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KVH’s TracVision satellite tracking application as shown on A AWT’s Forecast link delivered onboard via KVH’s IP-MobileCast. pple Computer’s iPhone and iPad.

Credit: KVH it has, opening up opportunities for ef? ciency that operators could only dream of a few short years ago.

The industry today has the technology to meet the con- nectivity needs of both crew and company, and the evidence shows, according to Futurenautics, that there is “increasingly not simply a moral or regulatory, but commercial imperative, to deliver it.”

As a result, “connectivity today is critical across the board for all manner of activities,’’ says Zimmer.

Forward-thinking ship companies are moving to start cap- turing the true value of their investment in IP connectivity.

They are beginning to recognize that “the value of data re- turned to shore far outweighs the cost of the service to do so,” says Robert Hopkins, Jr., Director, IP-MobileCast Services,

KVH Industries, Inc. Not surprisingly, this means that going forward, ships will want to connect crews not just to family, but to everything they can, moving better connectivity to the top of not just crew, but operator lists as well.

Patricia Keefe is a veteran journalist, editor and commen- tator who writes about technology, business and maritime topics. www.maritimeprofessional.com | Maritime Professional | 41 34-49 Q1 MP2016.indd 41 2/29/2016 11:13:44 AM