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spect, but customers enjoy a high level of trust, service and reliability with ESSI and our equipment.? And in a business where many companies spend just $300 to $700 monthly per vessel in a highly controlled situation, that?s saying a lot. OSV OPERATORS LOOK DEEPER Companies looking for high power Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services often discover that they are told that they are paying for and receiving a certain amount of bandwidth, but is very often oversubscribed. Because workboats often toil in close proximity to one another, ESSI was the  rst to introduce ? followed by others now, to be sure ? guaranteed bandwidth. And to make sure that customers get what they pay for, ESSI proves it by allow- ing customers to have access to their hub. Regard said that it goes much deeper than that, however. ?Customers like that we can and do integrate engineroom monitoring, voice and data services. For example, we can help them do monitoring and trending that will incorporate alarms at set intervals if something isn?t right. And, this is something which clients increasingly want.? Regard knows that no offshore company has static needs. Boats get laid up, or more are added. Customers need to have  exibility to add bandwidth for software and or engine room monitoring needs, or subtract, if necessary. Regard said, ?if a customer has to lay up a boat, then they can scale down their plan in terms of bandwidth. After all, if the boat is not working, we?re not getting paid. If it is, we are. This policy operates within reason, of course, but it illustrates just one more aspect our commitment to this market.? Finally, says Regard, if an antenna fails, ESSI will install an Iridium and/or Inmarsat replacement unit to tide them over. NOT JUST BANDWIDTH : A WIDER MENUThe ESSI/Hughes value-added menu is a wide one now. Now fully evolved for the demanding, increasingly so- phisticated offshore markets, the breadth of services now available make it clear that VSAT providers must do much more than just provide bandwidth and data services. ES- SI?s offerings now include: VESSEL MAPPING This global service, developed by ESSI, tracks the pre- cise location of a vessel and maps it on a web accessible map (including a lease block overlay in the Gulf of Mex- ico). It shows vessel Latitude and Longitude to four deci- mal places, speed (knots) and heading, updating every 15 minutes. The service records this information in history for up to one year. History shows the path and heading of the vessel over time. For  eets; the entire  eet, or sub sets such as regions, vessel types, or customers can be shown in separate groups with independent log in credentials. Deck Vision: This global service, developed by ESSI, adds a snap shot of the back deck each time Vessel Map- ping records position data. A thumbnail view of this appears on a call out box in the ?Map View?, and lists the photos in ?Current Status? mode. The vessel can be monitored for safety and logistics management. For many customers, this is an especially desirable feature. Shoreside personnel can see a snapshot photo of what?s happening ?At GulfMark, we were interested in more than just VSAT for internet and voice service, we are looking for new applications to enhance operational efÞ ciency and safety.? Lee Johnson, SVP & CIO, GulfMark Offshore April 201340 MNMN April2013 Layout 32-49.indd 40MN April2013 Layout 32-49.indd 404/1/2013 12:26:48 PM4/1/2013 12:26:48 PM