Young officers on board sea going vessels need an improved and payable broadband connection on board. Participants of the seminar “Broadband for ‘the new generation’ on board” came to this conclusion.
During the seminar, held on 28 January, the results of the different researches within the project Broadband@sea were presented.
In Norway no officer will come on board if there is no Internet and e-mail available. With the traditional (older) satellite equipment, only the captain had access to e-mail. Broadband via satellite is applied more and more often. Apart from the well-known Inmarsat and Iridium, VSAT has also become more affordable. However, there are still many questions about for instance access control, cost management and safety.
Views
The Broadband@sea participants presented their views on these points. Wagenborg Shipping presented their test of five ships with VSAT installations. An open Internet connection was created on board. “The crew itself is responsible for the use of the connection,” said Frank van den Anker, Wagenborg Shipping. On the other hand, Edgar van Oers of Boskalis Baggermaatschappij mentioned the bottlenecks when changing traditional satcom B into a new satcom installation.
Better Applications with Broadband
Two maritime suppliers presented several applications that work better with broadband connections. Peter Stoter from MeteoConsult presented their new system of SPOS, where shaped information can be uploaded from several trends. While Klaas Kuper from Wärtsilä Netherlands illustrated how his company uses remote monitoring. The received and sent data allows a captain or chief engineer to act more adequately. Both applications work best with a broadband connection.
Information Market
The audience of the seminar, consisting of ship owners, subcontractors, shipyard representatives and knowledge institutes, was very interested. A mini information market had been set up to show the last developments in the communication area.
Source: https://www.hme.nl/english/News/Project_Broadband@sea_brakes_with_Internet_traditions/Default.aspx?rId=532[HME]
