Page 78: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1998)

THE AUTOMATED BRIDGE

Ensuing Ship Safety

While the advent of advanced-technology products and systems which constitute the automated bridge — and technological advances in general — have had a tremendous effect on the out- fitting of bridges on all vessels, these factors have had a similar, sweeping effect on the marine electronics supply market itself.

Small, independent players have regularly been scooped up and integrated by larger companies which see such strategic acquisitions as an opportunity to cost-effectively and time-effi- ciently acquire a compatible technology or product which will help them become a "one-stop shop."

While maritime has, is and will always be a crew-intensive industry, new products and systems — such as the integrated bridge systems — are continually introduced to help few do the job of many, safely and efficiently. Skeptics who continue to label the maritime industry as conservative and slow to act on emerg- ing trends and technologies may not be far from the mark in clas- sifying a certain segment of owner / operators. But owners of quality ships continue to demonstrate that an investment in advanced marine electronics is "in vogue."

The ensuing pages highlight the efforts of a few suppliers in outfitting modern ships.

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U.K/s MSA Evaluates

Raster Chart Display System

U.K. shipping companies are helping the MSA to evaluate

Raster Chart Display Systems (RCDS) in use on their ships. The results will be submitted to the

IMO in time for next July's meet- ing of the Sub-Committee on

Safety of Navigation - NAV 44.

The IMO has already adopted performance standards for

Electronic Chart Display

Information Systems (ECDIS).

However, there is currently only a limited amount of vector data available to support full ECDIS.

The MSA believes that raster charts, which already have a wide- coverage and are exact copies of official paper charts, provide a reliable electronic charting service for areas where official vector data is not yet available.

In the light of debates at NAV 43, the IMO has called for more feedback from users to help it assess the safety of RCDS.

The MSA has given permission for a number of U.K. ships to use

RCDS as their main charting tool so that a fair and independent evaluation can take place.

Together, with similar feedback from a number of other countries, the results will enable the safety factors for raster charts to be prop- erly assessed at IMO.

All vessels involved in the

MSA's evaluation use the U.K.

Hydrographic Office's ARCS charts and the UKHO will be assisting the MSA in evaluating the feedback.

The MSA welcomes the active participation of the following com- panies in this important work:

British Antarctic Survey; BP

Shipping Ltd.; F T Everard & Sons

Ltd.; P&O European Ferries; Shell

UK Ltd.; United Marine Dredging

Ltd.; Royal Fleet Auxiliary; and

RNLI.

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Maritime Reporter/Engineering News