Plug & Play

Cruise lines, perhaps more than any other segment of the shipping market, have eagerly adopted advanced integrated bridge systems to help protect not only passenger, crews and reputations, but also the more than half-billion dollar homes within which they reside.

Furuno Furuno's Integrated Bridge System, dubbed Voyager has been designed to achieve total integration of bridge equipment and information in accordance with the One Man Bridge Operation (OMBO). All components come from a single source, Furuno. Complying with the latest performance standards of IMO and IEC, the ECDIS displays and ENC vector charts make for easy route planning and route monitoring. The turn radius can be specified for each waypoint along the planned route, which is check against the electronic chart to produce a grounding prevention warning of where dangerous shallow waters exist.

Voyager also incorporates an adaptive steering control in the automatic track control system, which automatically steers the ship from point to point along a planned rout in narrow waters of across the ocean. The centralized system represents on the conning display, the ship's heading, course-made-good, speed, rate-of-turn, planned route and waypoint data, wind, drift, depth and more. Utilizing a modular design, Voy- ager is designed to be customized to any bridge environment.

Kelvin Hughes Smiths Group expertise in aircraft display technology has helped Kelvin Hughes produce their range of integrated bridge systems. The ninas 9000 is designed as a highly flexible range of integrated bridge systems designed to utilize the Kelvin Hughes range of nucleus radars and navigation systems.

Created around the nucleus2 range of displays, which have been developed over the last five years, include the well-established nucleus2 6000 radar display and the Multi-Feature Display.

All displays use the patented tracker ball and three button control system to operate all of the on-screen functions.

Kelvin Hughes has worked closely with the world's leading classification societies including ABS, BV, DNV, GL and LR in designing the ninas 9000 bridge systems. Kelvin Hughes' modular layout allows for ultimate flexibility in design, as many different consoles and angular units are offered to fit the varied demands of ship owners and operators.

The ninas 8000 has the same visibility as the ninas 9000, but displays are smaller and thus ideally suited to highspeed craft and coastal vessels.

MANTA, or Management Automation Navigation Telecommunications Array, served as a "raising of the bar" in the IBS field, as the futuristic looking unit utilizes flat-screen technology to pro- vide a space-saving, ergonomic design.

The unit operates in two modes, "At Sea" and "Harbor." Litton Marine Systems Litton Marine Systems (LMS) has been a dominate player in placing Integrated Bridge Systems in many markets, including the cruise market, with its biggest mark being the contract to place redundant IBS on Royal Caribbean's Eagle Class ships, with the first being the world's largest cruise ship. Voyager of the Seas. LMS' sophisticated IBS is also specified aboard two vessels currently under construction at Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg. Radiance of the Seas, will be delivered in early 2001, with the second vessel scheduled to arrive during the second half of 2002.

In accordance with Royal Caribbean's two-bridge concept, each vessel will house a completely redundant package comprised of two independent Vision 2100 integrated bridge systems. The total package will include interswitched BridgeMaster E S-band and X-band radars, a Sperry Marine Voyage Management System (VMS) with ECDIS and a docking system.

Raytheon Marine Company Raytheon Marine Company (RMC) early last year entered into a cooperative agreement with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) to integrate key components of Raytheon's Integrated Bridge System into Samsung's Naru 2000, an ECDIS (Electronic Charting Display and Information System) based Integrated Navigation System. This agreement marks the beginning of a new strategy underway at Raytheon Marine to capture more business in Asian markets where a large portion of the industry's shipbuilding occurs. As a result of the agreement with Samsung, Raytheon Marine expects to bring in up to $10 million per year in new sales revenue.

"Samsung has chosen Raytheon Marine as part of the NARU 2000 team because their products represent the very best in state-of the-art technology," said H.K. Lee, President of Samsung Heavy Industries. "Raytheon is well recognized for its high levels of reliability and service, offering the industry's most extensive global service network." Samsung's Naru 2000, a fully integrated navigation system designed for commercial vessels, features ground breaking safety oriented technologies, such as a Weather Information System and a Collision Avoidance System. The Weather Information System enables navigators to maximize route planning around changing weather conditions.

The Collision Avoidance System enhances ship safety by utilizing sophisticated computer simulation to identify and avoid potential hazards far in advance. Raytheon Marine products to be integrated into the NARU 2000 include the Standard 20 Gyro Compass, the Pathfinder/ST MK2 radar and the NautoPilot 2000. The Standard 20 Gyro Compass offers a self-adjusting, serial heading transmission system with the highest heading accuracy in the maritime business. The Pathfinder/ST MK2, the first radar system to pass type approval based on most recent IMO standards, provides rain de-blurring through the patented Raytheon "Rain Rate Control" technology. Raytheon Marine's Nautopilot 2000 is a versatile, digital autopilot, intended for sea and river going vessels of all sizes.

STN ATLAS Latest integrated bridge developments from Hamburg-based STN ATLAS Marine Electronics include a new Series 4 range of its established NACOS series of navigation command systems, which presently account for around 35 percent of world cargo newbuilding INS requirements and nearly 60 percent of those for new-generation cruise liners.

The Series incorporates latest Radarpilot Atlas 1000 radars featuring improved clutter suppression, a switchable antenna revolution for high-speed applications and enhanced monitoring of targets at close range. Other main features include new Multipilot consoles based on PC-compatible hardware for improved interchange of radar and ECDIS data while other refinements include an option for a remote diagnostic unit with which it will be possible to not only access a system's status via the Internet or Inmarsat-B or C.

NACOS systems additionally form an integral part of proprietary Atlas Ship Control Centres (SCC's) that combine and automate all main bridge equipment control operations inclusive of navigation, communications, engine control and alarm monitoring. A new SCC development is a purpose-designed version for small vessels. It features Atlas 12-in. 1000 series radars and a Geamar integrated monitoring and control system supported by a series of flat-screen displays. The radars form part of a NACOS integrated navigation command sub-assembly based on a radar-controlled trackpilot with other key constituents including a Chartpilot ECDIS module for processing and editing of electronic chart data.

To date, nearly 40 of the new Series 4 configurations have already been sold worldwide, with total sales of all NACOS systems now exceeding 650 systems. Latest commissionings include 65-4 systems for all four Cruise liners being built by Meyer Werft for delivery to Star Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line between 2001- 2004. Similar configurations have also been chosen for P&O Princess Cruises' two 113,000-gt liners under construction at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan while another is currently being installed as part of an Atlas Ship Control Center (SCC) on Irish Ferries' Finnishbuilt 50,000 gt RoPax Ulysses due to enter service this year; scheduled for service routes between Holyhead and Dublin, the vessel is the world's largest of its type.