View non-flash version
14 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? DECEMBER 2013 ONE ON ONE TORE MORTEN OLSEN, ASTRIUM extent ?live? monitoring is needed. This data is nor- mally transmitted via either L-band or VSAT, depend- ing on what system the ship owner has on board. If real-time monitoring is the preferred approach, an all-you-can-eat type of data plan, like you get with VSAT, will be often most cost-ef Þ cient. Those tak- ing the bulk transmissions approach mostly use either Fleet, FleetBroadband or Iridium OpenPort to trans-mit. VSAT offers the most cost-effective data transfer available as long as your vessel or ß eet has the vol- ume requirements (I.e. more data than would be vi-able on L-band). With the massive savings a vessel or ß eet can make by just reducing fuel consumption by a few percentage points it is no surprise that e.g. live engine monitoring sees growing popularity. Finally ? in a nutshell ? how can an operator re- duce costs while increasing service (to cr ew) and still maintain quality or improve it? An operator reduces cost when he starts shar- ing his airtime commitment between crew and cor- porate usage. Quite typically, airtime commitments are not fully used by corporate usage alone. When he starts ?re-selling? data to crew by giving them access to VoIP telephony, web access or at least to email, he gets some of his money back. Meanwhile, crew are happy to get a means of communications they previ-ously did not have on board. A typical win-win situ- ation. As an example, using our WaveCall standard- ized VSAT services on more than 35 vessels, CMA CGM is able to provide crew services at prices that are not inÞ nitely far away from those of shore based connectivity. CMA CGM increase the crew welfare offer on board without increasing their own opera- tional communication. Because the crew spend cov-ers the additional monthly cost of the services. Of course, it?s absolutely key that management and bill- ing is straightforward and transparent when spread-ing the cost between different parties. And this is a job handled by the XChange solution from Astrium. XChange provides enhanced control and management of connectivity as well as a comprehensive set of In-ternet-café like crew communications features. CMA CGM?s ß eet covers global trade routes, so ex- tensive Ku-band coverage was a key requirement when choosing the WaveCall solution (Aug 2013). The WaveCall proposition to CMA CGM is based on a cost-effective 5 GB/month data plan, which enables a signiÞ cant increase in email, web browsing and voice calling, when compared to the 200MB/month Fleet-Broadband packages used before. So the company manages to meet demand for enhanced connectivity for crew and strengthen its operational communica-tion, without paying any more, in fact less in this case, than the previous communication systems it used.What are onboard crew calling trends and habits? Astrium commissioned a Crew Communications Research Report to Þ nd out. MR #12 (10-17).indd 14MR #12 (10-17).indd 1411/27/2013 2:28:24 PM11/27/2013 2:28:24 PM
