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RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

They’ll change the amount of bandwidth needed on 24-hour notice – that is almost unheard of in this industry. They let us moni- tor some of the bigger cost drivers – condition-based maintenance, fuel consumption, full access to generators and engines – so we

Trent Zimmer, can see what these are doing in real time. The system sees prob-

IT Manager, lems as they happen, so we can be proactive instead of reactive with a skyrocketing problem and save on costs.

Jackson Offshore a ton of information – fuel ? ow, oil ? ow, consumption, tem- touts its ‘Power of One’ concept, which it describes as single perature, pressure – you can see and make decisions based on provider, one-stop combination of global satellite connectiv- that data,” says Zimmer. ity, application engineering, network management, multicast-

From a cost-saving perspective, he is particularly pleased ing delivery of licensed content and ongoing support. with Bluetide. “They’ll change the amount of bandwidth It’s mini-VSAT system utilizes a C/Ku-band satellite net- needed on 24-hour notice – that is almost unheard of in this work, global private terrestrial and MPLS network for en- industry. They let us monitor some of the bigger cost drivers – hanced security; includes an updated and compact TracPhone condition-based maintenance, fuel consumption, full access to V-IP series system; usage plan options; and offers faster, generators and engines – so we can see what these are doing in more affordable, non-bandwidth-hogging content delivery real time. The system sees problems as they happen, so we can via KVH’s IP-MobileCast content delivery service. The latter be proactive instead of reactive with a skyrocketing problem reportedly can deliver up to 500 GB of content monthly to and save on costs.” vessels without impacting data speed, airtime plan or net-

He also uses vessel mapping fairly heavily. “Bluetide has a work performance. service - Bluevision - we’ve not seen elsewhere. It gives us the IP-MobileCast’s multicasting technology enables one trans- ability to use geo-fences to check on a vessel in real time. If mission to send ? les via broadband link to a central server on it is in an area it shouldn’t be, we get noti? ed.” Jackson also each vessel, which can be then accessed essentially off net- has just installed a tilt zoom camera that monitors back deck work by all crew members. The process cuts client costs by activity. “All the managers have access. It’s useful from both a taking advantage of the unused bandwidth, and frees up the safety aspect and for clients to see availability of space on the ship’s network to handle real-time traf? c ef? ciently. This re- deck,” notes Zimmer. places the more expensive and complex process of sending a single transmission per individual device.

Power of One

In addition to providing a richer functionality set, com- Value of Data Exceeds Cost munications services are becoming cheaper, and more multi- To think all this started with crew demands for access. “Be tasking. More affordable broadband technologies like KVH honest. We all look at our phones and get on the internet while

Industries’ mini-VSAT Broadband 2.0, claim to deliver suf- we are working,” says Ledet. “It was only a matter of time ? cient broadband capabilities without trashing budgets. KVH before it moved out of the of? ces and onto our vessels.” So 40 | Maritime Professional | 1Q 2016 34-49 Q1 MP2016.indd 40 2/29/2016 11:13:13 AM