digital ship magazine(sept 2012)

MM aersk Line has reportedthat it has saved almostUS$90 million through the

use of its Maersk KPIs (Key Perform-ance Indicators) system.

The company says that, in justthree years, it has saved this enor-mous amount in energy costs bymeasuring the performance of indi-vidual vessels and raising awarenesson fuel consumption.

Maersk KPIs have been used for anumber of years to measure the per-formance of the company, however itis only since 2009 that the KPIs havealso made their way on to the vesselsin a bid to boost performance.

The vessel KPIs have evolvedthrough close cooperation betweenthe vessels, Maersk Line VesselManagement and Maersk MaritimeTechnology, which is in charge of the Maersk Ship Performance System(MSPS).

Today the overall scorecard con-sists of four parameters - energy, safe-ty, daily running costs and coopera-tion (best practice sharing). At thisstage a monetary value for savings hasbeen applied to the energy KPI only.

After implementation of the pro-gramme by the crew and fleet groups,the company has been able to pin-point some of the savings made overthe last three years.

For example, Maersk Line notesthat 160,000 tons of fuel have been

saved as a result of higher propulsionefficiency, contributing to the US$90million figure, a total which does noteven include savings from other ener-gy initiatives such as trim optimisa-tion or basic load reduction.

“If you can't measure something,you can't control it. If you can't con-trol it, you can't improve it. It isessential to realise that the scorecardsare only a valuable tool if they helpfacilitate decision making amongststakeholders,” said Anup Rajan, per-formance manager at Maersk LineVessel Management.

Roll-outAfter seeing positive initial resultsfrom the KPI process for MaerskLine's own fleet, more than 150 ves-sels were subsequently upgraded

with MSPS in the second half of 2011. “We're confident that, although

we are introducing rather new stan-dards in the industry, we will be ableto drive similar performanceimprovements in the chartered fleet,”says Flemming Bo Larsen, the manresponsible for the 'Energy EfficiencyOptimisation Drive' at Maersk Line.

The company says that its largestowners of chartered vessels have now all received scorecards andbenchmarks on energy, starting from1 January this year.

Each of the KPIs will be rated on amonthly basis and merged into anoverall KPI score for each charter owner. More owners will be addedon an ongoing basis.

Other Maersk business units arenow following suit in measuring

IN THIS ISSUE

September 2012

electronics and navigation

continued on page 2

software

satcomsBroadband – a vehiclefor IT improvement – 12

Managing a major maritime ITinfrastructure project – 17 Boosting bandwidth with 3G and 4G – 21

Smart ships – vesselsfor the IP era – 25

Business intelligence forbenchmarking – 40

Applying IT for environmentalresponsibility – 44Cost cutting – control, transparencyand predictability – 48

Maersk saves $90 millionthrough application of KPIs

Pay As You Sail on ENCs– the new standard – 62

ECDIS updatesfrom Japan – 64

BNWAS retrofit – the true cost? – 68Maritime IT at SMM – Preview – 70

Through the application and analysis of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on just a portion of its fleet, Maersk Line has managed to save tens of millions

of dollars in energy costs – with even greater savings potentially to follow

Maersk Line vessels implemented the KPIs in 2009

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

Eitzen Chemical operates, overall, around 80 chemical tankers. Based in Copenhagen, Capt Søren Krarup-Jensen heads up Marine HR. “Dualog Connection Suite is the corporate platform for communication with our ships. At the same time it provides our crew members with private e-mail accounts without any adminis-tration on our part”, says Captain Krarup-Jensen.

“Dualog provided the combination of fl exibility and control we were looking for – independent of satellite communication systems and airtime vendors”, adds Krarup-Jensen.

“Improved Crew Welfare”Søren G. Krarup-Jensen, General Manager, Crew & Marine HR, Eitzen Chemical

ww

w.re

form

stud

io.n

o

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:46

SATCOMS

Digital Ship September 2012 page 2

Vol 13 No 1

UPCOMING CONFERENCESDIGITAL SHIP HONG KONG

KITEC, Kowloon10-11 October 2012

DIGITAL SHIP KOREABexco, Busan, South Korea

30-31 October 2012DIGITAL SHIP ATHENSMetropolitan hotel, Athens

27-28 November 2012

Digital Ship Limited2nd Floor,

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

PUBLISHERStuart Fryer

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

email: [email protected]

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


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


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


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


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


CONSULTANT WRITERDr Andy Norris (navigation)

[email protected]

DIGITAL SHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS€180 per year for 10 issues

Subscribe online atwww.thedigitalship.com,

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

+44 (0)118 931 3109

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

continued from page 1

Printed by The Manson Group Ltd

Reynolds House, 8 Porters' WoodValley Road Industrial Estate

St Albans, Hertz AL3 6PZU.K.

HME has reported that Ron Vollengaof Outsource-IT Management is totake over as executive of the PlatformBroadband@Sea project. HME remains theowner of the Platform, with Mr Vollengacoordinating activities and events onbehalf of HME.

Thuraya has appointed T. SanfordJewett as vice president, marketing.Before joining Thuraya, Mr Jewett over-saw strategy and business developmentfor the mobile services group at Time

Warner Cable. Intelsat reports that its board of direc-

tors has elected Edward Kangas to serveon its audit and compensation commit-tees. Mr Kangas served as chairman and CEO of Deloitte, Touche,Tohmatsu from 1989 to 2000, and cur-rently serves as non-executive chairman of Tenet Healthcare Corporation,and on the boards of UnitedTechnologies Corporation, Intuitand Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.

e3 Systems reports that it has sold 60per cent of the company’s equity to newinvestment partner grupoarbulu, head-quartered in Madrid.

Station711 is to provide itsFleetBroadband customised and brandedweb management platform to TelecomItalia, which Telecom Italia will offer toits customers. The web platform includestools for provisioning, spending control,hierarchy access levels, billing andaccount management, and traffic monitor-ing on FleetBroadband.

Ships Electronic Services (SES)has announced the acquisition of TSACommunications in the UK, providingthe company with a West Coast base adja-cent to the Liverpool docks. The office willbe called SES Liverpool and joins the seven

other SES facilities around the country.Intellian reports that it is now offer-

ing a three-year limited warranty acrossits entire antenna range, for both new andexisting systems. Following the increase ofthe Intellian i-Series 2-Axis antenna war-ranties to three years last year, theIntellian VSAT and 3-Axis TVRO war-ranties for parts are now also increased tothree years.

KVH has named Andesat as areseller for its mini-VSAT Broadbandservice and TracPhone V-series systems.In addition to managing a mini-VSAT hubat its teleport in Santiago, Chile, Andesatwill now provide KVH products and serv-ice to its distribution partners in Chile,Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia,Peru, and Ecuador.

vessel performance, following on fromthese successes.

Vessel KPIs will be introduced byMaersk Supply Service, with the companynoting that the motivation in this part of thebusiness is of a more environmental nature.

Though the fuel bill for operations isusually not incurred by Maersk Supply

Service itself, the company says that thereare still enough reasons to save fuel - firstly,to meet its environmental targets, and sec-ondly to reduce maintenance cost on theengines.

Currently, approximately 70 MaerskSupply Service vessels are reporting datathrough MSPS.

Maersk Tankers meanwhile also hasKPIs up and running on its entire ownedfleet, and is planning an additional roll-out to chartered vessels as well.

The company notes that energy saving,improved safety and financial manage-ment are the key issues for the projectwithin the tanker unit.

www.broadbandatsea.euwww.outsource-it.nlwww.intelsat.comwww.e3s.comwww.grupoarbulu.comwww.station711.comwww.wholesale.telecomitalia.comwww.thuraya.comwww.ses-marine.comwww.intellian.comwww.kvh.com

DS

T Sanford Jewett, new vice president ofmarketing at Thuraya

www.port-it.com

Port-IT has announced the launch of twonew products, with the aim of enhancingonboard satellite communications throughthe addition of 3G services from shore.

The first of these products is CiosPebble, a 3G data router with a build inSIM card slot for a mobile shore side net-work operator. The router features a built-in firewall function, Wi-Fi capability, andLAN ports.

The router is delivered with an outdoormarine grade antenna for optimal signaluse, and cabling and mounting brackets.The company says that the router can alsoreplace the ship's current installed fire-walls between the ship's network andFleetBroadband systems used onboard.

Automatic switching to shore side net-works is available, meaning that the cap-tain or crew does not have to interact withthe router, so they should notice no differ-ence in operation of the communicationsystems before and after the installation.

The Pebble router will detect the 3Gsignal, test the data quality and link, andwill switch the outgoing traffic from theFleetBroadband to a shore side operatornetwork, and vice versa when leaving the3G coverage area.

Management of shoreside GSM sub-scriptions will be facilitated by Port-IT'ssecond new release, the NSDG (Near

Shore Data Grid) service.NSDG is a GSM 3G subscription service

with a “wild” roaming SIM card, with lim-itations built in to prevent a user fromroaming on networks that charge US$5 or$10 per MB.

Prices for the SIM are fixed in two cate-gories: one for Europe, the US and Canada,and the other for the rest of the world.

Port-IT says that prices are not yetfinalised, but it currently expects cus-tomers will pay €0.42 per MB in region 1(Europe, US and Canada) and pay €0.92 inall other covered countries - a list whichthe company says will include 55 coun-tries during the pilot phase, and which ithopes to increase to approximately 130countries in the future.

Major ports such as Houston,Rotterdam, Hong Kong and others arecovered already.

"Before building a service like this wedid a thorough review with a lot of vessels

on how many days they spend near shoreor in port, and it ended up that vessels areapproximately 12 days a month in port ornear shore. During this time a vessel doesnot have to use satellite traffic to makecommunications but can use terrestrialnetworks," said Youri Hart, managingdirector, Port-IT.

"It is no replacement for satellite com-munications but it is certainly a productthat can help the shipowner to lower costsor to provide some form of internetonboard and keep a track of the costs. Wealso understand that getting a SIM cardwith a local provider is cheaper, howeveroften that includes one year contracts andyou don’t have the fixed pricing that weoffer with our service."

"With our service it is clarity and nosurprises. It is a solution that can be imple-mented one time, and after that you payno attention to it and still the shipownerwill save costs."

Port-IT launches new ship GSM products

Port-IT’s router is used to integrate 3G connectivity with existing ship communications

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:46

Your next generation Voyager has touched downThe new Voyager 4 on-board chart management systemwith a host of additional new features:

• TGT E-Data Digital loose leaf updates• Admiralty digital solutions chart display• Seamanship library• Shipping Guides• Weather routeing (SPOS)

• Touch screen technology• Route planning• Regs4ships• A• Piracy data

toBviaC

Aberdeen+44 1224 [email protected]

Istanbul+90 216 493 [email protected]

London+44 1268 [email protected]

Piraeus+30 210 [email protected]

Singapore+65 6866 [email protected]

Vancouver+1 604 294 [email protected] The Global Navigation Solution

www.thomasgunn.com | +44 (0)1224 595045 | [email protected]

STAND B6/234

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:46

SATCOMS


Carnival Breeze implements VSATand phone services

www.wmsatsea.comwww.mtnsat.com

MTN Satellite Communications andWireless Maritime Services (WMS) haveimplemented communications servicesaboard Carnival Cruise Lines' newestship, Carnival Breeze.

Carnival Breeze began a summerschedule of European cruises on June 3and will launch a year-round Caribbeanservice from Miami starting November 24,2012.

MTN is providing VSAT connectivity,for crew, passenger and corporate com-munications, and also implemented itsInternet Café solution delivering access topassengers and crew on mobile devicessuch as tablets, smartphones and laptops,as well as fixed PCs.

This has been integrated withCarnival's own FunHub portal to providepassengers with digital access to theBreeze's ship services, facilities, dailyactivities and social media.

Wireless Maritime Services (WMS), a

joint venture of AT&T and MTN, imple-mented its cellular calling, texting anddata services for guests and crew onboardthe Carnival Breeze.

WMS is the exclusive cellular serviceprovider for the entire Carnival CruiseLines fleet of 24 vessels, and the companynotes that, during Carnival Breeze's firstmonth in service, it carried tens of thou-sands of voice calls to and from the ship.

“New services introduced to theCarnival Breeze created unique challengesto provide ship-wide coverage fortelecommunication services, and we knewthere would be a heavy demand foronboard cellular and internet, especially inour inaugural month,” said Eric Merz,Carnival's director of guest technology.

“During all phases, from the yard, totesting, to having onboard support, bothMTN and WMS have proven to be criticalpartners. The integration of our FunHubto the internet, the call management andcalling solutions has truly brought a fulltelecommunications solution to Carnival,our guests and crew.”

www.h2osatellite.com

H2OSatellite reports that itsH2OLiteSpeed VSAT system has reachedthe milestone of having completed its200th installation.

H2OLiteSpeed, which offers downloadspeeds of up to 4 Mbps, was developedspecifically for the maritime market by aconsortium consisting of H2OSatellite,satellite provider SES Broadband Servicesand antenna manufacturer KNS.

H2OSatellite says that this push to 200installations has been helped by the factthat, following the launch of the compactSupertrack A6 version of the product ear-lier this year, there is a terminal to suit all

vessel types and usage needs.“I have said from the beginning that

this is a great maritime package, andreaching this milestone of 200 vesselsproves this,” said Robert Kenworthy,managing director of H2OSatellite.

“The Litespeed package will continueto go from strength to strength and I lookforward to seeing the results of the nextyear with further developments to theproduct range within the package.”

“H2OLiteSpeed turns the ship into aremote office complete with VPN links,file transfer/sharing, video conferencingas well as e-mail, data transfer and remotesupport. All of the partners believe thatH2OLiteSpeed has huge potential.”

H2OLiteSpeed hits 200

The Oasis of the Seas will be the first ship to implement the O3b service

www.beamcommunications.com

Beam Communications reports that it hasreceived an initial order worth US$170,000from a China-based satellite communica-tions company for its Oceana range ofInmarsat-powered vessel phones.

This initial order follows a commitmentby the Chinese company to undertake ashort trial deploying 200 Beam Oceana 400and Oceana 800 marine communicationsterminals on fishing vessels in China,using the Inmarsat FleetPhone Service.

The trial will deploy 100 of the BeamOceana 400 terminals and 100 of the BeamOceana 800 terminals.

These terminals were specificallydesigned to support the voice, data and

www.radiomar.com.br

Brazilian company Radiomar reports thatit has passed the milestone of selling 100units of its VSAT / Annex V systems, fol-lowing a recent order from Maersk.

Annex V is a communication and securi-ty package specified by Brazilian oil compa-ny Petrobras to be used on vessels that sup-port its oil production operations in Brazil.

The system core is based on a VSATantenna, connected to a router and a set ofother equipment, including several cam-

eras connected to a DVR.The system also provides VoIP telepho-

ny and a data connection to the Petrobrasnetwork, for videoconferencing, vesseltracking, digital trunking radio andradiotelex for command dispatch.

This equipment allows the Petrobrascentral station to remotely monitor andrecord all offshore operations, includingprocedures on board, with the aim of pro-ducing better incident analysis. The satel-lite traffic and network is operated byPetrobras itself.

Radiomar passes 100 VSATs

Chinese order for Beam satphones

200 Beam systems will be trialled on Chinese vessels

tracking communications available overthe Inmarsat satellite network via itsFleetPhone maritime service.

A relatively short trial period is expectedand Beam says that its Chinese partnerplans to commit to a minimum furtherorder of 1,000 units for expansion of the trialto the broader maritime market in China.

“This is a major breakthrough for Beaminto the Chinese maritime market,” saidMichael Capocchi, managing director,Beam Communications.

“We are delighted to be working with akey strategic partner in China, which fur-ther reinforces Beam’s position as a lead-ing global provider of satellite communi-cation solutions for both the Inmarsat andIridium satellite networks.”

www.harriscaprock.comwww.o3bnetworks.com

Harris CapRock Communications is towork with O3b Networks on its recentlyagreed contract to supply Royal CaribbeanCruises' Oasis of the Seas, the largestcruise ship in the world, with its O3bMaritime VSAT service.

Harris CapRock will implement andmaintain the O3b Maritime service for thecruise ship, deploying the stabilised VSATantenna systems and providing a fullymanaged service.

Starting in summer 2013, O3b's service

will offer 350 Mbps download speeds toships at sea via a network of eightMedium-Earth-Orbit (MEO) satellites.

“This exciting partnership betweenHarris CapRock and O3b Networks offersa unique combination for maritime inno-vator Royal Caribbean who is committedto providing the very best cruise experi-ence to its guests,” said Rick Simonian,president of maritime solutions for HarrisCapRock.

“We look forward to working closelywith O3b Networks and to bringing atruly ground-breaking service offering tothe maritime industry.”

Harris CapRock to collaborate on O3b project

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:46

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:46


SATCOMS

www.inmarsat.com

Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, haslaunched an extraordinary attack onInmarsat, claiming that, by providingsatellite services to Iranian vessels, thesatellite operator is “a direct participatorin Iran’s terrorist activities and nuclearweapons program.”

Shurat HaDin made these claims in a letter to Inmarsat PLC, warning thatproviding prohibited guidance servicesto Iranian oil tankers and Iranian military vessels could expose thetelecommunications giant to criminalprosecution and civil liability fromAmericans and others who suffer as aresult of Iran's international sponsorshipof terrorism.

This move is a result of a July 12update to the lists of designated compa-nies, individuals and property thatAmerican and non-American citizens areprohibited from engaging with by theUnited States Treasury.

The Israeli group says that many of the vessels listed by the Treasury are being provided with satellite servicesby Inmarsat.

“We will not tolerate Inmarsat's - orany corporation's - profiting from the blood of innocent people,” saidShurat HaDin's director, NitsanaDarshan-Leitner.

“Anything short of immediate anddecisive action on our part would be akin

to acceptance. It is a simple issue of jus-tice: Inmarsat must uphold its legal obli-gations in compliance with US Treasuryregulations and immediately cease itssupport for Iran.”

This is not the first time this group has threatened Inmarsat with legalaction, having filed a case againstInmarsat in Federal Court in Miami inJune 2011 for “continuing to supportships seeking to breach Israel's navalblockade of Gaza.”

In that case Shurat HaDin said thatInmarsat's services provided communi-cations to the Mavi Marmara and otherships that participated in the Gaza flotil-la of May 2010.

Inmarsat has released a statement torespond to these accusations, refutingthe Israeli group's claims.

The statement reads:“(Inmarsat) seek to comply with all

applicable sanctions laws and regula-tions. Inmarsat does not sell telecommu-nications services to any Iranian entity,or to any entity on the US Office ofForeign Assets Control list of SpeciallyDesignated Nationals.”

“This is the second time that Inmarsathas been accused of wrong-doing byShurat HaDin. Last year, the lobby groupcontended in a US law suit that Inmarsatwas violating US law by allegedly sup-plying telecommunications services toships that allegedly were connected with Hamas.”

“Inmarsat pointed out the legal andfactual difficulties in their case, andShurat HaDin dismissed their case,before Inmarsat even had to respond for-mally on the merits.”

“Inmarsat was founded in 1979 as theInternational Maritime SatelliteOrganization, a non-profit, intergovern-mental organization established byUnited Nations Convention to providemaritime communications for distressand safety of life at sea communications.The Convention required Inmarsat tomake its services available for the 'bene-fit of ships of all nations'.”

“In 1999, the intergovernmentalorganization was privatized, creatingInmarsat plc. As a condition to its priva-tization, Inmarsat was required to con-tinue its 'public service obligations' to'ensure the continuity of maritime satel-lite distress and safety communicationsservices' for the Global Maritime Distressand Safety System (GMDSS) establishedby the UN.”

“...Inmarsat was again required toprovide safety communications servicesfor all ships 'without discrimination onthe basis of nationality'....In turn, allcargo and passenger ships above a cer-tain tonnage must carry a terminal forGMDSS. Inmarsat is the sole satelliteprovider of GMDSS.”

A link to the full text of the ShuratHaDin letter to Inmarsat is available attinyurl.com/bogxxb3.

www.inmarsat.com

Inmarsat has announced the launch of itsglobal satellite handheld IsatPhone Pro inJapan, beginning August 2012.

Japan's largest mobile carrier NTTDOCOMO will deliver IsatPhone Pro tothe Japanese market in partnership withJSAT MOBILE Communications, a jointventure between Inmarsat and SKYPerfect JSAT Corporation, Asia-Pacific'slargest satellite operator.

The introduction of IsatPhone Pro com-plements NTT DOCOMO's existingmobile satellite services portfolio, centredon Widestar and Widestar II.

“We are excited to partner with such aworld-leader as NTT DOCOMO to launchIsatPhone Pro in Japan. This is a key mar-ket for Inmarsat and launching IsatPhonePro here is an important milestone for us,”said Lizzie Greenwood, Asia-Pacific direc-tor, global government, Inmarsat.

www.inmarsat.com

Malaysian shipping conglomerate MISCBerhad (MISC) has signed up 46 of its ves-sels, comprised of chemical and LNGtankers, for Inmarsat’s XpressLink service,which includes a free upgrade to the Ka-band Global Xpress service after launch.

The XpressLink solution from

Inmarsat is a combination of VSAT andFleetBroadband, both provided for a fixed monthly fee. It includes an option for MISC Berhad to double its avail-able bandwidth at a pre-determinedmonthly rate when the Global Xpress constellation becomes commerciallyavailable from 2014.

“It is important for us to have amplebandwidth to manage our ship and shoreoperational systems and meet the commu-nication needs of our seafarers at sea,”said Captain S Rajalingam, vice presidentfleet management systems at MISCBerhad.

“During our sea trials, we comparedXpressLink with a number of competitiveofferings and XpressLink impressed uswith its performance. InmarsatXpressLink offered the best value proposi-tion delivering reliable, unlimited datausage on both the VSAT andFleetBroadband services.”

The scope of the agreement betweenMISC and Inmarsat also includes thepotential for further future deploymentsbeyond the agreed 46 vessels. MISCGroup currently operates a fleet ofapproximately 100 ships.

“We launched Inmarsat XpressLink inresponse to the growing need for unlimit-ed high speed communications in theworldwide shipping market,” said Frank

Coles, president of Inmarsat Maritime.“Crew welfare and the need for

increased operational efficiency are keydrivers in the market, and withXpressLink, we can provide a future-proofcommunications platform.”

“Inmarsat already has a strong relationship with MISC Berhad, and this latest endorsement in the form of a new commitment for XpressLink isvery gratifying.”

MISC Berhad commits to XpressLink

46 vessels will be installed with XpressLink

Inmarsat participating in Iran terrorist activities,claims Israeli group

NTT DOCOMO will offer theInmarsat handheld

IsatPhone Proreaches Japan

‘It is important for us to have amplebandwidth’ – Capt S Rajalingam,

MISC Berhad

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:46

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:47

www.globalstar.com

After a number of recent difficulties,Globalstar has had mixed news toreport, with the positive announcementthat its satellite operations control centre has initiated the steps needed to place four previously launched satellites into service dampened slightlyby subsequent revelations that thelaunch provider for its next series oflaunches was claiming it had defaultedon payments.

At the time of going to press the previously launched satellites were sched-uled to come on line by mid-August.Globalstar was expecting to add addition-al satellites into service in the Autumn,which would further increase perform-ance on its network.

The company had been working withThales and launch services providerArianespace in this regard, preparing toconduct its fourth and final launch of sixnew second-generation satellites prior tothe end of the year.

However, in an August 9 SEC filingGlobalstar admitted that it had receivednotification of payment default fromArianespace, and that, based on the termsand conditions of its contract, Arianespace

would be entitled to suspend its activitiesin preparation for the fourth launch ifGlobalstar does not make payment in fullwithin 15 days.

At the time of going to press this dead-line had not passed, so the outcome of thisclaim is unknown.

According to Globalstar, if paymentis not made within 60 days of its filing,Arianespace is entitled to terminate the contract, which would be an “eventof default” under the FacilityAgreement through which it hasarranged its financing for the satelliteconstellation – which could put futurefunding in jeopardy.

Globalstar says it is working withArianespace to reach a mutually beneficialresolution.

This development comes afterGlobalstar had reached a settlement of itsprior disputes with satellite manufacturerThales Alenia Space France, and agreed to the terms of a commercial proposal forthe purchase of six additional spacecraftfrom Thales.

That mutual settlement of the priorclaims that Globalstar and Thales hadagainst one another meant that Thaleswould complete its current work underPhase 2 of the companies’ contract and

deliver the current group of six satellitesunder construction so that the scheduledfourth launch of six satellites could beconducted this year – a launch which theissues with Arianespace have throwninto doubt.

In addition, Globalstar and Thales haveagreed to the principal terms relating toGlobalstar’s purchase from Thales of sixadditional second-generation satellites at afixed price of approximately €25 millionper satellite, payable over an approximate-ly 3-year period after commencement of manufacturing.

The companies say that they expectto enter into a commercial contractbased upon these terms in the nearfuture.

Should this contract go aheadGlobalstar will pay one-third of thearbitration award (€53 million) to Thales.Thales has agreed to waive the remain-ing two-thirds of the award in these circumstances.

Thales or Globalstar may terminatethe settlement if the new commercialcontract is not signed by February 28,2013. Settlement is also subject toGlobalstar’s receipt of consent fromcompanies involved in its financingarrangements.

www.jotron.comwww.stmi.com

VSAT antenna manufacturer Jotron hasannounced that it has implemented theopen VSAT Antenna Control Protocol(VACP) developed by STM Group Inc,and has concluded interoperability testingwith STM’s broadband satellite routers formobile VSAT networks.

STM and Jotron have developed VACPto minimise interruptions of service dur-ing handover between satellite footprints,and to minimise the effect of blockages.

VACP is a TCP/IP based protocol thatfacilitates the exchange of informationbetween an Antenna Controller Unit and asatellite router.

It allows the satellite router to commandthe antenna and enables the use of AutomaticBeam Switching, which transfers connectiv-ity from one satellite beam to the next as avessel passes through multiple footprints.

In addition, VACP enables users tomeet government regulations by com-manding the antenna to mute the signal inno-transmit zones.

The companies say that VACP is alsocompatible with future beam handoverrequirements for Ka-band.

SATCOMS


More than 50 ships will be installed

www.aledata.no

Farstad Shipping ASA has agreed a dealwith Norwegian company Aalesund Datafor the delivery of the Itrust BandwidthOptimizer (IBO) system to its fleet of over50 ships.

The IBO was first developed byAalesund Data in 2008, and has beenreleased as a number of different versionssince that time. The technology is used tooptimise data communication to vesselsthrough satellite or mobile systems.

Aalesund Data says that it worked withFarstad to test and customise the IBO solu-tion that will be delivered, with IBOv4 tobe supplied.

Version 4 is offered as a virtual system,meaning that deployment and configura-

tion can be completed in a very short peri-od of time.

Delivery of the units is scheduled totake place over the next twelve months,ending in June 2013.

www.onehorizongroup.com

One Horizon Group reports that itsSatCom Global subsidiary has achievedsignificant growth for its Horizon productin the first half of the year, in both voiceand data.

The company says that it has seenmonth over month voice growth of 68-92per cent in Q2 2012, processing over 67,000pre-paid voice minutes and transferring4GB of data (saving 14GB through optimi-sation) in June.

The company estimates that it saved itsmaritime users more than 75 per cent onthe standard cost of this traffic overInmarsat terminals.

“Horizon’s substantial growth vali-dates it has gained visibility with crew inthe maritime industry and that they recog-

nise the value that Horizon offers,” saidSandy Johnson, COO, SatCom Global.

“Through the affordability thatHorizon’s optimisation provides crewmembers have also been able to increasetheir time spent online by 59 per cent.”

Horizon offers a VoIP platform usingthe company’s SmartPacket technology,which allows for voice communications atspeeds of 2 kbps.

In addition to VoIP, Horizon alsoincludes a range of optimised data appli-cations including compressed e-mail,accelerated web browsing and instantmessaging.

As such, the company says that the sys-tem can reduce crew communicationscosts by consuming as much as 80 per centless data than other VoIP services and sav-ing upwards of 20kB per website viewed.

Aalesund Data to supply data optimisation to Farstad

Mixed news for Globalstar Jotron integrates STMtechnology with VSAT

Voice and data growth for Horizon

The IBO is used to manage ship communications

www.scandlines.comwww.mcp.com

SatPoint and Maritime CommunicationPartner (MCP) are to work together toprovide VSAT satellite communicationand mobile phone services to ferry com-pany Scandlines.

The new contract is for five years, andbuilds on an existing contract held bySatPoint for the provision of VSAT servic-es to Scandlines since 2006.

SatPoint and MCP will work togetherunder the new deal to install new infra-structure and hardware on seven ferriesout of the 14 ferries equipped with VSAT.Passengers and crew will be able to use

their mobile phones for voice, SMS anddata on board the same way as they do on land.

“Telephony is not Scandlines’ corebusiness and our focus has been to ensurean economically sensible solution to ourcustomers, while it is very important for our reputation and our customer service to ensure a high quality mobilephone service on board all our vessels,”said Søren Rose, category manager at Scandlines.

MCP says that demand for mobilephone service on ferry and cruise shipshas been on the increase, with the compa-ny achieving growth of 180 per cent indata traffic among passengers and crew.

SatPoint and MCP to supply Scandlines ferries

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:47

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:47

SATCOMS


www.telemargroup.com

The Telemar Group, via its German sub-sidiary Telemar GmbH, reports that it hasagreed new satcom deals with Germanshipping companies John T. Essberger andRickmers.

The contract with John T. Essbergercovers the provision of broadband satellitecommunications to the entire John T.Essberger fleet of 35 vessels.

John T. Essberger is a diversified groupwith activities in ship owning and shipmanagement, liner shipping and maritimerelated services.

The contract encompasses satellite air-time, to be delivered via Telemar’s partnerVizada, until 2015, as well as the deliveryand installation of a customised hardwaresolution including FleetBroadband250 ter-minals, as per Essberger specifications, for21 vessels.

Telemar says it will be providing a ded-icated project engineer, and will managemaintenance of the equipment as well asoffering 24/7 customer support.

Rickmers, meanwhile, has extended anexisting contract with Telemar forFleetBroadband services until 2014, withairtime again provided by Vizada.

Rickmers will move its EntryAllowance SCAP package up to a levelexceeding 3GB, with the data to contributeto the company’s recently announcedproject to introduce dynamic trim optimi-sation and fleet management solutions, inpartnership with ABB.

New shipmanagement software, withdocument management capabilities, andextended crew mailing/web-surfing facil-ities will also be introduced.

The first batch of about 20 Rickmersvessels to be equipped with the 3GB pack-age consists of a group of new ships join-ing the fleet.

Telemar says it will deliver an inte-grated project architecture to the ships,that will include trials of new operationaland crew welfare solutions, such as theSeaMore system for connection of smart-phones and tablets developed by Telemarand Vizada.

www.intelsatepic.com

Harris CapRock Communications andMTN have both announced deals to utiliseIntelsat's newly announced EpicNG net-work to provide VSAT services after thenew satellites are launched.

The Intelsat EpicNG platform, initiallycomprised of Intelsat 29e and Intelsat 33e,will utilise multiple frequency bands,wide beams, spot beams and frequencyreuse technology, and will add to Intelsat'sexisting satellite fleet and IntelsatONE ter-restrial network.

The two EpicNG satellites are scheduledfor launch in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Harris CapRock has signed a multi-year agreement for VSAT capacity on thenew network to expand its service offer-

ings and offer new applications to its glob-al customers across the energy, maritimeand government markets.

The company already utilises Ku-bandcapacity on multiple satellites on theIntelsat fleet, which will expand to Intelsat29e when it is launched. The EpicNG satel-lite platform will provide Harris CapRockwith more than one gigabit of throughput.

MTN has also signed a long-termagreement with Intelsat for capacity onIntelsat 29e, to provide more than 2 giga-bits of capacity to its cruise and yacht cus-tomers in the Caribbean.

MTN will initially use capacity onIntelsat’s Ku-band infrastructure beforepartially transitioning to the IntelsatEpicNG platform once Intelsat 29e islaunched in 2015.

MTN and Harris CapRock agree Epic deals

Telemar agrees German deals

NYK Line will implement KVH systems on over 100 ships

www.kvh.comwww.sptvjsat.com/en

Tokyo-based Nippon Yusen Kaisha, morecommonly known as NYK Line, has agreed adeal to install TracPhone V7 mini-VSAT sys-tems from KVH aboard its containerships.

The service, which operates over 60cmantennas, will be provided by KVH's part-ner in Japan, SKY Perfect JSAT, under theOceanBB brand name.

This is a second recent contract win forKVH with a major Japanese carrier, withMOL LNG Transport Co, a subsidiary ofMitsui O.S.K. Lines, confirming a deal toimplement mini-VSAT on three of its LNGtankers in late 2011, following the comple-tion of a trial.

NYK's fleet includes containerships,Pure Car Truck Carriers (PCTCs), dry bulkcarriers, crude oil tankers and LNG tankers,more than 100 of which will be equippedwith the broadband service to supportNYK's IBIS (Innovative Bunker and Idle-

time Saving) project with real-time commu-nications between ships and staff on shore.

“NYK is an industry leader that is con-stantly innovating and improving its ship-ping and logistics operations with the aimof optimising safety, economy, and protec-tion of the environment,” said BrentBruun, KVH's senior vice president ofglobal sales and business development.

“Their industry-leading IBIS project,which helps improve the operation oftheir ships and reduce CO2 emissions,requires delivering real-time weather andsea current forecasts to the ship and auto-matically sending ship operation databack to shore for ongoing analysis.”

“The improved connectivity provided byour mini-VSAT Broadband service willallow for greater information sharing andcollaboration between NYK employees onvessels and shore, increasing both safety andefficiency. It also provides affordable com-munications for crew members to communi-cate with their families or use the internet.”

NYK Line agrees 100-ship mini-VSAT deal

www.omniaccess.comwww.idirect.net

VSAT provider OmniAccess reports that ithas deployed a new iDirect Series 15100Universal Satellite Hub to expand its mar-itime satellite network.

The company says that the addition ofits third iDirect hub will allow it to expandits coverage area, and offer a multi-hubsatellite network that will allow users tomove between different regions withouthaving to change satellite serviceproviders or plans.

The iDirect system allows for function-alities such as Automatic Beam Selection(ABS) and Adaptive Coding andModulation (ACM), which OmniAccesswill use in the provision of itsBroadBEAM ULTRA service, with speedsof up to 30 Mbps.

“Thanks to the scalability of the iDirectplatform and the dedicated efforts ofiDirect's technical services and supportstaff, we were able to establish a globalsatellite network in only 18 months,” said

Bertrand Hartman, CEO, OmniAccess.“For a growing company like ours,

this quick growth has been instrumentalto our success. Moreover, because two ofthe three hubs we have deployed werecompletely installed by iDirect remotely,there has been minimal impact to ouroperations.”

In related news, OmniAccess is to useIntellian VSAT communications antennasas part of a project to implement broad-band satellite communications for a rivercruise operator.

The Intellian 60cm 3-axis Ku-bandVSAT antennas have been installedonboard nineteen vessels for the unnamedriver cruise company, which is now able totransfer on average over 300 Gb of dataper vessel per month.

“By using the right technology andpartners we have proved that small com-pact antennas are capable of achievingunparalleled download speeds of up to 30Mbps with exceptional uptime and avail-ability,” notes Carlos Carbajal, managingdirector of yacht services at OmniAccess.

OmniAccess expands VSAT service

www.orolia.comwww.boatracs.com

Orolia, a group specialising in positioning,navigation and GPS timing equipment andsystems, has announced the acquisition ofmaritime communications provider Boatracs.

Orolia says that the Boatracs acquisi-tion is part of its strategy to move up thevalue chain by offering more completebusiness solutions to its customers.

These solutions consist of a hardwareplatform, a communications system forwireless data transmission and reception,and software which provides a web-baseduser interface to facilitate effective datacommunications between ship and shore.

The company intends to operate usinga business model that will see initial hard-

ware sales followed by recurring airtimerevenue and SaaS (Software as a Service).

“This acquisition not only expands ourproduct offering, but also strengthens ourpresence in the North American fishing andworkboat market segments,” said Jean-YvesCourtois, president and CEO of Orolia.

“It has the added benefit of bringing uscritical size in the application softwaredomain, human-machine interfaces andclient-server architectures that are crucialfor the development of M2M solutionsand services for our customers operatingin challenging environments.”

“Strategically, we now have in Orolia astrong software centre of excellence andsolutions competency on which to buildmore valuable business contributions forall our customers.”

Orolia acquires Boatracs

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:48

NETWAVEMARITIME INFORMATIONSYSTEMSALREADY MORE THAN 5,500 VESSELS RELY ON USAND THIS NUMBER IS GROWING EVERY DAY

ONSHORE

DATACOST SAVING!

VDRVoyage DataRecorders

Visit us on SMM, Hall B6,Stand 403

T +31 (0)88 - 11 81 500F +31 (0)88 - 11 81 599E [email protected] www.netwavesystems.com

NetWave Systems BVBlauw-roodlaan 1002718 SJ ZoetermeerThe Netherlands

OFFSHORE

MARLIANTNon-stop computing for the high seas

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:48

SATCOMS


II n today's strained economic climateand an increasingly challenging mar-itime market, shipping companies

need to be ready to adapt in order toremain competitive. Direct, speedy com-munication is one of the areas that is rap-idly changing, as companies try to satisfycharterers’, ports’ and shipping companyagencies’ requests for a growing amountof information.

Operating in such an environment,Hamburg-based shipping group PeterDöhle Schiffahrts-KG, which, with 450 ves-sels under operation, is one of the largestship owners in Germany, decided that itneeded to embark on a modernisation of itssatellite communication solution.

Over the course of the project, the ship-ping company has expanded the use ofbroadband connectivity across its fleet,equipping a large number of vessels withInmarsat FleetBroadband, Ku-band VSATand C-band VSAT respectively.

Now, Peter Döhle is drawing its con-clusions on the challenges, as well as thebenefits, of broadband implementation.

Increased need forbroadband

The major driver for Peter Döhle in itsdecision to embark on a broadband imple-mentation project has been to open upadditional opportunities on the opera-tional side, while also offering improvedservices to its crew.

In order to illustrate all facets of thedecision-making process, Marcel Favretto,IT and communication coordinator fleet,Peter Döhle, describes the situation priorto the implementation of broadband, acondition which still persists on a numberof ships since Peter Döhle has not imple-mented the broadband solution on all itsvessels so far.

Before the shipping company embarkedon the rollout of FleetBroadband, Ku- andC-band on large parts of its fleet, InmarsatF77 or older systems, such as Fleet 33, wereused on Peter Döhle vessels. Typically,describes Mr Favretto, this setup providedinternet access only to a single computeron board, the 'communication PC' locatedon the bridge.

“This outdated communication solu-tion used to, and still does, pose a numberof challenges, not only for the master andthe crew on board, but also for the IT sup-port in the office,” he explains.

Since older satellite communicationsystems generally connect to the internetvia dial-up as opposed to using an IP con-nection, Mr Favretto notes that remotesupport from shore is impossible and themaintenance of Windows and other soft-ware, such as antivirus updates, is time-consuming and difficult.

For maintenance and updating purpos-es, CDs, and sometimes even IT support

staff, need to be sent out to the vessels. “This maintenance process takes a very

long time,” says Mr Favretto, “and makesit extremely difficult to constantly keep allthe systems up-to-date.”

“Sometimes, it can take up to a monthuntil the update CD reaches its destinationvessel. Once it has reached the ship safely,the master still needs to insert the CD intothe computer. Often, it is this last step thatturns out to be problematic, becauseinstructions are missing or incomplete.”

“In addition, there is always the risk thatthe captain makes a mistake due to inexpe-

rience or because he is preoccupied withhis actual, ship management, workload.”

Mr Favretto explains that Peter Döhleused to deploy stand-alone PCs, not con-nected through any network infrastruc-ture, on its vessels – however, this createdcertain disadvantages.

USB sticks were used in order toexchange data between computers on boardand this method of data transfer, whilealready time-consuming and cumbersome,induces further problems and exposed theshipping company to the risk of distribut-ing viruses between its various users.

“Often, there is only one USB stick that isused on board. If this is contaminated witha virus, it will eventually spread and infectall other computers,” says Mr Favretto.

“This is a dangerous threat for a ship-ping company, especially because thesolution of such a problem is so difficultand often requires IT staff to fly out to therespective vessels, which is both time andcost intensive.”

A further disadvantage of the older sys-tems was that every internet connectionhad to be established on request.

A Peter Döhle vessel would, accordingto its standard setting, connect to the inter-net up to three or four times a day to allowfor e-mail communication. Instantexchange of information was impossible

under such a setup and the shipping com-pany found the communication experi-ence to be inefficient.

“We often had to wait very long untilwe got an answer from the vessel,” MrFavretto recalls.

“Since instant communication is oftenrequired in order to solve a problem, weoften had to request a higher frequency ofinternet connections, which in turn led toincreased communication costs.”

The demand for satellite communica-tion in the shipping industry, both withregards to speed and volume, has signifi-

cantly increased in recent years. This has,as Mr Favretto points out, greatly affectedPeter Döhle‘s operations.

Through the evolution in technology,stakeholders in the shipping industry aregetting used to more and more informa-tion being readily available. This, in turn,leads to an ever increasing demand formore data.

“Charterers, ports and agencies,” saysMr Favretto, “want more and more infor-mation from us. In order to stay attractiveand competitive, we need to make surethat we are in the position to satisfy thesedemands.”

Mr Favretto expects that increasingamounts of data will also need to be trans-ferred from ship to shore in order to satis-fy internal requests for information, suchas engine reports, information from thevoyage data recorder, or other updates. Inaddition, he envisages the number of systems requiring online access and thenumber of available applications to risesubstantially.

“We expect the e-mail communicationand data transfer to increase exponentiallydue to the growing demands of all shippingindustry stakeholders,” says Mr Favretto.

“With our new broadband communica-tion solutions in place, we will be ready tomeet this challenge.”

A further incentive for Peter Döhle tooverhaul its communication solution wasto stay attractive as an employer in anincreasingly difficult staffing environment.

The shipping company recognised thata complete modernisation of its crew com-munication system was necessary in orderto provide its seagoing staff with moreattractive options in terms of staying intouch with life on shore.

“The way our system was working,”Mr Favretto says “there was simply noprivacy for the crew.”

“If a seafarer wanted to check his e-mail, he needed to go onto the bridgewhere the communication PC is located.Obviously, there is zero privacy. Underthe new broadband solution, the situationhas changed for our crew and we feel thisis much appreciated.”

The communication options available tothe crew on Peter Döhle vessels vary fromship to ship according to the deployedsatellite communication solution.

On the vessels that utiliseFleetBroadband, the German shippingcompany offers advanced e-mail commu-nication to its crew. However, seagoingstaff on the vessels that use Ku- and C-band can avail themselves of a muchwider range of communication possibili-ties via the internet, which allows not onlyfor surfing but also the use of Skype.

Crews pay €0.10 per megabyte of trafficon the internet. In order to ensure that thenew communication possibilities do notinterfere with the ship network, and toprovide for optimal connectivity for itsoperations, Peter Döhle has implementeda system which prioritises ship communi-cation before crew communication.

Centralised networkmanagement

Peter Döhle sees the future of its commu-nication structure in the implementationof LAN systems. Already, the shippingcompany has introduced FleetBroadbandon the majority of its vessels. In addition, asmall number of vessels have beenequipped with Ku- or C-band.

The implementation of FleetBroadband,Ku- and C-band has enabled Peter Döhle todeploy centralised network management,which further simplifies administration,maintenance and support of the IT.

“The centralisation of the administra-tion and maintenance,” says Mr Favretto,“greatly reduces the IT related workloadof our captains. The captain and crew cando their job and manage the vessel insteadof trying to be IT experts.”

Mr Favretto notes that broadbandenabled centralised network managementis extremely helpful in mitigating securityconcerns with regards to viruses, andimproves the safety of vessel networks.

“The virus,” he says, “is the fastest

Peter Döhle Schiffahrts-KG has is currently in the process of performing a radical overhaul of its communications infrastructure,implementing a variety of different satellite communication solutions with the aim of enhancing vessel operations and

competitiveness. Marcel Favretto, Peter Döhle, spoke to Digital Ship about the advantages of broadband at sea

Broadband – a vehicle for IT improvement

With its new systems, Peter Döhle is able to communicate instantly with its vessels at sea

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:48

If you’re tired of rising SATCOM costs, come on over to the mini-VSAT Broadband world!

Get KVH’s new report“Comparing KVH mini-VSAT Broadband to Legacy Solutions” at:

www.minivsat.com/one

How did KVH become

No. 1 in maritime VSAT?*

*Euroconsult Report, March 2012 and NSR, May 2012

K V H I N D U S T R I E S W O R L D W I D EWorld HQ: United States | [email protected] EMEA HQ: Denmark | [email protected] Asia-Pacific HQ: Singapore | [email protected]

+1 401.847.3327 +45 45 160 180 +65 6513 0290

©2012 KVH Industries, Inc. KVH, TracPhone, and the unique light-colored dome with dark contrasting baseplate are registered trademarks of KVH Industries, Inc. mini-VSAT Broadband is a service mark of KVH Industries, Inc.

AffordableOffering versatile airtime

options with metered rate plans at 1/10th

the costReliable

One manufacturer, one network, one

end-to-end solution with 99.5%

uptime

SmallAntennas 85% smaller than

other maritime VSATs

FastData rates

up to 4 Mbps

GlobalUnified C/Ku-band

network covers95% of Earth

Versatile one-dome hardware solutions for any vessel or application

antenna dish diameter37 cm (14.5")110 cm (43")60 cm (24")

Meet us at SMM, Hamburg, September 4-7 Stand #B6.405 & Outdoor Stand #B5.FG.017

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:48

SATCOMS


updated system in the world. Every time anew virus comes out, we have to find asolution and make sure we protect ourcomputers.”

“This process is greatly sped upthrough the introduction of broadband onour vessels and the creation of a cen-tralised network management. Throughthe implementation of this new communi-cation solution, the security of our com-puters has been tremendously improved.”

“Today, all our devices, both in theoffice and on board our vessels are up-to-date at any given point.”

An additional advantage of the broad-band connectivity, says Mr Favretto, is thealways on connection.

“Our vessels and now permanentlyconnected to the internet,” he says.

“This way, we do not have to schedulespecific connection times for the vessels.Also, there is no need to ration and moni-tor the data volumes as we did under theold solution and our communication costshave been decreased.”

Remote accessOne of the key drivers for Peter Döhle inits decision to implement a broadbandsolution has been to supply its vesselswith remote support through the ITdepartment.

“Without the availability of remotesupport,” says Mr Favretto, “the commu-nication between the captain and the ITsupport in the office has typically beenvery time-consuming and prone to misun-derstandings and difficulties.”

The shipping company uses MicrosoftRDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to con-nect to the vessel servers.

“This solution,” explains Mr Favretto,“has turned out to be advantageous for usas we can log on to the computers on boardwithout anybody needed on the other side.”

A challenge for the shipping companywas keeping the virus and malware con-trol up to scratch, for which the shippingcompany has implemented firewalls onboth sides.

Peter Döhle's broadband-enabled ves-sels are connected to the shore office via aVPN tunnel, which has helped the compa-ny to add additional remote access capa-bilities to its IT infrastructure and, in addi-

tion, bolstered its security.“This secure end-to-end, always-on

internet connection setup guarantees usthat no one from outside can access ourcomputers,” says Mr Favretto.

The availability of remote connection tothe vessels has resulted in a variety of ben-efits. As an example, Mr Favretto describesa recent troubleshooting scenario, where hedelivered IT support to the captain of aPeter Döhle vessel over the phone, whoseExcel software had stopped functioning.This scenario, he says, is typical for IT sup-port without a remote connection.

The captain had called the IT support inthe office. The IT specialist asked what thelast running processes had been, andfound out that Sophos, Peter Döhle'santivirus program, had been updatedprior to the error.

Since this antivirus program also con-trols applications and prevents the instal-lation of new software, its update waslikely to be the cause, and unblockingExcel in the antivirus program was mostlikely the appropriate solution.

“Instructing the captain over thephone,” explains Mr Favretto, “is typicallya very difficult process and causes the ITdepartment a lot of problems.”

“In the majority of cases, the screen thatthe captain sees is not 100 per cent identicalwith what I see in the office. Therefore, thecaptain has to be 'my eyes'; however, since heis no IT expert, it is mostly difficult to exactlydescribe what he sees on the screen.”

In this case, telephone communicationdid not lead to a satisfactory solution to theproblem and Mr Favretto asked the captainto send him a screenshot via e-mail. Oncehe had assessed the problem he sent an e-mail to the vessel with short instructions onhow to solve it – in this case, how to installthe antivirus program properly.

“Implementing my written or oralinstructions,” Mr Favretto points out,“often imposes a near insurmountablechallenge to the crew, who is preoccupiedwith sailing the vessel, in which case evenmore costly telephone and e-mail commu-nication between the vessel and the officeis required.”

Mr Favretto describes the entire com-munication process, including numerousphone calls, four to five e-mail exchanges,

a new installation of the antivirus pro-gram and a reboot, which was necessaryto solve the error, as having taken anentire day.

The same troubleshooting scenario han-dled with remote support, he explains,would have been quicker, cheaper and lessfrustrating for all participants in comparison.

“With remote support I log onto thecomputer on board once the captain hasnotified me of an error message,” he says.

“I can easily detect the cause, withoutintervention from the captain being neces-sary, and solve the problem remotely. Atthe end, I notify the captain via e-mail thatthe problem has been solved.”

In essence, troubleshooting, withoutremote support is time-consuming, bothfor the captain and the IT department;costly, as sending back and forth screen-shots, instructions and manuals requires ahigh amount of data to be transferred; andultimately often frustrating for all parties,because the support is not as efficient as itcould be.

Through its broadband implementa-tion and the use of remote support, PeterDöhle was able to reduce troubleshootingthat had taken up to one day to a mere halfan hour, depending on the quality of theinternet connection to the vessel.

Centralised updatesA further advantage of remote connectionto the vessels is a centralisation of soft-ware management, maintenance andupdates through the IT support in theoffice.

In order to illustrate the simplificationof software maintenance gained throughthe use of remote support, Mr Favrettocompares the installation of software withand without broadband.

The installation of software on vesselsthat have no broadband connectivity cantake up to four weeks.

To begin with, a CD has to be sent outto the vessel. The captain is typically busyrunning the ship, or he might lack theexperience and knowledge necessary toinstall the software and thus cause a fur-ther delay.

In other cases, explains Mr Favretto, thecaptain may be reluctant to install a newversion of the system that was runningwell, and only install the new software onsome, but not all, of the computers.

“Software maintenance in the old-fash-ioned style,” he says, “can be extremelytime-consuming.”

“In addition, we expose our equip-ment to often inexperienced handling,thus increasing the risk of badly carriedout installations, faulty software andsecurity gaps.”

Conversely, if the IT department canavail itself of remote support, installationof new software can be carried out instant-ly, without delay and without the risk ofdisturbing the system.

When new software is installed or exist-ing software is updated, the IT support inthe office notifies the captain via e-mail ofthe impending process, and sends anothere-mail once the update has been completed.

“We know what to install, where andhow to install it, and we install it withoutproblems,” says Mr Favretto.

In order to do this, shore based supporthas to log on to the computer on the vessel

and remove the admin rights from thenormal user (under certain circumstancesonly the captain receives the admin pass-word from the IT department).

The advantages of centralised remoteconnection supported software manage-ment are significant.

Besides the substantial saving of time,the company does not have to provide IT-inexperienced crews with administratorrights in order to make changes to the soft-ware. This way, the margin for humanerror and the likelihood of faulty installa-tions or the introduction of a virus is sub-stantially reduced.

Furthermore, Peter Döhle does not runthe risk that illegal software is installed oncompany equipment.

With approximately 10 MB per connec-tion from the office to the vessel, depend-ing on the amount of time spent solvingthe task at hand, Mr Favretto judges theoperating expense of remote support to bereasonable. With regards to overall sup-port costs, the remote support solutionwith broadband connectivity comparesfavourably.

Problems solved?Peter Döhle is satisfied with the imple-mentation of FleetBroadband, Ku- and C-Band on wide parts of its fleet, though themodernisation of its communication tech-nology has not eliminated all of the ship-ping company's IT-related problems.

Mr Favretto notes that the complexityof the IT infrastructure has not decreasedthrough the implementation of broad-band, but the shipping company has expe-rienced that the improved connectivityhas caused a shift of problems away fromthe vessel into the office.

Whereas, under the prior solution,crew had to manage all on-board equip-ment, for good or for evil, this task nowfalls to the IT department.

“It is impossible for us to have an ITexpert on board every vessel,” explainsMr Favretto.

“Thus, we can choose between twoways of supporting our seagoing staff:either we send an IT specialist out to theships, which is an effective but compara-tively costly solution, or we employbroadband, which enables us to useremote support to assist our crew with allIT-related problems.”

Peter Döhle is positive that the currentupward trend in data traffic is likely tocontinue in the future.

The shipping company has found thatthe flat monthly rates available with Ku-and C-band VSAT provide a feasible solu-tion that offers the flexibility to increasethe data transfer amount. This mightbecome necessary in the near future, forexample, in order to allow for additionalremote management and to provide accessto an ever-growing number of applica-tions on board.

If, and how quickly, the German ship-ping company and its competitors will beable to react to technological innovationsand market requirements remains to beseen. It can, however, be anticipated thatincreasing data transfer rates will berequired in the near or midterm future,and that companies wanting to stay com-petitive will have to find a way to satisfythese demands. DS

The IT department on shore can directly access computers on the ship,and offer remote support

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 12:48

20 years experience. 1 simple solution.• Type Approved PMS

• Minimal Training Required

• Rapid Technical Support Service

• No ‘Per Seat’ or any Annual License Fees

• Global Customer Base from VLCC’s to Workboats

• Complete Package or Single Modular Components available

• PMS, Stock, Procurement, Dry Dock, Safety & Document Management Solutions

From ship to shore,simplicity is the key to success.

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

SMM Hamburg2012:

Hall B1.OGSTAND 501

4 - 7 sept 2012

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:18

- Affordable - Guaranteed Committed Information Rate (CIR) with unlimited data at a fixed monthly rate

- Global Coverage - C-Band & Worldwide Ku-Band Antenna

- Remote Access - Reduce attendance & travel costs, troubleshoot vessel network issues from shore

- Self Diagnostics - Automated VSAT recovery with no onboard/onshore intervention required

- Reliable - The highest uptime surpassing the industry average

- 24 x 7 Support - Premium Tier 3 global support structure, manned by highly skilled IT & certified VSAT engineers

Globe iFusion® VSAT

Please Visit us at SMM 2012Hall 6 Booth No. 107

Vis6 BDistribution PartnerDiD stribDiDistst bbttriribbbutiobutitibubuttioiiooon ononon PaPPaaa t ea t ererartntnaararttaa

®

[email protected]

A Fully Customized VSAT System with Unparalleled Customer Support!VSAT S t ith UWhere Land & Sea Connect

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:18

maritime IT supplier market, starting atthe beginning of 2010, to find a partnerthat could assist in implementing its newinfrastructure.

“The first step was to define what weneed – before you choose the market youneed to define what you really need,” saidMr Frenks.

“Obviously this is not an IT initiative,it’s a business initiative that IT has facili-tated – it pulls the entire business togeth-er, the operations, the technical manage-ment, the crewing department.”

“We created a high level solution archi-tecture, which we felt was appropriate tobe implemented.”

These early stages of the process tooklonger than might have been expected,and Mr Frenks warns that it is easy tounderestimate the amount of time youneed to be able to start work on a projectlike this.

“In total it took us more than a year justto define what we want, to get the design,to get the requirements and to move into apilot phase where we could actually startthe roll-out. This is not a one or twomonths’ job. Just to get all of the require-ments defined and agreed took us abouttwo months,” he said.

“Then we moved into a very compre-hensive tendering process. We invited 25companies who could participate in thisprocess. We sent out a questionnaire andthey provided us answers, and then we didsome weighted scoring. We moved from along list to a short list, and we invited thosecompanies to our offices where they didsome vendor presentations. We looked at

Managing changes in any organisation’s IT environment is often a difficult process, which can be made even more challengingwhen multiple changes are made simultaneously. Shipping company Vroon recently took on an ambitious project of this type,

with some notable success – Rob Frenks, Vroon, gave Digital Ship some advice on managing a major IT upgrade project

Managing a major maritime ITinfrastructure project

AA ny maritime IT manager will tellyou that one of the most awk-ward aspects of the job is intro-

ducing new systems into an existing infra-structure. No matter how well you areprepared, there will almost inevitably beteething problems as people get used tothe changes in their way of working, anddifferent integrated technologies begin tooperate in sync.

Dutch shipping company Vroon decid-ed, in late 2009, to face these challenges andintroduce some major changes in its ITinfrastructure. However, the project thatthe company embarked on did not justinvolve a change in software or replace-ment of the satcom equipment – Vroondecided to introduce a completely newstandardised shipboard infrastructure,incorporating new networks, new soft-ware, and new satellite communications.

To make this even more difficult thecompany would roll this project out acrossa diversified fleet of approximately 150vessels, in sectors including livestock, drycargo, tankers, containers, car carriers andoffshore (platform supply, AHTS, ERRV,DSV and Windmill installation), served by3,800 seafarers and 300 office staff onshore – changing the satcom, software andnetworks all at the same time.

So what drives a company to take on anIT project of this magnitude and complex-ity? As Rob Frenks, Group ICT manager atVroon, explains, the basic goals were sim-ple – to remove the IT burden from thecrew and increase operational efficiency.

As Mr Frenks describes it, the companyhad become frustrated by the lack of relia-bility it had experienced with its IT set-up,and had to find a solution that would keepits onboard technology operational forsustained periods.

“Previously we used to get lots and lotsof virus infections, primarily through USBsticks,” he told us.

“It wasn’t just virus infections, whenwe would go onboard we also noticed theoperating systems would be in Russian, orin any other language you can imagine. Itwas just something we couldn’t manage, itwasn’t sustainable.”

“At the time I joined Vroon in 2009,there were three people in my team sup-porting the ICT infrastructure on about 40vessels. They did nothing else but just fly-ing around the world going to the vesselsand removing all the viruses from the com-puters. By the time they were back on theplane the computers were full of virusesagain and would have stopped working. Ineeded to recruit quite a large team if wewere to continue like this for 150 vessels,which is something I didn’t want to do. “

Mr Frenks was looking to support the

ships remotely, but notes that since theyweren’t installed with VSAT, insteadusing a mixture of L-band systems, he did-n’t see remote support as a possibility.

“The only way you could do it was byphysically going to a vessel,” he said.

“Obviously the crew was very unhap-py. But they were also very creative, theywould try to fix things themselves – take ascrewdriver and open two or three serversthat were partly working and combinethem together.”

“Sometimes it would work, but most ofthe time they made it even worse than itwas before. So we needed a solution.”

The support issue was exacerbated bythe fact that Vroon had grown substantial-ly through the completion of a number ofacquisitions, adding ships but also inherit-ing the IT networks already in place.

“When you do an acquisition you basi-cally get all of the legacy systems on thevessels, so we had a lot of different stan-dards across the fleet. It was very difficultto manage,” said Mr Frenks.

“Our company also had new require-ments, they wanted to implement mainte-nance and procurement systems, watch-keeper systems, crewing systems, and soforth on the vessels. In order to do thatyou need to have a stable IT networkonboard.”

As mentioned, Vroon was using a mix-ture of satellite communications systemsbefore it began this IT project, which againwere added to through acquisitions untilthe company was using a range of servic-es from Inmarsat Mini-M, through Fleet77, FleetBroadband, and a couple of VSATinstallations.

“We had them all. We had more than 10solution providers, so we had no consisten-cy and we had to talk to many different peo-ple to get problems solved,” said Mr Frenks.

“The cost was extremely high, and wasvery unpredictable. And basically all wewere getting was some e-mail, and someAMOS replication. We were paying, onaverage, around $30 to $40 per MB, it wasjust outrageous and we weren’t even get-ting a good service.”

“We had a couple of VSATs, but theyweren’t managed, so basically we hadMasters walking around the vesselsunplugging the wireless in order to get hise-mail through. Again, not a very goodprofessional solution.”

Aside from these problems on the vessels, on shore demands from the busi-ness management were increasing, in anumber of different areas – something thatwould inevitably require an increase insatcom traffic.

“The company wanted to further inte-grate the networks on the vessels and in

the office as there’s a lot of communicationgoing on between the superintendents,operations and the quality departmentand the people onboard,” said Mr Frenks.

“Condition based monitoring was alsoa topic discussed, so we could start moni-toring the performance of the vesselashore. And a big topic for Vroon, and foreverybody I guess, is crew welfare, pro-viding them with e-mail, telephony andalso internet, in order to recruit and retainthe people we want.”

“Those were basically the reasons whywe had to improve.”

Planning and preparationRunning an IT project of this magnitudetakes careful planning and preparation,and Vroon spent a significant amount oftime building a strategy that would helpthe process to move as smoothly as possi-ble towards its goals.

One of the first major decisions was tofocus on the IT network design, as thefoundation of the whole infrastructure towhich the other parts of the project wouldthen be added.

“The approach we took was that, firstof all, we made the big decision that wewould stop doing this ourselves,” said Mr Frenks.

“There must be companies out therethat have done this and have a proven andtested solution out there. We can try it our-selves, but we have done it in the past andhaven’t been successful. With 150 vesselsand a company that keeps on growing it’sjust not sustainable.”

This led Vroon to begin a search of the

Digital Ship


Vroon was faced with the task of rolling out a new infrastructure to 150 vessels

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 18/08/2012 11:38

SATCOMS


their solutions, we went to their companiesto see the solutions and we visited some oftheir customers as reference checks.”

“Finally, after we arrived at the deci-sion we went through a fairly lengthy contract negotiation, because this is reallya big deal for us. That took us about fourto six months, the entire process of tender-ing, from a long list to a short list, to the decisions.”

The list of criteria that Vroon includedin its tender process was based on a num-ber of key core deliverables.

“Obviously it needs to be cost effec-tive,” explained Mr Frenks.

“We wanted to have one single standardfor the entire fleet, irrespective of the mar-ket they operate in. We wanted to have ashort implementation timeframe, you can’treally claim the vessel for a week to imple-ment an IT network so we needed to do itduring a crew change or during drydock orduring standard maintenance.”

“The big thing for us was to reduce thetravel cost for IT – we didn’t want to go tothe vessels anymore to just fix things, we want to do it remotely. And we want-ed to move to a single service provider, as opposed to managing many differentproviders.”

One of the ways that Vroon aimed toreduce IT travel expenses was by creating a closed system, secure from out-side access.

“In the old days we had system admin-istrator passwords floating around, but ifpeople are a bit too creative they can domore harm than good,” said Mr Frenks.

“We decided to remove all that access,and really tried to separate all the data net-works – for the business, for the crew, forthe customers, and so on. And it was veryimportant that it was easy to use. We don’thave a lot of IT skills onboard, and the crewneeds to be able to reinstall the system ifneeds be without any IT intervention.”

“To us, this all sounded like a very simple list of objectives, but it was actually hard to find a company that couldfulfil them.”

Out of the 25 companies examined dur-ing the tender process the one that did ful-fil them to Vroon’s satisfaction wasNorwegian provider Palantir, with itsKeepUp@Sea system.

“At that time their system was runningon about 300 vessels, and we visited somecustomers and the feedback was reallygood. So we decided to pilot it,” said Mr Frenks.

“One of the key differentiators is that theentire build process, for the server and theinstallation on board, is fully automated.That means there isn’t a lot of room forerrors, which meant a trouble free roll-out.”

“It was also very important that wecould apply software patches, and there arequite a few software patches, or antivirusremotely. In the old days we had DVDsand CDs flying around the world, hopingthat sometime they would be applied butmost of the time they would just be in adrawer somewhere. Then you would endup with software that was out of date orantivirus that wasn’t up to date.”

Another key selling point for Vroonwas that the Palantir system would alsohelp the company to provide remote sup-port to the vessels, with or without VSAT.

“It’s done through scripting, sent

through whatever communications youhave, and installations are done automati-cally onboard and monitored from shore,”said Mr Frenks.

“They have a solution that requires lim-ited IT skills for the crew. In the event thatthey do mess up something, a single pressof F12 and you can have the PC rebuiltautomatically with the latest softwaredownloaded from the server. It doesn’tneed any IT intervention whatsoever.”

Satcom choiceVroon’s approach to choosing its new sat-com system followed a similar process tothat used for the IT network partner selec-tion, as Mr Frenks explains.

“Here we also had 20 to 25 companiesby the time we concluded the tender, andKVH was the only company that we cameacross that designs, manufactures, ownsand operates the end solution,” he told us.

“A lot of the other solution providershave only part of the chain, and that hadbeen a problem with our previous systems, there would be a lot of fingerpointing between the service provider and someone else in the chain to get prob-lems fixed.”

“We also found that they have a verystrong focus on quality assurance, but alsokeep flexibility, they maintain a good bal-ance. The installation of the dome is donein one day, traditionally with VSAT it hasbeen a couple of days. The KVH system isa very small one so you don’t need a cranefor installation. The below deck equip-ment is pre-configured and shipped to thevessel, and it’s just plugged in.”

Mr Frenks was also impressed with theCommBox communications managementsystem offered with the service sinceKVH’s acquisition of Norwegian companyVirtek in 2010, a deal agreed during thetime that Vroon was conducting its project.

“This is basically the heart of the sys-tem, where the management of all the datais being done. That was another sellingpoint for us,” he said.

Vroon’s agreement with KVH will seethe shipping company install differentsystems depending on the type of businessits vessels are engaged in.

“Since we have a very diversified busi-ness, we have offshore which is regionalbut also the deep sea where we are tradingglobally, we decided on using a companythat could provide both solutions,” saidMr Frenks.

“The KVH V7, which is the smallerdome, is used for regional business, andwe knew that the V11 was coming, thoughwe were under a non-disclosure agree-ment at the time back in 2010, which wasrecently announced and combines Ku-and C-band. We’re going to implementthat for our deep sea fleet.”

“Recently we also decided on IridiumPilot as a backup in the unlikely event thatthe VSAT doesn’t work. We also decidedto use the CommBox for all vessels.”

Implementing newservices

Having decided on its new partners forthe IT infrastructure project, the companymoved on to a design and developmentphase, where all of the Vroon-specificrequirements were incorporated into thesolutions and the standard infrastructurewas created.

“It was also very important at that timethat we took the opportunity to standard-ise the tools being used onboard – with150 vessels we had many different tools,most of them more or less doing the samething,” said Mr Frenks.

“So we picked the best ones and decid-

ed to have one tool for the entire fleet, foreach type of vessel, depending on its pur-pose. That was a big thing to do, it took alot of dialogue and convincing people,because everybody thinks they have thebest tool.”

“We put a lot of thought into security –firewalls, VLANs to separate traffic on thenetwork, and so on – before we couldactually start on the pilot, which we did onthree vessels. We did that for a couple ofmonths, made some adjustments, andthen we basically decided to go aheadwith the roll out.”

From start to finish, this part of theprocess involved more than a year’s effort,Mr Frenks notes, and required a significantfocus on project management, as well asvery close cooperation with the supplier.

Vroon also decided to go for a fullymanaged service, from both Palantir andKVH, to manage installation of the sys-tems and reduce the burden on its ownstaff as far as possible.

“Obviously Vroon remains accountablebut the main work is being done by KVHand Palantir,” said Mr Frenks.

“They manage the logistics for us, orderthe hardware on our behalf, configure thehardware, ship it and forward it directly

to the vessel. They make sure it’s imple-mented onboard and also make sure allthe maintenance and on-going support isbeing done.”

Hardware and software requirementsfor every ship were standardised, with asingle architecture to be implemented onevery vessel.

“We decided on a Windows-basedclient-server architecture, and locked-down USB use, except for the Master’saccount. He’s accountable, and he signs afair use policy signifying that he is account-able to make sure the system continues tooperate as it should,” said Mr Frenks.

“The standard software included,amongst others, AMOS Maintenance andProcurement, Watchkeeper for the restand working hours, SPOS (for weather),and so on. We decided on this, then it’sscripted by Palantir and then just rolledout to the system, and we can remotelymonitor which vessel it has been imple-mented on.”

“We also have MS Office, we will moveto 2010 at the end of the year, image view-ers, and so on. We really standardised onall the tools and systems.”

On the communications side the com-pany also instigated standard practicesand procedures, to more closely managehow communications on the ship wouldbe permitted.

“We established a voice over IP systembetween the vessel and the office, so wehave basically free phone calls, and it’s inte-grated to include access to the CorporateDirectory. This is quite handy, that youhave all your vessels and telephone num-bers in one place,” said Mr Frenks.

“We restricted internet access on thebusiness network with white lists. They’renot able to Google or Facebook, or what-ever, on the business network. They havethe crew network for that, where theyhave free individual e-mail, with web-based access both onboard and ashore. Weare using VLANs, it’s a seamless integrat-ed system for us.”

ProgressSince embarking on this massive project atthe end of 2009 Vroon has continued tomake steady progress in its mission tostandardise IT on all of its ships, and bythe end of 2012 plans to have the Palantirsystem implemented on 84 vessels (asPalantir was the first to begin to be rolledout), with KVH on 67 and AMOS softwareon 70.

“In five years’ time we expect, not to bestarting all over again, but to be recyclingthe hardware onboard the vessel,” saidMr Frenks.

“That’s what we believe the lifecyclewill be for the equipment.”

Experiences with both the Palantir andKVH systems have proven to be positive,with the benefits of the new systems out-weighing the inevitable teething problemscaused during the changeover.

“The Palantir system has proven to bevery cost effective, we are using it all thetime to send patches for software and newsoftware to the vessels, without any needto travel, we can do it in a very shorttime,” said Mr Frenks.

“The antivirus works as well, we’vebeen running for two years and only hadone virus, and that was automatically

Thorough planning and preparation was required to take on a project of this magnitude

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:18

from our experience

We make VSAT easy @Sea

www.marlink.com

OSLO LONDON HAMBURG BRUSSELS ATHENS DUBAI MUMBAI SINGAPORE TOKYO WASHINGTON DC HOUSTON STAVANGER

For further information contact any of our regional

or email [email protected]

Hall B6

Digital Ship


cleaned. We’ve also only had one occasionwhere we had to physically travel to a ves-sel, and it wasn’t even a Palantir issue, itwas a database issue.”

“(With KVH) we had some teethingissues, but there has been continuousimprovement, and we keep a dialogueopen with them. But just in terms of thesatellite communications, we were spend-ing in the area of $2.5 million per year juston e-mail and some AMOS replication.I’m not going to tell you what we’respending today, but I think we made apretty good deal and, on a like for likebasis, we’re saving in that area, big time.”

Vroon crews in particular have beenhappy with the new capabilities of the sys-tem, something which was an importantfactor for the company in pursuing thisproject.

“The feedback we get from the crew isthat it’s very secure, it’s very reliable,there’s good performance on the networkand good uptime,” said Mr Frenks.

“We did a crew survey on it, it’s betterto ask the crew about it than a superinten-dent who’s not working with the systemday in day out.”

In the time since Vroon conducted itscrew survey those serving onboard itsships have had additional reason to bepleased with the new infrastructure, as thecompany has changed its crew welfarepolicy based on the feedback from the ini-tial roll-outs and requests from its seafar-ers to introduce what Mr Frenks describesas “free, but managed” internet access, toadd to the existing free e-mail service.

“The market for the use of the internetonboard by seafarers is changing quicklyand the provision of free or low cost inter-net access is becoming a necessaryrequirement to meet the welfare needs ofseafarers in many market segments, andhence also a necessary tool for recruitmentand retention,” he said.

“This will be ‘Managed Free Internet’,as unlimited free internet is not believed tobe sensible as it causes welfare issues andintroduces network performance issues.”

Testing and roll-out of the new crewinternet policy is expected to commence inSeptember 2012, a move which will alsosee Vroon move from its existing meteredplan on the KVH services to a fixed dataplan, to reflect the increase in data traffic.

Lessons learnedHaving come so far in such a complexprocess, Mr Frenks notes that the compa-ny has learned a number of lessons onhow to manage an IT infrastructure proj-ect of this magnitude that he believes areessential in ensuring things run assmoothly as possible.

“It’s a business initiative, not an IT ini-tiative, so engage the business and opera-tional levels of the respective organisa-tions early on in the process. Ensure thatthe people who have to actually ‘do thejobs’ are fully on-board. And manageexpectations – maritime broadband is notthe same as at home,” he said.

“Assign qualified, dedicatedresources, specifically during the RFP,Design and Pilot phase. Our project man-

ager basically worked on this full time,for one and a half years.”

“It is a long-term cooperation with thepartners you choose, therefore get to knowthe people and each other’s businesses,organisations and people. Be open andclear about challenges and difficulties – it isbetter to be aware and understand them.”

One area of the project that Mr Frenksmight change if it was to be repeatedwould be create even more detailed speci-fications for the processes that will be fol-lowed for the roll out, to make sure theyare repeatable.

“We made a mistake that we kind ofdeveloped the processes as we went along,

we should have done that prior to the pilotphase. That’s why the initial roll outs tooklonger than we expected. That’s a clearrecommendation for anyone starting thistype of initiative, make sure the process isdefined – who’s responsible, who’saccountable,” he said.

“Apply proper project management anddiscipline during the implementationprocess. For example, for the pilot vessel theinstallation process of the IT network onboard was two weeks. That would be verycostly to do 150 times. Now we can do it inone long day. With a good process and withdiscipline you can really reduce the cost.”

“On the technology side, we took thedecision to consolidate on the tools andsystems, as opposed to keeping every-thing the way it was. Preparation is morethan half the work, it’s maybe 70 or 80 percent – for example, make sure all of yourcabling connections are well tested, sowhen Palantir or KVH comes onboard it’sjust a matter of plugging it in and imple-menting it. And the locked down systems– there was a lot of resistance, I can tellyou, but it does work. From time to timethe discussion pops up again, but now wedon’t have to say ‘no’, the fleet managerssay ‘absolutely not’.”

Following these recommendationscould help any shipping company IT man-ager thinking of embarking on a similarproject of their own to realise similar suc-cesses to those already experienced byVroon – successes which, by most people’sestimation, bear the hallmarks of a suc-cessful IT project.

‘With a good process and with disciplineyou can really reduce the cost’

– Rob Frenks, Vroon

DS

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:18

Iridium Pilot delivers reliable, high-performance global voice and data communications, backed by an industry leading five-year warranty for peace of mind — no matter where you are.

Ship Shape

All your maritime communications reporting for duty

www.iridiumpilot.com

Reliable pole-to-pole global coverage

Delivering email, weather, crew calling and more

Best value installation and airtime

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:18

Digital Ship


II n the maritime industry, the demandfor extra bandwidth is growing at anever increasing rate. The communica-

tions systems available to ships at sea haveevolved rapidly since the turn of the cen-tury – compare Inmarsat’s launch of Fleet77 in 2002, with speeds of 128 kbps, withthe announcement of its Global Xpress Ka-band service a decade later, and its poten-tial 50 Mbps offering – but providers canstill struggle to meet the demand of thoseserving on modern vessels.

For cruise ships, the demand is evenmore acute. In addition to the comparablerequirements to the merchant fleet when itcomes to ship operation, a passenger ves-sel has the added difficulty of running afloating hotel, and meeting the needs ofshoppers and conference delegates whocare little for the limitations of satcom –they expect systems to work, regardless oftheir location.

Norwegian cruise and ferry operatorColor Line is well aware of this demandfrom its customers, and is continuouslylooking at ways of improving and increas-ing its communications capabilities toimprove its services and keep up with thecompetition it feels from businesses ashore.

As part of this process the company iscurrently testing a new system fromMarlink called CoastalRoam, which aimsto blend the current VSAT communica-tions available on Color Line ferries with3G and 4G systems available on shore andincrease the data capabilities of the ships.

This multi-carrier system uses 3G serv-ices based onshore in Norway, Denmarkand Germany, the ICE wireless serviceavailable off the coast of Norway, Wi-Fi inOslo and Kiel, as well as 4G services fromNetcom in the Oslo area. 4G services are

also expected to be added in Kiel inGermany in the future.

Color Line is currently testingCoastalRoam on the Color Magic, thelargest ship in its fleet along with sistership the Color Fantasy, with the aim ofboosting bandwidth speeds and provid-ing an onboard connectivity experiencethat can help it to keep up with theonshore competition.

For Color Line, staying competitivemeans being more efficient and moreeffective in its use of technology than com-parable businesses on shore, as Jo EirikØstmo, CIO at Color Line, explains.

“Color Magic and Color Fantasy, thetwo biggest vessels, are actually some ofthe biggest hotels in the country (inNorway),” he told us.

“They have a big retail departmentonboard, they have the cruise conceptwith fine dining and so on, and also trans-port of cargo and cars. It’s a rather com-plex operation, it’s not that big in each seg-ment but together it’s rather complex.”

“We aren’t the biggest retailer, and inretail it’s important to be big, so we haveto be more efficient and better in distribut-ing our products than many others.”

Mr Østmo has been with Color Line forapproximately two and a half years, hav-ing previously worked with a groupcalled C G Holding in Norway, a companymostly involved with retail but alsoincluding some shipping business such asthe Seabourn Cruise Line (which has sincebeen sold to Carnival) and SeadreamYacht Club (today owned by the entrepre-neur Atle Brynestad).

As such, he is well placed to recognisethe differences between onshore technolo-gy networks in these sectors, and how mar-

itime equivalents compare, particularlywhen it comes to communications systems.

“Because of the limited capacity wehave on satellite it is more difficult, wehave to design our application platformsto take into consideration that we havethis limited capacity,” said Mr Østmo.

“For example, we have to haveExchange servers on each vessel, and wehave to have back-up systems on each ves-sel. We have to continuously transportinformation backwards and forwards overthe satellite, but we are trying to minimisethat. When we go into the harbour we linkit up to our wireless network.”

“We are always online, but if communi-cation is lost we can still send e-mailbetween users on the actual vessel.”

On the ships, Color Line organises itsinfrastructure into two separate networks,one for the passengers onboard and onefor ship operations and corporate use.

“On the customer side we have mobilephones, for example, and we have aninternet@sea solution that guests cansurf,” Mr Østmo explained.

“On the corporate side it’s mostly usedto transport retail data to the point of salesystems and the hotel systems. We have tosync that information all the time. E-mail,of course, is used widely between theships and the office.”

“We have a new booking system, where,if we have to change a cabin or somethingduring the journey, you have to log into thesystem and connect to the office in Oslo.We have to have some online connectionsfor the booking system.”

The passenger side of things is obvious-ly the most data hungry, and the areawhich Color Line is looking to improve onwith its trial of the CoastalRoam system.

“Our major challenge is not the corpo-rate side, it’s more that we can give ourcustomers the internet experience theywould get in hotels,” said Mr Østmo.

“At the moment the speed is notenough for our professional guests, thathave conferences and so on, so we arelooking at new concepts like multi-chan-nel and better products to actually satisfyour customers.”

“Marlink gives us 3.8 Mbps (on Ku-band VSAT) for our whole group of ships,we dedicate some more of the traffic to thebig ships but we are in a pool of 3.8 Mbps.With the new solution Marlink’s testingout they say that we can get 11 Mbps intotal for the ships.”

With testing of the CoastalRoam systemcurrently being conducted on the ColorMagic, Digital Ship paid a visit to the vesselduring a voyage from Oslo to Kiel to seewhat kind of potential benefits it couldoffer to the ferry operator in expanding itscommunications capabilities.

Speed tests during the trip confirmedthat the integration of 3G and 4G capabili-ties with the existing VSAT systemonboard could make that 11 Mbps prom-ise a reality – in fact, during our visit wewitnessed speeds up to a peak of 40 Mbpson the network.

So, should testing prove to be successful,and Color Line decides to proceed with theintroduction of an 11 Mbps-plus communi-cations system, what kind of changeswould the company introduce to its ships?

“New services will be added on the cor-porate side, for example video conferenc-ing and so on. But the main focus is thecustomers, of course. We have good con-trol on the corporate side, but for theguests we have to look at the competitionfrom hotels,” said Mr Østmo.

“We can’t provide the same as thehotels can with cable etc, but we can pro-vide a good experience. We have confer-ences for 500 or 600 persons. We havecompanies like Oracle doing conferencesonboard, and they are pretty tough usergroups. They expect to be online. ”

“If we had a high capacity line wewould redesign lots of what we haveonboard, with more online systems andtaking away the local Exchange servers andso on. We’d need some major capacity forthat, much more than we have today.”

CoastalRoamThe service that Marlink has introducedon the Color Magic is a recent addition tothe company’s communications portfolio.Proof of concept was achieved with aninstallation onboard the Stena Danica, aferry travelling between Sweden andDenmark, where Marlink did beta testing.

As on the Color Magic, VSAT is thebackbone of the service, given its avail-ability in all areas during the voyage, but

Cruise and ferry operator Color Line is currently testing a new communications system on the vessel Color Magic,which aims to integrate terrestrial 3G and 4G coverage with its satcoms and produce vastly improved speeds

without inflating costs. Digital Ship spoke to Color Line’s Jo Eirik Østmo about the project

Boosting bandwidth with 3G and 4G

The Color Magic is trialling a new communications system that will integrate terrestrial services with its existing VSAT network

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:18

SATCOMS


the system on the Stena Danica also inte-grates ICE, from Norway, and 3G, fromboth Swedish and Danish carriers.

As Tommy Konkol Dybvad, director ofcruise and ferry at Marlink, explains, evenwith this kind of multi-carrier set-up, cor-porate communications will continue tobe transmitted over the VSAT, given itscritical nature and the fact that Marlinkcan maintain control over the network ina way that is impossible with the terrestri-al services.

“We run pure internet services throughthe carrier services (like 3G and 4G), sincethese are best effort services so you don’treally know what’s happening and thethroughput you will get. It can be affectedby a number of different things,” he told us.

“We will maintain the systems on theship as they are, or improve them, in com-bination with this. All of the ship’s busi-ness critical services will go through theVSAT, because we have full control ofthat. On-demand and non-business criti-cal services will be put through the besteffort services.”

“On the terrestrial side we consideredVLAN, Wi-Fi technology, GSM, 3G, 4G,LTE and ICE here in Scandinavia, thoseare the main carriers we are looking into.We want to have a combination of these.You have to consider different channelsand find the optimum way, and cost effi-cient way, of providing communication.”

Mr Dybvad believes that the additionof new options beyond what satellite canoffer is inevitable, particularly withdemand at a level like it is on a cruise ship.

“There is L-band, like Iridium orInmarsat FleetBroadband, but it’s not real-ly capable of running true broadband. Ku-band is what we are using onboard theColor Magic, it’s our first choice, though ofcourse you can have C-band when you’retalking about global operations, especiallyfor cruise,” he said.

“In the near future that might alsoinclude Ka-band, depending on the suc-cess factor there. It has to be tested andthe antennas have to be in place and theservice has to be proven. THOR 7, for

instance, will cover this area (where theColor Magic travels).”

“All of the new Sea Tel kits we areinstalling are Ka- ready. The Intellian onealso, though that is not out yet, will besimilar. Most of the antenna manufactur-ers will have their antenna ready for Ka-band. But it’s still too early to talk aboutKa-band, Color Line wouldn’t go for Ka-band yet.”

Selection of the various available serv-ices added to the VSAT connectivityonboard will automatically be managedby the CoastalRoam system, which willchoose the least cost option for data traffic.

“We can have up to nine modemsonboard here connected with the differentcarriers, with several subscriptions at thesame time,” Mr Dybvad explained.

“For instance, in Norway we pick upsignals on both sides, port and starboard,and will use two different antennas. Thatwill mean that we can connect to one basestation on one side and another base sta-tion on the other.”

“The potential for this is quite high,especially as you might be able to get 7Mbps on a 3G GSM cell these days, so youcould get 14 Mbps with the two antennas.The 4G services are quite new, but theycan even go much higher. That’s on a besteffort basis and you’re subject to a fairusage policy, and some of the GSMproviders cap the usage when you reach acertain amount. But still, compared tosatellite, it’s a totally different ball game.”

From Marlink’s point of view, one ofthe difficulties in this is not technologicalbut administrative, as it needs to managesubscriptions with this variety of terrestri-al providers in different countries.

“Managing the subscriptions will besomething that will improve, now we haveto rely on subscriptions with different thirdparties (for terrestrial services), with theGSM carriers especially,” said Mr Dybvad.

“There is also the issue of Wi-Fi inter-ference in the harbours, when we get toKiel, for example, we can pick up between50 and 60 different Wi-Fi networks. The4G in Kiel doesn’t have great coverage in

the areas we are travelling through at themoment, but that will develop.”

“But that’s what you have to do. Withthe competition today you have to bemore clever and more focused on theneeds of the shipping company to be suc-cessful. The shipowner is not asking for asatellite pipe, they want efficient commu-nications. That’s where things like contentfiltering, GSM integration, dynamic band-width and roaming between different car-riers become important.”

In the future Marlink is hoping to beable to smooth this process by moving toglobal GSM roaming, that would allow itto negotiate a deal with a single providerthat would offer access at local rates acrossvarious territories.

“For the pilot projects we’ve done thesubscriptions (to the 3G and 4G services),but for the future the shipping companywould take the subscriptions. The subscrip-tions need to be made locally, as it wouldbe extremely expense if you were roamingon those networks,” said Mr Dybvad.

“In order to have competitive rates forGSM data transmissions, you today haveto enter into a local agreement per coun-try. For the Color Magic pilot, Marlinkhave the Norwegian test subscriptions. Atthe moment, the customer and Marlinkwill cooperate closely for establishing theGSM subscriptions.”

“If you have a large enough number ofusers you can get decent agreements withGSM providers. I think this is coming,what you see here is the start of what willbe a standard. Every time a vessel goesinto port they will have GSM 4G coverage,for instance.”

Future developmentWith the testing of the CoastalRoam sys-tem onboard coming to a close, and hav-ing so far demonstrated the potential toadd a significant increase to availablebandwidth, Mr Østmo is looking forwardto how the service would be rolled out tothe Color Line fleet should an agreementfor its introduction be reached.

“We have a time in mind, actually weare hoping that we will get the system setup soon to prepare for the conference sea-

son that starts after the summer, so we willsee if we reach that,” he told us.

“Our next goal is to have it set up inJanuary/February to have everythingready before we start on the summer sea-son again.”

“The aim is to just put in some boxesand increase the capacity. What we knowis that they have to replace some equip-ment, some switches and routers and soon. We won’t change anything on the net-works on the ship.”

However, Mr Østmo says he is not con-tent to settle with the improvement thatwill be offered by the CoastalRoam serv-ice, and says he will continue to look fornew technologies that can improve thecommunications capabilities of the ColorLine fleet even further.

“We are always looking at the commu-nications, as we see that there are newtechnologies coming,” he said.

“For example, there is a new technolo-gy in testing in Dubai or Qatar, I think,where they have technology in the har-bour that can be used over long distancesfor communications. That can offerbetween 50 and 100 Mbps.”

“It’s a Norwegian company that is test-ing it out. They are doing tests for anothercompany, but using our facilities. Theyinstalled an antenna on the roof of ourfacility and are testing it communicatingwith a small ship going in and out of theharbour. We are waiting for a conclusionon that, we haven’t got it yet. It’s very dif-ferent from any other type of communica-tions I have heard of.”

Projects like these are perhaps indica-tive of the next major stage in the evolu-tion of maritime communications – as sat-com technology struggles to keep pacewith the demand for data inherent inmodern business life shipping companieswill increasingly look to new technologiesto supplement their traditional services.

Satellite connectivity may continue tobe the mainstay of this infrastructure forsome time to come, particularly far fromshore. But further developments in terres-trial systems may, to some extent at least,help to make the gap between ship andshore even smaller.

Color Line aims to offer passengers an online experience that will compare with hotels on shore

Operational communications form only a small part of the vessel’s traffic

DS

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:19

Introducing the Sea Tel 4012.

It lets you go from Ku to Ka

in eight easy turns.

+ + =www.cobham.com/seatel www.facebook.com/seatel

The world’s most trusted maritime antenna systems.

It’s as easy as that. Unfasten eight bolts. Re-

move and replace the front feed, and rear

assembly. Within minutes, your Sea Tel 4012

makes the optional upgrade from the cur-

rent Ku Band, to GX or other Ka Band net-

works. The new Sea Tel 4012’s completely

redesigned monolithic software architecture

offers IP-based, secured communication and

extensive diagnostic capability.

The interface allows the antenna system to be controlled

from a computer browser or even a tablet or mobile

device. The new frequency-tuned radome is engineered

to operate in Ku and Ka Band networks. And because the

Sea Tel 4012 can be controlled over the internet, you can

connect to it from anywhere in the world including your

corporate offices. Finally, the sturdy pedestal design is

based on the industry’s best 1-meter maritime antenna

system, the Sea Tel 4009. The best just got better.ex

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:19

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:19

Digital Ship


KK orean shipyard Daewoo Ship-building & Marine Engineering(DSME) is set to deliver the first in

a new generation of ships designed specifi-cally for the information age, incorporatinga range of IP-based technologies designedto maximise the vessel operator’s ability todeploy new innovations onboard.

An LNG carrier under construction forNorwegian owner Awilco AS is scheduledfor delivery in 2013 as the first shipinstalled with DIPS (DSME IP-basedSystem) technology, an integrated net-work implemented on the newbuild dur-ing May 2012 which manages, through awireless LAN, a range of information col-lected from various types of equipmentimplemented on the vessel.

There are four main structural compo-nents of the DIPS infrastructure – signalconverting systems, sensor technology,wireless switching systems and a web-based display interface that allows accessvia an internet browser.

The signal converting technology col-lects ship wide information from a rangeof sensors, themselves collecting real-timelocal data, and transmits it to centralservers, via the wireless switching system.

The web-based display system is usedfor monitoring of the information collect-ed on the server, and can be installed onbridge consoles, in cabins, and in the con-trol room. Offices on shore can also moni-tor this vessel information through theweb interface.

Development of the DIPS system goesback to the first quarter of 2009, whenDSME began to investigate how it mightgo about upgrading the IT infrastructuredesign on the vessels it was constructing.

Outline specifications and a schematicdiagram design were finalised betweenJuly and December 2009, with the integra-tion specifications following, completed inMay 2010.

The completed specifications were con-firmed in October 2010, and factoryacceptance tests were performed. This ledto the new system design being acceptedas a DSME standard specification, sched-uled to be installed on approximately 40vessels commencing this year.

In addition to Awilco, companies likeNeptune Orient Lines, Hyundai MerchantMarine and Cardiff Marine will have thesystem installed, either in part or in full,on commercial newbuilds under construc-tion from 2012, while Petrobras will havethe technology integrated into other spe-cial vessels in 2013.

As Kim Won-Seok, principal engineer/leader of marketing engineering group 2at DSME, explains, the shipyard believesthat information technologies will becomeabsolutely integral to the operation ofships over the next few years, influencingevery aspect of operation, from navigation

to maintenance, and on to the social livesof those serving onboard.

“We anticipated, when starting this, thatIT technology development would acceler-ate in the future, in areas such as maritimesatellite communication technology, andwe wanted to change the trend for IT net-works, moving from ship owners’ requeststo projects based on shipyards’ proposals,”he told us.

“Despite some internal opposition inthe beginning, with people worryingabout why additional money for this kindof built-in IP based network should bespent without generating a direct propor-tional financial benefit, this project waspossible thanks to DSME’s passion forinnovation and sympathy with seafarersliving in this high-tech era (at least whenthey are on shore).”

“We also are driven to be a trend-leaderrather than a follower, and are using tech-nology to also differentiate Korean high-tech shipyards from our rising competitor,China, building up a reputation asadvanced shipbuilders and contributingto this kind of branding in the future.”

As Mr Kim notes, DSME was motivatedby the fact that the owners of most of thevessels it was building were not specifyingintegrated IT networks in their designs.

Providing this kind of technology as anoption for newbuilds allows the yard tooffer something that owners may not havethought they needed, but soon come to seeas a significant benefit.

“To be honest, ship owners hardlyrequest anything on IT when ordering aship as they are not very keen to adoptnew technologies, given that safety issuesare their priority,” said Mr Kim.

“Their reaction to this system has cer-tainly changed, though. In the beginning,after developing this system, the ship-yards had to explain to them how it canbenefit them. In the three years since theproject began they have begun to under-

stand the point, and hardly ever say ‘no’ tothis built-in system. Still, some show theirconcerns about stability issues on the IPbased network however.”

ComponentsDSME installs the DIPS system duringvessel construction, with implementationtaking approximately one month.

An integrated network system, com-posed of cat. 7 Ethernet cables, fibre opticcables and more than 1 Gb of 802.11nwireless network equipment, is installed.The network uses a single cable infrastruc-ture, which reduces the amount of cablingtypically required during construction of avessel and, as such, can help to reduce costand complexity.

“It will reduce the duration of the ship-building process and allow various

applied functions to be added in thefuture, increasing flexibility by enablingthe vessels to adapt to new technologiesusing the latest satellite communicationsystems,” said Mr Kim.

“It also saves on cost – for example,DSME creates a built-in VoIP networkthat allows smartphones to be used forcommunication.”

“Getting rid of cables can also save themnearly $100 per line, which can total $25,000in one offshore vessel. In addition, the sys-tems can be managed both on the vesseland by on shore control very easily.”

A number of signal converting units areinstalled in the network, the wirelessdevice which provides the interface to thenavigation, machinery, and ship manage-ment equipment from which data isobtained. The device converts the RS422and RS485 serial signals to Ethernet sig-nals, and transmits the information to theserver wirelessly.

This basic structure allows for thereceipt and processing of up to ninesources of independent NMEA data, usingthe RS422 signal to output NMEA0183

data, and allow outputs via 10/100BaseTEthernet as well as RS232.

Wi-Fi capable sensor devices are alsoinstalled to monitor vessel safety parame-ters like fire, smoke and gas, as well ascabin conditions like temperature andhumidity. DSME says that this set-up dif-fers from other currently available AMS(Alarm Monitoring Systems), in the sensethat it can be expanded to include addi-tional components.

The various sensors communicate withthe DIPS platform via a wireless switchingrepeater, creating a wireless network thatcan be used to connect any kind of IPdevice, which DSME expects to includeeverything from VoIP phones or IPTV, toiPhones and iPads owned by crew andoperated from their cabins. The network iscontrolled by an integrated centralised serv-er, installed in a centralised server room.

The wireless switching system’s sub-structure nodes, to which the IP devicesare connected, can be used to assess thetraffic performance of each connection.

For a number of cabins located togeth-er, DSME says that testing of the systeminvolving packet speeds exchanged fromone room to another room has shown thatthere was a connection speed of between35 and 55 Mbps on the network.

Each room is furnished with one wire-less switching device, with a number ofwireless access points (APs) installed oneach deck. A single Cisco1140 AP isinstalled at the centre of the hallway corri-dor. Through the use of PoE (Power overEthernet) technology, it is possible toexpand the system to support all mannerof devices without the need for any auxil-iary power.

In a typical configuration, DSME pro-vides an overall network covering thewhole accommodation and machineryarea with FTP (foiled twisted pair) cableand various types of network equipment.

DSME also provides the central server,which comprises a normal computer serv-er, an IP PBX (for VoIP telephony), anNVR (Network Video Recorder, for IPCCTV) and an IP TV streaming server.

Mr Kim notes that this set-up will addsome basic costs in terms of the hard-ware, but less than the cost of the ship-ping company actually purchasing theequipment itself.

“There would be a small effect on cost,which comes only from the configurationof a network capable of connecting all theIP devices and additional hardware com-ponents,” he said.

“However, the total cost of this configu-ration would be cheaper than the normalcomputer server with an additional serverfor the dedicated system that provides sim-ilar value to the owner, in terms of being acomprehensive onboard network.”

DSME notes that there may be slight dif-

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering is set to deliver the first in a line of new ‘smart ships’ constructed with integrated IP networks that aim to revolutionise the way that IT is implemented on modern vessels.

DSME’s Kim Won-Seok told Digital Ship about the technology behind this new breed of ship

Smart ships – vessels for the IP era

‘We wanted to change the trend for IT networks, moving from ship owners’ requests toprojects based on shipyards’ proposals’ – Kim Won-Seok, DSME

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:19

SATCOMS


ferences between different types of ships,but for optimal wireless environments to beenabled within a vessel AP network opti-misation technology needs to be imple-mented to eliminate hidden areas and min-imise the number of AP devices required.

The web-based display is the user inter-face to the network, bringing together thedata from the vessel’s various informationsystems for monitoring purposes.

The system is designed to be web-based, meaning that all of the informationfrom the sailing vessel can be accessedfrom any browser, whether on the bridgeconsole, in the control room, or even on acomputer on shore.

Equipment connected to the network,such as the ECDIS, onboard machinery,

alarms, sensors, tanks, CCTV pictures orany other input, is arranged to the left andright of the screen in thumbnail format,with an interface to display the selectedsystem in the centre.

These displays can be accessed from any-where on the vessel via the network, using abrowser screen. This would mean, for exam-ple, that a captain could check on real-timenavigation information from the ECDIS intheir cabin, or an engineer could keep aneye on the status of the ship’s machineryand request remote support from shore.

BenefitsDSME believes that these high-tech vesselswill provide a range of benefits to shippingcompanies, particularly in terms of improv-

ing efficiency and safety in operations.Real-time monitoring of the operational

situation onboard, from the condition ofmachinery to the navigation data dis-played on the ECDIS, will allow shoreoffices to offer a range of remote supportcapabilities that should help to keep theship running at an optimal level.

The shipyard notes that this can beexpanded by other initiatives it has intro-duced to its ships, including the DSME-NAPA Power voyage optimisation sys-tem, incorporating real-time weatherrouting information, and a maintenancemanagement system called DSME-CMMS (Computerised MaintenanceManagement System).

“We think these systems are supposedto be valuable to the owner, in terms ofoffering a ‘Smart ship’, and DSME hasrecently co-developed these systems withthe manufacturers,” notes Mr Kim.

The other major range of benefits of thistechnology will be in widening access tocommunications systems onboard, partic-ularly for crew welfare purposes.

Widespread wireless networks connect-ed to the central system will allow crews tochoose from a range of options to stay intouch with friends and family on shore,

from the privacy of their own cabins.“Not only will this enhance seafarers’

access to communication for informationand entertainment, as well as leading toincreased productivity in their perform-ance, but this IP-based infrastructure pro-vided by shipyards also allows the vesselsthe flexibility to adapt to the rapidlychanging IT tech environment much moreeasily than they would without a built-inIP based system,” said Mr Kim.

“Given seafarers’ preference for a user-friendly communication environment whenchoosing vessels to work on board, shipowners can take advantage of a nearly-cost-free-communication set-up based on thebuilt-in system provided by the shipyards.”

In the future the company believes thatthis kind of infrastructure will allow compa-nies to expand their use of technology evenfurther, to incorporate the next generation ofICT innovations into their operations.

This will be based on a greater integra-tion between ship and shore, closing thegap between vessel and office and allow-ing experts in every field to remotely sup-port colleagues at sea. In this way, DSMEhopes that the ‘Smart ship’ will act as thestarting point for the next generation oftechnology development in shipping.

The DSME shipyard in Korea will deliver the first of these ‘smart ships’ in 2013

DSME will deliver a presentation covering its DIPS project in more detail during thisyear’s Digital Ship Korea conference and exhibition, being held in BEXCO, Busan, on October 30-31 2012.

Attendance is free for shipping company and shipyard employees. For more infor-mation, visit www.thedigitalship.com.

DS

p1-26:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:19

SOFTWARE Digital Ship


www.senermar.es

SENER and Guangdong Yuexin OceanEngineering (formerly YuexinShipbuilding) have signed an agreement

for the implementation of SENER'sFORAN CAD/CAM System at theChinese shipyard, while OakwellShipyard, part of the Oakwell Group com-pany, has added the FORAN system to

operations at its shipyard facilities atSattahip, Thailand.

Located in southern China, in theGuangzhou area, Guangdong YuexinOcean Engineering (GYOE) has agreed toimplement the FORAN system after athree month pilot test.

A complete FORAN package has beeninstalled, including Initial Design, HullStructure, Machinery & Outfitting, andDrafting & Mechanical CAD. Engineeringpersonnel were provided with training onthe different modules by United ForceCorporation (UFC), a local support partner.

The computer design system is nowbeing used for ongoing design projects,such as a Tidewater supply vessel withazimuth Diesel-electric propulsion.

“This is the first supply vessel ofYuexin that uses electrical propulsion andit is the first vessel of Yuexin to bedesigned with FORAN system,” com-mented GYOE technical director,Changgeng Li.

“FORAN system is being used in all

www.shipserv.com

ShipServ has launched its new e-com-merce service Connect3, which will allowshipowners and shipmanagers to use itsTradeNet platform to connect to threemajor suppliers of their choice withoutany charge.

The company believes that this willprovide users with a real indication of thebenefits of e-commerce, which can helppurchasing managers to control and cutpurchasing costs and speed up ordercycle times.

The Connect3 service will offer fullaccess to reporting data and providesowners and managers with the ability tobenchmark supplier KPI data, allowingthem to work more closely with suppliers.

“It’s a no-cost way for buyers of tryingout e-commerce with three of their majorsuppliers. It takes next to no time to set-upand provides instant reporting data sothat they can benchmark their purchasingactivities and collaborate with supplierson response times,” said Kim Skaarup,chief operating officer, ShipServ.

The service will initially be rolled outfor free to all users of purchasing modulesfrom the following maritime softwareproviders: ABS NS, BASS, Consultas,Danaos, GL Maritime Software, ShipNet,SpecTec, Teomaki, and Tero Marine.

“We are kicking off this project by tar-geting existing users of our current mar-itime software partners, but our aim is toroll this project to as many companies aspossible regardless of their current pur-chasing solution,” said Mr Skaarup.

The addition of Connect3 to theShipServ platform follows the recentintroduction of another new reporting toolfor use with TradeNet as well as the com-pany’s ShipServ Pages search engine,which will enable maritime suppliers totrack their marketing spend.

The Supplier Insight Report is available

to all 40,000 suppliers registered onShipServ Pages for free, and includes adashboard displaying the results of theuser's marketing activity broken down intobanner advertising impressions, searches,profile views, contact views, request forquotes (RFQs) and purchase orders.

“The key to marketing and lead genera-tion spend is measurement,” said DavidHardy, chief marketing officer for ShipServ.

“Gone are the days when most of yourmarketing spend is not trackable. Withthis new reporting tool, available to all ofour suppliers, we are enabling 100 per centvisibility of marketing spend across allShipServ products.”

The report can drill down into details andset customisable time periods and keywordsso users can benchmark and compare theirperformance against the total market fortheir specific products or services.

“With the transparency these metricsbring, suppliers are very keen to find outhow they can improve their performanceand as a result of this we have moved to agreater focus on account management andare continuously working with suppliersto help them get the most out of their premium listing on ShipServ Pages,” saidMr Hardy.

In addition to the Insight Report,ShipServ has also launched three otherfree tools - Profile Complete Score, whichsuggests improvements to a supplier’sprofile; RFQ Inbox, where suppliers cansee, manage and respond to all their PagesRFQs; and Block Buyer, which allows asupplier to block specific buyers fromsending RFQs to them in the future.

The ShipServ TradeNet e-commerceplatform is currently used by over 175shipowners, managers and shipyards,managing over 7,000 vessels, includingA.P. Moller-Maersk, Teekay Shipping,MOL Shipmanagement, MISC, E.RSchiffahrt, Holland America Line andKeppel Shipyard.

Latest FuelTrax version launched

Chinese and Thai shipyards implement FORAN

ShipServ launches Connect3www.fueltrax.com

Nautical Control Solutions has launchedthe latest version of its FuelTrax MarineFuel Management system, which nowincludes the ability to measure and monitor fuel density as it is pumped on a vessel.

FuelTrax gathers and displays themass, volume, temperature, and density ofa fuel as it is being taken aboard. Thefluid’s density is measured, recorded, andpresented live in a moving graph on theFuelTrax main console.

If a predefined amount of out of densi-ty range fuel is measured, a visual alarm ispresented to the captain or chief engineer.An optional siren and strobe light is avail-able for placement in the engine room tofurther alert the crew.

The company says that the systemworks with any type of marine fuel andcan be applied to liquids such as drillingmud and other products transported bythe vessel.

“Our customers tell us that fuel can becontaminated with seawater or worse.Having the ability to identify potentially

bad fuel and stop a bunker before too much has been pumped aboard canhelp save the costs of filter changes andtank cleaning at a minimum and help pre-vent damage to engines in the worst case,”said Anthony George, CEO of NauticalControl Solutions.

“One of our customers had just takendelivery of a brand new vessel and on thevery first bunker had received an order of diesel that far exceeded the averagedensity for that fuel type. Having this newfeature would have helped stop the contamination and provide the customerwith documented evidence to show thefuel provider.”

“This new feature is available whenusing Coriolis mass flow metering. Wehave been expanding the application ofCoriolis meters throughout our installa-tions because of their accuracy and thechiefs like them for their fit-and-forgetnature. Since they are also excellent den-sitometers, it made sense to expandFuelTrax to capture and report this infor-mation along with other parameters to produce a complete fuel signature for a vessel.”

New capabilities have been added to the FuelTrax system

disciplines. The vessel has a high loadingefficiency and very good comfort withcapacity of carrying 60 crews. The vessel isplanned to be delivered in July 2013.”

At Oakwell Shipyard meanwhile, theintroduction of FORAN will include use of a Computer Aided Design (CAD)Toolset, which allows multiple-access andmanagement of a variety of data from allship disciplines.

The scope of supply under the contractand the number of licences is expected to increase according to the activity at the shipyard.

“With FORAN we cover all the designand production needs, so we simply concentrate in the ship itself,” said GhaniJaplus, engineering manager at OakwellShipyard.

“That’s a big step forward when itcomes to compete with other shipyards,leaving more resources to gain in designquality. Yet FORAN has proven to be flex-ible and close to the customer, so we feelthere’s support whenever we need it.”A 3D model of a ship’s lower hull section

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 1


SOFTWARE

www.gl-group.com

GL Maritime Software reports that it hasagreed two new deals in China andGermany, for its GL HullManager and GLMachineryManager software respectively.

The company's first order from a clientin China for its hull integrity managementsoftware, GL HullManager, is fromShanghai Ocean Shipping Co., Ltd(Shanghai COSCO), which will install thesystem on seven vessels in its container-ship fleet.

"Leveraging GL HullManager, weexpect our ship maintenance can be con-ducted in a more cost-effective and trans-parent fashion," said Mao Jianliang, gener-al manager of Shanghai COSCO.

GL HullManager is a software andservice package used to support the hullintegrity process, from inspections toreporting and condition assessments oftanks, cargo holds and coatings, through-out its entire lifecycle by means of crewinspections and thickness measurements.

It includes a vessel-specific 3D modelfor visualisation and assessment of thehull's structural condition. The crew canmark any coating or structural failures onthe 3D model, such as marking an individ-ual finding or adding a photo and descrip-tion, which can then be assessed by super-intendents onshore.

Since its introduction in 2011, GL

HullManager has been installed onboardapproximately 150 vessels of all kindsacross the world, and in their owners'onshore offices.

GL Maritime Software's contract inGermany meanwhile, performed in coop-eration with SKF, has led to the installa-tion of the first prototype of its GLMachineryManager software onboard theCSAV Rio Blanco, a car carrier owned andmanaged by German shipping companyF. Laeisz.

GL MachineryManager is a monitoringplatform for onboard equipment, whichcombines visual inspection results withonline and offline condition measure-ments, to alert crew and superintendentswhen the condition of equipment hasdeteriorated, on individual vessels andacross an entire fleet.

The installation on the CSAV RioBlanco took place during a voyage fromVladivostok, Russia, to Pyongtaek,South Korea.

During the voyage vibration monitor-ing measurement locations were preparedonboard for 40 fans. The data from theselocations was collected by handheld vibra-tion monitoring equipment, which wasthen downloaded into the onboard GLMachineryManager system for furtheranalysis.

GL and SKF began cooperating on thedevelopment and implementation of this

GL software deals in China and Germany

Softship, a provider of liner andagent software applications, has openednew offices and added new staff in New York City, headed up by managingdirector David Willner. The new locationwill allow the company to supportclients across the United States andCanada.

Witherby Publishing Groupreports that it is to begin providingFathom publications as eBooks, avail-able to download and view on theWitherby Seamanship eBook reader.

Marine Software in the UK reportsthat its Marine Planned Maintenance sys-tem has had its Type Approval renewedby DNV, confirming compliance withDNV requirements for Type Approval ofPlanned Maintenance Systems as

described in Type Approval Programme10-706.70-1, April 2009.

AVEVA has opened a new office inHelsinki, Finland, to offer sales and sup-port for its products in both the plant andmarine sectors.

Intergraph reports that it has opened a newly-expanded office in KualaLumpur, Malaysia, to support customersin the country.

www.softship.comwww.witherby-ebooks.comwww.aveva.comwww.intergraph.comwww.marinesoftware.co.ukwww.dnv.com

www.aveva.com

AVEVA has signed a contract extensionwith Huntington Ingalls Industries forAVEVA MARS, an Enterprise ResourceManagement (ERM) software solution,implemented at Ingalls Shipbuilding, adivision of HII.

This new contract will incorporateadditional maintenance, services, consul-tancy, and development to further cus-tomise the AVEVA MARS system toIngalls’ business processes.

Supplying US Naval and Coast Guardvessels, Ingalls has been an AVEVAMARS customer since 2006.

AVEVA MARS includes modules forMaterial, Planning and Productiondesigned specifically for the shipbuild-

ing industry.“We have developed a good working

relationship that is enabling us to developenhancement solutions that benefit bothHII and AVEVA,” said Mike Deutsch,Ingalls Shipbuilding eSHIPS director.

“One example is we were maintainingstoreroom inventories in offline databas-es in order to manage operations.AVEVA helped us by developing a store-room module for MARS that eliminatedthe offline databases and achievedgreater visibility of material availability,and improved communication betweendepartments.”

“I am confident the new enhance-ments AVEVA is delivering this yearwill help to make our operation evenmore successful.”

Ingalls Shipbuilding extends AVEVA deal

joint solution for condition monitoring ofrotating auxiliary machinery onboardships in May 2011.

The companies also trained the crew inthe use of the maintenance managementsoftware and the handheld unit, whichwas provided by SKF.

"We believe in the advantages of mean-ingful data acquisition and its analyses tosupport maintenance strategies," saidHarald Schlotfeldt, managing technicaldirector of F. Laeisz.

"We see the GL HullManager, whichalready runs on a number of our vessels,and now the GL MachineryManager aslogical add-ons to the GL ShipManagersoftware package, which we have had infleet wide use for many years already."

"This was the motivation for us to workwith GL on the prototype installationonboard CSAV Rio Blanco, one of our new5000 unit Pure Car Truck Carriers(PCTCs)."

The prototype test will soon be expand-ed to include online data from sensorsmonitoring the bearing condition of theCSAV Rio Blanco's main engine.

GL offers a survey arrangement for'Condition Monitoring' which uses thecondition information in the surveyprocess, and F. Laeisz already qualifies forthis arrangement. F Laeisz can also use thesystem to generate annual reports for bothinternal, class and regulatory purposes.

F. Laeisz was one of the first users ofGL ShipManager and is now also utilisingGL HullManager onboard several vesselsin its fleet.

In related news, GL Maritime Softwarehas also added to its software portfoliowith the introduction of a new GL CrewManager system, used to assist in crewing,recruitment and various other aspects ofhuman resource management.

GL says that the system could be particularly useful in ensuring that ship-ping companies comply with the regula-tions contained within the MaritimeLabour Convention (MLC 2006), whichrequires the documentation of manycrewing processes.

These include checking that allrequired positions on board are filled, thatthe seafarers are medically fit, well trainedand qualified for the duties they areassigned to, and that records are main-tained of the seafarers' daily hours of workand rest.

GL Crew Manager allows for the stan-dardisation and optimisation of manytasks involved with these processes, suchas management of personal data, hiring,vacation and leave management.

The software provides a graphical viewof the current and planned assignmentsfor each individual vessel, and automati-cally matches crew availability and suit-ability with vessel manning requirements.

An optional on-board system also sup-ports on-board management of crew data,certificates and licences, registration ofresting hours and wage calculations,which can help in proving complianceduring on-board audits.

The system generates a pre-auditchecklist for MLC audits, with therequired documentary evidence, whilealso highlighting items of non-compliancewhich need to be addressed.

The data generated can be accessedanywhere, through a remotely managedserver, with role based users’ access levelsdetermined by the user's login.

An intelligent data transfer routineallows synchronisation of the databetween office and any vessels using theoptional onboard system.GL CrewManager (left) has recently been released, adding to existing applications like GL MachineryManager (right)

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 2

World of Connectivity, TVRO and AISOceanSat helps to increase your operational efficiency and improve your business processes. This is done by delivering high quality Connectivity, TVRO and AIS solutions to maritime companies, with a focus on maintaining long-term fruitful relationships with our customers, partners and employees.

T +31 (0)183 401025 | F +31 (0)183 404038 | E [email protected]

business AIS fruitful

Intellian VSAT + TVRO + Lease + Airtime + Webfiltering + 24/7 Installation & service + Global reception

OceanSat serviced over a 1.000 shipswith high quality Connectivity,TVRO, and AIS solutions

OceanSat BV is an established strong part-

ner in the maritime communications indus-

try for Connectivity, AIS and TVRO and has

with satisfactory of our customers serviced

over a 1.000 ships to discover the advantages

of Intellian TVRO or VSAT products. Sup-

plying Connectivity Solutions at a competi-

tive edge we collaborate with a number of

reputable providers to be able to offer favor-

able communication possibilities for both

regional and worldwide reception zones.

Being a privately owned company based in

Nieuwendijk, The Netherlands, OceanSat start-

ed in 2005 as a distributor for Intellian satellite

dishes and after significant growth in 2010 the

name OceanSat came into existence. In this

period OceanSat started the exploitation of

Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) after

regulations in different areas and is distributing

worldwide. In 2011 OceanSat became an ISP

for maritime data services as well.

With our in depth based technical knowledge of

designing and implementation of maritime

communication solutions OceanSat helps to

increase your operational efficiency and

improve your business processes. This is done

by delivering high quality Connectivity,

TVRO, and AIS solutions to maritime compa-

nies, with a focus on maintaining long-term

fruitful relationships with our customers, part-

ners and employees.

OceanSat, a leader in airtime, below-deck

equipment and installation.

Armand Lont (OceanSat’s Commercial Manag-

er) firmly believes in every company’s own

specific requirements. This could be full imple-

mentation of an ERP system on the total, video

conferencing, weather routing and regular

ECDIS updates or remote IT solutions. Inte-

grating the right set of Connectivity Solutions

requires clear insight in cost, coverage which

matches your sailing pattern, and a partner who

understands the technical specifications.

At OceanSat we investigate what the benefit

will be for implementing a VSAT Connectivity

Solution beyond the aspects of communication

only. Coverage is an important part in this.

Therefore OceanSat is constantly looking into

the most efficient way to seamlessly cover the

major sailing routes around the globe. When

looking for reliability with that coverage there

is a high level of service that is expected to

deliver. The questions asked are to ensure the

correct solution and technical specifications of

the highest standard. Automated Remote Man-

agement increases high level support. These

appliances automate network management

tasks 24/7 and enables to remotely access,

monitor and control both satellite and tradition-

al networking equipment. In the end

OceanSat’s Connectivity is keeping you in

touch.

How has this rapid growth been achieved?

Fred Maartens (OceanSat’s CEO) thinks that

the rapid growth of his company OceanSat is

anything but an accident of chance. He looks

back on the company’s relatively brief, but

exceptionally successful history. We started

distributing the satellite communication anten-

nas from Intellian Technologies in Europe back

in 2005. Maartens’ initial contact with this

Korean manufacturer dates back to 2004. The

results since then have proved how right his

choice was. Intellian Technologies’ vision and

mission fitted in perfectly with Fred Maartens’

ambitious growth plan for OceanSat and this

outstanding collaboration has resulted in an

ever increasing number of satisfied customers.

The products are absolutely top class, require

very little maintenance and are exceptionally

easy to use.

A look into the future

Fred Maartens feels that OceanSat BV has

tremendous potential for growth in the near

future. We will continue to service existing

markets with the greatest possible care and

quality, as we have achieved excellent results

here to date. But we are capable of and want to

achieve more. We expect new markets, in the

shipping sector in particular, to offer our

healthy company excellent opportunities for

further growth. With high end solutions like

ours, success is guaranteed!

Visit us at Hall B6 stand 611

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 3


PortVisiongoes mobile

SOFTWARE

www.videotel.comwww.bimco.org

Videotel Marine International and BIMCOhave extended their cooperation agree-ment to offer the BIMCO eLearningDiploma Programme (BeDP) to allVideotel on Demand (VOD) users.

This new facility will allow ship officerson board to study the same BeDP modules

as their shore based colleagues.The BIMCO eLearning Diploma

Programme, delivered as a stand-alonecourse on board, is an e-learning packagelooking at the more commercial aspects ofthe shipping industry.

“The creation of a unified training sys-tem for both seagoing and shore basedpersonnel is immensely important in cre-ating a common understanding of the

Videotel and BIMCO extend partnership commercial and practical issues facing themaritime industry and for preparing andplanning the training of ships’ officers,eventually continuing their careers inshore-based functions,” said TorbenSkaanild, BIMCO secretary general.

The first two modules of the course arealready available, with more modules tobe added later in the year.

Module 1 is called Introduction toShipping, and offers an entry level intro-duction to the shipping industry, explain-ing how it works and showing how it isinterdependent with international trade.

Module 2, named Bills of Lading, dealswith the commercial legal issues surround-ing Bills of Lading and teaches students howto make sound commercial decisions with-out being exposed to liability or litigation.

“Since linking up with BIMCO theBeDP has proven extremely popular,” saidNigel Cleave, CEO of Videotel.

“The programme enables students tobuild on their knowledge, acquire profes-sional competencies and contribute totheir continuous professional develop-ment. Now, with VOD on over 10,000 ves-sels worldwide, we can extend this oppor-tunity to maritime students wanting tostudy in a flexible and user friendly waywhilst serving on board a vessel.”Videotel will now offer BIMCO’s eLearning Diploma Programme

www.portvision.com

PortVision has announced that its desk-top Automatic Identification System(AIS) vessel-tracking service is nowavailable in a mobile platform that has been optimised for smartphonesincluding BlackBerry, iPhone andAndroid devices.

The mobile platform is available at nocost to PortVision customers who sub-scribe to its PortVision Plus, PortVisionAdvantage, TerminalSmart and FleetManagement System offerings.

The PortVision Mobile 2.0 platformadds a number of capabilities, based onfeedback from the company’s activemobile users.

These features include integrated ter-minal and fleet dashboards with informa-tion including arrival/departure data,real-time vessel locations and terminaldock availability, and an optimised inter-face for arrival/departure alerts.

Integrated fleet traffic reporting is alsoincluded, allowing mobile users and their customers to share traffic updatesand other fleet management data.Flexible search capabilities will enableusers to search by vessel, terminal andpoint of interest.

“Our latest mobile platform delivers onour vision of giving PortVision users allthe information they need to manage theirmaritime domain, no matter where theyare,” said Dean Rosenberg, PortVisionchief executive officer.

“This new platform takes advantage ofthe latest smartphone capabilities to deliv-er key real-time features of our widelyadopted web-based solutions, and isdesigned to provide remote access for anymaritime professional who spends themajority of their work day away fromtheir desk.”

www.eagle.org

ABS Nautical Systems reports that it hasagreed three new contracts to install its NS5software package on a range of tankers, aspart of the ABS Newbuild Program.

This initiative offers free software forup to 12 months on ABS-classed vesselsbuilt after 1 January 2009.

Tuofo Shipping Management Limitedin China is to implement Hull Inspection,

Tankers to implement ABS-NS softwareMaintenance & Repair and Energy &Environmental modules on two of itsnewly built tankers.

This will be a significant upgrade forthe Fujian-based company, as it does notcurrently have a software system in placeto manage these operations.

Sloman Neptun, a tanker companybased in Bremen, Germany, will utilise theHull Inspection and Maintenance &Repair modules on three of its newly built

chemical tankers and will also install theDrawings Management module in its cen-tral office.

The system will be used to track andmonitor the condition of the vessels.

In Greece, Stealth MaritimeCorporation SA has also agreed to imple-ment ABS Nautical Systems software, andwill implement the Hull Inspection mod-ule on two of its liquefied petroleum gasvessels early next year.

www.abb.comwww.amarcon.com

ABB has agreed to acquire Amarcon BV, aDutch company providing software sys-tems for the shipping industry.

The acquisition will expand ABB’s advi-sory systems offering for customers in themaritime sector, and is expected to beclosed in the third quarter of 2012 when

ABB to acquire AmarconAmarcon will join ABB’s ProcessAutomation Division.

Based in Dalfsen, The Netherlands,Amarcon employs 15 people, and has aproduct portfolio including software solu-tions for ships that focus on safety andimproved operational ability.

ABB says that this addition to its port-folio will add to its recently released offer-ing of Marine Advisory Systems.

“Amarcon’s Octopus product, its know-how of ship hydrodynamics and shipmodelling capabilities are a complementa-ry and strategic fit for our existing softwareportfolio,” said Veli-Matti Reinikkala, headof ABB’s process automation division.

“With a strong software background,this acquisition will provide ABB withadditional access to fast growing energyoptimisation markets.”

The PortVision mobile site is optimised for smartphones

www.da-desk.com

DA-Desk has announced the launch ofVendor Direct, a new service designed tomanage all non-Disbursement Account-related invoices.

Vendor Direct automates transactionsacross the the purchase-to-pay process,typically single-cost items with single, bal-ance-only payments, involving an array ofcounterparty types, including surveyors,vessel suppliers, mooring companies,transiting passage pilots, and offshore

security services. “Our customers have been talking with

us about the pressures regarding currentbusiness demands,” stated Ian Baker, busi-ness development manager, DA-Desk.

“For example, operators have told usthat the process of initiating, monitoring,settling, accounting and reconciling thou-sands of individual voyage-related trans-actions is a constant and time-consumingchallenge. So in response to their need, wehave utilised our experience with DA’s tocreate this new service.”

Account management with Vendor DirectVendorDirect users will also have

access to another DA-Desk service, DA-Compliance, which aims to minimise expo-sure to legal, financial, transactional, regu-latory and operational risks.

Through DA-Compliance, operators getan automated sanctions-compliancescreening of vendors, agents, and transac-tions, powered by Dow Jones SanctionAlert. This managed data service isdesigned for transaction filtering and isbased on a list of 16 key sanctions coveringall major regulatory regimes.

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 4

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 5


SOFTWARE

www.awtworldwide.com

Applied Weather Technology (AWT) has announced the launch of its newFuel Optimisation Service, and added an ECA Zones functionality to its BVSapplication.

The Fuel Optimisation Service is initi-ated by a client request, specifying thevessel’s full Charter Party (C/P) speedand consumption as well as any alterna-tive eco-speeds being considered. AWTthen determines the most efficient saferoute, and recommended speed if arequired ETA is provided, balancingvoyage time and fuel consumption.

A voyage time and consumption esti-mate is provided, as well as total costwhen requested, at both the recom-mended speed to make the requiredETA and any alternative eco-speeds.

As part of the process, a pre-voyagereport is also provided showing the cal-culated results in terms of time, con-sumption, and cost if requested, of allconsidered routes.

En route, AWT monitors both theroute and vessel performance in relationto speed and consumption, providing adaily status report via e-mail and voyageinformation via PORTAL, AWT’s secureclient site.

Upon completion of each voyage, an

end of voyage report is generated com-paring the time en route and consump-tion, and costs if requested, along theactual route sailed against both theinstructed speed and the full C/P speed(or recommended speed to make arequired ETA) allowing ship operatorsto quantify and report on savingsachieved.

“As fuel prices remain volatile, AWThas worked closely with its extensiveclient base to find economical solutionsfor all involved in the ship own-ing/chartering chain,” said SkipVaccarello, president and CEO of AWT.

“Upcoming IMO regulations such asSEEMP and others are putting evengreater pressure on ship owners to findsolutions to increase efficiency and showquantifiable results — which is why wedeveloped this timely service.”

The company’s other new develop-ment, the addition of Emission ControlAreas (ECAs) functionality to its BVSonboard software platform, offers calcu-lation tools to evaluate the most cost effective voyage track withinthese zones.

Using the latest version of BVS, vessels can manage their voyage trackby displaying ECA zones and makingthem 'no-go' areas. By doing this, theycan see their voyage track outside and

Fuel optimisation and ECA Zones from AWTwww.ascenz.com

www.emersonprocess.com

Emerson Process Management, in collabo-ration with Ascenz Pte Ltd, has intro-duced a remote fuel consumption andbunkering monitoring system.

The system aims to deliver accuratefuel usage and bunkering data from mov-ing ships to land-based shipping companyoffices, to offer a real-time insight into theship’s operations.

Ascenz, based in Singapore, is a suppli-er of remote monitoring systems for ship-ping companies to track fuel consumptionand bunkering monitoring.

Data capture of fuel consumption andbunkering data is achieved usingEmerson’s Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeasurement technology.

Using Ascenz’s software monitoring sys-tem, this data is then delivered to the shippingcompany on shore. The remote monitoringsystem transmits and translates data intoinformation for customers to monitor fuelusage and ensure accurate fuel bunkering.

“The collaboration with Emerson is an idealway to provide customers with the data theyneed to improve their operations,” said ChiaYoong Hui, co-founder and CEO of Ascenz.

“I know I can count on the Emersonteam for their technical know-how andinternational support network.”

Fuel monitoringsystem launched

inside the ECA zones.Moving waypoints within the soft-

ware allows captains to visualise theimpact of time in the ECA zone andcompare it to the overall effect of time enroute, helping them to judge the optimalroute for their purposes.

“With BVS’s ECA zone calculationtools, captains can make informed deci-sions about how much time to sail insideor outside these zones,” said RichBrown, vice president of product man-agement, AWT.

“Our goal is to give captains and shipoperators the data they need to managevoyage costs while complying with IMOregulations.”

North America Emissions ControlArea (ECA) zones came into force onAugust 1, 2012. The regulation is part ofAnnex VI to the MARPOL Conventiontitled 'Regulations for the Prevention ofAir Pollution from Ships'.

The regulation dictates that the ECAZones extend up to 200 nautical miles(NM) from the coasts of the UnitedStates and Canada, including a portionof the Hawaiian Islands (exceptions tothis area include the Aleutian Islandsand Arctic waters of North America).

In the ECA zones, ships are requiredto burn fuel with sulphur content notexceeding 1 per cent.

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 6

Digital Ship


Get your certification while onboardOur Onboard Courses gives value for money

Seagull offers Ship Security Officer (SSO), Safety Officer (SO), Safety, Health and Environment (SHE), and Electronic Chart Display (ECDIS) and other topics as onboard courses. Please visit our web page for the full list.

We provide seafarer training and assessment tools for effective compliance to STCW, ISM, and IMO standards

www.classnk.or.jp

ClassNK claims that it has released theworld’s first software package for use withthe new IACS Harmonized CommonStructural Rules (CSR) for bulk carriersand oil tankers, which were released at thebeginning of July 2012.

IACS’ new Harmonized CSR combineexisting CSR for bulk carriers and tankers,introduced in 2006, with IMO’s GoalBased Standards (GBS) for shipbuildingregulations.

IACS released the first draft of the rulesfor public comment on 1 July 2012, toallow time to incorporate input fromindustry groups and end-users.

“As a new set of global requirements forthe industry, new software will be essentialfor yards and designers to efficiently testand implement the new rules,” commentedClassNK executive vice president TakuyaYoneya, who oversaw the class society’sdevelopment of the new software.

“By releasing this new software for usewith the first draft of the new HarmonizedCSR, we hope to make it easier for yardsand designers around the world to famil-iarise themselves with the new require-ments, as well as make use of the rules fornew ship designs.”

The new software is a completereworking of ClassNK’s existing CSR soft-

ware, already in use at shipyards aroundthe world.

“Our goal with this new software,” saidDr Yoneya, “was to incorporate not onlyour extensive experiences with the CSR,but also the insights and opinions of lead-ing shipyards and designers in the devel-opment process.”

The new Harmonized CSR softwareprovides new functions like a 'Case Study'tool, which allows users to assess theeffects of changes to the parameters of ini-tial ship designs, as well as a new functionto automatically generate 3D models forhull structural analysis directly from rulecalculation data.

ClassNK says that the new software canapply data produced by existing CSR soft-ware, and is able to integrate with all major3D CAD/CAE software systems and shipperformance calculation software.

“This new software is not just a calcula-tion tool, but a total design support sys-tem,” says Dr Yoneya.

“Thanks to the new features and toolsincluded, we are confident that this soft-ware will not only support the develop-ment of safer ships, but also improvedesign quality, and increase the speed ofthe ship design process.”

ClassNK says that it will provide itsnew software at no charge to shipyardsand designers around the world.

www.vizada.com

Vizada has announced the launch of a newpremium edition of its e-messaging tool,SkyFile Mail, an enhanced version of theSkyFile software.

SkyFile Mail Premium offers compati-bility with Microsoft Outlook,Thunderbird or other POP3/SMTP clients,allowing for integration with existing e-mail tools onboard ship.

Customers can continue using theircommon e-mail interface, environmentand settings through the SkyFile engine.

A new automatic notification pushfeature has been included, which willallow Captains and officers to choose ifthey wish to receive important e-mailsimmediately, without any manual action,or if they want suspicious e-mails to bestored in the quarantine file prior todelivery onboard.

The Premium service also offers extra-long text messaging (up to 1,500 charac-ters) and access from shore through non-satellite connectivity (e.g. via 3G,

WiFi or WiMax). Vizada says that 150 merchant vessels

have already signed up for SkyFile MailPremium in the pre-launch phase.

Apart from launching SkyFilePremium, Vizada has also upgraded itsbasic SkyFile Mail software with new fea-tures, including flexible connectivity forthird party apps, better management ofvessel sub-accounts, improved filteringfor private and corporate accounts, directaccess to SkyFile eNOAD with a singleclick and a split billing feature overIridium Pilot.

These new features are also availablefor the Premium version.

“We are really excited to be able to offi-cially launch our business-centred SkyFileMail Premium,” said Vizada productmanager, Jean Marc Duc.

“We’re certain that the compatibilitywith other e-mailing software, as well as all the cost-effective features, will con-tinue driving SkyFile Mail’s success as the leading messaging tool in the satcom industry.”

ClassNK claims that its software is the first package available to work with IACS Harmonized CSR

ClassNK software for HarmonizedCommon Structural Rules

www.srosolutions.net

SRO Solutions reports that it has recentlycompleted the implementation of its datareplicator system for oil and gas explo-ration company PTTEP in WesternAustralia.

The SRO Data Replicator (SDR), basedon IBM Maximo asset management soft-ware, will be used to manage operationsby sharing data across the company’soffices in Perth and Darwin in Australia,and also in Singapore.

“SDR is designed to solve the exactproblem we were facing,” explained GregArcher, PTTEP IT support engineer.

“SRO staff were excellent, they workedclosely with our team to gain an under-standing of what we wanted. Thisenabled them to carry out a lot of the con-figuration work in the UK. When theywere ready, they flew over to Perth andinstalled the solution.”

“Everything went smoothly and theydid a great job on knowledge transfer. We

now expect to see significant improve-ments in productivity and reductions inmaintenance and procurement costs.”

SDR will particularly be used to main-tain equipment onboard a newly builtPTTEP floating production, storage andoffloading (FPSO) vessel that will be usedfor a project to develop oilfields in thesouthern Timor Sea, to maintain optimallevels of uptime.

“This requires robust preventive andcorrective maintenance processes thatneeded Maximo to work effectively,” SRO managing director, Steve Driver,explained.

“The most important challenge was tokeep the maintenance and procurementprocesses in sync between Perth, Darwinand the offshore FPSO.”

“It could only communicate via a low-bandwidth satellite link and so they need-ed separate instances of the data to be keptin three locations so that everyone couldcarry on with their work even if the con-nection temporarily went down.”

SkyFile upgraded to Premium

PTTEP completes SRO implementation

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:36 Page 7


SOFTWARE

www.atobviac.com

AtoBviaC has launched a new Port to Port- Online version of the BP ShippingMarine Distance Tables, offering the userthe ability to calculate both SECA(Sulphur Emission Control Area) dis-tances and distances in the North AmericaECA (Emission Control Area).

From 1 August 2012, for vessels operat-ing within the North American ECA, thesulphur content of fuel oil used on board

must not exceed 1.00 per cent.“Our research has shown that it is

rarely cost effective or practical to avoidthese routes entirely,” said Captain TrevorHall, director of AtoBviaC.

“It is, however, essential to accuratelycalculate in advance the impact on vesseloperating costs and to identify where aslight adjustment of route will avoidunnecessary incursion into an ECA.”

“We have implemented SECA dis-tance calculations into our distance table

www.mgmtsysconsult.com

Teekay has implemented MSC Reportingfrom Management Systems Consulting, areporting system used with the ABSNautical Systems NS5 fleet managementsoftware.

Teekay is currently running the Oracleversion of the NS5 software, and MSCsays that the company required a report-ing solution that could operate on thisdatabase platform, which MSC was able toachieve by extending its standard report-ing product to provide support for Oracle.

In addition to the reporting warehouse,Teekay has also selected approximately twodozen standard reports for NS5, as well as anumber of custom designed reports.

The reporting system also includes a'team concept' which allows the reports tobe run on groups of vessels (i.e. teams),

allowing report generation across manydifferent groups of vessels at once.

Teekay joins Helix Energy SolutionsGroup and Seaspan Ship Management inadopting MSC software products for usewith NS5.

As well as using MSC Reporting, Helixhas taken delivery of a system whichallows it to use its own incident reportingforms and combine them with the stan-dard NS5 incident forms. These additionalforms allow Helix to collect incident datawhich is specific to its operation and per-form trending analysis.

Seaspan Ship Management will alsouse the MSC Reporting system for inter-nally generated reporting, as part of a customised package of reports providedby MSC covering areas like Maintenance,Purchasing, Inventory, Quality andCrewing.

Emissions control function added to distance tables

The software can calculate the cost implications of voyages in emissions control zones

Teekay implements MSC Reporting

matrix from the time the various controlareas came into effect, but (with the)implementation of the North AmericanECA, ship operators need to be awarethey are on a countdown to unexpectedcosts if they do not make the correct pro-vision for the additional fuel costs theywill incur.”

The introduction of this new productalso sees the launch of a new interfacewhich uses Microsoft's Silverlight technol-ogy. Working on a Windows PC or an

Apple Mac, it now incorporates a purchas-ing structure which enables the user topurchase a block of distances.

Also available is a route scanning function, which provides the user withdistances within the various SECAs andECAs and distances within Load Line Zones via marine information map overlays.

All voyage reports and maps can besaved and exported in PDF and spread-sheet formats.

www.marinesoftware.co.uk

UK based Marine Software reports that ithas completed delivery of its MPJ –Marine Project Manager software to P&OMaritime Services.

The software will be installed onboardthe 9,075 grt P&O Maritime Servicescable installation vessel EuropeanSupporter.

P&O Maritime Services has also takendelivery of the MPJ Superintendent ver-

sion, which will receive the vessel's plan-ning jobs and facilitate the production ofdrydock specifications and tenders.

The MPJ Vessel version will be used tocompile refit planning specificationsonboard, which are then uploaded to thecontrolling Superintendent version forinclusion in the main refit specification.

The application will also be used toassist with final contractor selection, con-trol repair works whilst in dock and pro-duce docking reports.

www.sismarine.com

Solstad Offshore’s fleet of 50 vessels hascompleted the installation of the StarInformation & Planning System (Star IPS)software package from Star InformationSystems (SIS).

Solstad operates platform supply ves-sels (PSV), anchor handling vessels (AHTS)and construction service vessels (CSV), andwill use the software as an integrated, cen-tralised fleet management system.

This will include Star IPS functionalitycovering planned maintenance, guaranteeclaims, asset management, projects anddocument management.

SIS signed the initial business contractwith Solstad in July 2008, since which timeSolstad’s fleet has grown from 25 to 50vessels, resulting in an extension of theoriginal agreement.

Full system training for the ship crewshas been undertaken at the Star Academytraining facilities in Trondheim, Norway.

“We required a centralised systemthat could provide us with a full technical overview of our fleet,” saidHans Ole Bergtun, Solstad’s technicalsuperintendent.

“SIS has been in the market for a longtime; they’ve taken part in ‘computerising’the industry and have long traditions forsystem development and innovation.”

“We were looking for a dynamic sup-plier and found that SIS actually offers

more functionality than we require at thetime being, so it’s good to know that wehave the option to expand and that there’salways new and improved solutions beingdeveloped.”

SIS completed the system implementa-tion in two phases. Phase one saw serverspre-installed with the software shippedout to each vessel by Solstad’s own IT sup-port team, while phase two focused onsystem setup and configuration, handledremotely by SIS.

“We could not have done this withoutthe support provided by SIS,” noted sen-ior consultant and advisor on the project,Ronny Hammern.

“Our experience is that SIS’ personnelare both professional and credible; everystep of the project has been well organisedand we’ve received very good feedbackfrom the involved parties, both at Solstadand at our IT partner.”

With the software now in place, Solstadhas cleaned and restructured the datafrom its old management systems andimported it onto Star IPS.

“Our previous system was not cen-tralised, hence technical data and workinstructions varied from ship to ship,”said Mr Bergtun.

“However, with the clean data and thenew system we have a uniform and high-ly efficient system across the fleet. Thiswill help us as we continue to strive foroperational excellence.”

P&O Maritime Services installsproject management software

The European Supporter has installed the new system

Solstad implements SIS

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:37 Page 8

� Access to maritime BI - following a standard

� No capital costs, low investment and operation

� Quickly earn profits

� Integrate BI into your software

For more information please visit us at www.evidanza.de/shipping

For direct link to the app store please visit www.evidanza.de/shipping-app

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:37 Page 9


SOFTWARE

MM aritime transport dominatesinternational trade. It carriesmore than 80 per cent of world

trade by volume and almost 60 percent byvalue[1], which means it is also highlyexposed to macro-economic conditions.

Sovereign debt problems and fiscal aus-terity in many developed countries havecontributed to very difficult trading condi-tions for shipping operators. Over the pasttwo years, these conditions have beencompounded by a series of natural disas-ters, political unrest in areas surroundingimportant shipping routes, and ongoingenergy and commodity price volatility.

Regulations within the shipping indus-try itself, notably regarding fuel emissions,and legal issues surrounding transport andtrade facilitation in general are also creatinga tougher operating framework.

The price of bunker fuel – alreadyaccounting for 25 per cent of operating costs– is expected to increase by an additional 50per cent following the implementation ofInternational Maritime Organization (IMO)rules (MARPOL Annex VI) which, in 2015,will reduce the allowable sulphur content offuel to just 0.1 per cent in prescribedEmission Control Areas (ECAs) and to 0.5per cent[2] elsewhere.

In addition, chokepoints in popularroutes and ports, greater trade volumesamong BRICS and other developingnations, the rise of piracy in key areas, andthe need to navigate low-sulphur zonesrequire new trading routes to be devel-oped and tested.

These tough trading conditions havecreated a significant downward pressureon operating margins. Reduced freightrates are also having a negative impact:between May 2010 and July 2010, theBaltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI) lost morethan half its value.

A partial rally in August 2010 did littleto halt the downward trajectory, and as ofMay 2011 the BDI had declined by abouttwo thirds[3].

Technology toolsIn this environment, companies in theshipping industry need every possibleadvantage at their disposal.

To this end, the past several years haveseen a growing number of shipping com-panies investing in technology solutionsspecifically designed to help them effi-ciently and effectively manage freight ratevolatility, bunker fuel costs, and journey,vessel and cargo planning to minimiserisks associated with vessel operations.

These traditional desktop solutionshave enabled shipping companies to suc-cessfully:� Improve the voyage estimating process

by more accurately calculating business P/L before fixing, analysing cargoes, vessels, load and discharge ports, and optimising dry cargo, gas, tanker, and parcel operations

� Manage cargo tonnage more efficiently by maintaining cargo commitments and open tonnage, monitoring cargo types, and effectively matching cargo to potential vessels

� Enhance voyage management by con-trolling all post-fixture activities, track-ing daily operations, and comparing actual versus estimated P/L

� Optimise vessel management by main-taining technical and commercial vessel descriptions, cataloguing physical details including speed and bunker consumption, and tracking commercial details, dates of purchase, and sales

� Mitigate real risks of vessel operations by generating true net freight positions covering outward versus inward posi-tions, managing forward freight agree-ments (FFAs) and options to hedge, and analysing exposure normalised to Baltic prices

However, the current overwhelming trendin enterprise technology is the move tomobile. The wholesale use of Blackberries inthe early years of the 21st century, and morerecently the advent of iPhones, iPads andother tablet computing devices has takenenterprise computing to a new level, and cre-ated new ways of increasing productivity.

As a result, the workforce as a whole isbecoming increasingly mobile. In a surveyconducted for IBM, 75 per cent of execu-tives stated that the deployment of mobiledevices is critical to the long-term success-es of their companies.

The Fortune 500 has already embracedmodern mobility: iPhones are alreadybeing deployed or tested by 80 per cent ofthe world’s biggest companies, and iPadsare being deployed or tested by 65 percent. And furthermore, research fromForrester shows that 75 per cent of compa-nies report increased worker productivityfrom deploying mobile applications.

The power and prevalence of today’smobile devices is transforming the shapeof the modern enterprise. Mobile applica-tions empower executives to makeinformed, rapid decisions by giving themthe data and analysis they need, when andwhere they need it.

Industry experts believe that in fouryears approximately 50 per cent of thedevices connected to corporate networkswill be mobile.

Mobile business applications were orig-inally limited to delivering news andinformation, or generic productivity tools.Recently, however, there have been bigadvances in the development of applica-tions for specific business environments.

These applications have the power torevolutionise the way shipping companiesdo business.

Maritime transport is self-evidently aglobal, mobile industry. It operates acrossmultiple time zones, frequently involvesco-ordination of efforts, resources, andinformation within very short timeframes,

and requires informed decision-makingon an almost continual basis.

Additionally, effective and efficientmovement of goods requires decisionmakers to move between various siteswithout productivity loss.

Therefore, shipping is a prime exampleof an industry that benefits from mobiletechnology. The following areas are partic-ularly well-suited for mobile applications:� Quoting: The speed with which char-

terers can respond to quote requests often determines whether or not they win new business. Mobile applications that empower charterers to confidently price business from anywhere using real-time data and any combination of cargoes, vessels, routes, load, and dis-charge ports can provide the competi-tive edge necessary to stay afloat in the cutthroat shipping industry.

� Fixing contracts: Mobile applications can enable shipping companies to more efficiently respond to changing circum-stances, optimise profits, and mitigate risk by running unlimited scenarios for dry cargo, gas, tanker, and parcel oper-ations. Instant, location-independent access to current freight rates, bunker fuel costs, and other data can enable management to accurately estimate busi-ness P/L so that contracts can be fixed.

� Operations management: Mobile applications enabling operations to be adjusted on the fly in response to changing business conditions can prove invaluable by mitigating risk and saving time and money. For example, if the newswires report activity in a JWC Pirate Zone, a charterer with on-the-move access to appropriate systems and information can instantaneously perform the complex estimations need-ed to efficiently re-route vessels – taking into account suitable port avail-ability, fuel costs for lower sulphur zones, and any demurrage incurred.

Evaluating appsWhen looking for suitable mobile applica-tions, there are a number of points to con-sider. The most valuable tools are not sim-ply lighter versions of full desktop appli-cations - they are developed precisely forthe device concerned.

Entire desktop solutions that have been

ported on to a mobile platform are alsosub-optimal: the ideal solution willinclude only those tasks that are suitableto the mobile environment, and will havebeen developed to offer seamless perform-ance of the key functions that are mostappropriate and/or necessary for the des-ignated users.

The most important point to consideris that mobile applications are a comple-ment to desktop solutions, not a replace-ment for them.

By enabling executives and itinerantemployees to respond to customer andbusiness needs from anywhere, sometechnology companies in the space haveadded an extra dimension to solutions thatenable shipping businesses to address thechallenges and pressures of the currentbusiness climate.

The new reality of global shippingmeans that industry participants mustadopt the latest sophisticated technology-based tools, and do so now. The complex-ities of routing, high input prices, andfreight rate volatility are here to stay.

Early adopters of desktop and nowmobile solutions are already gaining com-petitive advantage; their competitors riskbeing permanently left behind.

As the shipping industry faces unprecedented pressures, many companies are turning to the latest technology tools to achieve a competitive advantage. The next battle for market share will be fought in the mobile arena,

writes Lauren LaFronz, Triple Point Technology

Mobile for the Maritime Industry

About the authorLauren LaFronz is director of marketing and communications withTriple Point Technology, a provider of cloud and on-premiseCommodity Management software that delivers analytics to optimiseend-to-end commodity and energy value chains. To find out more visitwww.tpt.com

References1. Review of Maritime transport, 2011:

United �ations Conference on Trade and Development (U�CTAD)

2. www.dieselnet .com/standards/inter/ imo.php; www.imo.org/newsroom /

m a i n f r a m e . a s p ? t o p i c _ i d = 1 7 0 9 & doc_id=9123; www.shippingandco2.org /CO2%20Flyer.pdf

3. Review of Maritime transport, 2011: United �ations Conference on Trade and Development (U�CTAD)

Mobile technology is allowing people onthe move to increase the speed at which

they do business

DS

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:37 Page 10

What do these market leaders have in common?

www.teromarine.no – [email protected]

TM Master...Fleet Management Solutions

Maintenance & Inventory - Docking Management - Centralised Procurement - Crew Management - Voyage e-Log - HSSEQA

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:37 Page 11

A permanent window on an international fleet

Imtech Ad Connectivity 2.1 (EP) 566x382.indd 1 13-8-2012 9:39:42

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:37 Page 12

Randall Miller received the message just after the board meeting. MV Hemingway was forced to change course, due to an emergency in the next port of call. Recently Randall had selected Imtech Marine as their connectivity supplier. The promise of hassle-free solutions was delivered right away. Thanks to the global VSAT connection he could set up a crystal clear video conference with the captain, the cargo owner and port authorities. An alternative route was quickly agreed, the delay limited to mere hours.

Imtech Marine’s connectivity solutions excel by their global coverage and value added services. Find out more at www.imtechmarine.com/connectivity.

E N J O Y P R O G R E S S

ow

Iggm

See you

at SMM

B6.200/B5.220

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 13:37 Page 13


SOFTWARE

Since the InterManager KPI Environment (IMKE) database was launched in June 2011, shipping companies have faced the challenge of effectively entering data into the system. COLUMBIA Shipmanagement is using business intelligence to

provide a practical and efficient solution, as Timothy Scheller, COLUMBIA Shipmanagement, explained to Digital Ship

Business intelligence applications for benchmarking

KK ey Performance Indicators (KPI)are a well-known system of meas-uring and benchmarking a com-

pany’s performance, and shipping compa-nies have long utilised this process in orderto assess and evaluate their efficiency.

However, until InterManager, an inter-national trade association for the shippingindustry, launched its ambitious KPI proj-ect, there was a lack of KPI standardisa-tion in the shipping industry, which madedirect comparison and assessment of per-formance between companies difficult.

In late 2004, InterManager began driv-ing this joint ship management initiativewith the aim of developing an industrywide standard of KPIs. Over the course ofthe next seven years, the association creat-ed a comprehensive scheme of key per-formance indicators, which concludedwith their launch in June 2011.

Since then, the corresponding onlinedatabase for reporting and benchmarking,InterManager KPI environment (IMKE),has been publicly available and shippingcompanies have started to upload theirKPI data to be individually assessed andanonymously compared online against anindustry benchmark.

However, in order for the tool to pro-vide effective benchmarking against anindustry standard, the participation of alarge number of shipping companies isrequired. Although the utilisation of the

benchmarking database is so far free ofcharge, there are certain entry hurdles fornew shipping companies wanting to gainaccess to industry benchmarking.

To begin with, shipping companiesneed to be able to provide comprehensivedata on a wide variety of operationalareas, covering inspection, HR, technical,environmental data and more, andalthough most shipping companies gatherthis data somehow, not every organisationhas a structured system of collecting andstoring it.

Therefore, assembling, centralising,preparing and processing this vastamount of information can pose a sub-stantial barrier to entry for some shippingcompanies.

The data challengeOnce the relevant data has been assem-bled, shipping companies have a numberof different options of how to upload theirdata into the InterManager KPI database.

The simplest, but most labour-intensivemethod is to collect the relevant informa-tion from whatever storage formats areused, which can be anything from simplepaper copies to Excel or advanced data-bases, and feed the data manually into theIMKE database.

Traditionally, data from various inter-national offices and vessels is submitted tothe headquarters of a shipping company

on a regular basis. A large number ofreports are processed by these in-housedepartments and made available to thesenior management.

Periodic assessments of the reportsoccasionally warrant further information,upon which the IT department is typicallyrequested to compile data in static reports.

As there are vast amounts of data fromthe daily business forming part of the per-formance indicators, they often need to beconsolidated. In order to maximise the useand informative value of the database,data is recommended to be fed into thesystem on a daily basis. Waiting for week-ly or even monthly input decreases theaccuracy of the system.

The conventional way of collecting andmanually processing this information, saysTimothy Scheller, business developmentmanager, COLUMBIA Shipmanagement, isa very time intensive process in most ship-ping companies. High human resourcecosts and low levels of transparency are theresult of this approach.

Some modern shipping companiesnowadays use enterprise resource plan-ning systems (ERP), software applica-tions that automate the integration ofinternal and external management infor-mation across the organisation and facili-tate the flow of information between allbusiness functions.

Having an ERP in place substantially

reduces the effort required to input data,which is required to provide the informa-tion needed for the benchmarking tool.

However, notes Mr Scheller, fully util-ising the KPI standard as an analytical toolrequires the complex process of display-ing and linking multidimensional data.ERP systems are generally not capable ofmultidimensional data processing andforming relationships between differentsets of data.

“The data that ERP systems can pro-vide is usually more simple and standard-ised,” says Mr Scheller.

“ERP systems are not capable of put-ting large amounts of information intorelation quickly. Since the true value ofinformation is to be able to reflect it fromdifferent angles and under differentassumptions, ERP systems do not pro-vide the answer to the dynamic, multi-dimensional reporting needs of a ship-ping company. Even if technically possi-ble, pulling these reports would be atime-consuming undertaking.”

Consequently, shipping companiesstriving to effectively feed their informa-tion into the IMKE database face the chal-lenge of preparing the data provided bythe ERP system and bridging the gapbetween the company's internal informa-tion source system, such as the enterpriseresource planning solution, and the KPI standard.

COLUMBIA’s solutionOver the last 14 months, an increasingnumber of shipping companies havebegun to enter their fleets’ data into theonline IMKE database tool ofInterManager’s KPI project. Among thefirst ship management companies to feedinformation from their existing reportingstructure into IMKE was COLUMBIAShipmanagement.

During the process, the ship manage-ment company encountered a number of challenges.

In order to obtain correct benchmark-ing results, organisations that have beenusing KPIs need to ensure that theirunderstanding of each individual parame-ter is the same as InterManager’s. Thispart of the system integration, says MrScheller, is instrumental for the success ofthe tool.

In order to enable centralised report-ing, analyses and benchmarking process-es, COLUMBIA Shipmanagementembarked on an extensive IT project fouryears ago. During the course of this proj-ect, maritime IT company Blue DynamicsLtd. was commissioned to revamp thecompany’s entire IT infrastructure, whichCOLUMBIA is able to upload detailed performance data about its fleet into the KPI system, to measure performance

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:04 Page 14

Digital Ship


comprises four head offices and eightcrewing agencies.

In line with this ambitious undertak-ing, an enterprise resource planning sys-tem (ERP) was implemented, a systemwhich is still in expansion mode. TheERP, which functions as the company’scentral business application, now con-tains all business process related data andhosts all processes throughout the wholeCOLUMBIA group.

Despite being an important contributorto the project, and consequently havingaccumulated an early and comprehensiveunderstanding of InterManager’s KPI con-cept and sound knowledge of the individ-ual parameters, COLUMBIA needed toadapt its generic reporting structure andalign the company’s proprietary KPI sys-tem with the InterManager KPIs to inte-grate into the standard.

Once the informative value of therespective KPIs had been adjusted, theship management company spent consid-erable time solving the challenge of effec-tively feeding data into the system.

COLUMBIA decided to interface theERP system with the online benchmarkingdatabase. It became clear that an ERPalone did not provide the required struc-ture and ability to process complex dataand that a specific data warehouse archi-tecture was needed to secure the transfer.

The company needed to bridge the gapbetween the raw daily transactional datasourced from the ERP, CRM, DMS andexternal systems, and the necessary

reports for the InterManager KPIs and thedata transfer into the IMKE system.

Business intelligencesolution

Besides searching for an effective way oftransferring its information into the IMKEdatabase, COLUMBIA Shipmanagementwanted to have the ability to furtheranalyse the trends derived from IMKEbenchmarking. The company thereforedecided to implement a business intelli-gence (BI) solution.

Business intelligence systems provide ameans of systematically aggregating, con-solidating, analysing and storing vastamounts of data, and provide organisa-tions with historical, current and predic-tive views of business operations.

A widely used function of businessintelligence technologies is reporting,where companies benefit from all docu-ments being brought into context withrelated processes. Reports can subse-quently be used to improve and optimisedecisions and performance.

COLUMBIA teamed up with three spe-cialist companies to develop a businessintelligence application that would allowfor simplified upload to the database andfor subsequent internal analysis.

“In order to be successful in this proj-ect,” Mr Scheller points out, “we agreedthat we needed specialist partners.”

InterManager provided an industrystandard, the KPI, which COLUMBIAShipmanagement reviewed from a practi-

cality standpoint.For the business intelligence platform,

COLUMBIA turned to Regensburg-basedevidanza GmbH, which had recentlydeveloped its new evidanza3 platform, aswell as an app-based approach to BI entrysolutions for specific industries.

Final integration of the disparate ele-ments was facilitated by Blue DynamicsLtd, which functioned as a bridge betweenshipping knowledge and IT knowledge.

“The goal was to create an add-on tothe IMKE platform that would enableCOLUMBIA to ease reporting andincrease in-house ability of trend analy-sis,” says Mr Scheller.

“Following the approach ofInterManager, we wanted to leave thepath of proprietary, individualistic solu-tions and attempt to create something likean entry-level BI standard for shipping.”

In order to create a solution that couldbe made available to the entire shippingindustry and provide a cost competitiveand quick to implement tool, the partici-pating entities decided to develop anexternally hosted software as a service(SaaS) solution.

SaaS, in the form of hosted applica-tions, are rented services that are run onexternal servers and warrant no hard- orsoftware installation. The user only needsto ensure that the program is fed with therelevant data from the daily transactions.

app3shipManagement, as the tool isnow called, can be accessed from PCclients, tablet PCs or smartphones around

the globe in order to display businessintelligence reports.

“Business intelligence is one of themost underrated and undervalued infor-mational capabilities in the shippingindustry,” says Mr Scheller.

“app3shipManagement is a shippingcompany specific standard business intel-ligence solution, which allows connectionfrom the ERP system and the incorpora-tion of the relevant data material into theInterManager KPI project.”

app3shipManagement Many modern shipping companies usemodular and partly or fully integratedERP systems, CRM (customer relation-ship management) and further subsys-tems, such as a DMS (document manage-ment system).

The app3shipManagement applicationdraws on information provided by thesesource systems as well as other externalsources (see ‘staging area’ and ‘transfor-mation and enhancement stage’ in illustra-tion on next page), the data is consolidat-ed and certain calculations are carried out.

The compiled data feeds into the cen-tral data warehouse (DWH), or so-called“single spot of truth”. This is where thevast amounts of data are compiled in apre-aggregated structure. This data aggre-gation is the heart of the business intelli-gence solution.

From the central data warehouse theaggregated data is transferred into OLAP(online analytical processing) cubes,

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:04 Page 15


SOFTWARE

which enable the user to interactivelyanalyse multidimensional data from mul-tiple perspectives.

The multidimensional data mart struc-ture of the app3shipManagement applica-tion comprises four individual structuresfor specific analyses; planning, safety, pur-chasing and operations.

Out of this central BI module, shippingcompanies utilising theapp3shipManagement application canextract information for analyses, report-ing, dashboards, and planning or work-flow purposes.

“For example,” explains Mr Scheller, “ifa user wants to assess its crew disciplinaryfrequency, KPI 3.8 under theInterManager KPI system, all he needs todo is to access the application, which dis-plays the key performance indicator, aswell as the breakdown into performanceindicators and their KPI calcula-tion/formula.”

The detailed display of informationenables the user to access lower informa-tion levels immediately, such as individ-ual offices or countries. Each of the subcat-egories can be clicked on in order to fur-ther drill down within a data warehouseto lower levels that are related to crew dis-ciplinary frequency cases.

Once the data warehouse informationis exhausted the ERP needs to be accessedfor further information. Withinapp3shipManagement, says Mr Scheller,these functions can be customised accord-ing to the individual shipping company'sdimensions.

BenefitsThe app3shipManagement tool has beendeveloped to serve companies that so farhave no fully-fledged business intelli-gence solution in place. This particularlycomprises third-party ship managers andsmall to medium sized shipping compa-nies who manage their own vessels.

Liner companies, says Mr Scheller,have traditionally developed their owntools and are generally more advancedwhen it comes to IT, partly due to theirfinancial strength and the need to run acomplex global logistics network as theircore business.

Liner companies subsequently alsotend to have a more sophisticated IT infra-structure within their vessel/office envi-ronment and are therefore not amongstthe prime target group.

Although every company can use theapplication, there are two basic mainrequirements for the effective implemen-tation of app3shipManagement. Shippingcompanies wanting to utilise the applica-tion firstly need to align their ERP systemto the KPI standard in order to ensure thatall data is fed in correctly and the resultsyielded are accurate.

“When interfacing the generic ERP sys-tem of a ship management company withthe app3shipManagement application, it istremendously important that there is 100per cent correlation between what the ship-ping company understands and the KPIstandard's meaning,” says Mr Scheller.

“An initial customisation is necessary,in the course of which the information thatis currently gathered is identified andassessed. For example, all cases of a defi-ciency must be captured in order for the

results to be accurate and effectivelyusable.”

The alignment or mapping can be car-ried out in collaboration with the technical,operational or marine directors or man-agers of the shipping company and BlueDynamics. During this process the IT com-pany gauges what the ship managementcompany understands about the respectiveterms and assists in adjusting these defini-tions to the InterManager standard.

In addition to the content-basedrequirements, a moderately sophisticatedtransactional business system that digital-ly gathers most processes within a ship

management company is needed to pro-vide the application with data. This meansthat companies who still use print cardswill not profit from the implementation ofa BI system directly, but will need toinstall an ERP system first.

“I strongly advise companies not todelay the digitalisation,” says Mr Scheller.

“There are some ship managementcompanies that hope to save money butwaste time and run danger to miss out ontechnological progress. A lot of shippingcompanies still think very traditionallyand stick to what they have always done.”

If the basic requirements are met, thenext necessary steps are straightforward.The app3shipManagement application is asoftware as a service (SaaS) product, andas it is run on an external server via cloudcomputing an initial setup project can bebooked online.

“Booking app3shipManagement isreally easy,” explains Mr Scheller. “You goto the web store of the evidanza3 website,where app3shipManagement can bebooked directly.”

The ship management company is thencontacted by Blue Dynamics for the initialset up. The IT provider schedules anappointment to evaluate the legacy sys-tems and conduct a gap analysis of theneed for action.

In addition, it assesses what needs to bedone in order to connect the ERP systemto the hosted environment. In the courseof this initial setup project the company'sdata is fed via the web intoapp3shipManagement and onto the IMKEdatabase.

The customisation of the ERP system is

carried out by either the shipping compa-ny’s own in-house IT department or ahired maritime IT software provider.

Once this step has been accomplished,Blue Dynamics builds the application pro-gram interface (API) and performs ananalysis to assess the data structure of theIT software.

In order to connect theapp3ShipManagement cloud with theshipping company’s IT system, a datatransfer agent is installed that transfersthe data to the cloud. This tool ensuressecure and confidential transfer of thecompany data.

For shipping companies that alreadyhave a sophisticated ERP system in placeand a knowledgeable in-house IT depart-ment, the implementation of theapp3shipManagement application andconsequently the optimisation of upload-ing data to the IMKE database, as well asdownloading benchmark data from thedatabase, should not exceed 4 to 12 weeks,says Mr Scheller.

However, he also points out that thisscenario is likely to an untypical case. Onthe contrary, he says, most shipping com-panies nowadays, especially the smallerand medium ones, are not likely to have asophisticated ERP system at their disposal;in this case, the procedure is more complex.

Shipping companies that have not yetimplemented an ERP system firstly needto assess the possibilities of pre-aggregat-ing and/ or staging the data for a transferto the app3ShipManagement cloud.

The duration of the implementation,explains Mr Scheller, depends on variousfactors like the amount of data and datasources, as well as the complexity of theinfrastructure. In addition, aspects such asthe data structure and the possible staginglevels the data has to be subjected to needto be taken into account.

Benchmarking advantagesCOLUMBIA Shipmanagement has beenuploading data on the company’s 190 ves-sels to IMKE since early 2011. Over thecourse of one and a half years, the shipmanagement company has been able togather extensive experience, both withIMKE as a benchmarking tool and theapp3ShipManagement application.

Although IMKE has not yet become an industry standard andapp3ShipManagement is not yet commer-cially available, COLUMBIA, as one of themain contributors to both, has had a chanceto judge the technologies’ performance.

The benchmarking function of theInterManager KPI standard will, once suf-ficient KPI data has been accumulated,enable a user to compare the performanceof his fleet, or certain parts thereof, to theaverage of other IMKE participants.

Assessing a company's performancecompared to industry leaders providesthe management with valuable informa-tion about where they have room forimprovement.

Many shipping companies using theKPI tool, especially the ship owners, main-ly strive to identify areas where they so fardo not excel. Others, predominantly shipmanagement companies, primarily use thebenchmarking database to demonstratetheir success to potential customers.

Using a business intelligence solutionin order to connect data provided by theship management company’s source sys-tems with the KPI database offers majoradvantages.

Firstly, explains Mr Scheller, there arepurely technical benefits, as the collectionand aggregation of data required for theIMKE database is significantly eased.Utilising an off-the-shelf product also pro-vides companies with a reporting andbusiness intelligence solution withouthaving to invest heavily into their own IT-infrastructure and business intelligenceknowledge.

With app3shipManagement, shippingcompanies and ship management compa-nies have access to an out-of-the-box busi-ness intelligence system, which has beenpredesigned to enable the connection ofinformation source systems and theInterManager KPI standard. It is recom-mended that app3shipManagementshould not be customised initially, inorder to keep the investment costs down.

Shipping companies utilisingapp3shipManagement are also notrequired to invest in new hardware or thedevelopment of company specific soft-ware. Since app3shipManagement is ahosted service that utilises cloud comput-ing the solution can be tried and testedwithout high initial investment.

“app3shipManagement can be tried tosee if it fits the shipping company's needswithout committing to a substantialinvestment sum,” says Mr Scheller.

“No expensive software licences needto be bought, you just rent the service.”

Solutions in the hosted environmentoffer business intelligence tools with apotentially short return on investment(ROI) period. However, measuring theincrease in value that the purchase of thesystem provides is a very difficult processand most shipping companies do not havethe resources to assess the ROI accurately.

In addition to monetary considerations,the application offers a solution that canbe quickly implemented. Asapp3shipManagement comes as a hostedout-of-the-box service, there are nolengthy lead times for the development ofa customised solution. evidanza3 is target-ed towards the cloud environment andthus provides an easily deployable busi-

Data must be drawn from an array of different sources and entered into the standardinfrastructure to be of maximum benefit

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:04 Page 16

Digital Ship


ness intelligence platform for non-onsitesolutions, minimising implementationtime and cost.

“Information is power, and time ismoney,” says Mr Scheller. “In order toobtain the necessary information quickly,business intelligence systems are needed.”

Business intelligence projects are tradi-tionally time-consuming and resourceintensive. For shipping companies thathave previously not used business intelli-gence systems extensively, the implemen-tation of app3shipManagement can pro-vide an entry into BI without the usuallysteep entry hurdles.

“Utilising app3shipManagementenables the IT department to show its sen-ior management the beauty of businessintelligence without major prior invest-ments,” says Mr Scheller.

“If the senior management realises thatvast amounts of data can be uploadedquickly, be effectively compared to theindustry benchmark, negative gaps can beidentified instantly and located within thecompany's own transaction system, amore extensive and customised businessintelligence solution can follow.”

Apart from the purely technical andmonetary considerations, COLUMBIA hasfound the use of app3shipManagement tooffer specific operational benefits.

One of the ship management compa-ny’s key reasons for implementing a busi-ness intelligence solution was to achievebetter transparency with regards to ill-

functioning processes.Once the management realises that the

company's KPIs deviate negatively fromthe benchmark, explains Mr Scheller, itcan use the extensive data provided by theERP and made accessible through thebusiness intelligence solution in order tospot areas for improvement.

“Drilling down to the root cause is themagic word,” says Mr Scheller. “It is ultra-important for a shipping company to beable to spot the reason for disadvanta-geous KPIs accurately, immediately andwith ease.”

For example, suppose a shipping com-pany using the IMKE database for bench-marking spots a retention problem in itstanker fleet. The realisation that there is aretention problem is valuable knowledgeto begin with. However, this piece ofinformation does not identify the exactcause nor does it present a solution.

Shipping companies may not alwaysapproach problem-solving in a structuredmanner. Instead, decisions are often madedepending on the individual case; andsolutions may be determined without tak-ing into account the whole picture oradhering to a standard procedure.

“The implementation of a tailor-madebusiness intelligence solution as anenabler vastly increases the shipping com-pany's ability to do root cause digging,”says Mr Scheller.

“Once the benchmarking process hasrevealed downward gaps in IMKE, one of

the most important advantages of usingthe KPI standard comes into play: assess-ing the deviation in pinpointing whatneeds to change.”

The availability of comprehensiveinformation, comprising transactionaldata for the entire company, significantlyenhances the chance of determining solu-tions that solve the problem in the long-term. Business intelligence solutions visu-alise different dimensions and allowparameters to be assessed and put intocontext; root causes and problem patternscan be spotted more easily.

“For the retention problem this meansthat the shipping company can pull infor-mation for tankers that have been on inter-continental trade, were crewed by Filipinoratings under Russian command, if this iswhere the problem lies,” Mr Scheller says.

“These reports could not be obtainedquickly with just an ERP system. In orderto pull this information quickly, a datawarehouse and a business intelligencesolution are required.”

The ability to quickly and easily uploadcompany transactional data into the IMKEdatabase and use the benchmarkingresults to spot room for improvement thatcan be assessed within the framework ofthe BI fulfils the vision COLUMBIA had atthe onset of this ambitious project.

Plans and outlookThe app3shipManagement system is nowfully functional, and a live testing version

has been out since June 2012.Currently, the application is being

extensively live tested and proofed byBlue Dynamics Ltd and evidanza. Oncethe testing phase has been completed,COLUMBIA Shipmanagement will com-plete a final industry live testing beforethe solution is presented to the market.app3shipManagement is expected to be inproduction and available towards the endof Q3 2012.

Industry-wide benchmarking, as wellas business intelligence applications, arerelatively new concepts in the shippingindustry.

The partners believe that evidanza3 is the first app oriented business intelli-gence concept, while COLUMBIAShipmanagement and its partners havebeen among the first to develop a BI solu-tion that enables shipping companies toeasily transfer their data into the IMKEdatabase.

However, other providers of maritimesoftware are likely to follow soon withsolutions for InterManager KPIs and someare already testing the waters for an entryinto the business intelligence app market.

The international trade association forthe shipping industry has so far not beenmarketing app3shipManagement, and ifInterManager is set to remaining impar-tial, healthy competition in the maritimeIT market will need to be promoted. Thiswould drive the development of bettersolutions for the industry. DS

DIGITAL SHIP HONG KONG, 10-11 OCTOBER 2012KITEC, HONG KONG

DIGITAL SHIP KOREA, 30-31 OCTOBER 2012BEXCO, BUSAN

21st Century Shipbuilding - AET Shipmanagement Singapore Pte Ltd - Anglo Eastern Ship Management Ltd - B+H Equimar Singapore PTE LTD - Bourbon Offshore Asia Pte Ltd - BW Maritime Pte Ltd - Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering - ForceTec - Furuno Electric - Hanjin SM - Harmonix Corp. - HyundaiHeavy Industries - Hyundai Merchant Marine - Inmarsat - Intellian Technologies -Korea Telecom - Korean Register - Maersk Tankers - MMS Company Ltd - NYK Shipmanagement Pte Ltd - Orient Marine Co. Ltd - POSCO ICT - Samsung HeavyIndustries - Satsuma Shipping Pte.Ltd - Seaspan - Sinanju Tankers Pte Ltd - SinokorMerchant Marine Co., Ltd - Sky Perfect JSAT - STX Offshore & Shipbuilding - TankerPacific - Thome Ship Management Pte Ltd - Unix Line Pte Ltd - V.Ships (Asia) Pte Ltd - Wilhelmsen Ship Management

Interested in exhibiting or sponsoring?

w w w . t h e d i g i t a l s h i p . c o m

For all international enquiries, please contact: Ria Kontogeorgou Tel: +44 20 7017 3401 E: [email protected]

M: 07815481036

Korean companies, please contact: Youngsuk Park Tel: +44 20 7017 3408 E: [email protected]

Selection of last year’s delegatesat Digital Ship Asian events

Asian Events 2012

Photo: Carey Ciuro

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 17


SOFTWARE

II ncreasing public ecological awarenessand recently introduced legislationhave put the shipping industry

under continuously increasing pressure to improve environmental performance.This trend is enhanced by substantialglobal concerns about climate change andglobal warming.

Although oceangoing vessels are scien-tifically proven to be the most efficientmode of transport (on the basis of fuel con-sumption/transported unit, for example,compared to the aviation industry thatproduces up to 40 times more emissionsper transported unit), the shipping indus-try faces numerous challenges with regardto a notable reduction of its emissions,especially CO2 (carbon dioxide), SO2 (sul-phur dioxide) and NOX (nitrogen oxides).

Besides the resource-consumption offuel and the consequent emissions into theair, there are other environmental issuesthat have to be monitored and managedby shipping companies.

Amongst the hotly debated issues arealso the production of sludge, garbage andsewage, the usage of certain chemicals,e.g. for cleaning, and the exchange of bal-last water with the risk of introduction ofinvasive species in foreign waters.

Hamburg Süd has joined forces withthe classification society, GermanischerLloyd (GL), in order to improve its moni-toring of vessel operations, consumptionand, consequently, emissions, in order toreduce the latter and guarantee compli-ance with regulations.

Hamburg Süd, founded in 1871, oper-ates a total of 160 vessels worldwide, mostof which are container vessels. With morethan 3,100,000 TEU cargo transported in2011, the shipping company not only con-sumes a lot of fuel, but also has to dealwith a substantial amount of emissions.

“If you ask a shipping company nowa-days how much CO2 and other emissionswere emitted in order to transport a cer-tain item, you will receive an answer thatis at least partially based on theoreticalassumptions,” says Frank Dubielzig, specialist environmental control,Hamburg Süd.

“We have started a new project togeth-er with GL, which aims at resting the answer to this question on more tangi-ble data and real values as opposed to bet-ter guesses.”

DriversA number of different key drivers enticedHamburg Süd to try and improve its envi-ronmental performance.

One important factor, says MrDubielzig, is that a growing number ofcustomers, as well as a variety of other dif-ferent stakeholders, are becoming increas-

ingly interested in ecological concerns andthe preservation of the environment.

Nowadays, he notes, the interest inemission reduction concerns the entireproduct supply chain, and the shippingindustry is a vital part of this. With thedebate on global warming CO2 emissionshave become a ‘hot topic’, not only withregards to environmental regulations, butalso as an obligation and responsibilitytowards future generations.

“With the vast majority of goodsworldwide being transported across thesea to their final destinations, some havecome a long way and spent considerabletime being shipped across the oceans,”says Mr Dubielzig.

“How much CO2 was emitted in orderto transport a certain item is often difficultto track. Hamburg Süd ranks among theworld’s 15 largest container companiesand we want and need to provide thisinformation to our customers, the authori-ties, and last but not least our own man-agement which continuously aims atreducing the company’s environmentalfootprint.”

The most important stakeholders for a shipping company are its customers,who often strive to assess the CO2 emittedper transported good (absolute org/TEUkm) in order to reach certain CO2reduction targets.

“Our customers regularly approach usfor environmental information,” explainsMr Dubielzig.

“In addition, they are increasinglyinterested to learn if Hamburg Süd itself has set certain emission reductiontargets.”

Shipping companies are further incen-tivised to implement environmental com-pliance measures by a growing number ofregulations.

National and international authorities,such as the International MaritimeOrganization (IMO) and the UnitedNations Framework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC) have increas-ingly focused on topics of environmentalconcern in recent years. An array of legis-lation and regulations covering this issuehave been passed or are currently in theprocess of being decided.

International legislation concerning thereduction of emissions from shipping isbeing enforced, for example, through theInternational Convention for thePrevention of Pollution from Ships (MAR-POL), which was adapted as early as 1973,but has undergone crucial changes withregards to air pollution in 2005 (Annex VIPrevention of Air Pollution from Ships).

Further amendments have followed,introduced new limits for fuel sulphurcontent and NOx, such as the revision of

MARPOL Annex VI in October 2008. In 2011, the IMO adopted mandatory

measures to reduce the emission of green-house gases (GHGs) from internationalshipping.

The new Annex VI chapter 4 on energyefficiency for ships makes the EnergyEfficiency Design Index (EEDI) mandato-ry for new ships, and the Ship EnergyEfficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) forall ships. These regulations are expected tocome into force in January 2013.

New regulations such as the BallastWater Management Convention are pro-gressing, but have not yet achieved thenecessary ratification requirements.

The Energy Efficiency Design Indexconcerns the construction of the ship itself,and measures how efficient the shipdesign is in relation to its size, whereas the Ship Energy Efficiency ManagementPlan assesses how effectively a vessel isoperated.

The Energy Efficiency OperationalIndicator (EEOI) provides a monitoringtool, designed to measure the fuel efficien-cy of vessel operation and to allow assess-ment of how effective changes in opera-tion are.

On top of this expansive framework ofenvironmental legislation, non-govern-mental organisations (NGOs) are alsoscrutinising resource consumption andemissions, and even rank vessels based ontheir efficiency. This, explains MrDubielzig, puts pressure on shipping com-panies to carefully calculate their vessel

efficiency and recheck the data presentedby an NGO.

Last but not least, the media is increas-ingly interested in researching and pub-lishing the environmental performance oflarge companies. Negative publicity withregard to environmental compliance andemission management can have disas-trous consequences for shipping compa-nies, which is why the growing mediaattention provides a strong incentive forlarger companies to responsibly deal withthese topics, as Mr Dubielzig points out.

In addition to external stakeholders, theinternal management at Hamburg Süd iskeenly pursuing improvement in its envi-ronmental performance. The shippingcompany is currently in the process of set-ting itself ambitious targets with regardsto different environmentally relevantissues, as Mr Dubielzig reveals.

Hamburg Süd has had an environmen-tal policy and a certified environmentalmanagement system since 2000, based onwhich the shipping company conducted acomprehensive environmental analysis,the eco-balance, for the year 2010.

For this study, environmentally rele-vant quantitative data was gathered, cov-ering environmental aspects of vessels,intermodal transport, containers andoffices. This eco-balance will now be con-ducted on a yearly basis.

“Not very surprisingly for us, the cen-tral result of this analysis was that ourmain CO2 emissions are generated by ourcontainer vessels, which are obviouslyalso the main source of energy consump-tion,” says Mr Dubielzig.

“Although the eco-balance presentedfor the first time a quantitative picture ofenvironmentally relevant inputs and out-puts, we also learned that more encom-passing and detailed quantitative informa-tion with regard to the different topics is needed for our environmental controlsystem.”

Improving environmentalperformance

Shipping companies utilise a wide varietyof measures to improve the efficiency oftheir vessels, including optimised hulldesigns, special paint, propulsion supporttechnologies, software for optimumtrim/draft and routing, and many more.

Hamburg Süd has identified threebroad complementary areas in which theshipping company employs numerousmeasures to increase the environmentalperformance of its vessels – improved effi-ciency, vessel operation and informationtechnology.

In line with this, Hamburg Süd hasimplemented operation optimising meas-ures such as slow steaming, which can be

Carbon emission reduction is an on-going challenge for the global shipping industry, and the use of modern IT can play a major role in managing the operational data that is key to this process. German shipping company

Hamburg Süd is developing new software to tackle this problem – Frank Dubielzig, Hamburg Süd, spoke to Digital Ship about the company’s environmental responsibility project

Applying IT for environmental responsibility

‘Our customers regularly approach us for environmental information’

– Frank Dubielzig, Hamburg Süd

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 18

Digital Ship


both ecologically and economically effi-cient due to reduced fuel resource con-sumption, emissions and bunker costs.

Slow steaming, explains Mr Dubielzig,was originally introduced in order to save on bunker costs, however the posi-tive impact on emission reduction hasturned out to be substantial, and has led to significant reductions in CO2 emissionsin particular.

Further measures focus on open seaballast water exchange and bilge water de-oilers with very low limits. Open sea bal-last water exchange reduces the risk ofintroducing invasive species in foreigncoastal areas while highly efficient de-oil-ers refine the bilge water by separatingoily parts.

With regard to ballast water, says MrDubielzig, new legislation will come intoforce soon, namely the Ballast WaterManagement Convention. This provisionrequires shipping companies to install bal-last water management systems, whichreduce the number of marine species inthe ballast water below certain limits.

In the wake of this legislative proce-dure, several technologies, such as filtra-tion and ultra-violet light, are being devel-oped and have to be approved by IMObefore they can be implemented by ship-ping companies.

New legislation, explains Mr Dubielzig,is an effective way of forcing shipping com-panies to reconsider their vessel operation.

The Ship Energy EfficiencyManagement Plan (SEEMP), part of the

IMO regulation coming into force in 2013,has considerable potential for environ-mental performance improvements.

This scheme, he says, incorporates best practices for fuel efficient operation ofships, such as better speed managementthroughout a ship’s voyage, which are hoped to significantly reduce fuel consumption and, consequently, CO2emissions.

Although, as Mr Dubielzig reports,classification society Germanischer Lloydhas attested to the fact that HamburgSüd’s existing owned vessels alreadyoperate below the emission standards setdown in the Energy Efficiency DesignIndex (EEDI) coming into force in 2013,the shipping company continues toimprove the efficiency and ecologicalfriendliness of its operations.

In addition to the above mentionedmeasures, the shipping company is cur-rently focusing on information technologyas a means to support emission reductionand lessen the environmental impact ofsea trade.

Comprehensive environmental infor-mation systems, in particular, can helpimprove the collection, exchange and useof environmental data and informationacross the fleet, notes Mr Dubielzig.

So far, an all-encompassing structurethat would systematically concentrate, fil-ter and analyse environmentally relevantinformation has been lacking.

“Some problems are related to thismissing system,” says Mr Dubielzig.

“In order to further reduce our emis-sions and other environmental impactsand satisfy diverse reporting require-ments, we need very detailed and consis-tent information from the vessels. Wenoticed that the current reporting from thevessels has to be improved in order to ful-fil our information demands.”

Software systemsHamburg Süd decided to remedy this situation and find a sustainable solutionfor the problem of environmental datamanagement by teaming up withGermanischer Lloyd to create a wide rang-ing environmental information system.

In 2011, the two companies signed acooperation agreement and are currentlyin the process of testing a first prototype,which was released in April 2012.

The GL EmissionManager ship man-agement software is designed to sys-temise and structure reports that are tra-ditionally recorded in less coordinatedways. Operational and voyage relateddata, such as noon, departure, arrival, andstoppage reports are recorded andanalysed, and environmental informa-tion, on factors such as fuel, emissions toair, garbage, sludge, ballast water andchemicals are extracted.

The system consists of two parts, a soft-ware component that collects information(EM Recorder) and a ‘Green Server’ atGermanischer Lloyd, where the data isanalysed and certified and where differentreports are produced. In addition, the

Green Server forwards the data to in-house databases at Hamburg Süd.

The first step in implementation of thesystem sees the Emission ManagementRecorder (EM Recorder) installed on acomputer on each participating vessel.The software collects environmentallyimportant data in the form of voyage andoperation reports. Each report, explainsMr Dubielzig, has a standard form con-taining relevant fields.

For example, the port departure reportcontains fields regarding cargo load, fuel,position and more, whereas in the garbagereport the crew can enter informationabout the amount and type of garbage andkind of disposal.

While in the early stages of the projectthe relevant data still has to be entered bythe crew manually, it is planned that inlater versions of the tool at least parts ofthe data would be entered automaticallythrough the connection of the EMRecorder to other systems on the ship, MrDubielzig says.

Once all data for a report is collected,the master can immediately submit thereport to the ‘Green Server’ atGermanischer Lloyd via the EM Recorderin the form of an e-mail with an attach-ment. If desired, he can also collect sever-al reports and send them all together.

“In order to allow for all-encompassingenvironmental controlling and reporting,a lot of traditionally relevant informationlike position, distance sailed or fuel con-sumed is needed,” says Mr Dubielzig.

No rigid deals. No limitations.Just great software.

www.dualog.com

With Dualog® Connection Suite™ you get two things: An impressive bundle of solutions for optimised ship-shore communication - and the freedom to choose everything else.

Unlock the Potential of Internet On Board

On Board IP Traffi c Control | Powerful Web Optimisation | Fully Automated Anti-Virus | Seamless Business E-Mail | Zero Admin Crew E-Mail

ww

w.re

form

stud

io.n

o

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 19


SOFTWARE

“Consequently, the GLEmissionManager allows reporting ofthis traditional information in a muchmore systematic and structured way. Asa result, other departments like MarineOperations benefit from the develop-ment of the software.”

Hamburg Süd and GermanischerLloyd have tried to make the GLEmissionManager easy to operate so thatit creates no extra work for the crew.

“Through the single click of a buttonthe numerous standard forms are trans-ferred from the EM Recorder to the GreenServer, which tracks all reports,” says Mr Dubielzig.

“The system checks that no reports aremissing. If the Green Server, for example,receives an end of sea passage report, itautomatically checks that all prior reportshave been sent. If a report is missing, thevessel and the office are notified and fur-ther enquiries can be made.”

In addition, standard event e-mails areautomatically sent from the vessel to theGreen Server in order to signify standardevents, such as port departure. These stan-dard event e-mails are transferredonwards from the Green Server to a vari-ety of recipients at Hamburg Süd or to thecorresponding agents. The master candefine additional recipients through theEM Recorder.

Data fed into the Green Server is aggre-gated and analysed. In addition, explainsMr Dubielzig, some data, such as fuel con-sumption and distance sailed, is combinedfor standard environmental reports, forexample the report to the Clean CargoWorking Group (CCWG), an organisationof shippers and carriers aiming for envi-ronmentally friendly transportation.

“Once a year, we have to send a reportincluding the fuel consumption of ourentire fleet to the Clean Cargo WorkingGroup,” says Mr Dubielzig.

“At the moment, putting together thisreport is a substantial amount of work forthe staff. However, we are looking for-ward to the point where the report iscompiled automatically through theGreen Server.”

The Green Server at GermanischerLloyd is controlled through a web inter-face, where Hamburg Süd staff onshorecan log in. This way, information can beadded or corrected and additional reportscan be generated, for example, about theship efficiency of a particular vessel, a spe-cific service or of the whole fleet.

From the Green Server the informationis transferred to Hamburg Süd's own system, where it can be combined withdata from internal sources, such as cus-tomer data. This way, explains MrDubielzig, client specific carbon foot-prints can be assembled.

In addition, the shipping company canchoose to have its data certified by GLthrough the Green Server.

A safeguard for dataquality and integrity

Hamburg Süd is expecting the implemen-tation of the new software system to yieldconsiderable benefits, particularly the abil-ity to assess CO2 emissions and breakdown the overall output into individualvalues, such as the emissions per cargo ona specific transport.

The company is also keen to use thistool in order to calculate data, such as thereal capacity utilisation, and to use it toreplace the traditional ship to shorereporting and to further standardise andstructure the reporting process.

“This new reporting process is a safe-guard for highest data quality and integri-ty,” says Mr Dubielzig.

“Through event triggered reporting,plausibility and completeness checks, we will ensure that all data is correct

and complete.”The system is furthermore designed to

store and automatically reuse informationthat has been entered once, avoidingduplicated work for the crew.

A further simplification is achievedthrough smart default values. For exam-ple, the ‘remaining distance’ field in a voy-age report is set with a default value,which is obtained through the automaticcalculation of the ‘remaining distance’(last report minus the entered value of‘distance sailed’ since this last report). Ifneeded, the master can overwrite thesmart default values manually.

The new system simplifies the work-load for both crew on board and staff inthe office. Crew on board will benefitfrom a central unit data input, which unifies all formats and data collectiontransfer methods used prior to the imple-mentation of the GL EmissionManager.Staff in the office also benefit from a sig-nificant reduction of manual data han-dling and analysis.

Hamburg Süd is further hoping to ben-efit from another innovation, the guidedworkflow for reporting.

In addition to the emissions software,the GL FleetAnalyzer, GermanischerLloyd’s business intelligence system forshipping companies, can be used to applystructured information in an aggregatedmanner, for management reporting andstatistic forms.

This, says Mr Dubielzig, allows a fleetwide view as well as flexible drill down‘slicing and dicing’ functionality for analy-sis and reporting.

“These innovative features make thesystem very attractive for us at HamburgSüd,” says Mr Dubielzig.

“Our environmental control depart-ment at Hamburg Süd can avail itself of alarger amount of data and information onenvironmentally relevant processes. There

are however also other departments thatare interested in this data, such as marineoperations and line management, whichcan then access more detailed and com-prehensive databases.”

In addition, the GL EmissionManagerprovides the shipping company with avariety of key performance indicators likeg CO2/TEUkm.

“These key performance indicatorshelp to assess the environmental perform-ance of just one vessel, a group of vesselsor the entire fleet. We can further choosedifferent parameters such as SO2 emissionper TEUkm or fuel oil consumption perTEU. This is a great tool for us, and allowsus to drill down to the areas where wewant to improve,” says Mr Dubielzig.

The collection of environmentally rele-vant data is simplified and aggregated,which eases the workload and provides abroad base for additional analysis.

“I am very happy with the amount ofdata that will be provided. This willenable us to conduct a greater variety ofanalyses,” he says, and continues “we arealso well set up to deal with future envi-ronmental regulations and stakeholderdemands.”

A fleet wide rollout inplanning

After the first prototypes of Green Serverand EM Recorder were tested in May 2012,Hamburg Süd began planning the roll outof the GL EmissionManager system on itsentire container fleet, as well as on theshipping company's chartered vessels, atthe beginning of 2013.

“We have already spoken to the firstcharter shipping company about the implementation of the GLEmissionManager and the feedback wasvery positive,” says Mr Dubielzig.

Germanischer Lloyd and Hamburg Südare already planning future enhancementsto the solution, including automatic datatapping, such as machinery data, fromother ship systems.

“At the moment this is still a big prob-lem, which will hopefully be solvedthrough the GL EmissionManager in thenear future,” explains Mr Dubielzig.

In addition, Hamburg Süd is planningto integrate data from other sources, suchas tonnage centres, weather data serviceproviders and fleet tracking providers,which will allow several additional formsof analysis. Furthermore, the amount andrange of plausibility checks is going to be enhanced.

“IT can help us to identify environmen-tal improvement areas and it helps us tocollect all the relevant information inorder to set environmental targets,” MrDubielzig concludes.

“It further helps us to analyse our tar-get achievement. Extremely importantly,it helps to sensitise staff on board andonshore and building up awareness forenvironmental topics.”

“You cannot manage what you cannotmeasure, and this holds true for our envi-ronmental topics. It is impossible toreduce emissions without knowing howmuch is actually emitted. In order togauge the potential for emission reductionand reach these aims, comprehensive datais needed – this is what the GLEmissionManager aims for.” DS

The company expects the new software to show focused environmental details, down to the emissions per cargo on a specific transport

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 20

The Next Generation ofGT Mail... Are You Ready?

Call: +44 (0)1925 818918 | Email: [email protected] | Visit: www.h2osatellite.com

Visit us at SMM Hall B6 Stand 598 for a chance to win an iPod

4 - 7 September 2012

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 21


SOFTWARE

SS urviving the recession is high onthe priority list for many shippingcompanies nowadays. Amongst

the numerous methods of cost saving is,first and foremost, fuel oil reduction,which is being accomplished throughcostly projects, such as remodelling hullforms and applying new coats of antifoul-ing paint.

Other bunker saving schemes involveslow steaming, precisely scheduled arrivaltimes and the utilisation of advancedweather routing techniques.

Shipping companies looking at stream-lining their other business operationshowever can also make use of a wide port-folio of cost saving options, particularly byapplying advances in technology.

Danish shipping company LauritzenBulkers, a subsidiary of J. Lauritzen, is oneof those companies that has successfullyapplied IT to improve cost efficiency, hav-ing used a PortSpend Management systemfrom port cost management provider DA-Desk for nearly ten years.

PortSpend Management is a disburse-ment account (DA) solution designed tosimplify disbursement account processesfor shipping companies. The entirely webbased solution automates and digitises theDA process from order to settlement ofmaritime port costs.

In a four step procedure, comprising

the nomination of an agent, obtaining anestimate, finalising transactions and sub-sequent cost settlement and accountingprocesses, the solution takes into accountall aspects of disbursement accounts.

In the first phase, PortSpendManagement offers automated creation ofagent appointments, thus simplifying thesearch for an appropriate agent, checkingof credentials, confirmation of appoint-ment and notification of all parties.

Step two delivers a screened andapproved estimate (pro-forma) within 24hours, an automatic update of all informa-tion online, advance payment advice, aswell as netting/balancing confirmations.

During step three, DA-Desk receivesthe physical DA from the agent, enters thefinal disbursement account into the sys-tem and establishes an audit trail to allrespective invoices. In addition, all finalapprovals are provided online and the bal-ance or settlement recovery is determined.

The final phase of the DA process com-prises rebilling of owners and charterers,the provision of balance payment adviceand finally the archiving of the completevoyage documentation after the successfulcompletion of a port call.

Previous processesBefore the implementation of a concertedand standardised disbursement account

procedure, processes at Lauritzen weremanaged individually and manually.Obtaining port cost estimates from agents,internal decision-making and approval,transferring upfront funds and balancingthese with the actually incurred costs usedto be a multi layered and lengthy practice.

The first problems regularly occurredwhen trying to contact the right agent, asMikael Schultz, vice president, manageraccounting/control, Lauritzen Bulkers,recalls. Once an agent had been selected,contact information often needed to bemanually located in order to appoint himand send over the voyage instructions.

This process was often hampered by thefact that the available data was outdatedand inaccurate. As a consequence, the oper-ator had to spend time searching the inter-net for the correct contact details. To furthercomplicate matters, the voyage instructionswere not always standardised.

With the communication tools availableat the time operators would find them-selves reusing their own previous instruc-tions, which made it difficult to centrallycontrol changes in specifications or poli-cies across the company, says Mr Schultz.

Once the operator had acquired the cor-rect contact information, he would send asemi-standardised voyage instruction tothe agent.

Since there used to be no automatic con-

firmation of receipt, the Lauritzen opera-tors frequently had to follow up with theagents to verify that the instructions hadbeen received and that the estimate for theport costs (pro-forma) would be submittedwell before arrival of the ship, only afterwhich agreements as to the exchange ratesor agency fees had to be made.

Often time did not permit such agree-ments to be properly in place prior to thearrival of the vessel. Cost estimates, sentby the agents, would come in on faxes,with information (such as account num-bers) often hardly legible and composed inforeign languages.

“Quite often,” Mr Schultz explains, “wewould visit foreign ports, where we had noupdate on what the actual port costs wouldbe and we would find ourselves very muchat the mercy of the local agents.”

“Although there were a couple of web-sites at the time, such as by BIMCO, thatoffered a cost estimator, they werenowhere near as good as they were sup-posed to be.”

The operators and controllers atLauritzen would assess the cost estimates,approve or renegotiate with the agentsand eventually advance payment wouldbe sent out to foreign accounts.

Then the process of chasing the agentfor the final disbursement account wouldbegin. This, as Mr Schultz recalls, oftenused to be tedious work involving multi-ple e-mail or telephone conversationswith the agent.

“Every time an agent needed to be con-tacted, the operator had to look up the cor-rect contact details on the respective agentfile,” he recalls.

“According to conservative estimates,we had to chase the agents to submit thefinal disbursement to us in around 20 percent of all port calls.”

The final disbursement account, includ-ing envelopes full of receipts, would besent by courier, leaving the shipping com-pany no influence on the choice of thecourier solution and the costs associatedwith it.

“Hundreds of kilos of papers would becoming through our doors and clog upour mail office,” says Mr Schultz.

“Distributing them to the appropriateoperator could take a lot of time. In addi-tion, we had no feel for where the DAcould be found if needed, and would oftenbe chasing DAs that were already receivedin the mailing room elsewhere.”

Once the DAs had reached the respec-tive operator or controller, they were piledup in a stack waiting for the operator tocross check the final disbursement account

In the current economic climate, shipping companies need to focus on saving costs wherever possible, but besides obvious cost savers, such as fuel consumption, it can be difficult to identify other areas to economise.

In April 2003, Lauritzen Bulker implemented a new disbursement account solution that has proven to be a valuable investment – Mikael Schultz, Lauritzen Bulker, spoke to Digital Ship about the project

Cost-cutting with control, transparency and predictability

Before applying IT to the problem, Lauritzen Bulker had difficulty defining actual costs in foreign ports

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 22

Digital Ship


www.eagle.org

software service training consulting integration understanding

The trusted name in fleet management software for your 60,000 ton hardware.

Visit us at SMM 2012Stand B3.EG.200

software for your 60,000 ton hardwar

against tariffs and contracts, verifying allcharges in order to establish the audit trailand ultimately to institute a balance pay-ment or recover a balance.

“During busy times, disbursementaccounts are not priority work for ouroperators,” Mr Schultz says, “and therewould often be mounds of documents thatcould not be processed promptly.”

“We had no consistent generaloverview about the accuracy of the dis-bursement account estimates. Whetherthere was a substantial balance in ourfavour, or to our disadvantage, we couldsimply not gauge.”

“Getting an overview over ouraccounts payable or accounts receivablewas a complex task. If an agent called andasked for a balance which was yet to beapproved, we would have to manually gointo all our disbursement accounts, whichwould have often not yet been processed,and gather the relevant data to calculatethe result.”

Lauritzen frequently had to hire free-lance staff to help out with processing theoverdue disbursement accounts at busytimes.

“The problem with hiring freelancestaff occasionally is that they rarely bringthe right skills necessary to conduct therequired processes quickly and accurate-ly,” says Mr Schultz.

In retrospect, the Danish shipping com-pany recognises a number of issues withhow disbursement accounts used to beprocessed.

A substantial amount of time was ded-icated to locating and updating informa-tion as well as chasing after communica-tions and documents. In addition,Lauritzen had little control over when esti-mates would be coming in, whichinvolved a certain amount of uncertainty.

With regard to certain types of expen-diture, such as the choice of courier servic-es, the shipping company would bedependent on the local agents.

“We were wasting a lot of time chasingdocuments, because we had no controlabout when they would be coming in and

where they were,” says Mr Schultz.“In addition to being lengthy and quite

costly, the multi layered process tookaway valuable time for optimising thevoyage itself.”

Decision andimplementation

With the realisation that its way of han-dling the disbursement account processesadded a lot of extra work for its operatorsand dedicated controllers, who neededmore time to optimise voyage results,Lauritzen decided to examine the possibil-ity of buying an external solution to reviseand improve its disbursement accountprocesses for the first time in 2002.

“We knew our solution was not opti-mal, but at the same time we did not havethe resources to completely revamp it our-selves,” says Mr Schultz.

“However, I am generally very criticaland hesitant towards outside softwareproviders and their products, since espe-cially shipping companies need very indi-vidual and customised software.”

In the early days, Lauritzen researchedsoftware packages from Eastern Europeancompanies, which, Mr Schultz says, had asolid level of knowledge about port dis-bursement. However, the shipping com-pany decided not to pursue this ideabecause it feared that security arrange-ments were unsuitable.

“We did look at other alternatives,”says Mr Schultz, “but ten years ago,around the time we decided to utilise an

external disbursement account solution,there were no other providers that satis-fied our requirements.”

“However, when DA-Desk presentedits PortSpend Management, the packagesounded very plausible and convincing. Ithoroughly scrutinised the solution.”

“DA-Desk has extremely carefullyanalysed specifications applying to all drybulk operators worldwide. This is why wedecided in this case that an out-of-the-boxsolution would make a good fit for ourcompany.”

The most important question the com-pany needed to answer before buying anexternal solution was whether there wassufficient room for enhancement in orderfor the expense to be valid.

Lauritzen spent three to four days care-fully mapping and pricing each step of theexisting processes and requirementsagainst the concept offered by PortSpendManagement before realising that thescope for improvement was substantial.

“Because the industry had been doingit the same way for the last hundred years,we had lost sight for efficiency improve-ments,” says Mr Schultz.

“However, the self-assessment is a crit-ical step when it comes to spendingmoney on external solutions. We realisedhow many documents were coming intoour in-house post office, how many handstouched them and how much space wasused to store them. This was a very inter-esting and illuminating exercise.”

PortSpend Management is an entirely

‘We decided, in this case, that an out-of-the-box solution would make

a good fit for our company’– Mikael Schultz, Lauritzen Bulker

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 23

web-based solution. Consequently, ship-ping companies wanting to utilise theservice do not need to invest in hard- orsoftware. In addition, no system needs tobe implemented on the company's com-puters, which saves on integration timeand costs.

“I was actually quite nervous about theimplementation,” says Mr Schultz.

“When it comes to disbursementaccounts, some agents are extremelymeticulous about receiving funds on timeand will arrest the ship and make it impos-sible for it to leave the port if funds are notthere. (However,) in the 10 years we havenever had an hour’s delay on the accountof DA-Desk.”

The Danish shipping company foundthe solution well-structured and easy towork with. The user interface, despite themany changes over the past ten years, hasstayed largely the same, and this hashelped boost the acceptance of the newlyutilised DA process.

Although Lauritzen’s operators, whouse the solution on a daily basis, resistedthe change of disbursement accountprocesses at first, Mr Schultz notes that itonly took a week for the staff to realise thehuge timesaving potential and to becomecompletely comfortable with the system.

“There will always be resistanceamongst shipping company staff whenthe solution is first implemented,” saysMr Schultz.

“Although we implemented PortSpendManagement in its early days, there was avery dedicated helpline, ready to respondto the operators every time they had aproblem. In the initial stage DA-Desk staffwould call our operators every day toensure the solution was running smoothlyand the operators were happy.”

“There was more resistance with theagents than with our staff. Some agentsdid not take so well to being monitoredand checked. Over the years, this haschanged and there is no resistance fromagents today. On the contrary, agents haverealised the benefits they can derive fromthe wide use of PortSpend Management.”

Agents utilising the system can use it tomake sure the shipping companies receiveall relevant information, such as the esti-mates or banking details, on legible docu-ments and on time. As an additional bene-fit, the system automatically provides anotification upon the receipt of an esti-mate and agents can track the status of theDA in the system.

With PortSpend Management,Lauritzen was able to implement an out-of-the-box solution, however the shippingcompany asked DA-Desk to make one cus-tomisation to the product as the originalsolution put operators in full control of theestimates approvals received by DA-Desk.

“The agent would submit the estimateto DA-Desk, who would review the esti-mate and send it to the operator with pay-ment recommendations,” says Mr Schultz.

“This version did not work for us. Inmany shipping companies, the controllingdepartment is separate from the rest ofoperations. At J. Lauritzen and its sub-sidiaries, we have dedicated shipping con-trollers sitting right next to the operators.”

“These controllers have better knowl-edge of which agents are likely to have liq-uidity issues and difficulties refunding

balances in our favour if we overpay them.This is why we needed a second tierapproval.”

DA-Desk customised PortSpendManagement and included another level ofapproval, so that the operator, havingapproved the disbursement account in prin-ciple, would forward it to the controller.

The second tier would then be able toadjust the final payments amount andissue a final authorisation. This customisa-tion was very easily done by DA-Desk,says Mr Schultz, and now, although thesolution was purpose-built for Lauritzen,there are a number of shipping companieswho have since utilised the two tierapproval function.

Another important, although oftenunderrated, feature of external solutions iscompetent and readily available support.

“I'm usually very critical of outsidesoftware vendors,” notes Mr Schultz. “Weneed to rely not only on the solution itselfbut also on the service of a provider.”

However, despite initial concerns, theDanish shipping company says it ispleased with the service provided.

“DA-Desk delivers exactly what theypromise,” Mr Schultz says. “The down-time on the system has been nominalover the last ten years. It is usually a mat-ter of minutes to get the system up andrunning again.”

“You can always call the helpline andyou will get help right away. If an operatorhas any difficulties he can reach DA-Deskwith the click a button and will be contact-ed by somebody who can help them.”

In order to improve the quality of itsoffering and to ensure the system is run-ning smoothly, DA-Desk has extended theservice line to the agents through anagent’s relations department helpdesk.

Software benefitsOver a period of 10 years, Lauritzen hasgathered extensive experience with theDA-Desk solution and explored its costsas well as its benefits.

As an entirely web-based service,PortSpend Management does not requireany investment besides the negotiated fee.There are no additional hardware or soft-ware requirements and the system can beaccessed from existing computers.

Despite the fact that no time needs to bespent on a software installation, shippingcompanies wanting to utilise the disburse-ment account solution need to be awarethat some initial expenditure of time is

required, not only to assess if the potentialbenefits outweigh the fee but also to mapits processes and documents.

“Reviewing every single step of everysingle task being made in the office to sup-port the processes surrounding the fund-ing, approval and posting of one singleport call is time consuming and franklyquite eye opening,” says Mr Schultz.

“We initially felt we had solid internalworkflow which we had spent consider-able efforts on reviewing and optimisingagain and again over the years. Yetdetailed analysis clearly showed us thatwe could not match the combination ofdigitalising the workflow and documentsin combination with a large team of dedi-

cated specialists offered by PortSpendManagement.”

The savings realised through the use ofthe DA system quickly compensates forthe financial input, says Mr Schultz.Lauritzen reckons that implementing DA-Desk’s solution paid off after the 10th dis-bursement account.

“Today we save on every single dis-bursement account,” Mr Schultz notes.

These cost savings have allowed thecompany to economise on freelance staffand significantly free-up capacity amongits in-house operators and controllers.However, instead of laying off staff theshipping company could use the humanresources to attend to what they did best –ordinary shipping accounting and operat-ing for the newly acquired vessels.

“We never downsized. We decidedthat we could put our very skilled anddedicated staff to much better use,”explains Mr Schultz.

“Around the same time of the imple-mentation of PortSpend Management, wedecided to upscale our fleet and we neededthe resources to operate these new vessels.”

In addition to saving on humanresource expenditure, the shipping com-pany has been able to economise on anumber of seemingly minor expenses.

Items on the cost sheet that are smallbut add up across the fleet, such as couri-er costs for estimates and final DAs, werestandardised and reduced by DA-Desk asit has a global agreement with major ven-dors and can thus negotiate a fixed tariff.

“We appreciate that we are not exposedto the significantly different local agree-ments which an agent may have with thelocal vendor,” says Mr Schultz.

“On the DAs themselves, we can prob-ably save around US$20 on courier costs

per port call. This doesn't sound much atfirst, but if you add it up then multiply itby the many thousands of port calls wehave had in the past ten years, it builds upto a very significant return on invest-ment.”

“The mere fact that we were actuallyassessing the costs closely, calling theagents and requesting information,adding up the numbers, verifying the esti-mates, saved us costs, because the agentsrealised that we were making the wholeprocess more transparent. Although it isdifficult to quantify the savings, I'm posi-tive that there is a significant saving on atleast every 10th disbursement.”

Besides the cost reduction, usingPortSpend Management has created otherbenefits for Lauritzen.

Conducting the entire communicationin a language of choice, ensuring the avail-ability of correct contact details, and havingpreapproved exchange rates has substan-tially increased both transparency and con-trol of the disbursement account process. Inaddition, the system standardises and digi-tises processes and therefore saves opera-tors a significant amount of time.

Delays in the disbursement accountprocess can be very expensive to shippingcompanies. Mr Schultz explains that a singleday’s delay for a vessel could, depending onthe market, put paid to the savings generat-ed by PortSpend Management over anentire year – however, as noted Lauritzenhas not experienced even an hour’s delaysince it began using the system.

The standardisation of disbursementaccount processes across various compa-nies also helps in creating a level of knowl-edge of this way of working that Lauritzenhas been able to benefit from, as it can hirenew operators from competitors thatalready have a working knowledge ofPortSpend Management.

“We have grown significantly over thelast 10 years,” says Mr Schultz.

“In the process we have added staff inall our offices. Some of our new operatorsare coming from our competitors and theyalready know DA-Desk. It has almostbecome a kind of standard in the shippingindustry.”

Another advantage of using PortSpendManagement is that when vessels arechartered out to competitors or charteredfrom competitors, the costs incurred canbe handled with more certainty and a lotmore quickly.

In essence, Mr Schultz believes thatship owners spend hundreds of millionsof dollars on port calls every year withoutreally realising the substantial expendi-ture. Using technology can help to opentheir eyes to identify how they are reallydoing business, and offer steps to improvethose processes.

“Today we are paying incredible atten-tion to the right price of bunkers, or ongetting the right financing,” he says.

“Until DA-Desk standardised disburse-ment account processes, we didn't paymuch attention to the US$25 million spenton disbursement accounts in the lifespanof a vessel.”

“Standardising a solution in the ship-ping industry is not an easy task andmany software shipping ventures havetried and gone down in flames. DA-Deskhas managed - there's a reason for it.” DS


SOFTWARE

It took approximately one week for Lauritzen operators to become comfortable with the new system

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 24

Connections made simple.Thanks to SeaAccess™ from Harris CapRock, it’s never been easier to connect all the right people in all the right places.

Providing a range of communication solutions as wide as the world itself, Harris CapRock gives you the winning combination

of global coverage for easy scalability and local resources for more responsive service. What’s more, you won’t find a broader

portfolio of communication services anywhere. And if that weren’t enough, we offer you more customizable, flexible

technologies and services than any other service provider in the world.

From an ultra-compact 60 cm C-band solution enabling phone and texting service, to a high-end passenger solution providing

over 50 Mbps to a single vessel, SeaAccess has the most reliable and comprehensive solutions for maritime communications.

Leveraging more than a dozen self-owned and -operated international teleports, customer support centers and a worldwide

support team of more than 275 certified field technicians, we put it all together to deliver global communications you can

always count on.

It’s that simple.

www.harriscaprock.com

© 2012 Harris CapRock Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

RELIABILITY NEVER REACHED SO FAR™

p27-51:p1-14.qxd 17/08/2012 14:05 Page 25

Maritime Information Systems(MARIS) has appointed Ove Bråthen asdirector of sales for Scandinavia, takingover from Line T. Øverland. During his 25year career Mr Bråthen has previouslyworked with companies likeSchlumberger Oilfield Services,Kongsberg and Evry.

Nico International has been certi-fied by Germanischer Lloyd (GL)to offer vibration monitoring and diagnostics services for machineryonboard GL-classed vessels. Using a certified vibration monitoring service supplier allows shipping firms to stream-line the documentation required to qualifyfor GL's 'Condition Monitoring' surveyarrangement.

SevenCs has appointed BjoernRoehlich as sales director. Mr Roehlichpreviously worked with Transas, andwas most recently managing director ofECDIS training provider Safebridge.

Imtech reports that it has acquired theBelgian maritime technical servicesprovider Van Stappen & Cada NV,a company based in Antwerp and special-ising in marine electronics and electricalsolutions.

Raytheon Anschütz has estab-lished a new subsidiary in Brazil,Raytheon Anschuetz do Brasil SistemasMarítimos Ltda, with the aim of expand-ing sales and service activities in SouthAmerica.

Tideland Signal has appointedScoflex Marine as agent for its rangeof aids to marine navigation in France.Located in Sucy-en-Brie, Scoflex Marinewill supply and support the entireTideland range.

Tideland Signal has also appointedJames West as sales manager for Europe,North Africa and East Asia. Mr West joinsTideland from Corilla Marine, and

was previously with Sealine and themarine division of Webasto.

Ocean Signal has appointedMartek Ltd as its distributor forIreland. Martek will handle the SafeSeaproduct range in the merchant shipping,commercial fishing and leisure boatingmarkets in the region.

Ocean Signal has also announcedthe appointment of Lusty & Blundellas its dedicated country distributor forNew Zealand. Lusty & Blundell will haveresponsibility for sales of Ocean Signal’sSafeSea product range, which includes theV100 GMDSS hand-held radio, as well asthe E100 and E100G EPIRBS and S100SART.

Paul Smulders has been appointed asCEO of Netwave Systems. Havingserved as a nautical officer until 1989, MrSmulders previously worked as managingdirector of Radio HollandNetherlands. Outgoing CEO and com-pany founder Rob Post will continue to beresponsible for product strategy, businessdevelopment and mergers and acquisitions.

Satellite AIS provider exactEarth hasbeen accepted as a member of the OGC(Open Geospatial Consortium).The OGC is an international industry con-sortium of 454 companies, governmentagencies and universities participating ina consensus process to develop publiclyavailable interface standards for spatialinformation and services.

www.northropgrumman.comwww.saabgroup.com

The US and India have both recentlyannounced developments in projects tointroduce nationwide AutomaticIdentification System (AIS) networks thatwould improve country-wide vessel track-ing in their respective countries.

The successful implementation of theNational Automatic Identification System(NAIS) on the Indian coastline for India’sDirectorate General of Lighthouses andLightships (DGLL), which will also beused by the Indian Navy, Coast Guardand DG Shipping, has been completed bySwedish company Saab.

The National Automatic IdentificationSystem was inaugurated by India’s UnionMinister for Shipping, Thiru G K Vasan, ata formal ceremony in Chennai. NAIS pro-vides coverage to the entire Indian Coast,with 74 lighthouses now fitted with theSaab systems.

Automatic Identification System sig-nals are used to provide real time mer-chant traffic information, with a web server allowing access to live data over the internet.

The project comprised installation ofsensors and equipment along the Indiancoast for regional and national control cen-tres, with Saab managing installation,commissioning, training and support forthe project, along with its Indian partner,Elcome Marine Services.

“We have been using the system as partof acceptance trials for the past six monthsand are very pleased with the perform-ance,” said P P Sinha, deputy director gen-eral and nodal officer (NAIS) at DGLL.

“The team of SAAB and Elcome haveworked hard to complete the project wellwithin the time period, which is anachievement by itself considering thelarge scale geographical and technicalcomplexities. Our comments and sugges-tions during the implementation phasehave been well received and have beenimplemented as the project went along.Overall it was a nice experience to workwith the team.”

“The NAIS network has suitable inter-faces that have already been incorporatedfor adding radar, cameras and other sen-sors. The system has already been inte-grated with existing radar and AIS in thecountry to provide a holistic overview of

the coastal maritime domain. The NAISnetwork would thus play a vital role inmeeting the long term coastal surveillanceneeds of India.”

In the US meanwhile, NorthropGrumman Corporation has completedcore capability development of the coun-try’s own Nationwide AutomaticIdentification System, and delivered it tothe US Coast Guard to begin formal gov-ernment testing prior to deployment.

The Nationwide AIS system aims to pro-vide a comprehensive view of vesselsbound for and navigating within US portsand waterways. Northrop Grummandeveloped the shore-side communications,network and processing capability to facili-tate the exchange of the AIS information.

The system will include a networkinfrastructure that collects, stores, process-es and disseminates AIS data, via a two-way maritime digital communication sys-tem that queries incoming vessels to checkvessel identity, position, speed, course,destination, and manifest and cargo data.

The information will be combined withother government intelligence and sur-veillance data and shared with authorisedgovernment operators to enhance mar-

itime situational awareness.Prior to the delivery to the Coast

Guard, the Nationwide AIS developmen-tal test and evaluation process incorporat-ed test environments and scenarios toexamine reliability, maintainability andavailability requirements at physical andlogical shore installations.

Additional tests were performed with atest environment onboard a test vesseltravelling various courses and speedswithin inland waterways and offshore outto 50 nautical miles.

“The Coast Guard's goals for enhancingmaritime domain awareness include theability to detect and classify potentialthreats as early and distant from US inter-ests as possible,” said Pat Camacho, vicepresident of integrated command, control,communications and intelligence systemsfor Northrop Grumman InformationSystems.

“By monitoring the virtual network cre-ated by AIS-equipped vessels, NationwideAIS will help decision-makers to betterrespond to safety and security risks.”

Northrop Grumman was awarded the$12 million Nationwide AIS contract inDecember 2008.

Paul Smulders (right) will replace Rob Post (left) as Netwave CEO

www.maris.nowww.sevencs.comwww.tidelandsignal.comwww.gl-group.comwww.imtechmarine.com

www.oceansignal.comwww.exactearth.comwww.opengeospatial.orgwww.raytheon-anschuetz.com.brwww.netwavesystems.com

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION


James West, new at Tideland SignalSevenCs new sales director, Bjoern Roehlich

US and India develop national AIS systems

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:24 Page 1


Digital Ship

NMEA 2000 standard infrastructure launched www.nmea.org

The National Marine ElectronicsAssociation in the US has announced theplanned introduction of the new OneNetcommon infrastructure by late 2014,designed to transport NMEA 2000 mes-sages over Ethernet.

The new standard has been developedby a group of marine electronics manufac-turers who asked the NMEA to standard-ise a method of transmitting and receivingNMEA 2000 messages on Ethernet.

NMEA notes that, while some manu-facturers already currently use higherbandwidth Ethernet for video as well asfor proprietary messaging on Ethernet toadd NMEA 2000 messages, this approachcrates problems due to the abundance ofdifferent individual solutions.

OneNet aims to transport NMEA 2000network messages on Ethernet in a stan-dardised manner, establishing standard-ised gateway rules and supporting high-bandwidth applications such as videodata transport, which is not possible usingthe NMEA 2000 network.

OneNet should provide greater band-width, with up to 1 gigabit or faster transferspeed directly to the OneNet devices (400times the speed of the NMEA 2000 CANbus) and greater scalability, as OneNetbackbones may exceed 100 Mbps usingother standard Ethernet physical layers

such as Gigabit Ethernet and fibre optics.OneNet can support up to 65,024 phys-

ical devices, versus CAN bus’s 50 devices,allowing the creation of larger and morecomplex networks, with Power OverEthernet (PoE) allowing each physicaldevice to be separately powered by up to15.4 watts directly from the Ethernetswitch.

A standard device web page will beproduced to provide basic fundamentalproduct information, and a Simple ServiceDiscovery Protocol (SSDP) will be inte-grated to allow OneNet devices to adver-tise their presence to other SSDP-compati-ble devices on the network – in the sameway that a printer can tell a PC or Mac thatit’s there.

“NMEA OneNet does not replaceNMEA 2000,” said NMEA technical direc-tor, Steve Spitzer.

“NMEA OneNet uses the physical andnetwork layer standard based on the IEEE802.3 Ethernet Standard. OneNet comple-ments the NMEA 2000 standard and pre-serves existing and future NMEA 2000messages (PGNs).”

“OneNet is not recommended for real-time critical data, because the NMEA2000 Controller Area Network (CAN)enables prioritisation and guarantees thatthe message transmitted will always getthrough to certified devices. IEEE 802.3cannot provide the same guarantee of

message delivery.”Participating on NMEA’s OneNet

Committee are Actisense, Airmar,Digital Yacht, the Electronics andTelecommunications Research Instituteof South Korea, FLIR, Fugawi, Furuno,Garmin, Johnson Outdoors, KoreanMaritime University, Krill Systems,

Maretron, Molex, Mystic ValleyCommunications, Navico, Raymarine,the US Coast Guard, and Victron Energy.

Additionally, the US Coast Guard R&DCentre has contributed to ensure thatOneNet meets the needs of commercialvessels in addition to those of national andinternational standards authorities.

The OneNet standard aims to allow for higher speed networking of devices onboard ship

Keep trimDynamic fore and aft trim measurement by Marinestar can lead to more economical use of bunker fuel.

Fugro Satellite Positioning, NorwayTel: +47 21 50 14 00 Fax: +47 21 50 14 01E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.fugromarinestar.com

WHEN EFFICIENCY COUNTS...

...COUNT ON

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:24 Page 2



www.saabgroup.comwww.thrane.com

Saab and Thrane & Thrane have bothintroduced new AIS products, building ontheir existing technologies with the addi-tion of improved functionality.

Saab has announced the commercialavailability of its fifth-generation R5 fami-ly of AIS products, which are the first toincorporate software-defined radio (SDR)transceivers together with newly devel-oped high-speed analogue-to-digital con-verters in a type approved Class A system.

Saab says that this should improvereceiver sensitivity, stability and signalprocessing compared to the company'sprevious R4 platform.

The R5 products also feature improvedcapabilities for expansion and integrationwith other navigation technologies, withsupport for redundant/multiple Controland Display Units (CDUs), USB key-boards and flash drives.

Sensor information available to R5transponders can be relayed on theEthernet interface, and additional CDUscan be used to display and monitor anysensor data available on the network.

“The SDR technology in the R5 prod-ucts provides unlimited flexibility inadding new radio channels with software

upgrades in the future,” said StefanKarlsson, vice president sales and market-ing, Saab TransponderTech.

“In addition to VHF ship-to-ship andshore-to-ship AIS messages, the R5 couldalso process other signals and future addi-tional AIS messages and e-navigationradio channels.”

Two different products will be avail-able under the R5 banner, with a single-box R5 SOLID AIS aimed primarily for thecoastal fishing market and inland water-ways, and an R5 SUPREME AIS for thetop end of the market, a two-unit systemwith a separate CDU and transponder.

The shipborne AIS transponder is flexi-ble in how it can be connected to a ship’sintegrated bridge system, with the new R5GPS and DGPS navigation systems typeapproved for carriage by SOLAS-classships.

“The new navigation systems featureadditional R5 CDUs for redundant orslave navigation display configurationusing Ethernet,” added Mr Karlsson.

“One common control and display unitfor all AIS and navigation systems simpli-fies operations, and the redundancy pro-vides a larger measure of safety.”

Thrane & Thrane meanwhile hasexpanded its VHF radio portfolio with thelaunch of the new SAILOR 6217 VHF DSC

Class D AIS Receiver, offering paralleldual channel VHF receive functionality.

Building on the SAILOR 6215 VHF DSCClass D, the SAILOR 6217 VHF DSC ClassD AIS Receiver integrates a two channelparallel AIS Receiver, which enables it toperform a constant watch of both AIS chan-nels, rather than switching between them.

Thrane says that this provides greatersafety as users get a seamlessly updatedview of AIS equipped vessels in the sur-rounding area at all times.

The SAILOR 6217 VHF DSC Class DAIS Receiver can be connected to anyNMEA 0183 chart plotter, so all signalscan be viewed and plotted on a vessel’sexisting equipment.

The system is waterproof to IPx8, offersa SAILOR Replay functionality wherebythe user can listen to the previous 90 sec-onds of messages, and allows for up totwo additional handsets/control speakermicrophones to be connected.

“We’re delighted to offer dual channelAIS receive with integration to NMEAchart plotters in our portfolio of profession-al VHF radios,” said Casper Jensen, VPmaritime business unit, Thrane & Thrane.

“Our dedicated customer base seeSAILOR radios as more than up to the job,with excellent reliability and an incrediblylong life.”

www.transas.com

Norwegian vessel operator Jo Tankers hasagreed a deal with Transas Marine for thesupply of ECDIS to its fleet.

The agreement includes upgrades for three vessels, retrofit on-board 11vessels and installation on six plannednewbuilds.

All vessels will be equipped with dual26-inch Navi-Sailor 4000 ECDIS PremiumMultifunction Displays, with radar over-lay and firewall.

Some of the vessels will also utiliseTransas’ recently launched Pay As YouSail chart solution for ENCs with theECDIS. In addition, almost 100 seafarerswill receive type-specific training from the ECDIS manufacturer in Manila,Philippines.

In other news, Transas also reports thatit has added Ukrainian chart folios to itsTX-97 non-official chart collection.

The agreement was signed betweenTransas Marine Ltd and the StateHydrographic Service of Ukraine in May 2012, which allows Transas to useofficial ENCs and inland ENCs to createthe TX-97 folios.

New charts will be available for theusers of both the company’s ECDIS andECS equipment.

Transas says that this project wasunique, in that this is the first time thatinland ENCs have been used to produceTX-97 folios.

The State Hydrographic Service ofUkraine provided 158 inland ENCs and114 ENCs covering territorial waters ofUkraine in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.The TX-97 folios cover the Black Sea, theDanube River (Ukrainian territorial area),and the Dnipro River.

Ukrainian chart folios are also availablethrough an iSailor application, for iPhoneand iPad users.

Jo Tankers to fitECDIS across fleet

Latest generation of AIS products released

Companies renew Veripos contractswww.veripos.com

Veripos has announced two new contractsfor its positioning services, with IslandOffshore and E R Offshore respectively.

Island Offshore has agreed a furtherthree-year contract with Veripos for contin-uing provision of GNSS positioning servic-es for 16 DP vessels, in addition to anothersix due to begin service in the near future.

The new agreement extends a workingarrangement between the two companieswhich first began in 2007.

All the vessels are being supplied withVeripos’s Apex2 precise point positioningservice using both GPS and Glonass net-works, as well a combination of its Apex,Ultra and Standard services providingcontinuous GPS-derived augmentationaccuracies of the order of 10cm.

With bases in Stavanger, Ulsteinvikand Aberdeen, Island Offshore presentlymaintains a fleet of approximately 20 spe-cialist support vessels.

E R Offshore GmbH, a subsidiary of theHamburg-based shipping organisation ER Schiffahrt, has also awarded Veripos anextension on its existing GNSS positioningcontract deal with the company, this timefor another twoyears.

The extended deal covers the supply ofpositioning services to ER Offshore’s fleetof eleven platform supply vessels (PSVs)and two anchor handling tug supply ves-sels (AHTS).

Under the new arrangement, Veriposwill continue to supply nine of E ROffshore’s PSVs with its Standard high-precision augmentation service, while afurther two vessels will utilise its latestStandard² service offering an additionalGlonass capability.

E R Offshore’s two 86-metre AHTScraft, ER Luisa and ER Vittoria, will alsoutilise the Standard² service. All 13 E ROffshore vessels are already equippedwith configurable Veripos LD2 integratedmobile units.

Findings from the investigation into thetragic grounding of the Costa Concordiahave indicated that the ship's Voyage DataRecorder (VDR) was not operationalbefore the accident, according to reports inthe Italian press.

Corriere della Sera reports that theVDR had been out of action since January9, four days before the accident that led to the deaths of 32 people, and that nodata at all was recorded after 11.36pm on13 January.

As such, investigators have only beenable to examine data from the ship's com-puter in their efforts to ascertain exactlywhat happened onboard, rather thanhaving access to the full range of infor-mation that would usually be providedby the VDR.

According to the report, e-mails weresent from the Costa technical departmentto the company responsible for the main-tenance of the VDR indicating that adecision had been taken to defer repairs

Saab’s R5 SUPREME AIS and the Thrane & Thrane SAILOR 6217 VHF DSC Class D AIS Receiver have both recently been released

on the system until the ship was sched-uled to arrive at the port of Savona onJanuary 14.

Further e-mail correspondenceobtained by the investigators, sent fromPierfrancesco Ferro, head of Costa’stechnical department, to the mainte-nance company, suggested that theproblems with the VDR were ongoing,and that the system had malfunctionedpreviously.

Costa Crociere has denied that theVDR was malfunctioning, and Corrieredella Sera has quoted the company assaying that “The black box was giving anerror code that absolutely does not implythat the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR)was not working.”

“This is proved by the fact that the con-tents of the black box comply perfectlywith engineers’ expectations.”

“There is no international regulation orconvention that decrees that a ship cannotsail in these conditions.”

Costa Concordia VDR ‘malfunctioned’

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 3


Digital Ship

The increase in allowable draft on the Seaway should allow a vessel to carry hundreds of tons of extra cargo

Draft Information System approved forSt Lawrence Seaway

Raytheon Anschütz GmbHD-24100 Kiel, GermanyTel +49(0)4 31-30 19-0Fax +49(0)4 31-30 19-291

ADVANCED NAVIGATIONSYSTEMS

R Anschütz

Raytheon Anschütz provides the worldwide shipping industry with a wide scope of navigation systems, ranging from stand-alone components to IMO-compliant Integrated Navigation Systems (INS).

Please visit us at

SMM HamburgHall B6, Booth 304

More information: smm.raytheon-anschuetz.com

www.raytheon-anschuetz.com

www.transas.com

Transas reports that a Draft InformationSystem (DIS) it has developed, based on itsNS4000 ECDIS, has been approved for usein the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the US.

The DIS displays a vessel’s position,real time water levels and data fromdetailed bathymetric charts.

In 2001, the St. Lawrence Seawayauthorities started a study which woulddetermine the maximum load ships cancarry while maintaining a safe Under-KeelClearance (UKC), which has led to the max-imum draft of vessels transiting the Seawayin the MLO Montreal to Lake Ontario andthe Welland Canal gradually increasing.

At the opening of the Seaway in 1959,the maximum draft for ships was set at6.85 metres (22 feet 6 inches). This maxi-mum draft is now set at 8.08 metres (26feet 6 inches). However, changes in waterlevels and a phenomenon called ship sink-age or 'squat' made adjusting the maxi-mum draft again more complicated.

Draft is measured prior to departurebut a moving ship actually sits muchlower in the water, particularly in shallowor constrained channels. How much a ship'squats' depends on factors such as the sizeand speed of the ship, shape of the chan-nel, depth of the water, currents, wind,and even the presence of other ships.

Undertaken at the request of the St.Lawrence Seaway ManagementCorporation and industry partners thatincluded the Canadian Ship OwnersAssociation and the Shipping Federation ofCanada, the aforementioned study resultedin standard squat models for the varioustypes of vessels transiting the Seaway.

Over the past year and a half, the St.Lawrence Seaway authorities have devel-oped a functionality description of a DraftInformation System that incorporates theSeaway squat models, which was finallyapproved by all stake holders in March ofthis year and was then issued to the public.

In accordance with this specification,Transas developed its own DIS. An inde-pendent functionality verification andassessment was performed by LloydsRegister in June of this year, after whichthe system was installed on board AlgomaCentral Corporation's M/V Algoma Spiritfor final approval by the St. LawrenceSeaway authorities.

The DIS can run as a stand-alone sys-tem or in a network with the TransasNS4000 ECDIS, and is designed to calcu-late and display the under-keel clearance(UKC) based on a range of data.

This includes high resolutionBathymetry data provided by the CanadianHydrographic Service (CHS) and waterlevels received automatically via SeawayAIS stations and a network of water levelgauge stations, or set manually by the user.

Ship forward and after draft data is alsoused, set manually by the user, while shipsquat data is based on Seaway SquatModels for the vessel and channel type.

In dangerous navigational situations orunder system fault conditions, relevant noti-fications will be provided for the operator.

When the DIS is connected to the ECDISnetwork, an ECDIS can be set up as the DISfor back-up purposes in the same way asthe DIS can be used as the ECDIS back-up.

A Draught Information System buttonin the 'UKC Data' display is intended forswitching between the DIS mode andstandard ECDIS mode. When the DISmode is turned off, the MFD can operateas an additional work station.

The DIS will indicate whether certainareas are safe to pass or require speedadjustments to decrease the squat of thevessel. A required safety margin of 30cmof UKC has to be maintained. The HDchart contours are then filled in withcolours indicating safe passage areas.

Transas says that the availability of thisdata on the bridge should enable most ves-sels to maximise their draft up to 26 feet 9inches, compared with the current Seawaypermissible draft of 26 feet 6 inches.

This increase of 3 inches would meanthat the average Great Lakes vessel cancarry an additional 250 to 400 tons of cargo.

“The use of the Transas DIS will allowfor the safe and effective deep loading ofour vessels to optimise the full availablewater column in the Seaway,” commentedTom Anderson, director, ports & harbours,navigation, Algoma Central Corporation.

“The use by our vessel personnel of theTransas DIS integrated with shipboardECDIS/ECS and the supporting SeawayAIS network is an example of an e-Navigation initiative that was developedfor a specific area user that has furtherpotential for use in other ports and theirconnecting waterways.”

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 4



System to Leon Muhamad, director gener-al of the directorate general of sea trans-portation (DGST), Indonesia, during theceremony.

“This handover of the MEH IT Systemto the DGST is a great opportunity forIndonesia to step up as one of the key part-ners in the establishment of a regionalMEH System, together with Malaysia andSingapore,” Mr Sekimizu said.

“For me, the development of the mar-itime infrastructure and the move towardsnew and improved ways of achievingenhanced navigation and traffic controlare among the pillars of sustainable mar-itime development.”

“I firmly believe that the MarineElectronic Highway can be a great success– indeed, that it can provide a blueprintfor similar schemes in other parts of theworld; and that, collectively, they canhave a massive beneficial effect on ourglobal society which depends so much onthe safe, secure, efficient and green car-riage of trade, by sea.”

It is anticipated that the next steps inthe creation of the MEH will involveMalaysia and Singapore establishing MEHData Centres to house and operate MEHIT Systems similar to the Batam MEH ITSystem, in order to establish a regionalnetwork, to be called the MEH System.

The MEH System has both maritimesafety and environmental modules. Itsenvironmental modules can be used inmarine pollution response and control, for

example, to predict the direction andspeed of oil spills, and thereby assist inresponse and clean-up operations. It isalso possible to use it to identify and trackships that illegally discharge their bilgesor dump other oily wastes.

The MEH portal is atwww.mehsoms.com, and registered userscan access data on maritime traffic in theStraits, and on wind, tides and currents, aswell as electronic navigational chart(ENC)-based marine information overlays(MIOs), such as those indicating man-groves, coral reefs, special areas, etc.

MIOs are spatial layers that, whenoverlaid on to an ENC at specific coordi-nates, provide additional information onthat particular area in the ENC.

For example, a tropical island generallyhas advancing foreshore mangrove forestsand, in ENC, the areal extent of each man-grove forest is not delineated. However, itis delineated in an MIO and, when overlaidon the ENC, it provides added spatialinformation. This is useful in protectedwaters or areas designated as special areas.

Databases using Oracle store datareceived by the MEH IT System, includinginformation on casualty incidents, mar-itime traffic conditions and weather.These can be accessed at any time, but notas real-time data sets.

Data feeds and exchange are carried outbetween the MEH Data Centre in Batam,Malaysia (Marine Department) andSingapore (Maritime and Port Authority).

navigation data such as charts, routesand sensor information shared within thenetwork and stored independently oneach system.

An integrated consistent common ref-erence system (CCRS) monitors all naviga-tion sensors and automatically selects thebest available data.

On all conning displays within the INS,the operator can access the interface forthe CCRS to observe sensor quality orswitch over to manual sensor selectionmode. The conning also includes a newpage for central alert monitoring.

www.camogroup.org

The Coastal and Marine Operators(CAMO) group in the US reports that it isworking on a joint pilot project with theUnited States Coast Guard (USCG) toutilise automatic identification system(AIS) technology to monitor vessel activityin close proximity to submerged pipelines.

The joint pilot project, with PortVisionand the USCG, aims to develop an applica-tion that will warn AIS-equipped vesselsstopping or anchoring near gas and liquidspipelines that their activity represents apotential safety risk, and is part of a CAMOinitiative focused on marine pipeline dam-age prevention and awareness.

CAMO was developed several yearsago with the aim of closing the gapbetween onshore and offshore pipelinedamage prevention efforts. A major com-ponent of the group’s goal is to educatemarine stakeholders and the public aboutthe risks that damage to offshore utilitiesand pipelines can pose to personal safetyand the environment.

Although pipeline operators generallyhave vigorous inspection and mainte-nance programmes to insure the integrityof their assets, the risk of third-party dam-age to a pipeline remains a threat.

The project is backed by a grant part-nership with the Port of Fourchon and thePipeline and Hazardous Materials SafetyAdministration (PHMSA).

www.raytheon-anschuetz.com

Raytheon Anschütz has been awarded acontract for the supply of IntegratedNavigation Systems from its SynapsisBridge Control series to a group of newheavy lift carriers being built at Brodosplitshipyard in Split, Croatia for Dutch com-pany Jumbo Shipping.

Jumbo has ordered two such ships,with delivery dates in 2013, and holds anoption for a third newbuild.

The Integrated Navigation System(INS) includes S-band and X-band radar

sensors, which are configured as wide-screen multifunctional workstations forchart radar, radar, ECDIS and conning.

Two additional multifunctional work-stations with the same configuration willserve as the main and backup ECDIS, withanother multifunctional workstation withECDIS and conning functions supplied forroute planning purposes. Additionally,the bridge is equipped with two fixed-roleconning displays.

All workstations are connectedthrough a redundant Ethernet-basedlocal area network (LAN), with relevant

Jumbo newbuilds to install Raytheon INS CAMO joins USCGin pilot project

www.mehsoms.com

The Marine Electronic Highway (MEH)Information Technology System for theStraits of Malacca and Singapore, whichhad been managed by the InternationalMaritime Organization (IMO), has beenhanded over to the Government ofIndonesia.

A formal ceremony was held in Batam,Indonesia, to mark the final stages of ademonstration project and the potentialmove towards a full-scale MEH project inthe Straits, under the ownership of the lit-toral States.

The Batam MEH IT System is one of themajor deliverables of the MEHDemonstration Project which was imple-mented in 2006, funded by the GlobalEnvironment Facility (GEF) /International Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (IBRD) (World Bank), withIMO as the executing agency.

The Republic of Korea, through theMinistry of Land, Transport and MaritimeAffairs (MLTM), also provided a grantamounting to US$850,000, which was usedto develop and establish the system.

The overall objective of the demonstra-tion project has been to determine whethera full-scale MEH in the Straits of Malaccaand Singapore can be economically justi-fied and made financially feasible.

The project is a co-operative arrange-ment with the three littoral States ofIndonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, in

partnership with the Republic of Korea,the International HydrographicOrganization (IHO), the InternationalAssociation of Independent TankerOwners (INTERTANKO) and theInternational Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

The geographic boundary of the MEHDemonstration Project extends from OneFathom Bank in the Malacca Strait toHorsburgh Lighthouse in the SingaporeStrait, including adjacent coastal parts ofIndonesia, peninsular Malaysia andSingapore. This covers the whole trafficseparation scheme for the Straits ofMalacca and Singapore.

The MEH Demonstration Project hasbeen extended until the end of 2012, sothat all its tasks can be completed andtechnical and financial evaluations of theBatam facility can be carried out.

Indonesia now takes on the responsibili-ty for the operation, maintenance and man-agement of the MEH IT system in Batam,while also working closely with Malaysiaand Singapore on the regional MEH systembeyond the demonstration phase.

Funding from the World Bank has beenallocated to Indonesia in order to assist inputting the relevant maritime safety infra-structure in place, not only to provide datato the MEH IT System but also to enhancethe monitoring and management of theIndonesian coasts of the Straits of Malaccaand Singapore.

IMO secretary-general Koji Sekimizuformally handed over the Batam MEH IT

Marine electronic highway IT systems handed to Indonesia

Two Jumbo newbuilds will be installed with the systems, with an option for a third

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 5

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 6

www.exactearth.com

Satellite AIS company exactEarth hasannounced the successful launch of its newexactView 1 (EV-1) satellite, carrying itssecond generation AIS detection payload.

The EV-1 technology is expected toenhance vessel detection and tracking per-formance, especially in areas of densershipping traffic.

The satellite and payload will be com-missioned over the next three months,after which the satellite will be put intooperational service.

EV-1 will utilise S-band and C-bandcommunications to downlink informationto ground stations in Svalbard, Norway,Guildford, UK, and several other locationsaround the world.

The polar-orbiting spacecraft was builtunder contract for exactEarth and is thefifth deployed satellite in the exactViewvessel monitoring satellite constellation.

COM DEV Canada acted as prime con-tractor and COM DEV Europe (UK) sup-plied the AIS transceiver payload systemfor this mission. SSTL (UK) manufacturedthe satellite bus and brokered the launcharrangements.

The planned exactEarth satellite con-stellation will consist of six polar orbitingsatellites designed to provide an hourlyupdate of global vessel positions.

“[This] launch marks another impor-tant step in the ongoing expansion of ourglobal vessel monitoring service,” saidPeter Mabson, president of exactEarth.

“This launch helps ensure thatexactEarth will continue to provide theworld's most comprehensive and highperformance satellite-based AIS servicefor years to come.”

In other news, exactEarth has alsorecently been awarded a contract byNATO (North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation) for the provision of satelliteAIS data to NATO HQ MC Northwoodand JFC Naples, which provide maritimeservices to Alliance Member States.

The NATO Maritime OperationCentres (MOC Northwood and MOC

Naples) and NATO Shipping Centre(NSC) will be acquiring exactAIS data tobe used within Operation Ocean Shield, acounter-piracy operation in the ArabianSea, Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin, con-sisting of naval vessels from NATOnations as well as other elements ashore.

exactAIS data will also be used in sup-port of Operation Active Endeavour,NATO’s maritime counter-terrorism oper-ation in the Mediterranean.

The NATO Shipping Centre (NSC) atNorthwood is NATO’s gateway to the mer-chant shipping community, acting as theprimary point of contact for the exchangeof information between NATO and theinternational shipping community.

Second-generation AIS satellite launched NSC provides information on piracy

incidents in High Risk Areas, where AISdata can be used to help identify merchantvessels in the vicinity of Pirate AttackGroup (PAG) Activity in order to issuewarnings and alerts.

NATO will use the satellite AIS data to

create a picture of 'white' shipping and toaid in identifying suspicious behaviour,contributing to the overall RecognizedMaritime Picture (RMP).

In related news, exactEarth has alsorecently announced the release of a newpre-packaged data product, exactAISArctic Archive, containing coverage of allmaritime traffic activity in the Arctic forthe summer months of 2010 and 2011.

JRC ECDIS to include Information Overlay Fibre Optic Gyrosfor Dutch pilot

tenders


The data has been processed and sum-marised from exactEarth's archive and isnow available in annual sets coveringJuly-October of 2010 and 2011.

The company says that the data shouldprovide authorities with greater insightinto the shipping activities of the Arcticduring the summer months when ice levelslower to allow for increased vessel traffic.

“We are very proud and excited toannounce this addition to our productoffering,” commented Dave Martin, VP,product management at exactEarth.

“exactAIS Arctic Archive builds uponour existing and proven exactAIS serviceand provides the most complete record ofArctic vessel movements, now deliveredas a pre-packaged data set for easy use.”

In other news, exactEarth has alsoannounced that it has renewed its servicelevel agreement for satellite AIS data withthe European Maritime Safety Agency(EMSA).

EMSA has used satellite AIS data overthe last year for a number of projects,including its Maritime SurveillancePicture (MARSURV) service, ProjectINDALO and EUNAVFOR counter-pira-cy, as well as within the European FisheryControl Agency (EFCA).

The exactAIS data was used by ProjectINDALO with Frontex (European BorderManagement Agency) in establishingmeasures relating to illegal immigration inthe Mediterranean Sea, and more general-ly for controlling the maritime externalborders of European Member States.

The EUNAVFOR Naval counter-piracyoperations used the data to help improvemaritime security off the coast of Somaliaand in the Indian Ocean by providing bet-ter overall maritime domain awareness inthese areas.

The European Fishery Control Agency(EFCA) employed satellite AIS data toimprove monitoring of fishery activitiesduring its Bluefin Tuna campaign, whichencompassed a joint deployment plan tomonitor all aspects of the Bluefin tunafishery and ensure the implementation ofCommon EU Fisheries Policy rules.

exactEarth will expand its satellite AIS network with the launch of its new satellite

www.ukho.gov.ukwww.jrc.co.jp

Japan Radio Company (JRC) reports thatit has issued a software update (V56)which makes the Admiralty InformationOverlay available on all of its currentECDIS models.

The Admiralty Information Overlay, afree service to Admiralty Vector ChartService customers, is used to view chartinformation when navigating with elec-tronic navigational charts (ENCs).

The Overlay is the only available serv-ice to include worldwide AdmiraltyTemporary and Preliminary Notices toMariners and new ENC PreliminaryNotices to Mariners, which identify navi-gationally significant differences betweenENCs and Admiralty paper charts.

The system automatically managesAdmiralty updates to ENCs using infor-

mation in the weekly ‘Notices to Mariners’used to manually update paper charts.

The Overlay is also the only service toinclude the results of the AdmiraltyAssurance Programme, a review of theworld’s ENCs undertaken by Admiraltyin order to identify and resolve naviga-tionally significant differences with exist-ing paper charts.

The Information Overlay is availablefree to Admiralty Vector Chart Servicecustomers and can be accessed on a PCusing Admiralty e-Navigator, as well asvia a number of ECDIS systems.

JRC’s V56 software update is applica-ble for B-type ECDIS models JAN-901B/701B/2000/1186 and NDC-1186-4xx.

JRC has also made available a soft-ware upgrade (V55) for ECDIS modelsaffected by the anomalies identified inthe IHO Check Dataset earlier this year.

Any ECDIS models affected by theanomalies will need to run softwareupgrade V55 before attempting to installthe Admiralty Information Overlay soft-ware update (V56).

Further details and download instruc-tions for all of these updates are availableon the JRC website.

“Admiralty sets the benchmark foraccurate ENCs with the Admiralty VectorChart Service. Most of our ECDIS cus-tomers rely on Admiralty data for theirprimary navigation, so it’s important forthem to have access to this additionalinformation in a simple, integrated way,”said Tamiho Shinya, JRC.

“By delivering compatibility with theOverlay on our newest ECDIS models, ourcustomers can plan and execute voyageswith improved safety and ease, and moreeasily demonstrate compliance duringPort State Control inspections.”

www.alphatronmarine.com

Alphatron Marine reports that itsAlphatron Fiber Optic Gyro is to beinstalled on a number of newbuild Dutchpilot tenders.

The ships will be equipped with thenew Gyro, the latest available fromAlphatron, to function as critical headingsensor.

The Alphafibercourse will provideheading info for the three steel hullcamarc design vessels, to support pilotoperations along the northern coast ofthe Netherlands.

The pilot tenders are currently underconstruction at Barkmeijer YardStroobos, in the Netherlands.


p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 7


OSG implements energy saving autopilot www.raytheon-anschuetz.com

Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) hascontracted Raytheon Anschütz to retrofitthe newly developed AnschützNautoPilot 5300 autopilot system onboardits fleet of oil tankers, replacing the exist-ing systems, with the aim of improvingenergy efficiency.

The new autopilot features an integrat-ed ECO-Mode, which helps to optimiserudder movements by automaticallyadapting to the current sea-state andweather.

Instead of keeping a heading with fre-quent rudder actions with high ampli-tudes, the rudder’s sensitivity to periodi-cal yawing movements caused by rolland pitch is reduced and less rudderaction is required, which leads to lowerlevels of speed reduction and thus lessfuel consumption.

The first of the new autopilot systemswas installed onboard Overseas Fran inOctober 2011, and was used for a voyagefrom Skagen to New York.

To investigate the actual effect, theheading and rudder plot of this voyagewas compared with theresults of the last voyageon the same route withthe old autopilot system,under similar weatherconditions during bothvoyages.

“We can see on ourprint-out that ruddermovement is more eco-nomic and gentle with thenew autopilot system,”said Capt Dmitry Shatrov,Master of the OverseasFran.

“The newly installedautopilot system has auser-friendly interface inwhich you can easilyadjust autopilot function-ality in the prevailing cir-cumstances, weather con-

dition and required steering accuracy, sothat we can navigate the vessel more gen-tly and economically, taking into consider-ation fuel savings and safety.”

The ECO-Mode is supported by a newintegrated heading and rudder plotter,which provides a graphical indication ofheading changes and the resulting rudderangles.

This graphical display indicates thesteering performance of the vessel due tothe effects of changes to parameter set-tings such as rudder, counter rudder andyawing. This can help the operator to opti-mise steering performance, to further min-imise rudder action and increase fuel effi-ciency.

“OSG are undertaking great efforts toincrease energy efficiency onboard of theirships. The choice of our new adaptiveautopilot system was influenced by con-siderations of saving fuel and thus reduc-ing emissions,” says Olav Denker, productmanager at Raytheon Anschütz.

“With OSG, we have now had thechance to prove positive effects of NP 5000on steering performance and fuel con-sumption in practice for the first time.”

Chinese newbuilds to be installed with Transas bridges www.transas.com

Transas’ office in China has agreed a con-tract to supply four complete bridges tonewbuild vessels being constructed forPaxOcean Engineering Pte Ltd.

Each bridge consists of sevenMultifunctional Display (MFD) worksta-tions, with DNV NAUT – OSV (A) ClassNotation.

The bridge equipment includes dualECDIS, a 12KW X-Band Navi-ChartRadar, a 30KW S-Band Navi-Chart Radarand a Navi-Conning system that hasbeen specially customised to include anAft & Bow Docking Mode.

Slave MFDs will also be installed onthe four UT755 PSVs.

All vessels will be built at PaxOceanEngineering (Zhuhai) Co. Ltd,Guangdong Province, China. Delivery isscheduled this year for the first two ves-sels, and in 2013 for the next two vessels.

The vessels were designed by RollsRoyce Norway.

In other news, Transas ElectrotechAustralia has completed installation of aTransas GMDSS Simulator at HunterTAFE, a training academy in Newcastle,New South Wales.

The system will allow for classes of upto 12 students to train together, with oneinstructor station interfaced to the 12 stu-dent stations.

The simulator can be remotely sup-ported through VPN access, to simplifymaintenance and upgrade requirements,and is capable of simulating a range ofGMDSS equipment.

The Radio Communications Simulatorprovides training and examination forGeneral Operator Certificate (GOC) and Restricted Operator Certificate(ROC). Search and Rescue (SAR) opera-tions and VTS operator training are also supported.

Korean navy implements conditionmonitoring system

www.esrgtech.com

Maintenance technology company ESRGreports that its OstiaEdge SmartShipRemote Monitoring and Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) package hasbeen delivered to the Republic of KoreaNavy for installation on a number of new vessels.

The new FFX-class multi-purposefrigates and KMLS-II mine layer ship willuse the CBM, incorporating real-timeequipment health monitoring and predic-tive diagnostics, to manage maintenanceand operation of shipboard equipment.

ESRG says that it is partnering exclu-sively with L-3 MAPPS to supply theOstiaEdge SmartShip product to the

Korean Naval market.The product has already been deployed

on one ship, and there are five furtherinstallations currently in progress. A con-tract is in place for this to be extended toanother 21 ships over the next 10 years.

OstiaEdge SmartShip combinesSoftware-as-a-Service (SaaS) deliverymodels with a Mimosa-compliant openarchitecture, which has an onboard foot-print of less than one square foot and ashipboard software installation time ofless than one hour.

No shipboard IT staff are needed toinstall or maintain the system, and ESRGsays that onboard and shore-based userscan get up to speed with less than 30 min-utes of training.

New conning systems will be installed on the PaxOcean newbuilds

UKHO launches guide to use of ENCswww.ukho.gov.uk

The UKHO, via its Admiralty brand, haslaunched a series of new publications andtraining products aimed at assisting sea-farers in the move to digital navigation,called 'The Admiralty Guide to thePractical use of ENCs'.

“To deliver the benefits of ECDIS navi-gation, it is essential that bridge watch-keepers feel confident in the use of thetechnology and data at their disposal,”said Admiralty’s CEO, Ian Moncrieff.

“While there are many courses thatoffer training in the use of generic andtype-specific ECDIS to comply withSTCW regulations, there is little availablethat focuses specifically on the practicalguidance to using ENCs or cover theinteraction between ENCs and the vari-ous ECDIS systems.”

“The Admiralty Practical Use of ENCsseries of tools has been designed to fill thisgap. It has been written especially for theseagoer and contains a wealth of clearpractical explanation and guidance crafted

by experienced users and validated by keymaritime college staff.”

The new series of products includes twonew Nautical Publications. The first,NP231, the Admiralty Guide to thePractical Use of ENCs, is an illustratedhardback publication with screenshots, tipsand hints on getting the most from ENCs.

Admiralty is also publishing a newsupporting reference guide: NP5012 theAdmiralty Guide to ENC Symbols used inECDIS. Both publications are availablethrough the Admiralty DistributorNetwork.

A new one day training course, called'The Admiralty Guide to the Practical Useof ENCs' has also been created and is deliv-ered by the in-house Admiralty team. Thisinstructor-led course is designed specifical-ly for nationally accredited maritime lectur-ers or industry training professionals.

A supporting computer-based training(CBT) course of the same name is availableon CD with a run time of around 4 hours,designed to complement the instructor-ledtraining and new nautical publications.

The autopilot aims to optimise rudder movements

Digital Ship

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 8



www.pcmaritime.co.uk

PC Maritime reports that 100 navigatingofficers have now successfully completed itsECDIS Type Training course and passed theAssessment test required for formal certifi-cation since the course was issued in March.

Over 70 vessels have been equippedwith the two Navmaster type training

DVDs, one containing interactive instruc-tion, the other the assessment test. TheDVDs are individually branded with theship operator’s logo and include any spe-cific company Safety Management Systemrequirements.

Wallem Germany manager MangalaHerath says that he has received positivefeedback from the nine Wallem-managed

PC Maritime reaches 100th ECDIS type training certificate

www.maris.no

MARIS reports that it is set to launch thelatest update to the software for itsECDIS900 system, version 4.5.4.76.

The company says that its distributorswill be notified when the software isreleased and will be able to download thesoftware from MARIS’ ftp-servers.

With the release of this new updateMARIS also wishes to note that the software has been acknowledged as meeting the standards being set for ECDIS by the IHO, with particular refer-ence to the recent IHO circular ‘UpdateReport on IHO Action concerning ECDISSoftware Issues’.

This circular stated that only about one-third of ECDIS manufacturers’ systemsreported to IHO appear to function asexpected in performance checks (seeDigital Ship May 2012 issue, page 1).

“As part of the consultation processbetween IHO and ECDIS manufacturers,we have put our systems through thestringent tests set by the IHO and sub-mitted our report to them, along withthe test support documentation andscreen dumps required in the latest cir-cular,” said MARIS technical director,Philippe Kah.

“The previous generation ECDIS900did not match the exhaustive criteria setout in the IHO report in four minor areas,none of them critical, but we have beenable to advise our distributors that thenew ECDIS900 V4.5.4.76 is fully compliantwith IHO tests.”

In other news, MARIS has also agreed adeal with Wärtsilä, whereby MARIS hard-ware and software will become part ofWärtsilä’s product specific training.

The MARIS ECDIS900 system will beinstalled at the Wärtsilä Land & SeaTraining Academy Subic, the enginecompany’s instruction centre in thePhilippines.

The agreement is part of a standardcooperation offer from MARIS coveringcertification, ‘train the trainer’ training,and yearly maintenance of software, soft-ware upgrades, documentation, chartsand other digital services.

This new cooperation agreement is indicative of the company’s prioriti-sation of training agreements in Asia,according to MARIS director AsiaPacific, Bhupesh Gandhi, with expect-ed regional shipowner uptake ofECDIS to expand by around 20-30 per cent in 2012.

The International Maritime Organization(IMO) Sub-Committee on Safety ofNavigation's decision to take action toaddress operating anomalies with ECDIShas been welcomed by The InternationalChamber of Shipping (ICS), which ithopes will help to get to grips with this“serious problem.”

On 1 July 2012, the phasing in period fornew mandatory IMO requirements forECDIS began, something which ICS says ithas long supported provided that sufficientElectronic Navigation Chart availabilitycould be met before the phased-in carriagerequirements first become effective.

However, the Chamber notes that “disturbingly, it has become apparent that not all ECDIS systems may be fullyeffective”, pointing to the InternationalHydrographic Organization's recent study

which found that only one-third of ECDISwere functioning as expected (see DigitalShip May 2012, page 1).

IHB has advised ship operators thatsome systems have reportedly failed todisplay significant underwater features inthe ‘Standard’ display mode, necessitatingthe continued use of paper charts.

This issue formed part of the agenda atthe recent 58th session of IMO’s Sub-Committee on Navigation (NAV), and ithas been agreed that the secretary-generalof IMO will meet with ECDIS manufactur-ers to discuss the ECDIS anomalies, withthe aim of providing guidance to shippingcompanies and seafarers.

Workshops will also be held by IHO atIMO, including stakeholders such as IMOand IHO member states, data serviceproviders, ECDIS manufacturers, type-test-

IMO action on ECDIS anomalies welcomed MARIS updatesECDIS

vessels equipped with Navmaster, partic-ularly with reference to the ShipInspection Report Programme (SIRE).

“More often than not, SIRE inspectorsare enquiring about type specific trainingand they are satisfied seeing our staffonboard undergoing the Navmaster train-ing course,” said Mr Herath.

“Our crews have become more confi-

dent when using the ECDIS and are nowaware of most of the features, thereby util-ising the ECDIS more. The Navmastercourse also helps second officers to uploadchart corrections.”

OSG also has Navmaster ECDISinstalled onboard 45 vessels, with OSG'sCaptain Vasilikis noting that his crews aresteadily completing Assessment tests.

ing authorities and seafarers’ organisations,to discuss appropriate action for the future.

It was also noted at this meeting that theIMO ECDIS Model Course had beenupdated and validated by STW 43, andwill be published soon, as will an SNCircular entitled ‘Operating Anomaliesidentified within ECDIS’.

“ICS welcomes IMO's recognition ofthe problem and its development of a cir-cular providing advice on the issue tomariners, with a meeting with ECDISmanufacturers planned for Septemberthat will hopefully get to the root of thisserious problem,” commented ICS direc-tor marine, John Murray.

“But in view of the potential dangerpresented by ECDIS operating anomalies,ICS will continue to monitor the situationvery closely.”

www.thedigitalship.com

Keep your finger on the pulse withour weekly e-mail newsletter and our

online network for maritime IT professionals

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 9

Reigate Hill House | 28 Reigate Hill | Reigate | RH2 9NG | United KingdomTel: +44 1737 242255 | Fax: +44 1737 222449 | email: [email protected] | web: www.portinfo.co.uk

Follow us on view our profile at twitter.com/ShippingGuides

From the publishers of

Guide to Port Entry and The Ships Atlas

Find the port you want,

in the format you want...when you want,

The Findaport SuiteThe ports and terminals you require can

be found with just a few simple clicks.

Online portinformation

updated daily

Internet connection required Internet connection requiredNo internet connection required

Port informationintegrated into yoursystem or website

updated daily

portFind

Desktop accessibleport information

updated quarterly

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 10

TT he IMO’s mandatory carriagerequirement for ECDIS has nowcome into force, with new passen-

ger ships and tankers the first in thephased implementation schedule torequire the systems to be fitted. Eventual-ly, by 2018, this will have extended to allvessels over 10,000gt.

As of July 1, new passenger shipsgreater than 500gt and new tankers over3,000gt are required to have ECDISonboard. These classes will be followed bynew cargo ships in the next two years, withnew cargo ships greater than 10,000gt to beequipped from July 2013 and new cargoships greater than 3,000gt a year later.

Mandation on existing vessels will alsobegin to be phased in from July 2014, onpassenger ships over 500gt, and then3,000gt tankers a year after that. Newclasses of existing cargo ships will beincluded each July from 2016, for vesselsizes over 50,000gt the first year, 20,000gtin 2017, and finally 10,000gt ships com-pleting the schedule in 2018.

For existing vessels, the ECDIS equip-ment is required to be installed by the timeof the first survey after the above imple-mentation dates. Exemptions are in placefor ships that will be taken permanentlyout of service within two years of theirrespective mandatory deadlines.

While the schedule for ECDIS manda-tion may be a little complicated, therequirements for compliance are not –ECDIS must be installed on the ship, andofficial Electronic Navigational Charts(ENC) must be used for the system to belegal for navigation.

Compared with traditional paper charts,electronic charts can be somewhat expen-sive, an issue unlikely to please vessel oper-ators being asked to invest tens of thou-sands of dollars in the hardware alone.

However, the digital nature of thesecharts offer new opportunities in licencemanagement that can help to keep thesecosts under control – and in some cases

significantly reduce the cost of chartingrelative to what operators had previouslybeen spending on their paper portfolios.

The latest innovations in electronicchart technology have seen ‘Pay As YouSail’ (PAYS) systems hit the market, utilis-ing various types of tracking and commu-nications technology to minimise the chartlicensing requirements of ships at sea byonly licensing charts as they are used –and thus minimising the associated costs.

With PAYS services, entire world foliosof ENCs can be installed on the ship andare available for viewing, but licences onlybegin to be charged when the vessel trav-els in the area covered by the chart andbegins to use it for navigation.

Dutch company Datema was the first tointroduce such a system with itsENCTrack service. ENCTrack provides allavailable ENCs to mariners onboard forviewing before licensing is required, witha proprietary tracking system installedonboard to manage 'post payment' tocharge for licences once the vessel hastravelled into the charted area.

This system was finally approved byIC-ENC, the UKHO-led RENC (regionalENC Co-ordination Centre), in 2011, fol-lowing two years of discussion (the othermajor RENC, Primar, had approved theservice at its original launch in 2009).

In the first quarter of this yearNorwegian company NAVTOR intro-duced its own PAYS-style service, usingvessel tracking data, collected every 90minutes via AIS (both satellite-based andcoastal) or directly by Inmarsat-C polling,to determine when the vessel has enteredthe area and when the licence periodshould begin.

Shortly after NAVTOR announced thelaunch of its service, ECDIS manufacturerTransas became the latest to add its ownversion of the technology, launching itsPAYS system in March of this year.

With the Transas PAYS solution thevessel will have a licence and access to

install, view and pre-plan using officialENCs provided in (S)ENC format, in areaswhere the necessary PAYS permissionshave been obtained, without any addition-al cost.

Recording and reporting of charts usedis done by extraction of data from theTransas Navi-Sailor 4000 ECDIS logbook,and vessels only pay for charts actuallyused for navigation monitoring.

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

In principle, this should see a vessellicensing the ‘best scale charts only’, and notall charts and scale bands under the keel.

So the options for shipping companieslooking to fuel their ECDIS systems withENCs are increasing – but how do the ben-efits of these advancements in technologytranslate to the real world?

Electronic navigationin practice

Tärntank Ship Management, based inSweden, is one of the first companies tobegin using Transas PAYS, havingalready been an existing user of TransasECDIS systems.

The company operates nine modernbulk chemical tankers, trading mostly inEurope, in the Baltics, the North Sea andoccasionally in the Mediterranean, thoughit has also had two vessels trading inAfrica over the last two years and hasdone sporadic trade in the US.

All of these tankers operate with fullyredundant ECDIS, allowing them to sail‘paperless’ – a fact that demonstrates thecompany’s dedication to installing the latest technologies when it comes toonboard navigation, according to CaptArtis Ozols, safety manager / superinten-dent at Tärntank Ship Management.

“We have been trying all the time to beinnovative, with all of the technologiesthat have been coming out, to improvesafety and take the workload away fromthe officers so they can concentrate on thesafety of the vessel and its performance,”he told us.

“We’ve put a lot of money and focusinto those aspects. In fact we have triple(ECDIS) systems, because on most of thevessels we also have a conning displaywith an additional processor unit.”

“As far back as I can remember, in 1999,we had the first Transas electronic chart sys-tem, not a true ECDIS system but just usedas an additional aid, the main navigationwas still done by paper. Even that was verygood then. From 2007 we started going overto full ECDIS on all of the vessels.”

With more than 10 years of electronicnavigation experience within the compa-ny, Tärntank has been through the processof moving from paper to digital that many

more will experience over the next fewyears following the ECDIS carriagerequirement.

“It’s like any new technology, until youreally know it you cannot fully trust thesystem,” said Capt Ozols.

“In the beginning it can be an unfamil-iar feeling when you only have electroniccharts and don’t have any paper charts tocheck. On a paper chart you can just openit, and here is Europe and here is America,a general chart and a big chart – unlike onan electronic chart where you have toscroll everything.”

“With the Transas system you can do itquickly, which is good, but some of thesystems I have seen you had to first loadsome kind of planning mode before youcould review the passage plan even. Thattook quite a long time, and for paperlessnavigation wasn’t really usable.”

Training is a major issue for companieslooking to introduce ECDIS, though forTärntank Capt Ozols notes that this hasbeen relatively straightforward, due to thecrews’ extensive existing experience withthe technology.

“We are following the regulations, wehave been having generic and type specif-ic training for all officers,” he said.

“Since we have Transas on all the shipsand the crew has been working with thesystem for many years, for the type specif-ic training they know it all already. Butthey need the certificate.”

“I have done a Transas trainer coursemyself, so I can do training for crewonboard. When I do the training I focusmore on the safety parameters, and sometips that can be useful for passage plan-ning and safe navigation, because the gen-eral things they are using on a daily basis.”

While Tärntank crews have many yearsof experience using ECDIS and managingENCs, it should be noted that the manu-facturers do still recommend that thor-ough training is undertaken by seafarersthat are going to use the new licensing andchart handling arrangements, to makesure they can access the available benefits



All of Tärntank’s vessels are equipped with fully redundant ECDIS, and can sail paperless

With IMO’s carriage requirement for ECDIS now in effect, vessel operators implementing the system will need tomake sure they keep the equipment fuelled with ENCs. Innovations in Pay As You Sail licensing have promised

to make this process easier and cheaper – Digital Ship spoke to Capt Artis Ozols at Tärntank Ship Management,an early adopter of the technology, about his experiences

Pay As You Sail on ENCs – the new standard

‘One of the obvious benefits is thatwe can avoid paying for something we don’t use’ – Capt Artis Ozols,

Tärntank Ship Management

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 11


Automatic ship-shore replication of crew and payroll information.

Time is of the Essence

– and having ECDIS onboard the ships hascreated a number of benefits, according toCapt Ozols.

“Firstly, of course, is the fact that youdon’t have to move away from the naviga-tion panel. You can still be there and youcan still see outside,” he said.

“It also allows you to see things likeweather and other information. And it hasbig advantages during ice navigation.Since it’s also connected to the AutomaticIdentification System (AIS) you can seewhere other vessels are going, and if theyare all doing 15 knots, for example, it willtell you that it’s easy ice.”

“With a few clicks you can see the pas-sage plan of the other vessel and seewhere she’s going, so you can follow thesame way through the ice.”

PAYSAs a long time user of ECDIS and elec-tronic navigation, Tärntank is in an idealposition to judge the benefits of advancesin ENC delivery and licensing technology.

The company started using the TransasPAYS system last year, on a single vessel,prior to its official launch, before extend-ing this to the rest of the fleet.

“We decided we wanted to continuewith this for all of the ships, because it wasnot only the Pay As You Sail function butalso the fact that we could automaticallyget updates,” said Capt Ozols.

“In order to have this system fully oper-ational we needed to have a class approvedfirewall, which we bought from Transas,which was needed for automatic updating.That also allows us to get remote supportand service if it’s needed, Transas can con-nect to the ECDIS remotely.”

“That’s very useful, though we havestopped that for the moment as in order tohave the remote service you need uniqueIP addresses and the IT guys are sayingthey are not able to give so many rightnow. In the autumn they (Transas) saythey are going to launch a new firewallthat will not need a specific IP address foreach vessel computer.”

Installation of the PAYS service involvesa software upgrade, and the firewall, andthen the Transas Navi-Planner application,replacing the Chart Assistant that the com-pany previously used. According to CaptOzols, full implementation can typically beachieved in a single day.

“From ship to ship it will be a bit dif-ferent, but it usually takes a full day to

have it fully running. If everything goessmoothly,” he said.

“They do checks of the system andeverything, upgrading the software and soon. We’ve been trying to do all of this dur-ing the vessels’ stays in the shipyard. It’s agood idea to do it in the shipyard, at onestage we had problems installing the fire-wall and had to change to a new firewall,which was good to do in the shipyard(rather than at sea).”

This system is connected directly to theonboard satellite communications set-up,via the firewall to ensure security, which canbe used to deliver PAYS chart licences to theECDIS. This eliminates the need for the tripsover and back between the chart display andthe PC that were previously required.

“It’s only possible with the firewall,because it’s a DNV class-approved systemwhich allows it to be connected. Eventhough our computer guys are saying thatthe internet environment is safe, it needsthis special firewall to allow it to be con-nected to the ECDIS,” said Capt Ozols.

“Previously we would put the requestfrom the ECDIS onto the memory stick,and then from the memory stick we wouldsend the request to Transas from the com-puter. You could automatically or manual-ly choose what chart you need and theywould send the licence, and then youinstall the licence on the ECDIS from thememory stick.”

“It doesn’t take much from the commu-nications really, it just takes quite a bit if weconnect to the remote system (for mainte-nance and support). For something like thiswe have to increase the broadband. Wehaven’t really been doing it yet, but we canincrease the broadband for one or twohours if it is needed for maintenance. Up tonow we’ve managed without this.”

BenefitsAccording to Capt Ozols, the potentialbenefits of this kind of system will varydepending on the type of ship using thetechnology and the crew’s existing skillsin managing electronic chart folios.

“One of the obvious benefits is that wecan avoid paying for something we don’tuse,” said Capt Ozols.

“Another thing is that we can view allof the world (folio of ENCs). You can seeit, so you know that if there are somechanges in voyage orders and instructionsyou will have that possibility.”

“As our crew is quite skilled in the sys-

tem I don’t know if we gained that much(from licensing being done automatically),when I do training I can see that the crewhas control of the system and avoidsordering too many charts. There havebeen some cases where too many chartswere ordered, and that brings extra costs,but we have put in place limits on order-ing. If, for example, there is more than$500 ordered we will question why theyneed those charts and if they really needthem or not.”

On the negative side, the only issuethat Capt Ozols has had with the PAYSsystem to date has been with the hard-ware coping with the large amounts ofdata required to keep a full world folio ofelectronic charts onboard and updated,and available for licensing.

“What we experience now, and it’s oneof the things to improve, is that the systemis getting overloaded. There are thousandsof approved system charts, and they areall there. It takes time to update,” he said.

“I was thinking it should maybe bedivided into areas, like we have the navi-gation warning areas and safety areas,where you have Area 1, Area 2, up to Area16. Then you could pick that you wantArea 1 and 2 activated, or if your circum-stances change you can add more.”

This suggestion from Capt Ozols hasalready been acted upon, with Transas

confirming that the next version release ofthe system in September will include an‘Areas’ capability.

Aside from these technical challenges,one key issue that will affect the effective-ness of a PAYS system from an opera-tional point of view will be the type oftrade that the ship is involved in.

As Capt Ozols notes, ships on a pre-dictable and repeating route stand to see aminimal benefit, as they have predictablecharting needs. More significant advan-tages could be achieved on vessels whosevoyage patterns are less certain.

“One vessel was on time charter duringthe winter season, going from Russia toTallinn and occasionally going toCopenhagen and Hamburg. I think it wasgoing breakeven with ordering (the ENCsvia PAYS),” he said.

“There was no saving really on this onebecause it was always the same chartsthey had already been choosing before.But if you’re going to places where youdon’t know where you’re going, andyou’re only going there one time, thatgives you savings.”

“It’s not just about cost savings though,it’s about time saving for the crew, and it’sabout avoiding mistakes. If someone is notfully familiar with the licensing he coulddo the wrong order, and that creates extraproblems. You could say it reduces train-ing a bit, but they also need to know thosethings if anything goes wrong, so they cando it the old way.”

However, even in cases where shippingcompanies are operating on predictableroutes and may not see major savingsthrough the use of PAYS, Capt Ozols stillbelieves that this type of technology willbecome the standard for ENC licensing inthe maritime industry.

“There aren’t so many companies todaylike Tärntank that have been using ECDISfor so many years and have such goodknowledge of the system. With the comingregulations that ECDIS should be installedon all vessels I think this Pay As You Sailconcept is great for companies not soexperienced,” he said.

“Of course, you still need to learn all ofthe licensing and the rest of the system,but generally I think this concept will bechosen by most shipping companies. Ifyou’re on tramp or going on passageswhere you don’t know where you’regoing, then it’s saving you money. I thinkthis will be the future.”

Digital Ship

Using PAYS services, it is now easier to automatically manage ENCs for use

with an ECDIS onboard

DS

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:25 Page 12



TT he first of July 2012 marked thebeginning of a new era in ship-ping, as the first deadline for the

compulsory carriage of ECDIS passed.ECDIS is now mandatory on new passen-ger ships over 500 gt and new tankers over3,000 gt. The legislation will be phased inby ship type and size to apply eventuallyto most large merchant and passengerships by 2018.

To deliver the safety benefits of the newtechnology, every ship navigating withECDIS requires a crew which is confidentin its use. Bridge officers are required by STCW (Standards of Training,Certification & Watchkeeping) to be com-petent to carry out their duties, so theECDIS Mandate effectively makes ECDIStraining compulsory too.

This represents a significant challengefor the industry; between 140,000 and200,000 deck officers are estimated torequire training in the next six years.

To help shipping managers understandthe scale of the challenge, Admiralty hasbeen running a series of DigitalIntegration Workshops at industry eventsaround the world to offer insight into theprocess of achieving ECDIS compliance.

The Workshop has been developed bythe Admiralty team in conjunction withCaptain Paul Hailwood, an expert inECDIS compliance.

At a recent Workshop held at SeaJapan, Capt Hailwood came across manyfamiliar issues, but one which perhaps he

hears more than most: “I spend a lot oftime taking owners through the thingsthat they need to consider and every sin-gle company has sat up and thought ‘oh,we really are short on time!”

Capt Hailwood stresses the importanceof starting preparations as early as possi-ble, and recommends that once a companyhas established flag state requirements, itsfirst internal process should be to conductan initial risk assessment.

The assessment should look at theimpact that ECDIS will have throughoutthe company based on fleet profile, routes,owned or operated tonnage, compatibili-ty, chart supply and the potentialtimescale for installation and testing.

To help shipping managers effectivelyplan for this process, Capt Hailwood, inpartnership with the Admiralty team, hasdeveloped a series of 9 stages for ECDIScompliance as part of the Workshop, andeach is based on the experience of compa-nies that have been through the process.

At Sea Japan, NYK and MOL were kindenough to talk to Admiralty in detailabout their work towards compliance, andthe case studies below should give yousome guidance on what to consider dur-ing your own planning.

NYK Line NYK Line has accumulated a decade ofexperience in digital navigation, havinginstalled its first shipboard systems in 2002.

The NYK Line owned fleet currently

numbers 300 vessels with another 800operated on charter. By the end of May2011 more than 200 of its owned vesselswere fitted with ECDIS, however almostall of these are still using paper charts forprimary navigation, with ECDIS provid-ing situational awareness.

The manager of NYK Line’s marinetechnical team, Noboru Shiomoto, explains:“Within our owned fleet, 10 vessels are fit-ted with dual ECDIS and these already useENCs for primary navigation.”

“We have plans to install dual ECDISon another 100 vessels over the next two

to three years. So we are moving veryfast to meet the requirements of theECDIS mandate.”

Capt Shiomoto explains that the transi-tion has presented some challenges.

“We are fully engaged in this processbut because we are in transition phasefrom paper to digital charts, we are facingan increase in cost and workload while wetransfer fully to ECDIS,” he said.

NYK Line uses the Admiralty VectorChart Service to manage its ENCs.Feedback from ships using ENCs has beenthat electronic chart correction is muchfaster than paper chart correction and thecompany plans to enhance this process byusing the Admiralty Information Overlay.

The Overlay includes worldwideTemporary and Preliminary Notices toMariners as a layer directly over the ENC.

Capt Shiomoto notes that NYK’s crewshave reported a very positive experienceusing ECDIS so far.

“There are so many advantages, forexample chart corrections, which are farsimplified, but the real differences comefrom knowing your location as you navi-gate, so you can make sure you are alwaysoperating safely,” he said.

“Previously we navigated using GPSand onshore targets, but where ECDIS isinstalled we can use real-time GPS to lookahead so we have a better understandingof our surroundings and can maintain asafe voyage.”

He also cites the ECDIS anti-groundingfunctionality, which he says means thecompany can expect a reduction in acci-dent risk in the future.

“The main purpose of our introducingECDIS is not just to meet regulatoryrequirements. These are important, but we

At Sea Japan 2012 Admiralty held a free ‘Are you ready for the ECDIS regulations?’ workshop, to help shipping companies plan for the requirements of the mandatory carriage of ECDIS.

Two of Japan’s biggest shipping companies, NYK and MOL, attended the workshop; here they explain how their ECDIS implementation plans are progressing, writes Guy Edwards, Admiralty

‘Moving fast to meet requirements’ - ECDIS updates from Japan

MOL training superintendents travel to the ships to give ECDIS instruction onboard

NYK already has more than 200 ships fitted with ECDIS

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:26 Page 13


Digital Ship

FURUNO type specific ECDIS training for professional mariners- available at FURUNO INS Training Centers in Denmark and Singapore

FURUNO INS Training Centers assist you in meeting the requirements for FURUNO type specific ECDIS training. At our FURUNO INS Training Center in Denmark we also offer generic ECDIS training in compliance with IMO Model Course 1.27

FURUNO INSTC DenmarkHammerholmen 44-48 • DK-2650 Hvidovre • DenmarkPhone: +45 36 77 40 12 • Fax: +45 36 77 85 58E-mail: [email protected]

FURUNO INSTC SingaporeNo. 17, Loyang Lane • Singapore 508917Phone: +65 6745 8472 • Fax: + 65 6747 1151E-mail: [email protected]

www.furuno.com

Visit us in Hall B6, stand no. 100

strongly believe that ECDIS is an effectivetool to prevent collisions and improvesafety of navigation,” said Capt Shiomoto.

Given the high volume of NYK Lineofficers to be trained, the company is for-tunate to be able to take advantage of itsown in-house training facilities.

NYK’s ship management subsidiary inSingapore launched its own generic andtype specific ECDIS training in July 2011 ata facility with five ECDIS simulators. Thecentre has so far trained 350 officers, andCapt Shiomoto says it will continue to traina further 400 to 450 officers per annum.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL)MOL has used a combination of ECDISand Electronic Chart Systems (ECS) on itsowned fleet since 2006. The process whichit will adopt going forward will be a com-plete move from unofficial ECS to ECDIS.

This process is made somewhat compli-cated by the fact that MOL is both shipowner and operator. Currently MOL owns310 ships and has an operated fleet of afurther 950, which means it must monitorthe progress of its owners in complyingwith the IMO mandate.

Takaaki Inoue, executive officerresponsible for safety operations for MOL,explains: “For the chartered ships we willsee how their owners respond. We willobserve what the shipowners do and howthey are intending to introduce ECDIS.”

“We make regular inspections of char-tered tonnage, we visit and confirm thatthe vessel is compliant. We don’t makedirect enquiry but we check the status onan individual ship basis.”

Of MOL’s owned fleet, Mr Inoue notesthat almost all have ECDIS installed, andhe says there is no distinction by ship typein terms of priority for moving to digitalnavigation. At present, the skillset remainswith the paper charts that seafarers haveused for many years.

“Changing the mind set of elder seafar-ers will be a key challenge but this is alsotrue for the younger ones,” he said.

“We need to convey the spirit of thechange; simply sending a document out tothe fleet to be shared is not an effectivemethod of communication for the youngergeneration. It must be conveyed onsitethrough the experience of a respected andtrusted captain.”

To address this need, MOL uses train-ing superintendents, who provide on-the-job training and are regularly dispatchedto the ship to give ECDIS instruction tojunior officers.

In terms of classroom training, hisdepartment’s focus is on ensuring ade-quate capacity. He says some 2,700 MOLmasters and officers need to be trained, ofwhich 800 have already completed gener-ic training.

Mr Inoue explains that the requirementto satisfy type-specific training is a bigchallenge.

“It’s a problem mostly because thereare so many different designs of ECDISavailable,” he said.

“We have to involve the manufacturersin the process but the functionality is sodifferent between them. We need to have abasic design or agreed standard. As a userI feel if we could do that it would acceler-ate our maturity with existing devices andmake the process easier.”

Mr Inoue says he doesn’t expect to seea big change in terms of operating proce-dures when MOL replaces paper withENCs. But he does expect the availabilityof the latest updates and overlays toimprove safety of navigation.

“Reducing the workload means officerscan concentrate on the lookout.Maintaining a good lookout by every pos-sible means is the most important contri-bution to safety of operations,” he said

ConclusionWith one ECDIS deadline already passed,companies will be starting to feel the pres-sure, but the worst thing that ownerscould do is rush ECIDS implementation.

Moving from paper charts to digital

navigation is not just a process of swap-ping one source of content for another;navigating with ECDIS is fundamentallydifferent to navigating with a paper chart.

If the display and the ECDIS settingsare not fully understood, then the chart display can be misinterpreted and

in the worst case the safety of the vesselcompromised.

The advice is to start ECDIS implemen-tation as soon as possible, be methodicaland thorough in your preparations andlearn from those that have already beenthrough the process.

About the AuthorGuy Edwards is head of Admiralty Asia Pacific, based in Singapore.

The Admiralty ‘Are you ready for the new ECDIS regulations?’ workshop has been designed to demystify many of the challenges of ECDIS implementation. It offers asimple checklist to kickstart planning and is also accompanied by a guide available on theAdmiralty website.

Attendance is free, but spaces are limited and anyone wishing to attend should regis-ter online. Following SMM Hamburg 2012, the Workshops will also be held in London on24th September and in Dubai, UAE on 27th-29th �ovember 2012.

DS

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:26 Page 14



FF olk sayings have a way of encapsu-lating basic truths. This is why formany among us the old saw "Can't

see the forest because of the trees" appliesto e-navigation.

People get wrapped up in the minutia ofits shipboard building blocks - AIS, ECDIS,etc. - and lose sight of what's being created,and with the SOLAS carriage requirementsfor those basic tools now in place there aresome who consider implementation of e-navigation essentially complete.

While we may all be aware that e-navi-gation is “...the harmonized collection, inte-gration, exchange, presentation and analysis ofmaritime information onboard and ashore byelectronic means to enhance berth to berth nav-igation and related services, for safety andsecurity at sea and protection of the marineenvironment”, what's buried in that state-ment is not necessarily apparent.

To that end, examination of thePreliminary Gap Analysis submitted to NAV57 by the E-Navigation CorrespondenceGroup is particularly instructive[1].

That 47 page summary highlights thebarriers - or Gaps - which must beaddressed during e-navigation's imple-mentation and in the process conveys areal sense of the intended scope of e-navi-gation. Unfortunately, the intended scoperemains a mystery to a substantial portionof the World's maritime community.

This is why, among the documentsemerging from NAV 57, two sentencesspoke directly to that issue: “At the outsetthe knowledge of e-navigation as an interna-tional effort is low or absent among the practi-cal users. Throughout the development thepromotion of e-navigation has been difficult, asit was hard to demonstrate the practical conse-quences to users and stakeholders”.

When that lack of knowledge is com-bined with the goal that e-navigation is tobe "User Driven" the resulting problembecomes self-evident. If the impetus fordevelopment is to be "pull" from the users,how will that happen if those users don'tknow what it's all about?

This returns us to the issue of how toadvance e-navigation. Unless e-navigationis explained, and explained in terms thatpersuade the users of its benefits, progressis going to be difficult and - beyond a cer-tain point - impossible.

The task appears daunting, particularlyconsidering the various constituencieswhich must be convinced not just of whate-navigation will become but of its benefits.

It is also well to remember that e-navi-gation will be a public-private partner-ship, requiring real commitment fromgovernments, quasi-governmental bodiessuch as leading NGO's and the private sec-tor. And e-navigation will be made up ofmany different "bits and pieces", each ofwhich must be employed correctly if thefinal system is to be greater than the sumof its parts.

Mr John Murray of the InternationalChamber of Shipping touched on thisaspect when he discussed "competencies"at the January 2012 conference E-NavigationUnderway 2012[2].

Marketing planA prerequisite for e-navigation's success,or at least implementation at a reasonablerate, is an educational campaign that, inreality, amounts to a marketing plan.

Development of that plan falls to theIMO. This is recognised by that organisa-tion and is embodied, for example, in anoutput from NAV 54 in June 2008.

Among the enumerated “GeneralPrinciples for the Development of E-naviga-tion”[3] is one entitled “Clear Ownershipand Control”.

The descriptive paragraph for thatprinciple led off with the words“Realization of the e-navigation visionrequires a clear, global commitment, articulat-ed through a viable and coherent frameworkwhich sets out a migration plan to guideGovernments and industry. E-navigation is aglobal concept that will be implemented andoperated at global, regional and local levelsacross all user groups.”

It went on to say that, at the global level“.…[the] IMO is the only organization that iscapable of meeting the overall governancerequirement.”

Having thus acknowledged its owner-ship and control the MSC made clear that the IMO is responsible for “leadingand coordinating the external communica-tions effort necessary to support the case for e-navigation”[4].

The first step may well be to recognisethat the term "e-navigation" and the singlephrase that currently defines it do notspeak clearly to the intent, scope andimportance of the undertaking.

This suggests that a more complete defi-nition must be advanced, and since the cur-rent name "e-navigation" may of itself sug-gest a narrow interpretation perhaps it'stime to migrate to a more descriptive one.

With an expanded definition as a baseit should be possible to develop a"Marketing Plan" that includes identifica-tion of the various constituencies, theirconcerns, how e-navigation will impactthem and the priority with which specificconcerns should to be addressed.

The Draft Strategy for the Developmentand Implementation of E-Navigation set forthin Annex 12 of NAV 54's Report to theMaritime Safety Committee could serve asthe basis for development of the plan, andfor general instruction outside the frame-work of the IMO and its participants thePlan should connect the dots in a waymaking clear the long term implications.

In this case the "dots" are such things asthe ISM code, Maritime Domain Awareness(MDA) and the various industry-govern-ment information exchanges so essential tothe movement of marine transportation.

"Success" for the plan will be achievedwhen e-navigation reaches that tippingpoint where - as was the case with theinternet - user demands promote widerand wider applications.

It is expected that the IMO will executesuch a plan through the Member Statesand its consultative organisations.

Necessarily complex, there are severalpoints which should be considered in itsdevelopment.

Since e-navigation will only develop asa public-private partnership, governmen-tal agencies must be convinced about thevalue of their participation.

In fact, it is government that may posea greater challenge than the private sector.There is already a governmental school ofthought that considers that e-navigationwill be "revenue-neutral', developed andimplemented with expenditures offset bysavings to be achieved.

Lack of understanding thus raises enor-mous problems on several levels. A realdanger is that some governments willview e-navigation as a substitute for theirexisting maritime safety infrastructure,using it as a reason to reduce, for example,its system of aids to navigation.

While such choices may ultimatelybecome available, any changes must bemade carefully and in keeping with thepace of e-navigation's implementation.

It must be recognised that upfront costswill accrue to National authorities inci-dental to implementing e-navigation, withsavings coming some time in the future,and then perhaps only as "avoided costs".Unfortunately, avoided costs weigh littlein the minds of those charged with theallocation of governmental funds.

Public awarenessThe role of Member States in informingand educating their nationals about e-nav-igation is less clear, but certainly must bepart of the overall effort.

Perhaps the most effective means ofdoing so would be to ensure informationabout e-navigation, whether IMO docu-ments or reports of test bed results, isreadily available.

One potential model is the actions takenby Norway, as illustrated by visiting one ofthat country's e-navigation web sites[5].

The Marketing Plan must recognisethat public tolerance of maritime incidents

IMO’s vision of e-Navigation is advancing towards real action, but without coordinated effort involving the range ofstakeholders that will be affected by its impact, the project will struggle to reach its potential, writes Capt R. G. Moore

Advancing e-Navigation

[KeepUp@Sea]The ultimate IT&C infrastructure

and management solution developed for world wide

vessel operations.

[Pandora@Sea]Our partnering product for

application distribution, content management and reporting.

Vessel IT is considered expensive. Until now.

Looking for improved stability and reduced operational costs?

IT made easy

www.palant i r.no | sea@palant i r.no

If you are looking for the best solution in regards of structured IT manage-ment for your vessels, KeepUp@Sea is the ultimate tool for the job.

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:26 Page 15

Inventory Locator Service,® LLCEmail: [email protected]

ILSmart may help you spend less time in drydock!

Are your vessels older than 10 years?

Do you have trouble locating spare parts on time and on budget?

The ILS marketplace is the ideal place to find critical spares. With over 20 years of experience in the marine and defense industries, we offer the largest procurement network in the world. Search by part number or keyword to locate suppliers in over 100 countries. Send a message broadcast worldwide to handle emergency situations with ease.

Contact us today for a free 30-day trial.

Visit us at SMMSeptember 4-7Stand B8/105

If you would like to meet with a representative at the show, send an email to [email protected].


Digital Shiphas diminished, as reflected by the trendto criminalise actions previously consid-ered errors in judgment or functions ofcircumstance.

The litany of incidents giving rise to this - TORREY CANYON, AMOCOCADIZ, EXXON VALDEZ, BRAER,ERIKA, PRESTIGE, etc. - goes on and on.

The plan should reinforce the wordsthat the IMO's Secretary-General used inhis 2007 World Maritime Day speech:

“I do not wish to see the maritime commu-nity stand accused of failing in its dutytowards the protection and preservation of thisbeautiful planet, which, it seems to me, wehave neglected for too long.”

Promoting e-navigation as a significantstep toward protecting the environmentand encouraging nations to move awayfrom punitive measures to the preventa-tive ones inherent in e-navigation shouldbe primary goals.

This is made easier by the success of several e-navigation "Test Beds" that, among other things, address environ-mental concerns and marine resourcemanagement.

Two of the most successful, HELCOMand EfficienSea, focus on the Baltic and itsapproaches, and provide many examplesof what can be done.

As a more general comment, the mar-keting plan should provide the means toreport upon and publicise the results ofthe various e-navigation test beds. Theseprovide examples of actual applicationsand demonstrate measurable benefits, andare thus critical tools for the advancementof e-navigation.

Demonstrating benefitsConsidering the private sector, owners andoperators of ships must find answers to thequestion of "What's in it for my company?"

If the private maritime sector is to accepte-navigation as an important and necessarytool it must see the benefits couched not interms of rhetoric but of demonstrable addi-tions to their bottom line or as the solutionto real problems. Several things make this achallenging sale.

First, companies have only limited abil-ity to affect operating costs but will findmany e-navigation expenses come upfront, before significant benefits can berealised. These start before many of thefuture benefits from e-navigation kick in,and are thus a negative element.

Secondly, e-navigation may ultimately

impact manning requirements in as yetunspecified ways.

Take as an example the MaritimeServices Portfolio (MSP) concept. Definedas something which “...defines and describesthe set of operational and technical servicesand their level of service provided by a stake-holder in a given sea area, waterway, or port,as appropriate”[6] the other side of the coinrequires a rigorous examination of thetasks which must be accomplished byBridge Management Teams when operat-ing within the various areas.

That exercise concludes with a determi-nation of the personnel, equipment andprocedures needed when operating inthose areas.

An example of such practice was pro-vided by Princess Cruise Lines in a pres-entation by Captain David Christie, SeniorVice President, Professional MarineStandards at eNavigation 2010, a confer-ence held in Seattle on 17 November, 2010.

Such realistic assessments could welllead to requirements for additional peo-ple, with offsetting benefits difficult toquantify in fiscal terms. The practicewould however be an important step inrisk reduction and have a positive effectupon personnel satisfaction, recruitmentand retention.

On the equipment front, those deter-mining standards and designing equip-ment must be included among the market-ing targets.

When e-navigation is fully implementedit will represent a data-intensive systemwhich unless appropriately designed willoverwhelm those it is designed to serve,particularly those on the bridges of ships.

Unless development takes into consid-eration the users, their capabilities, needsand limitations - in short, the human ele-ment - the results may incorporate everyfeature of which the technology is capablerather than what is actually needed.

Examples of such overextension arelegion; compare what's built into the wordprocessing program Word to what theaverage user actually needs in his or herdaily endeavours.

This problem has generated discussionof a so-called "S-Mode", providing ameans to configure bridge displays to acommon standard.

The marketing of e-navigation will notbe simple but it is one of the keys to suc-cessful implementation and we need toget on with the job. DS

About the AuthorRobert G. Moore retired in 2002 as president of Coastwatch, Inc., a mar-itime consulting firm. He has more than 40 years of experience in maritimeand international affairs, as a master mariner and a retired US Coast Guardofficer with special interest in ship operations and marine navigation.

Capt Moore also served as a member of the Marine Board Committee on MaritimeAdvanced Information Systems and the Transportation Research Board's Committee forEvaluating Display of Automatic Identification Systems. He is a Fellow of the �auticalInstitute and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of �avigation (UK).

References[1] http://e-nav.no/media.php?file=96[2] http://delivery.kundelink.dk/kunder/efficiensea/index.php[3] http://bit.ly/MRXOUg[4] MSC 85/26 Add.1 Annex 20, Pg.13[5] http://www.kystverket.no/Documents/Konferanser/�ordisk%20ekspertm%C3%B8te%

2010%202011/IMO%20relations%20regarding%20e-navigation_Vallersnes.pdf[6] http://e-nav.no/media.php?file=96

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 16



Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm Systems (BNWAS) have become a mandatory carriage requirement for certain classesof vessels, and the roll-out will continue to encompass a significant portion of the world fleet. However, fitting the

technology can be more challenging than might be expected, writes Tom Henson-Webb, ANT

Retrofitting BNWAS – the true cost?

II n June 2009, the IMO adopted resolu-tion MSC.282 (86) making the car-riage of ECDIS and Bridge Naviga-

tion Watch Alarm Systems (BNWAS)mandatory. Now, while the former hasgenerated a lot of discussion, conferencesand media interest, the latter has beenvery much overlooked.

BNWAS has been around for severalyears, but was only mandatory for vesselsclassed for one man bridge operation.However, last year saw the regulation formandatory installation come into force onall new cargo vessels above 150gt and allpassenger ships, regardless of size.

This year all passenger ships and allcargo vessels of 3,000gt and above builtbefore 1 July 2011 are required to have aBNWAS fitted prior to their next surveyafter 1 July 2012. The roll out then contin-ues with cargo vessels between 500gt and2,999gt in 2013, and vessels of 150–499gt in2014.

Therefore, whereas ECDIS is a moretechnically complex equipment, BNWAShas an impact on a far greater number ofvessels, especially for retrofit.

At its most basic a BNWAS system issimple, requiring the bridge operator toreset a timer every twelve minutes bypressing a button, although most systemscan also include motion sensors to resetthe timer automatically.

The indication to the operator that thetime has elapsed is initially visual, thenafter fifteen seconds audible (referred to asthe first stage alarm). If the operator has

still not reset the timer after another fifteenseconds, a second stage alarm is trans-ferred to the cabin of the selected back-upnavigator to call him to the bridge.

If, after a further ninety seconds(although it can be up to three minutes onlarger vessels), the system has still not beenreset a third stage alarm is generated in thecabins of the captain and all navigating offi-cers, as well as crew communal areas.

In addition, the system should includean ‘Emergency Call’ facility that allows thebridge operator to manually activate thealarm as a means of manually summoningassistance (either achieved by holdingdown the reset button for an extended peri-od or by a separate emergency button,depending on the manufacturer).

Confusion Despite this apparent ‘simplicity’ howev-er, it hasn’t stopped confusion reigningover parts of the BNWAS performancespecification (IEC62616), which seem to becontradictory.

The specification allows for an‘Automatic’ mode, where the system is acti-vated when the vessel is under autopilotcontrol and deactivated when in hand steer-ing. This was a requirement in the originalIMO performance standard MSC128 (72)adopted in 2002. However this was super-seded by SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 19,which requires the BNWAS to be activewhenever the vessel is underway.

This has created the odd situation wereIEC62616 allows for a BNWAS to have an

automatic mode, but then states that itcan’t be used on vessels where BNWAS ismandatory!

I have contacted both Lloyd’s Register(LR) and DNV regarding this and bothconfirm that, as automatic mode is notacceptable, so connection to the autopilotis unnecessary. However, some flag states(Isle of Man being one) want to use theautopilot as a means of automatically acti-vating the BNWAS whenever the vessel isunderway, which is an understandablereinterpretation of the regulation – butdoing so is not so easy.

Autopilots normally rely on externalactivation from a steering mode selectorswitch, so there is a simple on/off contactthat can be connected to (although onretrofits this may involve modifyingswitches or adding relays if no spare con-tacts are available).

However, there is no standard ‘vesselunderway’ signal. The IOM circular 17states “other methods”, such as connect-ing to the ship’s telegraph, “can beexplored”. In one case a BNWAS manu-facturer has added a GPS interface whichallows the system to be activated once thevessel exceeds a speed threshold (the stan-dard being 4 knots).

Both LR and DNV reject this, as“underway” means “not stationary”rather than “faster than X Knots”, as a ves-sel moving at 3 knots will still make amess if it hits something. Therefore, usingan input from either the GPS or speed logis unacceptable, as accurately indicatingthe vessel is stationary is not possible.

A GPS, even with differential correc-tions, rarely shows a speed over ground ofzero. It usually varies at speeds of lessthan one knot, but this still not stationary.Also, in most cases vessels have logs thatonly measure speed through water, whichwould incorrectly show a moored vesselin moving water as under way and a drift-ing vessel as stationary.

There may be “other methods” whichcan be employed, but given the multitudeof propulsion methods (i.e. fixed & vari-able propellers, podded drives etc.) andcontrol (direct engine control, or via tele-graph), there is no one size fits all solution.

Therefore, while providing such a sig-nal is possible and fairly straightforwardfor a new build, where it can be allowedfor in the design, doing so for retrofit,where it is an afterthought, is an entirelydifferent matter.

A similar situation existed during theVDR retrofit boom, where some propulsionand steering manufacturers cashed in bydeveloping very expensive VDR interfacesfor fitting to their systems which did notalready have one, as this was mandatory.

This had a significant impact on VDRinstallation costs, but considering that aVDR was probably between five to tentimes the cost of a BNWAS a repeat

attempt to cash in on the BNWAS retrofitboom by propulsion manufacturers wouldhave a far more significant impact.

As for less controversial interfacing, itis mandatory to connect the BNWAS tothe VDR on vessels which carry one.Vessels with integrated navigation and/ortrack control systems fitted also face arequirement that alarms generated bythese systems will activate the BNWASsecond and third stage alarms if theyremain unacknowledged on the bridge forthirty seconds.

In addition, it is acceptable to connectother equipment which includes a watchreset capability function (commonlyRadar & ECDIS), so that when this equip-ment is operated a signal is transmitted tothe BNWAS to automatically reset thetimer.

As BNWAS is now mandatory, thenumber of systems with this capability isbound to increase, so it will be the case,especially on new builds, that the operatorwill rarely if ever have to manually resetthe timer.

Changing marketAs previously mentioned, BNWAS hasexisted for many years, but as its usagewas very limited there were originally nomore than half a dozen manufacturers.This was changed dramatically by the newlegislation, with the number of companiesoffering systems expanding greatly toaround thirty.

Most of the original manufacturerswere small outfits due to the limiteddemand, and while some of the major nav-igation equipment manufacturers nowsupply systems, a greater number of smalloutfits have also appeared.

As the market has become increasinglycrowded the price trend is most definitelydownwards, with a hardware price of€2,000 for a system suitable for a mid-sizecommercial vessel being possible.

Furthermore, various manufacturers areadding their own extras in an attempt todifferentiate their systems. One example,using the piracy angle, is a ‘fourth stage’alarm which activates the vessel’s SSASsystem once an additional period after thethird stage alarm activation has occurred.Whether this is of any real value to the ves-sel operators and/or crew is debatable, butis in no way a legal requirement.

Another more recent ‘extra’ is to use thesystem’s motion sensors to turn it into abridge intruder alarm when the vessel ismoored and the bridge unattended. Itshould be noted however that some classi-fication societies (i.e. Lloyds Register) donot accept the use of motion sensors,whereas others (i.e. DNV) mandate then.

Furthermore, the use of the sensors forthis purpose raises questions over theirsuitability for the purpose for which theyare intended, as the range and field of

BNWAS requires operators to acknowledge an alarm at regular intervals,for safety purposes

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 17


Digital Shipview of the sensors should be such thatthey can only trigger a timer reset ifmotion is detected in the immediate vicin-ity of the conning position.

If the detection area is large enough toencompass the whole bridge, the ability toactivate a reset by detecting the operatormaking a cup of tea at the back of thebridge adds weight to the LR stance.

Retrofit With regard to new builds, the impact ofinstalling BNWAS, requiring the fitting ofa handful of additional units, running per-haps a dozen extra cables and the neces-sary interfacing, is negligible. But for exist-ing vessels it is a different story.

While the interfacing issue may not beapplicable in many cases, the actual instal-lation will normally still necessitate therunning of new cabling, not only to othersystems within the bridge but, more cru-cially, to remote alarm units in the captainand navigation officers’ cabins and com-munal crew areas.

In many cases, running these cables willrequire a large amount of time and effort asdeckhead and bulkhead panelling willneed to be removed, transits opened etc.

This will particularly be the case oncruise liners, passenger vessels and largeluxury yachts, but essentially, on any ves-sel where there is not easy access to cableruns or the cable runs are over a signifi-cant distance, the cost of installing theequipment is likely to be well in excess ofthe cost of the hardware.

A number of manufacturers have tried

to play down the installation issue, claim-ing that theirs is the easiest to install (nor-mally by minimising the number of sepa-rate units and cables), but the issueremains that running new cables from thebridge to accommodation areas will usual-ly be necessary.

It is also suggested that the cables canbe run by the crew and, while this is true,in practice this often fails to happen. Theservice manager at a large well know nav-igation equipment supplier has confirmedthat, while they have seen an increase inthe number or requests for BNWAS, theyare actively avoiding supplying it becauseof the installation issue.

His statement was “The customer saysthe crew will run the cables but when theengineer turns up they haven’t. This meansthe job takes three days instead of one andan ensuing argument with the customerover payment for the additional time.”

To date, the only exceptions to thishave been two manufacturers in the FarEast and one in the UK who have pro-duced systems that do not require thesenew cable runs.

The Far Eastern solution has been touse power line communication, which

piggybacks a standard computer networkprotocol onto the ship’s mains. This tech-nology is normally used in large buildingsto provide computer connections withoutrunning network cables.

However, the suitability of this technol-ogy on vessels where different areas maynot be powered from the same supply(different phases or different generators)is questionable, and the MCA have indi-cated that they currently have a moratori-um on the use of this technology.

Both of these systems also only haveapproval within their own countries, soonly time will tell if they will becomewheelmarked.

The UK alternative uses a wireless tech-nology normally employed in monitoringsystems to link all units, with the onlycabling being a local source of AC power.With this there is obviously the issue ofradio transmission within a metal struc-

ture, but it employs an RF mess so theunits need only to be able to receive a sig-nal from another unit in the system, notdirectly from the bridge.

Furthermore this system was originallyapproved by the MCA and now has anMED certificate, so the technology hasbeen proven to meet the IEC performancestandard.

Finally, in addition to all the technicalimplications, there are some regulatoryissues, with some flag states requiring anapproval document to be supplied detail-ing equipment type, number of units, loca-tion, power sources, system drawing etc.

Some flag states instead, or in somecases in addition, require the system bepresented to a local surveyor. In bothinstances, again it is a case that the impacton a new build is negligible, but for a retro-fit is an additional unexpected expense.

Therefore, in summary, for new buildsBNWAS is just another (low cost) systemto be added to the build specification –but for retrofits it is a different matter.Very much like the budget airline ticketsthat are advertised at one Euro and endup costing one hundred, the cost of meet-ing the BNWAS regulations is likely to beconsiderably more than the price of thehardware.

Installing BNWAS can mean running cables to various parts of the ship

About the AuthorTom Henson-Webb is integrated bridge systems manager at Advanced �ewTechnologies (A�T), a company specialising in the integration of varioustypes of technology systems on ships, including satellite communications,CCTV, networked communications and navigation systems.

DS

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 18

SMM PREVIEW


ABS Nautical SystemsAt SMM 2012 ABS Nautical Systems willshowcase the newly developed Energy &Environmental module from its NS5Enterprise software package.

The software is used for voyage man-agement, aiming to improve efficiencyand enhance operational processes toreduce costs. An automated feature hasbeen added for data collection necessaryfor regulatory reporting, powered byESRG’s OstiaEdge software, to minimisethe burden on the crew.

Customisable dashboards are included,allowing all personnel access to the sameinformation for trending and managementof overall fleet performance. Additionalfeatures include the ability to track andrecord other voyage related events includ-ing ballast water management, fuel andlube oil consumption, fuel oil switchingand cargo information.Visit ABS Nautical Systems at stand EG311, in hall B3.

AdmiraltyAt SMM, Admiralty is delivering its free‘Are you ready for the new ECDIS regula-tions?’ workshops, which aim to helpshipping managers plan for the integra-tion of digital technology into bridge oper-ations to meet the IMO mandatory car-riage requirement for ECDIS.

The workshops are based on the expe-riences of shipping companies who havesuccessfully made the transition to digi-tal, providing a checklist of activity foreach stage of transition, from the initialrisk assessment to training and the intro-duction and implementation of new procedures.

The workshops will take place on thefirst floor of hall B6, in room B6.1, at 11amon 4th - 7th September. Spaces are limitedand those wishing to attend should regis-ter online on Admiralty’s website.Visit Admiralty at stand 419, in hall B6.

Alphatron MarineAlphatron Marine will present a selectionof products from its Alphaline at SMM.

Amongst the products on show will bethe company’s radar, gyrocompass, fibreoptic gyro, autopilot range and BNWAS(Bridge Watch Alarm System).

Also on display will be Alphatron’sAlphatainment system, which offers arange of features including Video ondemand and VoIP.

Besides its in-house products,Alphatron will also present products fromits partners like Yokogawa and Thrane& Thrane.Visit Alphatron Marine at stand 400, inhall B6.

Autronica Fire andSecurity

Autronica Fire and Security will showcaseits portfolio of products for the merchant,tanker, offshore and passenger ship mar-kets at SMM. New systems include a flamedetector and gas panel, both of which, thecompany says, offer improvements overexisting solutions.

Upgrades to Autronica’s ISEMS for theAutromaster safety management system,used to integrate incident managementprocesses, will also be showcased. Thesystem is used by a number of large pas-senger vessels and is being expanded withnew features and functionality.

Fire suppression technology will alsobe highlighted, illustrating the trend forvessels to move away from CO2 to watermist suppression, such as Autronica’sFlexiFOG.Visit Autronica Fire and Security at stand116, in hall B7.

BASSNorwegian fleet management softwareprovider BASS will showcase its BASSnetsystem at SMM 2012.

BASSnet is a modular software devel-oped on the Microsoft .NET platformwhich the company says offers an inte-grated solution covering the main areas ofmaritime operations.

The system includes tools for stream-lining and automating ship technical oper-ations, with the aim of cutting costs andincreasing efficiency. Visit BASS at stand 518, in hall B6.

ConracConrac will exhibit the latest addition toits Marine Panel Computer Series at thisyear's SMM.

These PanelPCs feature touchscreenwidescreen format displays, with 13.3”and 7” sizes available, specially designed

for marine applications.The company will also showcase

the latest versions of its wideECDISMarine Panel Computers, its SysMonsystem monitoring application withECDIS calibration functionality, and itswideECDIS monitor developed for riverradar applications. Visit Conrac at stand 207, in hall B6.

DanfossDanfoss will be exhibiting its marine port-folio at SMM, including its frequency con-verter family and variety of sensors.

The VLT Frequency converter is nowavailable in the 90 to 250 KW outputrange, in protection classes up to IP 66.Depending on the output range, the com-pany says that the new compact frame sizecan be up to 68 per cent smaller than for-mer frames.

The Danfoss MBS 1800 CylinderPressure Sensor aims to reduce fuel con-sumption by allowing the user to registerwhat happens in the combustion cham-ber while the engine is running. The com-pany says that this permits 2-stroke and4-stroke engines to operate with a higheroutput than was previously the case.Visit Danfoss in the Danish Pavilion, inhall B1.

Elcome InternationalElcome International, a marine solutionsprovider and system integrator based inthe Middle East, will present its full rangeof products and services for the commer-cial maritime industry at SMM.

The company will feature its new fam-ily of ELSYS marine electric switch-boards, ECDIS solutions, nautical chartand folio management services and train-ing facilities.

Based in Dubai, Elcome has over 250employees, across its offices in theUnited Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait,Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemenand a subsidiary company in India,including nearly 100 trained engineersand technicians.Visit Elcome at stand 119, in hall B6.

ElektrikomElektrikom, a provider of maritime satel-lite communications globally, will be anexhibitor at SMM 2012.

The company will focus on its solutionsfor least cost routing, and speed and avail-ability optimisation for VSAT.

Elektrikom began operations in 2003 asa VSAT provider, before going on to oper-ate its own teleport in 2006. Today thecompany controls six teleports and sup-plies communications to more than 400vessels and ground stations in sectors likeoil and gas and cruise.

Elektrikom also supplies Inmarsat andIridium services.Visit Elektrikom at stand 404, in hall B6.

EutelsatEutelsat will showcase its maritimetelecommunications systems at this year'sSMM.

The company says it is continuing toinvest in new technologies and in-orbitresources for its VSAT solutions, which ituses to provide corporate networkingservices, and interconnectivity for a rangeof applications.

Eutelsat notes that, as a satellite opera-tor itself, it is in a position to offer flexibil-ity on bandwidth requirements for indi-vidual vessels and fleets on a global or aregional basis, where required.Visit Eutelsat at stand 102.3, in hall B2 OG.

The SMM exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, is one of the most eagerly awaited events in the calendar fortechnology companies in the maritime industry, with new innovations in IT regularly introduced

to the market at this biennial event. Digital Ship asked some of the technology-based exhibitors at this year’s show what they have to offer to visitors to SMM

Maritime IT at SMM

Panel PCs at stand B6/207

Frequency convertors will be on show inthe Danish Pavilion, hall B1

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 19


Digital Ship

Guntermann & DrunckAt SMM 2012, Guntermann & Drunck, aprovider of KVM (Kernel-based VirtualMachine) technology, will present its port-folio of maritime IT applications.

The company says that KVM technolo-gy can be used to facilitate the work ofships' crews by allowing IT applications tobe monitored from a central control roomor the nautical bridge.

This could include use from ship toshore in control centres like Vessel TrafficServices (VTS), and in bridging the dis-tance between the server room and nauti-cal bridge. The technology could also beapplied at antipiracy facilities.Visit Guntermann & Drunck at stand200, in hall B8.

Globe WirelessGlobe Wireless will showcase its GlobeiFusion VSAT system, along with therelease of R6 for Globe iFusion, at SMM2012.

R6 for Globe iFusion enables up to fiveinbound and outbound simultaneous callsusing Globe’s Digital Quality Voice (DQV)technology over the Globe iFusionFleetBroadband terminal. Local inboundcountry numbers can be assigned to thevessel, to reduce costs in calls from shore.

R6 also includes additional featuresdeveloped to keep VSAT terminals online,with automated scripts to monitor theVSAT system and attempt an auto-recov-er, with no intervention needed by techni-cians or crew.

Globe will also announce a new crewwelfare solution at the event. Theannouncement takes place Wednesday,September 5th at 15:00 during SMM.Visit Globe Wireless at stand 107, in hall 6.

HanseNauticGerman chart agent HanseNautic, estab-lished in 2003 through a merger betweenBade&Hornig and Eckardt&Messtorff,will exhibit at this year’s SMM.

HanseNautic is a ‘Tier-One’ distributorof Admiralty products, offering both

paper and digital products, including elec-tronic charts as well as navigation soft-ware and services.

To help companies comply with theECDIS mandate that came into effect fromJuly 2012, HanseNautic says it has devel-oped various solutions for ships offeringcombined paper and digital navigationpackages, based on the ships’ individualneeds or the ship owners’ requirements.Visit HanseNautic at stand 103, in hall B6.

IMO PublishingThe publications arm of the InternationalMaritime Organization, IMO Publishingwill showcase its range of materials inEnglish, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chineseand Russian at SMM 2012.

The company produces digital prod-ucts such as e-books, e-reader files, elec-tronic downloads, CDs and online materi-al, in order to promote shipping as a safe,secure, environmentally sound, efficientand sustainable activity.

Launched in 2011, ‘The IMO Bookshelf’is IMO Publishing’s new Windows-basede-reader software.

Suitable for use on board ship, The IMOBookshelf is a digital platform which con-tains over 60 titles including SOLAS,MARPOL and the IMDG Code.Visit IMO Publishing stand 103, in hall B6.

Imtech MarineImtech will be highlighting several of itslatest initiatives at SMM this year, includ-ing sustainable solutions and remotemaintenance services.

The company has been involved in thelaunch of the world’s first diesel electrichybrid seagoing ferries for CaledonianMaritime Assets, providing a hybridpropulsion system consisting of dieselelectric in combination with battery tech-nology. A smart Energy ManagementSystem was also supplied.

Imtech will also showcase its 24/7Remote Monitoring & Maintenance serv-ice that can now be included in its

Advanced Support Agreements. The com-pany's Global Technical AssistanceCentres (GTAC) monitor the ships' sys-tems for problems - with the internet forexample - and can restore connectionsbefore the crew even notices.

Imtech says it will be setting up a 'remote centre' at its stand where visitorscan see the system for themselves.Visit Imtech Marine at stand 200, hall B6.

in-innovative navigationGerman company in-innovative naviga-tion, a provider of software and hardwaresolutions for navigation, telematics andtraffic surveillance, will be exhibiting atSMM 2012.

The company says that its core compe-tence is processing and integrated displayof radar, GPS, AIS and ECDIS data. Fornavigation it will feature theRADARpilot720° and RADARpilot720°Open Sea products, as well as its inDTS,inVTSbox ng systems for land based VTS,used for lock monitoring and coastal sur-veillance.

The company's inVNE simulatordevices, used to test VTS/CSS systemsand for training operators, will also be ondisplay.Visit in-innovative navigation at stand605, in hall B6.

IntellianKorean manufacturer of maritime satellitecommunication antenna systems Intellianis showcasing its new VSAT systems atSMM, the v110GX 3-Axis Ku-Band anten-na with a Ku-/Ka- band antenna reflectorand radome.

The 1m v110GX has been designedfrom the ground up to operate with bothcurrent Ku-band services as well asInmarsat's upcoming Global Xpress (GX)service in the Ka-band.

The v110GX offers what the companycalls a 'plug and play' conversion kit toupgrade from Ku-band to Global Xpressin as little as 10 minutes, without requiringa factory trained technician.

Intellian says that the new antenna alsofeatures improved Ku-band RF perform-ance compared to its v110 version, whilealso optimising Ka-band RF performancefor GX.Visit Intellian at stand 611, in hall B6.

JeppesenJeppesen will exhibit its C-MAPProfessional+ and C-MAP ENC services atSMM, which the company says, whencombined, provide a dual fuel solution ofworldwide vector chart coverage.

Jeppesen will also showcase its flexibleENC licensing solutions, including its

upcoming Pay As You Sail (PAYS) solu-tion Open ENC, along with its establishedDynamic Licensing and Direct Licensingoptions.

In addition to chart services, the com-pany will display its Voyage and VesselOptimisation Solution, used to reduce fuelconsumption, improve ETA predictability,manage passage seakeeping within safelimits and minimise a ship’s carbon foot-print.

The C-MAP Weather Service mean-while offers international weather fore-casting that includes real-time weather aswell as tropical hurricanes, ice fronts andsea conditions, which assist mariners inmaking voyage decisions based upondetailed weather information.Visit Jeppesen at stand 105, in hall B8.

JotronAt SMM 2012 Jotron AS will display thecommunication systems it develops andmanufactures for all types of vessels.

The company's core product rangeincludes GMDSS emergency radio equip-ment, internal telecommunication equip-ment and VSAT antenna systems.

Jotron has recently introduced a newstabilised Ku-band VSAT antenna which itsays offers a high level of performancefrom compact and robust RF and electricalcomponents.

The VSAT uses a broadband link viaWLAN over coax up to the pedestal of theantenna, for remote or local upload of allsoftware as well as real time web baseddiagnostics, with a webcam for inspectioninside the radome.Visit Jotron at stand 218, in hall B6.

JRCJRC will be introducing several new prod-ucts at this year’s SMM.

This will include the first public view-ing of the company’s new 26-inch radarand ECDIS, featuring a new man-machine-interface with enhancedergonomics.

Also on show will be the company’snew generation of 4.5-inch common dis-plays, available as Multi InformationDisplay (MID), speed log and (D)GPS, anda new Class A AIS, featuring a dual colourLED backlight.

Completing the new line-up will be thesecond generation FleetBroadband250,with its industry standard interface and anintegrated network.Visit JRC at stand 300, in hall B6.

Kongsberg MaritimeIn addition to new functions in itsautomation and navigation systems,Kongsberg Maritime will highlight its

See Kernel based Virtual Machines at stand B8/200

Marine automation systems at stand B6/102

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 20

SMM PREVIEW


solutions for enhancing vessel efficiencyat SMM.

The company says it is engaged in proj-ects that support the maritime industry’sdrive to reduce fuel consumption andemissions, and will focus on several devel-opment partnerships producing systemsand features for its products to supportthese goals. Other areas of interest includework on bridge system ergonomics andalarm handling.

Training will be another focus, asKongsberg Maritime continues to devel-op new simulator designs and technolo-gy, and global training courses, whichinclude system specific and genericECDIS training.

Earlier this year Kongsberg Maritimealso acquired Consultas, so the companywill be using SMM as a platform to showits newly acquired software suite for Fleetmaintenance & Loading Computer.Visit Kongsberg Maritime at stand 102,in hall B6.

KVHKVH is introducing its IP-enabledTracPhone V7IP and V11 at SMM 2012.

TracPhone V7IP and V11 both workwith KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband serv-ice and offer a new IP-enabled antennacontrol unit (ACU) with a built-in networkmanager.

This includes the company’s range ofantennas, from the 37 cm TracPhone V3 tothe 60 cm TracPhone V7 and the 1 mTracPhone V11.

The new IP-ACU for the TracPhoneV7IP and V11 features a web-based sys-tem interface which is browser-based andallows over-the-air software updates, con-figuration, and troubleshooting (support-ed by a dome-mounted GPRS modem).

The unit has integrated Ethernet portsand MTA to simplify installation and sup-port, a Wi-Fi interface for communicationwith external devices, and embedded net-work management functionality.

The network management capabilitiesare based on the KVH CommBoxShip/Shore Network Manager, andinclude features like least-cost routing,firewalls, VLAN configuration, web/DNScaching, VPN and crew e-mail.Visit KVH at stand 405, hall B6 (or at itsoutdoor demo booth at B5.FG.017).

MarlinkAt SMM 2012 Marlink will showcase itscurrent promotions and maritime connec-tivity services portfolio.

Marlink has recently enhanced its stan-

dardised VSAT product, WaveCall, whichnow has two service levels. The companysays that it aims to make the step fromMSS to VSAT smaller, whilst establishinga better upgrade path for customers usingVSAT for business critical operations.

Marlink will also use the event to com-municate its new organisation, as a fully-fledged Astrium company following thatcompany’s takeover of Vizada, which itsays will improve its value proposition tothe maritime market with backing fromone of the major global satellite companies.Visit Marlink at stand 201, in hall B6.

MasterShip Software / SARC

MasterShip Software and SARC have joinedforces to exhibit together at SMM 2012.

MasterShip will introduce its latest shipmodelling and design software product,the Workshop Assistant. The MasterShipWorkshop Assistant is used to view 3Dmodels on a touch-screen table, and hasbeen designed as a completely new soft-ware and hardware solution after a twoyear development programme.

MasterShip will also introduce itsTemplate Oriented Modeling (TOM) sys-tem, used to create parts using predefinedship construction templates.

Design and stability software companySARC will be presenting the commercialrelease of a new interface for its Fairway hulldesign software, which it says allows differ-ent types of software to make use of thesame basic geometry model of the vessel.

As well as the new Fairway interface,SARC will also present a new method to define the subdivision of a vessel,named Newlay.Visit MasterShip Software and SARC atstand 623, in hall B6.

NavisNavis Engineering Oy is showcasing STCS4000, its new multipurpose integrated steer-ing and thruster control system, at SMM.

The system is designed to controlengine start and stop functions, to indicatethe status of drive and power supplies andprovide visual and audio alarms on sup-ply failures, oil levels, drive overloads andother emergency situations.

All the system devices are interconnect-ed by CAN. Based on the priority displayof alarms and information, the system canfit more than 20 messages within theboundaries of the main panel screen.

STCS4000 features a colour displaywith a 130° viewing angle and anti-glaresurface, and uses a new type of combinedindicator for the required/true rudderposition display. Visit Navis at stand 301, in hall B6.

OceanSatMaritime communications providerOceanSat will be present at SMM 2012,exhibiting its services for the design andimplementation of onboard connectivitysolutions.

The company provides VSAT, TVROand AIS systems to shipping companies,and is a distributor for Korean antennamanufacturer Intellian in a number of dif-ferent markets.Visit OceanSat at stand 611, in hall B6.

Raytheon AnschützAt SMM 2012 Raytheon Anschütz willexhibit its own navigation systems, with particular focus on the SynapsisIntegrated Bridge and Navigation System.

Raytheon says that Synapsis is theworld’s first INS (integrated navigationsystem) which has been type approvedaccording to IMO’s new INS PerformanceStandard.

Hands-on demonstrations will also beoffered for the company’s new steeringgear control system NautoSteer AS.

The adaptive autopilot NP 5000 can beoperated in ECO-Mode to reduce sensitivi-ty to periodical yawing movements.Subsequently less rudder action isrequired, which leads to less fuel consump-tion. For high precision requirements, theautopilot also offers a new course controlmode and a high-precision controller. Visit Raytheon Anschütz at stand 304, inhall B6.

Saab TransponderTechSaab TransponderTech, a provider ofmarine AIS technology, will showcase its

new fifth-generation R5 AIS product lineat SMM.

The company says that the R5 AIStransponders are the first to incorporatesoftware-defined radio (SDR) transceiverstogether with newly developed high-speed analogue-to-digital converters in atype-approved Class A system, improvingreceiver sensitivity, stability and signalprocessing.

The range of R5 products includes thesingle-box SOLAS-compliant R5 SOLIDfor fisheries and inland waters and the R5SUPREME, which provides networkingcapabilities for integration with the ship’snavigation systems.

In addition to the R5 products, Saab –together with the Swedish MaritimeAdministration - will provide demonstra-tions of the Dynamic & Proactive RoutePlanning (Green Routes) testbed projectunder the Motorways & ElectronicNavigation by Intelligence at Sea(MonaLisa) initiative. Visit Saab at stand 406, in hall B6.

Safebridge At SMM 2012, Safebridge, a Hamburg-based e-learning company, will providelive demonstrations of a full working ver-sion of its ECDIS courseware linked viathe web to the Safebridge online serverand the original ECDIS manufacturer’sown software.

Safebridge developed the online cours-es to meet the requirement for officers tobe trained and certified to operate the spe-cific ECDIS models installed in the shipson which they sail.

The Safebridge courses are simulationsrun on the actual ECDIS manufacturer’ssoftware. The courses are conductedonline and not using CDs or DVDs, allow-ing the student to take the courses any-where with a good internet connection. Atthe successful completion of the course,the student takes an online test prior toreceiving a certificate for that specificmodel of ECDIS.

Having released the first course cover-ing the Northrop Grumman SperryMarine VisionMaster FT ECDIS in May,Safebridge is now finalising coursewarefor its other ECDIS manufacturing part-ners: Raytheon Anschuetz, TransasMarine, JRC, Imtech, ChartWorld, SAMElectronics and 7Cs.Visit Safebridge at stand 521, in hall B6.

SAJ InstrumentAt SMM 2012, SAJ Instrument Ab Ltdwill be exhibiting its dynamic monitor-

Discuss VSAT packages at stand B6/201

Integrated bridges on show at stand B6/304

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 21


Digital Shiping system SAJ-DMS.

SAJ-DMS is used to create a standard to maintain accurate information aboutships' real dynamic condition, such astrim, heel, hull bending and floating con-dition, all within a single system and in away that is not practical with convention-al gauges or devices.

This allows theoretical trim optimisa-tion data to be directly compared againstreal measured data, allowing for any nec-essary adjustments to be made. Visit SAJ at stand 110, in hall B1 (Upperfloor).

SAM ElectronicsSAM Electronics, and its associate L-3companies, will feature new-generationautomation, communications, navigation,positioning, propulsion, energy genera-tion and distribution equipment at SMM.

This will include live demonstrations ofSAM’s latest Nacos Platinum scalable nav-igation, automation and control systems,which use common components and oper-ating networks.

Also featured as part of the demonstra-tions is an L-3 Valmarine multi-functionValmatic automation assembly, as well asa new DP control system from L-3Dynamic Positioning & Control Systems.

Other new exhibits include fleet main-tenance and servicing software, a retrofitECDIS, a Bridge Navigational WatchAlarm System (BNWAS) and a Techcrossballast water treatment assembly.

Entertainment, lighting and sensormeasurement equipment are also beingshown, while a nearby outside displayfeatures demonstrations of SAMcon, analternative shore-based power connectionsystem for container vessels.Visit SAM Electronics at stand 310, inhall B6.

ShipConstructor SoftwareShipConstructor Software will be display-ing its Autodesk shipbuilding applicationat SMM Hamburg 2012.

The company's staff will be available toexplain how to use as-built CAD modelsgenerated during the design and construc-tion process, which it says are increasinglybeing demanded by governments andship owners on delivery of a completedvessel.

ShipConstructor CAD models contain

information on how ships are constructed,including attribute information for eachpart which can be used during lifecyclemaintenance and repairs.

The company says that the AutoCADDWG’s native format for its informationmakes it widely interoperable with otherapplications, which can be useful whendealing with various third party suppliers.Visit ShipConstructor Software at stand426, in hall B5.

ShipServShipServ will showcase its newly releasedtool for maritime suppliers and brandmanufacturers at SMM 2012.

The Supplier Insight Report is used totrack a user's entire marketing spendacross both ShipServ Pages, the company'smaritime search engine, and its e-com-merce platform, ShipServ TradeNet.

The tool is now available to all 40,000suppliers registered on ShipServ Pages forfree, and shows all the results of a user'smarketing activity in one dashboard, bro-ken down into banner advertising impres-sions, searches, profile views, contactviews, request for quotes (RFQs) and pur-chase orders.Visit ShipServ at stand 112, in hall B6.

Star Information SystemsAt SMM 2012 Star Information Systems(SIS) will be showcasing its software solu-tions for technical ship management,including systems for preventative mainte-nance, HSEQ, dry-docking, and logistics.

SIS recently launched a new system forfleet supply and purchasing, used toreduce time spent on procurement, whichit says should help in allowing for morestrategic purchasing.

The company also notes that its pur-chasing and logistics solutions are in theprocess of being further enhanced withadditional functionality such as contractmanagement, warehouse management,and shipments.Visit SIS at stand 625, in hall B6.

Telecom ItaliaTelecom Italia will showcase its range offixed, mobile and satellite communicationservices during this year's SMM.

Telecom Italia says it has made a signif-icant investment in financial, technical andprofessional resources in enhancing its

product portfolio with business valueadded services and in reinforcing its inter-national presence to meet the demands ofthe growing market for satellite servicesfor the maritime industry.

Through its satellite facility located inFucino, Italy, Telecom Italia offers satelliteservices across the four Inmarsat satelliteregions.

The company is currently providingsatellite services to customers (satelliteoperators and Inmarsat service providers)in Italy, UK, Germany, France, Sweden,Finland, USA, China, South Korea, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Israel, Bahrain, Russia,Algeria, Cyprus.Visit Telecom Italia at stand 120, in hallB3.OG.

TelemarTelemar is exhibiting its products andintegrated projects in the field of marineelectronics, both communications andnavigation, at its stand at SMM.

The company will showcase its servicesto design, install, commission and supportnavigation/communication ‘all-in-one’projects, which it says offer predictablecosts. These services provide managedsystems, packaging together the relevanttechnological options and applicationssuitable for the customer.

Telemar operates in the main globalshipping ports and is directly presentthrough 12 subsidiaries in 10 marketsworldwide.Visit Telemar at stand 128, in hall B6.

Thrane & ThraneThe Thrane & Thrane stand at SMM 2012will feature the company’s SAILOR port-folio, including SAILOR 900 VSAT,SAILOR FleetBroadband, various fixedand portable radio communication sys-tems and a new GMDSS safety beacon.

The satellite and radio communicationsystems manufacturer will also showcasedevelopments in its satellite TV offering,and will highlight a wider range ofSAILOR communication products thatutilise its ThraneLINK network protocol.

On the satellite communications appli-

cation front, Thrane & Thrane will focuson the growth of remote monitoring andmaintenance as primary drivers forinstalling its antennas on board.Visit Thrane & Thrane at stand 407, inhall B6.

Transas MarineTransas Marine will showcase its ECDISsolutions at this year's SMM exhibition.

The company says that its packagescontain more than just the ECDIS equip-ment, with additional extra features avail-able to help make ECDIS operations moreefficient.

These services include chart handlingto applications for fuel saving, and a num-ber of others.

Transas is also inviting visitors to theexhibition to come to the stand to play the'Transas one-armed bandit' game it willfeature during the event.Visit Transas at stand 208, in hall B6.

VizadaVizada will showcase its latest version ofVizada XChange at SMM, introducing anew mobile edition for smartphone andtablet users.

Providing expanded use of satelliteservices on board, the mobile versionoffers more privacy in accessing socialmedia, chat or news while remaining incabins or crew rooms.

The new SkyFile Mail Premium appli-cation will also be demonstrated inHamburg. A central feature of the newSkyFile Mail is compatibility withMicrosoft Outlook, Thunderbird or otherPOP3/SMTP clients, allowing for integra-tion with existing e-mail tools onboardship. Also new is an automatic notificationpush feature, which allows captains andofficers to choose to receive important e-mails immediately, without any manualaction.

Vizada will also highlight the latestdevelopments in its Pharostar VSAT serv-ice, providing always-on speeds up to 3Mbps in Ku-band via a choice of stabilisedantennas.Visit Vizada at stand 206, in hall B6.

Scalable bridges at stand B6/310

Antenna technology at stand B6/407

DS

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 22



II n 1995 the first performance standardsfor ECDIS were agreed by IMO, fol-lowed in 1998 by standards issued by

the International Electrotechnical Commis-sion (IEC) for use by manufacturers and forofficial type approval, known as IEC 61174.

The data standards for ECDIS weredeveloped by the InternationalHydrographic Organization. They arehighly complex, covering all aspects –from the production of the data by hydro-graphic offices to how the data is dis-played to the end user.

The first type approved ECDIS equip-ment became available in 1999.Unfortunately, there was very little officialdigital chart data (ENCs) available at thattime and so early systems mainly reliedupon alternative sources – official rasterand privately produced vector data.

In fact, ENCs took rather longer tobecome a useable world series than any-body had predicted back in the 1990s.

The delay in their availability was mainlybecause their advent coincided with a majorchange in the way that countries were hav-ing to consider their charting responsibilities.

For historical reasons, the production ofglobally available paper charts was domi-nated by a few national hydrographicoffices, not least the UKHO.

But in 1994 the Third UN Conventionon the Law of the Sea came into force. Theintroduction of Exclusive Economic Zonesresulted in a greater political need forcoastal states to take explicit chartingresponsibility for their own waters.

The introduction of ENCs formed a nat-ural transition to the new responsibilities.

However, it took some time for manycoastal states to acquire the technology andskills to be able to produce ENCs – or even tomake the decision to subcontract the work.

The long delay in their global availabil-ity effectively meant that in the firstdecade of the 21st century paper chartshad to continue being the primary sourceof charted data on just about all vessels,even if a true ECDIS was fitted.

This resulted in many ships installingnon-ECDIS electronic chart systems (ECS).

These have minimal statutory standardsto meet, making them rather less expen-sive than a type approved ECDIS, whilesuperficially giving the same benefits as atrue ECDIS when used in areas with limit-ed ENC data.

Properly used, with paper charts asthe primary source, ECS has providedbenefits for the safer navigation of ships,not least because an electronic chartforms the ideal display for GNSS derivedpositional information.

However, the ever-wider coverage ofENCs and the increasing embracement ofthe ECDIS carriage requirements meansthat ECS use on ships will inevitably wane.

ECDIS anomaliesWith the major improvements in ENCdata availability and the linked com-mencement of the IMO compulsory car-riage programme, real use and interest inECDIS has greatly magnified in the pastcouple of years.

This upsurge in knowledge and use hasperhaps inevitably uncovered somedetailed issues with some systems. During

2012 these have hit the headlines, not leastbecause of the results highlighted by therecent IHO-initiated survey on ENC/ECDIS data presentation and performance.

This survey, based on operators seeinghow their ECDIS displays data from anIHO issued test data set, has shown that asurprisingly large number of systems donot display all data exactly according tohow IMO/IHO intended.

Some of these discrepancies couldcompromise safe navigation in particularcircumstances.

In addition, certain equipment has beenfound to exhibit certain inconsistencies ingiving particular indications and alarms,such as the route checking function whenvoyage planning.

The survey has stimulated a rapid reac-tion. In general, software updates havenow been made available that fix theknown issues on deficient equipment.Unfortunately, it appears that some specif-ic older models are not correctable.

For all known issues IMO has issuedSN.1/Circ.312, which describes them andgives workaround advice if these are stillin evidence on fitted equipment. It empha-sises the need to maintain ECDIS soft-ware, following SN.1/Circ.266/Rev1.

The formal type approval process forall navigational equipment is aimed atensuring that essential performance andsafety criteria are met, using an assess-ment process that is essentially independ-ent of the equipment supplier.

Following normal practice, the growth inknowledge of the type of errors being foundin the field is being used to improve the testscenarios used for ECDIS type approval andby manufacturers in their design process.

This will undoubtedly reduce the like-lihood of future errors of any significancegetting through the design and approvalprocess.

However, the complexity of the ECDISdata standards means that it is probablynot feasible to have independent checksmade to ensure that a system correctlydeals with every listed item in therequired manner in all possible situations.

This is leading to a growing belief thatequipment needing to handle very com-plex safety-related data, such as ECDISand future e-navigation systems, needsadditional procedures to improve con-formity from the day it is introduced.

This, for example, could includerequirements that the software is devel-oped according to specific internationallyagreed standards and that as part of thedevelopment process the resultant codehas been proven by the developer to havepassed highly detailed tests.

The development process itself wouldbe subject to conformity checks. The testresults would be made available to theapproval authorities and would supple-ment independent type approval checks.

Is ECDIS unsafe?In the worst case a particular fitted ECDIScould indeed exhibit an anomaly thatcauses or contributes to an accident.

This could be the case even if safety criti-cal design procedures, such as used in thepassenger aircraft industry were in place,although the probability of a mishap due toan ECDIS anomaly would be much reduced.

In fact, charting is already an error-prone area. In many instances the charteddata is itself inaccurate, not least becauseof the great age of many of the surveys.

Human and equipment errors can anddo occur when creating the surveyed dataand also when such data is being compiledinto a chart, whether paper or electronic.

Not surprisingly, some anomaliesencountered on ECDIS have been the resultof erroneously compiled data. Of course,steps are always being taken to improvethe situation but errors inevitably occur.

ECDIS design faults clearly add to theerror possibilities and need to be appro-priately minimised. In addition, ECDISequipment can suffer hardware failure atsea. Clearly, if using ECDIS increases theoverall risk of a shipping accident then wehave got things drastically wrong.

But in very many ways ECDIS signifi-cantly decreases the possibility of a humaninstigated accident, not only because of itsnormally dependable automatic indicationof ship’s position with respect to charteddangers but also in its automatic ability towarn mariners of potential hazards.

This is all part of addressing the issuethat ’80 per cent of accidents are caused byhuman failure’. Better technology canreduce the overall accident rate but theratio caused by equipment issues willinevitably rise from the approximately 20per cent that it is now.

Paper charts have all sorts of weakness-es compared to ECDIS but a particularstrength is that that they are not an elec-tronic system and are therefore just aboutimmune to catastrophic failure.

With ECDIS, a failure can even lead toa display blackout, whether instigated bya component failure, a software error orcorrupt data. It is even possible that thebackup system could simultaneously failfor the same reason.

At least such failures are highly notice-able and laid down emergency procedurescan provide mitigation of the obvious dan-gers. Unfortunately, software and dataerrors are generally much more subtle andare more akin to chart compilation errors.

We must therefore continually strive toreduce their possibility.

With the improvements already inplace or underway ECDIS anomalies onnewly fitted equipment can be expected tosignificantly reduce. Of course, this needscontinued close monitoring.

However, for future newly introducedequipment, such as that envisaged for e-navigation, we must not get into the samesituation as has occurred with the intro-duction of ECDIS.

For equipment that handles, displaysand automatically reacts to complex data,we do need better procedures to makeanomalies a very rare occurrence – evenwhen the equipment is first introduced.

Parallel to achieving this is the needfor the requirements to be made entirelyunambiguous.

With the introduction of the mandatory carriage requirement for ECDIS, the equipment is set to become the focal point of modern navigation. However, its ubiquity will make the effect of potential errors or anomalies

in the system even more widespread, so care must be taken, writes Dr Andy Norris

Unravelling ECDIS?

DS

Dr Andy �orris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry for anumber of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech navigationcompanies but now he is working on broader issues within the navigationalworld, providing both technical and business consultancy to the industry, gov-ernmental bodies and maritime organizations. Email: [email protected]

Procedures are in place, but errors in chart data display will inevitably occur

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 23

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 24

p52-76:p15-25.qxd 17/08/2012 14:27 Page 25

digital ship magazine(sept 2012)

Documents

capt artis

preliminary

mr favretto

mr kim notes

explains mr

joint pilot

explains mr

explains mr