Page 50: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2015)

MARINE ELECTRONICS UPDATE

Beyond the Black Box

Using the VDR as the Ship’s Data Clearing House provides budget-minded opera- tors with the means, the bandwidth and the economy to monitor critical systems.

Go on: dip your toes in the big data water.

By Joseph Keefe

Big Data. It’s all the rage across the home of? ce. The VDRConnect module time, does not affect the primary func- full spectrum of the maritime world. connects directly to the ship’s IT and tion of the VDR, which is to collect

Thousands of data points on 70,000 satellite communication systems with- and securely store data from mandated vessels literally scream out to be har- out the need for a separate PC. With sources. Beyond this, the VDRCon- vested and sent back to the home of? ce, VDRConnect, the ship manager ashore nect module can be easily connected all with the intent of making your ves- can log into an IP-based Web portal us- to legacy Danelec VDRs as well as the sel more ef? cient, your operation more ing a convenient dashboard on a com- newer DM100 for an expensive upgrade pro? table, the environment cleaner and puter or tablet to request speci? c data retro? t solution. In practice, there is no perhaps, your bunker and maintenance ? les to be downloaded from the Danelec practical limit to the number of systems “The VDR can provide a very bills lower. The only left to ask is: VDR and select intervals for automatic and sensors that can be connected. what’s it going to cost me? Actually, not transmission.

economical and ef