Digital ship 98 may 2014

JJ apanese classification societyClassNK has acquired Finnishsoftware house NAPA for

€53 million, both companies haveannounced.

ClassNK and NAPA already havean ongoing collaboration agreement,having worked together on ClassNK-NAPA Green, a software solutiondesigned to help ship operatorsreduce their fuel costs and emissions.

During a webcast announcementof the deal, ClassNK executive vicepresident Yasushi Nakamuraexplained that he believed onlyNAPA could provide the classifica-tion society with the type of fuel sav-ing solution it required, as well as aship design solution (namely NAPASteel) to add to its portfolio.

Juha Heikinheimo, president ofNAPA Group, said that the sale toClassNK would increase NAPA’sresources and help it develop furtherservices on top of its existing portfolio.

The potential for a conflict of inter-est was raised with the confirmationthat NAPA counts several other clas-sification societies among its cus-tomers, though Mr Heikinheimoinsisted that NAPA would “continueas an independent company”, prom-ising “confidentiality and neutrality”in its dealings with external parties.

Both Mr Nakamura and MrHeikinheimo said that the acquisitionof 100 per cent of NAPA by ClassNKcost €53 million. As ClassNK is a not-for-profit organisation, the profits that

NAPA will make in the future will beredirected towards developing newsoftware, said Mr Heikinheimo.

In a press statement announcingthe deal, NAPA and ClassNK saidthey both hope to see the acquisition“significantly enhance the successand capabilities of both organisa-tions”, with ClassNK, which hasworked with NAPA for nearly tenyears, able to expand the range ofservices it offers to shipowners andshipyards, whilst NAPA will be ableto expand its operations and access

new markets.“As a classification society that

sees safety and performance as para-mount, we want to ensure that inno-vation in software benefits the entiremaritime industry – and make newinnovations available to everyone,”said Mr Nakamura.

“Through this agreement we canensure that NAPA’s ship design andoperation solutions remain availableto the entire maritime industry, whilealso providing NAPA with necessarytools and resources to further expand

IN THIS ISSUE

May 2014

electronics and navigation

software

satcoms

KVH mini-VSAT for RHL – 6

Royal Caribbean records500Mbps link over O3b – 8

Airbus takes aim at HTS market withPlus package – 10

Maritime Satcom Market:Changes in the competitivelandscape – 12

ICS on CO2: reports before indexing – 14

First e-bill of lading for liner – 16

The Unmanned Ship – 18

ClassNK buys NAPA for €53m

GLAs ask France to keep ageing Loran stations open – 21

e-Navigation – where are we going? – Andy Winbow, IMO – 24

A resilient position –Dr Andy Norris – 26

The growth potential in the market for vessel optimisation systems has been highlighted by ClassNK’s move to buy software partner NAPA,

at a cost of €53 million

“Simply the best”Darren Reeves, General Manager - Stanford Marine L.L.C.

Unlock the Potential of Internet On Board�

www.dualog.com(+47) 77 62 19 [email protected]

Headquartered in Dubai, Stanford Marine operates 40 off shore supply vessels throughout the Middle East and Africa.

“Our business is reliant on the secure transfer of data – that’s why we chose Dualog,” says General Manager Darren Reeves. “With Dualog solutions on our vessels my crew have internet access and my IT Team can remotely monitor and control bandwidth usage.”

“Dualog provides excellent support and a complete overview – that’s very important. Th ey are second to none,” concludes Darren Reeves.

Tetsuya Kinoshita, ClassNK (Top left), Yasushi Nakamura, ClassNK(Bottom left), Juha Heikinheimo, NAPA (Top right) and Markku Riipinen,

NAPA (Bottom right)

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SATCOMS

Digital Ship May 2014 page 2

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www.iridium.comwww.orbital.com

Production on 81 satellites for the IridiumNEXT programme has begun, at theOrbital Sciences Corporation satellitemanufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona,in the United States.

Orbital will manage production of thesatellites under a contract between itselfand Iridium’s prime contractor on NEXT,French-Italian aerospace company ThalesAlenia Space.

Orbital says it will complete the assem-bly, integration, test and launch supportphases for this second-generation globalcommunications satellite constellation atits manufacturing facility, located in aForeign Trade Zone (FTZ) in Gilbertwhich allows Orbital to reduce pro-gramme costs by importing foreign-sourced hardware from Thales AleniaSpace.

This will include integration of a total

of 81 satellites for the constellation, includ-ing 66 low-Earth orbit operational satel-lites, six in-orbit spares, and nine ground-backup spacecraft, over the next threeyears.

Orbital’s responsibilities under theproject also include ground supportequipment, primary and hosted payloadintegration, shipment and launch integra-tion services.

Scheduled to begin launching in 2015,Iridium NEXT will fully replace Iridium’scurrent satellite constellation of 66 cross-linked low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites thatcover 100 per cent of the globe.

“Over the past three years, our teamshave been working diligently to producethe best-designed satellite and to validatethat design in preparation for produc-tion,” said Scott Smith, chief operatingofficer, Iridium Communications Inc.

“Team members from all over theworld have been working together to chal-lenge the processes, build hardware for

validation testing and work to make thisprocess as efficient as possible. “

“All of this hard work has paid off andwe look forward to a steady production ofhigh quality satellites for our new networkfrom this facility.”

Iridium’s NEXT satellites are now under construction

Manufacturing begins on Iridium NEXT satellites

Cobham announces Ka-band antennas www.cobham.com

Cobham SATCOM has announced thattwo new SAILOR antennas will be avail-able this summer to prepare for Inmarsat’sforthcoming Global Xpress (GX) service,while a SAILOR VSAT antenna has alsobeen approved for operation on forthcom-ing THOR 7 Ka-band satellite servicesfrom Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc).

For GX, the new SAILOR 100 GX sportsa 103cm reflector dish and is aimed atCobham SATCOM and Inmarsat’s coreglobal shipping market customers. Thecompact SAILOR 60 GX features a 65cmreflector dish making it suitable for small-er vessels.

Cobham says that the first SAILOR GX terminals will be available duringsummer 2014, ensuring that its maritimeservice provider partners can begininstalling the systems on customer vesselsfor Inmarsat’s commercial service intro-duction of Global Xpress.

“As an established Inmarsat terminalmanufacturer, we are confident in our abil-ity to optimise the use of Global Xpressservices for our service provider partnersand end-users at sea and on land,” saidWalther Thygesen, senior vice president ofCobham SATCOM.

“Developed under the famous SAILORbrand, our new maritime GX terminalscontinue the ‘all-in-one, ready-to-go’

approach we introduced with the SAILOR900 VSAT antenna, which is delivered withall components installed, configured andtested,” added Jens Ewerling, global busi-ness manager Maritime VSAT.

“The strategy was designed to simplifythe often complex maritime VSAT procure-ment process so it was a natural step toemploy it for the launch of Global Xpressto ensure simplicity and high reliability forservice providers and ship owners.”

Telenor’s latest satellite, THOR 7, whichis equipped with a Ka-band HTS payload,is expected to be launched in Q4, 2014.

Cobham’s SAILOR 800 and 900 VSATantennas have been approved to supportKu-band services on the existing THORfleet, while the SAILOR 900 VSAT willadditionally be compatible with THOR 7.

Positioned over the 1˚West region,THOR 7 will cover the main shippingroutes in Europe and major oil and gasexploration and production areas, includ-ing the North Sea.

Telenor says that its Ka-band HTS pay-load will offer 6-9 Gbps throughput withup to 25 simultaneously active spot beams.Services will offer speeds in the tens ofMbps downlink, even from small anten-nas, and from 2Mbps to 6Mbps uplinkdepending on antenna size.

Telenor says that it is implementing a package of solutions to mitigate Rainfade on Ka-band, including a new uplink

site in Norway to provide antenna sitediversity.

“THOR 7’s Ka-band HTS payload hasbeen specifically designed for the mobili-ty VSAT market, offering highly concen-trated and high powered coverage overour main market area, including theNorth Sea, Mediterranean and the BalticSea,” said Julian Crudge, divisional direc-tor, Datacomms, Telenor SatelliteBroadcasting.

“The Ka-band HTS payload adds vitalgrowth capacity for our long standing mar-itime and energy customers and SAILORantennas will be ready for the start ofTHOR 7 Ka-band service delivery.”

Cobham SATCOM says that its SAILORVSAT antennas leave the factory fully test-ed and configured, with all RF equipmentinstalled, which simplifies logistics andreduces installation time.

“Approval for Cobham SATCOM’sMaritime VSAT antennas on Thor 7strengthens the longstanding co-operationwe have with Telenor and is testament tothe standardisation approach we have forSAILOR antennas,” said Casper Jensen, VPMaritime Business, Cobham SATCOM.

“Our maritime users will be among thefirst to benefit from the power of HTS withinnovative, reliable Ka-, Ku- and Ka/Ku-band antennas from both SAILOR and SeaTel already prepared for the next genera-tion of maritime VSAT services.”

its innovative development work.”Mr Heikinheimo added: “We see

today’s announcement as a huge opportu-nity to continue to expand NAPA in a waythat reflects the increasing demand forsoftware design and operational solutionsthat we are seeing in the maritime market.”

“ClassNK’s role as a classification socie-ty will enable us to access its industryknowledge, scope and scale, as well as ben-efiting from its commitment to invest insoftware research and development. Going

forward together [with ClassNK], NAPAwill develop new solutions and services forthe maritime industry, whilst maintainingits neutrality and confidentiality towardsall stakeholders.”

“Today, reducing fuel costs and attract-ing charterers are the predominant con-cerns for shipowners and operators.Through this acquisition, the developmentof clean-tech solutions for optimising fuelcosts, planning and monitoring will beaccelerated. In addition, continuously

improving software solutions to enhancethe safety of both merchant and passengervessels, both at the design phase and dur-ing operation, will remain a core focus for NAPA.”

ClassNK provides safety and certifica-tion services for more than 8,500 vesselsrepresenting more than 20 per cent of theworld’s merchant fleet. NAPA’s softwareis utilised by shipyards designing over 90per cent of the world’s newbuilds and bymajor ship owners. DS

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SATCOMS


www.mcp.com

Maritime Communications Partner (MCP)has announced the launch of VAVE, a dig-ital platform that creates a ship-widecloud on board cruise or ferry ships.

VAVE (Value Added VoyageExperience) utilises a vessel’s GSM signaland Wi-Fi network to create an ‘onboardcloud’ that all mobile devices (smart-phones, tablets, laptops etc.) can be part of.Users can then access a range of services –such as free messaging (if desired) over Wi-Fi, or onboard retail/booking systems –while shipowners can target individualhandsets with personalised messages.

The launch follows an eight-monthtechnical trial on the Corsica Sardinia ves-sel Mega Express Five.

MCP, a subsidiary of Telenor, says thatit expects the first commercial contract tobe announced soon, with senior vice pres-ident of Business Innovation, Ole KristianSivertsen, calling VAVE “a complete gamechanger for the industry.”

“At sea handsets go into hibernation.VAVE reawakens their potential by pro-viding the same sort of connectivity on seaas on land, only with a package that is cus-tomised for the unique environment ofevery individual vessel,” he said.

Developed in partnership with iESItalia and exclusively licensed to MCP, thesystem utilises GSM and Wi-Fi to create avessel-wide network driven by a VAVEdelivery and platform engine. Passengersand crew can access the platform on largescreen public TVs, in-cabin screens, and all

The VAVE system will offer access to a range of onboard entertainment content

personal mobile devices. VAVE is avail-able on Apple and Android devices, aswell as through web browsers.

MCP says that the cloud created byVAVE’s onboard server solution allowscontent to reside locally, thus limitingVSAT costs.

Services include: accessing on-demandentertainment, VoIP messaging and call-ing, location-based services (to allow pas-sengers to find their way around, or takeadvantage of special offers nearby), con-nections to onboard social networks tomake new friends, booking tables, trips ortreats, using social media, and so on.Selected services are either charged on ausage basis, or available free.

“The benefits for the shipowner areeven more compelling,” said Mr Sivertsen.

“MCP’s CellAtSea mobile networkidentifies every phone on board. Thismeans that shipowners can use VAVE tosend tailor-made marketing messages toindividuals. It opens up a channel of one-to-one communication to engage withguests and enhance their enjoyment, whileincreasing revenues, enriching the overallbrand experience, and boosting loyalty.”

MCP, which has more than 160 vesselssigned to its CellAtSea network, testedVAVE onboard Mega Express Five, the1,800 pax Corsica Sardinia ferry that sailsroutes between Nice in continental Franceand Bastia in Corsica.

“The potential is enormous,” said MrSivertsen.

“VAVE enables today’s devices in away that is currently unheard of at sea.”

Ship-wide cloud for cruise and ferry vesselsThuraya TelecommunicationsCompany has announced its partner-ship with Talia, a provider of data com-munications and voice services.Headquartered in the UK, Talia owns andoperates a teleport facility in Germany. Itscustomers across various market sectors,especially oil and gas, will now haveaccess to Thuraya’s portfolio of mobilesatellite products and solutions.

Cobham SATCOM has appointedPaul H. Jona as its new senior vice presi-dent (SVP) effective March 3rd. Prior tojoining Cobham, Mr Jona was CEO andchairman of CoActive Technologiesin The Netherlands. He will work along-side incumbent Cobham SVP WaltherThygesen who will retire from his currentduties in June.

Satellite service provider SpeedCasthas announced the opening of new facili-ties with warehousing, staging and testingcapabilities in Singapore, which will focuson the maritime market. Headquartered inHong Kong, SpeedCast is the provider ofSeaCast, a one-stop shop fixed cost mar-itime VSAT solution.

Maritime Broadband hasannounced that DRYNET GmbH hasbeen appointed as agent for the compa-ny’s C-Bird VSAT system in Germany.DRYNET is headed by Holger Ritter, whohas previously worked with companieslike IBM, Boeing, and most recently, MTNSatellite Communications.

www.thuraya.comwww.cobham.comwww.speedcast.comwww.maritimebroadband.com

Digital Ship Limited, 2nd Floor, 2-5 Benjamin Street, London EC1M 5QL , UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 7253 2700 www.thedigitalship.com

To discuss advertising opportunities: Ria Kontogeorgou | Mob: +44 7815 481036 | E: [email protected]

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Made clearer and easier to navigate, our website hasall the information you need to get news about thelatest developments in the maritime world.

Now you can easily reach your clients by placing abanner on our website or newsletter.

For further information get in touch with Ria KontogeorgouMob: +44 7815 481036email: [email protected]

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SATCOMS

MTN launches OceanCast www.mtnsat.com

MTN Communications (MTN) is launch-ing OceanCast, a high-definition (HD) sys-tem for live streaming of events from mar-itime vessels.

The Florida-based satcom providersays that MTN OceanCast enables con-certs, sports tournaments, celebrity inter-views, educational sessions, charter voy-age events, or even unplanned emergen-cies to be broadcast live to any smart-phone, tablet, TV or other device anywherein the world.

“It eliminates the complexity of livebroadcasting from the middle of theocean,” said Chris Leber, executive vicepresident, commercial business develop-ment, MTN.

“This turnkey web solution can be setup to stream in as little as 15 minutes witha simple touch-screen device on the shipconnected through a modem to the MTNnetwork. Our Production Services Teamcan customise the streaming to the cus-tomer’s specific needs.”

Arthur Theodorou, network and fleet ITmanager, Lindblad Expeditions, was respon-sible for his company conducting its firstOceanCast in early March, when it producedits first TV broadcast from its ship NationalGeographic Explorer in South Georgia.

“James Balog, the founder of the ExtremeIce Survey, whose work was featured in thehighly acclaimed documentary ‘ChasingIce,’ did four live to tape interviews toNorth American network and affiliate newsprogrammes,” he explained.

“The HD content from the remote localeprovided a dramatic backdrop to Balog’scomments on his expansion of his ExtremeIce Survey to the southern hemisphere.”

MTN says that vessel operators canshare content, such as educational explo-rations, with minimal impact on their over-all bandwidth or leverage their existingcommunications service.

It notes that they can also create rev-enue-generating events, as they can selectwho views the broadcast, who gets securi-ty access, and generate new revenuesthrough live event streaming. Live chatboxes can be available during a broadcastevent, making it interactive with the view-ing audience.

OceanCast is a new service deliveredthrough MTN’s TV and Broadcast Group.MTN introduced MTN Worldwide TV(MTN TV) as a maritime television servicefor passengers and crew. MTN TV is aturnkey solution, including equipmentinstallation and service provisioning, forMTN partners as well as for vessel opera-tors just using this particular MTN service.

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KVH mini-VSAT for RHLwww.kvh.com

KVH Industries has announced thatReederei Hamburger Lloyd (RHL) haschosen its mini-VSAT Broadband systemto provide satellite communications for itstanker fleet.

The Hamburg-based shipping compa-ny operates 12 oil and chemical tankersand 16 containerships.

KVH says that the 12 tankers will beoutfitted with its TracPhone V7-IP satelliteantenna systems in the next month, whilethe 16 container vessels may potentiallyreceive KVH systems at a later date.

“We needed a solution for the growingbandwidth usage onboard our vessels, foroperational tasks such as fuel consump-tion monitoring and electronic chartupdates and also for crew access to inter-net,” said Peter Fromming, fleet directorfor RHL Hamburger Lloyd Tanker.

“KVH provides a reliable satellite com-munications solution with global coverageand also the onboard network manage-ment that is essential for controlling accessonboard and staying within budget. Weregard the KVH systems as having themost suitable airtime plans and return oninvestment for our needs.”

The KVH systems will be installed ontankers known as Safety Chemical OilTanker (SCOT) 8000s, double-hulled ves-sels which are propelled and manoeuvredby two separate drive systems and have acapacity of 8,000 tonnes.

“RHL Hamburger Lloyd Tanker isknown as a leader and innovator with its

involvement in the SCOT 8000 tankers,and they are showing forward thinkingagain by choosing KVH's end-to-endsolution for onboard management andconnectivity,” said Brent Bruun, execu-tive vice president of KVH's MobileBroadband Group.

The TracPhone V7-IP is a 60 cm (24 inch)diameter, 3-axis, gyro-stabilised antennafor Ku-band service, and will come with anIntegrated CommBox Modem (ICM), abelow decks unit that integrates all antennacontrol, onboard network management,and modem functions.

In related news, KVH has alsoannounced that it is adding four marinesatellite TV antenna systems in itsTracVision line.

TracVision TV1, TV3, TV5, and TV6 aredesigned for use on merchant vessels andyachts. They feature an IP-enabled belowdecks hub and a web-based user interfaceproviding system access from any smart-phone, tablet, smart TV, or computer.

The TracVision TV-series is designed tosupport DIRECTV, DISH Network andDISH HD, Bell TV, and nearly all Ku-bandservices around the globe, says KVH.

The ultra-compact TracVision TV1 (32cm, 12.5-inch antenna) is meant for use incoastal cruising or travelling on inlandwaterways.

The small TracVision TV3 (37 cm, 14.5-inch antenna) has single and dual linearLNB options for multiple receiver installa-tions, and is designed for use when travel-ing within 100 nautical miles offshore.

The TracVision TV5 (45 cm, 18-inch

antenna) provides access to worldwideregional programming. The TracVisionTV6 (60 cm, 24-inch antenna) provides thetracking, reception, and extended coveragearea needed when voyaging offshore forshort or long passages.

All four systems have a single coaxialcable for power, data, and video, whichKVH says enables easy installations andretrofits. The IP-enabled antenna controlunit with Ethernet connection and built-inWi-Fi interface allows access to systeminformation from any Wi-Fi device.

“From your smartphone, you can easilycomplete the setup of the system and start

enjoying TV entertainment,” said KVH’sCEO Martin Kits van Heyningen.

“Plus, the single-cable design meansthe TracVision TV-series is ideal for retro-fits, no matter what type of system a boat may have.”

A Single Wire Multiswitch (SWM-8)integrated into the below decks TV-Hubsupports up to eight DIRECTV receivers,while an IP AutoSwitch option deliversautomatic satellite switching on DISHPro and DiSEqC-compatible services.

KVH says that its use of DVB-S2 tech-nology ensures compatibility with currentand future Ku-band satellites.

RHL will install the V7-IP system from KVH

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ECDIS - BNWAS - AIS

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SATCOMS


www.o3bnetworks.com

Royal Caribbean reports that bandwidthspeeds exceeding 500 Mbps have beenachieved during system tests for the O3bsatellite communications solution it isrolling out on two of its cruise ships.

The Miami-based cruise line will relyon O3b’s constellation of Medium EarthOrbit (MEO) satellites to provide connec-tivity on board the Oasis of the Seas andthe Allure of the Seas once implementationof the services is completed.

A set of custom-built antennas wereshipped from Israel to Florida last month,and installed on Oasis of the Seas. RoyalCaribbean says that testing showed theship could match broadband connectionspeeds on shore.

This technology will also reduce latencyfrom 750 milliseconds to approximately140 milliseconds, says Bill Martin, chiefinformation officer, Royal CaribbeanCruises.

“O3b, our satellite communicationspartner, calls it 'fibre speed with satellitereach,' and this is exactly the result we areseeing in our tests,” Mr Martin said.

Adam Goldstein, president & CEO ofRoyal Caribbean International, said thatpassengers on board the ships would beable to use the new services to streamvideo or post video clips to Facebook.

Royal Caribbean records 500Mbps link over O3b

“If you're a first-time guest on one ofthese ships, you won't realise how muchwork it took to make the wireless so per-vasive – or that your cell 'tower' is 4,900miles over your head. If you are a returnguest, you'll be blown away by theimprovement,” he said.

The cruise line says it is currentlydeveloping pricing plans for addedservice.

O3b’s network is set to be bolstered bythe imminent launch of a second set offour satellites to complete its eight-satelliteconstellation, with the company havingannounced that it has completed allrequired ground testing on the new space-craft and that they are now ready to ship.

The satellites will shortly begin theirjourney from the Thales Alenia Spacefacility in Rome to Kourou, FrenchGuiana, to be launched from the CentreSpatial Guyanais (CSG) as early as the firstweek of June (pending final confirmationfrom launch provider, Arianespace).

Following the launch and integrationof these new satellites with the fouralready in orbit, O3b says it will startcommercial service for all O3b customerson a global basis.

“With four more satellites finished andfour more to launch later in the year, 2014is the breakout year for O3b,” said SteveCollar, CEO of O3b Networks.

Cloud-based ship managementplatform under development

www.orange-business.com

Orange Business Services has announcedthat it has joined a European Union-spon-sored initiative to develop a cloud-basedship management platform.

As part of the EIS (ExzellenzinitiativeSchiffsmanagement) initiative, Orangewill provide ship-to-shore, vessel-basedand land-based communication infra-structure which will be used to imple-ment a cloud-based satellite solution onseveral vessels run by COLUMBIA ShipManagement, one of the four largest shipmanagers worldwide.

“Communication at sea constitutesspecific challenges and was historically asource of problems in terms of cost, per-formance and support,” notes TimothyScheller, project manager at COLUMBIAShip Management.

“With the help of Orange BusinessServices, we want to utilise this project totest and design solutions that help theindustry take a giant leap forward andset new standards in maritime IT.”

“With this initiative, we want to build a remotely managed, integrated commu-nication and application infrastructure on board that intelligently connects thevessel to the office at the lowest possiblecost.”

The solution provided by Orange com-prises the communication hardware forthe vessels, the onshore data centre, aswell as the design and development oftraffic optimisation tools.

Orange says that the integration ofsatellite communications with a Business

VPN, a fully managed IP-based VPNservice, with private access to cloud serv-ices will enable COLUMBIA ShipManagement to benefit from a securesolution without relying on the openinternet.

Orange adds that this type of infra-structure could not only make it easier tomanage vessels, but also allow compa-nies to seamlessly integrate them into atheir corporate infrastructure, therebyfacilitating real-time business decisions,enabling cost savings, and improvingsafety and crew welfare.

“With the new cloud-based platformin this project, we can demonstrate howimproved communication between ves-sels and their management will stream-line business tools and decisions,” saidMichel Verbist, head of InternationalBusiness Development, Satellite atOrange Business Services.

“Real-time ship-to-shore communica-tion can provide a competitive advantagefor both large and small shipping compa-nies around the world.”

The EIS initiative is supported by theEuropean Regional Development Fund(ERDF) and the City of Hamburg,Germany. Other subprojects of EIS willbe implemented by partners such asDNV/GL Group, evidanza, HumanceMaritime Services, MarDynamics andPortal Systems.

The consortium of partners plans toestablish joint sales activities and agree-ments in order to conduct joint researchand development activities fromHamburg.

The O3b system has recently been installed on the Oasis of the Seas

‘Virtual ER’ by Future Care and Globecomm

www.globecommsystems.com

Communications company GlobecommMaritime has partnered with medicalservices provider Future Care to offer avideo streaming telemedicine solution forcrew in remote locations.This ‘virtual ER’ combines Future Care’s

Caring for the Crew programme withGlobecomm’s Access Chat Plus live videostreaming software.

Called Future Care Live, it providesremote medical care to commercial ship-ping and marine personnel in the event ofan emergency illness or injury at sea, aswell as being available to respond to rou-tine healthcare needs.

The system uses the video streamingproperties of Access Chat Plus, allowingfor the simultaneous participation of gen-eral and specialist physicians, hospitaltreatment staff, a Future Care case manag-er, shipowner representatives and familymembers of the patient on board the ship.

Originally developed for military use,Future Care Live meets the requirementsof the US Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act and international stan-dards for the electronic transmission ofprivate medical information.

Other capabilities include virtual face-to-face secure communication in one-to-one or group settings for non-medical dis-cussions, as well as the encrypted trans-mission of business documents of any sizeand in any format between ship and shore.

“Telemedicine is a truly shared benefit– to the ship or boat owner or shipmanag-er, as well as to individual crew members– and in ways not imaginable a few shortyears ago,” said Christina DeSimone,president and CEO of Future Care.

“Seafarers will benefit from the virtualpresence of Future Care’s network physi-cians and other medical professionals onboard ship while the shipowner and hisP&I Club will save in medical costs, timelost and avoidance of deviation.”

Malcolm McMaster, president ofGlobecomm Maritime, added:“Shipowners and managers are more thanever focused on the ‘human factor’ as thekey to safe and efficient operations.”

“Until now, this realisation has lackedthe mechanism to truly provide innovativeservices like telemedicine. Putting AccessChat Plus together with Future Care createsthe opportunity to deliver a service that canimprove healthcare for mariners and alsobe highly cost effective.”

p1-12:p1-14.qxd 04/04/2014 15:19

Bringing the best together

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For more information visit www.cobham.com/satcom

The most important thing we build is trust

By uniting the two most trusted brands in the industry – SAILOR and Sea Tel – Cobham SATCOM provides the world’s largest portfolio of advanced maritime communications technology and global support. Today, we are driving a new era of excellence and innovation for the maritime sector: no one else offers more or does more to keep vessels of all sizes and their crews connected, compliant and safe, worldwide.

• The widest choice – the most comprehensive portfolio of mission–critical maritime communications systems

• The largest coverage – more VSAT and FleetBroadband installations than any other communication specialist

• The broadest service network – 70+ global service centers, 12 regional offices and 400 trusted distributors, worldwide

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SATCOMS


AA irbus Defence and Space haslaunched a new Pharostar PlusVSAT package with increased

throughput and volume limits, available tonew customers but which will also offercustomers on the company's existing bun-dles the option to move to the package anddouble their throughput or capacity at noadditional cost.

Pharostar Plus will be the first maritimeproduct released under the company’snew AuroraGlobal concept, which will aimto provide the bridge from existing satcomservices through to the next generation ofservices made possible by high throughputsatellite (HTS) networks in both Ku- andKa-band.

Pharostar Plus, or WaveCall Plus for cus-tomers of the Airbus Defence and Space(DS) direct sales channel Marlink, will allowusers to double their data volume or speedcompared to their existing agreements ifthey choose to move to the new package.

The Pharostar Plus and WaveCall Pluspackages also include unlimited L-bandback-up services in the monthly cost, viaeither FleetBroadband or Iridium Pilot, aswell as Airbus DS’ XChange communica-tions management solution, which is usedto manage switching between VSAT andthe L-band back-up, but also offers a rangeof included value added services to theshipping company.

The package is based on existing Ku-band VSAT capacity currently, but userswill be able to move to HTS satellites inboth Ku-band and Ka-band in the future asrequired, like Intelsat's EPIC or Inmarsat'sGlobal Xpress.

If the ship owner has a convertibleIntellian 100GX, Sailor 900B or Sea Tel 4012Ku-band antenna, they will be providedwith an upgrade kit if they wish to useGlobal Xpress (GX), while opting for EPICwill mean that no upgrade is needed to theKu-band hardware on board the vessel.

“AuroraGlobal is our initiative towardsthe future, a high throughput satellite ini-tiative that we’re bringing to the market.This is our concept for future highthroughput satellites, to make sure that wedeliver the ‘best of class’ in the segmentswe serve,” said Tore Morten Olsen, head ofMaritime Satcom activities at Airbus DS.

“For maritime it’s about making surewe bring the maximum value to theshipowners – not having to wait for thefuture but really taking advantage of thefuture technologies now. A lot has hap-pened on the technology side on the landbased equipment, what we are waiting foris the satellites. But we can already start toemulate the services.”

“It is very difficult for shipowners outthere to select between all of the individualofferings. They should not have to. Theyshould (be offered services) which arecompletely integrated, where the back-bone, where the frequency doesn’t reallymatter. What they are occupied with is

operating their vessels, comms shouldwork and we should make it work forthem. They shouldn’t have to selectbetween service A, B, C or D – we shouldtake care of that. And that’s what we’redoing through our Aurora concept.”

AuroraGlobal will look to offer a “net-work of networks” providing highthroughput services across various marketverticals, acting as a single worldwidebrand for Airbus' multi-band portfolio forgovernment, enterprise and maritime cus-tomers, which will incorporate Ku-band,Ka-band and X-band satellite services.

One particular benefit of this approachfrom the maritime point of view, notes MrOlsen, will be access to some of the devel-opment work done on military projects toimprove commercial options for shipping.

“Everyone understands that the govern-ment sector requires reliability, you cannotlose a soldier out there because the commsaren’t working. As part of the group we’reable to leverage some of those systems tobring increased reliability also into theenterprise and maritime segments,” he said.

“Our key message to the market is thatwe will be the most reliable provider there.We’re not always going to be the cheapest,for sure, but we will be the one bringingthe most value for money and being themost reliable partner they can find.”

With the Plus products, the satellite net-works currently included will compriseKu-band from Airbus DS’ current range ofpartners and, once they are available,Global Xpress and EPIC. Other highthroughput satellite (HTS) services willalso likely be added as they come online.

“Aurora Global is a concept that coversall of the known services on the market.There are small regional services that willnot be embedded, but GX, EPIC, and otheradditional Ku-band capacity is clearly partof it,” said Mr Olsen.

“It will include THOR 7 (from TelenorSatellite Broadcasting), but we have notsigned an agreement yet. It’s not exclu-sively GX and EPIC. Not at all. Telesat isalso involved in initiatives on the highthroughput satellite side too. It’s our ini-tiative for high throughput systems acrossthe segments. We’re building an infra-structure on the backbone side whichallows these services to be used seamlesslyacross all our platforms.”

“So we’ll continue to operate agnostic ofthe satellite provider. We’re not going tolock ourselves into EPIC, or GX, or Telenoror anyone. We are big enough and haveenough market share to use the best of allbreeds. We can consolidate the require-ments of our enterprise group, our govern-ment group and our maritime group to getthe cost levels, the cost per bit, down to theabsolute minimum. Then we build valueon top.”

Mr Olsen believes that this ‘agnostic’approach should help shipping companiesto access speeds and data volumes that suittheir specific requirements under a multi-band philosophy.

From the Airbus point of view, HTS isnot about Ka-band or Ku-band, or X-bandor C-band, it is about providing whateverservices bring the most value to the mar-ket. For maritime, Mr Olsen says thatthat’s most likely a combination of Ku-band and Ka-band.

“On top of that, speed is going to bekey,” he adds. “There’s been a lot of talk inthe market about 50 Mbps to the vessels,for instance, in maritime. We’ve alreadydone that. With offshore vessels this sum-mer we’ve done CIR (committed informa-tion rate) of 12 Mbps, for PGS, Dolphin etc.High throughput is there.”

“The reason why the market is talkingabout 50 Mbps is that that is the design specof the GX satellites. On EPIC, the Intelsatsatellites, we could probably do somethinglike 200 Mbps. It all depends on the needs ofthe specific segment we’re serving.”

“The important thing is that the solu-tions need to be scalable, because we knowthat demands are changing. If I think tenyears back, I was happy at home with a 128kbps line, really happy. Today at my homeI have 100 Mbps, and I think it’s a bit slow.That type of evolution is also coming to thepeople that work at sea. People that aregoing to be seafarers, now in school, arenot going to accept to be months awayfrom any connectivity.”

Double downThe double bandwidth or double datadeals will apply depending on the type ofpackage that has been selected, with theguaranteed speed packages the more cost-ly of the two, as Ghani Behloul, chief mar-keting officer at Airbus DS, explains.

“We have two types of offering. TheEntry level is a gigabyte-based service, likeyou might have with your mobile operator

capping you after a certain amount of giga-bytes, and what we have done is doublethe allowance,” he said.

“We also have the Premium, our guar-anteed speed service, CIR (committedinformation rate). There we also have dou-bled up to 256 kbps CIR. For plans abovethat we have capped the scheme, but it’ssomething we are thinking about how wecan further increase that.”

“We have integrated a free L-bandback-up, applying only for business usage.We have a defined fair use policy whichwe share with the client, it’s in the T&Cs,which is roughly limited to e-mail, but itcan be unlimited e-mail.”

The L-band back-up that can be chosenas part of the package can be eitherFleetBroadband or Iridium Pilot, whichAirbus has included in the monthly feebased on its confidence that its Ku-bandservices will be available to enough of itscustomers enough of the time as to makethose L-band bills insignificant.

“For global shipping this fits the vastmajority of clients. We have seen, forclients with VSAT and MSS installed sepa-rately, they have very little use of the MSS.We have very reliable VSAT, and with theextension of the coverage the period oftime that the vessel is outside the VSATcoverage is very limited. So we feel com-fortable integrating that and including itunder one monthly fee,” said Mr Behloul.

“There is a slight difference (in price),Iridium is slightly cheaper. It’s up to theclient to decide. What we also offer is thepossibility for the client to use his existingFB (FleetBroadband), if he’s happy with FBhe can keep his FB and then we bring in anadditional antenna, which is the VSAT. Wecreate this package then using the existingequipment on board.”

“He can (also arrange his own L-bandcontract), and we will sell the VSAT sepa-rately. But the vast majority of the time theclient wants to have something simple,integrated, from one company providingone invoice. This offer will make it easier tohave one provider managing the overallcommunications. But it’s a choice, they arenot obliged to take it all from us.”

Adding in the flexibility to move to HTSservice in the future, be that Ku-band orKa-band, is a fundamentally importantpart of the offer from the Airbus DS pointof view, to allow customers to maximisetheir bandwidth now while having theoption of choosing among a variety of HTSservices once they are available, shouldthey so wish.

Related developmentsThere are two major developments whichhave made this kind of offering possiblefor Airbus DS – one of which is the agree-ment of new contracts on the forthcomingHTS networks, but also the developmentof antenna technology by its equipmentpartners that will allow the same hardware

Airbus takes aim at HTS market with Plus packageAirbus Defence and Space has unveiled its latest product, with which it aims to capture a significant share of the market for the next generation of high throughout satellite (HTS) services – the company is betting

that maintaining flexibility and choice will be the trump card in winning over the maritime sector

‘We can consolidate the requirements of our Group to get cost levels, the cost per bit, down to the absoluteminimum and build value on top’ – Tore Morten Olsen, Airbus DS

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Digital Ship


to be used in different frequency bands.“What is allowing us to create this

‘future’ offer is the antenna. It’s not only theantenna of course, we have our own infra-structure, but thanks to the antennas’ capa-bility to be moved to Ka-band, or movedfrom Ka-band to Ku-band, or maybe to hav-ing double feeds with Ku-band and Ka-band, we can offer a fully integrated multi-band service,” said Mr Behloul.

“What we have today is the result of thelast two years’ hard work by the antennamanufacturers, a lot of innovation, and weare in discussions with them and definitelyin the future we will start to see hybridantennas. The question really is what thecost will be for this antenna, and this willdetermine which type of clients will use it.There are already antennas in use todaymanaging Ku-band and X-band.”

For the moment, Intellian and Cobham1-metre convertible Ku- to Ka-band anten-nas are available with the Plus package, aswell as another 80cm Cobham model.Airbus will be offering financing optionsfor the antennas, with the aim of easing thecost of upgrading to the package by financ-ing the equipment.

“We do not want people to have tochange the equipment they have on board.Of course, if you want to be able to choosebetween Ka-band and Ku-band you’ll needto buy an antenna that’s interchangeable. Ifyou want that flexibility you can do it. Butthe important thing for us is providing aseries of value added services that willapply across all of the frequencies andtechnologies,” said Mr Olsen.

“We want this to be future-proof, so wewill, through this network, allow cus-tomers to change to GX, the Inmarsat prod-uct, if that’s what they want, which we willdistribute through our announced GXagreement. We can use the same terminalto operate with EPIC satellites, the Ku-band high throughput system. You can doall of that without making any fundamen-tal changes to the investment you havealready made. If you want to do it with usthat’s fine, if you want to do it with a thirdparty we will also not block you fromdoing that as the equipment is open.”

“You can use anything, to have thechangeable antennas only gives you futureflexibility. If you are uncertain todaywhether your future is Ku-band highthroughput or GX then you should choosea changeable antenna, that gives you theflexibility. If you don’t want that flexibility,no problem.”

The first of the two major contractualdevelopments that have also made thisfuture-facing Plus offering possible wasAirbus’ strategic agreement with Inmarsat,announced in December, to become a dis-tribution partner for Global Xpress – theresult of long running negotiations withwhich regular readers of Digital Ship willno doubt be familiar.

While that deal added the Ka-band HTSelement that Airbus DS has included in itsAuroraGlobal concept, the Ku-band HTScapacity that will be offered to customers ina few years’ time will be based on a morerecent contract with Intelsat, an allianceagreement sealed at the beginning of Marchthat will see Airbus enhance its current Ku-band network and allow the company tobridge customers to the EPIC platform.

For maritime customers, Airbus DS

notes that EPIC brings the potential for newservices that enable throughput in the rangeof 25-60 Gbps – around 10 times that of tra-ditional satellites. Each spot beam can sup-port maritime users with 1m antennas fea-turing downlink speeds of up to 290 Mbpsand uplink speeds of up to 225 Mbps.

“We have EPIC coming, but there isactually new capacity being added into ournetwork and we are already leveragingthat. That’s why we are increasing thevalue we can give to clients compared tothree months ago,” said Mr Behloul.

“We believe this is a critical element,because what we hear a lot from the mar-ket is that clients are hesitating a little bit,saying ‘shall we wait?’, while at the sametime they have pretty urgent needs.”

“We believe that coming with an offerthat creates a bridge for them to make theirchoice afterwards easier is going to allowthem to benefit now, especially on the costper usage this package is offering them.”

Airbus also points to Intelsat’s openarchitecture and backward compatibility onEPIC as a key consideration for the maritimemarket, as it will work seamlessly with theexisting Ku-band wide beam fleet andenable customers to achieve higher speedswithout changing onboard hardware.

This would contrast with GX, whoseKa-band frequency will not work withexisting Ku-band antennas (apart fromthose recently developed convertibleantennas already mentioned).

“The EPIC agreement is almost a chap-ter in itself, we spent a lot of time on it,”said Mr Olsen

“We are taking EPIC into the maritimemarket, so far the other EPIC announce-ments that have been made have been inaero, in the cruise segment with MTN,and the rig market with Harris CapRock,”he said.

“For our agreement we are bridging allof our current Ku-band services, whichincludes all of those segments, into the EPICworld. This is the first time that a truly glob-al mobility agreement has been made.”

CompetitionPerhaps the most intriguing aspect of thelaunch of this new Pharostar Plus productand its WaveCall counterpart, beyond thedouble bandwidth/data offer, is whathints it might provide about Airbus DS’sales strategy as the maritime industrymoves towards the HTS era.

The most obvious direct competitor tothe new package is Inmarsat’s ownXpressLink product, which offers Ku-bandVSAT with FleetBroadband back-upincluded in the monthly fee.

Mr Behloul admits that the pricing onPharostar Plus will be similar to XpressLinkprices, “but the service is much better!”

“This is the reality, because InmarsatKu-band coverage is very limited. We arenot reselling this (XpressLink) package asyou know, but what we are hearing fromclients is that the Ku- service is gettingpoor. Which is not a surprise,” he said.

“Let’s be clear, we are not creating apackage to compete with XpressLink,that’s not the intention. The intention isactually to provide an offer which can beupgraded when GX is ready.”

While similarities between the twopackages may exist in terms of their cur-rent form, and their pricing, one major dif-

ference is in their approach to services onthe next generation of satellites – whileInmarsat will move all of its XpressLinkcustomers on to Ka-band on Global Xpress,Pharostar Plus users will have both EPICand GX to choose from.

Airbus DS says that it will also go so faras to extend flexibility within its customercontracts to allow for switching betweenbands within the same contract term – so,

for example, a user who starts a three-yearcontract on Ka-band but then decides Ku-band would be a better fit half way throughwill be able to switch, and vice versa.

The switch away from Ka-band and onto Ku- would be complicated slightly bythe fact that GX will be purchased byAirbus from Inmarsat as a managed serv-ice on a per-vessel basis, which would seeAirbus have to take the risk itself that itcould pass that vessel contract on to anoth-er user. Switching from Ku-band to Ka-would not present the same difficulty.

Mr Olsen is confident however that thecompany’s size should allow it to manageany such risk that might be involved.

“We have some terms in our GX agree-ment with Inmarsat, but with the size wehave we are balancing out those termswith Inmarsat to ensure we meet them andat the same time provide flexibility to themarket,” he said.

“If you think like this – I have 500 ves-sels on GX, or 1,000 vessels, whatever it is.Some go out because they want to go toKu-band, others come in. What I do is opti-mise that total span of vessels across all thesegments with them. So Inmarsat will con-tinue to invoice me, if I commit for 500 ves-sels for three years they will continue toinvoice me for those vessels for those threeyears. But I can choose which vessels arepart of that pool.”

“So, you could say that if there is one yearremaining of a three year contract with us,we would normally manage that ourselves.They could upgrade and we could take the‘bet’ if Inmarsat requires their commitment,or we could balance that with other fleets.We’re buying a managed service, butwhether it’s vessel A or B that is consumingthat managed service is of no importance.We’re not buying bulk capacity.”

This approach differs considerably tothe arrangement with Intelsat, which does

indeed include a capacity agreement for acertain amount of Ku-band.

“With Inmarsat the agreement we haveis on a managed service, there we buy fromInmarsat some packages. EPIC is more akind of traditional VSAT business, you buythe Megahertz,” explained Mr Behloul.

“It’s a transition, or bridge agreement.We are going to buy, we need to buy morecapacity because of the number of vesselswe need to support, but also the increaseddata traffic we need to support. So we arebuying from them additional capacity, as itis now, but also the future one, EPIC.”

“The GX concept is about a pre-definedservice made by Inmarsat,” added Mr Olsen.

“The only thing someone is doing withit is to re-sell it. We may tweak it a little bit,but in essence it’s a package fromInmarsat. It’s a closed network, in a sense,there’s not much you can do.”

“On EPIC it’s just Ku-band capacity thatwe can do whatever we like with and cre-ate unique services for the specific marketsthat we want to serve.”

The nature of these different contractsdoes raise the question of where thegreater incentive lies for Airbus DS when itcomes to selling the EPIC and GlobalXpress HTS services.

Basic economics would suggest that abusiness that has committed to bulk-pur-chasing a certain amount of stock of a prod-uct (e.g. Megahertz from Intelsat) wouldhave a greater incentive to sell that stockahead of another product that it sells oncommission in single units as orders comein (e.g. a GX managed service for one ship).

To use an analogy – suppose I have paid$10 to bulk purchase 10 apples (at $1 each),which I can sell for $2. I also have an agree-ment to buy oranges at $1 on a single itembasis as required, which I can also sell for$2. What do I do if the total market for fruitis 10 buyers?

If I sell 5 apples and 5 oranges I willhave paid out $15 ($10 bulk and $5 for 5single items), and taken in $20 in revenue –and $5 in profit.

If I sell 10 apples and 0 oranges I willstill have $20 in revenue but only paid out$10 for the bulk order – $10 in profit.

If I can’t persuade anyone to buy myapples and all 10 want oranges, I will havepaid out $20 ($10 bulk and $10 single items)to make $20 in revenue – no profit at all.

Of course, an analogy like this one onlyoffers an extremely simplified view of themarket, but the basic economic incentive tosell stock to which the company hasalready committed is a strong one. Whenasked, however, Mr Olsen was reluctant tomake any comment on the potential prof-itability of the services in the two differentfrequency bands.

“Our philosophy is to stay technologyagnostic and provide the shipowner withchoices in terms of satcom solutions. Somesolutions will always be more profitablethan others to sell, but our focus is whatthe customer wants, and that defines whatwe sell,” he said.

“I do sincerely believe that you shouldnever underestimate the success ofInmarsat in the maritime market, so I’mreally sure that GX will find its market,clearly. But I don’t think it’s going to be theonly thing, I think there will be other ele-ments there. As Airbus it’s our obligationto provide choice.”

‘We are not creating a package tocompete with XpressLink, that’s not theintention’ – Ghani Behloul, Airbus DS

DS

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SATCOMS


II n 2013, the global maritime satellitecommunication market achieved 4.5per cent growth in operating termi-

nals and a 10 per cent increase in revenueat the satellite operator level.

Growth mainly resulted from increas-ing data usage from vessels, installationsfor newly-built ships and previouslyuntapped markets, migration to highercapacity, higher revenue generating sys-tems, and adjusted pricing strategy of cer-tain satellite operators.

The generally unfavorable macroeco-nomic environment for the shippingindustry has not significantly affected thesatellite communication market thus far.

The MSS broadband services such asInmarsat FleetBroadband, and IridiumOpenPort (or its new version Pilot) havebeen growing at 65 per cent CAGR (com-pound annual growth rate) for revenueand 35 per cent CAGR for terminals in thelast three years.

The maritime VSAT business has alsoshown strong growth over the last fewyears, starting in Northern Europe andsubsequently spreading worldwide veryquickly. The number of VSAT maritimeterminals has increased significantly, witha CAGR of 13 per cent over the last threeyears.

Ku-band VSAT is the major growth

driver, representing approximately 74 percent of the maritime VSAT market in 2013.A few recently launched Ku-band anten-nas are only one meter in diameter, andhave quickly become popular in the mar-ket. Examples include the Sailor 900antenna from Cobham Satcom, the 4012antenna from SeaTel, and the V100 anten-na from Intellian.

A current trend is observable in the convergence of satellite technologieswith the introduction of hybrid L- and

Ku-band terminals (Ka-band comingsoon) in an attempt to overcome data vol-ume and speed issues of MSS coverageand the reliability issues of Ku-band mar-itime VSAT.

Some equipment manufacturers andservice providers even add a terrestrialcomponent (e.g. VHF) to the terminals,applying a least-cost routing system basedon system availability.

Not just connectivity In the past, satellite operators and serviceproviders were mainly focused on connectivity and not directly involved in either content delivered through con-nectivity or applications running overnetworks.

In 2013, several initiatives from lead-ing market players show that content

and applications will also be integratedinto connectivity service for the maritimesector.

In May 2013, KVH acquired HeadlandMedia Limited, a media and entertain-ment services company providing com-mercially licensed news, sports, movies,and music content in the maritime, hotel,and retail markets.

Inmarsat also has plans for a serviceenablement platform (SEP) that willinclude an application hosting infrastruc-ture over its future Global Xpress Ka-band network as well as the currentFleetBroadband L-band networks. By theend of 2013, Inmarsat had approximately75 certified application providers, includ-ing Microsoft.

The addition of content and applica-tions into the service portfolio could helpsatellite operators and service providersmake a difference in competition, gener-ate ancillary revenues, and drive moreusage of connectivity.

Content such as movies, news, andsporting events broadcasting are increas-ingly demanded by crew members, thoughthe acceptance of such content over satel-lite mainly depends on the pricing strategyand quality of the content.

The acceptance of applications seemsmore challenging since it will take time to find the exact needs of the crew.Professional applications will requireshipping companies to adopt the applica-tions and integrate them into existingoperations which will not happenovernight.

Capacity supplyAs one of the fastest-growing markets,the maritime communications sector hasattracted more and more investment insatellite capacity.

A large number of recently launchedand planned satellites have extended coverage and optimised capacities forwater areas.

One of the most important projects is Intelsat Epic, which is designed formobility, and is expected to bring 10 timesmore capacity than traditional satellites.Another project is Global Xpress which isrun by Inmarsat.

Without quoting all the upcoming new

generation maritime satellite communica-tions offers, we see a clear trend offeringthe end user community a lot morechoice, which has never existed in the lasttwo decades.

In the next 12 months, the launch of newsatellites will significantly change the land-scape of satellite supply over oceanicregions. Total available C-, Ku- and Ka-band FSS capacity is expected to increasefrom 15 Gbps in 2013 to 52 Gbps in 2014and 91 Gbps in 2016.

Considering the total satellite capacitywhich will be available, there could beoversupply in the market or a large vari-ety of new applications could drivedemand growth.

It is expected that the cost per megabytecould decrease, especially in geographicareas where most new satellite systemswill provide coverage. However, we donot expect a significant drop in the ARPU(average revenue per user), since serviceproviders might try to adjust their pricingstrategy by suggesting a higher volume ofmonthly traffic to maintain or evenincrease the price.

Outlook 2023Looking forward into the future,Euroconsult expects that the maritimesatellite communications market will growby 6 per cent in terminals and 7 per cent inrevenue at the satellite operator level in thecoming decade.

In particular, the growth in VSAT will exceed 10 per cent in both terminalsand revenue.

Most deep sea ships have several com-munication solutions onboard to separatecommunication means for different userfunctions which can lead to penetrationrates of well beyond 100 per cent in certainmarket segments.

In terms of regional capacity require-ment, North Atlantic Ocean currentlystands for about 35 per cent of total capac-ity demand followed by North PacificOcean, Mediterranean and other oceanicareas. With the increasing demand inbandwidth and the launch of new satel-lites, especially HTS systems, we expectthat the total demand for C-, Ku- and Ka-band satellite capacity will exceed 30 percent CAGR in the coming decade.

Maritime Satcom Market: Changes in the Competitive Landscape

Despite the global economic downturn and subsequent commercial pressure on vessel operators in the last few years,the maritime satellite communications industry has continued to expand, with MSS broadband and Ku-band VSAT

driving market growth. Changes in technology look set to push this even further, writes Wei Li, Euroconsult

Growth of satellite capacity available in maritime regions

About the AuthorWei Li is a Senior Consultant for Euroconsult based in Paris,France. He is the Editor of ‘Maritime Telecom Solutions by Satel-lite, Mobile Satellite Communications Market Survey’[email protected]

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p1-12:p1-14.qxd 04/04/2014 15:21

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www.ics-shipping.org

The International Chamber of Shipping(ICS) is urging the International MaritimeOrganization (IMO) to focus on develop-ing a global CO2 reporting system beforelooking into efficiency indexing of ships.

The IMO Marine EnvironmentProtection Committee (MEPC), whichstarted on 31 March, aims to makeprogress on the development of a globalsystem of monitoring and reporting ofCO2 emissions from ships.

ICS says that it would support a global

www.krs.co.kr

The Korean Register (KR) has announcedthe release of SeaTrust-HullScan, a soft-ware solution to analyse and appraise avessel’s hull structure in accordance withthe new harmonised common structuralrules (CSR-H).

CSR-H is an integrated set of rules inwhich CSR-BC (Common Structural Rulesfor Bulk Carriers) and CSR-OT (CommonStructural Rules for Oil Tankers) arebrought together. CSR-H will be applied tobulk carriers of more than 90m and oiltankers of more than 150m which operatein international waters and are contractedto be built after 1 July, 2015.

SeaTrust–HullScan is a ship design sup-port program that enables designers andbuilders to accurately apply IACS CSR-Hand all subsequent amendments whendesigning and constructing a vessel.

KR says that its software optimises aship’s design structure by implementingan accurate calculation according to thenew rules and generating results that areas close as possible to the target standardsset by the user.

SeaTrust–HullScan features automaticmodelling in fine mesh analysis. Rule load-ing, corrosion additions and boundaryconditions are also automatically generat-ed to carry out direct strength assessments.

The new software is offered in two for-mats. The basic version delivers all the rel-evant calculation functions required toapply CSR-H and KR rules whilst the pre-mium service includes a range of addition-al functions relating to vessel design andthe verification of a ship’s structural safety.

“We have strengthened the user-sup-port function within the program byadding a feedback facility which enablesproblem solving within 24 hours,” saidJeong-ryul Lee, general manager of KR’s ITConvergence Research Team.

“We will continue to develop the pro-gram and provide additional functions toreinforce the value it adds to hull structureanalysis.”

In related news, the Korean Register(KR) has also announced that it has donat-ed its KR-CON software to students at theWorld Maritime University (WMU).

KR-CON is an international databaseprogram which contains the texts of all

IMO Conventions, Codes, Resolutions andCirculars in a single USB memory stick.

The Korean classification society saysthat it enables users to identify regulationsrelevant to a specific task, and is alreadyused by surveyors, port state controlinspectors, shipping companies, shipyardsand design houses in more than 30 coun-tries.

The software is available in USB formatand from the KR website (krcon.krs.co.kr)where all new regulations are immediatelyupdated.

KR has been donating its software toWMU since 2012 and, this year, studentsand the faculty were given access to the lat-est version of KR-CON from USB devicesand a new mobile app which is due to bereleased by KR in April. The value of thesoftware donated is approximately$250,000.

“We sincerely appreciate the generosityof KR for donating its prestigious KR-CONsoftware for the third consecutive year,”said Neil Bellefontaine, WMU vice presi-dent Academic.

“It will contribute greatly to the studiesof our students and our faculty.”

SOFTWARE


www.eniram.fi

Eniram has launched an LNG-specific ver-sion of its Vessel Performance Manager(VPM), an optimisation tool which moni-tors energy consumption and offers guid-ance on how to save fuel.

The Finnish company unveiled its newproduct at Gastech 2014.

Vessel Performance Manager (VPM)uses the Eniram Vessel Platform (EVP)installed onboard a vessel and integratedwith other onboard systems (such as thebridge and automation systems) to collectperformance data using sensor networktechnology. The LNG version collects spe-cific data such as boil-off and reliquifica-tion plant efficiency.

A dashboard shows the main energyproducers and consumers in one screen;users can click to explore the behaviour of

a specific component and compare it toanother component in the vessel's energymanagement system.

Shore management can analyse the per-formance of one vessel, or compare sever-al vessels as VPM presents a set of nor-malised KPIs.

“Eniram Vessel Performance Manager(VPM) is a comprehensive energy man-agement tool that will allow users on LNGcarriers to analyse and track the total ener-gy efficiency of their vessel in real time,”said Pyry Åvist, VP Marketing. “In addi-tion, the system is deeply integrated withother Eniram products to offer actionableguidance to vessel crew.”

“In order for us to give optimisationguidance, we had to develop a method tomodel the world's most complex vessels,which now enables us to track and predictcritical areas such as boil-off.”

Optimisation tool for LNG carriers

Eniram’s VPM now has an LNG-specific version

OCTOPUS for ‘walk to work’ vessel

Korean Register releases hull structure analysis software

ICS on CO2: reporting before indexing reporting system, provided that the mech-anism is simple to administer and is pri-marily based on fuel consumption.

It is currently opposed to the IMOdeveloping a mandatory system of energyindexing for existing ships. That question“should be left open until after a manda-tory CO2 emissions reporting system hasbeen established, trialled, and the resultsevaluated,” said Simon Bennett, ICS direc-tor External Relations.

“The successful development of a glob-al system will require the support of allIMO Member States, including nationssuch as China.”

“In order to make progress and dis-courage regional regulation, we thinkthat the MEPC should initially focus on how information about emissionsshould be collected before launching intodetailed discussions about efficiencyindexing of ships, on which there is littleglobal consensus.”

‘We think that the MEPC should initiallyfocus on how information about emissionsshould be collected’ – Simon Bennett, ICS

www.amarcon.com

Amarcon reports that it has received anorder for the installation of its OCTOPUS-Onboard software system for a ‘walk towork’ vessel which will be deployed in theNorth Sea.

The software, which features motionmonitoring and forecasting, aims toincrease workability and safety during off-shore supply operations.

The vessel, being built for Dutch company Wagenborg, is expected to bedelivered in early 2015. It will bedeployed to support the operations ofNederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij(NAM, an oil and gas company) over thenext ten years.

Built at the Royal Niestern Sandershipyard in the Netherlands, the dynam-ically positioned, DP2 vessel, will be 79m long, 16m wide, with a draught of 5.4m, service speed of 12.5 knots and 10,000hp. It will be used in mainte-nance and service projects at NAM’s and

Shell UK’s offshore locations in thesouthern North Sea.

Amarcon, a subsidiary of ABB, says that with OCTOPUS-Onboard themaster will have access to a clear DPCapability operational window. A fore-cast is shown if the vessel is capable of maintaining its DP position in chang-ing environmental conditions, and under which heading the operation canbe executed.

The OCTOPUS system enables thecaptain to have insight into safe and effi-cient operational windows when un- andoffloading maintenance staff and loadsto the offshore platforms.

Wagenborg will also have access to OCTOPUS-Online, which will allowthe onshore operations department to stay informed about location and status of the vessel. All the collected data from the vessel, such as forecastedand measured motions can be viewed forfurther analysis and to set new opera-tional criteria.

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Digital Ship


ABB energy management for Balearia ferrywww.abb.com

ABB reports that Spanish ferry operatorBalearia has ordered its EMMA energy man-agement software. The advisory softwarewill be installed on board the ferry Martini Soler, with an option to extend the projectto two further vessels in the Balearia fleet.

Zurich-based ABB says that the packagesupplied, which covers dynamic trim opti-misation and hull condition monitoring,can improve a vessel’s fuel efficiency bymore than 2 per cent, assisting in optimis-ing propulsive power and forecasting hulland propeller fouling to help save fuel andreduce emissions.

ABB’s trim optimisation system dynam-ically measures actual trim and advises thecrew on steering adjustments. All data

generated on board is transferred to acloud-based application for vessel bench-marking, which can provide managementonshore with visibility of the energy con-sumption across the entire fleet.

“Balearia and ABB are expecting over 2per cent savings in propulsion power usedat sea through the installation of the trimoptimisation system and hull monitoring,which will have the same impact in thefuel consumption and consequentlyreduce emissions,” said GuillermoAlomar, Balearia’s fleet manager.

Balearia operates ferries connecting thefour Balearic Islands to mainland Spain, aswell as providing daily inter-island sail-ings. The company also operates in theStrait of Gibraltar and between the UnitedStates and the Bahamas. It has 17 vessels

currently in service.“ABB is committed to the development

of cutting-edge technology that will helpship operators with the challenge they facetoday, and we are confident that ABB’s

energy management systems will helpBalearia to optimise vessel operationswhile improving the energy efficiency,”said Heikki Soljama, head of ABB’sMarine and Cranes Business Unit.

Web-based voyage-management system by Q88 www.q88.com

Q88 has announced the launch of a web-based voyage management system specifi-cally designed for the tanker industry.

Q88VMS provides a centralised plat-form for commercial managers to accessand manage voyage data, and features abuilt-in e-mail system for tracking voyagerelated e-mails.

The new system is accessible from anymobile device.

“We are confident that it will signifi-cantly speed-up decision making on fix-

ing voyages, centralise all voyage relatedcommunications, improve the bottomline and, above all, ensure that everyonehas access to the latest information aboutthe fleet,” said Fritz Heidenreich, presi-dent of Q88.

“Since day one, our mission has been toconnect the global shipping industry andto facilitate the sharing of information inan efficient and productive way and theQ88VMS launch represents anotherimportant step in this direction.”

Q88 has its headquarters in Stamford,Connecticut.

The Martin i Soler will use EMMA to reduce fuel consumption

www.awtworldwide.com

I can see CLEARLY now!With AWT’s latest BVS onboard weather system, ship’s masters an now bene t rom hi h

resolution weather data.

www.aveva.com

Computer-aided design software providerAVEVA reports that it has won a contractto supply its systems to Penglai ZhongbaiJinglu Shipbuilding.

The Chinese shipyard will use itsAVEVA Marine design software to aid inthe construction of vessels following itsimplementation.

“We will benefit from shorter designcycles, improved design accuracy andreduced wastage in production,” said tech-nical director Shiwen Jiang.

“AVEVA Marine's large user basegives us the widest possible choice ofpartners, as well as the ability to recruitfrom a pool of highly skilled engineersand designers who already know theAVEVA software.”

Paul Eveleigh, EVP and head ofGreater China, AVEVA, said: “WhileAVEVA Marine delivers immediate business benefits, it is also an investmentin the future, since it gives shipbuildersthe tools to address more complex project opportunities in a very difficultmarket.”

Jinglu Shipbuilding to use AVEVA Marine

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cation. Banks will be able to submit origi-nal data from the eB/L and supportingdocuments as trade data, to be matchedagainst the BPO payment conditions aswell as automate the release of originaldocuments to the buyer on a BPO match.

“Every decade, the data volume in ourclients' value chains multiplies by a factorof 1,000,” said Markus Wohlgeschaffen,global head of Trade Finance & Services atHypoVereinsbank/UniCredit Group.

“One of the main reasons for this is theimplementation of straight-through pro-cessing wherever possible to speed upprocesses and to reduce operational risks.To provide real value-add for our clients,the collaboration with essDOCS is an inte-gral part of the straight-through processboth for the traditional and the innovativetrade business.”

Andre Casterman, global headCorporate and Supply Chain Markets atSWIFT and co-chair of the BPO project atthe International Chamber of Commerce,said: “By combining essDOCS CargoDocswith the BPO, banks will appreciate theability to rely on authenticated electronictransport data for matching in the SWIFTTSU, whereas buyers will benefit fromfaster delivery of transport documents.”

essDOCS CEO Alexander Goulandrissaid: “We see SWIFT as the multi-bankchannel and the only economically viablechannel to reach all 1,000 banks involvedin trade finance globally. As the interestand use of eUCP Presentation and BPOincreases, the SWIFT network is a crucialtool in delivering electronic bills of ladingto banks across the globe.”


SOFTWARE

www.essdocs.com

essDOCS has announced that its electron-ic bill of lading (eB/L) solution has beenused for the first time for a containermovement.

NYK Line issued the electronic docu-ment for a shipment from Singapore toChina on the M/V Vancouver Bridge.

The eB/L was issued on February 7thto Elite International Logistics Singapore(the forwarder working on behalf of thecustomer), which in turn added the neces-sary supporting eDocs and presented theset of electronic documents (eSet) to theAmerican trade finance bank.

After completing its review of the eSet,the American bank presented the eSet tothe issuing bank, China CITIC Bank.Following that transaction, China CITICBank accepted the eSet under the terms ofthe eUCP letter of credit and in turn sentthe original eDocs to WuhanXinLianChuang Plastics.

Wuhan XinLianChuang then surren-dered the eB/L to NYK and received thecargo at Shanghai port.

The eB/L was created from XML datapushed by NYK Line into the essDOCSeB/L solution using a standard message,resulting in an eB/L comprised purely ofdata based on NYK Line’s standard B/Ltemplate.

essDOCS says that all documentsinvolved in this transaction were managedelectronically, therefore handled as eDocsonly. Electronic documents used in addi-tion to the electronic bill of lading includ-ed: Notice of Completeness; InsuranceCertificate; Commercial Invoice; PackingList; LC Negotiation Form; CoveringLetter.

essDOCS says that a number of othercontainer lines, which completed testinglast year, are planning to transition tooperational use of eB/L in coffee and met-als trades later this quarter.

“The use of our existing XML files anddata structure meant we could populatethe electronic NYK Bill of Lading draftquickly, and send it with one click to Eliteto verify,” said Lincoln Leung, Global &AOC BPM of NYK Line.

“Once Elite confirmed the eB/L draft,our Export Documentation Team inSingapore signed and issued the eB/Lupon vessel departure. Overall we werenot asked to change our process much,which is a good thing.”

essDOCS has recently added two newservices to its eB/L system, allowing usersthe capability to electronically presenttrade documents over the SWIFT network,and to extend an eB/L to support BankPayment Obligations (BPO).

Shipping documents created inessDOCS’ CargoDocs can now be submit-ted to banks over the SWIFT networkunder an eUCP 600 documentary credit.This covers electronic bills of lading, com-mercial documents, independent inspec-tors’ certificates, government certificatesand chamber of commerce signed certifi-cates of origin.

CargoDocs eB/L can be tied to the BankPayment Obligation (BPO) transactionsoperated on SWIFT’s Trade ServicesUtility (TSU) transaction matching appli-

First electronic bill of lading for liner

www.marlins.co.uk

Marlins has announced that both its secu-rity courses have been approved by theLiberian registry (LISCR).

“Security Awareness” and “SecurityDuties” are available online for purchaseand study via Marlins’ training site,www.stcwsecurity.com.

The latter expands on what is learnt inthe former, providing additional, practicalinformation for crew members who aremore likely to face a security threat, suchas bridge watchkeepers or gangway staff –or “sea staff with designated duties” asdefined by the STCW.

The courses include a full assessment.Upon achieving the requisite pass-mark, aprintable certificate is issued withapproval from the government of Liberia.

From 1st July 2015, all seafarers willneed to demonstrate an understanding ofsecurity awareness. Individuals with des-ignated security duties are required toundertake additional training.

www.acp.gob.pa

The Panama Canal has launched an appli-cation for mobile devices, allowing usersto access live webcams, tide charts for thePacific and Atlantic Oceans, and weatherradar.

The app also displays photographs andvideos, as well as facts and information forvisitors to the waterway, which celebratesits centennial this year. The content, avail-able in English and Spanish, can be sharedon social networks.

The app is available for the followingoperating systems: iOS (Apple for both

iPhone and iPad), Android and WindowsPhone. The canal authority says that aBlackberry app will also be made available.

“The new mobile applications willallow the Panama Canal to reach morepeople,” said canal administrator JorgeQuijano.

“We have great content in our everydayoperation of the waterway, and with thenew mobile app we will able to deliver itto our audiences.”

“This app is also a way to communicateabout Panama around the world and forpeople to know more about our countryand its Canal.”

Panama Canal launches mobile app

Marlins securityeLearning approved

by Liberian flag

The new app includes a variety of content in English and Spanish

www.crewtoo.com

The Crewtoo seafarers' social network,operated by KVH Industries, hasannounced that it has launched an onlinemaritime jobs board.

Crewtoo has integrated the jobs boardinto its website to enable seafarers tochange a setting on their profile to statethat they are available for work.

Should they choose this option they arethen prompted to fill in their full employ-ment details on the site and upload theircurrent CV/resumé.

“We believe that Crewtoo gives us theperfect platform to help seafarers andmaritime recruiters alike,” says MarkWoodhead, managing director of KVH

Crew recruitment added to social networkMedia Group.

“Seafarers are afraid of being takenadvantage of and want to deal with aname they trust while maritime recruiterswant great value in an effective and flexi-ble service that will find them the bestcrew.”

Crewtoo members represent a range ofnationalities, with 55 per cent fromEurope, 34 per cent from Asia and theMiddle East, 9 per cent from Africa, andthe rest from North America, LatinAmerica, and Australasia.

The membership encompasses a broadrange of ranks, including masters, ordi-nary seamen, chief officers, chief engi-neers, electrical engineers, deck cadets,engine cadets, and cooks.

www.seagull.no

Norwegian e-learning provider Seagullhas announced that Thome ShipManagement has migrated its existingThome Competence Management System(TCMS) into the Seagull CompetenceManager online platform to manage itsgrowing demand for crew training andgap identification.

Headquartered in Singapore, Thomeprovides ship management services to theshipping and offshore industries.

After several years of using anothersoftware vendor to manage itsCompetence Management System, Thome

Competence Management for Thomehas transferred over to the SeagullCompetence Manager platform. Theprocess involved a system clean-up,review and restructuring of defined com-petences, which are ship and rank specific.

“Since we saw the need to improve thefunctionality of the software platform lastyear, we decided to transfer our compe-tence elements and assessment results toSeagull’s Competence Manager allowingour employees to use one system for bothtraining and assessment,” said Sartaj Gill,head of Group Training at Thome.

“We are very happy with the coopera-tion with Seagull during the process andare confident that we now have a solutionthat fully covers our needs.”

Seagull says that its training and compe-tence system gives managers ashore a fulloverview of each seafarer’s developmentand level of competence, allowing them toidentify candidates ready for promotion.

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Digital Ship


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Herbert-ABS Software Solutions,a provider of load management and shipdesign software, has opened an office inBusan, adding to its Shanghai andSingapore locations. The Busan office will beled by marketing and sales manager Arnold(Woo-Sung) Cho, whose primary focus willbe to strengthen relationships with Korean-based shipyards.

DNV GL has movedinto a new office in Ho ChiMinh City, having identi-fied Vietnam as a strongemerging market for itsservices in the maritimeand oil & gas industries.The office, inaugurated bygroup president & CEO

Henrik Madsen and Crown Prince Haakonof Norway, will foster closer collaborationbetween the employees of both DNV andGL which merged in September 2013.DNV GL has had presence in Vietnamsince 1995.

Email Parser for charterers

Henrik Madsen, DNV GL, and Crown Prince Haakon ofNorway attended the opening of the Vietnamese office

www.herbertsoftware.comwww.dnvgl.com

www.veson.com

Veson Nautical has announced the launchof an Email Parser tool for users of itsIntegrated Maritime Operations System(IMOS) software package.

The IMOS Email Parser converts e-mailtext into structured data, which VesonNautical says will assist charterers in iden-tifying incoming cargo and vessel oppor-tunities, and allow them to more quicklyact on business opportunities.

Boston-headquartered Veson Nauticalsays that the tool matches vessels or cargoswith the IMOS Vessel / Cargo List andflags potential duplicate and conflicting

data about market positions. Open oppor-tunities can be analysed visually on theIMOS fleet map.

“Many shipping companies face e-mailoverload – literally hundreds or thousandsof e-mails each day. Failing to catch keyoperational information or an urgent e-mailfrom a broker can have a toll on a business,”said Agya Garg, IMOS product manager.

“The IMOS Email Parser provides a sim-ple, highly effective solution to this indus-try problem, enabling the right people toview critical data and take action quickly.The Email Parser solution simplifies work-flow, shows real-time market positions andimproves information management.”

www.polestarglobal.com

Pole Star Space Applications hasannounced the release of a new version ofits web-based tracking solution FleetManagement, FM 2.0, which is beingrolled out free to existing FM customers.

The user interface has been mobile-optimised to allow users to access theiraccount on a smartphone, tablet, desktop,laptop or other internet enabled device.Three map options have been added to theoriginal C-Map charts: street, hybrid andsatellite maps (provided by Mapbox).

Weather graphics have been enhancedand can be overlaid over the map to pro-vide situational awareness for planningand operations (provided by TideTech),while a quick search feature has beenadded to allow users to search for a vesseland automatically locate it on the map orfleet list. Zone tools have also been

improved, to that make the creation ofzones within the program easier.

“We look forward to using the new inter-face and to the benefits that mobile accesswill bring,” said Erik Hjortland, manager ofFleet Performance at Odfjell Tankers, whichhas been using the older version.

“Fleet Management has helped us toimprove operational efficiency andachieve cost savings by monitoring thevessel’s positions and speed.”

The new interface has been built usingHTML-5 for better mobile accessibility anduses ‘responsive design’, which means thatthe application is automatically optimisedfor the user’s screen size and orientation.

“With the release of version 2.0, wehave given FM a brand new look and feel,”said Peter Davies, chief technology officerat Pole Star.

“It’s more modern and easier to usethan ever before.”

Fleet Management 2.0 by Pole Star

Three new map options have been added to FM 2.0

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SOFTWARE

It may seem like science fiction, but research is already underway into the feasibility of developing commercial shipsthat can manage a voyage without the need for crew intervention – Digital Ship spoke to members of the

MUNIN project about how we might create the unmanned ship

The Unmanned Ship

EE uropean researchers are looking atwhether a ship can transport goodsacross the ocean without any crew

on board, and as they conclude the firstphase of their study their report is promis-ing – stating that they have not identified“any fundamental obstacles to the intro-duction of unmanned ships.”

Except when leaving or arriving at aport, researchers say that a vessel couldnavigate autonomously while being moni-tored from the shore in perhaps 10 to 20years, providing that technical and legalchallenges are met.

The concept of the unmanned ship hasgrown in the maritime consciousness asshipping lines find it more and more diffi-cult to recruit and retain the highly quali-fied crew they need to staff their increas-ingly complex vessels, while slow-steam-ing makes sea voyages longer.

The MUNIN project (MaritimeUnmanned Navigation throughIntelligence in Networks) includes a collec-tion of maritime stakeholder groups thatare investigating the potential forautonomous vessels, and evaluating thevarious challenges and issues that stand inthe way of this idea becoming a reality.

“There is a technology platform withinthe European Union called WaterborneTPthat has an exportation and strategyroadmap for the maritime industry inEurope for the next few years and one ofthe main exploration outcomes was the so-called e-guided or autonomous vessel,”explains Hans-Christoph Burmeister,research associate at Fraunhofer Centre forMaritime Logistics (CML), one of the proj-ect partners.

“There was an EU call within the 7thframework programme to further developa concept and to make a feasibility studyfor the autonomous or unmanned vessel.We as a consortium applied for that partand won the project.”

The other project partners are Marintek,Chalmers University, Hochschule Wismar,Aptomar, MarineSoft, Marorka, andUniversity College Cork. The three-yearproject started in September 2012, with theEuropean Union funding €2.9 million of itstotal €3.8 million budget.

Those involved in the project believethat, rather than being a way of realisingscience fiction visions of the future, theunmanned ship is a way of addressing realproblems existing in the industry today.

“We have three drivers currently in themaritime industry,” said Mr Burmeister.

“We all know it is a very competitiveindustry. We have in the member states ingeneral a lack of young professionals. Andwe have a raising of ecological awareness.The unmanned vessel can provide ananswer to all three.”

With the unmanned ship, “there mightbe a reduction in costs, not so much in per-

sonnel costs because we still need anonshore control centre, but at least withregard to fuel. It may be more attractive fora broader range of professionals becausewe shift the jobs to the shore […] so it iseasier to combine the seafarer’s work, so tospeak, with your family and social life.And of course if you don’t have crew onboard, it is much more attractive to doeven more slow-steaming and to savemore fuel.”

Ørnulf Jan Rødseth, research director atMarintek, agrees with these sentiments.

“If you want to slow-steam a ship fromEurope to America, we are talking about atrip of more than three weeks. Ships are

quite complicated nowadays and they aregetting more complicated. So the big ques-tion is whether you will be able to get high-ly qualified crew to stay on the ship forthree weeks,” he said.

“For modern ships, we are not talkingabout people you can pick up from thestreet. It is really a highly qualified work-force on the ship and it is getting more so.”

“Seamen will be more attracted [by ajob] on shore. It is difficult to attract peoplefor three or four weeks on the open seawithout Facebook and whatever. […] Andwhen the crew becomes more educated, itis very difficult to get the crew for long-distance ships, they go to the offshore sec-tor or to other parts of the business.”

Technical perspectiveThe MUNIN project has picked a drybulk carrier of handymax size operatingbetween Europe and South America asthe case ship for its research, as it believesthat vessels of this type are among thosethat will most obviously benefit from theconcept.

“We think that from a commercial per-spective, they may be the most attractiveones for such a concept because you havelong voyages, you use slow-steaming and

you don’t have so many port calls inbetween,” says Mr Burmeister.

“That’s more attractive than a containership that stops at a lot of ports. For exam-ple, it is not really useful to disembark thecrew after Rotterdam and 12 hours laterput a crew on the vessel again as youapproach Bremerhaven, besides being in avery congested area in between. So wethink bulkers might be good for that.”

From a technical perspective, theFraunhofer researcher says that most of thetechnology is already available; forinstance, combining AIS, radar and cam-eras could help create an automated look-out system.

“For the bridge, we have a lot ofadvanced technology for detection, for col-lision avoidance, already available whenwe think about how AIS and radar devel-oped over the last years,” said MrBurmeister.

“We still have to integrate them a bitmore and to somehow make some kind offusion to increase the integrity of the data.For the lookout requirement, we have tofind a solution to maintain proper lookoutby technical means and not by humanmeans, if we have an unmanned vessel.”

“So we are currently investigating tointegrate daylight cameras and infraredcameras into the existing set of sensors.There are some other technologies thatmight be also useful for that purpose butso far we stick to the camera systemsbecause they are the most elaborate.”

Engine maintenance, however, is a dif-ferent story, and is seen as one of the maintechnical challenges to be overcome inmoving towards an autonomous vessel.

“We have to see that we can ensure reli-able operations for 10 to 14 days withouthuman intervention, which is a bit chal-lenging,” admits Mr Burmeister.

“With regards to the engine room, wealready have unmanned engine rooms up

to 24 hours. There are classification soci-eties that have these classes.”

“However, we now have to see that weenlarge this to 10 to 14 days. One of themain challenges here is the fuel processing.If we speak about heavy fuel operation,that is still a very manual task.”

One of the approaches that MUNIN istaking to this problem is to focus on a clas-sical engine working with distillatesinstead of heavy fuel oil.

“In my opinion, the most challengingthing is maintenance, particularly of theengine and the energy producing sys-tems,” said Mr Rødseth.

“It is quite clear that you cannot run theship on standard heavy fuel because theheavy fuel system has a lot of manual oper-ations to keep the filters clean and to do alot of operations. So we have to look atother propulsion systems.”

“Here at Marintek, we are looking intoLNG, Liquefied Natural Gas, as fuel forships, which is quite popular now. It is alow cost fuel and it will probably be alower maintenance system also, because itis very clean. So LNG popped up in a senseas an interesting proposal for unmannedships, at least if you look 10-20 years intothe future.”

Acknowledging that it would unlikelybe acceptable to sail unmanned ships incongested or coastal waters, MUNIN isinstead currently focusing on the deep-seapart of the voyage.

For the case study, the ship will not betotally unmanned during the whole voy-age, Mr Burmeister explains.

“We will have manned operation fromberth to some kind of pilot point. So maybeafter passing the English Channel, not justthe pilot but the whole crew leave the ves-sel,” he said.

“So we only speak about an unmannedoperation during the deep-sea voyage.And then of course when we approachSouth America, before we come close toshore, again the pilot or the crew willembark and we will have some mannedoperation again.”

Artificial intelligenceThe concept that MUNIN is developing isnot so much a remote-controlled ship asan autonomous one – so it is not a ques-tion of somebody on shore controlling theship but the ship making smart decisionsfor itself.

“The ship itself won’t be remote-con-trolled all the time,” says Mr Burmeister.

“So it is not like they have a remotecontrol on shore and there are peoplestanding in a virtual bridge steering thevessel directly. We have had that idea atthe beginning that it is not possible due tothe lack of communication capacity every-where. There will be some kinds ofautonomous functions on the vessel – or

MUNIN’s vision of the unmanned ship follows a specific logical chain. PHOTO: MARINTEK / Fraunhofer CML

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Digital Ship


call it artificial intelligence, but that is per-haps too much.”

“The vessel itself will have the chanceto make decisions in a certain operationalenvelope. You will give the vessel a voy-age plan but it will be able to adapt thevoyage by itself for collision avoidance orharsh weather or something like that.These decisions will be monitored fromthe shore of course. In most cases, theshore function will be monitoring, not somuch direct operation.”

For the case study, the researchers saythat they will assume that the handymaxdry bulk carrier is using VSAT as its mainsatellite communications system, with L-band as a backup.

“With regard to communication, weassume that we can operate with a normalVSAT system, and of course have a backupsystem as well for communications in mostplaces, and we’ll use Inmarsat as a back-up,” Mr Burmeister says.

Even when the communication link isbroken, “in most cases it is not for verylong periods,” he adds. “And as we speakabout the deep-sea traffic, we have theautonomous functions to maintain the con-trol even when we don’t have the connec-tion to the shore. We assume that theseperiods are rather short. We should be ableto deal with that.”

“How is it today? You leave theChannel, you have your voyage planned toSouth America, you put on the auto-pilotand then basically you do a lot of paperwork. So we should be able to operate thevessel for a certain amount of time eventhough we don’t have the direct connec-tion to shore.”

Mr Rødseth notes that with satellitecommunications in the maritime industry,the issue of large scale connectivity anddata traffic is less a matter of technicalcapacity than a cost consideration.

“The scenario we have set up is thistravel from Europe to South America overthe Atlantic. In most areas there it is fairlyunproblematic to get satellite coverage,”he says.

“There is a chance that the satellite linkmay fail, for some reasons. Ku-band maybe susceptible to heavy rain, rain fading,and things like that. And the ship maydevelop technical errors with the antennaor reception equipment.”

“You really need two independentsatellite communications systems. Whatwe’ve proposed so far is one VSAT systemfor most of operations because that is themost cost-effective, and Inmarsat orIridium as a back-up system because theyboth play in L-band so they are less sus-ceptible to the rain for instance – you get afairly good backup there. With VSAT youcan in most cases get several megabits ofcommunications, which is more than suffi-cient for remote control, as far as we’vedetermined now.”

Mr Rødseth acknowledges howeverthat, for many in the maritime industry atleast, the problem with a satcom system ofthis type is that it can still be seen as beingfairly expensive.

“To keep the communication costsdown, it is important to minimise the com-munication use,” he said.

“So most of the time the ship is expect-ed to control itself, only sending small sta-tus messages back to the shore. We are

talking about a few hundred bytes perminute or something like that. It is a rela-tively small amount of data.”

Should both systems fail at the sametime, the Marintek researcher notes thatthe operator would still have the possibili-ty of picking up an AIS signal, so you willknow where the ship is, and there are alsoother systems available which can be usedto keep track of where the ship is located.

“The chance that both satellite systemsfail is quite low,” said Mr Rødseth.

“But the satellite AIS would keep trackof the ship. And the ship will also be pro-grammed to behave in a specific manner ifall communication fails.”

“We haven’t quite decided yet but thetheory is that if you’re in the middle of theocean and you know that the AIS signalhas been picked up, the best approach isprobably to keep track and continue.Either that or go to a pick-up location ordo something else. But in any case, it hasto be a pre-programmed response by theship so that you can send out somebodyto pick it up. This would be a costly affair,so we don’t want that to happen ofcourse. But it’s kind of the backup ifeverything fails.”

The MUNIN concept of an autonomousship sending only small amounts of data toa shore control centre, with the shoreremote-controlling the ship only in excep-tional circumstances, should allow the sat-com bills to be kept at a reasonable level,although the researchers admit theyhaven’t yet estimated the cost.

“We haven’t done a proper analysis butthe theory is that 99 per cent of the time, itis a few hundred bytes per minute. Youneed remote control with more data forshorter periods during the voyage. It is notexcessive,” says Mr Rødseth.

“The cost will be comparable to whatyou have in a manned ship. Most of thetime, the ship is not really sending anydata. It is only events of short periods, last-ing a few hours perhaps, where you needto have remote control of the ship. Andeven in remote control, you can in mostcases manage with 200 to 300 kilobits persecond. If you just want the radar and theinformation about the ship’s vicinity, it isin the order of a few hundred kilobits.”

“If you also need video, it’s 40 times 500bits so we’re talking a few hundred kilobitsper second, actually, also for that. But ifyou need higher resolution TV, that will bequite a bit more, probably one megabyteper picture, depending on the compres-sion. But we don’t expect that a lot. In mostcases, you will be able to manage withquite low bandwidth, old-fashioned televi-sion bandwidth.”

FearsThe risk of piracy may seem like one of theobvious potential drawbacks of a crewlessvessel, with no seafarers on board to reactto any brewing trouble, however MrRødseth believes that an unmanned shipshouldn’t face a higher risk of piracy thana vessel carrying crew.

“Today most pirates hijack the ship forransom. So without a crew on the ship, it isless attractive,” he said.

“The other point is that you have tohave safeguards in the control system. Soin principle, it will not be easy, you’llneed a highly trained pirate to get to the

electronic lock on the system. You’ll needa highly qualified hacker. It would bequite difficult to get through the electron-ic system.”

“It will be easier, in a sense, (for the shipowner) to regain control because you don’thave to worry about the hostages so youcan use a bit more force. All in all, I am notconvinced that an unmanned ship will bean attractive pirate target.”

Mr Rødseth also notes that, in the sce-nario currently being investigated by theproject, the ship would be manned duringits departure from port and manned againbefore it comes close to shore, whichwould minimise the amount of time that itmight seem attractive to pirates.

“So if you want to hijack the ship, it willhave to happen in open sea,” he said.

“That happens of course off Somalia.But they’ll really need to be a long way outto sea, in the middle of the Atlantic basi-cally, and they’ll need a lot of equipment.”

With plans in place to deal with someof the technical and security issuesinvolved with this project, perhaps themost difficult remaining obstacle to over-come in the development of an unmannedship is psychological.

“So many people are scared about thefact that there might be an unmanned shipin the middle of the ocean, which is very,very far away from their personal lives,”notes Mr Burmeister.

“But they all accept unmanned subwaysin huge cities nowadays, and we use themwithout even thinking about the fact thatthey are unmanned. It is of course a veryimportant topic. That is why we focus onfinding a way to prove that we maintainthe current safety levels or even improvethem with these kind of vessels.”

“It is a lot about economy and whetherwe will be able to make a concept that is sogood that the insurance companies andfinancial organisations accept the risk. Wehave to make a concept that convinces thepeople with the money that this is also eco-nomically attractive. There is also the pub-lic opinion. People at large have to acceptthe concept and feel confident enough thatthey will allow the politicians to pass thenecessary changes to legislation for that.”

The maritime legal landscape wouldobviously also need to be reshaped in sucha scenario, though Mr Burmeister notesthat the aim “is not to rearrange the wholelegal frame of maritime shipping, … thereare some issues with regards to liabilitywhich we have to investigate a bit more indetail to see if such a concept is feasiblefrom a legal point of view.”

Simulated voyageThe MUNIN project is set to enter its latterstages over the course of 2014, as it plans totest its unmanned ship concept on simula-tors at the University of Rostock beforepresenting its conclusions next year.

“This is a feasibility study so we try toprove that our concept works – or that itdoesn’t, the feasibility study is ratheropen,” says Mr Burmeister.

“We will have our first test inSeptember I guess, and the second one inFebruary next year. And in June 2015 therewill be a final event of the project that willshow the outcome and the capabilities forinterested people at the simulator centre.”

Mr Rødseth explains that the project

team are currently creating a risk assess-ment model for the whole concept of thevoyage, to try and isolate the elements thatare most critical for a successfulautonomous journey and then test theseconcepts in the simulator.

“The simulator will be used to checkhow difficult it is for the shore-based con-trol centre to assist an unmanned ship indifficult situations, for instance heavyweather, detection of objects or things likethat,” he said.

“We try to pick out the most criticalaspects of an unmanned voyage and simu-late those. Most of the time, nothing is hap-pening. So we know that for 99 per cent ofthe voyage, we can do this, this is not theproblem, it is the remaining 1 to 10 per centthat we really have to check if we can do it,and that will be done in simulators.”

Mr Rødseth thinks that the unmannedship could eventually become a reality,but it is not something likely to happenright away.

“If you look at the concept that we areexploring, 10 years is very optimistic; 10 to20 years is perhaps a possibility,” he said

In the shorter term, results from theresearch into the concept could still proveuseful on manned vessels, such as anautomated lookout system or a shore con-trol centre.

“The (MUNIN) project itself is designedin such a way that even if we conclude thatit is not feasible at the end of the day tohave an unmanned vessel, we will reuseparts of the project in the short term,” saidMr Burmeister.

“There are parts of our project that wecould use in the short term on mannedvessels to increase safety or efficiency forexample.”

“If we think about automated lookoutsystems, that could be of use on mannedvessels in the short term. If we thinkabout restricted visibility or fog, you canof course maintain a person on the bridgewho keeps lookout but they don’t seeanything, while there is a chance to seesomething for instance with the infraredcamera.”

Mr Rødseth notes that the project’swork with sensor systems and automatedobject detection could also prove particu-larly useful on manned ships.

“Recently a sailor in a life-boat in the North Sea got almost hit by two orthree ships before he was finally pickedup,” he said.

“We are also looking into the technicalreliability of the system, which will also bevery valuable for ship owners. For the reli-ability of the engine, we are looking atimproving maintenance planning and howto get earlier detection of errors.”

“I also think that the idea of having ashore control centre can be used, even ifyou don’t have a fully unmanned ship.Today you have to staff the ship with twoshifts, it is the norm. The crew goes by 6 or8 hours and changes over. With a remotecontrol centre, you can have just one shifton board the ship and leave it to the shorecontrol centre to monitor the ship whennothing happens, which is most of thetime, and you can wake up the crew onboard if something happens. There couldbe a possibility for a partly unmannedbridge, which could be a very interestingproposal I think.” DS

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www.orolia.comwww.transas.com

Orolia and Transas Group haveannounced that they have signed aMemorandum of Understanding wherebythey will jointly develop new e-maritimesystems integrating Maritime DomainAwareness (MDA) and Search and Rescue(SAR) functionality.

Under the terms of the agreement, thetwo groups will leverage their respectivecomplementary expertise in vessel man-agement, asset protection and emergencyresponse to create new products, (someof which are pending until the closing ofOrolia’s acquisition of Techno-Sciences,Inc.)

Orolia, through its McMurdo Group,already provides SAR and MDA technolo-gies including distress beacons, satellitecommunications infrastructure, emer-gency and surveillance operations controlcentres and fleet management software,while Transas offers a range of services inthe design and implementation of inte-grated navigational solutions, virtualmodelling and augmented reality.

“The maritime industry is in need ofleadership to help unite a highly frag-mented market that today consists ofseveral custom-built, minimally interop-erable systems,” said Jean-Yves Courtois,CEO of Orolia.

“This collaboration between two estab-lished global leaders will contribute to cre-ating a more unified industry, one that isfocused on convergence, interoperabilityand standardisation to further improveoperations.”

“As part of our overall partner strategy,we are committed to working with leaderssuch as Transas to pioneer advanced solu-tions, influence new standards and drivetechnological innovation for the benefit ofthe entire maritime community.”

DOF will also use NavTracker,Navtor’s fleet management app, in man-aging its vessels, with the aim of furtherstreamlining its charting process.

Optimised for use on iOS and Androidmobile devices, as well as internet-enabledcomputers, it allows onshore teams totrack vessels, giving them an overview of

ship location, chart usage and manage-ment (including ENC updates).

Navtor says that its ENC service hasalready begun rolling out across the DOFfleet, with further introductions continu-ing as existing supplier agreements cometo an end. Both Navtor and DOF are head-quartered in Norway.


GLAs ask France to keep its Loran stations open

The General Lighthouse Authorities(GLAs) of the UK and Ireland is urgingFrance not to close down its old Loran sta-tions, which could instead install newtechnology to provide a back-up for GPSand ensure safe navigation in Europeanwaters.

The GLAs, which recently introducedthe enhanced eLoran technology in theDover Strait, notes that the port ofRotterdam (Netherlands) is developing asimilar system, called eDLoran.

Both systems are complementary anduse signals transmitted from land stationsto determine ships’ locations with an accu-racy of less than 5m. The aim is to providea back-up in case of GPS jamming.

GPS plays a key role in delivering theposition, navigation and timing (PNT)information ships rely on to ensure safenavigation in bad weather, but solarstorms as well as accidental or deliberatejamming can disturb GPS signals.Jammers costing as little as €40 can causecomplete GPS outages, as well as blockingEurope’s Galileo satellite system.

eLoran and eDLoran would be used toautomatically offer position information ifGPS is disrupted. These technologies relyon radio transmissions from special sta-tions in Denmark, France, Germany,Norway, and the UK.

These new technologies re-use thesame radio stations that previously trans-mitted the older generation of Loran Csignals, now becoming obsolete. The UKhas already committed to installation ofeLoran systems at seven harbours alongthe east coast by late 2014, and is seekinginternational agreement with its neigh-bours to re-equip their older stations in a bid to extend these new services from Rotterdam and the Dover Strait to the rest of Europe’s harbours andcoastlines.

France is rumoured to be contemplat-

ing closing its old stations rather thanmoving to the newer technology.

“eLoran is increasingly accepted as req-uisite to shipping safety around theworld,” said Martin Bransby, Research &Radionavigation manager at the GLAs.

“The future of the system in Europe,however, is dependent on the continuedavailability of French Loran transmittersand their development to provideeLoran.”

“A decision to close down the Loranstations would remove the only practicaloption for a back-up to GPS in the nearfuture, and would deny many opportuni-ties for advancement in the economies ofFrance and neighbouring countries. Theneed for collaboration is paramount insecuring the future safety of our ships.”

Wim van Buuren, licensed maritimepilot with the Dutch Pilots Association(Loodswezen), added: “Thorough investi-gation into our aim of improving portaccessibility has made us aware of the vul-nerability of satellite navigation systems.”

“Since the accessibility of the highlyimportant Eurochannel in the approach toRotterdam is maximised by using moderntechniques such as probabilistic tidal win-dow calculations in combination withSBAS GPS, we need an answer to safe-guard navigation when GPS fails.Traditional non-electronic position fixingdevices cannot replace SBAS GPS in theshallow North Sea area aroundRotterdam.”

“eDLoran is at present known anddemonstrated by us as the most successfuland most accurate operational navigationsystem at sea which meets our backuprequirements. eDLoran can be implement-ed at any location where the Loran signalcan be received. The French Loran stationsin the northwest European Loran systemmake accurate positioning on our conti-nent feasible.”

Navtor ENC system for DOF www.navtor.com

Navtor has won a fleet-wide contract tosupply ENCs to DOF Management, whichoperates 78 offshore vessels, via itsNavStick system.

Navtor’s ENC (electronic navigationalcharts) service is being rolled out acrossDOF’s Construction Support Vessels(CSVs), Platform Support Vessels (PSVs)and Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessels(AHTS).

The solution is distributed on the pre-loaded USB-based NavStick, allowingnavigators to download global charts andlicences to the onboard ECDIS. An onlinesynchronisation feature ensures that thelatest updates are available on demand,reducing the time usually spent on check-ing for updates and ordering licences.

The service was trialled on the AHTSSkandi Vega and the PSV Skandi Feistein,both of which serve clients in the NorthSea, during the summer of 2013.

“The installation, access to charts and

updating is completely intuitive, and thatsaves time, which in turn translates tofinancial and efficiency benefits,” said NilsOlav Troland, operations manager atDOF.

“In addition, reducing the administra-tive workload impacts positively uponsafety and crew satisfaction. Two factorsthat are fundamentally important atDOF.”

Navtor’s subscription model is basedon Pay As You Sail (PAYS) licensing, mak-ing all charts freely available for planningpurposes and only charging for the ENCsused for navigating during voyages.

“During the test period we saw the ben-efits of that, with our electronic chart costson the two vessels falling by close to 50 percent,” said Mr Troland.

“Now that could be because we werepreviously ordering too many charts, butwith PAYS, where there’s no need to orderand install new charts in advance, themanagement is so efficient that any‘wastage’ is completely negated.”

The Skandi Hugen can now take advantage of PAYS ENC licensing

Orolia and Transas sign strategic partnership

While the partnership includes short-term business cooperation initiativessuch as sharing product portfolios andleveraging sales channels for wider global reach, the primary focus of theagreement is on joint market and solu-tion development for the maritimeindustry.

This will include creating SAR-enhanced MDA systems that addMcMurdo Group’s beacon technology andCOSPAS-SARSAT/MESOAR satellite-based solutions to Transas’ vessel trafficmanagement, training and 3D simulationsystems.

The companies hope that these newofferings will assist in integrating emer-gency preparedness, risk detection, crisisresponse and emergency operations foractivities such as commercial fishing,illegal immigration control and arcticnavigation.

Developing coastal surveillance andport management systems is also part ofthe strategy, augmenting Transas’ existingofferings in this area with McMurdoGroup’s threat detection and web-basedfleet management technologies.

“The joint initiatives and solutions wehave identified thus far are just the start ofmany collaboration projects between ourtwo groups,” said Valery Ermakov, CEO,Transas Group.

“As our relationship with Oroliaexpands, we will continue to serve our existing and prospective customerswith offerings that remain on the cuttingedge of innovation, functionality andperformance.”

“We look forward to jointly educatingthe market, strengthening our global influ-ence and delivering more value not just inthe maritime industry but also in newmarkets such as immigration control,renewable energy, environmental protec-tion and beyond.”

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION Digital Ship

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www.nautisk.com

Chart distributor Nautisk has receivedDNV approval for its Neptune Pay As YouSail (PAYS) solution, which allows usersto access global ENCs on their onboardECDIS systems, whilst only paying forthose they actually use for navigation.

“Our PAYS solution gives both shore-based and onboard teams access to anynumber of ENCs that may be required forone particular trading route. ENCs aredownloaded onto the ECDIS for planningpurposes, and we then track the vessel. Asthe vessel sails through a particular area,the shipowner is charged for the use ofthose ENCs only,” said Peter Pran,Nautisk project manager.

Neptune is a real-time vessel informationservice compatible with both bridge andshore-based systems. It works by combiningelectronic Notices from British Admiralty,the Norwegian Hydrographic Service andNOAA with an update service for ENC cells

DNV approval for Neptune PAYS ENCs

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION


www.interschalt.de

INTERSCHALT maritime systems reportsthat Holland America Line is retrofitting itsentire fleet of 15 cruise ships with its VDRG4 and its BLUETRACKER software, whichautomates data flow from vessel to shore.

The installation began in Q2/2012 andwill be completed in Q2/2014.

VDR G4's online monitor, ‘Replayer’,provides a picture of the ship's position inreal time on a chart and can transfer thisplayback to a notebook or a smartphone sothat the captain can access it, even from hiscabin. Important information about radars,alarms, the positioning on the electronicchart, machine data from the conning dis-play and helm data is available in real time.

With BLUETRACKER, the informationis automatically transferred via satellitecommunication. In case of emergency, thecrew no longer has to worry about trans-

mitting data, which is sent automatically,via e-mail, SMS or to smartphones. Thisway, the onshore team can provide assis-tance based on this data.

The VDR G4 also stores the data, andINTERSCHALT says that even falsealarms are recorded to provide an accu-rate overall view of events.

Holland America Line, which has acontrol centre in Seattle, operates a fleet ofvessels belonging to different classes. Thesmallest ship carries 835 guests while thelargest ship carries 2,104. The number offire doors on board ranges from 300 to2,000 per vessel.

Using the online monitor, the captaincan see at a glance whether the watertightdoors are all properly closed or, in theevent that they aren't, which locationsneed to be re-checked.

"We have a great responsibility to safe-guard the well-being of people and oceans

INTERSCHALT VDRs on all Holland America Line cruise ships

www.danelec-marine.com

Danelec Marine is introducing a new gen-eration Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) fea-turing a technology that separates thehardware from the software in order toreduce shipboard servicing times.

The DM100 VDR complies with thenew International Maritime Organization(IMO) VDR standard, which comes intoeffect 1st July 2014, and incorporates thecompany’s SoftWare Advanced Protection(SWAP) technology.

All the software is embedded on aflashcard, which stores all configurations.In the event that the VDR unit fails, theservice technician can remove the memorycard, replace the old unit with a new one,and insert the card in the new systemwithout the need to reload all configura-tion files. The old unitcan then be takenashore for repair with-out holding up theship’s departure.

“It saves time byremoving the repairfrom ship to shore,reduces labour costs forservice calls, protectsvaluable shipboarddata and eliminates in-port delays forrepairs,” said DanelecCEO Hans Ottosen.

“This is a paradigmshift in shipboard serv-ice,” he added. “Withtraditional techniques,

it can take days to make repairs to a ship’scritical electronic systems […] With SWAPtechnology, the entire process is complet-ed in hours, not days.”

Danelec says that its DM100 is designedto meet the changes in VDR requirementscoming into force this summer, with a float-free capsule and 48-hour data storage, aswell as recording from the ship’s ECDIS,both radars, AIS and inclinometer.

Buyers can also choose a number ofoptions that include extended data storage(up to six months), playback software anda remote interface, which can be used, forinstance, to optimise fuel consumption.

Production of the DM100 will start inApril with the first deliveries expected inMay. The VDR will be sold throughDanelec’s service partners at an approxi-mate price of $20,000 depending on configurations.

New VDR with swappable memory

we sail upon,” said Steve Nevey, nauticalsuperintendent, Technical Operations atHolland America Line.

"We wanted to get the INTERSCHALTVDRs onboard our ships as quickly aspossible as we were impressed with thequality of the device and the quality andpresentation of data. The automatedprocesses contribute to improving safetyand quality. Our ERC (EmergencyResponse Centre) in Seattle now receivesmore standardised data for processingand receives it much more quickly."

"We are very pleased with the project'sprogress. As a premium cruise operatorthere are of course restrictions on ourships with regard to when and wheretechnicians can go. As a result, we had tostick to a precise schedule as some workcan only be carried out in a dry-dock. Thequality of INTERSCHALT's service hasreally impressed us."

www.km.kongsberg.com

The Kongsberg Group has recently cele-brated 200 years in business.

The Norwegian company was foundedon 20th March 1814 as a weapons factory,Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk. Today thegroup remains a defence contractor, but itsmaritime branch – founded after theSecond World War – supplies automationsystems for commercial shipping.

In the 1950s, Kongsberg companySimrad marketed echosounder and sonartechnology, making hydroacoustics avail-able outside of the military for the first time.

In 1969, Kongsberg Norcontrolinstalled the first computerised enginemonitoring and navigation system on theM/S Taimyr. The company then unveileda navigational simulator in 1974 and anengine room simulator in 1978.

In 1977, the first Kongsberg DynamicPositioning (DP) system was put intooperation on board the diving supportvessel Seaway Eagle.

“Over the years, Kongsberg Maritimehas introduced a number of firsts thathave contributed to safer and more effi-cient operations at sea,” said Geir Håøy,president of Kongsberg Maritime.

“We have strong ambitions to continuethe development of innovative, new solu-tions to meet future market demands.”

Danelec’s new system allows users to more easily replacea VDR unit, while keeping configuration settings

The vessel Zuiderdam will be one of 15 installed

from the UKHO and PRIMAR.Data is downloadable on demand and

Neptune also includes marine manage-ment tools, digital IMO publications,reports, weather forecasting, routing,online news and information.

“Where voyage planning is concerned,one size does not always fit all, and manyof our customers are choosing to combinePAYS with our pre-paid service, whichmeans ENCs are available in advance,”said Mr Pran.

“PAYS not only offers cost savings but italso saves time, as ENCs are available imme-diately, wherever a vessel is in the world.This is particularly important in emergencysituations, for example, where a vessel mayneed to divert and use ENCs that wouldnot normally be carried for that route.”

Nautisk notes that as no hardwareinstallations are required for use of theservice, no additional onboard equipmentis needed. The system is fully compliantwith SOLAS regulations.

Kongsberg celebrating200th anniversary

Simulator for ship-to-ship LNG transferwww.transas.com

Transas has launched an LNG handlingsimulator which boasts ship-to-ship trans-fer functionality.

This is part of the LCHS 5000 TechSimproduct line which also includes simula-tors for LNG terminals and LPG carriers.LCHS 5000 allows for complete resourcemanagement training involving crews ofboth mother and daughter vessels. Besidesvessel team management exercises, the

simulation covers interaction with termi-nal operations staff.

The LNG vessel and LNG terminal sim-ulator models were developed in collabo-ration with the Szczecin MaritimeAcademy, in Poland. They have beendesigned to reflect the installations whichare currently under construction at theSwinoujscie LNG terminal.

To complement the liquid cargo han-dling simulator range, Transas has alsodeveloped an LPG vessel model.

Ships Electronic Services (SES)has been awarded certification fromBureau Veritas to performance test,install and service Voyage Data Recorders,AIS and ship-borne GMDSS radio installa-tions. The UK-based company has alsoreceived Lloyd’s Register certificationfor radio communication equipment, AISand EPRIBs.

www.ses-marine.com

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IMO’s e-Navigation concept stretches back as far as 2006. After eight years of development, how far have we come – and where are we going? Andy Winbow, assistant secretary general, director maritime safety division, IMO,

presents his view of the e-Navigation programme

e-Navigation – where are we going?

TT o know where we are goingrequires us firstly to considerwhere we were, and have a good

idea of where we are now, including thewhys and wherefores, causes and effects,and the challenges and opportunitieswhich arise.

It’s tempting to take the issue of naviga-tion, with or without the ‘e’, back to thedays of the astrolabe, but I’ll resist thattemptation and consider the recent pastonly – well, recent to someone of my yearsanyway.

I confess that I learned to navigate usingpaper charts, gyro and magnetic compass-es, sextants and chronometers, plus a fewbooks of tables including logarithms(remember those?) and, of course, penciland paper.

It sounds rather quaint today, andreflected the same skills and equipment asCaptain Cook used to such great effect.

My skills, I should stress, were muchmore prosaic, but even in my days therewas already a good bit of ‘e’ in the naviga-tion – in the form of echosounders, some X-band radar, Loran type C, and the redgreen and purple of Decca.

Later, satnav systems appeared onships, depending either on the generosityof the shipowner or perhaps his or herfaith in new technology, or desperationwith the old – I’m never sure which.

Taking the 1970s as a base, some 2,500million tonnes of cargo were being trans-ported annually on ships around the worldat that time – a figure which has climbedsteadily to over 8,000 million tonnes today.At the same time, the number of ships thatare 100 gross tonnes and over has doubledin the same period.

Despite the addition of more electronicequipment, in the form of improved satel-lite navigation, ECDIS, AIS, LRIT, SARTs,INS – pick your acronym – which wemight assume would improve perform-ance, the percentage of ship losses due tonavigational accidents has stayed persist-ently around the 30 per cent mark for thelast 30 years. This is a figure based on totallosses recorded by Lloyd’s originally, andIHS Fairplay subsequently.

I think we might remember this whenconsidering why we are engaged in e-Navigation and what it will do for the nav-igator and safety at sea, including the costsof navigational accidents to the environ-ment, cargo and shipowner, which sadlyare met largely by the insurance industry,and thus all of us eventually.

Staying with the 1970s, on the radio sidesome ships still relied on VHF, MF and HFradio for all communications – which wasfine, as long as the weather was good, thetiming right, and the radio office compe-tent and sober.

Telegrams were still in daily use, withfaxes making an appearance and NAVTEXrelied upon. Or, if you were on the UK

coast, Radio 4 for the shipping forecast.Satellite communications were making

an appearance, and the only broadbandwas arguably television. The incrediblyrapid development of communicationstechnology, particularly of course theinternet, was the stuff of dreams or theStarship Enterprise.

Starships, I think, are definitely heretoday, with many ships’ bridges becomingcontrol centres of spaceship-type propor-tions, and handheld communicators doingeverything today that was done on theStarship Enterprise – apart from the ‘Beamme up’ button of Star Trek fame.

Where we are nowSo where are we now?

At the risk of highlighting how theword ‘now’ can be stretched, bearing inmind that the original proposal of e-Navigation saw the light of day at MSC 81in May 2006, more or less eight years ago,the relevant IMO subcommittees on safetyof navigation, and communications, searchand rescue (which, of course, have justbeen combined in to one) were tasked withdeveloping a strategic vision, and at theoutset the importance of developing a cleardefinition and objectives for the conceptwere fully recognised.

IMO was identified as the lead, withsupport from IALA, IHO and many othersas appropriate. Interestingly, early ontraining and education requirements wereidentified as a key issue in the develop-ment of the strategy. A clear wish wasexpressed for the development to be user-driven rather than technology-driven.

As is often the case at IMO, a correspon-dence group was established to flesh outsome of the ideas in more detail. Thatwork, and the related work in the relevantsubcommittees and their working groupsof course, continues.

The original main objectives for e-Navigation in the minds of the proposers,at least as I understand it from reading thereports so it’s a personal view, was that itaimed to minimise navigational errors,incidents and accidents through the trans-mission and display of positional and nav-igational information in electronic formats,to improve the monitoring capability ofcoastal states and hence security too, and,of course, the wish for the holy grail – toreduce costs.

This was to be achieved through the useof up-to-date charts to a common datum,to facilitate route, position and other relat-ed information, making full use of elec-tronic charts and electronic position fixingsystems.

Access to information, through the dis-play of relevant data in an integrated way,was also seen to be of benefit, as was theability to exchange data ship-to-shore, andvice versa.

Much progress has been made, I think,

in achieving or defining some of the keyenablers of this aim of e-Navigation,including agreeing to use the IHO S-100standard to facilitate global data exchange,identifying systems for resilient position-ing, navigation and timing (PNT), andindeed for some form of quality assurance,or perhaps even insurance, for softwaresystems, including their updating.

An important issue, that is, putting thehuman at the centre of the design, is verymuch on the agenda – and one that should-n’t be forgotten, though maybe it is a little.

In meeting the demand for user-drivenequipment and systems, partner organisa-tions, including IHO, IALA and manufac-turers through CIRM and other NGOs,have also taken on board the need to devel-op or provide related functionality andinfrastructure.

However, and of course there’s alwaysa ‘however’, a dispassionate observermight wonder what’s really been achievedin concrete terms in the eight years sincethe idea was first floated.

As is often the case in IMO, with such abroad canvas of opinions from governments,industry and seafarers, it’s taken some timeto really clarify what is important.

The last meeting at the navigation sub-committee (its last as well) tackled this taskand identified the five prioritised potentiale-Navigation solutions.

They are: improved, harmonised anduser friendly bridge design; means forstandardised and automated reporting;improved reliability, resilience and integri-ty of bridge equipment and navigationalinformation; integration and presentationof available information, in graphical dis-plays, received by communication equip-ment; and improved communication withthe shore.

These priorities were based on the needfor seamless transfer of data between thevarious items of equipment on board andseamless transfer of electronic informationor data between the ship and shore, andvice versa.

However, having revisited the workdone to date and identified these priorities,are we now on the right track? I think so –but perhaps only partly.

Progress has been made on the key

issues of bridge design, reporting, reliabil-ity, integration and communication, and inthe further development of the statedguidelines – human centred design, usabil-ity evaluation of navigation equipment,software quality assurance, and harmoni-sation of test bed reporting. All of which ispositive and supportive of meeting someof the aims of the original proposals, as Iunderstood them.

Where we are goingSo where are we going?

I might have given the impression that Iam not perhaps the biggest fan of the word‘e-Navigation’ – there is some truth in this,but it relates not to the things that arebeing done, or are scheduled to be done,but rather of where we are putting ourefforts under the banner of ‘e-Navigation’.

It might be argued that some of thiswork, such as improved resilience, is mere-ly motherhood and apple pie – we wouldexpect to do it anyway. Others, such asuser friendly bridge design, is just a rehashof work done before under another bannercalled ‘ergonomics’.

That’s not to say it’s work that shouldnot be done, or not needed – more whetherit is helping at all by badging it as ‘e-Navigation’.

Keeping to the ‘e’ issue, I believe thatone of the significant outcomes from thework done in seeking to get machines of alltypes to talk to each other – apart from, ofcourse, agreeing the necessary standards –has been the identification of the gap thatcurrently exists in our arrangements forapproval of equipment, particularly equip-ment based on software – with all its inher-ent issues.

Addressing this issue should help us toavoid what might best be described as ‘theECDIS problem’ in equipment in thefuture.

But at the heart of the e-Navigationstrategy has been the transfer of data andimproving navigational information.Taking this idea of improving further, andrecalling the stubbornly consistent rate ofnavigational accidents and incidentsdespite newer and more reliable technolo-gy, where is the possibility for gaining themost improvement?

‘Progress has been made on some of the key issues’ – Andy Winbow, IMO

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Digital Ship

Kongsberg for 10 Petrobras pipelaying newbuilds

Does it lie, for example, in the ‘one but-ton’ concept, the S Mode? Or in the com-bining of data in one display?

Or are we being technology led whenwe should be concentrating on that humanin the loop, to improve training and men-toring? Will better presentation of more, orperhaps less, data help the navigator toalways do the right thing at the right time,in the right place, and avoid navigationalaccidents and incidents?

If we didn’t ask that question at the out-set, should we now be monitoring theeffects of these e-Navigation developments– and if so, how?

Turning to the broad issue of transfer ofdata – within the ship, between ships,between ship and shore, and vice versa – isthis really all related to navigation?

Access to timely and relevant informa-tion on board is, of course, important tosafe navigation, there’s little doubt aboutthat. But information, in this sense, is notnecessarily just more data. Navigation canbe performed safely and successfully withthe information available to Captain Cook,perhaps with the useful addition of radar.

The display and access to information ofimportance to the navigator in some elec-

tronic form is, arguably, the crux of navi-gation with its preceding ‘e’, whereasinformation exchange is arguably a com-munications issue. Perhaps we should beaddressing it as such.

If, as I personally tend to think, the worde-Navigation is a little confusing and issomething of a misnomer, though I readilyadmit that all involved have happilyworked towards the objectives I referred toearlier under the banner of e-Navigation, itmight be appropriate now to look else-where for a home for work on seamlesstransfer of data between ship and shore,and start to think about declaring victory onthe technical side of ‘Navigation with an e’.

There’s no doubt in my mind that thereis, whether we welcome it or not, a lot moredata being collected and transmitted fromship to shore, and vice versa. This certainlydoes nothing to reduce the administrativeburden on ships’ Masters and officers. Someway of seamless, maybe even automatic,transfer of data from where it is to where itis needed is clearly of benefit.

Some of this may also be navigationaldata, in the proper sense of the word – thatis, information necessary, and I stress the‘necessary’, for safer navigation.

Notices to Mariners is a good example.It might be interesting to consider in thecontext of the administrative workflow ofMasters these days how much of the dataflowing between ship and shore meets thenavigational safety test of ‘need to have’rather than just ‘nice to have’.

The need to feed the ‘data monster’ isdefinitely not going to go away, so weshould clearly continue working on findingways to make this as efficient as possible.

I believe that the right avenue for thislies in the ongoing work of the WorldRadiocommunication Conference (WRC),in the context of requirements for highspeed data transfer with minimum humaninput. This work fits closely within theongoing review of the GMDSS, and isclearly closely related to other communica-tions requirements.

Outstanding work under e-Navigationthat addresses data transfer in the widestsense ought, perhaps, to be dealt with atIMO in the context of that work (theGMDSS review and the WRC).

But to go back to navigation, electronicequipment, with software at its heart, ishere for the foreseeable future and we needto ensure that it delivers what is required

for safe navigation. Guidelines on its usability and design

are being developed, the IHO S-100 stan-dard has been adopted, and we’re startingto address the software issue. So now, Isuggest, it is perhaps time to back to one ofthe key issues identified at the beginningof the road to the land of e-Navigation thatI mentioned earlier – training and educa-tion requirements.

The still persistently unacceptable levelof ship losses due to accidents attributableto navigational errors (collisions andgroundings) has not been addressed by theaddition of ‘e’ systems and tools so far.

We need to get back to the human in theequation if we are to successfully reduceincidents and accidents resulting fromnavigational failures. We know we canmake the kit work – now we need to makethe human work too.

www.km.kongsberg.com

Kongsberg Maritime has secured contractsworth approximately NOK 118 million($20m) to supply Dynamic Positioning(DP) and automation systems to tenpipelaying vessels ordered by Braziliancorporation Petrobras.

Six of these vessels will be built at IHCMerwede in The Netherlands for deliveryin 2015 and 2016. They are 550-tonne lay-ing tension capacity pipelayers, which willall be supplied with Kongsberg’s dynamicpositioning and thruster control systems.

Three of them will engage in trans-portation and installation of flexible flow-lines and umbilicals for Subsea 7 in waterdepths up to 3,000m. The other three willbe operated by Seabras Sapura, a partner-ship between SapuraKencana and Seadrill.

Kongsberg Maritime will also supplytechnology packages to four pipelayingsupport vessels (PLSV) operated under aTechnip/DOF joint venture agreement.

Two PLSVs, being built by Vard Promarin Brazil, will have a 300-tonne laying ten-sion capacity whilst two to be built byVard Tulcea in Romania and outfitted at

Vard Søviknes in Norway will have 650-tonne laying tension capacity.

The vessels, whose delivery is sched-uled for 2016-2017, enable the installationof large diameter flexible pipes in ultra-deepwater environments, such as theBrazilian pre-salt.

"These contracts have been secured dueto a long relationship with shipowners andyards, as well as Kongsberg Maritime’s sub-stantial expertise and experience in develop-ing and delivering cutting-edge DP andautomation technology for pipelaying ves-sels,” said Halvard Foss, regional managerSales & Marketing, Kongsberg Maritime.

“We are a leading supplier of technolo-gy to pipelaying vessels built and operatedworldwide, which is reflected in our selec-tion for these prestigious contracts forPetrobras vessels.”

In late January, Kongsberg reportedthat it had won a contract worth more thanNOK 230 million ($37m) from shipbuilderShanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries(ZPMC) to supply all electrical, telecomand integrated control systems for a deep-water derrick lay vessel which it is to buildfor Petrofac UK.

Training Centre opens in Sharjah www.imtech.com/marine

www.furuno.com

Imtech Marine has opened a new TrainingCentre in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.Hosted by its Radio Holland Middle Eastsubsidiary, the facility has started with atype-specific ECDIS Training Course forNavigators and Masters to meet thedemand for ECDIS familiarisation.

The Training Centre is equipped withFuruno FEA and FMD stations, supportedwith simulated surroundings and open seaareas, and will join Furuno’s NavSkills net-work of training centres.

The NavSkills concept ensures that type-specific ECDIS training is conducted in thesame way, with the same content and dura-tion and using the same teaching methodsas employed by Furuno in its own trainingcentres, in Denmark and Singapore.

Imtech says that its training programmehas been designed according to IMO regu-lations and is kept up-to-date with currentflag state requirements.

The facility in Sharjah, a hub for thetanker industry, can provide training onboth the FEA-2X07 and FMD-3200/3300ECDIS models, with a capacity of four simul-taneous FEA-trainees and 2 FMD-trainees.

The audited and certified course takes two

days, with theoretical and practical trainingon the first day. Practical examples are dis-cussed and specific questions from partici-pants are answered. On the second day, acompulsory test is taken. After successfulcompletion of the type-specific ECDISTraining Course, a certificate is issued.

Imtech notes that IMO regulationrequires all commercial vessels to beequipped with an ECDIS system by theyear 2018. Practical knowledge of standardprocedures and familiarisation with thesystem will be required in order to ensurethat all Navigators and Masters are fullycompetent in using ECDIS.

In related news, another NavSkillstraining centre has also been added inItaly, with Thesi Consulting, a family-operated training centre located on theAdriactic coast, joining the network.

The Thesi Furuno ECDIS training pro-gramme also features 4 FEA-2X07 and 2FMD-3200/3300 trainee workstations,identical to the one in the UAE.

Furuno type-specific ECDIS trainingcan now be found in: Copenhagen,Singapore, Hamburg, Athens, Istanbul,Manila, Mumbai, Shanghai, Odessa,Sharjah and Mola di Bari. The NavSkillsnetwork is expected to soon welcomeAustralian centre Pivot Maritime.

Dynamic positioning systems will be installed on vessels delivered in 2015 and 2016 The Sharjah centre offers familiarisation training on Furuno ECDIS

DS

This article is an abridged transcript ofAndy Winbow’s ‘e-nav... where are wegoing?’ keynote address to the e-�avigationUnderway 2014 conference on board theDFDS ferry Pearl Seaways, sailing fromCopenhagen to Oslo, jointly organised bythe Danish Maritime Authority and IALA

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Accurate positioning is a fundamental cornerstone of vessel navigation. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)like GPS have been used for many years – but other alternatives need to be included if the industry

wants automatic positioning to be truly resilient, writes Dr Andy Norris

A resilient position

At some time in the future we willreach the situation where we canalways rely on the automatic posi-

tion fix given by a vessel’s navigation sys-tem, unless there is an associated warning.

It has been technically feasible for someyears but the cost and other difficulties ingetting internationally agreed require-ments on positioning resilience has meantthat limited progress has been madetowards any implementation.

Today’s relatively low number of acci-dents fundamentally caused by incorrectpositional information has probably limit-ed the urgency of the matter for the major-ity of those involved in international mar-itime legislation.

Not least, modern GNSS receivers arelikely to provide an alert if all is not wellwith the received signal or there is a localfailure in the onboard positioning system.

However, there is a strong body of opin-ion that without system-level resiliencethere will be catastrophic incidents withinthe maritime world should GNSS experi-ence unexpected outages or positionalinaccuracies over a wide area.

Severe levels of radiation from solar orgalactic sources are seen as the most like-ly scenario that could cause wide-areaoutages of GNSS. More local but stillsevere effects can also be caused by inten-tional or even unintentional jamming ofthe satellite signals.

Despite this body of opinion, it current-ly looks very unlikely that vessels will bemandated to fit high integrity positioningsystems for some time, perhaps 7-10 years.

With some irony, a major new influenceon the introduction of high integrity posi-tioning will undoubtedly come from therapidly growing interest in transportautomation in all sectors – sea, land and air.

The existence of wide area high integri-ty methods of position determination willmake both fully automated and the remotecontrol of systems very much easier toimplement.

Relative positionOf course, the reality of human-centrednavigation is that a knowledge of preciseand continuous absolute position is not afundamental requirement for safety.

What is absolutely necessary is know-ing one’s continuous relative positionalinformation from hazards with an accura-cy rather better than the applied safetymargin.

The required relative accuracy to ensurenavigational safety in ocean and other situ-ations far from charted dangers amountsto very many miles except for avoiding col-lisions with floating obstacles, not leastother vessels.

In coastal areas this does substantiallyreduce – and docking certainly requires arelative positioning accuracy of just a fewdecimetres.

The concept of relative positioning nav-igation is fully embedded within conven-tional visual and radar-based navigationand is particularly used as the fundamen-tal method for avoiding collisions withother vessels.

It forms the logical primary basis fornavigation in busy areas such as approach-es to ports and harbours.

This is because the main sen-sors for the activity, eyes andradar, give continuous informa-tion in a form that readily allowsthe human brain to assess thepositional relationships of ownvessel with both fixed and mov-ing hazards.

Of course, as a general rulesuch areas have their safe watersappropriately marked, both forvisual and radar detection.

The chart, whether electronicor paper, is primarily being usedto assist situational awarenessand certainly not whether anyparticular hazard is going to bemissed by a narrow margin.

Of course, in all situations –even in a well-buoyed port entry– the accurate portrayal of own-ship position on an electronic chart isalways a highly useful extra but it is not anessential feature for safety.

It particularly helps to confirm the actu-al situation – any perceived anomalies willrightly create a need to resolve them.

In areas that include charted hazardsthat are invisible to sight and radar thenthe appropriate strategy for avoiding thesehas to be carefully pre-planned. The use ofabsolute positioning systems becomeshighly valuable in such circumstances.

However, there remains a current needfor the strategy to include back-up infor-mation from relative positioning tech-niques, such as the use of parallel indexline techniques on radar.

Precise positioningThe real value of absolute positioning sys-tems comes particularly into play for oceanand regular coastal passages.

A well planned route that is followed togood accuracy will be safe and fuel effi-cient. In particular, it must be planned topermit safe, easy and ample deviation toallow the vessel to readily comply with theCOLREGs at any point along the route.

A truly resilient absolute positioning sys-tem would make the monitoring of routemaintenance a relatively trivial activity.

Of course, there is a well justified fearthat some bridge watchkeepers assumethis is the case today and only make surethat the indicated position on the electron-ic chart lies on the planned route.

However, proper awareness of the pres-ent-day risks of over-reliance on the indicat-ed absolute position, as is currently exten-

sively taught at maritime colleges, empha-sises the necessity to constantly reviewother positional indicators for consistency.

In coastal areas, both radar and visualanalyses based on charted objects includ-ing natural features such as coastlines canreadily give good confidence in the indi-cated absolute position.

A chart radar or the facility to tem-

porarily overlay the raw radar image ontoan ECDIS display makes this a straightfor-ward exercise.

Regular checks also significantly helpthe situational awareness of the navigator,more generally enhancing the quality ofnavigational decisions.

When there are no geographically fixedradar or visual targets in view, such as dur-ing ocean passages, things do becomemore difficult.

In these cases, dead reckoning and esti-mated positioning – and even celestialtechniques – have to be utilised, helpednowadays by the fact that ECDIS statutori-ly incorporates relatively sophisticatedDR/EP facilities.

Accurate verification of GNSS positiondoes become a very much more difficultissue in such areas but is rarely a signifi-cant safety issue.

Loss of GNSSA significant current issue with any loss ofGNSS signal is the confusion of alarms thatare typically generated on the bridge.

Many bridge systems rely on GNSS andso the alarms may be quite extensive acrossthe bridge, requiring a lot of mental andphysical effort to assess what is happeningbefore being able to appropriately dealwith the situation.

In ocean regions and other non-busyareas far from land or other hazards, theconfusion would be extremely unlikely toresult in an accident but it could be anissue for a short period for vessels closer toland or in busier areas.

Fortunately, the ongoing mandatoryintroduction of Bridge Navigational WatchAlarm Systems, with completion scheduled

during 2015, should readily assistfaster and better assessments ofsuch situations.

It can be expected that an area-wide problem with GNSS wouldrapidly become apparent to coastalauthorities. Resultant safety broad-casts on the situation would helpclarify matters, potentially just afew minutes after such a failure.

Once there is overall awarenessthe situation will rapidly becomesafer but a major disruption to traf-fic flow would be likely as vesselsslow to concentrate on navigatingwithout GNSS, although in portand harbour approaches thiswould not be so pronounced.

In such areas there is also likelyto be a pilot on board whose ownlocal knowledge would help in

preventing incidents. If the outage were to continue for more

than a few tens of minutes the authoritieswould presumably become involved inlocal plans to alleviate potential dangers,perhaps requesting vessels to reduce speedand even encouraging temporary anchor-age in suitable areas.

Any long term outage of GNSS, meas-ured in days or weeks, would certainly puta severe and damaging brake on the world.In some areas even famine could potential-ly result.

If this is a real threat then it creates amuch stronger case for the earliest possibleimplementation of resilient positioningthan that of vessel safety.

However, in the absence of resilientpositioning we must ensure that all watchofficers are quickly able to assess a poten-tial problem with GNSS and the resultantactions required. This partly ship specificresponse should really be emphasised aspart of the familiarisation process whenjoining a new vessel.

Lastly, if GNSS jamming ever becomes apractised threat to shipping outside of inter-national conflicts, then a massive clamp-down would need to be promptly instigated.

Fortunately, just transmitting a jam-ming signal makes you very vulnerable toprecise detection, location and arrest.

GPS satellites are integral to modern position fixing – but should not be used in isolation. PHOTO: NASA

DS

Dr Andy �orris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industryfor a number of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-technavigation companies but now he is working on broader issues within thenavigational world, providing both technical and business consultancyto the industry, governmental bodies and maritime organizations. Email:[email protected]

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