offering a platform
that has been uniquely designed for your
industry, the next step is to invite these
vendors to demonstrate their products in
front of the user community.
At this stage, the focus should be on the
ergonomics and usability of the software
application, and the alignment to the level
of technical and IT competence of the user
group. The interface is of paramount
importance to ensure that the users are
capable and willing to use the software.
Any successful software implementation is dependent on the active and enthusiastic participation of the user group.
Ultimately it does not matter what soft-
Digital Ship
ware platform you purchase and at what
price, if the users find the software too difficult to use, or too inconvenient, or
requiring too much expensive and time
consuming training - the software deployment will not be a success.
The evaluation of software usability is a
subjective matter by nature. It is about the
look and feel of the software, combined
with the similarities between
a user's current business
behavioural pattern and the
design of the interface.
Experts in cognitive intelligence and human behaviour have identified that software focused on an individual's unique role in the
organisation, combined with
the tasks that the user performs, have a significantly
higher adoption rate due to
the inherent ease in which
the user can identify with the
operations of the software.
4 - Challenges vs
performance
With the shortlist of companies who have demonstrated
to the satisfaction of the user
community that the software
is regarded as adaptive to
the usage pattern, the final
step in the evolution process
should focus on benchmarking the shortlisted platforms.
A proven method for
benchmarking is to identify a
number of critical challenges
highlighted in the scoping
document, and to request
from the software vendor to
demonstrate
how
they
would resolve this challenge
in their software.
This would require the
software vendor to configure
their platform to meet this
business requirement.
However, we need to be
aware that many software
vendors have the capabilities
of creating a simple change
in the embedded workflow
that seemingly meets the
configuration
changes
requested by the customer,
yet, upon deployment, these
configurations prove to be
un-scalable or unsustainable.
The demonstration of
these configuration changes
may seem workable, but in
reality they may be no more
than linked screen shots.
Hence, it is also advisable to
evaluate the flexibility and
adaptability of the software
in a real time scenario.
It is recommended that the
shortlisted vendors be prepared that during the customer presentation they will
be asked to demonstrate, on
the spot, a number of critical
configuration issues that will
not be provided to them in
advance of the presentation.
This will ensure that that
the vendor will be forced to clearly
demonstrate the flexibility and adaptability of the selected software platform.
To ensure fairness and ease of comparison, all vendors need to be tested simultaneously with identical challenges, hence
these spot challenges for configuration
need to be very focused and specific, to
avoid the need for extensive and time con-
suming configuration.
For example, a spot challenge such as
integration with another software package
could not be demonstrated in-situ without
prior investigation, but a challenge such as
a change to the workflow, the inclusion of
a company specific document, or the addition of a new user, could.
In conclusion, the successful selection
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process of software is as remote from the
established and conventional process of
purchasing of goods as to demand new
and different ways of thinking.
With a sensible and relevant procedure
in place, we can avoid the pitfalls experienced by many companies and have confidence in buying the right software for
your company - and yourself.
DS
SOFTWARE
Integrating Europe’s safety systems - MarNIS
An EC-backed project that aims to improve safety and protect the environment through the integration of multiple
information sources is coming closer to fruition, with the imminent demonstration of the system to stakeholders
expected to prove the value of the concept. Digital Ship explores the story behind MarNIS
lmost four years after it started,
the EC-funded MarNIS (Maritime
Navigation Information Services)
project is getting ready to take a big step
forward, with the arrangement of concept
demonstrations in Genoa, Italy, on 23-25
September 2008, and Lisbon, Portugal, on
15-16 October.
These scheduled demonstrations will be
performed in front of an audience of policymakers and potential maritime stakeholders, such as port authorities, ship owners,
harbour masters, pilots and search and rescue authorities, and could prove hugely
important to the future of the project.
The first session in Genoa will offer an
interactive overview of the entire project,
highlighting future expectations about
how the MarNIS concept would be implemented in the years to come.
A
the sharing of data and resources.
The MOS concept envisages the centralisation of all relevant data from the ships
with the creation of a National Single
Window (NSW), through which all the
data would be funnelled.
The NSW is like a hub, to which all authorised maritime stakeholders are connected,
sharing the same information. The data
would be held in an enhanced, pan-European
SafeSeaNet (SSN++) electronic database, distributed to stakeholders via the NSW.
Those who could benefit from the availability of this data could include vessel
traffic management and port entry authorities, as well as those involved in pollution
control and search and rescue. Customs,
immigration and security authorities
could also have access to the information.
Connections are also envisaged with
The MarNIS Maritime Operational Services centre will integrate
information systems across EU member states
A 'live' demonstration of the MarNIS
concept is also scheduled to be held at the
Genoa event.
In Lisbon, other aspects of the MarNIS
concept, including the more port and pilot
related features, will be demonstrated, introducing innovations for more efficient port
entry and increasing levels of awareness.
MarNIS is a partnership of approximately 50 different companies and organisations from all around Europe, including
government ministries, professional associations, class societies, maritime IT companies, and many others.
The group has been formed with the
intention of integrating vessel traffic management, search and rescue and environmental protection across EU Member
States between 2012 and 2020, under one
(virtual or physical) roof in a 'Maritime
Operational Services' (MOS) centre.
In most Member States these services
are currently physically and administratively separate, but MarNIS argues that
there are many advantages to integrating
them, not least the potential for greatly
improved efficiency and safety through
other pan-European electronic maritime
data collection and distribution services,
currently under development.
Data sources
The traffic image in an MOS centre uses
data on shipping movements provided
automatically by Automatic Identification
System (AIS) transponders, mandatory on
vessels over 300 metric tonnes, and currently supported by shore-based systems in
most EU States.
AIS provides dynamic information about
the ship (position, speed, course, etc) as well
as essential identification information.
The AIS data will be supplemented by
Long Range Identification and Tracking
(LRIT) data provided by satellite. This
combination allows suitably trained MOS
operators, equipped with an adequate system and display, to visualise and monitor
compliant vessels even outside their territorial waters, while minimising the need
for verbal communication with the ship.
At present vessels under 300 tonnes,
which includes leisure craft, do not have to be
equipped with AIS, but the MOS concept
intends to demonstrate that there are clear
advantages in them doing so voluntarily.
MarNIS also envisages applying algorithms to assess the risk posed by a vessel.
This can be because of what it is transporting - for example, hazardous goods or
large numbers of passengers - its type (e.g.
a single-hulled oil tanker), or a poor outcome of Port State Control inspection.
The risk is quantified as an 'alert value',
expressed as the probable cost of the consequences of that vessel experiencing a
serious incident (in Euros per hour). The
risk can be enhanced by bad weather,
especially by factors such as high wind
and swell, proximity to the coast, and traffic density, for example.
High Risk Ships are identified on the
MOS traffic image display and can be
monitored proactively by MOS operators.
Relying on existing international regulations (UNCLOS, SOLAS and the IMO
Intervention Convention), MOS operators
could instruct a High Risk Ship to seek
refuge, for example, if it poses a serious
risk to life or the coastal environment, as
defined by international regulations.
Should an incident occur, the system
will have the capability to generate 'web
maps' (spatially referenced data available
online through the internet) which can be
overlaid on the traffic image display of a
MOS centre to present real-time meteorological and hydrological data, like wind,
tide, swell, and wave height.
Sophisticated drift models can be run to
predict the movement of a ship that has
lost command, an oil slick, or persons
overboard, again using web mapping, and
visualised on the MOS centre display.
Web-mapped information may also be
sent onboard to pilots equipped with a special portable unit to provide dynamic
under-keel clearance data in real time,
which could extend tidal windows for port
entry and exit, as well as enhancing safety.
MarNIS applied
To illustrate how the system might work in
practise, MarNIS has detailed how the infrastructure might have assisted in the case of
an infamous European maritime incident.
It states: "Picture this scenario: It is
November 13, 2002. A Greek-operated, single-hulled tanker, flying a Bahamas flag, with
a Liberian owner and chartered by a Swissbased Russian oil company, is sailing off the
coast of Spain with a cargo of 77,000 tonnes of
heavy fuel oil, when it hits a storm."
"One of its tanks bursts and begins to
leak. Six days later, the ship splits into two
and sinks. In all, about 63,000 tonnes of oil
is released, polluting over 1000 beaches
across Spain and France and destroying
the local fishing industry. It costs about
$2.8 billion to clean up the mess. The ship
is, of course, the now infamous Prestige."
"Now fast-forward to 2012 and replay
the same scenario. Within MarNIS, the
Prestige will already have been designated
a 'High Alert Ship', even before it sets sail,
not least because of its inherently vulnerable construction (a single-hulled tanker),
its cargo, flag, age and complex ownership
profile."
"Mandatory early reporting requirements mean that the ship's static details,
cargo, voyage plan and Estimated Time of
Arrival at its destination have been entered
into the SSN++ database. Relevant parts of
this information are instantly available on
demand to all the authorised stakeholders
along its route, through centralised National
Single Window data hubs."
"Under the MarNIS concept, as in all
other European Member States, Spanish
search and rescue operations, oil and pollution combating and vessel traffic management, rather than being separate services, with their own administration, surveillance equipment, resources and information sources, are integrated under one
roof, as MOS."
"Thanks to mandatory LRIT and AIS
transponder data, coastguards with training in vessel traffic management have
been tracking the Prestige on the MOS centre display for hours, with its high alert tag
clearly visible."
"Because of the combination of the
ship's high alert status, the worsening
weather and its proximity to the coast, the
Spanish MOS centre has been in communication with the Prestige long before it
gets into trouble, as part of its proactive
safety strategy. Emergency Towing
Vessels and oil-combating resources have
been put on standby, and, under existing
international law, the Prestige is instructed
to seek refuge."
"If, as in the real 2002 scenario, the
Prestige were to start to break up before it
reached shelter, the MOS centre would
call up oil slick drift models and overlay
'web-maps' on its screens via an internet
feed, to visualise real-time weather and
hydrological data and so maximise pollution combating efforts."
While this may be wishful theoretical
thinking, and replete with the wisdom of
hindsight, the MOS concept has already been
tested successfully in a realistic operational
setting at the UK's Maritime Rescue
Coordination Centre in Milford Haven in
June 2007, and again in February of this year.
Using the MarNIS system, search and
rescue (SAR) officers were able to carry
out long-range vessel traffic monitoring,
not usually part of their remit, using simulated AIS and LRIT tracks.
Nigel Yelland, one of the SAR officers
at Milford Haven MRCC, who was
involved in designing the simulation scenario, noted: "The flagging of high alert
ships on the display was especially useful.
It meant that we could keep an eye on
them when they were still a long way off.
At present we only act when an incident
Digital Ship
has already happened."
Officers at Milford Haven also found
the ability to display real-time webmapped information on wind, current,
and wave height, fed live through an
internet connection from METNO, the
Norwegian Meteorological Institute,
potentially a significant help in mounting
a search and rescue operation.
Although MarNIS uses standard drift models to predict the
movement of persons or objects
overboard, being able to merge
these immediately with the traffic image saved time and prevented possible errors.
"At present we have to call
up the models on a separate
computer and then draw the
SAR plan manually onto a
chart," said Mr Yelland. "We
also have to input the weather
data manually. If these data are
automated, half the job is
solved, and there is less likelihood of a clerical error."
Harry Leslie, area operations
manager for the UK's Maritime
and Coastguard Agency (MCA),
added: "MarNIS has raised the
agenda for MCA as an organisation. It's pointed us in the direction
of what modern technology can
achieve, utilising GIS (Geographic
Information System) applications
and layers of information to combine situation awareness with
environmental data."
ment within the EC of pan-European databases for collecting and distributing shipping information, especially SafeSeaNet,
which is used, and even enhanced, by
MarNIS, with the inclusion of voyage plan
and LRIT data."
Mr Glansdorp is optimistic that these
potential benefits of MarNIS will help
sway Member States to move towards
its implementation.
"We expect that, by earmarking alert
vessels, pollution can be reduced by 20 to
30 per cent," he explained.
"We also believe that personnel, infrastructure and IT costs will be reduced by the
synergy of having all services under one
roof. And we believe that early reporting
will provide another cost benefit, by helping
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Works where you do
Technology
Cees Glansdorp, technical coordinator of MarNIS, believes that
it is in the organisation of existing technology systems and
information sources, rather than
attempting to develop new and
separate maritime technologies,
that the project will provide benefit to the shipping community.
"We are recommending the
use of advanced technological
means to achieve what we propose," he explains. "But the
intention of MarNIS is not to
improve the technical means."
"It aims to improve information flows and safety at sea,
functionally, with the support
of what has been developed and
is on the market. The MarNIS
concept will not change if there
is an advance in technology."
The principle of National
Single Windows to channel all
maritime related information on
shipping through a single hub is
one such example of this drive
to integrate presently disparate
services.
"By coordinating the various
authorities, and sharing the
same data, a navigation authority, for example, could instruct a
ship to go to anchorage for a
security, or customs check," said
Hans Nijsse, a former legal
advisor of the Dutch Minister of
Transport on maritime issues.
"Underlying the single window is the ongoing develop-
to plan preventive and remedial measures."
"Response times are very important in
taking remedial action. Just remember the
Prestige disaster. The various authorities
were discussing what to do for two weeks,
while the vessel was degrading. In the end
it became unwise to bring the vessel in to
safety, because the risk was too high that it
would break up."
DS
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Digital Ship
e-Purchasing and profitability
Independent research consultancy AEBCommunications, in partnership with maritime e-commerce provider ShipServ,
has recently conducted a study of purchasing best practice in the shipping industry. Digital Ship outlines some of the
conclusions from the final report, and looks at how technology can create competitive advantage in purchasing
he companies interviewed as part
of this study came in many shapes
and sizes, from a two-vessel cruise
line to a ship owner/management company with a multi-fleet freight operation
with over 150 vessels - and everything else
in between.
Although each company has its own
unique operations, their purchasing departments shared exactly the same goals.
One is to keep vessels operational by
getting spare parts to them on time, to
avoid costly air freight charges as spare
parts 'chase' the vessels from port to port,
or reduce the risk of off-hire days.
In addition to this, the companies also
want to reduce the overall cost of ownership of the vessels to save the company
money, while maintaining quality and
complying with safety, environmental and
other regulations.
Spanning all of these objectives, the
most important factor to this group of
companies is - speed.
This need for speed applies to every
step in the purchasing process, from the
time it takes to get a requisition from the
ship to a buyer, to the buyer starting work
on it, to the buyer sending out RFQs
(requests for quotations) to suppliers.
Then the companies have to rely on supplier response times, the time it takes to
raise a purchase order, and get the goods
delivered to the right place at the right time.
Companies work hard towards achieving these goals. But keeping things running
smoothly and quickly isn't always easy.
T
Purchasing challenges
One of the biggest frustrations experienced by shipping companies is the long
lead time involved in the delivery of spare
parts from suppliers to ships.
There are various reasons for this,
including the scarcity of spare parts (suppliers rarely hold large volumes of stock)
and even complacency amongst some
suppliers, particularly where there is little
competition.
These challenges are on-going and
apply to ship owners and managers
around the world. But for most companies
in this study, many of the bottlenecks they
experienced in the past started at the very
beginning of the requisition process.
There were many different reasons for
these delays, but the same ones came up
again and again - such as illegible or missing information from manual requisitions,
particularly those sent by fax; or incorrect
or inadequate product specifications,
resulting in queries from suppliers who
received the confusing RFQs.
They also found that large numbers of
requisitions contained just a few line
items, increasing the number of buying
'events' that take place, and often missing
the opportunity to bundle deliveries
together to save on freight charges, or
causing the company to miss out on better
prices due to better economies of scale.
All this meant more work for the purchasing teams onshore as they had to
spend time chasing, checking and rechecking requisitions and answering
queries from confused suppliers, unsure
about exactly what products they should
be quoting on. Trying to communicate
with ships, often operating in different
time zones, added to the time delays.
Manual requisitions also meant that
data had to be re-keyed into purchasing
systems, increasing the chances of error
and duplication.
There was too much paper flying
need to double-handle transactions in
order to identify the previously inevitable
errors created by manual processing.
Reducing costs - By automating
processes, and thereby increasing the
work capacity of administrative staff and
buyers, shipping companies have been
able to eliminate or redeploy employees to
more value-added roles.
It has allowed them to handle a higher
volume of work and manage up to double
the number of vessels with the same or
fewer people, and save money on communications (i.e. fax and email), in some cases
totalling up to several thousand dollars
per year in communications costs and
wasted staff time
e-Purchasing can eliminate illegible or missing information from manual requisitions,
particularly those sent by fax, speeding up the purchasing process
around, too many errors to be investigated
and rectified, little or no visibility into the
status of requisitions, no traceability, and
poor supplier records - quite simply, too
much time wasted on paper-based administrative tasks instead of buying.
Business benefits
The benefits that can be delivered by ecommerce services to the maritime purchasing sector fall into four categories.
Saving time - Using an automated system to send RFQs and purchase orders
electronically instead of manually by fax
or email has helped shipping companies
speed up their purchasing processes and
reduce cycle times.
What might have taken up to a week in
the past, now takes one to two days,
reported one company. Another has been
able to reduce the time it takes from requisition to order by three days, or 30 per cent
of the total time it used to take.
Companies can now track the status of
RFQs and orders, eliminating time spent
needlessly tracking information and chasing suppliers.
Additionally, companies reported benefiting from simpler processes, with no
Improving quality - Automating
processes has also led to an improvement
in the quality of purchasing data.
Less manual handling means less manual rekeying of data into systems, reducing errors and simplifying processes.
There is one entry point for requisitions,
carried all the way through to suppliers.
Shipping companies have also been able
to improve the quality of spare parts by
sourcing alternative suppliers, an activity
they didn't have much time to do before.
Enhancing job satisfaction - Companies
in this study have reported that removing
significant chunks of administration from
an employee's workload makes for a happier and more motivated person.
With less time spent doing repetitive
and dull administrative tasks, the quality
of a buyer's job is improved. This also
improves their ability to control and have
visibility into the tasks in hand, giving
them time to act more strategically.
For younger people joining companies,
in a world where technology permeates
our daily lives, having IT systems to take
care of administrative tasks and automate
processes at work isn't a 'nice to have' anymore - it's expected as the norm.
e-Commerce evolution
Shipping companies around the world are
on a journey of continuous improvement.
Companies may take different routes,
but the destination is the same - to have
flexible operations that help to optimise a
company's ability to respond to business
change and operate profitably.
During this study five different stages
of maturity or evolution of purchasing
processes within the shipping companies
were identified.
Stage 1: Chaos - Processes are largely
manual and paper-based, resulting in
poor visibility, inefficient and inconsistent
processes, with little or no management of
supplier performance.
Stage 2: Control - Automated processes
and business intelligence data enable companies to speed up processes, save money
and free up valuable resources to spend
time on more value-added buying activities.
Stage 3: Efficiency - Companies can
now spend time on strategic sourcing and
supplier management activities to
improve spend management and ensure
the optimal performance of suppliers
against contracts and performance targets.
Stage 4: Integration - The purchasing
process is integrated more deeply into
logistics and financial systems and
processes to enable a more holistic view of
the supply chain and help a company
become more responsive to supply chain
glitches and changes in the market.
Stage 5: Agility - Companies are able to
coordinate and orchestrate business planning and operational capabilities to
achieve optimum cost-efficiency, quality
and performance in the supply network. It
is here that companies believe the most
significant business improvements and
financial benefits can be achieved.
Business intelligence systems can offer
a foundation for process improvement,
with the collection and analysis of business intelligence data helping shipping
companies achieve continuous improvement within their purchasing processes
and supply strategies.
By using an automated system to collect this data, many of the companies in
this study have been able to shed new
light on the way things have been previously done and learn valuable lessons.
Key performance indicators can also
potentially reveal a lot about how well
individual buyers and suppliers are performing, as well as about the effectiveness
of overall processes.
These could include analysis of how
much it costs to process a purchase order
manually; how long it takes to manually rekey quotes into separate systems; how many
errors slip through the net, and at what cost;
whether suppliers are responding to RFQs
promptly; whether enough RFQs are being
SOFTWARE
sent to ensure the best market price; or
whether too many RFQs are being sent,
wasting time or dulling suppliers.
Today’s situation
All of the shipping companies interviewed
as part of this study are now out of the
chaos stage and have been able to enjoy
the benefits of automated processes.
Some companies are still rolling e-commerce systems out across their vessels, so
have not yet achieved the full extent of the
benefits - but they're working on this.
For many others, now that the desktop
looks clearer, they're looking at ways in
which they can improve their purchasing
processes further, by assessing their supplier base to see where they could make
further efficiencies and improve performance levels.
By eliminating the chaos, companies
are able to put in place consistent, centralised processes and a knowledge base
of best practices to enable the whole purchasing team to speak the same language,
also enabling better management information across a company's entire purchasing
activities.
For example, faced with the challenge
of constantly changing ship crews, many
of whom do not share English as their first
language, one company has captured its
processes and guidelines in a handbook to
make compliance with new processes simpler and easier, to help reduce errors and
eliminate maverick spending.
Consistency doesn't just apply to internal
processes - the benefits even span transactions with external shipping companies.
One company recently sold a vessel to
another company that used the same ecommerce system. As they were both
using a similar system they were able to
transfer the purchasing history for that
vessel over from one company to another,
giving the buyers an instant record of its
purchase history to help manage its entire
lifecycle.
Once better control has been achieved
and resources have been liberated, the
companies have been able to do things like
conduct regular and thorough spend
analyses to determine how much money is
being spent on what and with whom; use
this data to consolidate the supply base in
order to take advantage of economies of
scale and leveraged spend; search for
alternative suppliers to establish true market pricing; and manage supplier contracts
and monitor supplier performance to
drive improvement.
On the cutting edge of process
improvement, a small group of these companies are looking at how they can further
extend control and visibility into the
broader 'req-to-cheque' process.
This can be achieved by integrating
processes and systems further into the physical supply chain - i.e. the logistics process of
getting orders from suppliers, to warehouses, to ships - and the financial supply chain i.e. automating purchase order and invoice
matching and reconciliation.
This gives financial reporting systems an
extended view of upcoming orders and the
subsequent future cash flow requirements.
Beyond integration lies arguably the
ultimate goal of purchasing and broader
supply chain management - agility.
What this means to companies and how
they achieve it varies greatly, but there are
already examples of companies either
already starting or putting in place projects that enable them to be truly flexible
and responsive to market dynamics and
challenges.
A strategic role for
purchasing
For many years now, the purchasing
department has played a largely administrative role.
Buying teams have done a great job
saving their companies money while
doing what was needed to keep the ships
operational. As long as companies didn't
spend too much money and the ships
were running, that was thought to be
good enough.
However, with ever-increasing pressures on shipping companies internally
and externally, perhaps it is now time to
think of purchasing on an even more
strategic level.
Thinking of purchasing more strategically has not generally been on the corporate
agenda until relatively recently. But with
the advent of the internet and new supporting technologies in the late 1990s this began
to change, as companies began to take a
more strategic view of the full value cre-
ation potential of the purchasing function.
Purchasing departments the world
over have begun to lift themselves out of
corporate anonymity and demonstrate the
value they can contribute to their companies. Many shipping companies have
already taken advantage of e-commerce
services and have freed up resources for
more value-added activities.
New blood is coming from outside the
shipping industry, bringing fresh ideas
and best practices from other industries
where protecting profit margins is a pressing issue for purchasing departments.
Responsibility for making this change
happen lies within purchasing departments themselves. They need to demonstrate the potential value of their contribution. But it also lies with senior management, who must give the purchasing function the support it needs to add more
value.
Many shipping companies around the
world are already automating or eliminating manual steps, reducing costs, improving data quality and increasing visibility. In
the same way, more profitable and competitive purchasing departments can better
serve the company, and its clients.
DS
Copies of the final report, 'Managing
Profitability in Shipping: The role of the
new purchasing department', are available as a PDF from the ShipServ website,
at www.shipserv.com
COMMBOX
Connecting ship and office networks
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Virtek Communication AS - Your dedicated supplier of optimized ship to shore communication
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www.navitastelecom.com
ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION
Maximising safety in bridge design
Modern bridge technology offers a variety of high-tech aids to the mariner, to provide as much information
as possible on situational circumstances and allow for speedy and safe navigational decisions.
However, as these technologies mesh together on the vessel bridge, the design of the overall integrated system
becomes ever more important - as too much information becomes a hindrance rather than a help
omparisons can express a complex situation in simple and vivid
terms.
When Captain Michael Oberländer,
safety expert for nautical systems at
Germanischer Lloyd, is asked to describe
the statutory jumble regulating the design
and equipment of ship bridges, he avails
himself of a religious idiom.
"In the beginning, there were only ten
short commandments," he smiles, "but
today we have legal statutes running into
thousands of pages."
In the design and arrangement of ship
bridges, it is the sad truth that tradition,
custom, and international and national
rulings all collide together with economic
interests. And through this chaos of expectations and somewhat paradoxical provisions, the designer of ship bridges has to
carefully pick his way forward.
At least there is consensus that poor
bridge design constitutes a potential risk
factor. Once an error is made here, it cannot be corrected later, or at least only partially - as Capt Oberländer points out time
and time again.
In view of the fact that a ship has an
expected lifetime of 20 to 30 years, this
shortcoming manifests itself as a longterm risk. But why is it so difficult to
develop the best of all possible bridge
designs, one that will meet all the safety
requirements and provide a workplace
in keeping with modern ergonomic
principles?
C
Divergent Regulations
Answers to this question are not lacking;
a large chorus of experts is there to provide many different voices. What is missing here to provide the needed harmony
is the conductor.
The problem is that the stipulations of
SOLAS, IMO, ISO, Panama Canal
Administration and national provisions
sometime deviate from each other, pursue different standards, and are not
applicable to all ships, which in turn
leads to exemptions.
A ship bridge is a complex workplace,
as evidenced by a circular of the Maritime
Safety Committee (MSC). According to
this document, there are 'workstations' for
various tasks on the bridge:
Navigating and manoeuvring the ship
Monitoring the course, speed, machinery, cargo, etc.
Manual steering
Docking manoeuvres on the bridge
wing
Voyage planning and documentation
(chart table)
Safety with monitoring and information instruments
Up until 1998, there were no generally
binding international regulations for the
design of bridges. Depending on the size
of the ships and their range of trade,
requirements were only set for certain
devices, such as the compass and radar
units.
Ergonomics, i.e. the study of the performance capabilities and optimum
working conditions for people, was not
only an unknown word for most
designers, shipbuilders and owners, but
was often viewed as an attack on traditional customs.
steering, have sharpened the general
awareness that the design of ship bridges
and their technical equipment should not
be left solely to the designers, yards and
shipowners.
The Battle of the
Blind Spot
Since 1998, the SOLAS regulations have
set requirements for the vertical and horizontal field of view. As the main workstation, the conning position must offer a
clear view of 225 degrees, and this must
not be obstructed by curtains, chart table
And yet there are inconsistencies that
can give rise to conflict between classification societies and yards.
For example, SOLAS only lays down
that the manual steering position may not
be located directly behind a window
frame - but it could be placed right behind
a gigantic crane.
"If SOLAS had only considered all the
important issues, it would have rendered
many other regulations superfluous," says
Capt Oberländer.
The ergonomic arrangement of workstations on the bridge is the subject of rulings currently being drafted by the
International Association of Classification
Societies (IACS).
As many as 80 per cent of all collisions
and groundings are ascribed to failure of
the 'bridge' system. Of course, the training
of the crew and their ability to respond
correctly in crisis situations also plays an
important role.
Studies have shown, however, that too
much information has led to uncertainty
and thus to wrong decisions.
Avoiding Confusion
Once an error is made in the design of the bridge, it will be very difficult to correct later
(Photo: Flensburger-Schiffbaugesellschaft)
From the outside, bridges had a defiant
appearance: floating castles with windows
which sometimes even looked like
medieval arrow slits. If the visibility was
poor, the ships had to be controlled almost
like a plane in instrument flight.
The steering position, engine telegraph, chart table, and radio and radar
units were arranged more or less haphazardly on the bridge.
To prevent the watch officer from being
blinded by glare, the chart table was
screened off. This also made it difficult to
keep a lookout at night.
"You don't earn money with a bridge,"
says Sören Kuper, responsible naval architect at the yard Flensburger SchiffbauGesellschaft (FSG), "and so this part of the
ship is sometimes neglected by the
shipowners."
Accidents like the Exxon Valdez casualty, the collision of the Norwegian Dream
and the near-catastrophe of the Crown
Princess, which suddenly heeled by 15
degrees as the result of a minor error in
or radio station.
Amongst other benefits, inclined windows help to prevent the reflection of
instrument lights or the glow of monitor
and radar screens in the panes.
On a certain cargo ship, for instance,
the nautical officers were repeatedly hit by
a moment of shock during the night watch
when a ship appeared to be approaching
to port, without any echo being visible on
the radar.
After some investigation, it was found
that a green pilot lamp on the instrument
panel was reflecting in the perpendicular
windows and causing this maritime fata
morgana.
Blind sectors due to shipboard cranes
and deck cargo must generally not be
allowed to make up more than five or ten
degrees. On the whole, these blind angles
may not add up to more than 20 degrees.
The forward view should not be
obscured by more than two ship lengths
or 500 m, whichever is less, forward of the
bow to 10 ° on either side.
A serious source of bewilderment: electronic instruments on the bridges are usually supplied by different manufacturers.
The production quantities are too low
to permit standardisation. So the instruments have incompatible user interfaces,
the colour palettes on the monitors are not
uniform, the operating elements are sometimes implemented as switches, sometimes as levers - and, to make matters
worse, with different rotating or toggling
directions.
"No consistent logic can be discerned
here, which can lead to faulty operation in
times of stress," says FSG's Sören Kuper.
In 2007, IACS tried to establish a worldwide bridge standard, the BDEAP: Bridge
Design, Equipment, Arrangement and
Procedures.
Unfortunately, the project was halted
by Asian yards, who feared that they
would lose part of their competitive lead,
owing to the stricter requirements for
equipment and quality.
"The proposals have now been watered
down as recommendations," says Capt
Oberländer, "and we now have to convince shipowners and yards that they are
really worthwhile."
DS
This feature has been adapted from
an article that first appeared in
Germanischer Lloyd's 'Nonstop'
magazine, edition 2, 2008.
We’ve been busy. . .
Visit us at
Stand no. 210
in Hall B6
Very busy. Adding a new office in Panama and new locations in South Africa
and Norway, Radio Holland has 60 branches worldwide! Which makes us the
largest global maritime electronics company in the world. With our worldwide
network, we can supply all required maritime electronics, airtime services and
spare parts. We provide service, maintenance and support at any location,
24/7.
With our Managed Services Agreements and a global service database in place,
we can offer shipowners valuable support and management information about
equipment status on board vessels. Our conviction is to help our customers realize
efficient operations of their fleet and maritime business. Providing shipowners,
managers, shipyards and other maritime organizations with the best solutions for
their electronic requirements. All over the world.
For the more information:
[email protected] | [email protected]
Member of Imtech N.V.
p36-64.qxd
05/09/2008
10:49
Page 3
Advertisement feature
Port-IT signs agreement with Palantir for distribution of the Port-IT Anti-Virus solution
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W W W . P O R T- I T. N L
Tel: +31 (0)6 51 06 89 81
Fax: +31 (0)78 618 19 16
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact information:
Kaare Lunde / Otto Pedersen
Phone: +47 4000 1819
Internet: http://www.palantir.no
PORT-IT
MARITIME IT SOLUTIONS
WE PROTECT
YOUR DIGITAL SHIP
Digital Ship
FLIR partners with Spain’s Redcai
www.flir.com
Thermal imaging company FLIR Systems
has agreed a partnership deal with marine
electronics firm Redcai S.A., with the aim
of improving the companies' service offering to the maritime market.
Redcai designs, manufactures and
installs navigation and communication
equipment, mainly in the Spanish market,
and will now offer FLIR's thermal imaging
cameras to the maritime market.
New AIS
from Saab
www.saabgroup.com
The companies say that they aim to target search and rescue services as well as
cargo boats, tugs and merchant vessels as
potential customers.
"Thermal imaging aids navigation,
security and on board-safety," said
Redcai's Clara Martínez-Legazpi Aguiló.
"There's rarely much space on the
bridge of a working vessel but this is not a
problem for a FLIR Systems' infrared camera, as it connects to any existing multifunction display."
Redcai will now offer FLIR thermal imaging technology to the Spanish maritime market
Improved simulation technology from Kongsberg
www.km.kongsberg.com
Kongsberg Maritime has integrated a new
Image Calibration Tool with its SeaView
R5 visual system, which is intended to
enhance the animation of images on its
Polaris navigation simulators through the
use of improved software techniques and
algorithms.
The company says that this results in a
more realistic scenario for the simulator
users, to make training more effective. The
tool is capable of calibrating the picture
Saab TransponderTech AB has announced
the introduction of a new Class-B AIS
(automatic
identification
system)
transponder for smaller commercial vessels and pleasure boats.
The Saab R4B is being introduced to the
maritime market to meet the new IEC
62287 performance standard for Class-B
AIS.
"All ocean-going ships over 300 gross
Transas is to supply 16 sets of AIS class
tons are required under the international
B units and an AIS monitoring system for
Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) to carry an
DFDS Canal Tours, owned by J. Lauritzen
approved Class-A AIS transponder as an
and Clipper Group. AIS Monitor systems
aid to collision avoidance and to facilitate
and AIS-Monitor Data Recoding SW
vessel traffic monitoring by shore-based
Modules are included under the agreecontrol centres," said Gunnar Mangs, vice
ment.
president of sales and marketing, Saab
Danelec Marine reports that sales
TransponderTech.
of its VDR and S-VDR systems have
"With the advent of the Class-B
exceeded 2000 during the second quarter
AIS
standard,
recently
adopted by the International
Maritime
Organization,
smaller vessels not subject to
the SOLAS carriage requirements can also take advantage of the benefits provided
by AIS technology."
The R4B transponder
transmits GPS position coordinates, course and speed
over ground, vessel name,
call sign, type and size
through a VHF data channel
to all AIS-equipped vessels
in the area. The R4B also
receives data from all ClassA or -B transponders in the
vicinity for display on an
electronic chart system or
plotter.
In addition, vessels fitted
with the R4B can be monitored by base stations
ashore, for fleet tracking and
managing commercial fleets
in coastal waters, harbours
and inland waterways. The
AIS transponder will also
facilitate search-and-rescue
operations.
The unit has a standard
NMEA interface for output
to electronic chart systems
and plotters, as well as an
jeppesen.com
external alarm key.
displayed by all COTS (Commercial of the
Shelf) projectors, for installation flexibility
on curved screens.
The tool includes features such as digital keystone and edge algorithms, pixel
positioning and repositioning, and colour
correction.
A geometry correction tool also
includes network access to all Image
Generator (IG) computers in the system,
and full overview interface to all channels
in a multi-channel bridge simulator, as
well as file storage and back-up.
"With the latest version of SeaView R5
including this Image Calibration Tool,
blending, edge matching and so called
warping of the image, gives us almost
unlimited possibilities," said says Terje
Heierstad, product and technology manager, simulation, Kongsberg Maritime.
"Now Kongsberg Maritime customers
requiring theatre style visuals can utilise
the latest in image calibration with a
majority of the low, medium and high end
COTS projectors available without impacting image quality."
of 2008. The products are sold and marketed partly through an OEM partnership
with Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine
and partly through a world-wide network
of sales and service distributors.
VisSim AS of Norway has introduced its new Oil Spill Detection and
Tracking software at the VTS 2008
Symposium in Bergen. This new product
can either be supplied as an integrated
package with a new VisSim VTS system or
supplied separately to run alongside an
existing VTS. The software uses standard
X band radar to track spills and provide
alerts to operators.
www.transas.com
www.danelec-marine.com
www.vissim.no
If you can’t rely on the weather...
t in Weather Services from Jeppesen Marine
You trust your crew, depend on your gear and as an experienced mariner you have
confidence in yourself. But from experience you know that you can’t rely on the weather.
The sea can be your best friend, but bad weather can turn it out to be your worst enemy.
e vessel
sel aand the crew it is important that the navigator plans
n too account the best weather forecast data available.
herrNav may be the best solution for you, as it is for an
g nuumber of seafarers around the globe.
inttegrated solution that proposes a safe route
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Forr more
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E-mail:
mai [email protected] - www.c-map.no
p36-64.qxd
05/09/2008
10:45
Page 5
ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS
Inmarsat to conduct Galileo testing New distributors for McMurdo
www.inmarsat.com
Inmarsat has been awarded a contract by
DLR, the German aerospace centre, to provide Payload In-Orbit Test (IOT) services
for the four satellites forming the Galileo
In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase.
DLR manages the Galileo IOV
Operations Segment activities for the
European Space Agency (ESA).
Over the next two years, Inmarsat will
manage the deployment and operations
of a Payload IOT facility at the ESA
ground station in Redu, Belgium, centred
on an IOT measurement system and
complemented by three high-performance antennas.
The results obtained during in-orbit
tests will create a benchmark throughout
the satellites' operational life, and will be
used as a reference across the entire
Galileo constellation.
"We are very proud to be selected by
DLR and ESA for this vital component of
the Galileo programme," said Ruy Pinto,
Inmarsat's director of satellite operations
and navigation.
"Inmarsat has a long-standing involvement with navigation services and Galileo,
and we are highly motivated to contribute
to the overall success of the Galileo InOrbit Validation phase".
The Galileo IOT system will be managed by teams of engineers and operations personnel from Inmarsat, and supported by a range of subcontractors that
includes Vertex, SED Systems and
Siemens Austria.
www.mcmurdo.co.uk
Maritime safety equipment company
McMurdo has confirmed the appointment
of two Greek distributors to cover the
marine market in the region, and another
new distributor in Finland.
Marel Electronics S.A. will act as
product distributor in Greece for deep
sea vessels in the commercial fleet, while
Hellas Marine Electronics will take care
of yachting, light commercial and fishing trade.
Both distributors have established
experience with McMurdo products, such
as EPIRBs, PLBs, SARTs, NAVTEX and
emergency VHF radios.
Together the two new partners will support existing dealer networks throughout
Greece, as well as offering sales and service.
McMurdo's new distributor in Finland
will be Furuno Finland Oy.
Furuno Finland Oy will offer
McMurdo's products along the same supply lines as its own Furuno navigation and
communication equipment.
Sperry Marine to supply Chinese newbuilds
www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com
Sperry Marine reports that it has won new
orders to supply electronic navigation
equipment for 10 ships to be built in China
for Carisbrooke Shipping.
Terms of the deal have not been
disclosed.
The systems will be installed on the
7,600 deadweight ton (dwt) general cargo
vessels
at
Jiangsu
Yangzjiang
Shipbuilding in South China, and will
include autopilot, gyro and magnetic compasses, radars, speed and depth sensors
and other components.
Based on the Isle of Wight, UK,
Carisbrooke Shipping operates a fleet of
approximately 40 dry cargo vessels ranging from 3,000 to 20,000 dwt with an average age of under three years.
McMurdo's range of products will now be offered through
new distributors in Greece and Finland
Spanish Navy contract for Sperry
Sperry Marine has won a contract to supply high-accuracy inertial navigation systems (INS) for four new Buques de Acción
Marítima (Maritime Action Ships) being
built for the Spanish navy at the Navantia
shipyard in Ferrol, northwest Spain.
Installation, commissioning and trials
for the $1.5 million contract will be overseen by Aeromarine, Sperry Marine's sales
and service representative in Spain.
Each of the ships will be fitted with one
MK 39 Mod 3A ring laser gyro (RLG) INS
and one MK 27 fibre-optic gyrocompass.
The MK 39 Mod 3A will provide both
high-accuracy geographic positioning
information and precise attitude and
heading data for the ship's navigation and
weapon systems.
The Maritime Action Ships will be 94meters long, displace approximately 2,500
tons, have a helicopter landing pad and be
capable of attaining a maximum speed of
20 knots. The multi-mission ships will
replace Spain's current light patrol vessels.
AMVER celebrates 50 years
www.amver.com
The US Coast Guard's AMVER
(Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel
Rescue System) service has recently celebrated 50 years in operation. AMVER is a
global reporting system used to collect
information to assist in search and rescue
missions, by identifying other ships in the
area of a ship in distress.
Any rescue coordination centre in
the world responding to a search and
rescue case can have access to AMVER
information, which is not used for any
purpose other than improving safety
at sea.
As a voluntary scheme, the US Coast
Guard actively seeks to increase participation in this reporting system. Each year,
more vessels participate in the system and
more lives are saved.
Currently ships from more than 143
nations participate.
The origins of the system date back to
the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, when
ships passing in the vicinity of the stricken
passenger ship did not realise that the
vessel had hit an iceberg and was in need
of assistance.
Discussions at the time on a global
reporting system proved fruitless however, until the advent of computer technology later in the twentieth century.
Finally, in 1958, the US Coast Guard
and representatives of the merchant shipping industry came together for talks
which created the first AMVER system,
then an abbreviation for Atlantic
Merchant Vessel Emergency Reporting.
Now, 50 years later, some 12,000 ships
participate in in the scheme, with over
100,000 vessel voyages plotted annually.
Advertisement Feature
Telemar Group: The Inmarsat services agreement with Telecom Italia is
part of an ambitious development strategy
Rome, August 8, 2008. Telemar, a
leading System Integrator & Service
Provider in the Maritime Industry, and
Telecom Italia, one of worldwide major
ICT players, have today announced a
strategic agreement: Telemar will
become Telecom Italia’s International
Exclusive Distributor* for Inmarsat
Services and solutions through Fucino,
a state-of-the-art global coverage Land
Earth Station. Various major customers
have already been benefiting from the
first class services & support delivered
by these partners. “We are matching
Telecom Italia’s superior technical
capability and Telemar’s knowledge of
the marketplace to develop innovative
IP converging applications - such as new
E-mail software plus private, personal
Crew Communication - that improve
cost-effectiveness, flexibility and
customization of communications
onboard ships. Telemar will also
continue to offer services from its
longstanding business partners. Telecom
Italia presents an opportunity to access
new clients and new markets: “...the
most cost-effective airtime rates match
advanced applications” said Bruno
Musella, CEO of Telemar Group.
The Telemar Group is to open a
business in Germany before the end of
this year. The New Company will be
based in Hamburg, and will fit German
customers’ needs by matching their
ongoing commercial and operating
criteria and: the latest solutions and
technologies, including tailor made flatrate broadband; the best in class
service management and maintenance
in the Industry.
“We believe in the strength of one firm”
Bruno Musella said “acting group-wide
to deliver globally its All costs-All
Equipment-All world Maintenance
packed with: the latest customized
broadband solutions; bridge electronics;
the most cost-effective advanced
airtime. Major Ship owners worldwide
are experiencing total cost of ownership
control, risk prevention, the elimination
of hidden costs, business simplification
and performance enhancement.”
About Telemar Group
Telemar, established by major Italian
shipowners in 1947, has continued to set the
standard for its industry sector, across the
world. Managing SatComs, IT and Navigation
Services. The Group is continuing to gain
worldwide market share, leveraging on
technological and services innovation.
The Group embraces Companies in USA,
Finland, Sweden, Italy, UK, Russia, China, Hong
Kong, Santo Domingo.
Telemar operates in three business areas:
Maintenance for Total Bridge Electronic
Equipment on board: 2,000+ vessels under
contract. A unique integrated model operating
through an actual global network: of more than
220 associated service companies world-wide,
and over 140 engineers dedicated to managing
maintenance activities.
IT and Navigation Equipment sales. Telemar
is major distributor of the main manufacturers
and provides NavCom projects to newbuildings
in most countries.
Provider of tailor made maritime and land
mobile communication (Inmarsat, Iridium,
Thuraya, broadband VSAT services). Officially
appointed Accounting Authority (AA) in most
countries as well as Point of Service Activation
(PSA).
About Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia is a major enterprise drawing
upon tried-and-tested competencies and new
competitive assets to transform and reinvent
itself.
As well as leading in its home market, Telecom
Italia has built up a targeted international
presence on markets with significant growth
prospects (Latin America) and on technology
vanguard markets (satellite / broadband).
Its Land Earth Station in Fucino is fitted with
state of the art equipment, offering a full range
of high quality LES based services in all four
Inmarsat Ocean Regions.
The company leverages its technological
expertise to create and win business
opportunities in new geographical contexts.
Technological innovation, competency and
reliability underpin the company’s leadership
across its increasingly convergent operations.
Telemar creates an important connection
Telemar and Telecom Italia have created a global patnership
to deliver an outstanding international service at the most cost effective airtime rates
Premier Service Provider and System
Integrator teams up with one of of the most
important ICT players
Telemar delivers competitive
services and integrated packages,
including:
Telemar is Telecom Italia’s International
exclusive distributor
One stop shop for the service and
repair of bridge electronics
Major breakthrough in Inmarsat’s
traditional satellite services
Unique Crew Communications Services,
Email, Mobile Phone
First class global services via Fucino, an
advanced, state-of-the-art satellite port
A wider range of marine communications
and navigational equipment packages
The latest, flexibly customised, flat and
semi-flat broadband solutions
Make an important
connection at SMM 2008
on stand 140 Hall B6
The company has strength in depth in fixedline/mobile telecommunications, as well as a
renewed player in Inmarsat satellite business.
* The Agreement is global but the exclusivity does not include: Italy,
Portugal, Algeria, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil.
Compagnia Generale Telemar Spa
Viale Tiziano, 19, 00196 Roma, Italy
Tel. +39 06 3221800 Fax. + 39 06 3240148
[email protected]
www.telemargroup.com
Limits your risk, reduces your costs
ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS
Simulation centre to open in Canada
www.marinetraining.ca
www.transas.com
Following an extensive $7.8-million renovation to upgrade and modernise the facilities and training equipment at the Great
Lakes International Marine Training
Centre (GLIMTC) in Owen Sound,
Canada, it has been announced that its
Great Lakes International Marine
Simulation and Research Centre will officially open on November 21st.
The project has been supported financially by the Ontario ministries of
Training, Colleges and Universities, and
of Transportation, as well as Transport
Canada Marine Safety and the City of
Owen Sound.
The development has also enjoyed the
backing of Owen Sound's Georgian
College, where the centre will be located.
The upgrades implemented by the project will allow the College and the marine
industry at large to keep up with the
demand for skilled professionals, said
Archie Dickson, director of GLIMTC.
"With global marine traffic set to triple
in the next 20 years and a worldwide shortage of ships' officers and seafarers,
Georgian's upgraded facilities will meet the
This Class A full mission bridge simulator by Transas is the centrepiece of the new Canadian facility
Transas dual ECDIS order
www.transas.com
Transas is to install and commission a
Navi-Sailor 4000 dual ECDIS (electronic
chart display information system) on
board The Sand Falcon, operated by
CEMEX UK.
The Sand Falcon mainly operates in
Northern Europe and carries out dredging
in and around many of the major ports in
this region. Other vessels in the CEMEX
fleet are also to have Navi-Sailor ECDIS
systems installed over the next few
months.
CEMEX has agreed this contract as part
of an overall move to modernise the navigation equipment onboard its ships and
move towards paperless navigation.
A training package for crew members,
including simulator and classroom sessions, will be made available by Transas at
its facilities in Portsmouth, UK.
Lockheed Martin VTMIS for Turkey
www.lockheedmartin.com
The Turkish government has deployed the
final phase of a new Lockheed Martin
Vessel Traffic Management Information
System (VTMIS) for the Turkish Straits.
This final phase of the system's deployment included the addition of three new
remote sensor sites to provide coverage of
the Marmara Sea and entrance to the
Canakkale Straits.
Turkey initially rolled out the first
phase of the system in 2003, when it
deployed Lockheed Martin's Vessel
Traffic Services (VTS) system for the
Istanbul and Canakkale Straits.
The entire system now provides Turkey
with complete coverage from the Black
Sea entrance through the Istanbul Strait to
the Marmara Sea and through the
Canakkale Strait.
"The Turkish Straits carries substantial
safety risks for navigation, property, life
and environment because of heavy national and international marine traffic," said
the Turkish Directorate General of Coastal
Safety, in a statement.
"Approximately 155 vessels pass
through the Istanbul Strait daily and 135
vessels through the Canakkale Strait. The
Turkish Straits VTS is the first in Turkey
and is managed by the Coastal Safety
Administration."
"The system offers many features. The
past five years of operation has shown that
the VTS was successful in reducing the
risk of marine accidents and providing
more efficient vessel traffic management."
The Lockheed Martin system features
a network of remote sensor sites consisting of radar, cameras, radio direction
finders
(RDF)
and
Automatic
Identification Systems (AIS), as well as
Doppler current and salinity sensors,
surface water measurement and automatic weather stations.
The remote sensor sites send real-time
information via an integrated Wide Area
Network to the Vessel Traffic Control centres in Istanbul and Canakkale.
training needs of the marine industry in
Canada and internationally," he explained.
"As Ontario's only Transport Canadaapproved marine training facility, the Great
Lakes International Marine Training Centre
will attract domestic and international
training opportunities in addition to reaping positive economic benefits for Ontario."
The centrepiece of the 20,000-sq.-ft.
facility is a Class A full-mission bridge
simulator that is said to be one of the most
advanced in North America. The simulator features a full 360-degree field of view
with the latest graphic generation and projection technologies.
The centre will also be equipped with
four navigational training bridges
designed to simulate real system interfaces, including modern ARPA/Radar,
ECDIS, AIS, GMDSS communications and
other integrated navigation systems.
Simulations will feature a comprehensive library of vessel models (including
several specific to those on the Great
Lakes) using real databases covering large
areas of Canadian waters, global shipping
ports and central routes.
Technology for the Great Lakes
International Marine Simulation and
Research Centre is supplied by Transas USA
and its Canadian partner Alliance Nav.
Radio Holland in financing deal
www.radiohollandgroup.com
Radio Holland Group reports that is has
selected Key Equipment Finance, a bankheld equipment leasing company in the
United States and an affiliate of New York
stock exchange listed company KeyCorp,
as a leasing partner.
This deal will enable Radio Holland
Group to offer financing solutions to
customers in the United States, Europe
and Asia Pacific interested in its electronics equipment, installation and
service.
"By offering our customers the full
spectrum of equipment and financing
options, we know we are continuing to
provide them with the complete solution
they've come to expect," said Rob
Verkuil, manager of RH Connect at Radio
Holland Group.
"Key Equipment Finance is known for
being a global leader in the equipment
finance business, and we look forward to
working with Key to take our customer
support to the next level."
"Radio Holland Group is constantly
focused on electronic and functional
innovation, so I anticipate this new
financing program will help it generate
even greater satisfaction with its many
and varied customers," added Adam D.
Warner, president and COO of Key
Equipment Finance.
AIS contract for Pharos Marine
www.automaticpower.com
Pharos Marine has been selected to supply
its ATONIS AIS (automatic identification
system) transponders to the General
Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and
Ireland (Trinity House), with the Northern
Lighthouse Board and Commissioners of
Irish Lights.
During the four-year contract period,
Pharos Marine will provide the aids to
navigation (AtoN) for installation on
buoys and lighthouses.
The ATONIS will integrate into the
existing AIS network to provide mariners
with an accurate AtoN position and realtime status. The lighthouse authorities will
Digital Ship Ship September 2008 page 42
also be able to check on the status and
position of all the AIS-fitted AtoNs and
obtain meteorological data where sensors
are fitted.
Additionally, as part of the IALA
Wreck Marking recommendations, Pharos
Marine's ATONIS will be fitted to the special 'Blue and Yellow' buoys deployed in
emergency situations.
The ATONIS will be configured to
transmit up to four virtual AIS AtoN
Cardinal Marks used around a wreck or
new danger.
This GLA contract follows an ongoing,
multi-year contract agreed by Pharos
Marine to supply ATONIS for the UK's
Northern Lighthouse Board.
Digital Ship
Marshall Islands issues first LRIT certificates
www.lrit.com
The Marshall Islands flagged vessels
M/T Port Louis, M/T Altius and
M/V Port Melbourne, managed by
International
Tanker
Management (ITM), have
become the first vessels in
the world to be officially
issued with Long Range
Identification and Tracking
(LRIT) Conformance Test
Report Certification.
The certification was
granted following the successful shipborne equipment
conformance testing of the
vessels' Inmarsat-C equipment.
The tests were conducted
by Pole Star Applications,
under
an
agreement
between
the
company
and the Republic of the
Marshall Islands Maritime
Administration.
Pole Star first commenced operational trials of
a MarVTS National Data
Centre (NDC) solution for
the administration during
2006, and was appointed
as its NDC/Authorised
Service Provider (ASP) for
LRIT in 2007.
Through the IMO LRIT
Working Group meetings in
2008, the Marshall Islands
Maritime
Administration
initiated the drafting of the
LRIT Conformance Test
specifications resulting in
MSC.1/Circ.1257,
which
provides 'Guidance on the
Survey and Certification of
Compliance of Ships with
the Requirement to Transmit
LRIT Information'.
Capt. Thomas F. Heinan,
Marshall Islands Deputy
Commissioner of Maritime
Affairs, stated: "We are
extremely pleased to be the
first flag administration to
commence the issuance of
LRIT Conformance Test
Report Certification. As a
reflection of the quality of
our owners and operators,
we are already tracking the
Marshall Islands flagged
vessels that must be compliant with LRIT."
"With Pole Star, our
recognised ASP, we are
now well positioned to
respond to the demands of
our shipowners, operators
and managers and to support their drive for LRIT
compliance."
Lars Modin, managing
director of ITM, added: "We
are extremely pleased to
be the first operator to be
tested and certified under
this new legislation. We are now well
placed to respond to the demands of our
clients and their requirements for LRIT
compliance."
"Being able to test our equipment early
meant we were able to resolve any issues
with terminals early. With 100,000 terminals to be tested between now and
December, we knew we couldn't afford
to wait."
IMO LRIT regulations, which came
into force on January 1st this year, require
designated vessels to carry a terminal
capable of transmitting an Automatic
Position Report (APR). The closing date
for the first category of vessels is the first
radio survey of that ship carried out after
31 December 2008.
Set sail to JRC stand 301, hall B6
and discover a new wave of navigation and communication products
visit www.jrceurope.com to find out more
JMA-5300Mk2
Black box radar
JMA-7100
ARPA radar
JMA-9100
ARPA radar
High speed & ≤10.000 GT
High speed & ≤10.000 GT
High speed & ≥10.000 GT
JRC’s new and innovative
JMA-5300Mk2 radar series:
navigation suddenly has a
new standard
JRC’s new and powerful
radar greatly increases
performance, but keeps
operation simple
JRC’s all-new high
performance radar brings
a new level of functionality
to the bridge
Digital Ship
VDR - the next generation
The European Maritime Data Management (EMDM) project is an EU initiative that aims to examine, among other things,
the capabilities that will be required of the next generation of voyage data recorders (VDR). S Austin, J-M Forestier,
C Winkley, and Prof P A Wilson of the University of Southampton outline the current proposals for enhanced VDR
he European Maritime Data Management (EMDM) project faces the
challenge of safe and secure European transport development with the
study and development of new applications, functionalities and proposals for
Voyage Data Recorders (VDRs) and Electronic Logbooks (ELBs).
EMDM is a consortium of 8 partners
including three European VDR and ELB
manufacturers
(Consilium,
Kelvin
Hughes, Kongsberg) three SMEs (Avenca,
Euroquality, Sodena), the European
Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)
and the University of Southampton (UoS).
EMDM is currently evaluating how
best to improve on VDR equipment for the
next generation of the technology.
The ship VDR is similar in concept to the
well-known aircraft 'black box' flight
recorder. The VDR records navigational
information, internal status information
and bridge audio of a vessel in a form
designed to survive a catastrophic incident.
The record may be used for forensic analysis of incidents whether catastrophic or not.
IMO/IEC presently defines two official
flavours of data recorder, VDR and S-VDR.
The S-VDR was defined to overcome signal
incompatibility problems on existing vessels
and the last installations will take place in
2010. All VDR installation thereafter will be
on new-builds, so in the EMDM project only
VDR has been considered.
The present VDR records a variety of
different information. Primary navigational instruments record time, position, heading, COG, SOG, STW, wind direction and
speed. Vessel status, such as engine and
rudder telegraph, watertight doors, hull
openings and alarms are also recorded.
External conditions are recorded by
the communications and radar, while
bridge audio can record crew perception
and actions.
The VDR stores this information in a
way that is time stamped, tamperproof
and expected to be recoverable even after
a fire, explosion or sinking.
T
Usefulness
The primary reason for the imposition of
the regulatory requirement has been seen
as the desire to gain knowledge of the
events surrounding an incident. Forensic
analysis of the record enables safety lessons to be learned about an incident and
the maritime community can take steps to
avoid a repetition.
Moreover, the UK Marine Accident
Investigation Board (MAIB) has highlighted indirect safety benefits available from a
regular examination of the record to check
company instructions are followed.
These include ensuring that ship's masters are complying with the requirement
to proceed at safe speed by random sampling of ship's navigational records; exam-
ining safety management systems to
ensure procedures are adhered to and the
audit processes are sufficiently robust to
detect non-conformances; and having
shipboard auditing, which should provide
enough evidence to verify ship's staff are
in
compliance
with
instructions
(Recommendations Report 2006, items
109, 208 and 177 respectively, MAIB).
There have been significant changes
in technology since the VDR standards
were first drawn up
Owners and crews have found benefits
too. Examination of the record has shown
means of improving the operational efficiency of the vessel as well as data for condition monitoring. It can be used for briefing and analysis of emergency situations.
The ability to replay instrument readout
adds to the information available to analyse
intermittent faults. For these reasons the
VDR installation on many vessels goes
beyond the minimum specified by the IEC.
In the early days, crew have regarded
the idea of bridge audio monitoring with
suspicion, as 'big brother'. Now, in difficult situations, some crew deliberately
speak to the microphones in order to
ensure there is a clear record of their
observations and commands.
However, as Allan Graveson of the
maritime union Nautilus UK has made
clear, these records may also contain sensitive personal information and the access
to them must be restricted and controlled.
Revisiting VDR
The VDR has been around for 20 years, the
first installation was by Broadgate in 1988
and was in response to a number of high
profile maritime losses in the 1980's - from
the Derbyshire bulk-carrier in 1980 to the
Herald of Free Enterprise ro-ro ferry in 1987.
The requirement for carriage appeared
in 1997 in the form of IMO resolution
A.861 (20), followed by the IEC61996 stan-
dard that came into force in 2000, but since
this standard was drawn-up, there have
been significant changes in technology
and important experience gained from the
assessment of records.
Most of the EMDM proposals are based
upon the following sources of industry
experience; discussions with individuals
in investigation organisations, published
documents and comments by members of
the industry, and an industry survey by
EMDM for which c3800 individuals in
over 160 organisations were contacted.
The report has been reviewed by an
EMDM Expert Group comprising senior,
European, maritime industry representatives from owner/operator, manufacturer,
investigation, administration, trade union,
legal and insurance and by the EMDM
consortium members.
The survey and other information
about the project is available at
www.euroqualityfiles.net/emdm.
From the survey, the most important
features of the VDR are: bridge audio which is also the one mentioned as having
the most problems; radar; ship manoeuvring; and course.
Moreover, the problems commonly
encountered when using VDR records
were: sensors not working - possibly
because VDRs do not alarm in this condition; and data record overwritten - perhaps
the crew did not act to preserve the record.
There was clear agreement in favour of:
recording more navigational data
ECDIS and more radar; recording the ELB,
when available; making the record longer;
and defining an open standard for playback - this came into force on 1st June 2008
in a revision of IEC 61996 standard.
No-one in the survey mentioned
alarms. The implication is that the operation of the bridge and the vessel manoeuvres are the point of real interest for those
other than investigators.
When offered the option to delete from
or add items to the record, comments
included deleting internal alarms and fire
doors, and adding ECDIS, AIS, more
Radar, e-logbook data, ballast tank/load
monitoring, vessel motion, longer recording, and the ability to select parts of a
recording and check that signals are
recorded correctly.
It is unlikely that an investigator will
agree that internal alarms and fire doors
should be deleted, and hopefully nor will
the person responsible for auditing conformance to safe operating procedures.
Changes in technology
The changes in technology are twofold advances in shipborne instrumentation,
and advances in the technology that may
be employed in the VDR.
The major changes in shipborne instrumentation are AIS, ECDIS, Integrated
Navigation Systems, and Integrated Bridge
Systems, together with operator choice over
display content, including overlay of data
from different sources to produce task orientated displays and distribution over multiple high resolution displays.
Most VDRs are based upon PCs, therefore the changes in VDR technology are in
the increases in processing power and
storage capacity at accessible prices.
The crew perception of a situation can
only be understood if both the presentation and selection of information from
instruments is available. It may also be
important to know what is available but
not used.
With respect to the results of the survey, to the advances in the technology and
to the required quality of the information,
the shortcomings of the minimum VDR as
defined by the IEC standard are now
reviewed along with the EMDM proposals
to overcome them.
Under the present standard the record
can be overwritten after 12 hours. This
applies to both the protective capsule and
the float-free device.
The issues with this short duration
include the fact that incidents can have
consequences lasting several days. A
longer recording period removes the pressure from a master to make a copy of the
record whilst perhaps still fully engaged
in saving the vessel.
An unscrupulous master might deliberately allow an unfavourable record to
overwrite without too much suspicion.
However, over a 30 day period this would
be difficult to justify as anything other
than a deliberate act.
Some incidents are not immediately
reported. The loss of the yacht Ouzo in 2006
remained unknown for nearly two days,
and only then were vessels contacted for
witness information from their VDRs.
Some owners regularly review VDR
data as part of their routine safety audits.
Others do not, and as a result their crews
may be unfamiliar with the copy process,
by the time they have received some technical support the opportunity has passed.
Where a vessel is lost, the longer the
protected record, the more understanding
investigators can have about the way the
vessel was operated.
The consensus among the experts is
that the record should be longer. EMDM
proposes 30 days internal storage and 24
hours in the capsule or float-free.
Proposed improvements
There are a number of areas where EMDM
proposes improvements in VDR systems.
Integrity monitoring - There have been
cases where data for a particular instrument was not available because an installation fault has developed. This can go
undetected for a considerable time
because there is no requirement for
integrity monitoring of source data except
microphones.
The VDR cannot differentiate between
a radar which is switched off because it is
not required and a loss of signal because
of a fault. There are already sufficient
audible alarms on the bridge and false
alarms must be avoided, therefore EMDM
proposes integrity monitoring of all inputs
but with a visual warning indication only.
Bridge audio - The bridge microphones
supply a wealth of information on: quality,
clarity and appropriateness of commands
and communication; location, identity,
mood and attitude of a speaker; use of
sound signals in poor visibility; audible
alarms; public address announcements.
The main issue with this has been the
variable quality of the microphone records
and the consequent impact on post-incident analysis. This in part due to the
inability to isolate a single microphone on
playback as a result of recording more
than one microphone on a single audio
channel.
Alarm, wind, vibration or fault noise on
one microphone may mask sound on
another. There are also concerns that the
possible peak sound levels on the bridge
exceed the VDR range, leading to distortion.
Feedback suggests that the existing
Installation Guidelines do not cover physical installation of microphone in significant detail and that consideration should
be given in the bridge design of a newbuild to the acoustics, ambient noise levels
and deckhead vibration.
The EMDM proposal is for microphones to be fitted at conning stations,
radar displays and other working positions, with only one microphone per
recording channel and a higher maximum
sound level limit.
Configuration files - Manufacturers'
proprietary instrumentation messages,
allowed under IEC 61162, are also a problem for investigators, as are alarm mes-
sages (ALA) that under IEC 61162-102
have a user-defined meaning.
EMDM proposes that each VDR installation contains a file in standard format
that on playback allows these messages
to generate a meaningful message directly, for example, an alarm will generate a
message saying 'Watertight Door
Controller Maintenance Mode', not '901
Other'. The onus is on the installer not the
VDR manufacturer.
Radar display - Radar display screen
resolution continues to grow, 1600 x 1200
is readily available, and Kelvin Hughes
has recently offered 1720 x 1200. Is it necessary to store the full resolution of the
Item
Goal
Summary of proposed changes
Period of Record
Reduce pressure on crew to store a copy of the
record during an incident
Increase from 12 hours to 24 hours in the protected capsule float free.
Add 30 day internal storage
Integrity Monitoring
Ensure all data items are recorded
Add a variety of signal monitoring functions. Visual Status indication on bridge
- not alarm
Date and time (UTC)
Widen range of acceptable sources
Add eLoran as possible source, internal clock to be used only as back-up
Bridge Audio
Overcome quality problems from
some installations
Improve average quality; by improved installation and location of microphone;
by increased dynamic range allow each microphone to be isolated for playback
Configuration File
Simplify investigator’s task of understanding
proprietary and user defined messages
Add details on proprietary and user defined messages for automatic use by
playback software. Add details of instruments connected
Active control Position
Identify transfer of control
Add indication of active control position
Screen Images
Store more screen images economically
Match image interval to rate of change of scene
All images should be restricted to display a palette of no more than 256 colours per
image to optimise storage. Store at intervals of 15 seconds except for STW over
40kts when the storage interval shall be 10 seconds
Radar Screen Image
Overcome occasional lack of useful radar image
Record all radar screen images not just primary
AIS
Match data available to crew
Ensure Own Vessel is transmitting correctly
Record any screen displaying AIS data except minimum keyboard and display
(MKD). The MKD image is not required. Record received Target Vessel,
Aid to Navigation and Own Vessel data
ECDIS
To know chart details, ECDIS used correctly,
understand passage planning, detect track
errors, entry to exclusion zones
Record source: edition, date, update history. Record waypoint locations.
Record screen image. Record alarms and settings.
IBS/INS
Record Radar, ECDIS and AIS
Record screen image of any display that includes Radar, ECDIS or AIS data, or all
screens if no means available to distinguish
Ballast Water
Monitor compliance with Ballast Water
convention
Add: temperature and salinity of ballast water; quantity of water in each tank;
pressure in each tank; operation of valves and pumps. Verify with Stress/Motion
monitoring where fitted: ship’s list and trim; rolling period; longitudinal strength
of ship’s hull; hull vibration
Additional Alarms
Know when remote Bridge Navigation Watch
System alarms are triggered
Add remote alarm signal
Hull Motion
Understand vessel behaviour in flooding
conditions
Add Attitude and Heading Reference System
MARPOL
Reduce cost number of record stores
Add to VDR record as it is already tamperproof
Emissions
COx/NOx/SOx monitoring may become
a future requirement
Consider adding COx/NOx/SOx instrumentation monitor
Central Alarm Management
System
Understand how crew perceive alarms
Add screen image
Integration with Electronic
logbook
Provide a secure tamperproof store for ELB data
Cargo Record
Provide a recoverable Cargo Record in case of
vessel loss
Digital Ship
screens or is some resolution loss acceptable in the VDR?
The latest displays on a post-processed
short range image are only just adequate to
show all the detail from magnetron-based
radar. The latest solid-state radar equipment promises higher information content,
so the crew perception of an image can only
be appreciated at full resolution.
Crew selection of their working radar
may change depending on weather,
potential hazards or known blind spots or
faults. EMDM proposes all radar be
recorded at full screen resolution.
Active Steering Position - Whilst the
record contains the engine and thruster
controller positions and settings, it does not
indicate the active control position, nor
when it is changed. EMDM proposes the
active position and change be recorded.
Technical feasibility and cost
The storage requirement proposed for VDR is estimated at approximately 600Gbyte for 30 days and 20Gbyte for 24hours.
Whilst the numbers are large, such equipment is readily available to the domestic user as off-the shelf equipment in the form of
one Terabyte hard disks and 10Gbyte solid state disks, albeit to a
commercial standard.
The processing power requirement, even with 6 large screens
and 8 audio channels to compress, is estimated at less than 25 per
cent of a typical 2005 desktop PC processing capability.
Only installation in new-builds is considered and this would
not be until at least 2010. The installed system constant cost
is expected to be approximately 10 per cent more than today's
DS
standard VDR.
Proposals for New
Technology
New technology is considered as ECDIS,
AIS, Integrated Navigation Systems, and
Integrated Bridge Systems.
Traditional instrumentation systems
offered sensor-based displays. The
Integrated Bridge System (IBS) offers taskbased displays that can be arranged to suit
the user.
The sensor data can be selectively layered on the display, so that, for instance, a
chart display may show radar and AIS targets as overlays. For the purposes of investigation, it is vital to have access to the displayed navigational screens.
Automatic Identification System (AIS)
does rely upon other vessels cooperating
by transmitting accurate data but exposes
vessels otherwise hidden from sight or
radar.
It supports Aid to Navigation messages
such as identifying buoys. The navigator
can selectively view the information. It is
therefore necessary to know what information was available, whether it is accurate, and what is displayed.
EMDM proposes storage of transmitted
and received messages as well as screen
image.
To obtain the correct sense of crew perception of navigational information, it is
vital to see the screens as they saw them,
without loss of detail (excepting that we
can only view the screen at intervals).
EMDM strongly suggest that screen
images on instruments be restricted to a
256 colour palette on any one image. This
reduces the amount of data to be stored
and keeps the cost down.
Screen images are presently recorded
every 15 seconds, but at this rate the closing distance between high speed vessels
diminishes rapidly by several 100 metres
per image. It is proposed to decrease the
image interval to 10 seconds for craft travelling in excess of 40 knots, speed through
water.
The VDR is robust and tamperproof.
This makes it a good candidate as a form
of electronic strongbox for the storage of
important information. EMDM proposes
that where ELBs are used, their data
should be copied to the protected store.
This might also include copies of
records for MARPOL as well as direct
monitoring of associated equipment with
MARPOL and copies of cargo records for
insurance purposes.
Steve Austin is a research fellow at the University of Southampton, and has over 30 years experience in design and development
of telecommunications and control systems.
J.-M. Forestier is research fellow in the Ship Science Department of the University of Southampton, and was previously a project engineer in the Bassin d'Essais des Carènes, France.
Chris Winkley is managing partner, The MHC Partnership and
consultant & special adviser VDR/SVDR to Kelvin Hughes. He
was formerly managing director of Broadgate Ltd.
Philip A Wilson is professor of Ship Dynamics at the University of Southampton, and editor of the International Journal of Maritime Engineering, the journal of the Royal Institution of Naval
Architects.
The future of ECDIS
Mandatory ECDIS (electronic chart display information system) is on the way, after IMO’s safety of navigation
subcommittee gave its approval to the introduction of a carriage requirement for the technology.
But what effect will this have on the market for this equipment? Digital Ship spoke to
some of the world's leading manufacturers, to get their view of the future of ECDIS
ith a mandatory carriage
requirement for ECDIS looming on the horizon in 2012,
many shipowners who have not already
done so will have to start thinking about
installing the equipment in the coming
years.
However, ECDIS is not just an aid to
navigation, it features a host of functions
that can improve operations and efficiency
for vessel operators, and these added benefits are likely to increase in the next few
years as development of the technology
continues.
What features should a company
expect to benefit from when deciding on
its ECDIS equipment? When will electronic chart production reach a stage where
paperless navigation becomes more widely achievable? How will a mandatory
requirement impact on the price of the
equipment? Digital Ship organised a question-and-answer session with some of the
world's leading ECDIS manufacturers to
find the answers to these, and other,
important questions.
W
marine, DP & Nav, Kongsberg Maritime
PC Maritime: David Edmonds, managing
director, PC Maritime
SAM Electronics: Dr Volker Koehler,
head of business development, automation, navigation & communication, SAM
Electronics
Sperry Marine: Frank Soccoli, director of
marketing, Sperry Marine
Transas: Anders Rydlinger, sales and
marketing director, Transas
1. Improved safety is one basic reason for
mandatory ECDIS - are there any other
particular benefits that you see resulting
from the carriage of the equipment?
Furuno: Furuno: One other benefit will
be that the pace of ENC development is
expected to be boosted as a result of
mandatory carriage requirement of
ECDIS.
JRC: Efficient route planning allows
saving of fuel. Combined info is clearer for example, NavTex information show on
chart is clear - also, radar overlay on chart
to determine targets.
Closer integration of different bridge systems may be a future result of a mandatory
requirement for ECDIS (Photo: Flensburger-Schiffbaugesellschaft)
Taking part in this discussion were
representatives from the following
companies:
Furuno: Akira Yamamoto, marketing
department, Furuno Japan
JRC: Bas Eerden, sales and marketing
manager, JRC Europe
Kelvin Hughes: John Davis, business
development manager, Kelvin Hughes
Kongsberg
Maritime:
Gudbrand
Strømmen, principal engineer, offshore &
Kelvin Hughes: More efficient navigation in terms of better passage planning
accuracy and fuel cost saving are also benefits associated with the adoption of
ECDIS, together with generally reduced
stress levels for bridge officers.
The evolution of the Chart Radar with
both ECDIS and Radar capability means
that the majority of passage tasks can be
carried at a single workstation providing
greater situation awareness and further
reducing workload. The Chart Radar also
forms an effective backup for the ECDIS.
Kongsberg Maritime: We have already
incorporated additional functionality to
the ECDIS, which includes integrated tidewater tables, weather forecast, weather
forecast along planned route, integrated
NavTex, among others.
These are functions which make it easier for the personnel to get overall information about planned sailing.
PC Maritime: Yes, several - Reduced
workload for watch keeping officers due
to automated position plotting and route
monitoring, weekly chart corrections with
minimal effort, and more efficient route
planning. - Less stress on the bridge team.
- Improved crew retention and recruitment because ECDIS makes the OOW's
job easier and less stressful and officers
will want to find this technology on ships.
With a shortage of good officers, it is possible they will get choosy about who they
work for.
ECDIS can also reduce voyage costs:
the ability to see the vessel's precise position when navigating in poor visibility,
strong winds or currents, can mean masters are happier to enter port (rather than
anchor off) or sail (rather than delay waiting for conditions to improve.)
SAM Electronics: The use of planning
and monitoring functions of an ECDIS
allows companies to achieve commercial
benefits, e.g. by track optimisation based
on weather conditions or the sailing
schedule. This is a driving factor which
becomes more and more important for the
user, also to optimise the operation of the
vessels within a fleet.
Sperry Marine: We believe the trend
will be toward closer integration of ECDIS
with other bridge systems and sensors,
such as radars, autopilot, steering systems
and AIS, into widescreen multi-function
workstations with user-definable displays.
This will certainly enhance situational
awareness for bridge watchkeepers and
improve safety at sea.
Beyond safety, we see important adjacent operational gains in terms of fuel
routing, automatic chart corrections and
greater integration of shoreside and shipboard routing decisions, leveraging the
increased availability of higher-bandwidth satellite connectivity. In short, we
view ECDIS not as a stand-alone item of
required safety equipment, but as a critical
component of an integrated suite of navigation and ship control solutions.
Transas: There are numerous benefits
and that is why so many ship owners have
already started to invest in ECDIS and
Training. These include increased voyage
efficiency, fuel savings based on efficient
route planning, and predictions with
online weather forecasts.
A decrease of the navigator's workload,
higher availability of ships in tramp charter where charts (and other related publications) can be obtained promptly online
for each new charter. Additional benefits
also include recording and de-briefing
capabilities.
2. ENC coverage has a major impact on
the effectiveness of ECDIS - do you think
a mandatory carriage requirement will
help to speed up electronic chart production?
Furuno: We do.
JRC: Yes, demand creates commercial
possibilities - thus it increases the speed of
developments.
Kelvin Hughes: Definitely - we are
already seeing new products emerging
from Hydrographic Offices such as AVCS
from the UKHO, these are aimed at simplifying the electronic chart situation.
With more ships carrying ECDIS there
will be more call for world-wide electronic chart folios and more pressure put on
national administrations for their production.
Kongsberg Maritime: In general, the
work to do hydrographic surveying and
official chart production is based on government funding, so how fast this work is
progressing to make an updated chart
database word wide is quite complex.
But issuing a mandatory requirement
for ECDIS is also based on participation
from most of the nations which will have
to comply with the new requirements, and
in that light, it would most likely speed up
the chart production.
PC Maritime: Yes.
SAM Electronics: In any case the carriage requirements will have an impact on
the production of ENC. It is difficult to say
how the developing countries are able to
produce the ENC, because they have
much more problems to solve with limited
resources.
We cannot expect that 100 per cent
world coverage will be reached when the
carriage requirement becomes mandatory,
but there is still the chance to use paper
charts in case sufficient ENC are not available. Another way is to use the raster
charts like ARCS with objects, which can
be edited by the user to get alarms etc. Of
course the legal questions have to be clarified in such a case.
Sperry Marine: We cannot comment on
this subject other than to say we believe
the international hydrographic community is doing an outstanding job of working
toward their goal of universal ENC coverage before the IMO implementation dead-
Digital Ship
lines. In the meantime, Sperry Marine will
ensure that our ECDIS products are capable of working with all available digital
chart formats to ensure seamless worldwide navigation.
Transas: It is difficult to say, generally
speaking chart production under governmental responsibility will not lead to a
higher production output as there are no
commercial benefits for governments to
increase production resources.
The solution in the short-term is the
AVCS service from UKHO, where extensive chart coverage is now available
(where ENC is missing) for trading areas,
coast lines, ports etc. The coverage area
keeps increasing each week.
3. Presumably a mandatory ECDIS
requirement would lead to an increase in
sales of the systems - do you expect that
the cost of ECDIS will start to reduce over
the next few years as a result? Will it
become easier to offer support on these
systems if ECDIS technology is standard
on every vessel?
Furuno: Since the requirement for
ECDIS performance is becoming higher
every year, this, presumably, would balance out the effect of expected cost reduction. This could also be said to the service
provision aspect. However, we may benefit from so-called 'advantage of scale', as
the sales of ECDIS increase.
JRC: Yes, 'new' suppliers with low cost
equipment will come to seek opportunities. This will put pressure on existing
maritime suppliers to reduce prices.
(It will become easier to offer support)
only if suppliers have a worldwide network of technical agents.
Kelvin Hughes: As numbers increase
the costs may reduce assuming there is no
shortage of supply as the deadline
approaches, there will probably also be a
rush of smaller companies into the marketplace as there has been with the
mandatory introduction of VDRs.
This has both benefits and drawbacks,
owners have to consider long-term worldwide support as well as the initial cost of
the ECDIS when making their buying
decision. ECDIS provides the maximum
benefit when it is integrated into a bridge
system and provides closed loop passage
track keeping control to the autopilot.
This requires a lengthy approval
process, is unique for each ECDIS /
autopilot combination and represents a
considerable financial investment on the
part of the manufacturer.
Kongsberg Maritime: It is quite normal
that there is a price reduction when the
sale increases. Even if the ECDIS technology is standard, it would mean functionally
standard. The different vendors will use
their own computer platforms and software, so the need for support with vendor
knowledge will be required.
PC Maritime: ECDIS has been available
for several years now, but because uptake
has been slow, prices have been driven
down to attract customers. As demand
increases, supply chains will become
stretched and prices may increase.
Installation of ECDIS should become
easier as engineers become more familiar.
Subsequent support is a matter for each
individual manufacturer to provide. At
PC Maritime we encourage direct contact
between us and ships since many issues
can be clarified or resolved by email. Postinstallation support is an important
consideration when choosing an ECDIS
supplier.
SAM Electronics: Because of the rather
long period for the introduction of the
mandatory carriage requirement as well
as the size of the cargo ships other than
tankers (10,000gt and above), which have
to be retrofitted with ECDIS we don't
expect a significant increase of sales for
'Standalone' ECDIS systems. We don't
expect a significant drop of the pricing.
If the supplier has a service network, as
required for maritime electronics equipment, I cannot see what should be easier
or different with the carriage requirement
for ECDIS to provide service. All our customers, which are using now an ECDIS as
a Standalone version or as part of a navigation system expect professional service
to be provided by us!
I can't see how a newcomer, a 'garage
company' will be able to supply such a
service without being the part of a world
wide service network, whoever is driving
this network.
Sperry Marine: Remember that the
IMO carriage requirements for ECDIS
would not start to come into force until
2012, with mandatory fitting dates extending well into the future for retrofit on
existing ships. This is a long way off, and
we are not able to comment on likely pricing trends that far in advance.
We agree that supportability is a critical
issue, and it will be very important that
approved suppliers of ECDIS - like all
critical navigation systems on the ship must be supported by a worldwide service
network.
Transas: We will see a price drop as
new 'Garage Companies' appear in an
effort to obtain market share. These companies will try to offer low cost products,
the result of which will be a price reduction on quality products as well.
The problem for those new companies
will be to carry out service world wide. In
the same way as each radar is unique
requiring trained engineers and spare
parts, no ECDIS is alike even if the
Graphic User Interface looks the same.
Reliability is the key and Mean Time
Between Failures (MTBF) on low quality
systems can be very low, increasing the
need for service.
have experienced increased ECDIS sales
on new builds, as well as upgrades to
ECDIS on older vessels having ECS
systems.
PC Maritime: The dates by which
ECDIS must be fitted need to be considered against the preparations owners and
managers must go through first: choice of
supplier;
development
of
Safety
Management Systems to include the use
and control of ECDIS; installations
onboard; crew training.
Adopting ECDIS is not merely an
equipment fit, forward-thinking companies will start the process sooner rather
than later, well in advance of the mandatory deadlines to give sufficient time to
these considerations.
SAM Electronics: The majority of newbuildings which fall under the proposed
carriage requirement at the moment are
using already ECDIS as a 'quasi - standard', at least our customers do that.
For the newbuildings I see that this
'status quo' is now part of the carriage
requirements. For the retrofit market it
is more difficult to say, also because
the older vessels are often sailing in
'remote areas' where ENC coverage is
not complete.
Sperry Marine: Certainly, it will have
an impact on planning for newbuilding
programmes for ships that will fall under
the IMO carriage requirements. We expect
many shipowners will elect to install
ECDIS on newbuilds in advance of the
mandatory deadlines to take advantage of
4. Do you foresee vessel operators getting in ahead of the required dates, and fitting ECDIS earlier than dictated by IMO?
Furuno: Some vessels, depending on
the ship types, i.e., LNG and tankers, for
example, have already started fitting
ECDIS. We expect that some more vessels
would install ECDIS, when drydocking
the next time.
JRC: Yes, we've already seen an
increase in ECDIS installations, especially
on new buildings and even on existing
vessels as retrofit.
Kelvin Hughes: Vessels are already fitting ECDIS where Class rules require them
and where there are operational benefits to
the operators. Many companies believe that
the additional safety and operational facilities provided by ECDIS more than outweigh any cost implications.
Kongsberg Maritime: Yes, and we
the benefits offered by ECDIS and its adjacent
value-added
capabilities
for
improved operational efficiencies.
As for retrofits, we encourage shipowners to place orders and schedule installations well in advance of the mandatory
deadlines to avoid logjams in product procurement and installation.
Transas: Yes, for several reasons. In
some waters like the US, a carriage
requirement might be adopted ahead of
IMO requirements. Many ship owners
have already recognised the benefits with
ECDIS and started retrofit programs for
fleet fit, like Maersk, Columbia AM etc, as
well as including ECDIS as standard
equipment on all new buildings.
With an expected shortfall in 2015 of
more than 25,000 officers, the working
environment and the vessels equipment
will play a significant role in the decisionmaking process when young officers
choose their employer.
5. Would you expect that most companies will begin to opt for dual-ECDIS systems on their vessels, without it being a
mandatory requirement, with the aim of
completely eliminating the need to carry
paper charts?
Furuno: It is difficult to see that ship
owners/ship operators would opt for
dual-ECDIS with no paper chart environment, for there is still a strong demand
from seafarers for use of traditional paper
chart while in operation. We presume that
further enhancement in credibility of
ECDIS amongst seafarers is a precondition
to such a move.
JRC: Eventually yes, but systems and
charts are still costly, however, many
operators see the efficient use and extra
safety of ECDIS on board. Furthermore, a
dual ECDIS installation prevents the extra
cost of paper charts onboard.
Kelvin Hughes: That has to be the aim
of the industry, running paper charts in
parallel with electronic charts does not
provide a cost effective or efficient backup solution for most operators. Whilst
many operators may well still carry some
paper charts as a final backup - it is likely
that as ECDIS take-up increases this will
diminish.
Kongsberg Maritime: We have already
had an increase of dual-ECDIS sales the
last couple of years, especially on newbuilds. And the new Multi Functional
Display system makes it easier to upgrade
existing bridge navigation system later
with a secondary ECDIS without having
to add on an additional console. It could
only be a software upgrade.
PC Maritime: Some will, but a phased
approach might be more suitable for companies who choose not to fit dual ECDIS
from the outset. Installing ECDIS in two
stages over 1-3 years is a manageable and
cost-effective way forward. Stage One - fit
single ECDIS: get the benefits; develop
safety procedures, assess cost and safety
benefits; complete the necessary crew
training. Stage Two - fit backup ECDIS
and when ready go paperless.
SAM Electronics: This depends on the
operational area of the vessels, with the
related price of the ENC as well as the age
of these ships, if such an investment is to
bring a benefit.
Sperry Marine: We currently have several shipowner customers who have elected to 'go paperless' with dual ECDIS
installations. They are reporting positive
results in terms of operating efficiencies
and cost savings. Over time, we will no
doubt see a decline in the use of paper
charts as ship operators and the shipboard
staff become more and more accustomed
to electronic navigation.
Some progressive shipowners will
move faster than others, but ultimately we
can assume that paper charts will fade
away. At some point, it will become economically and operationally impractical to
keep and maintain inventories of paper
charts. Unfortunately, we are unable to
predict just when this will happen!
Transas: Today more than 60 per cent
of the installations are Dual-ECDIS, and
we foresee that this number will increase.
You could also learn from the past experience with GMDSS, AIS, SVDR, that companies will try to meet Dry-docking periods ahead of the deadline.
The UKHO AVCS service that fills the
gaps of official ENC enables the vessel to
eliminate the paper charts with increased
safety and decreased workload as an
immediate result of the investment.
However there will be ship owners who
will look for the cheapest possible investment just to fulfil the requirements.
6. What kind of impact on seafarer training, if any, would you expect following
this decision on ECDIS?
JRC: Seafarers will need operational
training on ECDIS definitely, so training
centre capacity must be increased.
Kelvin Hughes: There will be a greater
take-up of the training courses presently
offered as more ships are equipped with
ECDIS. Training is essential with ECDIS as
it is with navigation using paper charts.
The benefits and limitations of electronic
navigation must be understood by the
navigator to enable ECDIS to be used efficiently and safely.
Kongsberg Maritime: I would assume
an increased need for training since the
ECDIS systems are becoming more integrated to other systems, and in some configurations, more complex and also used
for other tasks than just to be an electronic
chart system.
PC Maritime: Training is critical for the
safe operation of ECDIS and there will be
a big demand for generic ECDIS training
courses and manufacturers' type training.
SAM Electronics: The need for
approved ECDIS training will increase
in any case, it would be helpful for the
user if this course becomes part of the
STCW requirements, similar to the
ARPA training.
The IMO Model Course 1.27 is available and the hope is that this will be made
mandatory with several organisations,
including the USCG, already indicating
that they support mandatory training and
certification for ECDIS. Besides the formal
model course, hands-on training is recommended to familiarise operators with specific ECDIS functionalities.
Sperry Marine: We see (training) as
a critical component of safety at sea.
We would welcome movement by the
IMO and national regulatory bodies to
introduce ECDIS endorsement requirements for seafarers, similar to radar
endorsements.
Transas: The need for qualified training
will be huge as ECDIS, apart from other
navigational equipment, is a complex system where various suppliers have completely different MMI and operating principles. To be able to utilise all the features
and secure full operational use of the system, training is a must otherwise most
mariners will become 'Zoom-In-OutOperators'.
DS
If you would like to learn more about the ECDIS equipment offered by these manufacturers,
you can visit their websites:
Furuno: www.furuno.com
PC Maritime: www.pcmaritime.co.uk
JRC: www.jrc.co.jp/eng
SAM Electronics: www.sam-electronics.de
Kelvin Hughes: www.kelvinhughes.com
Sperry Marine:
Kongsberg Maritime:
Transas: www.transas.com
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of ECDIS manufacturers, and systems are
available from other providers.
Digital Ship
ENCs for mandatory ECDIS - UKHO and Jeppesen
With IMO’s decision at its NAV54 subcommittee meetings to push ahead with plans for a mandatory carriage
requirement for ECDIS (electronic chart display information systems), the need for the electronic navigational charts
(ENCs) that make these systems work will grow even more acute. Digital Ship spoke to two of the major players
in the ENC market, UKHO and Jeppesen Marine, about their vision of an ECDIS future
here is no doubt that the recommendations coming out of NAV54
with regard to ECDIS are a major
step forward, writes Chris Smith, international relations coordinator, United Kingdom
Hydrographic Office (UKHO).
Endorsement of the NAV proposals
by Maritime Safety Committee will bring
significant benefits in terms of safety of
navigation and protection of the marine
environment.
The phased approach of implementation that has been proposed presents a
practical way forward by allowing time
for all the stakeholders to bring the elements of the complex ECDIS jigsaw
together successfully. This includes
hydrographic offices, equipment manufacturers, training establishments and
mariners amongst others.
Whilst the fitting of ECDIS on newbuilds, especially on certain classes of vessels such as cruise and tankers, has
increased over the last few years, the proposals will bring the number of equipment
fits to a new level.
It is to be expected that some owners
and operators will accelerate their existing
plans for fit in advance of the proposed
carriage requirement.
A significant proportion of vessels have
some form of electronic chart system,
although the majority of these do not meet
ECDIS standards. However, there are still
many mariners that have not as yet used
an electronic chart system and only a
small minority have relied on ECDIS as a
primary navigational aid.
There is therefore a large training task
to be undertaken by both the maritime colleges who deal with general training, and
the equipment manufacturers who provide type specific training.
It is likely that some adjustment of the
STCW requirements will be necessary to
ensure that all mariners receive an appro-
T
priate level of training to use ECDIS safely
and effectively. This will all take time, and
this was a major reason for the UK choosing 2012 as a start date for a carriage
requirement in its submission to NAV54.
Transition
The transition period from paper based to
electronic navigation will need to be carefully handled.
NAV54 agreed a Safety of Navigation
Circular providing initial guidance on
this issue and it is likely that this will be
reviewed and expanded as we move
forward.
Mariners have to gain experience of,
and build up confidence in, the systems
they are using; generic training must make
them alert to the overall constraints of
ECDIS and its supporting systems. Most
importantly bridge procedures will have
to be amended to accommodate the very
different working practices that are needed for navigation using ECDIS.
It will be important to ensure that 'traditional' navigation skills are not lost and
that navigators don't become overconfident in the use of ECDIS.
Unfortunately there have already been
examples of mariners just trusting what is
shown on the computer display without
questioning or cross-checking the information provided.
Satellite positioning systems can, on
occasions, give spurious positional information and ENCs are often, like the paper
chart, based on imperfect survey data so
there must always be a place for relative
navigation techniques to assist in maintaining safe navigation.
Radar overlay on ECDIS is a powerful
tool in this regard and the evolution
towards multifunction workstations that
allow the mariner to quickly switch
between ECDIS, Radar, Radar over ECDIS
etc, will assist the mariner in this task.
As mariners get used to the functionality of ECDIS they will become more
demanding of the systems and the data
that they use; this will put pressure on
equipment manufacturers to evolve their
products and on hydrographic offices
to improve the quality of the data they
provide.
There is already a call for accurate high
resolution ENC (electronic navigational
chart) data for port and depth critical
areas, and this will grow along with
the requirement for real time tidal
information.
The combination of the two will allow
maximum use of tidal windows for access
to ports and transit through depth constrained waters; some ECDIS manufacturers have already shown their capability to
combine the two information sets to
demonstrate a 'dynamic ENC' display that
can show real time depths.
Integration
Mariners will want to see more integration
of the data sources they use for voyage
planning and will expect this information
to be made available directly for use with
ECDIS.
The growing availability of information
sources in digital form will give opportunities for providing value added services.
The e-Navigation concept being discussed
at IMO (see page 55) looks ahead towards
the provision of highly integrated services, including access to detailed port information and even linkage into a port's
logistic infrastructure.
The increasing variety and complexity
of navigation systems means that it
becomes more difficult for mariners to
safely and effectively use these systems as
they move from ship to ship.
This is something that is also being considered in the work on e-Navigation, and
an S-mode (standard mode) concept is
being considered to overcome this issue.
This would enable mariners to switch any
ECDIS system into a generic mode of
operation giving a standardised chart display and functionality.
Adopting such an approach will be of
great assistance to training establishments
as well as the shipboard user. It might also
be welcomed by OEMs who could then be
allowed greater flexibility in developing
their system specific modes of operation.
One of the benefits of introducing a carriage requirement is that it will give
ECDIS equipment manufacturers some
certainty with regard to the size of market.
As a result they should find it easier to
justify investment in new and improved
systems.
This is something that will be welcomed by mariners who would like to see
systems that are more user-friendly; certainly there have been some calls for
improvements to user interfaces.
ENC production
The hydrographic community has made
great progress over the last two years in
the production of ENCs to fuel ECDIS
however hydrographic offices (HOs) must
not relax their effort until the mariner has
access to better services in terms of coverage, quality and updating than those
which he is used to with paper charts.
One thing that producing ENCs has
highlighted is the need for new survey
and better positioning information for
some parts of the world.
Some inadequacies are less obvious on
paper charts because there is much more
reliance on relative navigation techniques
in their use. Real time absolute positioning
on ECDIS more clearly shows up any reference datum problems and the seamless
chart display highlights discontinuities
between surveys.
These issues can only be fully resolved
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and other information that could or
should be available," he said.
"That's where you will see development as it goes along. Within the next year
or two there will be new things coming
out, having the digital publications available on the ECDIS."
ENC coverage
Training in the use of electronic navigational charts, and in the key differences between
electronic and paper based navigation, will need to be improved
in the longer term through investment in
new surveys, and it will no doubt be necessary on occasions for IMO to remind
Coastal States of their responsibilities
under SOLAS to ensure that appropriate
hydrographic surveys and charts of their
waters are provided.
The carriage requirement recommended by NAV54 does not cover many smaller ships but it is expected that once
shipowners start seeing the full benefits of
ECDIS then many will fit ECDIS on a voluntary basis.
This means that whilst there will be continued use of paper charts for some years to
come HOs will have to face major changes
in their operations in the medium term.
Many HOs, including the UKHO, have
already started on this process with the
implementation of sophisticated hydrographic applications and toolsets that
allow the production of ENC and paper
charts from a single database.
It is envisaged that the efficiencies that
these systems bring will allow quicker
turn round of new hydrographic data,
thus enabling HOs to provide a more
timely service to the mariner.
Tor Svanes,
Jeppesen Marine
Jeppesen Marine, owner of electronic navigation data company C-Map, is heavily
involved in the production and distribu-
tion of the electronic navigational charts
(ENC) that are necessary for compliant
ECDIS operation and paperless vessel
voyages.
Tor Svanes, head of division, Jeppesen
Marine, believes that a mandatory ECDIS
requirement will be the final step in the
evolution his company has seen away
from navigation by paper charts, and welcomes IMO's progress in the area as a positive development for the industry.
"I think it's what the shipowners want,
I think they are all looking to go paperless," he told us.
"By going paperless the workload, of all
of the updating and the work that they
don't have to do with the charts, that's
very beneficial to them. They'll see a lot of
savings there in personnel."
"Passage planning is something we see
quite a lot of, that is already built-in, so
with ENCs and going paperless this will
all become a much easier task for the
crews, and for the company itself."
On top of these benefits, Mr Svanes also
expects to see a new range of innovations
in ECDIS equipment to hit the market in
the years leading up to the introduction of
the IMO's carriage requirement.
"If you look at the abbreviation ECDIS,
it says electronic chart display and information systems - we've not really started
on the information systems, so we're looking at how to include digital publications
While Mr Svanes believes that installing
ECDIS onboard will allow vessel operators to take advantage of this range of
benefits, the effectiveness of these systems
will be dependent, first on foremost,
on the availability of ENC charts to navigate by.
To date there are holes in coverage in
many areas of the world, but Mr Svanes is
hopeful that a carriage requirement will
provide some of the impetus needed to fill
in the gaps.
"There's no use if they can't have complete coverage, and they won't do it before
that happens," he told us.
"The pressure is definitely going to
increase on the production side, but this
has already been requested at the IMO,
through the member states. They are
obliged to produce the ENCs, and with the
carriage requirement in place that will
give an additional push to it."
"In some areas there is already coverage, and IHO is saying there will be sufficient coverage by 2010. We're talking
about 2012 for the carriage requirement, so
by that time I think there will be enough
ENCs."
Despite the lack of current worldwide
coverage, Mr Svanes says that, in his experience, he has seen a large number of shipping companies install the systems
already, years ahead of the compulsory
regulation.
"We see that happening now, there are
a big portion of the newbuilds with the
systems," he said. "This is happening
already."
"(For retrofit), they already see that the
carriage requirement is there, so they will
be preparing for it. They know there are
benefits with ECDIS."
Mr Svanes says he has even seen companies install three ECDIS systems
onboard, to provide additional redundancy and make sure the vessel is never prevented from sailing paperless.
"What we see happening in Norway,
especially on the offshore side, is that they
are actually installing triple ECDIS systems," he said.
"Of course, to go paperless you'll need
to have dual-ECDIS, so everyone will
more or less have to go with dual-ECDIS,
but if you're running paperless and one of
the two ECDIS is down you might not be
able to leave port. To ensure that they
don't get into that kind of situation they
have an additional system to make sure
that they can always leave."
If this logic was translated into industry-wide numbers following a mandatory
carriage requirement this would be a substantial spike in demand.
Theoretically, a huge increase in the
production of these systems might lead to
economies of scale in their production,
and possibly lower prices - however, Mr
Svanes is not so sure.
"We will have to wait and see what
(the manufacturers) will do about that,"
he said.
"Pricing is a problem today, so that's
one of the arguments that users have
against ENCs, that they are too expensive.
That's why we have developed things like
dynamic licensing."
"The ECDIS equipment might become
cheaper, probably the most expensive part
of the system today is the monitor itself,
and the competition in that area is already
pretty strong. I think it could go cheaper,
but not much."
"With newbuilds it’s already built-in, in
integrated bridges with multi-screen functions anyway, so I think the competition is
pretty tough there on the hardware side. I
don't think you'll see too much lower
prices."
Mr Svanes believes that, despite all of
the discussion on the ECDIS question,
there are still some question marks as to
what exactly will constitute compliant
paperless navigation.
"You have to go back to the definition
of adequate back-up of paper charts - what
about the maintenance of those paper
charts?" he said.
"That is kind of blurry, so it's difficult to
understand, not all countries have come
up with what they call 'adequate' back-up
of paper charts. What we see with people
now is that they go with a dual station
without any hesitation at all."
"(Eliminating paper charts) is what
they're aiming at, with all of the manual
updating and those things."
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Digital Ship
Training
Training is certainly a key element in the
introduction of an ECDIS carriage requirement, and Mr Svanes is one of a number of
industry stakeholders who believe that the
current training specifications for the technology will not be sufficient in a fully
paperless world.
"There is not sufficient training as it is
today, very few countries
have mandatory training of
navigators," he said.
"There is a long way to go
for the shipowners on the
training side, so for that reason they will use the ECDIS
today just for that purpose.
By the time they go paperless
they will then have trained
personnel to deal with it."
"In Russia, for example, it
is mandatory for all navigators to go back and do training on ECDIS every year.
This has to be put into some
sort of system, and be
brought in to maritime high
schools, universities, and
so on."
"IMO already has a format
of a course for ECDIS which
is used today as a minimum,
but I would say that that is
not sufficient to really understand all of the functionality
and the limitations and
possibilities of an ECDIS.
That is a very big challenge
for the users, to get into the
training."
As the world's leading
provider of private navigational data for use on
electronic charting systems
(ECS), Jeppesen Marine
will be posed with a new
challenge in a market where
mandatory
ECDIS
is
compulsory.
Electronic charts created
from private data, such as
Jeppesen's worldwide portfolio, cannot be used with an
ECDIS and still be in compliance with international regulations. To navigate with
ECDIS, official ENCs from
sovereign states and their
hydrographic offices (such as
UKHO) must be used.
Mr Svanes says that the
company recognises this fact,
but also points to the fact that
Jeppesen is a very important
player in the distribution of
official ENCs - and intends to
continue and improve in this
regard.
"People using ECS all
want to go paperless, and
they all know that sooner or
later they will have to have
an ECDIS, so we don't really
talk much about ECS anymore," he told us.
"Of course, using private
data in an ECDIS makes it
an ECS by definition, but we
do see that the market is
looking for ECDIS systems.
We see an increase in demand (for private data) right now, and that will continue until they change to ENC when
they are available and when they are
needed."
Jeppesen is hoping to be the world's
leading distributor of ENCs when the
mandatory ruling comes into effect, and is
continually working to improve its chan-
nels for getting these electronic charts to
the maritime market.
"ENC distribution is very important to
us, and I would say we have the best distribution system for ENCs that exists,"
said Mr Svanes.
"By the time people want ENCs it'll be
easy for us to do the distribution, like we
do now with the 'dual-fuel' system (of
mixed ENCs and other data sources, such
as Raster charts)."
"We focus on our own database at the
moment, because that's where we do business today, but of course we are streamlining the processing and handling of
ENCs, which is more or less done. With
the release of dynamic licensing we expect
to see ENC use going up."
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p36-63.qxd
03/09/2008
08:56
Page 19
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‘Getting critical updates of electronic charts
whenever and wherever you need them.
This will greatly benefit the safety at sea.’
ENC-Online,
the fuel for your ECDIS
In July 2008 IMO’s NAV subcommittee concluded with an agreement on an
implementation schedule for mandatory ECDIS on deep sea vessels from
the beginning of 2012. While this is still some years away, Datema Delfzijl of
the Netherlands is well prepared, as much of their customers have already
chosen ECDIS as their primary means of navigation. To facilitate easy handling
of licences and updates, Datema Delfzijl launched their ENC-online service in
November 2007. ENC-online has quickly been adopted by many shipowners and
captains, and is now an essential service for many ECDIS users.
Willem Amels, director Datema Delfzijl: “Once you start using ECDIS, you will
quickly experience the need to manage your outfit of electronic charts and be
able to order additional charts 24 hours per day. ENC-online provides all the
tools for this, and allows significant cost savings”
In addition to the management of licences, the new ENC-online service brings
remote updating of electronic charts within reach of bandwidth impaired
vessels. The mariner can request an update by e-mail for whatever charts
he selects and gets it instantly by return e-mail. The updating service is
compatible with any ECDIS system.
Delfzijl Office • Zeesluizen 8 • 9936 HX Delfzijl • phone +31 (0) 596 635 252 • fax. +31 (0) 596 615 245 • The Netherlands • [email protected] • www.datema.nl
Digital Ship
e-Navigation - IMO’s grand plan
IMO’s plans to introduce an all-encompassing strategy to direct the future development of navigation technology has
achieved some progress following discussions at its NAV54 meetings this summer. But what exactly is e-Navigation?
Digital Ship spoke to David Patraiko, a participant at NAV54, to find out
he concept of e-Navigation has
been floating around the corridors
of power at IMO for some time
now, with lengthy discussions and hours
of debate so far only scratching the surface
of a process that could have far reaching
consequences for the future of maritime
navigation.
And yet, at this point, more than two
years after the concept was introduced,
one of the most obvious initial questions is
also one of the hardest to answer - what
exactly is e-Navigation?
One of the most common misconceptions is in the meaning of the 'e' prefix.
Despite what you may already know
about e-mail, e-commerce, or e-anythingelse, in this case e-Navigation is not shorthand for 'electronic navigation'.
In fact, the 'e' part of this equation,
notwithstanding some clever suggestions
such as 'enhanced' or 'evolved', has not
been defined as meaning anything specific at all.
The shortest explanation of what is
meant by e-Navigation might be to say
that it is a concept, being developed by
IMO, that hopes to introduce harmonisation of marine navigation systems and
their supporting shore services.
A slightly longer official definition produced by IMO states: "e-Navigation is the
harmonised
collection,
integration,
exchange, presentation and analysis of
maritime information onboard and ashore
by electronic means to enhance berth to
berth navigation and related services, for
safety and security at sea and protection of
the marine environment."
While this definition does mention
'electronic means' as an integral part of the
e-Navigation idea, it is important to note
that the development of technological systems is not the main aim of the project,
says David Patraiko, director of projects at
the UK's Nautical Institute and a participant in the e-Navigation committee meet-
T
ings at IMO's recent NAV54 sessions.
"e-Navigation is a concept, you're not
going to pick something up in ten years
time and say 'this is my e-Navigation
part'," he told us.
"You could say that this part has been
developed through the e-Navigation strategy, but it is a concept, not a system or a
device. It's not owned by anybody, and
there are going to be a lot of aspects of it."
Mr Patraiko sees the strategy working
more like a framework that will inform
maritime equipment manufacturers in
their innovations, and offer guidance in
creating systems that will fit in with the
overall needs of the industry.
"If this infrastructure is right it will help
things going forward," he said. "If we can
create a methodology for assessing what
the real needs are for a new technology,
that will help. There'll be a process that
has to be gone through before the technology can be applied."
"It has to be a living concept, but I hope
that we can start with a good foundation
that will be robust enough to incorporate
change as the industry progresses. We're
always going to get new technologies, and
we're always going to get new demands
and user needs."
Mr Patraiko likens the harmonisation
efforts of the project to the type of standardisation you might see in a motor car
anywhere in the world.
"You get into a car anywhere and the
foot pedals are always the same, and the
gear shift is always the same," he said.
"But how you put on the radio, or certain
other functions, aren't the same."
"Car companies define themselves by
their innovative approach to these things.
There has to be a balance between innovation and standardisation, and we have to
find that in the maritime industry."
"In the future we'll need to map out all
of the existing IMO rules and requirements for technology, and see how they fit
Single-person error is a contributing factor in a huge number of maritime accidents can e-Navigation help? (Photo: MAIB)
in. Radar, ECDIS, GMDSS - how do they
all fit in? How is the human element incorporated into all of this?"
Core objectives
In the course of its discussions IMO has
agreed upon eleven 'core objectives', that
will form the backbone of the eNavigation strategy (see table, page 58).
Communication systems, information
exchange and bridge technologies will
form a key part in delivering the improvements required by these objectives, says
Mr Patraiko.
"Communications is a key aspect, this
has to be spot on," he told us. "There has to
be a common structure, so that ships can
go anywhere in the world."
"Different regions have different ways
of monitoring shipping and capturing
data, and that's all perfectly fine, we're not
saying that everyone has to do the same
thing with the information. What we're
saying is that the information has to be in
the same structure for everyone."
"They can each solve their own requirements in different ways, but the information should be in a standard format. This
doesn't exist at the moment, and if the
present conditions carry on, all of the data
required in different places is going to be
in different formats."
"There's only so much information pertaining to a ship and its voyage, but there
are a million different ways you can portray that data. If you create a common
structure, then each regional area can use
it whatever way they want, but there'll be
a common format for the ships."
Having standard forms of data for
reporting and communications purposes
will also necessitate standardisation in the
data created and collected by the navigational systems on vessel bridges.
"SOLAS chapter 5 has all of the mandatory carriage requirements of systems,
charts, a compass, radar, things like that,"
said Mr Patraiko. "IMO sets the standard,
and then the manufacturers come up with
the hardware. The key to e-Navigation is
the harmonisation of all of these systems."
"In order to do all of this you have to
have agreement, and that's where we're
going with e-Navigation. This is what the
users want, they know they have to transmit information about the ship, but they
want to just put it into the system once
and then let the people who want it figure
out how to use it. Then they can get back
to the job of navigating."
"Some people are worried that eNavigation will mean they end up dealing
with more information, but it's not necessarily about that, and in some cases you
could end up with less information."
Part of this idea of having one harmonised pool of information includes
incorporating the needs of shore side
authorities that communicate with the
vessels into the harmonisation process.
"There was always a danger that eNavigation could be viewed separately
from ship and from shore," said Mr
Patraiko. "It's very important that we
bring them together, if you develop them
separately they're not going to interface."
"At IALA, when they first started with
e-Navigation, there were two specific
groups - one of shore users and one of ship
users. Within the first two days of the first
meeting people realised this was ridiculous, that they couldn't work separately,
and the two groups were merged."
"There has been a danger of people saying 'let the ship guys do their stuff, and the
shore guys do their stuff, what difference
does it make?'. There may be certain
points where they don't have to be looking
at the same picture, but they do both have
to identify the same hazards, and both
have to come up with the same responses."
Equipment manufacturers
Obviously the idea of harmonising all of
the navigational information onboard will
have to involve input from the manufacturers of bridge technologies, as it is their
systems that will provide the data that a
lot of the strategy will be based upon.
Mr Patraiko hopes that increased integration between the different systems created by the maritime technology vendors
will become the norm under the eNavigation concept.
"On a ten year old ship, which has an
electronic chart system here, and a radar
there, and the AIS over there, and all in
different boxes, the mariner has to be the
integrator," he said. "The idea with eNavigation is to create harmonisation of
all of this information."
"The difference between e-Navigation
and electronic navigation is that electronic
navigation is generic, it's out there and we
already have it, but in an unharmonised
manner. This is why it's so difficult for a
mariner to go on a ship and know how all
of the equipment works."
"Increasingly, as ships move across different regions, they have to harmonise
with all of the shore systems. If they don't,
it's the poor mariner that's going to have
to be the integrator, which is what we
have at the moment."
Mr Patraiko is hopeful that, in the future,
it will become unnecessary for the bridge
crew to have to scurry around the bridge to
find the information they need to make
decisions that are crucial to the ship's safety.
"To do a passage plan onboard a ship,
the information you gather to do it comes
from all different sources," he said.
"There are companies that are working to
try and put everything in electronic format
to try to harmonise, but then there's nothing
to say that the information from these two
different companies will be harmonised."
"Because shipping is a global industry
you have to solve all of these problems on
a global basis, and the only organisation
capable of doing that is the IMO."
This concept will also involve consideration of how the information is organised
and presented to the mariner, rather than
just the data contained within.
"In the first phase of e-Navigation we're
not going to invent any new technologies,
all of the technologies are out there," said
Mr Patraiko.
"But if you can have integrated systems,
that can bring in and overlay information
from all of the different bridge technologies
- is that what you want? The mariners have
said that they want to be able to see where
they are and what the risks are."
"Just dumping more information on the
screen is not doing that. A critical part of
e-Navigation is being smart with the information, not just providing it."
Safety-critical systems
The core objectives of the e-Navigation
strategy refer to the operation of 'safetycritical' systems, and this is an area that Mr
Patraiko feels will require a change in attitude for the maritime industry.
"Most of the systems we have today are
termed 'aids to navigation', not 'safety critical systems'," he explained.
"In aviation you have safety critical systems, where a control system might cost
you a couple of million, whereas in maritime it might cost a couple of thousand
because it was never designed as a safety
critical system. It's always been an aid to
the mariner, the mariner is the safety critical system."
"Things are evolving now, you're starting to have systems coming in that are
being used as de facto safety critical systems - but they haven't been designed to
be safety critical."
The e-Navigation strategy, as it continues to evolve, will have to have a defined
list of these safety critical systems. The
GPS positioning system is one good example of a widely used system that would
not meet these criteria, and may force a
navigational rethink.
"If it's a safety critical system then we
have to define the necessary integrity of
those systems," said Mr Patraiko. "If, within e-Navigation, people are going to have
to depend on certain systems, they have to
be good enough."
"Is GPS good enough to be a safety critical system? No. So what's the alternative?
That's going to be a big debate in eNavigation. Regardless of the accuracy, GPS
doesn't have the integrity to be relied upon
for these systems. It will have to remain as
an aid to navigation as we look towards creating systems that are safety critical."
"There is eLoran, and some other options
out there, but the argument is that if, in the
future, we are going to be more reliant on
electronic position fixing, then we need
some sort of resiliency or redundancy."
Single person error
The overall goal of the e-Navigation strategy is, of course, to improve safety at sea
and safeguard seafarers' lives.
One of the ways Mr Patraiko believes
that the technological frameworks under
development will be able to do that is in
reducing the likelihood of a single person
error directly causing an accident.
"A large majority of ships these days
probably have just the one person making
all of the critical decisions on how to follow the passage plan and avoid a collision,
even if there is another person on the
bridge at the time, which in many cases
there isn't," he told us.
"Even if there is a second person, unless
they have extremely good bridge resource
management, there's still a difference
between the lookout and the watchstander,
and they both have different competencies."
"The problem comes when somebody's
missed something, and they don't realise
they've missed something. In human falli-
ChartWorld - Your Partner In Navigational Digital Services
bility terms, can you expect a mariner to
have a twenty or thirty year career and not
make a single mistake? This is single person error. Scientifically speaking, having
two people increases safety tenfold."
The goal of e-Navigation would be to
try and replicate some of the advantages
of having additional people on the bridge,
through the use of better information systems and communications networks,
without
actually
placing
another
crewmember on the vessel.
"One way to help is to build in a comprehensive, and user-friendly, method of
alerts and alarms, with intelligent features
to alert the mariner to possible problems,"
explained Mr Patraiko.
"The other thing is, if you have better
communication with the shore, you can
start to build a navigation team with the
coastal surveillance, so if a VTS operator
can see you're doing something dubious
they can communicate with you clearly.
So hopefully it will all tie in."
Mr Patraiko believes that one of the most
crucial aspects to consider in trying to
reduce this single person error is to assign
different tasks to both man and machine in
a way that will be most effective in producing overall situational awareness.
"Understanding those differences is
important," he said. "Doing repeated calculations or plotting positions - is that an
effective use of a person?"
"Computers can do that continuously,
compare them every split second, and you
put in the parameters to say 'if something is
different by this margin, let me know'. The
computer will happily do it 24/7, never
getting bored and never getting tired."
"The mariner is good at intuition, at situational awareness, getting those things
right. So lets get him to do the things he
does well - the decision making."
"For example, mariners often say that one
of the problems with digital displays is that
they look so accurate, with two decimal
points of accuracy. If they look at a paper
chart there might be note on it saying 'last
survey done in 1849', which keeps them
wary. So the mariner needs to be kept aware
of all the relevant data. These are the kind of
things we're talking about with using analysis to improve decision making."
User needs
Another of the fundamental concepts of the
e-Navigation strategy is to move towards a
navigational system that is totally user-cen-
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tric. This involves a thorough analysis of
the navigational function, the processes
that go with that, and how to design this
system so the user gains the maximum
benefit from the systems available.
As part of this, Mr Patraiko and the
Nautical Institute have been heavily
involved in gathering information on these
requirements, from mariners and various
user groups around the world, creating
exhaustive lists of demands that need to be
distilled into a coherent strategy.
"We got a lot of feedback, and it took us
a week sifting through all of this to try and
make some sense of it," he said. "We asked
the mariners what they wanted from this,
and we got some strong statements."
"They don't want to have to keep
reporting the same information over again
to different authorities, once it's in the system it should be able to be distributed
from there. Also, at the moment all of the
information for passage planning is in different areas, it would be better if all of that
information was in the same format and
gathered seamlessly together."
While these requests might be expected,
the survey group also tried to get the
mariners to explain how they would conceptualise such a system, to then figure out how
this might all work in practice - and how the
mariners themselves would imagine they
would fit in to the integrated system.
"We asked the mariners to imagine
coming up to a console in the future to do
passage planning, and you have access to
all of this information in a harmonised format, how they would want it to look," said
Mr Patraiko.
"People came back and said 'I might want
to put into the system that, as a master, I
don't want my ship going any more than
two miles near a certain point, even if all the
information says one and a half miles'."
"What they didn't want was for their
own experience to be left out because it's
not in the box. Things like this show how
important it is to go to the users and get
their needs."
The importance of the master retaining
control of the vessel and not merely following the orders of a computer is not lost
on Mr Patraiko, and he accepts that finding the balance between automation and
human input may be difficult.
"Our challenge is to get that person /
machine interface right, and that's why it
was necessary to go to the users in the first
place," he said.
"If you went to the manufacturers first
I'm sure they would say they could do all
of these things, but then after it's built the
mariner asks where he can add his own
experience, and it wasn't included. IMO
was very specific on this, before we get
any technology involved we need to get
the user needs defined."
Training
With the e-Navigation concept likely to
mean more new systems and the increased
integration of existing bridge technologies,
training will play a key role in making sure
that the potential advantages of this strategy actually materialise, says Mr Patraiko.
"Electronics, if trained for properly and
used properly, have tremendous safety benefits," he told us. "But just chucking the technology on the ship and saying 'you're going
to be safer now', is not the right approach."
"The work that we have been doing on
e-Navigation highlights this training need
and procedures need as a very important
aspect of the development."
Mr Patraiko hopes that e-Navigation
will be useful in putting frameworks in
place that will have training at the forefront of the development process, rather
than following as an afterthought in the
rush to install new systems.
"Traditionally in this industry we first
develop the technology, then we agree on
a carriage requirement, and then a couple
of years later look at training," he said.
"AIS is a good example of this, the
mandatory carriage requirement came in
in 2004, and the IMO model (training)
course for AIS wasn't approved until 2007.
A number of training centres do design
their own courses, but a lot of them didn't
Eleven core objectives of the e-Navigation concept have been
agreed by IMO:
facilitate safe and secure navigation
of vessels having regard to hydrographic meteorological and navigational information and risks;
facilitate vessel traffic observation
and management from shore/
coastal facilities, where appropriate;
facilitate communications, including
data exchange, among ship to ship,
ship to shore, shore to ship, shore to
shore and other users;
provide opportunities for improving
the efficiency of transport and
logistics;
support the effective operation of
contingency response, and search
and rescue services;
demonstrate defined levels of accuracy, integrity and continuity appropriate to a safety-critical system;
integrate and present information
onboard and ashore through a

human interface which maximises
navigational safety benefits and
minimises any risks of confusion
or misinterpretation on the part of
the user;
integrate and present information
onboard and ashore to manage the
workload of the users, while also
motivating and engaging the user
and supporting decision-making;
incorporate training and familiarisation requirements for the users
throughout the development and
implementation process;
facilitate global coverage, consistent standards and arrangements,
and mutual compatibility and interoperability of equipment, systems,
symbology and operational procedures, so as to avoid potential
conflicts between users; and
be scalable, to facilitate use by all
potential maritime users
because they didn't want to put the investment into developing a course that wouldn't satisfy the IMO requirements when it
did come out."
"One of the statutes we have within eNavigation is that the training has to be
addressed at every stage of development. So
hopefully, if we get e-Navigation right, you'll
see a tighter link between the training and
the operations, moving together in parallel."
IMO's recent decision to pursue a
mandatory carriage requirement for
ECDIS (electronic chart display information systems) is one area where Mr
Patraiko is hopeful that training can be
properly addressed before the deadlines
approach, and an example can be set for
future system introductions.
"ECDIS is an existing technology that is
going through the IMO," he said. "By the
time the mandatory carriage requirement
comes out, because it's been a long time
coming, hopefully the training requirements will come out at the same time or
slightly before."
Mr Patraiko believes that the existing
training regulations will need to be extensively updated if the benefits of ECDIS are
to be properly felt.
"At the moment, the only training you
need for ECDIS is to do a generic model
course under the model course guidelines,
which takes about 3 days," he explained.
"Then later you need to have 'familiarisation training' - though a lot of administrations haven't defined what they mean by
that, it could be just a 10-minute introduction to the machine or something."
"Effectively you can have people who
have never seen an electronic chart before
in their life go from paper charts to electronic charts with only three days training.
Most of the people we talk to wouldn't be
happy in that situation."
"You could have a sliding scale, maybe
using ECS in the past before they trained
on ECDIS or some of the more computer
savvy young people picking it up a lot
quicker. But there's only so much you can
teach in a three day course."
"The model course is good, and the
things in there need to be taught, but
there's a lot more out there."
How this training is designed to be carried out must also be decided with regard
to the actual operation of the system in a
working situation, says Mr Patraiko.
"There's two types of training, one is
'knobology' training, which is learning
how to press the buttons and use the functions," he explained. "Then there's the conceptual training, and with something like
ECDIS fundamentally the navigator’s job
is not to know how to run the equipment,
the job is to have safe navigation."
"With a short course, most of the time
has to be taken up by the 'knobology'
aspects, rather than the conceptual aspects."
"In e-Navigation it will be very important to look at how this changes the role of
the navigator. If we fundamentally change
that role, then before we work with new
technology we need to address all of the
procedural and training issues to make
sure that the mariners know exactly what
they're there for."
This training should involve making
the mariner aware of where they fit into an
overall system that might not be immediately apparent, and the responsibilities
they will have to shoulder in keeping their
vessels safe.
"Tasks are changing," said Mr Patraiko.
"It's very easy to come up with an allsinging, all-dancing system, but then the
mariners ask 'what do I do?'."
"They need to be able to reconcile what
they can see out the window with what's
on the screen, and this is what will engage
them in the process, and motivate them."
"The IMO secretary general, when introducing e-Navigation a few years ago, made
the point that it is absolutely critical that the
mariner not be relegated to being a monitor
of the situation. That's what this is about."
Timetable
With such a vast remit, and a list of objectives that will potentially impact every
aspect of ship navigation, IMO has, to
some extent, created a monster that will
require an enormous amount of effort
before even the most elementary results
are achieved.
However, an initial timetable has been put
in place to get the foundations for the concept
in place as soon as possible, that envisages
the identification of initial user needs being
completed by the end of this year, when
they will be reviewed and prioritised.
This timetable also calls for a 'coordinated review of system architecture,
which should include the hardware, data,
information, communications technology
and software needed to meet the user
needs' to be initiated this year, and concluded by 2010.
Also by 2010, IMO intends to have completed its initial gap analyses between
existing navigation technology systems
and what is required for the e-Navigation
strategy.
A preliminary gap analysis has already
started, which will 'take into account the
human element throughout the process',
while further gap analyses should 'focus
on technical, regulatory, operational and
training aspects'.
By 2011 complete cost-benefit and risk
analyses are hoped to be finished, to
address financial and economic aspects of
the strategy as well as assess the impact on
safety, security and the environment.
If all of this runs according to plan IMO
hopes that implementation of the eNavigation plan could begin in 2012.
It states that this should include 'identification of responsibilities of the appropriate organisations/parties; transition planning; and a phased implementation schedule along with possible roadmaps to clarify common understanding necessary for
implementation'.
Mr Patraiko is under no illusions that
this will be an easy schedule to follow, but
is optimistic about the potential gains if
IMO is successful.
"At the absolute soonest you might
have a plan by 2012, and not necessarily
have implemented it," he said.
"In reality, as e-Navigation is being
established, there will be some things
that are pretty obvious, and some manufacturers might say 'I can see the writing
on the wall, I'm going to start bringing
this stuff out'. So maybe that will bring
benefits sooner."
"It's very wide-ranging - but there are
huge potential benefits if we can get it
DS
right."
Digital Ship
Maritime technology at SMM
September 2008 sees the return of the SMM exhibition in Germany. This biennial gathering is one of the biggest
international events for the maritime industry, with 47,000 visitors from all over the world meeting with 1,800 exhibitors
in eleven different halls. With such a wide range of people to visit, Digital Ship highlights some of the maritime technology
companies that will be displaying their wares at SMM, and where you can find them
3r software solutions
3R software solutions is a workshop optimisation and software development company, whose programs are used in shipyards and design companies such as Aker
Warnow/Wismar, NSWE, Blohm + Voss
Hamburg, Volkswerft Stralsund.
At SMM 2008 3R software solutions
will present the Kolli collision test, as well
as RoNiGauge, a program designed to
digitally measure tubes and create basket
models.
Other programs include its RoNiCAD
software for the creation of isometric
designs, RoNi R2D for the creation of P&I
diagrams, the workshop control RAMP
and the newly developed RoNiDraftboard
for on-site CAD.
3R software solutions will be exhibiting
at Hall B2,EG 240.
Alfa Laval
At SMM 2008, Alfa Laval will display its
PureThinking solutions to treat crankcase
gas, bilge water and ballast water,
PureBallast and PureVent, as well as its
new S and P Flex range separator module
and the F-152 fuel oil filter.
Separator technology - stand 363
ware system is able to offer support to shipyards and designers for the full shipbuilding lifecycle.
AVEVA can be found in Hall B6, at
stand 371.
Bornemann
Pump company Bornemann is to showcase its intelligent pump solutions at this
year's SMM.
Bornemann's flagship product is its
screw spindle pump, which comes in various design and performance sizes used
depending on the task on hand and the
requirements.
This pump is used for a number of different functions, such as loading pumps
on tankers, as transfer pumps for heavyduty HFO qualities and as lubricating
pumps for supplying the main engine.
Bornemann progressive cavity pumps
are also available, used as sludge pumps,
bilge pumps, as pumps to feed oil extractors, and to empty tanks (residue pumps).
Visit Bornemann at stand 220 in Hall A2.
CONRAC
CONRAC will present its new generation
of Radar and ECDIS MultiTask Monitors
at SMM, which feature a new 16:10 screen
format.
New screen sizes have been added to
the 60xx SD wideECDIS series ranging
from 20 to 26" screen diagonal in 16:10 format. Available configurations are console
mount, cabinet and chassis-only versions
for easy integration into any IBS.
Large screen displays with full HD resolution are also available with diagonals
of 46 and 57".
All displays incorporate multi-functional video inputs like DVI/Analogue,
SVHS and Composite Sync, while integrated ALC (Ambient Light Control) automatically adjusts the brightness level
according to the surrounding light conditions.
The company's OEM customers will
also be presenting their latest Integrated
Bridge
Systems
using
the
new
'wideECDIS' format.
CONRAC can be found in Hall B6, at
stand 145.
Datema
Dutch company Datema, with over 10
years experience in the electronic chart
market, will be presenting its ENC-online
service at SMM in Hamburg.
The ENC-online service provides
shipowners with features like a graphical
chart catalogue (ChartPlanner), 24x7
ordering of licences and remote updating
over E-mail.
Visitors to the Datema stand can see a
live demonstration of the service. You
can find Datema at stand number 163 in
Hall B5.
Dualog
At SMM Dualog will be demonstrating its
newest generation ship-shore communication solution, the Dualog Connection Suite.
Dualog Connection Suite provides
users with a range of services to manage
and control both dial-up and internetbased communications.
It comprises services such as WebMail
for crew, RemoteConfig for installing and
configuring
the
ship
set-up,
TrafficManager for an instant and complete overview of the fleet's data communications status, RemoteControl for access
to the vessels' IT infrastructure, and
Web4Sea which offers control over shipto-shore IP access by computers or users
and other management functions.
For demonstrations of these systems,
visit stand number 115 in the joint
Norwegian Pavilion in Hall B7.
Eutelsat
Eutelsat Communication and SpeedCast
Limited are jointly launching a new maritime broadband communications service
specifically designed to cater for the needs
of the maritime industry.
Eutelsat is one of the world's largest
The company will focus on Integrated
Ship Support, which combines spare parts
procurement with other value-added services to streamline and safeguard the supply chain.
Alfa Laval will also premiere AQUA; a freshwater
generator, and the new
JRC plays an integral role in the lives of seafarers...
Gunclean Toftejorg i65 D tank
cleaning machine.
Today, not only do thousands of vessels in the
Alfa Laval can be found in
merchant, fishing and leisure sectors rely on our
Hall A1, at stand number 363.
AVEVA
Visitors to the AVEVA stand
will be able to examine the latest versions of the AVEVA
Marine shipbuilding software, which combines Tribon
and AVEVA products with a
number of new, productivityenhancing functions.
The AVEVA Marine soft-
satellite operators, while SpeedCast, wholly owned by AsiaSat, is a regional satellite
operator in Asia.
The new services will cover key shipping
routes using Ku-band satellite capacity. In
addition to a fixed flat fee per ship and real
time communication, the system provides
automatic switching between satellite coverage beams, with no manual intervention,
over a one-metre stabilized antenna.
For more information visit stand number 261, in Hall B4.
Furuno
Furuno's stand at SMM will exhibit its
INS Voyager Integrated Navigation
System and its new Bridge Alarm System
BR-1000.
The company's new INS Training
Centre (INSTC) will also be introduced,
which offers ECDIS education, Bridge
Management Training and product/ system training.
In the communications sector, Furuno
will showcase its latest broadband products, including VSAT and FleetBroadband
systems.
The Furuno stand is situated in Hall B6,
stand number 110.
Imtech Marine Group
The Imtech Marine Group will be officially launched at the SMM exhibition.
Imtech Marine Group is an independent group of Imtech companies who are
joining forces to offer the marine industry
a wide range of technical solutions
The group offers systems and services
in automation, navigation and communications, HVAC (heating, ventilation & air
condition), fire detection, energy and AV
entertainment, and includes companies
like
HDW-Hagenuk
Schiffstechnik,
Imtech Marine & Offshore, Imtech
Schiffbau-/Dockbautechnik,
Radio
Holland Group and Royal Dirkzwager.
Learn more about the different services
the group has to offer at stand number 210
in Hall B6.
meet JRC at stand 301, hall B6
products for safe navigation, but also benefit
from our advancements in technology
visit www.jrc.co.jp to find out more
VHF radiotelephone
JHS-770S/JHS-780D
FleetBroadband
JUE-250
Black box radar JMA-5300Mk2 series
since 1915
Iridium
Iridium will showcase its new enhancedbandwidth Iridium OpenPort marine satcom service at SMM.
The Iridium OpenPort terminal provides dynamic allocation of three independent phone lines and a high-speed
data port configurable from 9.6 to 128
kbps. All voice and data circuits can be
used at the same time.
The unstabilised omnidirectional
antenna is about the size of a small boat
radar radome, and the lightweight unit
can be easily installed during a brief port
visit. It contains no moving parts, which
greatly reduces cabling, maintenance and
repair costs.
Iridium will begin delivering production
units in October. See the Iridium OpenPort
terminal at stand 551, in Hall B6.
ISIC
Danish company ISIC will present its latest
product DuraFlex at SMM, which aims to
provide customers with ruggedised computing systems designed for a long service life.
The company says that these units are
ideal for marine uses, and are well suited
to navigation, control and communication applications.
In addition to the DuraFlex line, ISIC
also display a range of other marine PC
and monitor products.
Visit ISIC in the Danish section in Hall
B1, at stand number EG840.
Jeppesen Marine
At SMM 2008 Jeppesen Marine will dis-
play its navigation and operational solutions, including its world wide charts and
data services.
At the core of Jeppesen Marine's commercial information solutions is the CMAP Professional+ vector chart database
with worldwide coverage. The unique CMAP Electronic Chart distribution format,
CM 93/3, uses official ENCs issued by
National Hydrographic Offices.
Jeppesen Marine Vessel and Voyage
Optimisation Services utilise proprietary
routing algorithms, which can help to
reduce fuel costs and improve the efficiency of shipping fleets.
Visit Jeppesen Marine at Hall B7,
stand 222.
JRC
JRC will present a new range of products
at this year's SMM.
The JUE-500 FleetBroadband FB500 is
its latest offering in a long line of Inmarsat
maritime products. The system's electrical
and mechanical design is based on JRC's
existing JUE-33 Fleet 33 and JUE-250
FleetBroadband technology.
One of the most innovative aspects of
this terminal is that existing users with a
JUE-410 Fleet 77 installed onboard need
only to replace the below deck unit and a
small part inside the antenna to upgrade
to JUE-500 FleetBroadband FB500 - keeping the same antenna, cabling and peripherals on the vessel.
JRC will also show the new solid state
S-band radar, a low powered solution that
improves clutter visibility due to new sig-
SPOS ®
“MASTER” THE WEATHER
nal processing technology and integrates a
brushless motor and solid state transmitter, decreasing maintenance costs and
increasing life span.
Visit JRC at stand 301 in Hall B6.
KVH
KVH Europe will present its 60 cm
TracPhone
V7
with
mini-VSAT
Broadband service at the SMM exhibition.
The system offers broadband internet
access and VoIP communications to commercial mariners with data rates as fast as
512 Kbps (ship-to-shore) and 2 Mbps
(shore-to-ship), and includes options for
flat-rate monthly airtime pricing or permegabyte plans, and a 36-month commercial lease programme.
Together with KVH's family of
TracVision satellite TV-antennas and
Inmarsat-compatible satellite communications FleetBroadband systems, KVH
Europe and its network of commercial
partners offers a range of communications
and entertainment solutions.
Learn more at stand number 536, in
Hall B6.
Lilley & Gillie
Lilley & Gillie will be launching five new
products at SMM.
These include a new series of speed over
the ground (SOG) and speed through the
water (STW) speed logs using the latest in
electromagnetic and GPS technology.
The company will also be launching a
new type approved SR4 class A magnetic
compass and a transmitting magnetic
compass system, which will include an
off-course alarm and steering repeater
together with a new series of digital
repeaters and a new universal repeater.
The company's existing ECDIS technology will also be on display at the company's stand.
Visit Lilley & Gillie at stand number
650 in Hall B6 at SMM.
Maris
Maritime Information Systems AS (Maris)
will showcase its range of navigation
products at SMM, including ECDIS systems, radar data processing and display
systems and Voyage Data Recorders.
The company introduced the world’s
first LCD based ECDIS system, and more
recently the world's first fully type
approved S-VDR with optional ECDIS. It
also offers update services for ENC's and
ARCS via e-mail with the approval of the
UKHO and Primar.
In June 2007 MARIS introduced its
Maritime Digital Service (MDS), what it
calls a 'one stop shop' for maritime digital
data and publications.
Find out more and enjoy a demonstration at the Maris stand, number 141 in
Hall B6.
Marlink
...“We have found it extremely helpful in planning our voyage and more
importantly staying out of bad weather areas”...
...”on this voyage we used 87,4 metric tonnes of HFO less”...
T: +31 317 399 800
MeteoConsult
A MeteoGroup Company
www.SPOS.eu
Marlink will present its always-on VSAT
solutions and on-demand mobile satellite
services to maritime customers at its stand
at SMM.
The company's satellite communications services include maritime VSAT,
software, terminals, traffic accounting and
Point of Service Activation services.
Marlink, a Vizada company, has offices
worldwide including in Athens, Brussels,
Dubai, Hamburg, Houston, London, Oslo,
Rockville, Singapore and Tokyo to service
customers all over the globe.
Visit Marlink in Hall B6, at stand number 531.
McMurdo
McMurdo, a producer of emergency location beacons, will display its latest
advances in distress beacons, safety information communications, and personal
location at its stand
Its systems include EPIRBs (Emergency
Positioning Indicating Radio Beacons),
PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons), SARTs
(Search and Rescue Transponders) and
VHF Radios for the maritime market.
Also on display will be the company's
Smartfind EPIRB range, advanced location
beacons with optional integral GPS position information and standard 406 MHz
transmission, as well as the Fastfind Max
range of Personal Locator Beacons, which
offer optional integral GPS and the standard 406 MHz transmission and are
designed for carriage by individuals.
Visit McMurdo at stand number 044 in
Hall B6.
Raytheon Anschütz
Raytheon Anschütz will launch its next generation of Integrated Bridge Systems during
this year's SMM. The new system will
replace Raytheon's current bridge solution
which is installed on more than 600 vessels.
Integrated Bridge Systems - stand 320
The new Bridge System comes with a
new console design with improvements relative to ergonomics as well as ease of installation. All operator controls for radars,
ECDIS, conning display, autopilot, steering
and gyro compass follow the same design.
All consoles are fitted with new
widescreen flat panel colour displays,
with an increased target area (PPI).
Raytheon Anschütz has also recently
launched the newest version of its NSC
Radar series, which includes its SeaScout
collision avoidance function. The new low
profile radar antennas, with less weight
and less wind resistance, will be on display at SMM.
Visit Raytheon at stand number 320 in
Hall B6.
Rovsing Dynamics
Rovsing Dynamics will gather ship owners, classification societies and machinery
makers together to exchange views and
experience with vessel condition monitoring, having organised a forum at SMM.
Ship owners, who have implemented
monitoring solutions together with
Rovsing Dynamics, will share their goals
and practical experience with monitoring
Digital Ship
of main engine bearing wear, thrusters and
turbochargers. These include PRISCO,
Reederei F. Laiesz and Scandlines.
DNV, Germanischer Lloyd and Lloyd's
Register will present their guidelines for a
successful Condition Based Maintenance
strategy, supplemented by the requirements of MAN Diesel, who now recommend ship owners to completely omit regular open-up inspections of the
crank-train bearings of certain
engine types with an approved
bearing wear monitoring system.
For a full programme and to
sign-up, visit www.rovsingdynamics.com/maritime.
SeaMobile
SeaMobile Enterprises will showcase its
VSAT services for the maritime industry
at this year's SMM.
SeaMobile notes that it was the first
company to install stabilised VSAT
antennas on vessels at sea, and is keen to
demonstrate the crew welfare potential of
these technologies, such as internet
access, stored value calling plans, and
newspaper delivery.
The company's global VSAT satellite
communications network from MTN
Satellite Services offers 'always on' systems to over 400 vessels worldwide,
including commercial shipping customers, most cruise ships, private yachts,
the government and military, ferries, and
the offshore energy industry.
Visit SeaMobile at stand OG214, Hall
B3, in the USA Pavilion.
Sea Tel
Sea Tel is sponsoring the Hannika stand at
SMM 2008, which will feature its TV-atSea antennas.
For 'Broadband-at-Sea', Sea Tel's 4006
Saab
TransponderTech
Saab TransponderTech, with
more than 15 years experience in
marine AIS technology, is introducing a new Class B AIS
transponder for smaller commercial vessels and pleasure boats
not subject to the SOLAS AIS carriage requirements at SMM.
The new R4B transponder
transmits GPS coordinates,
course and speed over ground,
vessel name, call sign, type and
size through a VHF data channel
to all AIS-equipped ships in the
area.
It also receives data from all
Class A or B AIS transponders
for display on an electronic chart
system or plotter. In addition,
vessels fitted with the R4B can
be monitored by base stations
ashore for fleet tracking and
managing commercial fleets in
inland waters.
Visit Saab TransponderTech
at stand number 432, in Hall B6.
SAM Electronics
SAM Electronics, an L-3
Communications company, will
exhibit a series of new-generation
automation, navigation, power
supply and energy distribution
systems at SMM, as well as safety, security and infotainment systems, together with equipment
from other L-3 companies.
Major exhibits include a complete Ship Control Centre (SCC)
bridge assembly integrating
navigation,
communication,
propulsion control and alarm
monitoring
functions
on
ergonomically-designed, standardised consoles via a series of
four new 23-inch flatscreen
monitors.
The navaid systems will be
exhibited alongside the latest
high-precision
and
typeapproved Speedlog SATLOG
SLS 4120 with integrated alarm
functions. A new Integrated
Navigational Data Display
(INDD) will also be shown,
capable of showing conning
functions at numerous on board
locations.
SAM Electronics can be found
at stand number 340, in Hall B6.
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will be displayed along with the new
2406 Ku Band Tx/Rx 24" d-ring VSAT
antenna. The new 2406 allows system
integrators to use a 60 cm antenna in
SCPC, TDMA as well as CDMA applications, offering flexibility in scaled networks on a global basis.
The 2406 can be used for applications
like file and image transfer, video conferencing, e-mail, Virtual Private Networks,
and database backup.
Sea Tel can be found in hall B6, at stand
number 550.
SevenCs
Recently SevenCs has released its new
'Contour Generator', an electronic chart
system that operates utilising Helical
Systems Inc. technology, which will be on
display at SMM.
The Contour Generator can be plugged
into the company's ENC Designer system
to enable the user to generate contour lines
from cleaned survey data.
The system creates the information taking all hydrographic rules into account.
For example, depending on the final
scale the contour lines are generalised and
smoothed while staying on the 'safe side'
of local topography. The company says
that results have been proven accurate in
many projects requiring ENCs with highly
dense and accurate contour lines, especially for berthing and piloting tasks.
Visit SevenCs at stand number 330, in
Hall B6.
Stratos
At SMM, Stratos will introduce a new
version of its 'AmosConnect from Stratos'
e-mail service.
The service upgrade aims to help crews
enjoy the benefits of broadband connectivity, as well as improving business efficiency.
This new version delivers improved email, data synchronisation, reporting, web
acceleration, and security services, and
supports all narrowband satellite connections, as well as the new broadband generation of IP-based satellite services such as
Inmarsat FleetBroadband.
It also supports Iridium OpenPort and
the VSAT solutions OceanVSAT and
StratosITek.
Stratos can be found on the Inmarsat
stand in Hall B6, number 111.
Thrane & Thrane
Satellite and radio communications company Thrane & Thrane will present a
unique booth layout at SMM that will feature a number of new systems, including
the SAILOR 900 VSAT, LRIT, SAILOR
SP3500 ATEX radios and SAILOR
FleetBroadband terminals.
is expecting a lot of interest in this area at
SMM. The company is offering LRIT compatibility testing and a new low-cost
standalone LRIT transceiver in its efforts
to service this sector of the market.
Visit Thrane & Thrane at stand number
333, in Hall B6.
Totem Plus
Totem Plus is pleased to announce that its
Electronic Chart Display and Information
System, Totem ECDIS, has been approved
by DNV, receiving the MED-B certificate
(Wheelmark), and will be on display at the
SMM exhibition.
TOTEM ECDIS is the first ECDIS certified according to the new IEC 62288 standard, which is based on MSC 191(79) regulation. This regulation came into force on
1st July 2008.
The system includes a range of features,
such as presentation of information from
various ship devices, route planning and
monitoring, alarms on dangerous areas or
close proximities to other vessels, collision
prevention tools using online AIS information, and data logging and playback.
The system can use C-Map and S57 for-
VSAT satellite communications - stand 333
With three distinct areas - the bridge,
cabin and office - Thrane & Thrane will
take the opportunity to demonstrate the
safety, security and efficiency applications
enabled by its new systems.
With the LRIT (Long Range
Identification and Tracking) deadline fast
approaching, Thrane & Thrane also says it
mat charts, and is configured for dynamic
licensing.
Totem Plus is at stand number 562, in
Hall B6.
Transas
At SMM 2008 Transas will demonstrate its
range of navigation solutions for the mar-
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Tyco Electronics
Tyco Electronics is launching its latest
products at SMM 2008, which include signal and power multi-conductor cables (C
Lite), Cat 5,6&7 cable, Fibre Optic cables
and connectors.
Total assembly solutions can be configured, supplied to individual request.
All cables are available with thin wall
Zero halogen low smoke jackets, which
are 50 per cent smaller and 30 per cent
lighter than previous technologies.
Tyco offers low cost Ethernet product
solutions and a range of Fibre Optic products. To learn more, visit stand number
274, in Hall B6.
Vizada
Sperry Marine
Sperry Marine will showcase its new-generation VisionMaster FT integrated navigation systems with TotalWatch multifunction workstations at SMM.
For 2008, Sperry Marine is introducing
the new WideView console, which provides more than 25 per cent more viewing
area. The larger screen size is designed to
give watch officers additional information
to enhance situational awareness and ship
safety.
The extra space is configurable to show
split-screen and window inset views,
including the industry's first graphical
view of underwater topology.
Sperry Marine is also presenting a new
family of Doppler, electromagnetic and
speed logs as will as a range of commercial and military navigation products and
solutions.
Visit the company's stand, number 660
in Hall B6.
itime industry.
The company's stand will feature the
Transas Integrated Navigation System
(INS), a solution for shipyards as well as
for crew training, where a realistic simulated training environment is needed.
This system is based on DNV
type-approved INS Class C HyundaiTransas Intelligent Bridge System, incorporating ECDIS, Radar and vector
Conning applications
Transas will also be displaying the
Transas Full Mission Bridge Simulator,
operating as a fully functioning training
tool, at its stand during the exhibition.
Visit Transas at stand number 231, in
Hall B6.
15, 000 E l e c t r o n i c Ch a r t S y st e m s
w o r ld w id e h a v e o u r ECD I S K e r n e l i n si d e .
Vizada will showcase its basic connectivity services of satellite network operators
Inmarsat,
Iridium
and
Thuraya,
enhanced with the Vizada Solutions
portfolio, at SMM.
Basic connectivity services to be presented at the exhibition include Inmarsat's
Fleet family including FleetBroadband, as
well as the new high speed data service
Iridium OpenPort.
Vizada Solutions can be combined with
any of these core connectivity services,
regardless of the operator, and include the
Universal Card, a single card for prepaid
voice and data over Inmarsat and Iridium
terminals, as well as the Terralink family
of IP-based solutions for secure, highquality data connections at sea.
Vizada also offers SkyFile Anti Virus, a
new software package to protect PCs and
LANs on board vessels.
You can find Vizada at stand number
230, in Hall B6.
DS
Digital Ship
A vision for e-Navigation
IMO’s e-Navigation strategy will certainly drive changes in bridge equipment - but how will existing
and future technologies fit in with this concept? Dr Andy Norris looks to the future
t the July meeting of the IMO
Navigation Subcommittee the
strategy for the development and
implementation of e-Navigation was
agreed (see page 53). This will be put to
the Maritime Safety Committee for
approval towards the end of this year at
MSC85.
The strategic plan defines e-Navigation
as "the harmonized collection, integration,
exchange, presentation and analysis of
marine information onboard and ashore
by electronic means to enhance berth to
berth navigation and related services for
safety and security at sea and protection of
the marine environment."
After approval, the NAV Subcommittee
will commence work on an implementation
plan, expected to be completed by 2012.
Other international organisations will also
be invited to become involved.
Actual implementation will commence
after 2012. However, it is an extensive programme and so some caution should be
put on timescale expectations for any
future regulatory requirements for the carriage of e-Navigation equipment.
For instance, ECDIS is a vital component
of the system and the regulatory transition
to mandatory carriage is already proposed
to extend until 2018 (to be confirmed at
MSC85). Furthermore, most new and existing ships below 3,000 gt are not covered by
the proposed requirements, as well as most
existing ships below 10,000 gt.
It can therefore be readily conjectured
that it will be beyond 2020 before the full
advantages of e-Navigation will be realised.
Nevertheless, the infrastructure for eNavigation can be expected to become generally available during the 2010s.
A
E-Navigation
implementation
The strategy bases the case for eNavigation on the need to reduce collisions and groundings. It notes that 60 per
cent of these incidents are caused by
direct human error, often because decisions are being made in isolation, perhaps
exacerbated by reduced manning.
E-Navigation is envisaged as providing
a checking process to navigation decisions
but "there is also a need to recognize the
role of the practice of good seamanship,
the provision of suitable training and the
use of procedures." Furthermore, the system must neither overburden nor distract
the mariner.
It is clear that the OOW will remain in
control of the navigation process but eNavigation can perhaps be seen providing
the role of an ever-vigilant assistant. It will
also provide more automation in reporting to shore agencies.
E-Navigation will not arrive on the
ship's bridge as a new single box or display as it is a system level architecture.
The way in which navigational information is displayed on the bridge will
undoubtedly be affected, as will many
bridge procedures.
In the foreseen timescales its functionality is most likely to be accessed through
multifunction task stations (MFTS), also
known as multifunction displays (MFD).
MFTS based bridges are already being
fitted to some ships, providing switchable
or concurrent display and control of navigation functions such as radar, AIS, ECDIS
and track controllers, together with the
display of various discrete navigational
parameters.
Last year IMO adopted revised performance standards for integrated navigation systems (INS), which explicitly recognise that INS can be conveniently implemented on an MFTS. MFTS-based INS
equipment will certainly become available
in the next year or two.
INS monitors, combines, processes and
evaluates data from connected sensors as
well as providing suitable alerts. This
matches many of the fundamental requirements of e-Navigation.
For example, high integrity positioning,
using automatic comparison of multiple
sources of positional data, is a key component of e-Navigation and is also a typical
application of the INS concept.
Likewise, the checking, use and display
of the latest available navigational data,
whether from onboard instrumentation
or from information transmitted to the
ship from external sources, is key to eNavigation and is a typical INS function.
The e-Navigation bridge layout is likely to match those of evolving MFTS solutions. These are scalable according to ship
size, with the largest ships having five, six
or more work station positions.
Some stations need to be adjacent to
allow the display of different data to be
seen simultaneously by one operator.
Other stations are distributed around the
bridge, positioned in the optimum place
for carrying out particular tasks.
Multiple work stations give essential
redundancy, allowing one or more to fail
without compromising the safety of the
ship. This is an important aspect concerning the need for increased integrity, inherent in the e-Navigation concept.
User needs
IMO's strategy makes it particularly clear
that e-Navigation should be based on user
needs. This implies that the user-interface
will be an important aspect of onboard
systems.
There is a direct reference to S-Mode
(Standard-Mode), which has caught the
imagination of seafarers wanting more
commonality in using equipment from
different manufacturers. The concept of
this mode is that all equipment will be
able to revert to a standardised method of
display and operation, should the user
prefer this.
Seafarers are always worried by new
technology - not least because they have
been let down many times in the past. This
is reflected in IMO's strategic document,
where it emphasises that e-Navigation
should not be technology driven.
ECDIS is a vital component of
e-Navigation
However, the way that some user
needs are best met will rely entirely on
technology, if this is the most reliable
route. It is therefore important that user
needs are defined at a suitably high level
and should not assume a particular technology solution.
For instance, today it is necessary for
the OOW to compare position with multiple sources, such as GPS, radar and visual
sighting to assess the integrity of position
- as given normally by GPS.
In the future, assuming multiple position
sensors such as GPS, Galileo and eLoran, eNavigation should be able to give position
with higher integrity verification than can
be determined by a human operator.
The user need is to have a defined level of
positional integrity. However there is another important user need - that the human
navigator retains positional awareness.
The first need will be more ably performed in the future by machine; the second is, by nature, a human performed
task, that is perhaps best achieved by regularly taking bearings of visually sighted
objects significant to navigation and plotting them on radar or ECDIS.
At times of poor integrity of positional
information, perhaps due to jamming of
satellite signals or abnormal solar activity,
the system would automatically alert the
user, who would revert to radar and visual techniques.
The user's common use of bearings to
maintain positional awareness would
ensure that basic manual skills are maintained, fulfilling IMO's requirement to
continue the practice of good seamanship.
Design interaction
Addressing the needs of users must come
out of appropriate interaction with user
groups, technologists and human element
specialists. It is important that the defined
user needs are sufficiently high level and
do not assume a particular technological
solution.
The best interaction between human
and machine abilities is essential to meet
IMO's aims to reduce accidents and provide opportunities for improving the efficiency of transport and logistics.
Of prime importance, the technologists
must fully address reliability issues. If the
equipment is unreliable the whole concept
of e-Navigation becomes flawed.
Enhanced reliability will inevitably
increase the cost of equipment. However,
any increase must be outweighed by the
overall savings that will result in the use of
e-Navigation. These issues must be carefully evaluated.
Finally, the global infrastructure for eNavigation is an important issue that has yet
to be explored in any depth. Much of it relies
on good digital communications and standard data structures to enable the unambiguous and timely flow of data between eNavigation 'stations' ashore and afloat.
For a number of activities, voice communication will remain important.
The new infrastructure could possibly
include an enhanced AIS capability. It is
perhaps unlikely that it will move from its
VHF frequency band but more channels
could be allocated to increase its capability. This could significantly enhance the
possibilities for data exchange between
port authorities and ships.
It can be expected that satellite-based
systems will very commonly be installed
in the timescales of e-Navigation. It is feasible that these could be mandated for
some categories of ship and used for critical reception of larger data sets, such as
ENC updates.
The next four years will see the development of a plan that will change the
future of navigation - definitely an interesting period …
DS
Dr Andy Norris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry
for a number of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech
navigation companies but now he is working on broader issues within the
navigational world, providing both technical and business consultancy to
the industry, governmental bodies and maritime organizations.
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September 2008

Transcription

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