Page 26: of Marine News Magazine (July 2012)

The complex task of operating any marine enterprise isn?t getting easier. These problems are exacerbated by the sheer number of smaller, workboat operators struggling to catch up with increasingly sophisticated business and regulatory requirements. Keeping track of the new subchapter ?M? rules, for example, presents another headache, but that?s just one of many facing today?s operators. Increasingly, inland, workboat and OSV  rms are turning to  eet management and operations software. Beyond the myriad software choices lurks the real issue for users: selecting a viable and affordable communications vehicle to transmit data, back- and-forth. You really can?t mention one (software) without involving the other (communications). It also turns out that, like your own unique marine operation, no two solutions are exactly alike. COST-EFFECTIVE INSTANT DATA COLLECTION: REDUCING COSTS WHILE INCREASING FUEL EFFICIENCYManaging vessel fuel costs, due to the combination of escalating fuel prices and ship-sourced emissions regulations, is now a critical issue for operators. This trend continues as new regulations and ?ECA?s? go into effect. That said; it is essential for maritime businesses to conduct assessments of each vessel?s fuel system to determine the steps necessary to operate according to regulations while running the ship effectively. This requires real-time monitoring of the vessel?s fuel storage, settling and service tank arrangement, as well as determining how to manage fuel switching when trading in areas where emission limits are in effect. Kemilinks International Pte Ltd. works with customers to develop ways to facilitate cost-effective tracking, monitoring and telemetry communications between a customer?s onshore of ce and their assets at sea. Their proprietary Fuel Monitoring System, which comes with a Microcontroller Unit fully embedded with software application to collect and analyze fuel and engine data, is one way to counter the growing cost of navigating in international waters. The Fuel Monitoring System interfaces with any  ow meter model and other sensors such as engines? control panel, anemometer, GPS, etc., to capture data regarding engine RPM, load, propeller pitch, propeller load and rudder angle. This data generates graphical trending reports for analysis at the vessel?s corporate headquarters. In early installations, the Fuel Monitoring System sent reports to a shared folder and the ship?s captain would email them at predetermined intervals back to the onshore of ce using satellite equipment that supported both broadband and voice services. But due to the airtime pricing structure of these satellite terminals, it was not cost-effective to send the fuel reports in near real-time. Customers wanted the fuel reports to arrive more frequently and automatically, without human intervention, allowing them to be able to analyze the operational ef ciency of the vessel during a passage. However, they didn?t do this because sending multiple data  les from sea using the satellite broadband terminals increases their operational expenses. As Kemilinks searched for a cost-effective way to manage transmission from international waters, SkyWave Mobile Communications, a global provider of communication services for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, was introducing the IsatData Pro satellite service that enables remote management of  xed and mobile assets anywhere in the world. IsatData Pro is designed for transmitting telemetry information and remote management and control of equipment. Offering a signi cant increase in payload capacity, it delivers up to 10,000 bytes of information to the device and up to 6,400 bytes from the device. Other global M2M satellite services currently available offer data connectivity at between 270 and 340 bytes. IsatData Pro meets the increasing demand for more Fleet Management & Operations Software and Communications (too) Blue Sky Network?s HawkEye 5300 ex-ploits the bene ts of Iridium Satellite and GSM cellular track-ing capabilities.26 MNJuly 2012