May 2010 - Digital Ship

Transcription

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May 2010
Anglo-Eastern agrees 700-unit
FleetBroadband deal
In a landmark deal, Anglo-Eastern Ship Management has agreed to install
700 FleetBroadband units across its fleet of vessels, the biggest satcom
retrofit deal in maritime history. Capt Pradeep Chawla, Anglo-Eastern,
told Digital Ship about this momentous move to broadband
lobe Wireless has
entered into an
agreement to supply and install two FleetBroadband satellite terminals on each of the approximately 350 vessels operated by Anglo-Eastern Ship
Management (AESM).
As a part of the agreement the ships will also be
installed
with
the
GlobeMobile GSM product,
which offers voice and SMS
services via FleetBroadband
while at sea.
“Our vessels currently
use a variety of satellite terminals including Inmarsat
Mini-M, -B, and Fleet terminals
today,”
said
Captain Pradeep Chawla,
director of quality assurance and training at AESM.
“By installing two
FleetBroadband units with
GlobeMobile we will be
standardising
satellite
communications across
our entire fleet, and providing a total solution for
business and crew services, as well as for training
programmes, remote IT
system
support,
and
expanded functionality.”
© 2009 DUALOG AS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
G
This 700-unit deal
marks the first major
sale of FleetBroadband
by Globe Wireless since
being announced as a
Distribution Partner of
Inmarsat
services
in
January of this year.
‘Our motivation is to
improve ship-shore
communications and look
after the needs of our
seafarers’ – Capt Pradeep
Chawla, Anglo-Eastern Ship
Management
Digital Ship understands that this is now the
biggest satcom retrofit
contract in maritime history,
surpassing
A.P.
Møller-Maersk’s agreement to fit up to 300 vessels with FleetBroadband
in 2008, then claimed to be
record deal.
While this is a milestone
deal in the spread of broadband into the shipping
industry, Capt Chawla
notes that this is not a consideration for AESM, with
his only concern being in
improving the operations
of the company.
“Our motivation is not
to set records,” he said. “It
is to improve ship-shore
communications and look
after the needs of our seafarers.”
Installations will be
managed
by
Globe
Wireless itself, with each
vessel to receive a
FleetBroadband 250 as its
main antenna, and a
FleetBroadband 150 which
the company says will be
mainly used as a back-up.
Existing satcom installations on the vessels, which
include various terminals
such as the Fleet 77, MiniM and Inmarsat-B systems
mentioned above, will
remain in place as the new
systems are implemented.
“Globe Wireless currently provides a full suite
IN THIS ISSUE
satcoms
Stratos introduces maritime IP address
management service – 2
New broadband solution launched
by SingTel – 4
of satellite communications, applications, and IT
services
to
AngloEastern,” said Frank Coles,
president and CEO of
Globe Wireless.
“We are honoured and
pleased to enhance and
extend our strong partnership with FleetBroadband
and
GlobeMobile.
FleetBroadband
is
a
robust, reliable and cost
effective communications
system, which we believe
will prove to be extremely
popular and successful
with our customers.”
Anglo-Eastern had been
trialling the system for six
months prior to the agreement, and Capt Chawla
says that the company will
continue to monitor the
performance
of
the
FleetBroadband system as
the fleetwide installations
are rolled out.
Capt Chawla also notes
that the company has been
mindful of ensuring security on the new broadband
link, with virus prevention
to be managed at the hub
level by Globe Wireless.
Thuraya 444 kbps maritime terminal under
development – 5
Managing the broadband
connection at Utkilen – 6
software
ABS-NS reveals scanner technology to
integrate with inventory software – 10
Website for vessel tracking
using Inmarsat-C – 14
Seatrans – cutting time in port
through accurate reporting – 16
How insecure are shipbrokers? – 18
electronics and
navigation
ClassNK commits $25m to
maritime emissions research –
20
UKHO sells SeaZone subsidiary – 24
US and Korean marine electronics
standards converge – 25
Facing the problems with
ECDIS – Dr Andy Norris – 26
continued on page 2
- Odd Terje Lundbø, IT Coordinator Solvang ASA
Solvang ASA has a history dating back to 1936. Today, they operate a modern fleet
of gas carriers trading globally.
"We have installed Dualog® Connection Suite™ on all our ships to control
and manage our data traffic" says IT Coordinator Odd Terje Lundbø.
“We are in the spot market - communication needs to work instantly
and always. With Dualog® Connection Suite™ it does - I have checked
with the Captains" adds Lundbø with enthusiasm.
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SATCOMS NEWS
continued from page 1
GSM
Vol 10 No 8
Digital Ship Limited
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This new agreement is also the first major
deal for the GlobeMobile system since
Globe Wireless announced its acquisition
of GSM solutions company Zynetix in
January of this year, only days before the
announcement of its new Inmarsat partner status.
The Zynetix technology which forms
the backbone of the GlobeMobile product features an onboard rack and a
number of picocells placed around
the ship, to create a sort of ‘virtual’
mobile phone cell. Crews wishing to use
the system insert a GlobeMobile SIM
card into their phone handset, and can
then make and receive calls and SMS
while at sea.
The technology can be used to connect
to any of the usual maritime satellite communications options, such as VSAT,
Iridium OpenPort – or, as in this case,
Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband.
According to Capt Chawla administration of the system will be performed in
much the same way as is already done for
crew calling cards and other communications options.
“These systems are already in place
and will only need minor changes,” he
told us.
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New capabilities
The background to this deal stretches
back to the early part of 2009, as AngloEastern became convinced of the necessity
to move to a higher-speed data link and
began to consider the options available.
“We have been discussing this and
other options for over a year, as we see
the benefits of a [broadband] system,”
Ship Equip reports 29 per cent growth for 2009
www.ship-equip.com
CONSULTANT WRITER
Dr Andy Norris (navigation)
[email protected]
AESM expects that having GSM services
on board will help seafarers to stay in
touch with their families at a lower cost
than before
said Capt Chawla.
“The most important reason was to free
up the Master’s time from communications, and to try and bring down the rates
for voice calls for the crew. This being the
year of the seafarer, we wanted to do
something special for them.”
In that sense the availability of the GSM
capabilities from Globe Wireless has been
an important part of this deal, with AngloEastern expecting that its seafarers will be
able to have a much greater level of contact
with their loved ones on shore once the
new systems are in place.
“We hope that with this, the crew will
be freer to contact their families at anytime,” Capt Chawla told us.
“First and foremost, as the voice calls
will become cheaper, we hope our seafarers will like it – being in touch with families is very important for a seafarer. We
have been providing free e-mail for years
but voice comms make it better.”
As for the business benefits of broadband, Capt Chawla is adopting a gradual
approach to the adoption of the system,
and will not be looking to make big
changes in processes just yet.
“Let us take this step now,” he told us.
“We prefer to do things first than talk
about them.”
DS
Ship Equip reports that, despite the economic downturn, it has increased its
turnover from 207.9 million NOK
(approximately $35 million) for 2008 to
268.9 million NOK (approximately $45
million) for 2009.
The company says that an increasing
proportion of this growth in turnover, of
29.3 per cent, is a result of new business in
the international shipping sector.
"The fact that we are able to maintain
the high rate of new sales and new installations in the turbulent financial climate
of 2009 is a sign that we have been able to
build a robust and capable organisation,"
said Ship Equip CEO, Ivar Nesset.
"We have grown 29 per cent the last
year and that is a considerable amount, but
we anticipated the growth early and have
been able to scale the company accordingly. The growth represented close to 200
new installations of SEVSAT and close to
100 Ship Equip TV systems (SETVRO)."
The company says that it expects fur-
ther growth in 2010, particularly in new
markets.
"We see the growth is coming more
and more in international shipping, and
we have recently scaled our organisations
in the US and in Singapore to meet this
growth," said COO Esben Flo.
"The main office in Aalesund (Norway)
has been capable of handling a large
amount of installs as far back as 2004, and
is now additionally taking on a support
role for the offices outside of EMEA."
Anthony Veder Group’s vessel Coral Methane was among the new
Ship Equip installations during 2009
VSAT recovery system upgraded
www.uplogix.com
Uplogix has released an updated version
of its Remote Management Operating
System (RMOS) software platform, used
to run automation and recovery capabilities for VSAT-connected vessels.
RMOS v4.2 includes automation tools
for use with iDirect satellite routers, with
support for Evolution series products
and full configuration management, and
Sea Tel antennas, with upgrades for the
antenna control unit (ACU) and the
pedestal control unit (PCU) software.
The company says that the technology, in conjunction with the enterprise
network routers and switches from
Cisco Systems and others that integrate
with its services, should help to create
the same levels of availability in VSAT
systems that are available with shorebased networks.
The release also contains new features
for the Uplogix Control Center, the NOCbased element manager for deployed
appliances.
Digital Ship May 2010 page 2
In v4.2, users can set up a custom dashboard showing specific Uplogix appliances and related data, providing a quick
reference for alarms and events for selected appliances.
A secondary Ethernet connection is also
now available for the system, to be used as
an out-of-band option.
Using the auxiliary Ethernet port on
an Uplogix 3200, the appliance can utilise
an alternate network to connect to the
NOC at times when the primary network
is unavailable.
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Digital Ship
Stratos introduces IP address management service
www.stratosglobal.com
Stratos has introduced a new worldwide
single IP access service called Public IP
Access, intended for customers requiring a
static IP address to run their applications
over Inmarsat broadband
systems.
Public IP Access enables
the use of a single IP address
that works globally, eliminating the need to change IP
addresses when travelling
from region to region,
which the company says
should benefit users of
FleetBroadband.
The system is enabled by
clicking the browser-based
Stratos Dashboard, where the
user chooses one default IP address they
can use anywhere in the world.
No username and password is required
to be entered into the terminal, nor is any
other terminal intervention required.
"More than 3,000 of our BGAN,
FleetBroadband and SwiftBroadband customers use multiple static IP addresses as
they work around the globe," said Stratos
president and CEO Jim Parm.
"Public IP Access enables these customers to keep the same IP address wher-
TV at sea
from MTN
www.mtnsat.com
MTN Satellite Communications
(MTN) has launched MTN
Worldwide TV, a TV broadcast
service delivering programming from six major US and
international television networks to cruise ship passengers.
The system will include
programming from BBC
World News, CNBC, Fox
News, MSNBC, Sky News
and Sky Sports News, with
additional
programming
packages, including entertainment and sports channels, to be added in the near
future.
Using MTN’s global satellite network, this TV service
uses three overlapping satellite beams that integrate with
the cruise ships’ existing
TVRO antennas and onboard
video distribution systems.
More than 40 ships, with a
total of over 32,000 cabins, are
already under contract for the
new
broadcast
service,
according to Brent Horwitz,
senior vice president, MTN
cruise and ferry business.
“MTN continues to deliver
cruise industry ‘firsts,’ such as
at-sea cellular service, internet
cafés and Wi-Fi; we are excited
to now deliver premium programming to passengers,”
said Mr Horwitz.
“The cruise lines have listened to their passengers’ suggestions for a better cruising
experience, and because of our
advanced technology and
influence, MTN is able to help
the cruise industry deliver
new and exciting services that
improve the passengers’
onboard experience.”
ever they travel."
"We have worked closely with
Inmarsat to develop this new service and
we have made significant investments in
network optimisation to enable fast, easy
service implementation."
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SATCOMS NEWS
New broadband solution from SingTel
VSAT for DSD
tent over SingTel’s maritime video-ondemand service.
On the operational side SingTel says
that it is offering features such as eSurveillance, fleet management tools,
managed security services, navigation and
tracking and web-based remote monitoring of vessels and equipment over the
broadband link.
Downloads of colour weather forecast
charts and electronic submissions of
regulatory forms, such as Notice of
Arrival and Departure (NOAD) at foreign
ports, are also suggested as potential uses
of the service.
“In the past, the cost of satellite infrastructure prevented many maritime companies from equipping their ships with
high-speed broadband services,” said Bill
Chang, SingTel’s executive vice president
of business group.
“SingTel’s ground breaking solution
eliminates these costs to make maritime
broadband more affordable and accessible
than ever. Companies with limited
resources can now quickly and cost effec-
www.kvh.com
www.dualog.com
www.singtel.com
Singapore Telecommunications Limited
(SingTel) has developed a new maritime
broadband solution that uses existing
shipboard communications equipment
such as satellite TV antennas to allow vessels to receive high-speed broadband services.
The new system offers unlimited
broadband connectivity with a download
speed of 2Mbps, and is available on a subscription basis from $1,999 per month.
Development of the technology was cofunded by the Maritime and Port
Authority of Singapore’s Maritime
Innovation and Technology Fund.
SingTel says that the broadband connection will also allow seafarers to access
its recently launched range of crew entertainment, including a Karaoke-OnDemand service that allows seafarers to
show off their vocal talents just like a conventional karaoke system.
Additionally, those onboard can enjoy
a selection of movies and other video con-
‘This will make broadband more affordable
and accessible’ – Bill Chang, SingTel
tively leverage infocomm technologies to
improve productivity, simplify operations
and enhance crew welfare.”
“For example, services such as ‘alwayson’ broadband internet access, e-mail,
video conferencing and voice calls can
transform the way seafarers live, work
and play.”
Two new GSM installations for On-Waves
www.on-waves.com
Maritime mobile phone provider OnWaves has announced that it has agreed
new contracts with two cruise operators,
for GSM services.
The first agreement, with Thomson
Cruises, is for the vessel Thomson Dream, a
deal which On-Waves notes may be extended to include additional vessels in the future.
The contract covers voice, SMS, Wi-Fi
and data connectivity for guests and
crew onboard. The satellite communications in support of the GSM service are
to be provided by Harris Maritime
Andriaki to
install VSAT
www.setel-group.com
Andriaki Shipping of Athens, Greece, has
agreed a deal with Setel Hellas to install
CapRock VSAT communication services
aboard an unspecified number of ships.
Andriaki will use the VSAT service to
expand its corporate IT network and
enhance software applications within its
vessel environment, and to provide
onboard welfare services.
Under the terms of the agreement
Setel, in a cooperation with CapRock
Communications, will provide Andriaki
Shipping with a managed turnkey service
enabling VoIP, internet access, e-mail service, crew-calling and corporate networking
capabilities.
The companies say that the satcom connection will be used for the real time
exchange of reports and monitoring data
between Andriaki vessels and shore offices.
Andriaki manages vessels of various
types and sizes, including both tankers and
bulk carriers, all flying the Greek Flag.
Communication Services.
The second newly concluded deal is a
fleet-wide contract with the Compagnie
du Ponant, which operates a five-ship fleet
of yachts.
The agreement covers each of the ships
Le Ponant, Le Levant, Le Diamant,
L'Austral and Le Boreal.
The services provided will be similar to
those aboard the Thomson Dream, and
will include an on-board informational
messaging platform and video distribution to GSM mobiles.
A pre-paid GSM service tailored to
the specific needs of crew will also
be incorporated.
“We are pleased to introduce this new,
convenient service to our guests and
crew,” said Stéphane Veuillot, Compagnie
du Ponant purchasing manager.
“We are committed to deliver a consistent high-level of quality and customer service across all our ships. With On-Waves’
mobile services, we will offer our guests
and crew the latest technology to enhance
their comfort and experience on Ponant.”
“Furthermore, On-Waves’ service provides an additional means of personal
communication that increases our guest
and crew security at sea.”
Sea Tel’s 76cm Ultra Small Aperture
Terminal, USAT 30, is to be added to
Data Technology Solutions’ range
of Sea Tel satellite antenna offerings,
which includes 60 cm, 1 metre, 1.5 metre
and 2.4 metre Sea Tel antennas.
ment group at Ship Equip. Mr Gillesen will
continue as VP for the Asia-Pacific region.
Setel Hellas has appointed SMS
Services Inc, a Singapore based corporation, as overseas service provider and
sales representative for the company in
Asia. Setel says it hopes to attract new
local customers in the region's shipping
and offshore markets.
provider Orbit
Technology Group reports that it is
to expand its global service centres,
adding to spare parts stocks and increasing its overall end to end service capacity,
as part of a new expanded services range.
The company will also add new 24/7 call
centres to this network.
VSAT
antenna
Gilles A Gillesen has been appointed
chief sales officer for Ship Equip, with
overall responsibility for all sales activities
in Ship Equip companies. The position
also falls within the executive manage-
Maritime
Communications
Partner (MCP) has appointed Fred
Sorensen as its new managing director for
the Americas. He succeeds Steinar
Stromsvag, who has been in charge
of MCP’s Miami office since 2005.
Mr Sorensen has previously worked
at
Wilhelmsen
Marine
Engineering’s Callenberg division, and
with Disney Cruise Line.
Livewire Connections Ltd is
moving to a new larger premises and aims
to expand its number of employees. The
new premises in Surrey, UK, will provide
larger offices for up to 30 staff, stores and a
workshop area for building onboard computer networks.
www.setel-group.com
www.cobham.com
www.dtscom.net
www.orbit-techgroup.com
www.mcp.com
www.livewire-connections.com
www.ship-equip.com
DSD Shipping of Stavanger, Norway,
reports that it is to install the TracPhone V7
satellite communications system and miniVSAT Broadband service aboard its fleet,
following the conclusion of a trial period.
The trial was recently completed aboard
the Stavanger Viking, and the company is
now moving ahead with the installation of
the 60 cm TracPhone V7 antenna on its
other nine remaining vessels.
DSD Shipping says it will use the VSAT
service to expand internet use for business
applications, as well as crew services.
"Prior to installing the TracPhone V7,
we were using the Inmarsat Fleet service,"
says Rolf Arne Herheim, technical director
for DSD Shipping AS.
"We chose to switch to mini-VSAT
Broadband because it is a more affordable
solution and also offers us more advantages
for support and crew retention. Plus, the
antenna can be installed in just one day."
The VSAT will be integrated with the
Dualog communications software system,
which will allow DSD Shipping to switch
to its existing Inmarsat systems and service if required, such as in out-of-coverage
areas where VSAT is unavailable.
KVH says that, under the deal, DSD
Shipping will save enough in service
charges each month to completely cover
the cost of the hardware lease.
The first VSAT antenna supplied during the trial was installed by Can Traders,
one of KVH's certified partners in
Singapore, during a visit by the Stavanger
Viking to the region. Norwegian distributor Polaris Norway and a local Norwegian
dealer, IKM Instrutek, managed the project and the sales process.
Similar arrangements will be made for the
remaining nine installations, for local installations at convenient times in various locations.
"These vessels travel among ports worldwide and require dependable, affordable
satellite communications in order to function at their best," said Niels Reuther, commercial marine sales manager, KVH Europe.
"The TracPhone V7 and mini-VSAT
Broadband provide these features at such
an affordable cost that DSD Shipping can
now use communications as a crew retention tool as well, a critical benefit in an
increasingly competitive industry."
"And, thanks to their choice to deploy
Dualog software to integrate mini-VSAT
Broadband with existing onboard systems,
DSD Shipping's satellite communications
solution is not only more affordable than
other options, it's more efficient as well!"
Ten DSD vessels will install mini-VSAT
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Digital Ship
Thuraya to launch new maritime
broadband terminal
www.thuraya.com
www.comtechmobile.com
Thuraya reports that is developing an
advanced broadband terminal for the
maritime industry, in partnership with
Comtech.
The new antenna is set for launch in
September of this year, and will provide
broadband services of up to 444 kbps, for
voice and data.
Users will also be able to access highspeed video-streaming at sea, at speeds of
384 kbps.
The new solution operates via an omnidirectional antenna designed to maintain
connectivity to the satellite regardless of
vessel movements.
“The Comtech broadband solution has
the strengths and features of both
Thuraya’s superior and congestion-free
satellite network along with Comtech’s
technology and product know-how,” said
Thuraya CEO, Yousuf Al Sayed.
Thuraya's satellite network covers the
Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Mediterranean,
Arabian Sea, North Sea, Baltic Sea, parts of
the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and international waters in Asia Pacific.
Dan Wood, president of US-based
Comtech Mobile Data Corporation, noted
his excitement at the new deal, comment-
ing: “The technology used for this new
maritime terminal is very advanced and
the outcome will be a superior marine
grade solution that will develop Thuraya’s
standing in the maritime sector.”
The Thuraya-3 launch expanded
the company’s coverage to
the Asia-Pacific region
MSC extends VSAT agreement
www.marlink.com
Marlink has renewed its contract to provide VSAT communications services to
Italian cruise company MSC Cruises for a
further three years, with the deal to also
incorporate new installations.
"It has become critical for us to have
high-quality, reliable satellite communications onboard our ships," said Emilio La
Scala, general manager of MSC Cruises
Technical Department.
"The high-bandwidth connectivity provided by Marlink's Sealink solution enables
us to connect vessels with our offices on
land to improve operational efficiency.”
“The solution also enables us to provide passengers and crew onboard with
cost-effective voice, internet and e-mail
services so that they can stay in touch with
friends and family ashore."
The contract renewal will include the
delivery, installation and operation of
Marlink's global Sealink C-band VSAT solution onboard the newbuild MSC Magnifica.
Marlink will additionally expand services on each of the existing VSAT-installed
ships by providing more than twenty simultaneous telephone channels, third-party
GSM access and internet access with link
optimising and content filtering services for
administration, crew and passenger use.
The Sealink system provides direct
administration MPLS (Multiprotocol
Label Switching) access over the terrestri-
Coverage for the WaveCall system has
been extended
al network to MSC's head office LAN and
telephone system in Sorrento, Italy.
In other news, Marlink has also
announced a coverage extension for its
WaveCall Ku-band VSAT service, which
will now cover West Africa, and the South
West and South East Pacific.
"The extended WaveCall regions will
be serviced by our own teleports based in
Southbury, USA, for the West Africa
region and Santa Paula, USA, for the
South West and South East Pacific," said
Tore Morten Olsen, Marlink CEO.
"The networks will be using the iDirect
Evolution platform to provide a highly
reliable and affordable service for our
customers.”
“These new regions have a growing
number of vessels which require satellite
communication technology, it was therefore important for Marlink to meet the
needs of our customers and provide the
service they require."
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SATCOMS
Managing the broadband connection
Managing the various communications opportunities afforded by VSAT can place big demands on shipping IT departments.
Norwegian operator Utkilen’s approach has been to enlist the help of some friends – namely its communication system
vendors. Sigmund-Tore Grane, Utkilen, told Digital Ship about how his company handles broadband
tkilen AS is a fully integrated
shipping company with headquarters in Bergen, Norway, currently operating more than 20 chemical
tankers of varying sizes from 2,500 dwt,
with its latest newbuilds from yards in
China tipping the scales at 25,000 dwt.
Six years ago Utkilen embarked on a
communications upgrade project with the
aim of improving its data connectivity,
both in terms of speed and amounts of
data that could be transferred.
The company’s operations centre mainly on the North Sea, with most voyages
beginning on the west coast of Norway,
but it also operates in the Baltic Sea,
Germany, Holland, and does a smaller
number of trips to France and Portugal.
Given these trading patterns it was
decided that the vessels would fit well into
existing spot beams for Ku-band VSAT, so
when the project began it was decided to
pursue such a system, recalls SigmundTore Grane, ICT manager at Utkilen.
“We started with a Sealink solution
(from Marlink), at 19.2 kbps,” he said.
“At that time, when we started, that
was a combined solution with TV, so we
had both the TV and data on the same
antenna. We still have many vessels using
that solution today.”
The first vessel installed with the solution was the MT Havstraum in 2004, on a
pilot basis. This was then followed by an
upgrade on all of the vessels, with the rest
of the fleet having the system implemented during 2005.
“We upgraded all of the vessels with
new solutions, and increased the speed,”
said Mr Grane.
“Several vessels went to 64 kbps, and
then up to 128 kbps. We also began to look
at solutions from various suppliers like
CapRock and Ship Equip, using shared
bandwidth.”
Today all of the vessels are running
with VSAT and have been organised to
run dual IT networks onboard, with a
crew network separated from the office
network so that different types of communications, both business and personal, can
be run independently.
“On the Sealink vessels they are connected via a leased line from the Earth station to our office,” Mr Grane explained.
“All of the internet access operates
through our office systems, and the telephone. For the other vessels, with Ship
Equip and CapRock, they are going directly on to the internet from the vessel,
through the Earth stations.”
Utkilen has pursued quite an open policy with regard to crew communications
on the vessels, operating something akin
to an ‘honours system’ whereby those on
board are trusted to use the network sensibly when connected.
“We’ve kept it quite simple with the
system onboard for the crew, we just say
U
‘here is your network connection, and
here’s a PC’, or they can also connect via
wireless if they want to. It’s up to them,”
said Mr Grane.
“We don’t waste any time on crew email and things like that, and save ourselves
from that work. We just give them the connection and if they mess it up it’s their problem. Of course we will help if there’s a problem, but it’s not our top priority.”
“On the office network we have another philosophy of course, and there we
have restrictions on usage, and on where
you can be online. If you are on the bridge
you are not allowed to browse on the
internet, and also in the engine control
room. There’s a big difference between the
crew network and the office network.”
Broadband management
tools
With VSAT installed on all of its vessels,
the main task for Utkilen now is to monitor
these connections and make sure it is using
the communications systems in a way that
is beneficial to company operations.
In that regard it has enlisted the help of
its satcom suppliers, who are providing a
number of different tools to help manage
the links and analyse the traffic between
the ships and the shore.
One such tool is a web-based portal for
the Sealink system, provided by Marlink,
which offers a range of data and statistics
relating to the use of these systems
onboard the ships.
“You use this to focus on the links connecting the vessels,” Mr Grane explains.
“You can see the big vessels and the small
vessels and the differences between them
in how they’re using the system.”
“It varies quite a lot between the different ships, some are really heavy users and
those are the ones we have to focus most
on. You can pick a vessel and get information from its link and modem, and see if
you have a good connection and when
you’ve lost the connection during the voyages.” “Some vessels you never have any
problems with, but some cause some
problems. You’ll have periods without
connections, that’s typical with small vessels because there can be a lot of blind
zones. If we have a problem at least it is
very quick and easy for us to go and have
a look, and see what’s going on. It’s a really nice tool that they are providing for us.”
Utkilen is also using a range of online
tools provided by Ship Equip to monitor
the vessels carrying its VSAT system,
which includes a vessel tracking facility
that Mr Grane says has proven useful.
“This is good to plug into if you want to
see where the vessels are, it has a plug-in
you can use on Google Earth and looks
pretty good,” he said.
“We can see where the vessels currently are, and where they have been on the
voyage, with the latest update time. That
Utkilen provides free crew internet on its chemical tankers. Photo: Utkilen
also helps you to know that the vessels are
connected to the system.”
“You can zoom in and out on the trail
of the vessels, it gives you a snapshot
every 20 minutes.”
Connection Suite
One of the main tools used by Utkilen to
manage its overall fleet network is the
Connection Suite from Dualog, a software-based system which the company
employs to manage e-mail, internet traffic,
and other aspects of its communications
such as filtering.
“This software runs on a server in
Tromso (in Norway), and the server is
handling all of the mail to and from the
ships,” said Mr Grane. “We also do IP control on the ships with this system.”
“The way it works is that if we go into
the hub and make changes to our system
they are replicated out to the ships. We
can also monitor all of the traffic on it.
When I log in I can get a complete picture
of all of the vessels. If they are marked
‘green’ it means they are connected to
the hub.”
One of the most important aspects of
this system, according to Mr Grane, is email management, which becomes particularly important when the VSAT connection is down and the vessel has switched
to a pay-per-use back up.
“We put restrictions on sizes of e-mails,
if VSAT is the carrier the limit is 10 MB, if
Fleet is the carrier the limit is 4 MB, on
GSM it’s maybe 1MB,” he said.
“If the ship is not connected with the
VSAT and somebody is sending a message over a megabyte, we will see it here.
It will stay in the system and we will get a
warning about it, that it is sitting there
waiting. Then we can decide to stop it or
push it through if we want to. The guy
who is sending the mail will also get a
warning if it takes more than 4 hours to
deliver the message to the ship.”
“Typically on the VSAT we are connecting every half hour, picking up and
sending mail. On the other carriers we do
it manually. We found that to be the best
solution. If the mail needs to be sent you
can go into the system and click a button,
and it will be sent straight away. The software is installed on the ships as well to
do this.”
Dualog has also helped Utkilen to
introduce what Mr Grane calls ‘IP filtering’, used for security purposes to reduce
the risk of unwanted malware being distributed to the vessels.
“Up to now we’ve been outsourcing,
where we go through the Earth station
at Eik and through our office, then we go
to the ISP in Bergen, and they have the
firewalls and do the filtering. With this
tool we can do the filtering ourselves,”
said Mr Grane.
“It’s not too complicated, but one of the
good things is that we can replicate the
settings out to the ship. This means that
people will be stopped immediately on the
ship if they try to do something they are
not allowed to, so we don’t waste the
bandwidth sending stuff all the way to the
shore and back again.”
The filtering system is based on assigning privileges using MAC (Media Access
Control) addresses, which Mr Grane says
has worked well and proven to be very
easy to handle.
“So if some clever guys on board come
with another computer and try to connect
it to the network, it won’t work, unless
they’re really clever and try to clone the
MAC addresses,” he said.
“If we have someone onboard that
wants to connect to the network properly
we can add their MAC address. Then we
can take it away when they’re finished, it’s
easy for us to handle it.”
“The old way, if we wanted to open or
close something we had to go to our ISP
and ask them to do it for us. This is a complicated business, so we need tools that
are not complicated, or to use consultants
– this way we will try to do it ourselves.”
Access and user privileges are controlled at an individual PC level, meaning
that a single computer in a particular loca-
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Digital Ship
tion will have its own particular configuration of privileges, as determined by the
Utkilen offices on shore.
“For example, we have a restriction
‘Block Web Bridge’, which means that all
browsing on the bridge PC is blocked,”
said Mr Grane. “However, we can open
that for the applications we want to run on
the bridge PC, through the Connection
Suite software.”
“The captain is allowed to do what he
needs to do, the chief officer can do browsing, the engine room PC has all traffic
blocked though, and the same on the navigation PC.”
“If we did want to open the engine
room PC we can just do that on the hub in
Tromso and it will be replicated out to the
ship in about half an hour, or we can ask
them to make a connection to do it straight
away. Then we use it and can stop it again
when we want. That is ship specific, but
we can have additional common rules for
all the vessels.”
Traffic control
With all of these tools in place Utkilen has
done some analysis of how the satcom systems are being used, monitoring the traffic
and the type of content being transferred
over the links.
“We were wondering how these connections would be really used, and needed
to get some data, from a security point of
view and a bandwidth usage point of
view,” said Mr Grane.
“There are some hits on malicious websites, but that’s life, that’s the way it is.
We’re living in that kind of world and it’s
very difficult to stop it, so you need to
have anti-virus and that kind of stuff to try
and stop this. We’ve been lucky so far and
haven’t had any problems with that kind
of thing so far.”
“Most of the traffic is HTTP, but what
concerns me is streaming. Out of our total
traffic about 8 to 10 per cent was streaming. We have other things like chat programs, but that’s really a very small
amount of bandwidth. Other things like
Skype as well, they’re not taking much, at
least not while we’ve been testing it.”
However, despite these potential issues
Mr Grane firmly believes that the crew
communications options that Utkilen has
provided have been an asset to the company, and that his team will continue to try
and expand the capabilities available.
“When we started this we had a big
advantage in attracting crew, but now
everybody is getting this stuff,” he said.
“We have to look at doing more, with
things like the wireless access and so on,
which is nice for them. Even if it can be
slow they are still glad to have it on
the vessels.”
Future aims
With all of these systems in place and
being constantly monitored Utkilen is
looking forward to streamlining the connectivity process even further by removing the leased lines running between the
on shore teleport and its offices.
“What we are doing now is to try and
simplify our solution, by that I mean that
we want to have all of our vessels connected straight on to the internet using
these tools to control it,” said Mr Grane.
“By doing that we can take away the
leased lines between our office and Eik,
and will have a more robust system. If our
system on shore breaks down they will not
be depending on that to keep connected.”
“We’ll try to do the control onboard the
vessels and all of the remote access using
the internet, so we don’t use any public IP
addresses or VPN connections, and all
that difficult stuff. It makes it easy for us
to handle.”
To achieve this Mr Grane says that he
will again work with the technology
providers to make sure that they create a
system that works for Utkilen and its IT
infrastructure.
“I think we can work closer with the
suppliers, we have not been that good at
doing that up until now,” he said.
“The problem is always the time, but I
think we will try to do more of that to give
them feedback and help to improve.”
“We haven’t looked into compression
and things like that, even though we have
been using VSAT for a while, so that
might be something to look at. It hasn’t
been that much of a problem up to now, it
might not be really fast, but it’s not
clogged up. Maybe in the future we will
work on this.”
Finally, having been through this satcom implementation process, Mr Grane’s
biggest piece of advice to any other companies considering a similar move is to
create a realistic picture of the scale of the
work that will be involved in having this
kind of network onboard the fleet.
“Try to cooperate with the suppliers to
do things like planned maintenance, and
combine it with drydocks and things like
that,” he said.
“On small vessels it’s really difficult to
find a good position for the antenna without spending too much money on it, and
most people don’t want to be spending
their money on placing the antenna.”
“You have to live with blind spots,
that’s something you have to bear in mind
if you don’t want to rearrange everything
onboard. If you are designing new vessels
bear it in mind if you want this type
of equipment.”
Prospective users of the technology
should also be aware of the hard work
involved in maintaining the system in the
unforgiving marine environment.
“The way I see it, our biggest challenge
is really operating in the North Sea,” said
Mr Grane.
“The North Sea is a very hard area.
We have excellent [VSAT] equipment, but
it takes a lot of maintenance, and that
costs money.”
“For people investing in this kind of
equipment I would say to keep in mind
the maintenance costs, don’t forget to
add them. It’s expensive to have people
on board, and on one of our vessels
we even lost an antenna from on top of
the wheelhouse.”
However, in Mr Grane’s opinion these
costs are worth it – and Utkilen’s 370 seafarers seem to agree with him too.
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SOFTWARE NEWS
E-commerce outsourcing for Wilhelmsen Ships Service
www.wilhelmsen.com/shipsservice
Wilhelmsen Ships Service reports that it
has moved its e-commerce service for
maritime customers to ErgoGroup, a
Norwegian IT company.
ErgoGroup already has more than 8,500
integrated customers on its existing
e-commerce technology.
Wilhelmsen Ships Service had previously moved its own fully owned e-business subsidiary Marine Transaction
Services’ (MTS) in-house in March 2009,
integrating it into Wilhelmsen Ships
Service’s Customer Business Solutions
offering.
‘Growth in e-commerce in shipping has been slow in the last 10 years’
– Siri Jacobsen, Wilhelmsen Ships Service
MTS had been operating since 2000, but
following the integration Wilhelmsen Ships
Service decided that the e-commerce unit
would no longer be marketed separately in
any manner, saying that it didn't "see ecommerce as a special product – rather as a
part of our larger offer to customers."
It has now been decided to outsource
this section of the business to a specialist
provider, as David Tandy, president of
Wilhelmsen Ships Service, explains.
“We saw that our industry needed a
generic e-commerce service, where e-commerce is handled professionally as the
commercial tool that it is," he said.
"We need a service provider, with large
volumes, which also has the ability to handle the relatively small number of shipping specific services that exist. High volume will automatically drive the cost of
usage down and at the same time increase
the efficiency and functionality.”
“We are happy to present such a solution to the market and we are looking
forward to the future development of
e-commerce in the shipping market. For
us e-commerce is part of our company’s
larger offer to our customers, not a stand
alone product.”
Wilhelmsen says that existing buyers
and suppliers using its e-commerce systems will not have to take any action during the transfer to ErgoGroup, and that
services will continue as normal. No extra
charges will be levied for the e-commerce
solution.
“We want to extend the number of cus-
tomers using e-commerce, as we see this
as an efficiency tool which will give operational savings and flexibility in the
way we deal with our customers," said
Mr Tandy.
"It will be an advantage to Wilhelmsen
Ships Service but also one which we can
pass on to our customers.”
Siri Jacobsen, vice president international customer services at Wilhelmsen
Ships Service, says that she believes that
the development of e-commerce within
shipping in recent years has been generally slow.
According to Ms Jacobsen's calculations the number of ship owners that have
moved to trading electronically within the
last 10 years has only been between 150
and 200, and she says that most suppliers
have faced an increased workload
through using web portals.
“We recognise the importance of ecommerce and this path of continuous
improvement has finally allowed us to
arrive at a solution for all buyers and suppliers which is considerably more cost
efficient than any alternative in the market
today," she said.
“It is important to offer a service that
customers find easy to use, and one which
is tailor-made for the shipping industry.”
“As we move ever closer to a perfect
solution we expect more shipping customers to trade electronically. By using
ErgoGroup we can also gain advantage
from faster and cheaper development and
implementations.”
NYK and Weathernews launch ice-navigation system
www.nyk.com
www.weathernews.jp
NYK and Weathernews Inc have introduced what they say is the world’s
first navigation system for seas covered
with ice.
The system, the first to employ live
reports sent in real time from vessels in
operation, is to be aimed at LNG carriers
transiting the waters of the Russian Far
East and Sakhalin in particular.
The new technology analyses a range of
factors, including ice distribution, cohesiveness and thickness, and then forecasts
sea-ice conditions for the upcoming two
weeks using Weathernews’ proprietary
sea-ice forecast model, which is based on
updated weather and sea conditions as
well as satellite observation data.
The information used by the system is
updated on a daily basis. Ice reports sent
from vessels are reflected in real time in
the sea-ice forecast model, which can be
shared with vessel operators and other
NYK Group vessels.
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NYK Group and Weathernews have
jointly developed and introduced the system, which is based on Weathernews’ Ice
Routing Service.
The application can also be monitored
on the recently introduced NYK e-missions service, an integrated operation
management system accessible both on
shore and on ship which constantly monitors weather to forecast risks that may
occur at harbour and on vessel routes.
The new ice-monitoring system can
also be viewed both at sea and on land.
Continuing to meet your training needs
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Videotel Marine International, 84 Newman Street, London W1T 3EU
t: +44 (0) 20 7299 1800 | f: +44 (0) 20 7299 1818 | [email protected] | www.videotel.co.uk
09/04/2010
12:43
Page 2
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where to next?
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SOFTWARE NEWS
Counter piracy CBT from Seagull VSTEP launches new simulator range
www.seagull.no
www.nautissim.com
Seagull has launched a new training package that aims to assist seafarers in the continuing battle against piracy.
The new computer-based training
(CBT) module, plus accompanying workbook, gives full procedural advice to assist
in crew preparedness for attacks by
pirates.
This includes guidance on how to reduce
the possibility of pirates or armed robbers
getting on board the vessel, how to manage
a situation where pirates or armed robbers
gain access to a vessel, and provides an
understanding of how to react should
pirates actually seize control of a ship.
“Advice and guidance on counter piracy from international, national and industry bodies has changed frequently, particularly as the situation has escalated off the
Horn of Africa,” said Erik Frette, manager,
course department, Seagull.
“More and more agencies have added
circulars and instructions advising or
directing the seafarer. Seagull has monitored all of these and the new module consolidates the latest measures and recommendations, delivering applicable training
in a consistent and consolidated form.”
Seagull notes that there are no mandatory requirements covering seafarer training in the skills required to prepare for
attacks by pirates, and hopes that its CBT,
principally aimed at support and operation level personnel, could prove beneficial in filling those gaps.
“This new program offers seafarers
Maritime simulator developer VSTEP has
introduced its new NAUTIS simulator range.
The new systems follow on from
VSTEP's Ship Simulator Professional software, a PC-based training application, and
its computer game development for simulated vessel operation.
The NAUTIS simulator range will
include a number of different simulation
options, from desktop trainer applications
Seagull’s CBT aims to teach seafarers
some of the methods of dealing
with piracy
training on attack techniques, on procedures and special equipment that can be
used to prevent pirates boarding ship, on
managing a situation where pirates or
armed robbers gain access to or take control of a ship, and on what to do in a
hostage situation,” said Mr Frette.
“In compiling this course, we paid particular attention to developing new and
additional questions for the workbook to
enhance seafarer knowledge, and how
and what they should do in such a dangerous situation.”
“A prerequisite of the training course
has been that trainees understand their
roles and responsibilities if a dangerous
situation develops.”
When all prescribed training under the
CBT course has been undertaken, the candidate sends a completed test paper to a
Seagull instructor for evaluation.
Successful candidates need to achieve
marks of at least 75 per cent in the CBT
and workbook to receive a Seagull certificate of competence.
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creating seaworthy software
The NAUTIS simulator will feature a range of different training options
Maritime auction site launched
www.shipx.org
Norwegian company ShipX has launched
an internet auction site for used and surplus
assets in the global maritime community.
The online service, aimed at sellers,
traders, brokers and buyers, is the brainchild of Hakon Rostad, who has previously worked at DNV, Stolt Parcel Tankers,
Wilhelmsen Maritime Services and
Marlink.
Stability & Strength Assessment
Cargo Management & Load Planning
Ship Design & Production
World-Wide Service & Support
Catch information
as it happens.
The market price of used and surplus
assets on the site will be determined
through an online auction, following an
auditable process.
Auction fees on the ShipX site will be 3
per cent of the deal value, to a maximum
of $990.
This will only apply if the auction is
successful, with the company operating a
‘No Sale, No Fee’ policy. There is no membership fee for either sellers or buyers.
ABS-NS reveals scanner for
inventory monitoring
www.abs-ns.com
www.autoship.com
to full mission bridge simulator.
The company says that it is aiming at
providing the service as an alternative
cost-effective training solution that can still
fulfil the training requirements of nautical
colleges, naval academies, maritime training centres and individual ship owners.
“NAUTIS marks the next groundbreaking step to open up high quality, affordable maritime simulation to all maritime
professionals,” said Pjotr van Schothorst,
CTO of VSTEP.
ABS Nautical Systems and IT company
SYS-TEC have partnered to develop a
hand-held scanner technology system for
the maritime industry.
SYS-TEC is a provider of barcode data
collection and radio-frequency identification solutions, and this latest technology is
aimed at assisting in inventory management and monitoring of assets at sea.
“With operating costs continuing to
increase, companies need a dependable
and economical solution to ensure inventory accuracy aboard their vessels,” said
Joe Woods, vice president of global sales
and marketing for ABS Nautical Solutions.
“This new technology will track the
inventory and provide accurate and up-todate reporting, giving technical and purchasing managers the tools to make informed
decisions when managing resources and
procuring parts for their vessels.”
The scanner system will give customers
the ability to perform audit/cycle counts,
issue parts and compile inventory reconciliations and queries in both onshore
warehouses and aboard a vessel.
ABS-NS says that this should increase
the accuracy and timeliness of inventory
management, while reducing account and
control costs.
This solution will be available as
part of the company’s NS5 fleet
management software, integrated with
the Purchasing & Inventory module, with
customers having the option to choose
between Intermec and Motorola scanners.
The new hand-held scanners are based
on Windows Mobile Technology. In addition, more durable barcode labels will
also be available for use in a shipboard
environment.
“A crew member writing down or typing in an alphanumeric number will make
an error one in every seven characters,”
said Richard Perron, president and COO
of SYS-TEC.
“With this new scanning technology,
the risk for error is less than one in seven
million.”
The technology will be rolled out for
ABS-NS customers in three phases: implementation of scanner technology; NS5
integration; and finally, business process
improvement and workflow integration.
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SOFTWARE NEWS
Bourbon and ShipMaster in software deal
Letter to the editor
To the editor,
I have just read the Cosco Busan story
on the cover of the new Digital Ship
(April 2010 issue). I applaud you in
maintaining awareness to the importance of the incident.
Besides some of the points mentioned regarding IBS capabilities,
whether used or not, I fail to understand why proper use of the radar, in
the context of seeing the racon, is
rarely mentioned. The racon displays
clearly the centre of the Delta and
Echo span and was visible in the radar
per the VDR/Radar transcript NTSB
exhibit. Also, the failure to put a proper outbound passage plan on both the
paper and electronic chart is poor
watchkeeping / seamanship. Note
that on the navigation console, a radar
and ECS are right next to each other.
When the equipment we have
available is used properly, it can
reduce the potential for human error.
When it is not, or we over-rely on single aids, and adding other human factors, accidents can happen.
We
strongly advocate using all available
means to fix and cross check the ship’s
position to navigate the vessel safely.
Also, keep the ECS and paper chart
www.shipmaster.no
voyage plans consistent, that is, displaying the track and conning notes
the same on both mediums.
Furthermore, in the Cosco Busan
case there was some confusion to the
look of buoy symbols on the ECS display (red triangles vs. black outlined)
at the Delta span. It would be worth a
mention that the mariner is able to
select between simplified or paper
chart type buoys and symbols. This
allows better viewing of objects in different conditions e.g., night time display mode or resolution capability of
monitor. Areas can also be symbolised as well (see Perf Stds Colors and
symbols and the reference to IHO S-52
app 2 “Mariner’s options in symbols
and linestyles”). This display difference works with various vector type
charts such as the C-Map charts the
Busan had loaded, as well as with official ENCs. This capability is rarely
understood by even an experienced
user of ECS/ECDIS.
Bourbon Offshore Norway has installed a
new software system from ShipMaster to
assist in monitoring crew adherence with
existing operational procedures and control of the company's safety management
system.
The ShipMaster system will be used for
implementation, documentation and analysis of all operational procedures, and has
been developed to provide a computerised
procedure system that is made available on
the vessel within a closed infrastructure.
"The root cause of incidents in the offshore industry is complex, but all too often
caused by operators’ procedural violations," said Eirik Eide, marketing director
of Bourbon.
"The industry as a whole seeks to
improve on the safety culture and tools are
needed to ensure quality in compliance,
risk awareness, and risk management."
Bourbon Offshore Norway says it will
have the system installed on the majority
of its fleet, including four newbuilds
scheduled for delivery during the second
half of 2010.
The new deliveries will represent the
first time that the shipowner's safety manuals have been completely digitally integrated on a vessel upon its arrival from the
shipyard.
"This system will lift the industry to a
new level in safety work, by ensuring
compliance with existing procedures,"
said Trond Myklebust, managing director,
Bourbon Offshore Norway.
Regards,
Peter Hyams
Instructor/Course Developer
STAR Center
The Bourbon Surf and Bourbon Orca will carry the new safety system.
Photo: Kay-Åge Fugledal
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Page 6
Digital Ship
BASS releases latest fleet software update
www.bassnet.no
Maritime software company BASS has
announced a new and improved version of
its BASSnet fleet management application.
New features in BASSnet 2.6 include a
KPI Dashboard for settingup and displaying graphical
representations of key performance indicators, and a
H
Reviews and Improvements
module for the planning and
conducting of meetings
ashore and onboard vessels,
with tracking facilities to follow-up planned actions and
improvements.
Purchasing functionality
has been expanded with the
introduction of SupplierLink
and Supplier Performance
modules.
SupplierLink
allows
quotation requests to be
generated directly from
BASSnet Procurement into a
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
for distribution to multiple
suppliers. All quotes from
suppliers can be then
imported into the BASSnet
Procurement system
The Supplier Performance
feature helps in supplier
selection by providing data
on previous delivery performance and ratings, to
rank the available options,
while a Global Purchase
History feature monitors historical fleet purchases.
Modules for the management of materials and stock
held by the company are also
included.
On the crew side,
BASSnet 2.6 incorporates a
web-based BASSnet HR
Manager
crewing
and
payroll software application
that can track relevant crewing information such as
STCW licences, certifications and onboard wages.
A new sub-module on Competence
& Training has additionally been added
to this system to assist crewing departments in scheduling crews with the
required competence for the right ship at
the right time.
“We’ve listened to client feedback
and have addressed all of their crew
planning and performance tracking
needs in this new version,” said BASS
product manager, Rajesh Purkar.
"The ‘self service’ web system built from
Microsoft technology also plays an important role in enabling the interaction of various departments and information sharing/distribution from a single data source."
igh Performance Marine Satellite Antenna Systems
World’s First and Only Ku-band TV antenna delivers
Worldwide Reception
Digital Ship
The Italian Centre
of Stamford,
Connecticut, USA
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p8-19:p15-25.qxd
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Page 7
SOFTWARE NEWS
Web-based tracking using Inmarsat-C
http://vtslite.siitech.com
SiiTech has released the latest version of
its fleet tracking system, Web VTS, with
support for Inmarsat-C enabled vessels.
SiiTech has previously been a
provider of a free online fleet tracking
service for AIS-enabled vessels for
several years. Maritime users will
now be able to monitor Inmarsatequipped vessels on the same screen
as the existing Web VTS system, via
the SiiTech website.
All features available in the older version, such as alarms, reports, and history
replay, will also be available for the
Inmarsat tracking service.
The company says that any shipping
The Inmarsat service will link
in with the existing AIS
tracking website
LEADER IN MOBILE BROADBAND
Don’t miss a shot
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company may arrange to
test the Inmarsat online
fleet
tracking
service,
by sending in Inmarsat
e-mail position reports
to [email protected].
SiiTech says that it
believes that this represents
an opportunity for shipping
companies to reduce the cost
of fleet monitoring by combining free AIS tracking
solutions with the Inmarsatenabled technology.
The Web VTS service
can
be
viewed
at
http://vtslite.siitech.com.
Web-based
software from
Maritime
Associates
www.ma-as.no
with a front row seat to this year’s
DFWLRQSDFNHG IRRWEDOO ðQDOV PDGH
possible through the TracVision M9
that has been installed on sixty of
our vessels operating globally.
“
“
We want to reward our crew
– Sergey Minakov, Electrical Engineer Superintendent,
Unicom Management Services
For the captain who insists on quality and reliability, there’s
only one way to bring home theatre-quality TV onboard –
TracVision. See the full line of systems for any size vessel at:
www.tracvision.com
+6(%UROPE!3s+OKKEDAL)NDUSTRIPARK"s+OKKEDALs$ENMARKs4ELs&AXs%MAILINFO KVHDK
© 2009+6()NDUSTRIES)NCs+6(AND4RAC6ISIONAREREGISTEREDTRADEMARKSOF+6()NDUSTRIES)NCs3PECIFICATIONSSUBJECTTOCHANGEWITHOUTNOTICE
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Maritime Associates AS has
released its latest fleet management system, VMOSnet,
which is used to perform
ship management activities
while connected to the web
from a single user interface
using Internet Explorer.
The web-based interface
provides a general overview
of the VMOSnet system, as
well as other key modules
such as those covering the
various HSSEQA requirements for compliance with
the ISM and ISPS codes.
Additional modules for
areas such as voyage
planning, document management, planned maintenance and crewing are also
included.
The ship database used
by VMOSnet is installed on
the ship's server and works
on the ship's intranet. The
office system is web-based.
Data files generated
by the ship's system are
transmitted via e-mail and
replicated in the office, with
the process performed automatically.
Maritime Associates says
that it will be responsible
for all maintenance, software upgrades and troubleshooting of the system after
installation.
p8-19:p15-25.qxd
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12:44
Page 8
Digital Ship
Veson Nautical announces new modules
www.veson.com
Veson Nautical has announced two new
modules for use with its maritime software
system, IMOS Demurrage Management
and IMOS6 Bunker Management.
IMOS
Demurrage
Management is aimed at charterers and marine demurrage
specialists, with tools to track
claims performance and limit
demurrage exposure to loss.
The module includes analysis and workflow functions that
are designed to improve
response time, throughput and
claim results.
Real-time voyage events
can trigger automated alerts
within the system, to ensure
that all claim and re-bill
opportunities are promptly
recognised, while time bar
driven work processes ensure
that each claim is submitted
on time.
Claim management, calculation and enhanced laytime
reporting tools are also integrated into the application.
IMOS6
Bunker
Management includes functionality for automation of
bunker purchasing processes, allowing, for
instance, a bunker manager to quickly see
that three of his vessels are going into a particular port in the same time period, so he
can try to negotiate reduced pricing in a
package deal.
The application provides workflow support for bunker estimates, bunker requests,
and price inquiries, with vessel and fleetlevel bunker views of necessary data.
The system also automates bunker
request processes from individual opera-
tors or vessels, so staff can respond to
bunker requirements across the entire fleet.
Vendor selection processes and purchasing and stem operations have been
enhanced in the new software, through the
provision of evaluations and vessel history
capture as well as analysis of performance
of vendors and a particular vessel’s bunker
history of purchases and consumption.
Keppel to
expand stability
software usage
www.autoship.com
Keppel
Shipyards
of
Singapore has agreed a deal to
acquire additional licences of
the Autohydro hydrostatics
and stability calculations software system from Autoship
Systems Corporation (ASC) of
Vancouver, Canada.
The Autohydro hydrostatic and stability program is
used at Keppel Offshore &
Marine offices for new
design and conversion projects in the offshore sector.
The additional licences
will be used by Keppel's
naval architects to produce
stability books for Class
approval.
The latest version of the
software, Autohydro 6.4,
offers an ‘Auto-Ballast’ feature, which allows the application, given one or more
tanks and a targeted draft,
trim and heel, to automatically calculate tank fills for
selected tanks to satisfy
given targets.
Keppel Shipyard has
already delivered FPSO/
FSO conversions to several
clients, including Single Buoy
Moorings
Inc,
Prosafe
Production, and Teekay
Shipping.
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p8-19:p15-25.qxd
09/04/2010
12:44
Page 9
SOFTWARE
Cutting port time through
accurate reporting
Seatrans Chemical Tankers’ 15 vessels make approximately 1,400 port calls per year, spending approximately 40 per
cent of their time in ports around the world. Determined to reduce this number, the company decided to implement a
new reporting system to automatically monitor performance – and believes it is on its way to improving fleet efficiency
eatrans Chemical Tankers operates
15 vessels as part of the Seatrans
group, a Norwegian-based shipping
company with more than 25 vessels of
varying types.
These chemical tankers, which range in
size between 2,000 and 20,000 dwt, work
in a number of different areas, with two
ships trading in the North Sea, 11 ships
trading between continental Europe and
the Mediterranean, and two ships trading
between the US Gulf of Mexico and the
Mediterranean.
Among them these ships complete
approximately 1,400 port calls every year,
which adds up to a sizeable number of
days out of the vessels’ operational schedule. To Gunnar Solberg, operations manager at Seatrans Chemical Tankers, this
was just not good enough – so he decided
to investigate ways of reducing this figure.
He soon realised that one of the biggest
limitations the company had in analysing
the issue was in its reporting procedures,
with data collected by the vessels being
presented in an outdated form, and in a
way that was preventing onshore management from quickly identifying trends
within the fleet.
“The challenge we have had in reporting from the ships, and measuring performance, has been that the reporting has
been done either by e-mail or by fax or in
Excel sheet attachments,” said Mr Solberg.
“It's very difficult to put this together to
measure your performance. When we do
it it's very time consuming, you need to go
through each of the sheets and put all of
the information together, and then try to
see where you are.”
“After that you can look at what direction you're going in and where you need
to make improvements, but when you
don't have the information in a database
it's very difficult to do this.”
Mr Solberg notes that this issue can be
particularly true in port, where there are
fewer parameters to measure, like speed
and fuel consumption, and performance
trends can be hard to spot.
So, based on these perceived limitations in the company’s processes, it was
decided that Seatrans should implement a
new reporting system to help to eliminate
inefficiencies and wasted time during its
port visits.
“We have 15 ships (on the chemical
tanker side), and 40 per cent of the time
they are in port,” he said.
“That means almost 2,200 days in port
for the fleet every year. If we set a goal to
reduce this by two per cent, then we will
save 43 days.”
“So if, for example, you are earning
S
$10,000 per day, that's $430,000 each year.
If you managed to reduce five per cent of
the port time that's one million [dollars].
So that's where we were coming from
when we started into this project.”
Requirements
Having decided what it wanted to achieve
from the new system Seatrans compiled a
list of requirements which it wanted to
cover with its new technology-based
reporting set-up.
“We want to have a database where
the physical data input is only done
once, easily and efficiently, on board,”
said Mr Solberg.
“We've seen in the past where things
might be typed once on the ship and then
put in a fax, and then it's retyped in the
office, and then maybe the broker is also
retyping it again. We want to have it done
only once, on the ship, and then it's going
through to everywhere we need it.”
other systems which are easy to use but
are hopeless when it comes to getting data
out of them in the end, so they don't help
us very much.”
Based on these requirements Seatrans
decided to install the Vessel Information
Portal (VIP) ship-shore reporting tool from
fellow Bergen-based IT providers Novo
Consult, a system designed to monitor vessel performance both at sea and in port.
Seatrans is now in the early stages of
implementing the system, having started
the installation process in the Spring of
2009 aboard two of its ships. This was followed by further implementations on
another 11 ships in January 2010.
To date Mr Solberg says that he has
been happy with the results and will continue to roll the software out to further
Seatrans vessels.
“We are now in a 'register' phase,
meaning that we need to get enough data
into the system to really look at how we
Seatrans chemical tankers spend more than 2,000 days per year in port. Photo: Seatrans
“We may also want to share the data
with our customers, either by pushing it
out to them or letting them log into the
system and access their data within it.”
In addition to merely storing and delivering data Seatrans also wanted the system
to be able to instantly provide information
on the implications of the data it was getting, showing how the ships were doing in
relation to the company’s objectives.
“The system should be able to tell us
where we are today, and the trends in performance, both at sea and in port,” said Mr
Solberg.
“We want the system to give automatic
feedback to the vessels on how they are performing. So when a vessel comes in and is
loading in a port, they should know up front
what the load rate for the vessel is, what the
average rate for the fleet is and what the
[maximum] rate for their ships is. We
believe that that alone might be able to give
us the two per cent reduction we need.”
“It should also be easy to use, for
inputting information, viewing information, and extracting the data. We have
are performing today, so we can compare
the different steps we are looking at to
save time in port,” he said.
“We have had very few issues with it so
far. We are using VSAT on all of the ships
that have it installed but we also need the
system to be able to work for time charter
ships where that's not available. We've
still got two ships that it is yet to be implemented on, where Novo Consult is working on what the set-up should be.”
Novo Consult is working with Palantir
and its Pandora@Sea product in preparing
the system for implementation on these
final two vessels, and expects to have a
solution ready for testing during the second quarter of 2010.
Tailored reporting
The VIP system which Seatrans is implementing on the vessels works via a portal
that operates locally on the vessel, completely within a web browser.
Once launched the user will open a
page containing a ‘soft news’ section, that
can be sent out to the vessel containing
whatever kind of information the company might want – including performance
data about the fleet. Also directly available
is an inventory of the various reports
involving the vessel itself.
“We wanted to avoid installing clients
onboard, so the whole system operates
through the web browser,” explains Rune
Lyngaas, product manager at Novo
Consult and the person responsible for the
VIP system.
“The main aspect of the onboard module is the reporting itself. It will show you
a list of your latest sent reports, and your
scheduled reports as they are to be sent.”
“This might be on a monthly basis, for
instance, where you send a main engine
report, while you will have daily reports
on arrivals, departures and noon reports.
They all go in sequence, so at the top will
be the next expected, or allowed, report to
be sent.”
The user can then click to start a new
report, for example a morning report. The
system should already know what voyage
is underway, so the user will be able to
reuse data that is already correct without
retyping – a lot of the data will be the same
as from the previous day if on a planned
voyage, so the system can just carry that
data into the new report.
'Super-users' of the system, based on
the privileges allowed by the company,
can configure these reports to require and
display whatever information Seatrans
wants to collect. Fields can be changed,
renamed, removed and rearranged to
have the reports appear as the user
prefers.
The system can also be used to validate
data as it is input, to help ensure that it is
correct the first time – an important point
if the data is to be used to create performance management statistics.
The shore portal used to control the VIP
software also begins with the same news
screen as the vessels have, so everyone is
getting the same information, but from
there works very differently, displaying
report data from across the fleet.
“You can set up the system to show
you, for example, the four latest reports
from those vessels that are relevant to me
at the moment, and then specify the kinds
of reports you want to subscribe to,” said
Mr Lyngaas.
“All of the vessels are registered in the
system and all of the report types are
there, you just select how many you want
to show on the log-in page. If you have
lots of vessels you probably want to have
fewer reports per vessel, but if you have
just a few vessels then you'll want to have
lots of reports.”
p8-19:p15-25.qxd
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Page 10
Digital Ship
The system can show you performance trends from a particular port,
to analyse what is going right – or wrong
“You can also access a position list
which is connected to Google Maps, so
you can see the position of the last reports
from the vessels. Different colours indicate
different reports, so a green one is an
arrival message, a blue one is a noon
report, and so on. If you click on one of the
vessels you'll get information on the last
report sent from the vessel.”
To drill down further and see a list of
all of the other reports from a current vessel's voyage the user can click through to
that voyage directly.
“You will also be given a visualisation
of the actual voyage, with again the differ-
ent colours showing the different kinds of
reports that have been sent,” Mr Lyngaas
said. “If I click on one I will get the information from that report itself.”
Analysing trends
Of course, the main driver behind implementing this system at Seatrans was not
merely to have improved access to vessel
reports but to introduce a performance
measurement tool that would allow the
company to create statistics and monitor
trends.
Mr Lyngaas notes that there are a number of pre-built statistics that come already
incorporated into the program, but feels
that a lot of the benefit will be created
through the introduction of other statistics
that the user can configure themselves.
“To create a new statistic you just need
to give it a name, and say what kind of
report you want it to be retrieving data
from,” he explained. “You also choose if
you want to filter it, and what kind of
graph you want it to show.”
“Then you decide what calculations
you want to do, by pointing and clicking,
and how you would like the result – say,
as an average. Then you save it and the
system will be able to show that statistic
for you in future.”
“The statistics part is basically up to
you, to decide what you want to monitor.
You know your own figures best, this is
just a tool provided to take the pulse of the
fleet and monitor things as they happen.”
In the case of ports, for example, the
user can pull up displays of factual information entered into the reports, like port
calls, but also trends based on that data,
such as ‘tonnes of fuel per hour’ achieved
during visits to that port.
“A falling line in that case [of ‘tonnes of
fuel per hour’] would show that the ship is
actually becoming less efficient in that
particular port,” said Mr Lyngaas.
“You can also pull up a port performance dashboard and look at one port, say
Rotterdam, and look at the trend in tonnes
per hour for your port calls in this port. It
includes a visualisation showing how efficient you are going to berth and going
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w w w. s t r a t o s g l o b a l . c o m
from berth, monitored against the physical
loading and discharging operation. So you
might be able to see that, for example,
your vessels are only spending about 40
per cent of their time in port doing the
actual loading or discharging.”
“Just seeing the trends is one thing, but
you need to be able to see what made this
particular result so good or so bad. So you
can click on the dots in the trend line and
look at those results. You can see if something special happened or if there were
any comments, to see why this was better
than the others.”
A similar approach can be used to gather trends on nearly every aspect of ship
performance covered by the data physically entered into the reports by the captains
onboard the vessels, says Mr Lyngaas.
“If you want to monitor something at
sea, let's say average speed, again you can
get the system to fetch all of the reports
and instantly show you the average speed
for all of the vessels,” he said.
“Or maybe you don't want to look at
the vessels but want to compare the
masters, and see which ones are doing
the best. You can easily fetch and
rearrange all of your information to see
what you want.”
With the system soon to be live on all of
Seatrans’ chemical tankers, Mr Solberg
will be hopeful that this new application
will make the difference in helping the
company to increase its in-port efficiency,
and find that two per cent gain it is looking for.
DS
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Page 11
SOFTWARE
How insecure are you?
Small shipbrokers and newcomers to the market could be leaving themselves open to all manner of
security risks in their rush to adopt ‘free’ software and other shortcuts to the IT infrastructure they need,
writes Mark Moerman, SDSD
I
n their eagerness to keep costs down,
it is not uncommon for start-ups and
small firms to exploit free publicallyavailable resources, believing they get
the job done just as well as specialist
packages.
Yet, just as ‘free’ broadband connections on land often come at the price of
compromised service quality and long
queues for call centre help, there’s no such
thing as free, business-quality software
or IT services, whether for e-mail or anything else.
There will always be hidden costs –
such as features that need unlocking – and
an overall lack of support.
E-mail is arguably the most common
source of skimping. When a hacker succeeded in breaking into some 10,000 webbased e-mail accounts last autumn, it
focused the business world on the false
economy of using free public services for
sensitive transactions.
It is worrying, then, that an inordinate
number of shipbrokers persist in using
personal and other externally-hosted and
free web-based e-mail systems to conduct
their daily business.
Such an approach can, at best, be
described as careless; at worst, naïve.
After all, a shipbroker’s USP is based on
the contacts and information they have at
their disposal – so why are these critical
assets being put at such unnecessary risk?
Small firm, big risk
While the bigger brokers are increasingly
attentive when it comes to data security,
smaller start-up companies appear not to
consider IT security to be a sufficiently
high priority.
Lacking an IT department to drive the
issue up the agenda, and perceiving the
procurement and installation of a secure
IT system as a disruptive, unnecessary
Data security is an issue everyone is
familiar with, but many do nothing about
and lengthy process, smaller, recentlyformed shipbrokers are inviting substantial operational risk, with the potential to
jeopardise the whole company.
Firms need to ask themselves, not only
how compromised they would find themselves if sensitive, differentiating data got
into the wrong hands, but also how damaging it would be to their business if their
e-mail address was hijacked for malicious
spam activity – potentially marking their
account as untrustworthy.
If, as a result, subsequent messages
then never get beyond the spam filters,
communications, and therefore business,
will stall.
)GVVJG$KI2KEVWTG
A reliance on free services could easily
hamper business growth plans. Once the
recession subsides, and new players get a
chance to scale up to their fuller potential,
their e-mail and data volumes will rise
exponentially, requiring more rigorous
management and more intelligence in the
way content is filtered, filed and managed.
Whether or not a broker believes their
firm to be of a sufficient size to invest in
professional IT systems today, the question is where they may be tomorrow.
A successful start-up business is epitomised by setting out brand values from
day one and starting as you mean to go on,
and this includes putting the IT infrastructure in place immediately.
Brand values and a perception of being
bigger than you actually are (of particular
importance when starting out) are hardly
accentuated by using free Hotmail or
Yahoo e-mail services.
Those with bigger ambitions and their
eye on long-term growth may be interested
in more sophisticated solutions which, in
addition to providing sophisticated e-mail
management capabilities, can be integrated
seamlessly with back-office systems, from
standard office and contract editing applications to accounting solutions.
Personal, web-based e-mail systems
are only designed for individual and
informal use, raising the potential for
duplication of work.
For instance, if two or more brokers
from the same firm are receiving similar
information and operating from non-integrated free e-mail services, what provision
has been made to ensure that both parties
share visibility of e-mail traffic and therefore know the status of a given decision
chain at any one time?
A group-based e-mail system, by contrast, would enable colleagues to track the
status of message threads and related
actions.
Facing facts
To come back to the specific issue of security, as this affects not only e-mail but other
IT-based activities too, brokers need to ask
themselves how their business would have
been affected, both in the short term and
the longer term, if the worst happened and
they suffered a breach.
Worryingly, a recent study by SDSD
found when asked 'Is your organisation
concerned about data-theft?', 44 per cent
of respondents said, 'Yes, but we have not
done anything about it'.
Hopefully, the e-mail hacking events of
autumn 2009 will have served as a caution
to the naïve and the careless, prompting
those brokers to put their houses in order
before a similar crisis strikes, as it surely
will. Prevention is always better – and
cheaper – than a too-little-too late cure.
Shipbroking is a prestigious industry
and deserves dedicated resources and
tools to help do the job. Fortunately, those
tools exist today, and no firm is too small
or too new to exploit them. What they may
be, however, is too small and too vulnerable to recover if a crisis hits and they aren’t
prepared.
DS
About the author
Mark Moerman is head of professional
services at SDSD, a provider of software
systems to the shipping industry.
Reference:
Hotmail security breach story, October 2009 (Times Online):
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6861965.ece
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p20-28:p26-32.qxd
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ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS
ClassNK commits $25m to
maritime emissions research
www.classnk.or.jp
ClassNK is to commit 2.2 billion yen
(approximately $25 million) in research
and funding as part of its participation in
a joint Japanese R&D programme to
reduce maritime greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions.
ClassNK’s commitment will cover
more than 25 per cent of the project’s total
budget of 8.5 billion yen (approximately
$95 million), through to 2012.
The R&D programme is part of a
Japanese national effort to reduce GHG
emissions, established by the Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and
Tourism (MLIT) last year.
More than 20 projects currently being
conducted by Japanese maritime companies have already been selected for funding and assistance, with participants from
shipping companies, shipbuilders, manufacturers, and research organisations.
“Classification societies must take a
leading role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said ClassNK chairman and president, Noboru Ueda.
“Our commitment as an industry must
go beyond merely helping to establish
goals for reducing maritime emissions.
We must actively contribute to developing, funding, and promoting concrete,
practical technologies to make the
achievement of these goals a reality.”
“The commitment we are [now making] is an important step in that process.”
Next-generation autopilot from Raytheon
www.raykiel.com
Raytheon Anschütz reports that it is to
release a new adaptive autopilot series,
the NautoPilot 5000, to act as a successor
to the NP 2000 autopilot series.
The NP 5000 is based on the same steering algorithms as the previous series, but
is enhanced to include new functions such
as an integrated steering performance display and a new course control operation
mode.
The most obvious new feature is a large
touch screen graphical display which
offers six different day and night modes.
The screen is designed in line with the
colour palettes which are in use for the
display systems of radar, chart-radar and
ECDIS.
The NP 5000 also features an EcoMode, which automatically adapts to the
current sea-state and weather.
Periodical yawing movements which
can be caused by roll and pitch will normally result in rudder actions with high
amplitudes. As frequent rudder actions
will not compensate the heading deviation
due to environmental conditions, the
autopilot reduces its sensitivity to such
movements.
As a result, the autopilot continuously
adapts to current environmental conditions without a manual change of autopilot parameters. Subsequently less rudder
The new autopilot system will be available
later this year
action is required, which leads to lower
levels of speed reduction and thus less fuel
consumption.
The autopilot features up to three possible modes of operation. Besides heading
control, there is also a track control mode,
allowing a vessel to steer automatically
along a pre-planned route from the start to
the end point of the route.
A new feature in the NP 5000 is ‘course
control’ as a third mode of operation.
When steering in this mode, the autopilot
compensates for drift automatically and
keeps the vessel on the defined course
over ground. Compared with the common
heading control mode this leads to a more
precise course keeping capability.
Raytheon says that the NP 5000 will be
available for installations in the third
quarter of 2010.
Sperry to fit Indian tankers
www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com
Nobory Ueda, ClassNK, announces the company’s funding commitment
to the research programme
McMurdo has reported that two of
its new Kannad Marine distress beacons
have received EU type approval, the manual and automatic versions of the Kannad
Marine EPIRB (non GPS) and the Safelink
Pro PLB.
Sperry Marine is to supply integrated
bridge systems (IBS) for two new fleet
tankers being built in Italy for the Indian
navy.
The IBS orders were placed by Italian
shipbuilder Fincantieri, which is under
contract to build the two tankers at its
shipyards in Liguria and Palermo. The
terms of the contract were not disclosed.
The 175-metre tankers are being built
with double hulls to meet IMO requirements for marine pollution control, and
are scheduled for delivery to the Indian
navy in 2010 and 2011.
Each of the ships will be fitted with an
IBS incorporating radars, electronic chart
display and information systems (ECDIS),
adaptive self-tuning autopilots, gyrocompasses and repeaters, speed sensors,
echosounders, differential GPS and other
navigation subsystems and sensors.
All critical systems have been duplicated for redundancy. Sperry Marine will
also supply the ship’s inertial navigation
system and data distribution system.
Compagnia Generali Telemar S.p.A,
Sperry Marine’s representative in Italy,
will be responsible for installing, commissioning, testing and technical support for
the project.
Advice on ECDIS at Geomares’ website
Geomares
Publishing
has
launched a website aimed to assist in the
transition from paper charts to ECDIS.
www.electronic-chart.com will carry news
updates and developments regarding
ECDIS, and aims to include photo and
video material and interactive tools shortly.
Wärtsilä has signed a new agreement
with Raytheon Anschütz to add to
Wärtsilä's offering of integrated system
solutions, which will now include
Raytheon navigation systems offered by
Wärtsilä on a global basis.
The Kannad distress beacons have gained
EU approval
www.mcmurdo.co.uk
www.electronic-chart.com
www.wartsila.com
www.raykiel.com
Uni-Safe launches BNWAS
www.unielec.dk
Uni-Safe Electronics has launched its new
Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm
System, the BW-800, to comply with
new IMO and IEC performance standards for 2010.
The system was awarded Type
Approval for a Bridge Navigational Watch
Alarm System complying with the new
IEC 62616 performance standard on
February 23rd, with DNV having successfully carried out performance tests.
The system is currently completing further environmental tests, and with those
complete the company will be aiming
to make the BW-800 system available for
sale immediately.
New regulations from IMO’s Maritime
Safety Committee (MSC) will require carriage of a Bridge Navigational Watch
Alarm System (BNWAS) complying with
IMO performance standards.
For existing ships, the equipment
should be installed in connection with the
first survey after the following deadlines:
Existing passenger ships and ships over
3,000 GT - 1 July 2012; Existing ships over
500 GT - 1 July 2013; Existing ships over
150 GT - 1 July 2014.
New ships over 150 GT and all new
passenger ships constructed after 1 July
2011 should be equipped with a Bridge
Navigational Watch Alarm System.
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Page 3
course approved
Maris joins
EfficienSea
www.intertanko.com
www.maris.no
The Marine Training Centre (MTC) in
Hamburg has received accreditation from
Germanischer Lloyd to run TOTS (Tanker
Officer Training Standards) simulator
courses.
The INTERTANKO-backed TOTS initiative offers training and verification of
core competency for tanker officers, which
is aimed at providing the industry with a
standard that ensures officer competence
through onboard and shore training, evaluating knowledge gained as a result of
time in rank and time with company.
The organisation notes that simulator
training is a crucial part of this process,
enabling officers to train more effectively
during their time ashore.
INTERTANKO marine director Capt
Howard Snaith says that his organisation
is delighted that MTC has achieved
accreditation to run the TOTS simulator
courses - the first training academy to
achieve TOTS certification.
“Many more marine academies will
now push forward to complete their own
TOTS simulator training accreditation, in
view of the current growing demand by
tanker owners for centres to run TOTS simulator courses for their officers,” he said.
Maris (Maritime Information Systems
AS) reports that it has joined the
EU's EfficienSea project as an associated
partner.
As part of its role in the project Maris
will be developing prototype eNavigation services, to be used in the eNavigation test bed established in the
Baltic sea by the EfficienSea project.
Maris involvement in the EfficienSea
project is expected to continue until
February 2011. However, there is a
possibility that the project will be
extended beyond 2011, which Maris
says would most likely prolong its
involvement.
The aim of the EfficienSea project is to
develop prototype e-Navigation services
to be tested by a number of users (mainly vessels) in the Baltic sea.
The results of the tests will then
be shared with participating partners,
and distributed to the international
community and those involved in
developing IMO's overall e-Navigation
concept.
Initially the focus will be on
services such as sharing METOC
(Meteorological and Oceanographic)
information with vessels, exchanging
routes (both ship-ship and ship-shore),
developing new AIS features (such
as synthetic AIS, virtual AIS and
application specific messages), and
distributing MSI (Maritime Safety
Information) and NtM (Notice to
Mariners) to vessels
Maris says that further services are
being discussed, and that the aim is to
continuously introduce new services to
the test bed throughout the duration of
the project.
The test 'fleet' involved in the programme is made up of a variety of vessel
types, in order to be able to assess the
usability of the various services by different kinds of users.
These users include passenger
ships, high speed craft, tug boats,
buoy tenders, pilot vessels and a
school ship. On shore, the participants
are maritime administrations and
VTS centres.
Falklands signals the way for mariners TOTS simulator
www.tidelandsignal.com
Tideland Signal is to provide a package of
LED-based leading lights to the Falkland
Islands Government Public Services, to
guide shipping into the harbour at Port
Stanley against the background of light
from a new onshore development.
The package centres on two of
Tideland's recently introduced RLED-170
range lanterns, which are mounted on
posts on the centre line of the course followed by mariners approaching the inner
harbour.
On top of the posts are MLED-155
MaxiHALO-60 lanterns which are blanked
to shield the light when seen at night
against the background of the new urban
development.
All the lanterns show red lights. The
lanterns on top of the posts are used only
at night time while others operate day and
night, with the rear station showing an 18
degree beam and the front station a 24
degree beam.
Both stations are equipped with GPS
synchronisation and a VHF transponder
to synchronise the day/night transition
intensity settings between the two lights.
The LEDs used in the system have a
visual range of up to 20NM, with low and
high power options, and variable power
settings for field intensity control.
They are used to mark rivers and canals
as well as channels and are normally
installed in pairs, as at Port Stanley, with
one positioned above and behind the
other so that mariners can establish a centre line by keeping the lights vertically
aligned.
Mariners entering Port Stanley can follow
the lights from the new installations
ECDIS training partnership agreed
www.da-gama.co.uk
www.ecdis.org.uk
Navigation services company Da Gama
Limited has agreed a new partnership
with Electronic Chart Display and
Information System (ECDIS) training
provider, ECDIS Ltd.
Under the partnership Da Gama’s
training programmes will utilise ECDIS
Ltd’s classroom training system, which
include 58cm ECDIS consoles and a DNV
Compliant Bridge Operation simulator.
ECDIS Ltd has recently opened a new
ECDIS training facility in the United
Kingdom which will act as a base for the
delivery of its ECDIS courses, including
type specific courses as well as a short
ECDIS course and ECS training.
“ECDIS training and Bridge Resource
Management training has become an
increasingly important factor for our
clients over recent years,” explains Steve
Monk, Da Gama.
“In 2012 the IMO regulations will be
changing with respect to the use and carriage of ECDIS. As specialists in the use
and operation of this equipment we are
able to guide captains, project managers
and management companies through the
complexities of the rules with advice on
equipment supply and training necessary
to allow your vessel or fleet to achieve flag
state accreditation.”
“Using ECDIS Ltd’s facilities and world
renowned modern teaching methods will
ensure we can assist owners and captains
in navigating in a safe manner.”
Steve Monk, Da Gama, and Mark Broster,
ECDIS Ltd, celebrate the new partnership
Wärtsilä and Samsung to develop gas-powered ships
www.wartsila.com
www.shi.samsung.co.kr
Wärtsilä and Samsung Heavy Industries
(SHI) have signed a co-operation agreement to develop gas-fuelled merchant vessels using efficient propulsion machinery
concepts.
The focus of the joint study will be on
utilising liquefied natural gas (LNG) as
fuel for operating vessels.
Wärtsilä's input will be related to the
propulsion machinery, with particular reference to large bore, dual-fuel engines
combined with mechanical propulsion
solutions. SHI will concentrate on the
design of efficient vessels incorporating
fuel storage facilities and gas-powered
propulsion machinery.
Merchant vessels to be evaluated
include crude oil tankers, for which both
optimum propulsion concepts and the
performance benefits achieved using LNG
as fuel will be assessed.
"Compared to conventional engines
running on heavy fuel oil (HFO),
Wärtsilä's dual-fuel engine technology
offers 20-25 per cent lower CO2 emissions,
90 per cent lower NOx emissions and
almost negligible SOx and particulate
emissions," said Jaakko Eskola, group vice
president, Wärtsilä Ship Power.
SHI’s role will include developing an
efficient and environmentally friendly
gas-fuelled ship with a new hull form and
propulsion systems. It will include a fuel
gas storage and supply system, known as
Samsung FuGaS.
As well as identifying the major vessel
parameters, SHI will provide input for the
specifications regarding the propulsion
system and fuel storage and handling sys-
tems, in addition to assisting with economic evaluations.
"We have delivered hundreds of vessels from virtually every ship category to
customers worldwide, and we lead the
industry in both the number of ships built
and dock turnover time, a key measure of
efficiency," says KS Lee, vice president,
project planning team, SHI.
"As an advanced shipbuilder for environmentally friendly vessels, we look forward to transferring our competence in
LNG technology from LNG carriers to
LNG-powered merchant vessels."
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Integrated navigation systems for Aida Cruises
www.sam-electronics.de
Two new Aida Cruises 71,000-gt cruiseliners under construction at Meyer
Werft’s Papenburg yard, Germany, are
to be equipped with SAM Electronics’
new-generation NACOS Platinum integrated navigation automation and
control systems.
The vessels are scheduled for delivery
during 2011 and 2012.
The systems to be installed will feature
networked architecture including five Xand S-band radars linked to a similar
number of Multipilots, together with
radar-controlled Trackpilots and ECDIS
pilots, conning displays and an automatic
steering control facility.
RADIO HOLLAND CONNECT: AIRTIME ANYWHERE
WE C
NNECT AT SEA
Supplementary navaids such as DGPS,
doppler logs, gyros, echosounders and
wind sensors will also be linked via the
networked architecture to the Multipilots,
as will bridge navigation watch alarm systems in accordance with new IMO
requirements.
Other Aida cruiseliners,
such as the 69,203-gt
AidaLuna launched from
Meyer Werft’s yard last year,
are equipped with earlier
NACOS navigation command systems.
UKHO sells
SeaZone
www.ukho.gov.uk
FOR ALL YOUR
C NNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS
www.radiohollandgroup.com
The
United
Kingdom
Hydrographic
Office
(UKHO) has sold 100 per
cent of the equity in its
SeaZone Solutions Limited
subsidiary
to
HR
Wallingford, following a
competitive process.
The value of the deal has
not been disclosed.
SeaZone
joined
the
UKHO group in 2005, and
reported
a
projected
turnover of £1.5m for this
financial year. However,
UKHO says that, with the
global market for marine GIS
(Geographical Information
Systems) entering a phase of
rapid growth, it was unable
to provide the required support for SeaZone to expand
its reach internationally.
SeaZone was established
to provide digital mapping
services within the private
and public sectors in the UK
and overseas. The business
includes a range of geographic information products, software and services.
The company's SeaZone
HydroSpatial product has
been one of its most successful ventures, providing digital marine reference information for use within applications such as marine spatial
planning,
environmental
protection, socio-economic
development, risk management and mitigation.
"We are delighted to
announce the acquisition of
SeaZone," said Dr Jane
Smallman, managing director of HR Wallingford.
"The businesses are clearly complementary. Together
we have a fantastic opportunity to develop a world-leading marine information service, resulting in obvious benefits for all our customers."
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Digital Ship
US and Korean marine electronics standards converge
The
US-based
National
Marine
Electronics Association (NMEA) and
the
Marine
Electronics
Industry
Promotion Association (MEIPA) of
South Korea have signed
a
Memorandum
of
Understanding (MOU) that
will ensure the adoption of
NMEA standards, training
and product certification
throughout South Korea.
The MOU sets a framework for NMEA and MEIPA
to work together to develop
courses and materials for the
South
Korean
market,
including a suite of marine
electronics installer education qualifications based
on the current NMEA
Installation Standard.
NMEA says that it has
trained more than 1,000 technicians in the US using this
system.
The MOU also establishes
ground rules for MEIPA to translate
NMEA documents into the Korean language and to distribute these documents
within South Korea.
The NMEA will retain the intellectual
property rights of all NMEA materials
used and distributed in South Korea.
“NMEA’s standards, training and certification have been recognised as worldleading for optimum, reliable networking,
installation and service of marine electronics for some time,” said Steve Spitzer,
NMEA’s technical director.
“However, the NMEA – MEIPA agreement signifies that the process of international adoption and implementation is
now in full swing. This is a very beneficial
agreement for both organisations.”
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BOS and
Veripos
extend deal
www.veripos.com
Veripos has been awarded
an extension to its existing
master services contract with
Bergen Oilfield Services
(BOS).
The contract covers continuing supply of a complete
range of positioning services
and equipment for BOS’s
three specialist seismic
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Angler, BOS Arctic and BOS
Atlantic.
Utilising Veripos’ Ultra
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accuracies, supported by
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quality control of positioning data, each vessel is also
equipped with Veripos
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receiver systems.
BOS has recently completed a 10,000km 2D seismic
data acquisition programme
offshore of Guinea, northwest Africa, on behalf of
H y p e r d y n a m i c s
Corporation, utilising the
Veripos system.
The BOS Angler vessel is
also soon due to carry out
major 3D surveys for ONGC
and Cairn off the east and
west coasts of India.
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p20-28:p26-32.qxd
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ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION
Facing the problems with ECDIS
Mandatory ECDIS is coming in 2012, a fact that has been welcomed by most in the maritime industry,
particularly in the IT sector. But are we ready for the full implications of this move?
Dr Andy Norris looks at some of the issues affecting ECDIS users
he increasing use of ECDIS as a
true replacement for paper charts
on ships is uncovering a surprising
lack of knowledge among some users.
It appears to be due to a combination of
inadequate training and the fact that some
users have yet to develop a proper ECDIS
mindset, effectively treating the technology as just a paper chart on a screen.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it is the
ECDIS that is generally blamed as being
inadequate, rather than the knowledge of
the user. The reality is that compared to
the use of paper charts, present-day
ECDIS offers numerous benefits.
Admittedly, there are ways in which
ECDIS can be improved, both from a
requirements point of view and in the way
that individual manufacturers have implemented certain features.
As with all other technology, improvements in ECDIS will be a gradual but
unceasing process. Importantly, just
because improvements can be seen does
not mean to say that the present system is
inadequate, especially when compared to
the traditional alternative.
T
very clever at just giving a simple overview
of when update disks were applied. For
this reason it is appropriate to keep a manual log of when a disk is loaded, together
with a note on whether any problems
occurred during the update process.
It should be recognised that on some systems the updates can take an appreciable
amount of time, so it is best done in port. In
any case, to ensure that the latest updates
available are in use at sea this is essential.
It does not need constant monitoring
but regular checks on progress are recommended to see if the system has encountered any problems.
scale of any chart on, or immediately adjacent to, the planned route.
A number of problems are occurring,
including some that have been the root
cause of accidents, because not all appropriate charts have been loaded.
Fortunately, it is much easier to get new
charts installed on the ECDIS than it is to
obtain additional paper charts. Normally,
a new permit code is all that is required to
download an ENC from the base data
disks held on the ship. This permit can be
obtained by e-mail.
A justified complaint about ENC
updates is that many do not include all the
Out-of-date charts
A surprising number of issues met at sea
are connected with the inadequate update
of ENCs. Many users blame the equipment – often by stating: “there is no easy
way to see if all the charts are up-to-date.”
This is certainly true of paper charts.
Even using the facilities on the UKHO
website it would be a tedious matter to
check that all charts were properly updated. The ship must rely on having a good
correction regime and logging process.
IMO requires ECDIS to have an automatic system that keeps and displays a
record of all updates, including their time
of application. Obviously, it is important
that the user knows how to use the system
and access the records.
In general, the entire set of loaded
ENCs can be updated simply by inserting
the latest cumulative update disk – and
appropriately commanding the system to
update all installed charts.
However, it should not be assumed
that the update process will be executed
just by inserting the disk, as has been
incorrectly supposed by some users – it
always involves additional user action, at
least to select the appropriate action item
from a menu.
If this process is completed successfully,
it will be indicated by an appropriate message. This is the simple confirmation to the
user that all charts have been updated.
The ECDIS will automatically flag up
and keep a record of any problems
encountered, which should be investigated, either to resolve them or to understand
their significance to safety.
Although all ECDIS keep a detailed
record of applied updates, some are not
A number of problems are occurring, including some that have been the root cause of
accidents, because not all appropriate charts have been loaded into the ECDIS
If using ENCs from multiple data consolidators the process will require insertion of the latest update disks from each
particular source. However, most ships
just use data from one consolidator like,
for example, the UKHO.
To satisfy port state inspections the
manual log can first be shown, but users
could be asked to display the record of the
updates that the ECDIS keeps automatically. This record also shows any manual
updates that have been applied.
In principle, the inspector can then
check specific examples with a carried-onboard master list.
Loaded charts
The required ENCs for the route need to be
determined from the data catalogue of the
supplying organisation. This is available
online and generally also via a mailed disk.
Catalogues are entirely computer-graphics based and so the required information is
not accessible by thumbing through a book,
as is the case for paper charts. It is normally
accessed on a bridge computer but may be
available on the ECDIS.
Chart selection is made easy, providing the user is sufficiently familiar with
such computer-based catalogues – a necessary skill.
A check should be made that all charts
relevant to the voyage are loaded into the
ECDIS, particularly the largest available
information contained in Temporary and
Preliminary Notices to Mariners (T&Ps)
that are designed for paper chart use.
For this reason, until the HOs improve
the situation, it is necessary to check the
paper T&Ps and apply voyage appropriate information as manual corrections or
Mariners Notes.
This is tedious, but no more so than
when using paper charts. It is, of course,
necessary to understand the ECDIS equipment-specific procedures to apply such
manual updates and notes.
The UKHO’s recently announced eNavigator service, in part, helps to simplify identifying the relevant T&Ps using
software running on a bridge computer or
the ECDIS.
Route planning
Judging by the number of complaints of
how difficult it is to use ECDIS for route
planning compared to paper charts, many
users must surely misunderstand the
route planning functionality of ECDIS.
While it remains an exacting task it
should be considerably less tedious, if
properly approached.
This is mainly because a route, either
under construction or fully planned, is
immediately visible on any selected chart
that the route crosses.
For instance, ECDIS allows the initial
rough planning to be performed on a
small scale chart. Then, using successively
larger scale charts, the route can be appropriately detailed.
Changes arising from the detailing,
such as the inclusion of additional waypoints, are automatically reflected onto all
other charts.
The main issue with using ECDIS for
route planning is getting used to the
smaller working area.
However, when planning a route from
scratch across an ocean, you can start with
a zoomed out image that encompasses
both coastlines and create a very rough
route, perhaps using great circles between
major waypoints.
The fact that much detail will not be in
evidence is not an issue at this stage– it
only provides a rough guide that needs to
be refined as the route is detailed onto
larger scale charts.
Admittedly, route planning is far from
just using features available on the ENC,
with many other aspects needing to be
fully taken into account, such as weather,
ice, tides and currents.
The completed route should be manually checked for all charted hazards using
the largest available scale for any segment
of the route.
Then the ECDIS should be set to perform
an automatic check. The system will use the
largest available scale charts for this activity, whatever is displayed on the screen.
It is fundamental that appropriate
parameters relating to own ship, including
alarm limits, are set before this check is
performed. Failure to do this in a sensible
manner creates numerous warnings,
which, in general, will also be replicated
when voyage monitoring.
Of course, limits can also be inappropriately set such that true hazards are
missed. Therefore a good understanding
of the relevant issues is paramount.
Admittedly, the automatic route checking process is an area where individual
equipment designs can over-complicate
the process and may give information that
appears confusing or repetitive.
Some manufacturers really need to relook
at the way this has been implemented.
However, the automatic process is best
taken as an extra benefit that ECDIS gives
compared to paper charts. If the planning
process is performed correctly it will come
up with no unforeseen issues.
DS
Dr Andy orris 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. Email: [email protected]
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Transcription

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