Page 16: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2020)

Satellite Communications

AST helps to jettison the

Digital

Rubbish

Gregory Darling and Applied Satellite Technology (AST) works with shipowners to help them use their bandwidth more ef? ciently for ship business and crew needs.

by Greg Trauthwein

Image Courtesy AST hen Gregory Darling, Group MD, AST, ment, both on-board and shoreside.

worked in the marine industry in the 1980s According to Darling, the number of potential solutions with a marine survey company, he needed runs in parallel with the number of shipping companies.

to get word to one of his ships off of West “It’s not just the equipment, it’s not just the connectivity,

W

Africa to recalibrate its course and head off it’s also what we call our value-added services,” said Dar- to a new job. But the ship had left port, and ling. “The way in which the data is delivered is becoming radio calls to the ship went unanswered, re- increasingly important. Very simply, we are a remote internet sulting in two days of lost time and revenue. company and 70% of our business is in the marine sector,” “That was frustrating and costly,” Darling said, who then which in itself generates a turnover between $60-$70 mil- tasked himself with buying a satellite connection. “I bought lion per year. Those solutions depend on the client’s need. “It a Magnavox 2400 that cost $35,000. That was just a phone depends on priorities; we have developed a number of tools so that we could better manager our ship in West Africa. But that help us deliver the operational ef? ciency that ship own-

I found it to be expensive, I found it dif? cult to use and we ers and managers need, from crew welfare to the digitaliza- were even billed in ‘SDR’s,’ which were ‘Special Drawing tion of ships,” said Darling. “There are a whole new (and ever

Rights’ … I didn’t even know what Special Drawing Rights changing) range of new needs that require resolution.” were. So I was confused, and I surmised that if I was con- To deliver the service, AST enhanced its own pipeline with fused, there was an opportunity.” That was when the seeds a terrestrial network to augment the satellite-based connec- were sown, and in 1992 he started AST to apply satellite tech- tions, giving AST better control, end-to-end, of its service nology to help maritime solve problems. and solutions. “On top of that, we need to see what’s going on and intelligently control it,” said Darling. AST helps its

Making the Connection; Enhancing the Service customers maintain control via its software solution, Integra

There are many satellite communication providers, and the See. Recently one of AST’s customer’s vessels was experi- key differentiator is not necessarily the connection, rather the encing slower than expected speeds to and from its on-board products and services offered to help make ship operations communications systems. more ef? cient and cost effective. AST’s ? agship Integra suite Many vessel owners are unaware that mobile devices auto- of services offers a complete satellite communication solu- matically download updates to programs/operating systems tion that delivers real-time application control for satellite and auto-sync photos/videos in the background; a convenient communications, designed for easy on-board traf? c manage- feature at home when connected to an unlimited ‘SuperFiber’ 16 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • October 2020

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