Torm Shipping chooses VSAT for entire fleet - Digital Ship

Torm Shipping chooses 

VSAT for entire fleet 

T 

Following an approximately six-month long trial aboard the Torm Vita, 

Torm Shipping is to install SingTel’s newly launched VSAT system across its 

100-strong fleet, as Singtel looks to expand its market base 

orm Shipping has 

agreed a contract to 

implement 

SingTel's Global Maritime 

Very Small Aperture Terminal 

(GMVSAT) service 

aboard its fleet of 100 

ships, which will provide 

always-on broadband connectivity 

for the Danish 

shipping group on a 

worldwide basis. 

The deal follows a trial 

period that began in the 

summer of 2008, which 

also marked the first customer 

deployment of this 

new SingTel service. 

The trial featured the 

installation of a 2.4m 

SeaTel stabilised C-band 

antenna on the deck of the 

Torm Vita, one of the latest 

additions to Torm 

Shipping's fleet. 

The system allows for 

broadband connectivity 

with speeds of up to 

256kbps, on a global basis, 

with automatic beam 

switching built in and 

unlimited data usage 

included in the deal. 

Torm will also have 

SingTel's Session Initiation 

Protocol (SIP) telephones 

installed on each vessel as 

part of the service, for shipto-ship 

and ship-to-shore 

voice communications. 

Claus Usen Jensen, 

Torm Shipping's executive 

vice president, technical 

division, commented: 

"VSAT opens the doors for 

the future. We can now 

ensure better communication 

between vessel and 

office, but not least 

between vessel and home." 

"We now have to think 

in new work routines both 

in the office and onboard." 

SingTel's GMVSAT 

core infrastructure is managed 

over its ConnectPlus 

Internet Protocol Virtual 

Private Network (IP VPN), 

which will provide Torm 

with an additional level of 

Torm vessels will now enjoy 256 kbps connectivity 

anywhere in the world 

security for the network 

monitoring and performance 

management of its 

GMVSAT systems. 

Bill Chang, SingTel's 

executive vice president of 

business, noted: "SingTel's 

GMVSAT solution will 

enable Torm Shipping to 

reduce costs and boost 

business productivity by 

enabling its ships to 

become seamless extensions 

of the shore-based 

office." 

"It will also improve 

crew welfare by allowing 

seafarers to undertake 

online distance training 

and stay in touch with 

loved ones while at sea." 

"This multi-million dollar 

contract demonstrates 

Torm Shipping's confidence 

in SingTel to deliver 

world-class ICT solutions. 

We are excited to be a partner 

in helping them 

achieve their goals." 

Expansion 

SingTel has further signalled 

its intention to pursue 

expansion plans 

beyond its Asia-Pacific 

base by supplementing 

this Torm deal with a 

teaming agreement with 

Becker Marine Systems 

Communication, to jointly 

offer services to the global 

maritime industry. 

Under the agreement, 

Becker Marine Systems 

Communication (BMSC) 

continued on page 2 

Directly manage onboard system configuration. 

From anywhere. 

www.dualog.com 

(+47) 77 62 19 00 or sales@dualog.com 

IN THIS ISSUE 

satcoms 

software 

electronics and 

navigation 

December 2008 

GlobeRydex, Rydex version 8, released - 5 

Why we moved from VSAT 

to FleetBroadband - 

Varun Shipping - 8 

High-speed, small antenna - 

mini-VSAT at Vadero Ship 

Management - 10 

Satellite repositioning for global Fleet- 

Broadband to cause service outages - 10 

Canada’s largest dry-bulk 

company to implement IMOS 

software system - 16 

Shipdex - predicting the costs of 

electronic documentation - 18 

Special report from Digital Ship’s 

second Shipdex conference: 

including Grimaldi Group, 

Intership Navigation, Finnlines, 

and Höegh Autoliners 

OSG installs data management 

technology from Datatrac - 26 

Danish shipowners sign up for 

ECDIS - 27 

Korea to launch maritime satellite - 28 

Balancing technology and integrity - 

Dr Andy Norris - 30 

Dualog® Connection Suite features RemoteConfig: 

A powerful tool that dramatically increases your fleet 

IT management capability 

Access and manage any ship's onboard configuration from 

anywhere via the Internet - independent of bandwidth available. 

Respond quickly to problems and configuration requirements - 

thus effectively reducing the need for IT competence and 

technician attendence onboard. You can even implement 

fleet-wide policies and optimisations in just a few clicks. 

Visit us at SMM, stand 115, Hall B7, 

Norwegian Joint Pavilion to 

learn more. 

BridgING the gap 

The Maritime Communications Experts

SATCOMS NEWS 

Vol 9 No 4 

Digital Ship Limited 

213 Marsh Wall 

London E14 9FJ, U.K. 

www.thedigitalship.com 

PUBLISHER 

Stuart Fryer 

EDITOR 

Rob O'Dwyer: Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 4940 

email: odwyer@thedigitalship.com 

CONFERENCE PRODUCER / 

CONSULTING WRITER 

Karl Jeffery: Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 4935 

email: jeffery@thedigitalship.com 

ADVERTISING 

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email: ria@thedigitalship.com 

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

email: chee@thedigitalship.com 

EVENTS 

Diana Leahy Engelbrecht 

Tel: +44 (0)118 931 3109 

email: diana@thedigitalship.com 

CONSULTANT WRITER 

Dr Andy Norris (navigation) 

apnorris@globalnet.co.uk 

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UPCOMING CONFERENCES 

CYPRUS 

Grand Resort, Limassol 

February 3-4, 2009 

SHIPDEX 

Maritim Hotel, Reichshof, Hamburg 

February 10, 2009 

Printed by 

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Hertz AL3 6PZ 

U.K. 

No part of this publication may be reproduced 

or stored in any form by any 

mechanical, electronic, photocopying, 

recording or other means without the prior 

written consent of the publisher. Whilst 

the information and articles in Digital Ship 

are published in good faith and every 

effort is made to check accuracy, readers 

should verify facts and statements direct 

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as the publisher can accept no responsibility 

in this respect. Any opinions 

expressed in this magazine should not 

be construed as those of the publisher. 

continued from page 1 

aims to incorporate SingTel's maritime 

satellite solutions into its umc.global network 

managed services platform, while 

SingTel will look to offer BMSC's 

umc.connect portnet ship to shore service 

in more than 80 seaports worldwide. 

With umc.connect portnet, vessels 

close to the shore can reduce costs by 

switching their satellite broadband connections 

to SingTel's land-based WiFi or 

mobile networks. 

The agreement also looks at providing 

umc.global network customers with 2G, 3G 

Vizada reports that it is now offering the 

Iridium 9555 voice handset as part of its 

portfolio of satellite communications services. 

Applied Satellite Technology 

Ltd (AST) has announced the acquisition 

of Capricorn Satellite 

Communications of South Africa, 

which will be renamed AST South 

Africa following completion of the deal. 

Otesat-Maritel has launched a new 

website, with updated information about 

special offers and products and other features, 

such as a download function for 

terminal equipment activation forms. 

www.vizada.com 

www.satcomms.com 

www.otesat-maritel.com 

www.jolleyroger.org 

Paul Jolley and Roger Adamson, founders of maritime consultancy JolleyRoger 

Digital Ship December 2008 page 2 

and 3.5G roaming coverage via SingTel and 

Bridge Alliance networks in 11 countries: 

Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, 

Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, 

Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. 

"This teaming agreement seeks to bring 

satellite, GSM and terrestrial wireless 

solutions together to provide maritime 

companies with an innovative one-stop 

ICT experience that will transform the 

way they do business," said Titus Yong, 

SingTel vice president of satellite. 

"SingTel is excited to work closely with 

Furuno and JRC join JSAT Mobile 

www.stratosglobal.com 

Stratos has announced that Furuno and 

Japan Radio Co. (JRC) have become shareholders 

in its new Japanese communications 

joint venture, JSAT MOBILE 

Communications Inc. 

Furuno and JRC will each assume a 10 

percent share in JSAT MOBILE. 

Stratos formed the joint venture company 

JSAT MOBILE in August, with partners 

Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation, to 

serve the mobile satellite communications 

needs of Japanese businesses and government 

agencies. 

The new company intends to begin 

www.frequentis.com 

Frequentis is to supply a GMDSS (Global 

Maritime Distress Safety System) for the 

monitoring of the Spanish coastal waters, 

following the provision of a contract by 

the Spanish Ministry of Development. 

The contract will cover a period of 

4 years, with an option of another 4 

years, and comprises the service commission 

for monitoring of Spanish 

Paul Jolley and Roger Adamson have 

founded a new maritime business development 

agency, under the name Jolley 

Roger. Mr Jolley and Mr Adamson have 

a long background in maritime information 

technology communications companies 

such as Infonic, Rydex and 

Inmarsat, and hope to apply this experience 

for clients of the new venture. 

offering Inmarsat broadband mobile 

satellite services, including 

FleetBroadband, later this year. 

"The addition of Furuno and JRC as 

shareholders is further proof that JSAT 

MOBILE is dedicated to providing the 

Japanese market with the latest mobile 

satellite services and strong local support," 

said Stratos president and CEO Jim 

Parm. 

JSAT MOBILE president and CEO Kei 

Shibuya added: "Both Furuno and JRC are 

intimately familiar with the Japanese market. 

Their participation in JSAT MOBILE 

will help ensure an unwavering commitment 

to customer satisfaction." 

Frequentis to supply Spanish GMDSS 

coastal waters, based on GMDSS. 

Frequentis, in conjunction with prime 

contractor Abertis Telecom, will also provide 

the Office of the Merchant Navy with 

communication services on the VHF, MF, 

and HF wavebands for the different maritime 

navigation zones, and establish and 

maintain a network of coastal stations and 

radio-maritime communication centres. 

The system is scheduled to go live at 

the end of April 2009. 

Becker Marine Systems Communication to 

give maritime customers a vital competitive 

edge." 

Thomas Mueller, BMSC managing 

director, added: "SingTel, with its cuttingedge 

integrated solutions and superior 

satellite and terrestrial coverage in Asia, is 

an ideal partner to chart new oceans of 

opportunity." 

"We look forward to working together to 

develop flexible and cost effective managed 

communications services that will empower 

our customers to achieve their goals." DS 

On Waves GSM contract 

for Brittany Ferries 

www.on-waves.com 

On Waves has been awarded a fleetwide 

contract to provide mobile phone services 

to Brittany Ferries' passenger ships. 

The agreement covers 8 vessels and is 

expected to be extended to include additional 

vessels in the future as they are 

introduced. The On Waves services will 

include voice, SMS and data connectivity. 

Brittany Ferries operates vessels from 

nine ports, linking four countries: France, 

the UK, Ireland and Spain. Last year, the 

company carried 2.66 million passengers, 

773,000 cars and 235,000 freight vehicles. 

François Seminel, Brittany Ferries IT 

director, commented : "The reliability of On- 

Waves' maritime GSM services have 

already been proven successful, and we are 

willing to offer a consistent level of high 

standard customer service on all our vessels, 

to demonstrate our commitment to quality." 

"We are very proud to participate by 

offering our maritime GSM services to the 

passengers of Brittany Ferries," added 

Constantin Simeonidis, CEO of On Waves. 

"To have the trust of a well know company 

like (Brittany Ferries) which operates 

between UK, France, Ireland and Spain is a 

great endorsement of the reliability of our 

maritime GSM service and we are highly 

honoured to participate into Brittany 

Ferries commitment to bring the best of 

the mobile technology to their recurrent 

travellers." 

On-Waves has also recently agreed a 

deal with Windstar Cruises to provide 

mobile phone services aboard the vessels 

Wind Star and Wind Spirit, having previously 

installed the system on the Wind Surf. 

The service is to be available on the Wind 

Star from the end of November, for its 14day 

Panama Canal cruise from Barbados to 

Puerto Caldera, and will be installed on the 

Wind Spirit during an upcoming dry dock in 

preparation for a 7-day cruise from Lisbon to 

Barcelona in April 2009. 

The contract includes the installation of 

a roaming network which supports GSM 

and CDMA technology on the vessels, 

including SMS, GPRS and EDGE data 

functionalities. 

Charges will be determined by the user's 

own mobile phone service carrier and will 

appear on their regular monthly phone bill. 

"We are pleased to provide this service 

to our guests," said Diane Moore, president 

of Windstar Cruises. "It allows them 

the convenience of staying in touch with 

family, friends and business associates 

while enjoying their cruise."

www.globewireless.com 

www.intelsat.com 

Globe Wireless and Intelsat have jointly 

announced the launch of a new regional 

Ku-band VSAT service over a reducedsized 

antenna, to be called 

GlobeSwift Mini-Ku. 

The GlobeSwift Mini-Ku 

service utilises a 60cm Kuband 

antenna, and is intended 

to provide 'always on' internet 

service to yachts and commercial 

ships sailing in coastal US 

and Caribbean waters. 

The Mini-Ku service uses 

Intelsat satellites and earth 

stations, while Globe 

Wireless will be the main distribution 

partner. 

The service has recently 

completed beta testing aboard 

two Nekton dive charter vessels, 

the Nekton Rorqual and 

Nekton Pilot, which take up to 

30 passengers for dive vacations. 

Passengers during the 

trials had access to the internet, 

e-mail, and voice calling 

services. 

Globe Wireless says that 

the system will be aimed at 

commercial ships in coastal 

US trade, the oil and gas 

industry operating in the 

Gulf of Mexico, as well as the 

leisure market. 

Frank Coles, president and 

CEO of Globe Wireless, commented: 

"We can now offer 

customers a 2.4m C-Band, 1m 

Ku-band, and now a 60cm 

www.cobham.com/seatel 

Sea Tel has changed its name 

and branding, with the addition 

of parent company 

Cobham's name to its brand 

and new logo. 

Cobham, a global company 

engaged in the development, 

delivery and support 

of maritime, aerospace and 

defence systems, acquired 

Sea Tel for $26 million in 

September 2003. 

Existing Sea Tel products 

and services will remain the 

same, with the only difference 

being the display of the 

new logo on Sea Tel domes 

and wherever the Sea Tel 

name is displayed. 

Sea Tel's headquarters 

will continue in their present 

location, in Concord, 

California, and all contact 

information will remain the 

same, except that Sea Tel, 

Inc. will now be doing business 

as Cobham Satcom 

Marine Systems. 

Globe Wireless and Intelsat launch VSAT service 

Sea Tel name 

change 

Mini-Ku VSAT service. Combine this with 

the Globe i4, which uses traditional 

Inmarsat or Iridium as a backup for VSAT, 

and we now have the best and most complete 

maritime VSAT solution in the 

market today." 

NAVARINO heart29.7x21.ai 133.00 lpi 165.00° 45.00° 90.00° 105.00° 5/16/08 5/16/08 11:41:06 11:41:06 AM AM 

Process Cyan Process Magenta Process Yellow Process Black 


Intelsat and Globe Wireless say they 

have plans to expand the service into other 

areas of the world in the future, targeting 

the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia. 

"Our customers can look forward to 

expanded coverage for the GlobeSwift 

Digital Ship 

Mini-Ku service," said Mr Coles. 

"However, unlike our competitors, we 

prefer to make sure that the service is 

ready and available before making 

announcements and publishing misleading 

coverage maps."

SATCOMS NEWS 

Aug. Bolten goes for Telaurus after trials 

www.telaurus.com 

Aug. Bolten Wm. Miller's Nachfolger, 

Germany's second oldest shipping company, 

is to begin using the se@COMM system 

from Telaurus Communications, after 

six month trials on three vessels. 

The system will be used to manage shipshore 

communications for the vessels, such 

as the routing of e-mail, and cost control. 

"Maintaining communications on all 

levels is vital to our business," said 

Andreas Gober, ships' IT manager at 

Aug. Bolten. 

"Fast and reliable information flow is 

the key for our own success. Information 

when needed is important to all departments 

in our organisation, whether it is 

the technical, crewing, agency or chartering 

division." 

"The Telaurus se@COMM with its 

'BlackBerry' style automated delivery of 

www.ems-t.com 

EMS Technologies has announced that it 

has signed a definitive agreement to 

acquire Satamatics Global, a provider of 

Inmarsat IsatM2M (machine-to-machine) 

services headquartered in Tewkesbury, 

UK. 

The deal is intended to complement 

EMS' existing Iridium and Inmarsat-based 

tracking solutions, and EMS says it 

expects the acquisition to add EBITDA of 

$3 million to $5 million in the first year 

post-acquisition. 

Operating with Inmarsat's IsatM2M 

satellite service, Satamatics enables organisations 

to locate, track and communicate 

with mobile assets, to safeguard fleets, 

cargo and personnel. Founded in 2001, the 

company has had a consistent growth rate 

of 29 per cent since 2005. 

Dino Koutrouki, CEO of Satamatics, 

will continue to lead Satamatics postclosing. 

EMS also plans to retain 

Satamatics' staff and current operations 

in Tewkesbury. 

The parties anticipate the transaction to 

close in the first half of 2009, subject to customary 

closing conditions, including the 

receipt of necessary regulatory approval. 

e-mails is outstanding. It feels as if the vessel 

is always online and it has brought 

down the waiting time for answers for our 

staff on shore as well on the ship." 

The new system will also provide crew 

members with the ability to have private 

e-mail addresses which are not locked to a 

single vessel, and can be accessed from 

different locations. 

"Crew members now keep a life time 

private '@telaurus.net' e-mail address," 

said Mr Gober. 

"This also allows them to have e-mail 

delivered to their home address free of 

charge when not at sea. Via our network 

structure on board the vessels everyone 

can enjoy sending and receiving emails 

and SMS in a private environment from 

any PC in the network." 

Satellite airtime for the system will be 

provided via partner Land Earth Station 

Operator Otesat-Maritel. 

The new communications set-up will allow crews aboard 

Aug. Bolten vessels to have private e-mail 

EMS to acquire 

Satamatics 

Marlink takes on 

Wavecall brand 

from Sea Tel 

www.marlink.com 

Marlink has agreed to purchase the 

WaveCall brand from Sea Tel, and will now 

package its maritime VSAT solution with 

the Sea Tel 4006 Ku-band antenna system. 

The new WaveCall by Marlink product 

will be marketed as a cost-efficient VSAT 

solution providing e-mail, internet, voice 

and IP packages for the leisure yachting 

sector, with value-added services to 

include simultaneous voice and data, prepaid 

calling cards, and flexible billing. 

The new product launch also translates 

into increased satellite capacity for 

Marlink in current coverage areas, such as 

the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe. 

"Marlink and Sea Tel's long-standing 

relationship provides a strong foundation 

for this new agreement, which will maximise 

the potential of WaveCall as further 

strength to our VSAT portfolio," said Tore 

Morten Olsen, CEO of Marlink. 

"This next generation of WaveCall combines 

state-of-the-art equipment with fast 

and cost-efficient service and support 

based on customers' true needs." 

This product will be added to Marlink's 

portfolio of Inmarsat, Iridium, VSAT and 

Thuraya satellite communications systems. 


Seanet to purchase C2SAT VSAT antennas 

www.seanet.se 

www.c2sat.com 

C2SAT has signed a framework agreement 

with Seanet Maritime 

Communications AB for the delivery of 60 

stabilised VSAT antenna systems. Two initial 

antennas will be delivered to Seanet 

for immediate test installation on ships. 

Seanet says the company plans to focus 

on the provision of maritime GSM services, 

and that it has received several new orders 

for this product already this autumn. 

As a result the company has decided to 

cancel the C-Max antenna project it had 

previously been engaged in, leading to 

this new deal. The decommissioning of 

that project involves cost savings of 

around 300,000 SEK per month. 

In connection with the now signed 

framework agreement, C2SAT will take 

on some of the equipment from Seanet's 

discontinued project. 

"There are great synergies between our 

companies that address the same markets. 

The agreement provides us with the reliable 

antennas which significantly increase 

the level of service to our customers 

around our communications solutions to 

ships," said Klas Lundgren, CEO Seanet. 

"The agreement with Seanet gives us 

greater predictability in our antenna deliveries. 

Seanet's client portfolio is impres- 

sive, and with our reliable antennas, their 

revenue per vessel will increase. The 

agreement also allows us to act jointly in 

sales efforts towards ships with a strong 

proposal," added Fredrik Hånell, CEO 

C2SAT Group. 

To date, Seanet has a total of 23 contracts 

for communications solutions for 

ships, of which 12 are now deployed. 

C2SAT will deliver 60 antennas to Seanet

Globe Wireless releases new Rydex version 

www.globewireless.com 

Globe Wireless has launched a new version 

of its Rydex ship/shore satellite communications 

software, which is to be 

branded as GlobeRydex. 

The new software, the eighth version of 

Rydex, can be operated either through a 

Public Hub environment (a service where 

ships connect to a Globe Wireless shoreside 

hub) or a Private Hub configuration 

(where the shoreside server is kept and 

maintained at the user's premises). 

"In past years Rydex has seen only minimal 

software updates. It was in need of 

enhancements and maintenance," said 

Shane Rossbacher, vice president of product 

management with Globe Wireless. 

"Since Globe Wireless acquired SeaWave 

& Rydex, we have undertaken significant 

effort to improve the Rydex system." 

"The first phase of improvements 

addressed the Public Hub infrastructure. 

The hardware, network connections, internet 

gateway have all been upgraded, 

replaced, or improved to increase performance 

and stability. We have also implemented 

automated network monitoring through 

our 24x7 Network Operations department." 

The new version of Rydex includes a 

number of software fixes, as well as a 

range of new features such as improved 

compression using 7ZIP; extended support 

for Fleet, FleetBroadband, and Iridium 

OpenPort; message-level split billing for 

satellite airtime; interactive vector weather 

charts in 3, 5 and 10-day forecasts; shipboard 

virus protection; and forms support, 

including US Coast Guard eNOAD, Ballast 

Water and ISM templates. 

Frank J Coles, president and CEO of 

Globe Wireless, added: "Globe Wireless 

fully intends to support the Rydex product, 

continuing to improve and enhance it 

into the future." 

"This release is a culmination of a significant 

amount of research and development 

of the product from that which we inherited 

from SeaWave and Inmarsat. We are 

committed to servicing our loyal Rydex 

Public and Private Hub users, and we also 

plan to offer Rydex to new customers. 

Customers can look forward to future software 

releases with additional advanced 

enhancements." 

In other news, Globe Wireless says that 

it is currently in final testing with Iridium 

on the satellite company's OpenPort platform, 

in advance of making the product 

commercially available to customers. 

The testing programme includes all 

aspects of the service and associated hardware 

and software, with the hardware 

undergoing extensive field testing. The 


service and the various service speeds are 

being rated under load, using the Globe 

Wireless range of e-mail services and 

applications. 

"We are prepared for a large release of 

the OpenPort, but before we do so we 

want to make sure the product meets our 

satisfaction so that our customers are not 

disappointed," said Mr Coles. "With a 

large expectation it is important that the 

service is tested to the fullest." 

Preparations are also underway to 

ensure that the Iridium billing system is set 

up for the new pricing plans, and the systems 

can effectively bill the new service. 

Globe Wireless says it is "well 

advanced" in its preparations of a secure 

pipe for customers who want to be able to 

control the amount of traffic and browsing 

allowed over the connection. 

Dino Martins, vice president operations 

at Globe Wireless, added: "We are prepared 

for an extensive roll out of this new 

service. With over 300 ship visits a month 

with our own employees, we will want to 

www.iridium.com 

Iridium has introduced the new Iridium 

9555, its smallest and most powerful satellite 

phone, featuring a brighter screen, a 

speaker phone, improved Short Messaging 

Service (SMS) and e-mail capabilities, and 

an upgraded mini-USB data port. 

The 9555 design includes a menu-driven 

interface, and uses Soft keys to allow 

for flexible menu choices and ease of navigation, 

along with an illuminated, weather-resistant 

keypad. 

The handset is 27 per cent lighter than 

the 9505A handset, and has an internally 

retractable antenna. Menus are configurable 

in 21 different languages, and additional 

address book fields are available for 

more phone numbers, e-mail addresses 

and notes. 

The battery for the handset will keep it 

operational for standby time of up to 30 

hours and talk time of up to 4 hours. The 

9555 handset is now available from 

Iridium service partners. 


Cooperation for Sperry and Virtek 

www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com 

www.virtek.no 

Virtek Communication and Sperry Marine 

have signed a cooperative agreement to 

develop a range of new solutions for shipto-shore 

data transfer. 

Under the agreement, Sperry Marine 

will integrate Virtek's CommBox data 

communication technology into its nextgeneration 

ship telematic systems, connecting 

shipboard and shoreside networks 

by satellite link. 

Virtek's CommBox is used for the management 

of security, e-mail, automatic file 

transfers, compression, full IP routing and 

web acceleration. 

"We foresee an important transformation 

in the shipping industry as ship oper- 

'This release is a culmination of a 

significant amount of research and 

development of the product from that 

which we inherited from SeaWave and 

Inmarsat' - Frank Coles, Globe Wireless 

ensure we can deliver a rapid, high quality 

install of the new hardware." 

"Globe has a large back log of orders, 

and we will be ensuring the rapid deployment 

of the service to ensure no customer 

goes too long without their OpenPort." 

ators leverage the increased availability of 

economic higher-bandwidth satellite connectivity 

to integrate shipboard systems 

into their enterprise data networks 

ashore," said Michael Woodman, business 

planning manager for Sperry Marine. 

"We chose the CommBox from Virtek 

because it provides the most complete 

end-to-end system for secure and optimised 

ship-to-shore data communication." 

Roger Negård, key account manager 

of Virtek Communication, added: "We 

welcome the opportunity to work closely 

with Sperry Marine in this exciting programme. 

We are continuing to add new 

functions and features to our CommBox 

product to meet the emerging requirements 

for greater integration of ship and 

shore infrastructure." 

New satellite phone from Iridium 

The 9555 is Iridium's smallest satellite 

phone, 27 per cent lighter than the 

previous generation

SATCOMS NEWS 

Iridium-based tracking from Global Satellite 

www.globalsatellite.us 

Global Satellite USA has launched its new 

POLARIS system, a position-reporting 

device for monitoring and surveillance 

over the Iridium satellite network. 

The POLARIS device can be used for 

tracking moving assets, such as maritime vessels, 

through the transmission of GPS coordinates 

via satellite to a PC on a timed basis, 

from every 20 seconds to every 24 hours. 

The interval between transmissions can 

be changed remotely. Geo-fencing can also 

be enabled to raise an alert should the 

www.zynetix.com 

The management of maritime GSM technology 

provider Zynetix are in 'final detail 

negotiations' for a Management Buy-Out 

(MBO) of the entire Zynetix division from 

parent company, Sonus Networks. 

The deal will also include all necessary 

intellectual property and other rights, 

along with 100 per cent of the staff currently 

working for Zynetix or substantially 

engaged elsewhere in Sonus on Zynetix 

projects. 

Those involved say that 'significant' private 

backing has been secured to fully 

finance the newly-independent company, 

which will continue to trade as Zynetix Ltd. 

"Please be assured this should be seen 

as a very positive statement and heralds 

JRC plays an integral role in the lives of seafarers... 

Today, not only do thousands of vessels in the 

merchant, fishing and leisure sectors rely on our 

products for safe navigation, but also benefit 

from our advancements in technology 

visit www.jrceurope.com to find out more 

device leave a pre-defined region. 

The device works on battery power or 

external power, and is capable of sending 

approximately 4,000 position reports on 

one battery charge - the equivalent of 

every half-hour for 80 days at sea or 

almost 14 days at 5-minute intervals. 

Global Satellite CEO, Martin Fierstone, 

commented: "The low transmission cost, 

rapid deployment and economic price 

means that even for small equipment that 

wouldn't normally consider this high level 

type of tracking, POLARIS provides a 

very attractive solution." 

The POLARIS system sends GPS position data over the Iridium link to the shore office 

Zynetix MBO nears completion 

the beginning of another phase for 

Zynetix," explained Ian Taylor, managing 

director, Zynetix. 

"There will be no changes day to day, 

and everything continues as 'business as 

usual'. Improvements in terms of innovation, 

agility and focus should rapidly follow, 

building on the solid foundations of 

engineering and commercial quality 

processes introduced over the last 18 

months." 

Zynetix will continue to be led by the 

existing management team of Ian Taylor, 

Andy Odgers, Darryn Trowell, Martin 

Reason and Iain Ayres in their current 

roles, while Martin Wren-Hilton, lately 

head of mobile strategy at the UK's 

Carphone Warehouse, has agreed to 

become chairman and strategy director. 

FleetBroadband 

JUE-250 


DFDS and MCP extend GSM deal 

www.mcp.com 

DFDS, a European-based transport network 

operating over 60 ships, has 

renewed its contract with Maritime 

Communications Partner (MCP) for the 

provisioning of GSM services onboard 

five passenger vessels and five Ro-Ro 

ships. The new agreement lasts until 

December 2014. 

Gert Møller, IT director, DFDS, notes 

that the contract could be extended further 

as the company develops. 

"We want to expand the breadth of 

MCP services to all our passenger ships," 

he said. "We are developing the Ro/Pax 

segment, and expect to see an increase in 

this segment over the years to come." 

DFDS has seem GSM services form an 

important part of its passenger business 

since the technology was installed. 

"Connectivity is important to all our 

guests. Each year we cater to approximately 

115,000 conference participants 

www.inmarsat.com 

Users of Inmarsat satellite systems should 

take note that changes to the telephone 

dialling codes for the company's satellite 

services are set to come on line at the end 

of 2008, with all Inmarsat-based numbers 

to change to a +870 prefix. 

The move follows an agreement with 

the governing body of country codes, the 

International Telecommunications Union 

(ITU), that Inmarsat will hand back the 

four ocean region codes used for its services 

since operations began in 1982. 

These four codes (+871, +872, +873 and 

+874) should not be used after 31st 

December 2008, with users now able to 

use the +870 prefix no matter which ocean 

region the vessel is located in. 

The change affects all Inmarsat telephone 

services - including Inmarsat B, 

mini-M and Fleet - with the exception 

of new broadband services like 

FleetBroadband and its new satellite 

phone services, which already use the 

+870 code. 

"This change is at the request of the 

ITU, but we think it makes life easier for 

anyone wishing to contact an Inmarsat terminal," 

said Chris Wortham, who is man- 

VHF radiotelephone 

JHS-770S/JHS-780D 

Black box radar JMA-5300Mk2 series 

since 1915 

who expect reliable telephony and internet 

access to remain in touch with clients 

and loved ones," said Mr Møller. 

According to Mr Møller, most passengers 

don't really realise that they are connecting 

to a complex system that uses a 

satellite-link. 

"Younger people are constantly 

in touch via their mobiles, and would 

greatly resent being disconnected," 

he said. "We have been trying to keep 

prices at an acceptable level, but at 

the same time, prices must reflect the 

rather high costs involved in this complex 

setup." 

"MSN and similar services will continue 

to develop, resulting in a more realistic 

virtual presence, but require new solutions 

to make this work over the relatively 

limited bandwidth that is available over 

the satellite-link." 

DFDS has also confirmed the start of 

MCP HotSpot/WLAN trials on its ships 

sailing in Scandinavia. 

Inmarsat dialling codes to change from 2009 

aging the switchover project for Inmarsat. 

"If you call an Inmarsat terminal 

onboard a vessel, for instance, you no 

longer need to know in which ocean 

region it is sailing. Across all our services, 

870 will become the standard Inmarsat 

dialling code". 

Inmarsat has been working with LESOs 

(Land Earth Station Operators) and distribution 

partners to ensure a smooth transition, 

and the company notes that details of 

the change have been posted in IMSO 

briefings and ITU operational bulletins, as 

well as on Inmarsat's website, newsletters 

and magazine. 

"Some service providers have seen a 

significant increase in the use of the +870 

code," said Mr Wortham. "Anyone who 

makes calls to an Inmarsat terminal 

should ensure that they and their contacts 

use the +870 code from now on". 

Callers who experience problems 

using the +870 dialling code can contact 

Inmarsat's customer care helpline 

on +44 (0)20 7728 1030, or visit 

www.inmarsat.com/870. 

In other news, Inmarsat also recently 

released its Q3 2008 financial results, 

showing maritime sector revenue growth 

of 6.7 per cent across voice and data services 

compared with the same 

period last year, and an overall 

rise in profits of almost 60 

per cent. 

Profit after tax for the quarter 

rose from $23.7 million to 

$37.6 million, year on year, 

despite a global economic 

slowdown. 

Total active maritime 

terminals grew by 4.1 per 

cent, while Inmarsat noted 

that demand for its Fleet 

and FleetBroadband services 

remained strong with 35.9 

per cent growth in active 

terminals.

Welcome to our worldwide Partnership 

Network solutions 

Connectivity 

Going global with Eutelsat@sea 

For further information please contact us at: maritime@eutelsat.fr 

All you need is www.ezz-thetic.net

SATCOMS 

V 

FleetBroadband or VSAT 

- the high-speed choice 

LPG carrier Varun Shipping recently embarked on a project to implement a FleetBroadband system to replace an 

existing VSAT installation. Varun’s S A Amudan told Digital Ship about his experiences with the two technologies 

arun Shipping, India's largest 

LPG operator with a fleet of 20 

vessels, has been working with 

broadband communications on its ships 

for some time, having used high-speed 

regional Ku-band VSAT systems for some 

of its business communications. 

However, with the launch of Inmarsat's 

FleetBroadband at the end of 2007, the 

company was curious as to how the new 

technology would compare with its existing 

systems, and decided to install the 

FB500 aboard one of its vessels to find out. 

"Varun was looking for a solution that 

would provide a high speed internet connection 

on a vessel in high sea along with 

voice, fax, streaming, etc. in a single 

device," explains S A Amudan, senior general 

manager, systems, personnel and 

administration, Varun Shipping. 

"We were looking for a solution, but 

actually had already had experience with 

VSAT on one of the vessels before looking 

at FleetBroadband. However, we wanted 

an on demand system, instead of a high 

fixed monthly subscription as the vessel is 

on Spot business." 

Varun contacted Inmarsat distribution 

partner Stratos and progressed with the 

installation of the system, with high-speed 

connectivity of 432 kbps available via the 

50 cm antenna. 

"We needed a solution which could be 

controlled/managed from the office, and 

felt that FleetBroadband is the technology 

of the future, which was able to provide 

these features," said Mr Amudan. 

"It has been implemented onboard 

AHTS 'Suvarna' operating in the North 

Sea, and allowed us to remove the huge 

VSAT antenna and put in a smaller antenna 

instead." 

"Installation of FleetBroadband, changing 

it in for a Fleet 77, for us was done in a 

day. The antenna is smaller and hence 

easier to install." 


Varun has so far been using the system 

almost exclusively for business data transfers, 

and has been pleased to see that the 

technology is operating well and providing 

the high level of bandwidth advertised. 

"We have found that the bandwidth 

speeds we have experienced with the system 

have lived up to Inmarsat's specifications," 

said Mr Amudan. 

"The FleetBroadband is used for e-mail, 

chat, ftp, restricted internet surfing, and all 

of these things, but it also allows for the 

concurrent use of phone, fax, streaming, 

data. The vessel is now also using 

FleetBroadband for online chart corrections 

effectively." 

Varun has worked with Stratos to introduce 

new crew calling options, though the 

company has been careful to limit the 

crews' access to the system. 

"At Varun, we have provided the crew 

with chat cards from Stratos to be able to 

speak to their family whenever they wish 

to," said Mr Amudan. "The same cost is 

then recovered from their salary." 

Mr Amudan notes that the company has 

also looked at other communications options 

that might come online in the future. 

"Skype and web e-mail access for crews 

is not provided as of today, but we do 

believe that they will be a morale booster 

and a good HR initiative provided the 

costs are within acceptable limits." 

"However, since the cost of data transfer 

is very high, access to internet has not been 

provided right now. We are still looking 

for a cost-effective solution for (crew internet 

access)." 

Benefits and challenges 

Having installed the FleetBroadband system 

as a replacement for an existing VSAT 

installation, Mr Amudan has seen a number 

of benefits in employing the technology, but 

notes that there are also still a number of 

issues to deal with, as with any technology. 

"FleetBroadband is a very good tool 

provided additional hardware/software is 

also installed to monitor and control its 

usage," he told us. "However these additional 

tools are also very expensive and its 

difficult to arrange for technicians every 

time a problem is faced on board vessel." 

"FleetBroadband's ability to scale up 

when the business requires attracted us, for 

things like the PMS, remote IT, crew welfare, 

telemedicine, etc. We are very particular 

about the frequency of data transfers." 

"There are also no settings change 

required when changing operating region 

(as there were with the VSAT). Global coverage 

(from March 2009) will be an advantage, 

and that is one of the main reasons for 

going in for FleetBroadband." 

The 'downsides' that Mr Amudan has 

'FleetBroadband allowed us to remove 

the huge VSAT antenna and put 

in a smaller antenna instead' 

- S A Amudan, Varun Shipping 

experienced are mainly based around the 

'pay per usage' model that Inmarsat 

employs, as opposed to the fixed rate, 'all 

you can eat' available with VSAT 

"This is still a new technology, and 

though the cost on the voice calls is much 

lower than the Fleet 77, the costs on the 

data transfer are higher," he said. 

"Uncontrolled internet is not recommended 

as costs are prohibitive. The 

VSAT has the option of a fixed monthly 

cost for unlimited usage, and since this 

option is not available with the 

FleetBroadband you could run up huge 

bills if not controlled." 

"Restricting access to voice services like 

Skype is not possible, as the restriction is 

based on IP, so a Firewall or Proxy server 

is required on the vessel to control internet 

surfing." 

Despite having to deal with these 

issues, Mr Amudan is convinced that highspeed 

maritime connectivity is likely to 

become the industry standard. 

"Broadband communications is definitely 

the thing of the future, and will open 

the ships to a lot of facilities, information, 

services that can be achieved with access 

to the internet," he said. 

"Bringing vessels into the company network 

is something that is on our wish-list 

- but at the moment costs are prohibitive." 

Mr Amudan, like most in the shipping 

industry, is hopeful that cheaper megabytes 

will be the next great evolution in the maritime 

broadband story, strengthening the 

links between the ships and the shore. DS

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SATCOMS 

Mini-VSAT at Vadero Ship Management 

V 

Having examined a range of new options to upgrade its satellite communications, Vadero Ship Management 

has installed a mini-VSAT system from KVH onboard one of its tankers, with an antenna of less than 70cm. 

Eddie Kristensson of Vadero told Digital Ship about his experience with mini-VSAT 

adero Ship Management, based 

in Sweden, recently decided to 

upgrade its communications system 

through the installation of a new 

broadband connectivity service. 

The first step in this process involved 

an initial installation of a new satellite system 

onboard the M/T Primula, a Vadero 

17-tank vessel carrying a wide range of 

petroleum and chemical products. 

The Primula has a diverse communications 

suite onboard that includes Inmarsat 

C, mini-M, and GSM systems. However, 

Vadero was looking for a supplementary 

system that could be configured to provide 

telephone service in all areas of the 

ship while also capable of providing business 

communications between the ship 

and the office on shore. 

Following discussion with its existing 

satellite communications provider, 

Vadero chose to install the TracPhone V7 

with mini-VSAT broadband service from 

KVH to provide this connectivity. 

Based on its experiences so far with the 

technology the company says that it has 

been pleased with what broadband can 

offer, and is looking into the possibility of 

expanding this capability to further vessels 

in its fleet. 

"We had thought about VSAT for some 

time and received a mailing from (satcom 

provider) Cordland Marine AB on this 

product, performance, size, and so on," 

explains Eddie Kristensson, personnel/ 

purchase manager for Vadero. 

"After discussions, we knew that we 

could get delivery quickly and that the 

equipment would be running and clear at 

the time of delivery. The installation was 

so simple to carry out that we could do it 

ourselves in a normal port peak." 

The KVH TracPhone V7 mini-VSAT 

system features a reduced size antenna, 

measuring 69.5 cm in height and 66.5 cm 

in diameter, and weighing 27 kg, which 

was useful in reducing the amount of 

time required for installation of the 

communications. 

KVH notes that this makes the antenna 

85 per cent smaller by volume and 75 per 

cent lighter than most standard Ku-band 

VSAT antennas. 

The broadband service available with 

the system offers data rates up to 256 or 

512 kbps (dependent on location) for shipto-shore 

uploads and 2 Mbps for shore-toship 

downloads, on a regional basis. 

Vadero has been using the system for 

routes in and around Europe, while coverage 

is also available around North 

America, and in the North Atlantic and 

North Pacific. 

Set-up 

One of Vadero's criteria in choosing mini- 

VSAT was to have a system that could be 

installed and operational as quickly as 

possible, with minimal vessel downtime 

and disruption, so the 'mini' nature of the 

antenna appealed in this regard. 

"We chose the TracPhone V7 based on 

the size of the antenna, simplicity of 

installation, and competitive price for 

both equipment and airtime," said 

Mr Kristensson. 

"The installation was performed by the 

vessel's chief engineer and electrician. 

Since the antenna is so small, we were able 

to install and commission it during the 

vessel's normal operation. We had it delivered 

and activated onboard in less than 

48 hours." 

Working with its communications supplier, 

Vadero was then able to get the system 

running to an operational level almost 

immediately. 

"Cordland Marine was very quick in 

setting up and testing our equipment 

(and) KVH arranged a speedy activation," 

said Mr Kristensson. "Less than a week 

after the equipment was ordered, it was 

up and running onboard." 

"The phone and internet connections 

have been working to our satisfaction, 

(and) our regular supplier of computers, 

software, and so on, has reviewed our 

virus protection in connection with that." 

Vadero also worked with Cordland 

Marine to integrate the TracPhone V7 with 

the ship's other systems in a way that 

would satisfy the need for a telephone 

service that is available from any place on 

the Primula. 

"The IP phone is a DECT (Digital 

Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) 


with a slave sender in two positions in the 

vessel's staircase," Mr Kristensson 

explained. 

"This makes it possible for the Master to 

always stay in contact, even if walking 

around in the superstructure. It does not 

matter if he is on the bridge, in the mess 

room, or even in the engine control room." 

The company has used this system to 

move away from its reliance on GSM 

roaming when within reach of shore-based 

mobile phone networks, which were not 

always reliable when called upon. 

"Earlier, we had only GSM and it never 

works, for example in the control room. 

With a standard cordless phone, we can 

now telephone via the VSAT facility 

regardless of where we are on board," said 

Mr Kristensson. 

"This gives us a very flexible system 

that can also be used by the chief engineer 

to obtain technical assistance via telephone 

from the control room, where no GSM 

phone will ever work." 

As well as the IP telephone set-up, all 

business e-mail and data communications 

are carried over the new link, and may in 

the future also be incorporated into a crew 

calling service. 

"We use it to (transmit) the VPN traffic 

and (for all of the needs) we have today," 

said Mr Kristensson. 

"We are also looking into installing a 

card phone system, so that the crew can 

call home at all times, knowing that they 

are charged correctly, and they can easily 

follow their own costs." 

Costs 

The KVH mini-VSAT system is available 

with a number of different airtime packages, 

with varying costs based on bandwidth 

speeds and voice and data usage. 

The most basic fixed rate package 

features 128 kbps, for both upload and 

download, for $1,270 per month, where 

the user can have unlimited data usage 

and 2 VoIP lines. These packages increase 

in cost as speeds increase, up to $5,270 for 

512 kbps ship-to-shore and 2,048 kbps 

shore-to-ship. 

'Pay per usage' plans are available for 

$4.99 per megabyte, for 512 kbps upload 

The mini-VSAT has only limited coverage at present (left), though KVH intends to expand this over the next 18 months (right) 

The antenna is 69.5 cm in height, 66.5 

cm in diameter, and weighs 27 kg 

and 1,024 kbps download speeds, or for 

$1,495 for a 500 MB package and $2.99 per 

MB after that. A 12-month contract is 

required in all cases. 

The hardware cost is probably the most 

financially prohibitive aspect of installing 

the system, coming in at between $30,000 

and $40,000 for the antenna, modem and 

all associated equipment, so a company 

would certainly need to do a thorough 

calculation of its own communications 

spending before deciding if this was a cost 

effective system for its needs. 

In Vadero's case, it is currently using a 

fixed rate package with speeds up to 128 

kbps, but notes that this may be increased 

in the future if the system is to support both 

official use and crew communications. 

The company says that it has managed 

to decrease its monthly communications 

costs by implementing the system. With 

this in mind, Vadero is currently looking 

into the possibility of extending the service 

to further vessels. 

"We have already made our second 

installation on one of our other ships, 

Vadero Linnea, and everything has worked 

in the same simple way," Mr Kristensson 

told us. 

"The single biggest advantage was that 

we could easily install in a normal port 

and not have to do it at a shipyard. It came 

completely plug and play, with cables, 

and then the antenna is so small and light, 

it was easy to do." 

"We have our new vessels being built, 

with expected delivery dates in late 2008 

or 2009, and we are also considering 

equipping each of them with mini-VSAT 

broadband." 

DS

MINIMUM COST, MAXIMUM 

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not currently online 

• Conference / chatroom facilities 

• Full conversation history and archive 

• File and document transfer facility 

• Interface with shore based PDA / Blackberry devices 

FAX 

• Sends and receives faxes as e.mail 

• Each vessel is allocated a unique fax number allowing 

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• Simple to use interface 

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• SMS Delivery notification - be alerted when a message 

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• User profiled secure internet access 

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• Web based access 

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Web links 

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• Input information directly to shore side servers 

Improves operation efficiency 

No costly daily update files 

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• Automatic creation of back up onboard vessel for future 

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• Easy to update – information can be added or removed 

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BILLING & REPORTING 

• Up to the minute access to current vessel costs 

• Per-user billing of service use; splits your terminal bill 

into usage by user account 

• Pre-paid and post paid billing 

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• Drag and drop two way file transfer 

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BACK OFFICE 

• Service access is controlled by shore-side managers, via 

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• Detailed service usage billing reports available online 

• Enterprise class fully hosted email servers 

• Email Spam and virus filtering 

• Sophisticated email filter rules with whitelist / blacklist 

and size constraints 

• Web filter with virus, spy-ware and mal-ware protection 

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• Enterprise class private hosted Instant Messenger server 

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only pay for airtime incurred 

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NEW RAPIDOMAIL 5.0 

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• Instant automated retrieval of mail received into ships 

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• Antivirus – with automatic updates, average size 20kb 

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Other Features 

• Automated set up procedure, all settings can be 

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• Advanced data compression – compresses data by 90% 

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• Connection history – access to Inbox and Outbox 

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info@and-group.net 

Tanners Bank • North Shields • Tyne & Wear • NE30 1JH 

Tel: +44 (0) 870 444 9679 Sales: +44 (0) 870 444 9681 

www.and-group.net 

73 Grammou St & 123 Kifissias Ave 

Maroussi • GR-15124 • Greece 

Tel : +30 2108066975 

info@and-hellas.gr www.and-hellas.gr

SATCOMS 

A 

s part of the final push to bring full 

global coverage for its high-speed 

FleetBroadband service, Inmarsat 

has planned a repositioning schedule for its 

constellation of Inmarsat-4 (I-4) satellites 

that aims to close the current hole over the 

Pacific Ocean and optimise the network 

going forward over the next decade. 

The repositioning programme will also 

necessitate service outages for users of 

FleetBroadband in certain regions of the 

world for up to 25 days, as coverage disappears 

while the spacecraft travel to their 

new homes. 

While this may be inconvenient for 

some broadband users, Inmarsat says 

that the measure is a necessary result of 

the evolution of the broadband family of 

products (including land mobile BGAN 

and SwiftBroadband aeronautical services), 

and is designed to improve performance 

for all users once complete. 

"The whole I-4 portfolio business case 

has changed dramatically from the time we 

decided to build the satellites," explains 

Richard Denny, Inmarsat's vice president, 

satellite and network operations. "It's a situation 

that's been evolving for eight years 

now. We signed the contract to build the 

satellites in 2000 and at that time 

FleetBroadband wasn't even intended." 

"BGAN was originally designed to be a 

land product, and we built three satellites 

in case one didn't make it up there, as you 

can cover 86 per cent of the world’s land 

mass and 98 per cent of the population 

with two satellites in their current location. 

But once the programme got underway 

we saw that there were all sorts of 

opportunities to develop these capabilities 

in the maritime and aeronautical sectors, 

which weren't in the original plan." 

Inmarsat satellite repositioning 

In preparation for global coverage of FleetBroadband in 2009, Inmarsat is about to embark on a satellite 

repositioning programme that will involve service outages in different regions during January and February. 

Digital Ship spoke to Richard Denny and Piers Cunningham, Inmarsat, to find out more 

"To do that, firstly we'd need three 

satellites, so we needed two successful 

launches for the first two. After that happened 

it meant a whole new way of thinking, 

developing the FleetBroadband and 

SwiftBroadband services, and optimising 

the network on a global basis for these 

products. The repositioning is one of the 

elements that came out of the whole 

review of these capabilities." 

With the three-satellite fully-global network 

a possibility following the successful 

launch of the third satellite in August of 

this year, Inmarsat then began to look at 

how to organise the new constellation to 

achieve maximum performance for all 

users, on land and at sea. 

"(Repositioning) gives us benefits on 

the whole portfolio of the I-4 satellites," 

explained Mr Denny. "Land is at the heart 

of it, but there are benefits for the other 

services, like FleetBroadband." 

"We can achieve a better global optimisation 

of all of our satellites because of the 

way that the spectrum gets utilised 

around the world, so we can actually have 

increasing capacity as a result of this. That 

will benefit the maritime sector, they will 

have more capacity in the future." 

"One of the problems we have for land at 

the moment is that mountain ranges and so 

on can get in the way, as people at the edge 

of coverage tend to be at a lower elevation. 

FleetBroadband already has the advantage 

that ships on the oceans don't have anything 

in the way in terms of visibility to the satellite, 

so that doesn't really affect maritime, 

but this will also allow us to optimise the 

total broadband portfolio for the end users." 

Mr Denny is keen to point out that the 

company has not taken the decision to 

move these satellites, and the subsequent 


service outages, lightly, and is convinced 

that the benefits will be worth the effort. 

"When we first mooted the idea of 

repositioning the I-4s the automatic 

response was 'why do you want to do 

that?', but there were historical reasons for 

positioning the satellites where they were 

in 2005, and in 2008 we have a whole different 

way of looking at the global delivery 

of broadband services. It's been very 

much an evolutionary process," he said. 

Piers Cunningham, head of maritime at 

Inmarsat, notes that the evolving nature of 

the industry over the past few years has 

necessitated this acceleration in plans for a 

maritime broadband service, which were 

barely conceived when the development 

of these I-4 satellites first began. 

"At that point we hadn't even launched 

Fleet into the market, so it shows what 

kind of crystal ball you need, in the market," 

he told us. 

"The maritime terminals are unaffected 

by the relocation of the satellites, they're 

type approved down to the edge of coverage 

so whether the satellite is over land or 

the oceanic areas, to a maritime terminal it 

makes no difference at all. But optimising 

the overall architecture is important, the 

whole idea is that it will benefit everyone." 

Schedule 

Getting to grips with the Inmarsat schedule 

for the repositioning takes a little patience, 

and a good memory for codes and acronyms. 

The key elements are the I-4, or 

Inmarsat-4, satellites. The I-4s are Inmarsat's 

latest generation of technology, and have 

joined the Inmarsat-3 (I-3) and Inmarsat 2 (I- 

2) generations in orbit above the Earth. The 

I-4s are the satellites that are required to 

operate the FleetBroadband network. 

A FleetBroadband service outage will occur in the red shaded area from January 7 2009, for 25 days 

Three I-4 satellites are now circling the 

planet, with Flight 1 (F1) launched in 

March 2005, Flight 2 (F2) launched in 

November 2005, and Flight 3 (F3) entering 

orbit in August of 2008. 

The I-4 F1 and the I-4 F2 have been carrying 

FleetBroadband traffic within their 

own footprints since the service was 

launched in November 2007, and will, 

after repositioning, be joined by the I-4 F3 

to offer global coverage for the first time. 

These satellites have also been utilised, to 

a small extent, by existing legacy services, 

such as Fleet and mini-M. 

The planned repositioning will also mean 

a re-definition of the traditional Inmarsat 

ocean regions covered by the three satellites. 

Currently, the two active I-4 satellites 

are the I-4 F1 in the Indian Ocean Region 

(IOR) and the I-4 F2 in the Atlantic Ocean 

Region West (AOR-W), with I-4 F3 having 

recently been launched and completed 

testing before being situated above the 

Americas at 98°W. 

Following repositioning, I-4 F1 will 

henceforth offer coverage over the Asia- 

Pacific region (ASIA-PAC), I-4 F2 will cover 

Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 

and the I-4 F3 will remain positioned over 

North and South America, covering their 

surrounding oceans (AMERICAS). 

It is in this shift in regions that service 

gaps will appear, starting in January 2009, 

Mr Denny explains. 

"On the seventh of January we'll be 

transferring all of the E&E (existing and 

evolved) services, things like Fleet 77, 55 

and 33, mini-M, these types of services. 

They'll all be coming off the I-4 (F2) and 

going onto I-3 F4 (one of Inmarsat's previous-generation 

satellites)," he told us. 

"Once we've got all of the traffic off the 

satellite we start it on its way, and this is 

when we'll have the first service outage, to 

take it (I-4 F2) to its new home over EMEA." 

All FleetBroadband traffic, which cannot 

be carried by the I-3 generation of satellites, 

will be moved onto I-4 F3 (AMERICAS) - 

which is situated to the west of I-4 F2, thus 

leaving a coverage gap over the westernmost 

part of Africa, and areas of the 

Atlantic from north to south including 

Ireland, Iceland and north-western UK (see 

red shaded area in diagram, left). 

"At that point of time the I-4 F3 satellite 

will be providing BGAN and 

FleetBroadband services, and the IOR (I-4 

F1) will be running as it is at the moment," 

said Mr Denny. 

"From the current coverage provided by 

the AOR-West satellite, the only area that will 

lose coverage is the red shaded area (previous 

page), while we're moving the satellite to 

its new home. That area will go without 

FleetBroadband coverage for about 25 days, 

starting from the seventh of January." 

As soon as the first satellite has been successfully 

repositioned Inmarsat will then 

begin its second scheduled relocation, and 

the final part in the network jigsaw. 

"The next outage occurs from the sixth

SATCOMS 

of February, as we transfer traffic off I-4 

F1, and this gets to its final location just 

before the 24th of February," said Mr 

Denny. "So by the last week of February 

it's all going to be in place." 

"The EMEA satellite (I-4 F2) will arrive 

at its new location on about the second of 

February. On the sixth of February we're 

going to transfer all of the traffic off the 

IOR (I-4 F1) satellite onto the EMEA satellite, 

and move the IOR." 

"As a result of that, the second red 

shaded area will lose coverage for 

FleetBroadband (see diagram, right). It is 

a large geographical area, with a concentration 

of FleetBroaband users, and it's an area 

where we'll be working very hard to minimise 

the outage." 

The scheduled outage for this Asian 

coverage area is 19 days, 6 days less than 

will be experienced in the Atlantic, as 

Inmarsat will be trying to keep the downtime 

to a minimum by moving the spacecraft 

as fast as possible. 

"Though the ASIA-PAC satellite is 

moving physically the same distance as 

the other one, because of the concerns of 

trying to restore services as quickly as possible 

we're actually burning more fuel to 

do it more quickly, as we have a lot of fuel 

on the vehicle," said Mr Denny. 

"We'll switch the final satellite on about 

a day before it reaches its final position, to 

get everything up and running, and then 

when it reaches its location there'll be 

some fine tuning. But the object of the 

exercise is to minimise the outage, and we 

have a high degree of confidence that all 

that will be required at that stage is minimal 

fine tuning." 

If all of that seems a little complicated, 

the summarised version is that the current 

I-4 satellites at AOR-W and IOR are to be 

repositioned and joined by a third I-4, creating 

the new regions AMERICAS, EMEA 

and ASIA-PAC. This will cause a 25 day 

FleetBroadband service outage from 

January 7, and a 19 day outage from 

February 6. 

Vessel effects 

It is important to note that the outages 

described during the satellite repositioning 

apply to FleetBroadband only - all other 

existing Inmarsat services, be they Fleet, 

Inmarsat-C, mini-M or anything else, will 

not lose coverage in the above mentioned 

areas and will continue as normal. 

"There has been some confusion as to 

The FleetBroadband service outage in the red shaded area will occur for 19 days, from February 6 2009 

'what does this really mean for the traditional 

terminals, the Fleet family and 

everything else out there?'," said Mr 

Denny. "Really, it means nothing." 

"Having the number of satellites we 

have in place has afforded us the flexibility 

to do this without impacting on the 

other services. For our E&E services this 

will have almost zero impact, and to do all 

this and keep to a small impact on services, 

while creating a significant enhancement 

of the user experience going forward, 

is great." 

One minor change that will occur for 

existing services will be a loss of some 

extra spot beam capability in the south of 

the Atlantic Ocean that had been temporarily 

available to older Inmarsat antenna 

systems when the services were transitioned 

to the I-4. 

"When we go from the I-4 back to (the previous 

generation satellite) the I-3, we will lose 

some of the spot beam coverage that those 

services had gained," said Mr Denny. 

"However, to compensate, we're going 

to illuminate some additional beams on 

the I-3 that we previously didn't have on, 

and that will significantly minimize the 

loss of coverage." 

Mr Cunningham is keen to point out 

that Inmarsat's backbone emergency and 


distress communications will not suffer 

any detrimental effects during the repositioning 

schedule. 

"Core elements, like safety services provision, 

are gold plated and completely 

unaffected, things like Inmarsat-B, Fleet 33, 

55 and 77, mini-M, Inmarsat-C," he said. 

"All of those services are unaffected. We 

have advised users that do have 

FleetBroadband that this would occur, so if 

you do have vessels trading in those areas 

be sure that you have a redundant communications 

fit to see you through that period." 

"It's never good to assume, but particularly 

as safety services like Inmarsat-C are 

mandatory, it's highly likely that trading 

vessels will have another form of Inmarsat 

communications onboard." 

Inmarsat also stresses that news of this 

move is not a surprise being unveiled to 

FleetBroadband users as the programme 

draws near. 

"We've been completely transparent 

since the beginning that this would occur 

and what the effects would be," said Mr 

Cunningham. 

"We have been talking to the users that 

have adopted FleetBroadband about this 

since just after the launch of the service to 

make people fully aware that if this is their 

sole communications device then they will 

need to have an alternative if they are sail- 

ing in the affected areas during the outage 

period." 

"But once this is done, a 19 to 25 day 

period out of the next 20 years, it's inconvenient 

but a small price to pay for the 

benefits that it will bring long-term to 

those users. The 2020 lifespan is still intact, 

we have the technical expertise and fuel 

aboard the spacecraft to have an unaffected 

lifespan of the satellites." 

As Mr Denny points out, this move 

merely represents a sign of the times in the 

changing market for satellite communications, 

and an attempt to evolve to meet 

those needs. 

"We had a previous configuration that 

met the business needs and technology as 

it existed at the time," he said. "This is really 

setting us up now for the future." 

"The world has moved on, and we're 

positioning ourselves to move with it and 

be there for the future with the latest and 

greatest technology in the right locations. 

There's a bit of work to do, but it's going 

well and we're on schedule." 

DS 

Inmarsat users wishing to learn more 

about the effect of the satellite repositioning 

and service outages should contact 

their Inmarsat distribution partner, or 

visit the Inmarsat web site at 

www.inmarsat.com/coverage.

SOFTWARE NEWS Digital Ship 

CORENA and SpecTec in Shipdex development deal 

www.shipdex.com 

Software development company CORE- 

NA has signed a strategic partnership 

agreement with SpecTec to jointly provide 

solutions supporting the Shipdex 

exchange protocol. 

SpecTec is one of the founding members 

of Shipdex, an exchange protocol for 

digital documentation that is based on the 

S1000D standard used by the airline 

industry. 

In addition to making its core product, 

Life*S1000D, Shipdex compliant, CORE- 

NA will develop additional Shipdex modules 

for manufacturers, ship owners and 

ship operators. The Shipdex modules will 

be marketed by SpecTec as part of the 

AMOS Business Suite for the shipping 

industry. 

"It is a pleasure to observe that the 

S1000D standard, which Shipdex is built 

upon, is being adopted in more and more 

industries," says Toralf Johannessen, CEO 

and president of CORENA. 

Giampiero Soncini, CEO of SpecTec, 

added: "Our joint Shipdex solutions will 

complement SpecTec's AMOS Solution 

Suite and will significantly contribute to 

reduced costs, increased quality and making 

accurate technical data available on 

board the ships." 

FuelTrax type 

approval from ABS 

www.fueltrax.com 

The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) 

has awarded a type approval certificate 

to Nautical Control Solutions, for its 

FuelTrax Marine Fuel Management 

system. 

Introduced in 2006, the FuelTrax system 

connects to various flow meters, sensors, 

and operating devices to capture fuel 

transfers, report tank levels, monitor consumption, 

track engine condition, and 

show vessel location so fleet owners can 

optimise performance. 

Crews can use the data to check throttle 

settings for more economical operation 

based on current conditions, using actual 

engine run times or fuel usage to plan 

maintenance schedules, with the aim of 

decreasing costs and increasing vessel 

availability. 

Operations can examine fuel trends to 

compare routes, crews, and technologies, 

and ultimately connect fuel consumption 

to the actual work performed by a vessel. 

"This type approval is recognition that 

we are capable of consistently producing a 

product in compliance with applicable 

marine specifications," said Anthony 

George, CEO of Nautical Control 

Solutions. "Each product is extensively 

tested to verify that it will perform reliably 

in the marine and offshore environment." 

"This is a rigorous process and one that 

we enthusiastically completed. It shows 

our commitment to this industry and to 

our customers' success." 

In other news, SpecTec has signed an 

agreement to supply software systems to 

Brodospas and Viking Line. 

The first contract includes the supply of 

AMOS Business Suite to Brodospas, a 

shipping company based in Split, Croatia. 

The software licence includes the 

Maintenance and Purchase (M&P) and 

Quality and Safety (Q&S) modules. 

Initially AMOS will be installed at the 


Brodospas Head Office in Split and 

onboard the Brodospas Alfa and Brodospas 

Beta, two AHTS 6615 vessels on order at 

the Damen Shipyard. 

Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessel 

AHTS 6615 is one of the latest designs 

from the Damen offshore series, which 

will be in service around the middle of 

next year. Before the delivery, SpecTec 

will develop a Maintenance and Purchase 

database for these two vessels and help 

Brodospas to integrate its Quality and 

Safety manuals into AMOS. 

SpecTec's order from Viking Line is to 

install its latest newbuild, the Viking 

ADCC, with AMOS M&P and AMOS 

Q&S. The vessel, a fast ferry currently 

being built at Astilleros de Seville in Spain, 

is planned to be in operation during the 

autumn of 2009.

SOFTWARE NEWS 

Q88 updated by Intertanko for 20th birthday 

www.q88.com 

Intertanko has revised its industry standard 

Questionnaire 88 (Q88), to mark the 

20th anniversary of its publication. 

In February of this year, Intertanko's 

vetting committee revived the 

'Questionnaire 88 Working Group' under 

the chairmanship of Captain Ashley 

Cooper, to review the Q88. 

Captain Cooper, marine manager at 

Scorpio Ship Management, notes that: 

"The revised Q88, with incorporation of 

further and up to date information 

required for the ship assessment decision, 

will prove more user friendly and should 

find greater appeal within the industry." 

The Q88 was last revised in 2004, and 

the new version takes into account new 

questions and changes to the document's 

format which makes it much easier to 

view. 

The working group also tried to make 

the Q88 easier to transfer between various 

www.veson.com 

Fednav Limited of Canada is to implement 

the full complement of Veson 

parties' internal systems by publishing an 

XML version of the questionnaire. 

Intertanko marine director, Capt 

Howard Snaith, said: "Keeping 

Questionnaire 88 up to date and relevant 

to today's industry's needs is all part of the 

continuous improvement approach 

The Q88 website has been updated to keep up with recent developments, and also includes an XML version of the questionnaire 

FedNav to implement IMOS software 

Nautical's Integrated Maritime Operations 

System (IMOS), to manage its chartering 

and operations departments worldwide as 

well as link to its present accounting sys- 


undertaken by our members." 

This work has been carried out with the 

assistance of Heidenreich Innovations, 

which operates the web site, 

www.Q88.com. 

Fritz Heidenreich, president of 

Heidenreich Innovations, commented: 

tem, Oracle Financials. 

IMOS will handle all voyage operations 

for Fednav, Canada's largest dry-bulk ship 

owning, operating and chartering group, 

concentrating on the transportation of 

bulk and breakbulk cargoes. 

Fednav had previously used separate 

systems to run its front and back offices, 

with minimal communication between 

them. From there the company did move 

on to a full scale Oracle Financials implementation, 

though it initially continued 

with the existing legacy system for chartering 

and operations before moving 

to IMOS. 

"Our management team chose Veson 

because IMOS will help us make better 

"We e-mailed our subscribers to find out 

what additional information would be the 

most beneficial to include in the new version. 

We received an overwhelming 

response and this helped us enhance 

the information which is contained in 

the Q88." 

business decisions; but also because Veson 

was a great fit with Fednav's culture and 

approach," said Valerie Cordemans, project 

manager for Fednav Group Limited. 

"Veson's long term commitment and 

management 'hands on' methodology was 

very important and similar to our own." 

John Veson, president of Veson 

Nautical, added: "Teaming with Fednav 

Limited to understand and meet their 

operational requirements has been a 

rewarding experience for us. Fednav is 

one of the most highly regarded, established 

organisations in the worldwide 

shipping market, and has invaluable 

input that we are incorporating into 

the product." 

The IMOS system is integrated with Fednav's Oracle Financials package

AVEVA has announced that it has 

agreed four major contracts for AVEVA 

solutions, valued at over $3 million, with 

Malaysia Marine and Heavy 

Engineering (MMHE), Sime 

Darby Engineering, MTBE 

Malaysia and PACC Ship Design. 

Veson Nautical has announced the 

addition of four new employees to the 

company's Boston headquarters 

office, with Haorong Li 

to become director of professional 

services; Mikhail Elkin 

joining as a software engineer; 

Suchit Patel as a QA 

engineer; and Brenna 

Venkatesh as marketing and 

events associate. 

Sergey Komarchev of 

Bernhard Schulte 

Shipmanagement, 

Germany, has received the 

20,000th certificate of competence 

issued for 

Seagull’s onboard ECDIS 

www.aveva.com 

www.veson.com 

www.seagull.no 

www.spectec.net 

www.videotel.co.uk 

ONMA to 

run AMOS 

competition 

www.spectec.net 

Odessa National Maritime 

Academy (ONMA) has 

signed a contract with 

SpecTec to conduct an annual 

'AMOS Competition', that 

will include awards for 

cadets showing a high level 

of skill in the use of the maritime 

software. 

The award ceremony for 

this year's competition took 

place at the Central 

Academy hall, with first 

place going to cadet Hara 

Vladislav. 

The ONMA management 

noted that it believed "the 

AMOS system is a vital tool 

for any shipping company, 

and ONMA cadets have 

developed the knowledge 

and skills as a result of working 

with AMOS Business 

Suite, necessary for work on 

board with AMOS." 

SpecTec has already in the 

past sponsored licences of 

AMOS Business Suite software 

modules for ONMA, 

the largest maritime academy 

in the Ukraine, but will now 

add to the existing educational 

programme by including 

an additional course on the 

newly released AMOS2 

Enterprise Management software 

system. 

09_KE_miniVSATad_DigitalShip 

Computer-Based Training (CBT) course. 

The University of the State of 

California, Long Beach (CSULB) 

has reached an agreement with SpecTec 

whereby Contship La Spezia and 

technology company Sitep will host, 

every year, students from the University 

on a 5 to 6 month long internship. The students 

will receive formal training in mar- 


keting and operations in shipping and 

port infrastructure. 

Following on from a previous agreement 

for the installation of AMOS 

Maintenance & Purchasing on 11 new 

buildings, COSCO Dalian has contracted 

with SpecTec to install AMOS 

on 8 additional new building tankers in 

2009 and 2010. 

KVH Europe A/S • Kokkedal Industripark 2B • 2980 Kokkedal • Denmark 

Tel: +45 45 160 180 • Fax: +45 45 160 181 • E-mail: info@kvh.dk 

© 2008, KVH Industries, Inc. • KVH, TracPhone, and TracVision are registered trademarks of KVH Industries, Inc. • Specifications subject to change without notice 

The unique light-colored dome with dark contrasting baseplate is a registered trademark of KVH Industries, Inc. 


Training technology company 

Videotel reports that it has updated its 

'Over and Under Pressurisation of Tanks' 

title with new graphic animation 

sequences to illustrate the complexities of 

tank pressure management. The company 

has been updating and expanding its 

range of programs since the introduction 

of TMSA2 in July of this year. 

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SOFTWARE 

S 

Shipdex - predicting the costs 

of electronic documentation 

Digital Ship’s second Shipdex conference in Oslo included detailed discussion about the adoption costs of 

electronic documentation for ships, replacing the paper manuals and drawings carried onboard. The medium term 

benefits of the system seem clear - but what costs and potential hurdles need to be overcome in the short term? 

hipdex is a standard protocol for 

electronic documentation for ships, 

launched in February 2008, which 

aims to improve the data available to shipping 

companies in their maintenance and 

purchasing systems. 

Better data has the potential to lead to 

better maintenance, more accurate purchasing 

and better communications with 

suppliers, leading to happier seafarers, 

better ship maintenance, lower costs, a 

potential longer lifetime of the ship and 

improved safety. 

Nobody questions the potential long 

term benefits of Shipdex, but over the 

immediate and shorter term, the path is 

less clear. 

Suppliers ask: How many shipping 

companies want this? How much will it 

cost? Will there be another standard 

along in a few months time, and how 

should we pick which one to back? Will it 

make it easier for my competitors to get 

their hands on our data? Can we just stay 

as we are? 

Shipowners ask: Should I invest in systems 

which can use electronic documentation? 

Will suppliers ever provide it? 

Should I try to push suppliers to provide 

it? Are the savings worth the effort? 

All of these questions were discussed at 

Digital Ship's second Shipdex forum, held 

recently in Oslo, Norway. The answers are 

not all entirely clear yet, but the discussion, 

reported below, may help you to 

build your own opinion about whether or 

not Shipdex is right for your company, 

and the maritime industry. 

The shipowners’ view 

After listening to the morning's proceedings, 

Christer Bruzelius, senior vice president 

of ship management with 

Finnlines, an operator of 36 ro-ro vessels, 

declared that he was "very impressed." 

"I see some clear benefits by standardising 

this," he said. "There is a clear long 

term benefit." 

"In the long run, this will lift our 

maintenance. We will maintain our ships 

better, we will get better information to 

the crew." 

"But it will be a struggle," he warned. 

"We have to invest a lot as shipowners to 

be able to take this. We have [lots of different] 

systems for document management. 

But we do need standardisation." 

Mr Bruzelius noted that shipping companies 

will have to be ready to demand 

Shipdex documentation from their suppliers 

if they want to have it. 

"It comes down, in the end, to the customers," 

he said. "If they say it has to be 

Shipdex, suppliers have to supply it. I 

think shipowners can play a big role in 

this by pushing this, definitely." 

Shipowners have not had much leverage 

over their suppliers for the past few 

years, but things are changing, Mr 

Bruzelius emphasised. 

"In the last few years - we've been 

almost begging to engine manufacturers, 

please give us an engine before 2011. But 

we've come to another time now." 

Kari-Anne Larmerud, IT business analyst 

with Høegh Autoliners, pointed out 

that although the mid term benefits are 


fairly clear, in the short term considerable 

effort is needed. "I think companies are a 

bit scared about starting this process," 

she said. 

Shipdex was initiated by shipping companies 

Grimaldi Naples, a company which 

operates 95 ro-ro, multipurpose and car 

carrier vessels, and Intership Navigation, 

a company which owns and manages 50 

bulk carriers, tweendeckers and lakers, 

and provides crew management services 

to a further 70 vessels. 

Grimaldi's purchasing director 

Giancarlo Coletta estimates that the 

immediate savings to shipping companies 

Delegates at the Shipdex conference had a lot to think about - we can all see the medium and long term benefits, but how do we 

persuade our colleagues and partner companies to adopt this in the short term? 

Leading the maritime industry towards electronic documentation: 

Giancarlo Coletta, purchasing director, Grimaldi Naples (left) and 

Pawel Bury, IT manager, Intership navigation (right). 

of using Shipdex are Euro 27,000 a year no 

matter how many ships they have, saving 

around Euro 15,000 a year by not having 

to employ someone full time to manage 

paper documents, and saving Euro 12,000 

from not needing a physical library to 

store them. There is also an immediate 

saving of the Euro 15,000 per vessel 

Grimaldi currently spends to create its 

planned maintenance database from 

paper documents. 

Less quantifiable, but potentially bigger 

benefits, are the cost savings from having 

easier to use and purchasing maintenance 

systems, with better data, says Mr Coletta. 

Mr Coletta believes that Shipdex 

should be a 'win-win situation for everybody'. 

"We wish to make the life of everybody 

easier," he says. "You can make the 

life of the vessel better." 

In order to get started with Shipdex, 

shipowners should try to put a line in their 

contracts with their suppliers, saying "all 

technical documents should be delivered 

in accordance with Shipdex," he said. 

Intership Navigation 

Pawel Bury, IT manager of Intership 

Navigation, one of the companies which 

founded Shipdex, said his company has a 

lot of headaches with manuals. "Technical 

manuals are sometimes poor quality, or 

even wrong," he said. "Making maintenance 

every 5000 hours is not the same as every 

500 hours - and that's just a typing error." 

Intership is currently trying to persuade 

its shipyards in China to provide 

Shipdex documents with new vessels it is 

building. "I rate our chances of getting 

Shipdex data from China at 80 per cent," 

said Mr Bury.

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SOFTWARE 

The company builds 90 per cent of its 

vessels in China, and has senior staff out 

there, keeping an eye on the newbuildings. 

But they end up spending a lot of 

their time just typing in equipment numbers, 

because they are wrong in the manuals, 

Mr Bury explained. 

The company has sometimes fallen into 

the temptation of thinking that two identical 

ships can share manuals, only to find 

there are small differences in the systems 

fitted on the ships and it doesn't work. 

"They are almost sister ships but they 

could have some differences, so a good 

verification is needed after making a 

copy," said Mr Bury. 

An additional problem with paper 

manuals is that the final version is generally 

only delivered to the office at some 

time after the ship is delivered; it takes 

time to get all the data onboard electronically, 

which means there is a time when 

the ship is sailing without good information 

onboard. 

Having problems with manuals is particularly 

frustrating when you know that 

the equipment suppliers have good data 

systems of their own, but they don't make 

them available to shipping companies. 

In today's times of crew shortages, it is 

very important to have the best tools 

onboard as possible, said Mr Bury. "An 

officer with experience knows exactly 

what he needs to do - but a newly qualified 

engineer needs all the information he 

can get." 

Today's shipping companies need to 

manage their resources for maintenance as 

well as possible, including available manpower, 

skilled personnel and spares - and 

to do that means they need good data, 

he said. 

Mr Bury believes that some of the 

obstructions to take-up of Shipdex have 

been egos and a competitive mentality, or 

big suppliers resisting being 'pushed 

around', who say that they have systems 

which are good enough for them 

(although they have systems which can't 

work with anyone else's), so they don't see 

the benefits of adopting something which 

can help the whole industry. 

"Can we forget about competing for a 

while?" he asked. "Can we think about one 

tool for everyone and leave our ego 

behind?" 

The suppliers' view 

On the suppliers' side, MacGREGOR, Alfa 

Laval, MAN Diesel and Yanmar are 

already committed founding members of 

Shipdex. 

As well as MAN Diesel, the conference 

was attended by representatives of engine 

manufacturers Wärtsilä and Rolls Royce, 

both saying they are currently considering 

whether or not to get involved. 

For a supplier, to provide Shipdex documentation 

takes a bit of time and investment, 

as Alfa Laval's Mats Ottosson 

stressed. "It's not just pushing a button 

and Shipdex falls out." 

Equipment supplier MacGREGOR, 

expected to be the world's first supplier to 

"It's not just pushing a button and 

Shipdex falls out" - Mats Ottosson, 

Strategic Project Manager, 

Alfa Laval Parts & Service Equipment 


MacGREGOR will be the first supplier to 

make Shipdex documents - so everyone 

else can get the benefit of MacGREGOR's 

experience, said Katerina Munter, 

MacGREGOR's head of technical 

documentation. 

produce Shipdex documents, is completely 

upgrading its entire internal software 

systems to move from paper / Word documents 

to an XML based system, in order 

to generate Shipdex output. 

The software has so far cost Euro 

500,000, just for the cranes department, 

said Katarina Munter, MacGREGOR's 

manager of technical documentation 

services. 

However MacGREGOR anticipates 

many benefits to the company other than 

being able to produce Shipdex documents 

- not least the ability to produce manuals 

for all of its customers in higher quantities 

and quality. 

After moving to electronic documentation, 

German shipyard HDW found that it 

got much cheaper to create in-house documents, 

said Kay-Michael Goertz, currently 

SpecTec's operations manager for 

Germany, who was head of logistic procedures 

and IT at German ship and submarine 

builder Howaldtswerke - Deutsche 

Werft GmbH (HDW) until May 2008. 

It also becomes possible for shipowners 

and suppliers to streamline their spare 

part databases, because if different sub 

suppliers provide equipment with the 

same spare part, it should use the same 

part number, said Mr Goertz. 

Shipyards and suppliers will find it 

much easier to collate manuals for their 

customers from the materials sent to them 

by sub suppliers if it is all done electronically 

(rather than by collating paper). 

They will also be able to send further 

updates directly to their customers, and 

will benefit from their customers having 

much better databases, so they always 

order the right parts. 

With an electronic documentation system, 

it becomes much cheaper for a shipyard 

to create in-house documentation - Kay 

Michael Goertz, operations manager - 

Germany, SpecTec 

Suppliers will also be able to offer a better 

after sales service, something which 

both shipyards and service suppliers often 

have enormous problems with, said 

Herman de Meester, deputy secretary 

general of the European Community 

Shipowners' Associations. 

Suppliers can set up a new revenue 

stream, selling electronic manuals for 

equipment they have sold in the past 

- 3rd Digital Ship Conference 

New standards in electronic ship documentation 

Tuesday February 10th, 2009, Maritim Hotel, Reichshof, Hamburg 

Digital Ship will run its third Shipdex conference in 

Hamburg on February 10, 2009, about a new standard 

for exchange of ship technical information between 

equipment manufacturers and shipping companies, 

potentially leading to the end of paper documents 

onboard ships, and shipboard maintenance and 

purchasing systems being easily populated with 

accurate and complete data. 

We hope to be able to provide reports from the first 

Shipdex pilot projects with the first equipment 

suppliers at our Hamburg conference, as well as news 

about how Shipdex is being incorporated into new 

maritime software packages, and reports from other 

industries about their experiences moving from paper 

to electronic documentation. 

See the latest program and register online at www.thedigitalship.com/shipdex.htm

with paper manuals. 

Mårten Storbacka, general manager 

engineering, ship power technology, 

Wärtsilä Finland Oy, said that the company 

has already developed its own XML 

internal document management systems, 

but it may be able to provide output in 

Shipdex format. 

When asked if Wärtsilä might be joining 

Shipdex, Mr Storbacka 

said "I think it will need a lot 

of marketing internally, but 

yes, I can see it as a possibility." 

One of the biggest challenges 

with this is persuading 

Wärtsilä's sub suppliers 

to also provide their documentation 

in XML, he said. 

Suppliers can expect a 

contribution towards the 

costs of creating Shipdex 

manuals from their customers 

who demand it. "We 

don't expect Shipdex document 

free of charge - we 

expect some charges for 

this," said Pawel Bury, IT 

manager of Intership 

Navigation. 

Alfa Laval 

Alfa Laval, expected to produce 

Shipdex documentation 

next year, already has an 

internal XML documentation 

management system; it will 

not be replacing it but it will 

be installing software which 

can convert the output from 

its existing system to 

Shipdex, where customers 

request it. 

The company has started 

by looking at providing 

Shipdex manuals for separators, 

which are the pieces of 

equipment which need the 

most frequent maintenance. 

Alfa Laval sells the same 

technologies - separation, 

heat transfer and fluid handling 

- to many different 

industries, and it would like 

to continue using the same 

system to create manuals for 

all of them. 

It is putting together software 

scripts which can convert 

the output from its existing 

software into Shipdex 

format. The investment in 

this software is "quite high" 

to begin with, said Mats 

Ottosson, strategic project 

manager, Alfa Laval Parts 

and Service Equipment, but 

the cost will reduce over 

time. 

It is very important for 

Alfa Laval to maintain the 

flexibility to produce documentation 

in a variety of different 

formats in future as 

demanded by customers in 

different industry sectors, 

and by having a consistent 

internal system together with 

conversion engines is the best 

way to achieve this, he said. 

MacGREGOR 

MacGREGOR, a company which manufactures 

heavy equipment for vessels and 

ports, made a bold decision to move all of 

its documentation systems from a paper 

based system to Shipdex. 

The company has encountered a few 

problems with Shipdex so far, and expects 

to have more problems, but this is mainly 


because it is the world's first supplier to 

try to produce Shipdex documents - which 

should make life easier for the next suppliers 

to attempt the move to Shipdex, said 

Katarina Munter, MacGREGOR's manager 

of technical documentation services. 

The company is installing new software 

to manage its manual production process 

internally, which will also be able to out- 


put Shipdex data. It anticipates producing 

50 per cent more manuals and improving 

their accuracy as a result of having the 

software. "We will have less cost and 

faster response," she said. 

MacGREGOR particularly likes the 

way that Shipdex will be able to facilitate 

communications with the end user, something 

which is very difficult currently.

SOFTWARE 

"It is almost impossible to get updates 

out to the customer," she said. "Today, 

every document we send goes through the 

yard, and it's a big possibility that it stays 

there." 

"We can collect information about 

equipment performance and will be able 

to respond to spares enquires faster." 

The company's first opinion of Shipdex, 

and its method for putting together documents, 

was that it was not terribly 

impressed. "We thought it was a bit 

bureaucratic and hard to use," said Ms 

Munter. 

However the company was persuaded 

by the benefits of Shipdex over time, particularly 

because it was already customised 

for use in the maritime industry. 

The costs of developing its own 'document 

type definition' system (method of 

describing the documents) was estimated 

at Euro 160,000; the costs of Shipdex are 

Euro 3,000 (for annual membership), and 

the costs of implementing a free / open 

source system, estimated at Euro 1,000. 

MacGREGOR's cranes and ro-ro divisions 

are working on Shipdex separately. 

"Cranes have come a bit farther than roro," 

said Ms Munter. 

MacGREGOR wanted a software system 

which would enable the company to 

keep its options open, because it will 

always need to be able to deliver manuals 

in other formats. 

The company found that some of its 

equipment, particularly port equipment 

for land, did not have codes in Shipdex 

that it could use, so it is developing 

new codes. 

One standard? 

One question which shipowners and suppliers 

will want answering when considering 

a move to Shipdex is whether it is, and 

will always be, the only standard for ship 

documentation systems, or if there will be 

another in the future and they might end 

up backing the wrong one. 

The Shipdex team believe that the 

answer is simple - although there are 

many standards in the world for tagging 

documentation, there is only one standard 

in the world for documentation of transport 

equipment, called S1000D. 

Shipdex author Marco Vatteroni, SpecTec, 

reduced S1000D from 2,600 pages to 

just 180 for the maritime industry 

S1000D is a highly complex standard 

developed initially for documentation for 

military aircraft; its use has since been 

extended to commercial aircraft and other 

military equipment. It is used internationally 

by companies including Boeing and 

Airbus. 

The founders of Shipdex, Grimaldi and 

Intership, thought that they would have a 

tough time demanding that their suppliers 

provide documents in S1000D format, 

because it is so complex, so they commissioned 

their software company, SpecTec, 

to write a simplified version, reducing the 

number of pages from 2600 to 180 including 

business and writing rules. 

SpecTec hired Marco Vatteroni, who 

was developing electronic documentation 

systems at Italian shipyard Finncantieri, to 

perform the complex task. 

Shipdex is a simplified version of 

S1000D, but is fully compatible with it. 

The electronic documentation needs of 

aviation and military are similar to the 

maritime industry, but more demanding, 

because data needs to be more accurate, 

data changes need to be propagated more 

quickly, there is more demand for security, 

and space is at more of a premium. 

The Shipdex team have had a meeting 

with the co-chair of the S1000D council, 

and decided that there would be an nformal 

co-operation between Shipdex and 

S1000D, which should lead to a more formal 

integration. Shipdex was also presented 

by Marco Vatteroni during the S1000D 

User Forum (sponsored by ASD, ATA and 

AIA) in Budapest in October. 

Keeping a parallel to S1000D should 

also make it easier to update Shipdex to 

new technologies, because S1000D will 

have already done the work. 

Software 

It is important to stress that using Shipdex 

does not mean that the user is forced to 

use the products of any one company 

(something which would certainly put 

people off). 

So far maritime software companies 

SpecTec, Danaos, and ABS Nautical 

Systems have discussed making software 

which is Shipdex compatible, and the others 

will probably follow as the market 

grows. 

SpecTec already offers a range of different 

services associated with Shipdex 

including consultancy, providing manual 

authoring tools, content management 

tools, manual publishing tools, and offering 

services to convert manuals from one 

format to another. 

There is also an emerging market for 

companies which have previously worked 

with S1000D, or who provide documentation 

services for the maritime industry, 

who are starting to offer services providing 

Shipdex documentation, or helping 

convert other systems to Shipdex. 

Danish document management company 

Corena is one of the first to see a business 

opportunity creating Shipdex manuals 

(see page 15); the company already 

provides document management services 

for aerospace, automotive, energy and the 

maritime industry and works with 

S1000D. 

Corena recently helped one big 

Norwegian defence technology company 

implement S1000D for all of its technical 


Shipdex can help streamline the flow of 

information between shipyards and class, 

reckons Alessia Vergine, team lead of basic 

and applied research, RINA marine division 

publications and SCORM for its training 

systems, replacing Microsoft Word and 

Adobe FrameMaker software. 

Subsequently, it can produce operator and 

maintenance manuals in 3 weeks instead 

of 6 months. 

Corena also recently implemented a 

system for a Swedish military aviation 

company using S1000D, also incorporating 

S1000D data from its aeroplane 

manufacturer. 

Control of the data 

The issue of ownership and control of the 

electronic documentation data is likely to 

continue to be a hurdle. Suppliers are 

always afraid of detailed information 

about their products getting into the 

hands of their competitors. 

In the paper document era there was an 

understanding and contractual agreement 

between shipowners and their suppliers 

that shipowners would not lend their 

manuals to rival suppliers to make photocopies, 

although there was nothing to 

technically prevent them from doing so. 

In the electronic document era it is 

much easier to transfer information 

around, which could lead to suppliers' 

fears of their data getting into competitors' 

hands being heightened. 

SpecTec's Kay-Michael Goertz argues 

that these fears are overstated, because 

people are as free to communicate electronically 

as they were with paper - no 

more and no less. 

"We say, your rights are the same as 

before," he said. "We are as good, or as 

bad, as paper. With paper, there was nothing 

preventing the shipowner from sharing 

it. Paper can be printed, copies and 

sent somewhere. We stick to the same procedure 

as before." 

Mr Ottosson also noted that the data 

modules are created uniquely for each 

individual ship - and so they are only really 

useful for that ship. 

Katarina Munter from MacGREGOR 

noted that if the trust between supplier 

and shipowner about passing around documentation 

is violated, "we'll stop." 

However Stephen Mulvaney, customer 

support specialist with Rolls 

Royce, who previously led efforts to help 

Rolls Royce's aviation division move to 

electronic documentation, suggested that 

maybe concerns about data control should 

be taken seriously. 

There is a difference between intellectual 

property which is just being viewed on 

a screen, and intellectual property where 

someone can access the raw data - save it, 

manipulate it or e-mail it, he said. This is 

similar to the difference between using 

Windows and having the source code. 

Computer systems have been developed 

which can restrict which individuals 

can access different drawings, or restrict 

what drawings can be e-mailed or saved 

onto portable hard drives; although this 

could cause a lot of trouble, not least 

when someone needs access to certain 

information in a hurry. 

"We could have a mechanism where 

people need special keys - but it's a nightmare," 

said SpecTec's Kay-Michael Goertz. 

Timeline 

The protocol is currently written and 

ready to use, although it has not yet been 

used in a live project. 

The first live project, with 

MacGREGOR Cranes, should be underway 

by the end of 2008, followed by both 

MAN Diesel and MacGREGOR Ro-Ro in 

the first quarter of next year. 

Alfa Laval and Yanmar are both expected 

to provide Shipdex data in 2009, and 

Raytheon, which is providing navigation 

equipment to Intership's new vessels, is 

also invited to provide Shipdex data. 

At the moment Shipdex only provides 

capability for one way communication 

(supplier to shipping company), but functionality 

for the shipping company to send 

comments back to the supplier will shortly 

be added. 

Shipdex and class 

Shipdex could help to streamline the communications 

between shipyards, shipowners 

and classification societies. 

Most of the classification societies 

already have systems in place for communication 

of electronic documents 

(such as drawings, surveys, audit reports, 

calculations, manuals, specifications and 

certifications) but Shipdex could make 

this easier. 

Data security: there is a difference 

between suppliers allowing customers to 

view their data on a screen, and allowing 

them to manipulate, store and e-mail it, 

said Stephen Mulvaney, customer support 

specialist with Rolls Royce

21 – 23 jan. 2009 

The world’s 

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This Fair is organized with the permission of TOBB (The Union 

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SMM_AZ_Istanbul_293x392.indd 1 21.11.2008 10:27:43 Uhr

You can use electronic documentation 

systems as a basis for computer based 

training modules, said Sylvia Schwab, 

senior systems engineer with CORENA 

Norway 

Alessia Vergine, team leader of basic 

and applied research with the marine 

division of Italian class society RINA, 

said she believes that Shipdex will help 

streamline the flow of information 

between shipyards and class, leading to 

better data management, improved transparency 

and traceability. 

It can help put together checklists for 

surveyors, and update systems about 

components' status, she said. 

"Shipdex will allow for a better management 

of class information and the classification 

process in general," she told us. 

"It will help speed up data management. It 

will also help facilitate application of condition 

monitoring techniques." 

Shipdex is a standard way of managing 

technical information for ships 

(such as manuals, drawings and spare 

parts lists), so it can be communicated 

between suppliers, shipyards, shipping 

companies and ships electronically, 

rather than on paper, as it is 

today. 

This means that shipboard computer 

systems can automatically serve up the 

right piece of technical information at 

the right time, completely accurately, 

with no searching for paper. It means 

that shipboard maintenance systems 

and purchasing systems always have 

the right data in them, and that companies 

no longer have to deal with the 

inconvenience and cost of storing paper 

documents. 

It gets much easier to link up the 

maintenance software, creating work 

orders, to the documentation - so (for 

example) a vessel engineer can get a list 

of today's maintenance tasks, and all 

the relevant documentation about how 

to do them, in his inbox. 

Shipping companies will receive all 

of their manuals from their suppliers 

and sub suppliers in a standard format 

and structure. 

This should lead to maintenance on 

Computer based training 

Electronic documentation could be used 

as a basis for creating computer based 

training, something the aviation industry 

is already doing with S1000D. 

"With electronic technical information, 

you can easily build computer based 

training to send everywhere - electronic 

training courses you can supply to your 

crew managers," said Grimaldi's 

Mr Coletta. 

Sylvia Schwab, senior systems 

engineer with CORENA Norway, a 

company which provides S1000D documentation 

systems for the aerospace 

industry, explained that the aviation 

industry needs to immediately update 

both its manuals and training systems 

after there are any changes to the aeroplane 

equipment. 

A system for web based learning has 

been developed called 'Shareable Content 

Object Reference Model' (SCORM), published 

by an organisation run by the US 

Department of Defence, which can access 

data from S1000D. 

Improved purchasing 

One important benefit of Shipdex is that it 

will help shipping companies keep the 

right inventory of spare parts onboard and 

always purchase the right spare parts at 

the right time, because their databases 

should be much improved. 

Poor data quality is proving quite an 

impediment to electronic commerce 

between shipping companies and suppliers, 

said Alfa Laval's Mats Ottosson. 

Shipping companies might have good 

parts databases when they have just 

bought new equipment, but the problems 

arise further along the equipment's lifecy- 

About Shipdex 

ships getting much easier - leading to 

ships being better maintained and lasting 

longer, something which will make 

a big impact on every shipowners' bottom 

line over the long term. 

It will also lead to improved purchasing, 

if companies always order the 

right parts because their systems have 

the right data in them, and shipping 

companies will be able to use Shipdex 

to put together better reports to send 

authorities and class societies. 

In order to use Shipdex, you have to 

join the Shipdex organisation; the fees 

for this are Eur 2,500 for initial registration 

and Eur 500 for annual membership 

renewal. 

Anyone can join and use Shipdex, 

including shipping companies, 

equipment suppliers and software 

companies. 

Although the maritime software 

company SpecTec played a big role in 

the establishment of Shipdex, users are 

not committed in any way to using 

SpecTec software; they can use any 

software which is compatible with the 

protocol, the details of which are openly 

available to Shipdex members. 

Shipdex is an XML standard - that is, 

it is a way of labelling the chunks of 

cle, when new parts are introduced and 

older ones retired, because it is very hard 

for a manufacturer to ask shipowners to 

update their databases. 

Shipdex could facilitate data communication 

between shipping companies and 

their suppliers, to keep their databases up 

to date for new equipment. 

"As a manufacturer we can put quality 

in when we start, but it is a joint challenge 

to maintain it throughout the life cycle," 

said Mr Ottosson. 

There was a discussion about data 

quality at the recent International 

Maritime Purchasing Association (IMPA) 

conference in London, he added. "E-commerce 

companies said, we can help maintain 

quality. Can they? I'm not sure, not 

without involving both the buyer and the 

supplier." 

text, data and drawings which are 

included in manuals and catalogues, so 

they can be automatically moved 

between different computer systems 

fluidly. 

So (for example) a shipyard's document 

management system can automatically 

provide the data for a new 

vessel including all of the equipment 

on it; the data can be imported into the 

shipping company's documentation 

system, and linked to its maintenance 

and purchasing system. 

Then you end up with a system 

which can (for example) provide work 

orders (instructions of what maintenance 

tasks need to be done today), 

alongside the instructions of how to do 

the maintenance. 

It is important to stress that Shipdex 

is not about PDF documents; PDF documents 

are just an electronic version of 

paper. To illustrate the difference, 

imagine trying to set up a database of 

spare parts for your purchasing system. 

If the list was provided to you on paper 

or a PDF document, you would need to 

type it into your purchasing system line 

by line. 

If the list was provided as Shipdex 

data, you could import it automatically. 


There was plenty to discuss in the coffee break 

Shipdex ownership 

There have still been a few gripes about the 

way ownership and copyright of Shipdex 

has been set up, with copyright over the 

protocol currently retained by the two 

founding companies, Grimaldi Group and 

Intership, and a steering committee including 

all the founder members (Grimaldi, 

Intership, Alfa Laval, MacGREGOR, MAN 

Diesel, SpecTec and Yanmar). 

Mr Coletta of Grimaldi Naples argues 

that this process has been put in place to 

help manage the development of the protocol 

- several similar initiatives have 

foundered because there were too many 

members which made it too hard to make 

decisions. 

Mr Coletta said he would be happy to 

pass copyright onto another independent 

organisation in future which could manage 

it. 

The members have agreed that they 

will open up the protocol maintenance 

group to other companies from next summer 

onwards, although new members will 

be voted in by the existing members, and 

may be limited to one company in each 

sector (eg one software company, one classification 

society, one shipyard and so on). 

All members of Shipdex can apply for 

any changes they want to see to be made 

to the protocol, which will be discussed by 

the maintenance group. 

Shipdex structure 

Shipdex is a kind of language which 

describes the equipment, tagged so that 

different computer systems can understand 

what the different pieces of text and 

data mean. 

Shipdex data can include text about 

how to operate the equipment; information 

about how to do maintenance; troubleshooting 

information (solving problems); 

information about spare parts (with 

illustration); and information about how 

to provide changes to documentation, 

explained SpecTec's Marco Vatteroni, 

author of Shipdex. 

Each spare part needs to have a unique 

number, so it can be used for computer 

systems for managing spare part inventory 

and ordering new spare parts. Optional 

data includes the equipment serial numbers; 

a recommended quantity to be 

included onboard; and whether or not 

they are subject to Marpol Annex VI (IMO 

air pollution regulations). 


DS

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS 

Comar Systems, a UK based manufacturer 

of AIS (Automated Identification 

System) Class B transponders and 

receivers, has appointed Milltech 

Marine as its US distributor. Milltech 

will handle the complete range of Comar 

products which are available with immediate 

effect. 

Hatteland Display has announced 

that Trond K Johannessen is to become 

the company's new president and CEO 

from the 1st February 2009, taking over 

from Knut Vidar Lauritsen, who will 

remain in a management role. Mr 

Johannessen was previously senior vice 

president at Tomra Systems ASA. 

Hatteland Display has been 

selected by energy management company 

Marorka to provide the marine 

displays and computers for its onboard 

Be safe. 

Be found. 

fuel efficiency and emission reduction 

solutions. 

Dickson Company has released 

its new Digital Display Temperature 

and Humidity Data Loggers, for monitoring 

temperature and humidity in 

shipping containers. The Loggers feature 

both push-to-start and push-to-stop 

functions. A temperature-only version is 

also available. 

UK-company C A Clase has recently 

introduced SatPro's LRITpro D200 and 

the LRITpro L800 to its commercial 

marine distribution range, which enable 

ships to send Automatic Position Reports 

(APR) to LRIT data centres, in accordance 

with IMO LRIT regulations. The systems 

cost approximately £1600. 

Kelvin Hughes has appointed a 

new distributor in Germany. Lammers 

Trond K Johannessen (left) is to take over from Knut Vidar Lauritsen at Hatteland 

Jeppesen agrees Chile deal 

www.jeppesen.com 

The Hydrographic and Oceanographic 

Service of the Chilean Navy has signed an 

agreement with Jeppesen Marine for the use 

of Chilean data in Jeppesen-derived products. 

The Chilean Hydrographic Office (SHOA) 

and Jeppesen Marine have also agreed in 

principle to work together on the development 

of the first product version of Marine 

Pilotage Charts (MPCs) for Chilean waters. 

The development of the Chilean MPCs 

will include other stakeholders, such as 

the Chilean Maritime Authority and the 

Pilot Association of Chile, who will collectively 

contribute to the development of 

these procedural charts. 

"This agreement is the first step in a true 

partnership between the highly respected 

Chilean HO and Jeppesen Marine," said 

Michael Bergmann, director maritime industry 

safety-affairs-services, Jeppesen Marine. 

"The forward looking attitude of the 

executives at SHOA, combined with a 

strong Jeppesen Marine team, will bring 

new navigation services to life. We believe 

that MPCs will be the first of these new 

services and offers an innovative 

approach which will improve navigation 

safety for mariners, including both the 

navigators of the vessels as well as the 

highly-respected Chilean pilots." 

McMurdo is renowned as a world leading manufacturer of 

marine safety equipment for both SOLAS and non-SOLAS 

Fishing vessels, providing a range of distress beacons and 

safety equipment for both crew and vessel. 

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Schiffselektronik GmbH will offer 

the complete range of products and systems 

manufactured by Kelvin Hughes 

including radar, electronic chart systems, 

and simplified voyage data recorders 

(SVDR), while also offering repairs and 

servicing. 

McMurdo has appointed Garmin 

Iberia to handle its distribution throughout 

Spain. Formerly Trepat, the distributor 

was taken over by Garmin last year, 

and so has streamlined its brands to the 

core Garmin product range plus the addition 

of a number of compatible brands 

including McMurdo. 

The UK Maritime and 

Coastguard Agency has approved the 

following organisations as Authorised 

Testing Application Service Providers for 

testing shipborne LRIT equipment 

onboard the relevant UK vessels: 

Transas Telematics Ltd; Polestar; 

Thrane & Thrane; Securewest; 

Fulcrum Maritime Systems; and 

SELEX Communications Ltd. The 

UK Ship Register will also have a dedicated 

LRIT page for further information: 

www.ukshipregister.co.uk. 

www.comarsystems.com 

www.milltechmarine.com 

www.hatteland-display.com 

www.marorka.com 

www.dicksondata.com 

www.caclase.co.uk 

www.mcmurdo.co.uk 

www.mcmurdo.co.uk 

SMARTFIND EPIRB 

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McMurdo's range of marine electronics will 

be available through Garmin Iberia in Spain 

www.kelvinhughes.com 

www.transas.com 

www.polestarglobal.com 

www.thrane.com 

www.securewest.com 

www.fulcrum-maritime.com 

www.selexmarine.com 

OSG to implement Datatrac 

www.datatrac.co.uk 

Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) is to 

implement two systems from Datatrac to 

assist in the capture of onboard vessel data 

in electronic format, following a 12-month 

testing period. 

The Envirotrac system will be used to 

track the integrity of the vessel waste 

stream systems, while the EERL service 

will allow the electronic generation of 

engine room logs. 

The applications are now being 

installed across the OSG fleet. 

The EERL system reduces the paper- 

work associated with traditional handling 

of engine room logs by collecting digital 

data in a PDA. Data entry is timed and 

PIN secured. 

The hand held readers used by the system 

operate in association with electronic 

tags fixed within the engine room; touching 

these cues the user to relevant questions, 

with answers provided on the builtin 

screen. 

The Envirotrac system allows for the 

monitoring, recording and audit of environmental 

tags, fitted to waste handling 

pipe work, associated valves and flanges 

to ensure the integrity of the system. 

EMERGENCY LOCATION BEACONS 

S4 RESCUE SART 

The S4 RESCUE SART 

is a 9 GHz X-band 

radar transceiver and 

has been designed 

for assisting in air/sea 

ship or survival craft 

rescue operations 

in accordance with 

IMO, GMDSS 

requirements. 

McMurdo, Silver Point, Airport Service Road, Portsmouth, PO3 5PB UK Tel: +44 (0)23 9262 3900 Fax: +44 (0)23 9262 3998 sales@mcmurdo.co.uk

VTMIS upgrade for Bintulu 

www.kongsberg.com 

Kongsberg Norcontrol IT is to upgrade the 

existing VTMIS (Vessel Traffic 

Management and Information Service) at 

Bintulu Port, Sarawak, East Malaysia, and 

will be responsible for the delivery and 

commissioning of new VOC5060 computer 

hardware and software, user training, 

and maintenance until 2013. 

The upgrade package also includes 

three C-Scope Radar Extractor & Trackers, 

which aim to improve the port's radar performance 

without upgrading the radar 

hardware. This is achieved through the 

use of advanced signal processing techniques 

to extrapolate a clearer image from 

the raw radar signal. 

VOC5060 is a VTS operator workstation 

and is used as the primary interface to 

a VTMIS. In addition to providing VTS 

operators with access to all the informa- 

tion available in the system, together with 

the ability to control system functions, it 

also allows for sharing of VTS related data 

with other applications such as a PMIS 

(Port Management Information System). 

Bintulu Port first installed a Kongsberg 

Norcontrol IT system over twenty five 

years ago with the delivery of a VOC80 

package in 1982-83. This was followed up 

by a VOC5000 solution in 1994, with the 

latest contract awarded to upgrade the 

existing system from another manufacturer 

that was installed in 2003. 

The installation of the new VOC5060 

solution will take place in November 2008. 

"We are particularly pleased to be back 

as the main VTMIS supplier at Bintulu, 

considering the long history we have with 

supplying domain awareness solutions to 

this, one of the busiest ports in South East 

Asia," said Inge Flaten, president, 

Kongsberg Norcontrol IT. 

The VTMIS at Bintulu Port, in Sarawak, East Malaysia, is to be upgraded by Kongsberg 

USCG order for 

Hatteland 

www.hatteland-display.com 

Hatteland Display has received an order 

for 290 Electronic Chart Display and 

Information System (ECDIS) displays for 

installation on the US Coast Guard buoy 

tender fleet. 

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) 

Command and Control Centre in 

Portsmouth, Virginia, procured the displays 

through a contract awarded to CHI Systems. 

The current Coast Guard platform uses 

five video display stations; one in a console 

positioned on the forward centre of 

the bridge, two mounted to the overhead 

on the port and starboard bridge wings, 

one mounted in a console in the chartroom 

and one backup system mounted on the 

bulkhead in the chartroom. 

"This is a significant order for us as it 

reflects our ability to meet the standards 

required by an organisation that is completely 

committed to security in everything 

it does," said Brede Qvigstad, director, naval 

and defence division, Hatteland Display. 

"Orders from military and government 

departments are extremely important to 

us in their own right, but they also demonstrate 

to our civilian customers that we 

have the quality and ability to deliver for 

large and nationally important projects." 

Chile in LRIT 

agreement 

www.imso.org 

A new LRIT Services Agreement has been 

signed between the International Mobile 

Satellite Organisation (IMSO) and the 

Directorate General of the Maritime 

Territory and Merchant Marine 

(DIRECTEMAR) of Chile. 

The model LRIT (long range identification 

and tracking) Services Agreement sets 

out the public duties and obligations of 

each entity participating in the LRIT system, 

and also contains provisions relating 

to payments to IMSO for performing LRIT 

audits and reviews. 

IMSO director general Captain Esteban 

Pacha-Vicente noted that the organisation 

is currently in the process of negotiating a 

number of similar Service Agreements 

with other LRIT data centres and the 

International LRIT Data Exchange. 

DIRECTEMAR director general, vice 

admiral Edmundo González Robles, commented: 

"Following the successful preliminary 

visit by IMSO to our data centre in 

Valparaiso, I am delighted that Chile is 

now ready to play a full part in the international 

LRIT system, as recognised by 

this ground-breaking agreement." 

Chile is the first country to sign an LRIT 

Services Agreement with IMSO. 

Digital Ship Ship December 2008 page 27 


Free sensor network trial from CargoTrax 

www.cargotraxsingapore.com.sg 

CargoTrax Singapore is offering free 

trials of its MESH Wireless Sensor 

Networks (WSN) technology, for transmission 

of data from both Reefer 

Containers and Dry Containers, between 

now and February 2009. 

The free trial will be valid until Friday 

27th February and is mainly aimed at the 

cold food supply chain, such as those 

exporting meats, fruit, vegetables and 

pharmaceuticals. 

Those interested in taking advantage of 

the offer can download an application 

form from the CargoTrax Singapore web 

site, at www.cargotraxsingapore.com.sg. 

The technology can be used to monitor 

a number of container variables, with sensors 

available to measure temperature, 

light, CO2, O2, gas, vibration, door tampering, 

acceleration and radiation, providing 

data in real-time. 

The data is accumulated on a laptopserver 

on the bridge, which can then be 

used to transmit the information packets 

at predetermined intervals via the ship's 

satellite system to monitoring and control 

centres on land. 

Alternatively, WSN Gateway Nodes 

may be deployed in container farms and 

ports to directly deliver a continuous 

seamless audit and information on the 

container traffic. 

Space-based AIS agreements 

www.orbcomm.com 

ORBCOMM reports that it has signed 

eight new test and evaluation agreements 

with prospective VARs, distribution partners 

and potential end-users in connection 

with its satellite-based Automatic 

Identification System (AIS) services. 

In addition to a recently announced 

agreement with the US Coast Guard, ORB- 

COMM says that it has concluded a number 

of further agreements to provide testing 

and evaluation of AIS data provided 

www.transas.com 

Transas has announced that it has reached 

agreements to install ECDIS systems 

onboard a number of newbuild and existing 

vessels for Danish shipowners Torm 

and Norden. 

Eleven Dual ECDIS (electronic 

chart display information 

system) Navi-Sailor 4000 

units will be supplied to Torm 

newbuilds, with installations 

to take place as construction is 

completed in China between 

2009 and 2011. 

For Norden, four single 

ECDIS units with 23-inch 

monitors will be installed 

onboard the vessels Norden, 

Nord Ocean, Nord Empathy, 

and Nord Whale. 

All units will be installed 

by Transas Scandinavia technicians 

during the vessels' dry 

dockings between now and 

January 2009. Transas has 

already supplied ECDIS for 

five vessels in Norden's fleet, 

as well as SVDR (simplified 

voyage data recorder) systems 

for four vessels. 

In other news, Transas 

reports that its T 214 AIS Base 

Station has been awarded a 

type-approval certificate from 

the National Agency of 

Telecommunications of the 

Republic of Brazil, and can 

by the company's space-based network. 

The company hopes that these agreements 

will lead to a number of direct and 

indirect contracts that will become the 

basis of an initial world-wide distribution 

network for AIS services. 

ORBCOMM says that it has included 

within this group of potential new partners 

organisations such as US government 

agencies, corporations engaged in 

providing services to foreign governments, 

and those engaged in transportation 

and logistics. 

Danish ECDIS deals for Transas 

now be supplied and used within the 

country. 

It has also released a new 3D VTS 

(Vessel Traffic System), which visually 

represents a 3-dimensional view of the 

navigational situation in the VTS area. 

Shipowners Torm and Norden are to install Transas 

ECDIS aboard their vessels

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS 

Touch-screen technology for Kongsberg 

www.kongsberg.com 

Kongsberg Maritime has developed a new 

system it calls the Multiflex Panel, a flexible 

touch-screen that will be used for its 

Polaris simulation systems and can be 

configured with different panel functions. 

As a result of the implementation of 

this technology training institutes using 

the system will now be able to offer a 

wider range of training on their Polaris 

full mission simulators, without increasing 

costs. 

Over 70 different panel functions are 

available, with the system having been 

designed as a replacement for equipment 

hardware by replicating the same panels 

in a touch sensitive graphical format. 

During an exercise, students can easily 

switch between different functions (e.g. 

Doppler log and Echo sounder) on the 

same panel. 

The instructors can choose between a 

wide range of panel functions to be made 

available to the students via the Multiflex 

Panels from the Instructor-PC, or simply 

use pre-configured training scenarios for a 

specific ship class, which will automatically 

present the panels required. 

"Our new Multiflex Panels will provide 

our customers with enhanced flexibility and 

enable them to re-configure their bridge 

instrument set-up to meet their own customer 

training requirements," said Terje 

Heierstad, product and technology manag- 

�� 

er, simulation, Kongsberg Maritime. 

"This will provide them with much 

more flexibility in the training scenarios 

that they present on their full mission simulators, 

as new scenarios do not require 

hardware to be swapped out." 

Kongsberg also reports that it has 

Korea to launch maritime satellite 

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Transport 

and Maritime Affairs has announced the 

country's intention to launch a new maritime 

communications and weather satellite 

during the middle of 2009. 

The Chinese government press agency 

Xinhua reports that the satellite, scheduled 

for launch in June 2009, has been 

jointly developed by the Korea 

Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and 

French aerospace company EADS 

Astrium, with the European partner 

responsible for the development of the 

maritime monitoring technology to be 

used on the spacecraft. 

Astrium-constructed components have 

been shipped to Korea, where the satellite 

will be assembled by KARI using locally 

produced satellite technology. 

The approximately 356 billion Won 

satellite, weighing in at 2.5 tons, will be 

launched from South America and monitor 

maritime developments over a 2,500 

square km area, centred above Pohang on 

the Korean east coast. 

The satellite is expected to provide 

information on marine life and fisheries, 

as well as weather and communications 

functions, following commencement of 

operations, until at least 2016. 

�� 

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� �� 


applied the technology to a new touch 

screen based Engine Room Simulator configuration, 

the Neptune MultiTouch, 

which is now in use at the Georgian 

College, Ontario, Canada, and has also 

been chosen for installation by the Åland 

University of Applied Science. 

The touch screen technology allows users to switch between 

different panels on the same display 

Sonar to aid in Chilean chart production 

www.reson.com 

Servico Hidrografico y Oceanografico 

de la Armada de Chile (The Chilean 

Navy Hydrographic and Oceanographic 

Service, or SHOA) has taken delivery 

of a new Reson sonar system, the second 

such system the organisation has 

implemented. 

The complete system will be installed 

on the vessel Albatross, and will aid the 

Chilean Navy with the development of 

new nautical cartography for Chilean 

Waters, including electronic charts. 

The total system comprises a Sea Bat 

First commercial user 

for Primar ECDIS 

Online 

www.primar.org 

Primar reports that its new ECDIS Online 

service has secured its first commercial 

vessel user, following its adoption by the 

high-speed craft Norwegian Vingtor. 

Providing daily Norwegian fast ferry 

services between Bergen and Stavanger, 

HSC Vingtor carries an Adveto ECDIS-4000 

system linked to a GPRS/3G connection, 

with data speeds of 384 kbps and above. 

The Primar ECDIS Online service will 

allow the ECDIS (electronic chart display 

information system) to receive real-time 

ENC updates directly from the Primar 

database and thereby have the very latest 

navigational data at all times. 

The system is offered free of charge to 

end users via authorised distributors of 

the Primar ENC (electronic navigational 

chart) service, and has been developed 

and tested over the past year in close cooperation 

with Swedish ECDIS manufacturer 

Adveto, the first Primar distributor to 

fully implement the system. 

The results of the development project 

showed that ENC updates could be in use 

within minutes of being released by a 

hydrographic office. 

"We believe passionately in working 

closely with all elements of the maritime 

industry," said Gerry Larsson-Fedde, the 

Norwegian Hydrographer. 

"We're working with other ECDIS 

manufactures to expand the service." 

7125-E high resolution multibeam sonar, a 

NaviSound 410 Deepwater hydrographic 

and broadband echosounder, and a 

PDS2000 software package. 

The SeaBat7125-E provides highresolution 

bathymetry and imagery 

data in real time for 3-D representations 

of underwater features and seabed 

conditions. It has an operational depth 

of 400m. 

The NaviSound 410 Deepwater hydrographic 

and broadband echosounder has 

an enhanced hydrographic echosounder 

that supports single channel operation, 

with a ping rate of 20Hz. 

��

www.jfmimic.co.uk 

JF Mimic reports that it has recently completed 

the installation of its Mimic 

Condition Monitoring software onboard a 

NATO research vessel managed by Anglo- 

Eastern Ship Management. 

The NATO Underwater 

Research Centre (NURC) is 

one of three research and 

technology organisations in 

3D simulation 

from 

PC Maritime 

www.pcmaritime.co.uk 

PC Maritime reports that it 

has launched the Unitest 

MED3D, a new 3D engine 

room simulator that can run 

on a standard PC for training 

students in modern computer-controlled 

engine room 

operations. 

The system simulates a 4stroke 

medium speed main 

engine, three diesel generators 

and a controllable pitch 

propeller, together with simulation 

of a number of other 

relevant systems. 

Multi-channel digital 

sound effects include engine 

sound correlated with 

engine speed, a diesel generator 

starting and running, 

open indicator valve sound, 

alarms and machine telegraph 

buzzers. 

The MED3D simulator is 

an addition to PC Maritime's 

existing suite of Unitest simulator 

systems, which 

include steam engines, slow 

speed, medium speed and 

turbo diesel engines. 

The engine models are 

based on generic engine 

room equipment, rather than 

being type specific, to provide 

broader training, and all 

are supplied with instructor 

software so they can be used 

in stand-alone mode, or in 

supervised mode interacting 

with an instructor. 

Anne Edmonds, PC 

Maritime's marketing director, 

commented: "MED3D is 

the most advanced 3D PCbased 

engine simulator to be 

released. Its innovative visualisation 

and zoom techniques 

allow quick and easy 

access to basic engine room 

operation, such as opening 

and closing valves or setting 

switch positions." 

"The 3D visuals are interactive 

and fully integrated 

with the mathematical 

model of the engine and all 

its associated systems." 

NATO installs Mimic condition monitoring 

NATO, conducting maritime research in 

support of NATO's operational and transformation 

requirements. 

The research vessel Alliance was selected 

for the installation, which was completed, 

with a full asset list and vibration sig- 

nature data collection specification, over a 

48 hour period during a routine maintenance 

period at her home base of La 

Spezia, Italy. 

Training on the Mimic system, along 

with the associated hand held vibration data 

�� 

collector, was also conducted at that time. 

JF Mimic says that NURC has opted to 

use the software vibration modules for the 

vessel, with the option of future upgrades 

to include electronic logsheets, oil analysis 

and online monitoring. 

�� 

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Digital Ship

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION 

Balancing technology and integrity 

T 

Improved technology can reduce the number of errors in navigational accuracy - but does it also reduce awareness 

that the potential for errors still exists? Dr Andy Norris looks at the issue of navigational integrity 

he phrase integrity monitoring is 

increasingly used in the navigation 

world. It has been commonly 

applied to processes within advanced electronic 

navigational equipment but is now 

being used to describe essential aspects of 

the human involvement in navigation. 

Integrity monitoring within equipment 

alerts the user if the navigational accuracy 

has become suspect, and that the system 

should be used with caution or not at all. 

For instance, IMO requires all GPS 

units to have Receiver Autonomous 

Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) to immediately 

detect and inform the user if the 

positional accuracy has been compromised 

by a signal from a faulty satellite. 

Also, Integrated Navigation Systems 

(INS) conforming to IMO requirements 

monitor integrity by evaluating inputs 

from several sources and giving timely 

alerts if a problem is detected. 

In the past, when navigation was a 

mainly manual task, mistakes were easy to 

make and were therefore common, constantly 

reminding the mariner of the need 

for validation of all navigational processes. 

Today, because of the increased use of 

electronics, navigational errors have significantly 

reduced to a point on many 

ships where there is no regular reminder 

that things can go wrong. 

The increasing reliability and effectiveness 

of equipment tends to give a false 

sense of security. However, we are a long 

way from ship's navigation equipment 

being able to be considered as intrinsically 

reliable. 

Because the human is becoming far less 

involved with the detailed process of 

establishing the navigation solution, it 

perhaps becomes too easy to accept what 

is seen on a display. As ECDIS replaces the 

use of paper charts, this becomes an even 

greater problem. 

It is therefore essential that the OOW 

continues to maintain a constant check on 

the integrity of the displayed navigational 

situation. 

Manual checking 

Manual checking of integrity firmly links 

the user into the navigation process and 

exposes problems before a failure leads to 

a dangerous situation. 

Integrity checking is not just a matter of 

confirming position. It also needs to cover 

all navigational data, including own ship's 

speed, heading and course, the movement 

and current position of other vessels significant 

to navigation, and the proximity 

of charted features and hazards. 

Establishing integrity is all about checking 

the perceived navigational situation 

with reality. Fundamentally, therefore, it 

acts to significantly improve overall 

awareness. 

Although manual integrity checking is 

based on establishing whether there is a 

fault in any equipment or system, its spinoff 

benefit in improving situational awareness 

is of even higher significance, simply 

because most collisions and groundings 

are caused by inadequate situational 

awareness. 

Positional integrity can be enhanced in 

coastal waters by taking visual bearings 

on conspicuous charted objects, transferring 

the bearings to the chart and checking 

that appropriate tie-up has been obtained. 

It is essential to manually check the integrity 

of data from navigational technology 

Traditional three point fixes can be 

taken but frequent single bearings can be 

even more useful in many circumstances, 

especially on ECDIS. The latency can be 

very short and therefore even relatively 

small errors in the electronically derived 

position can become apparent from a good 

visual fix. 

Transferring radar conspicuous ground 

fixed objects to the chart, again very easy 

to do if using ECDIS, will identify positional 

inaccuracies. These could be due to 

problems in the positioning system, the 

radar or the gyro. The most likely error 

source is easy to determine from a series of 

measurements if an initial discrepancy is 

found. 

The echo sounder output should also 

be used as a consistency check with charted 

data. Differences may indicate positional 

problems, faulty equipment, an 

inaccurate chart or a failure to compensate 

properly for tidal difference. 

For ocean waters, the options for monitoring 

positional integrity have been quite 

limited. However, a reasonably effective 

method is to compare the current GPS 

position with an estimated position based 

on the GPS position of an earlier time. 

It is necessary to include leeway, tidal 

streams, ocean currents and surface drift 

but the act of determining these adds 

greatly to situational awareness. 

Of course, the accuracy of such an estimated 

position will not match that of GPS 


but it will indicate gross errors and alert 

the bridge team to the take appropriate 

cautionary actions. 

Celestial positioning is also a possibility 

for those wanting to show off their skills 

but in many areas of the world the poor 

availability of sights makes this a very 

unreliable method for regular verification 

of GPS position. 

GLONASS 

Greatly improved positional integrity 

monitoring of both ocean and coastal 

route segments is possible using the 

GLONASS satellite navigation system. It 

now has 17 operational satellites, giving 

good accuracy over a considerable proportion 

of the globe. 

The present coverage is certainly good 

enough to justify fitting it to SOLAS vessels 

as a position sensor independent of 

GPS. Over half of the present satellites 

have been launched since the beginning of 

2007 and the expectation is that truly global 

coverage is achievable in relatively 

short timescales. 

Fitted equipment should be certified to 

meet IMO standards but these may be difficult 

to procure at present. Non-approved 

systems may interfere with other bridge 

navigational equipment and may not meet 

all IMO requirements. 

Ideally, there should be an automatic 

integrity monitoring process continuously 

comparing the GPS and GLONASS positions 

and generating an alert if the position 

differs by more than a user-set 

amount. 

Despite automatic checks, the OOW 

should still perform manual integrity 

checks on the actual difference and, in 

coastal and harbour waters, continue to 

check position visually and with radar, 

particularly to gain the benefits of 

increased situational awareness. 

By the middle of the next decade GPS 

and GLONASS will be joined by other 

satellite navigation systems, such as 

Europe's Galileo and China's Compass. 

It is also possible that eLoran will be in 

use in some coastal areas by then. It has 

the advantage that its failure mechanisms 

are very different to that of satellite systems, 

further increasing the quality of 

integrity monitoring. 

Detection of other 

vessels 

Comparison of visual, radar and AIS data 

should be made on all vessels that are, or 

may become, significant to navigation. 

Consistency in all three methods gives 

great confidence in the integrity of the 

information concerning that target. 

Differences should ring mental alarm 

bells. 

Correlation in two out of the three 

methods, providing the prevailing circumstances 

are consistent with any inaccuracy 

or unavailability of the third, should also 

give the OOW good confidence in the 

integrity of the plot. 

However, all three main methods of 

detecting vessels and other floating objects 

have common problems. 

For instance: visual data is easily 

impaired in poor conditions; radar data is 

considerably affected by sea clutter and 

rain; not all vessels have AIS fitted and on 

those that do erroneously transmitted data 

could affect the perceived position of the 

target and create other anomalies. 

If there is only one indication of a target 

from the three possible sources, great care 

is needed in assessing the necessary 

required action, as the indication could be 

erroneous. However, in general, it is likely 

to be valid - almost certainly in many conditions, 

if visual - and appropriate avoiding 

action should be taken. 

Consistently missed radar targets could 

indicate a radar equipment fault or that it 

is badly set up. If many ships are not 

exhibiting AIS data or are wrongly displayed 

it is likely to indicate a fault with 

own equipment, which should be urgently 

checked. 

A poor antenna connection is a 

common cause of problems with displayed 

AIS targets. If so, it is likely to 

mean that own-ship's transmissions will 

be compromised. 

Unfortunately, most ships cannot yet 

display AIS data on radar, making proper 

comparison an unwieldy task. However, a 

number of specific checks during a watch 

that compare specific AIS targets from the 

MKD with radar data are still worthwhile, 

at least to check for possible ownship 

equipment errors. 

As technology gradually improves 

there is likely to be a time when the navigation 

solution does not need to be 

checked by the OOW for integrity. 

However, until we enter an even more 

distant point in time when technology 

could completely take over, the human 

OOW will always need to retain situational 

awareness in order to make appropriate 

navigational decisions. Continuing to 

check integrity is an excellent way of helping 

to achieve this. 

DS 

Dr Andy Norris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry 

for a number of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech 

navigation companies but now he is working on broader issues within the 

navigational world, providing both technical and business consultancy to 

the industry, governmental bodies and maritime organizations. 

Email: apnorris@globalnet.co.uk

Future events 2009 


Cyprus 

February 3-4 

The Grand (prev. Hawaii Grand), 

Cyprus 


Singapore 

September 21-22* 

Suntec Convention & Exhibition 

Centre, Singapore 


Scandinavia 

March 10-11 

Telenor Expo Centre, 

Oslo 


USA 

October 7-8 

The Italian Center of Stamford, 

USA 


Dubai 

April 21-22 

Mövenpick Hotel Bur, 

Dubai 


Athens 

November 10-11* 

Aegli Zappiou, 

Athens 

* Dates to be confirmed 

For exhibition or advertising enquiries contact Ria Kontogeorgou 

Direct line: +44 (0)20 7510 4931 Mob +44 7815 481036 

Digital Ship Limited, 213 Marsh Wall, London E14 9FJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 0015 Fax: +44 (0)20 7510 2344 www.thedigitalship.com

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