Page 15: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2, 2006)

February 2006 15 systems with headquarters solutions that control procurement and provisioning of all vessels under management. Wallem reports that the system has also improved the quality of life of the ship's officers and crew by putting them in immediate touch with the outside world and relatives via e-mail and digital news services. Wallem used the Fleet F77 sys- tem with service provided by Stratos, and a host of applications to test the

Inmarsat network in real-world condi- tions. The vessel tested three specific types of applications covering the areas of communications, operations and management. To test communications,

Inmarsat, Stratos and the Fleet F77 sys- tem supported a range of features and functionalities including regular voice, e-mail, and an SMS solution. The sys- tem also featured NewsLink, which pro- vides officers and crew with tailored news headlines and stories in a range of languages reflecting the nationalities of the crew on board. NewsLink also pro- vided connectivity to Wallem's own web portal and other web sites.

For the operations application, Wallem evaluated the performance of key safety and insurance activities, such as detailed, full-color weather reports and the transmission of procedures manual updates. The operations testing also cov- ered what Wallem calls "abstracts"; including engine performance data, fuel states, and cargo updates.

Testing the management of the system was essentially a matter of bandwidth control. While making Inmarsat Fleet

F77 service available to the entire crew is desirable from a morale standpoint, doing so would make it difficult to prop- erly manage the bandwidth as well as correctly charge the individual users or applications for their usage. To solve the problem, Wallem commissioned its own solution development operation,

DevCo, to create a brand new manage- ment application, called Packet Counter.

Although still at the prototype stage at press time, Packet Counter tracks data usage and provides ship-owners with an itemized report similar to a mobile phone bill. The report could be used to segment charges by usage groups; such as master, crew and Wallem itself. "The big challenge for Wallem has always been the question of how to link modern technology solutions to vessels at sea. Inmarsat's new Fleet F77 has proved a solution to that problem," said

Patrick Slesinger, the chief information officer of the Wallem Group, adding that the pricing model accompanying the system (where users are charged for the amount of information sent and received rather than the connection time) was especially attractive to the company.

Stratos spokesman Doug Gunster said, "Now ships can become a connected node to their company's LAN or WAN network, offering the flexibility and reli- ability of constant communication with their home office. The ship can conceiv- ably now have access to the same com- pany infrastructure and resources avail- able to their land-based counterparts."

Circle 41 on Reader Service Card

REMOTELY MANAGE VESSEL BASED IT

SeaWave Remote Management Suite (RMS) provides labor saving

IT tools that put IT tasks back in the hands of onshore IT personnel.

SeaWave's RMS solution allows your shore-based team to remotely manage, monitor and control data, perform system upgrades/maintenance, troubleshoot, and carry out training for vessel based systems. Combined with

SeaWave's advanced throughput technology,

RMS is the most powerful and cost effective solution available.

SeaWave's RMS Solution:

SNAP (SeaWave Network

Access Protocol): Connect into the vessel based PC/Network and completely control keyboard, mouse and monitor – Quickly solve systems issues without involving vessel end user.

SAFE (SeaWave Automatic File Exchange):

Remotely administer files, initiate applications and synchronize folders between ship and shore –

Automate and create custom schedules.

SABR (SeaWave Address Book Replication):

Automatically control and update the corporate address book with the entire fleet by synchronizing with the home office Mail Server - Vary by fleet or vessel.

FORM (SeaWave Form Transmission): Improve the way data is transferred between ship and shore – Send data, not costly format overhead.

STAR (SeaWave Tracking And Reporting): Monitor vessel or an entire fleet's location and activity –

Quick viewing also available on Web.

Contact a SeaWave specialist today to reduce your communication costs! +1.401.846.8403 +1.800.746.6251 [email protected] www.seawave.com

Circle 250 on Reader Service Card

Satcom

MR FEBRUARY2006 #2 (9-16).qxd 2/3/2006 10:36 AM Page 15