KVH Industries has introduced a new digital content service to help shipowners, operators and managers provide rest-time entertainment for seafarers and increase onboard productivity
KVH Link uses IP-MobileCast delivery technology to provide access on ships to news and entertainment content, including sports, films, TV programmes, music podcasts and documentaries.
KVH’s executive vice president for mobile connectivity Mark Woodhead said these services help optimise vessel operations. “There is an increasing focus on seafarer wellbeing as the foundation of safe and efficient operations,” he said. “Crew welfare is going digital, with increased onboard demand for access to popular content.”
KVH Link content can be accessed by ships with KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband connectivity and TracPhone series of antennas. Cyber-secure, encrypted multimedia content is transferred to vessels over IP-MobileCast, with one data file sent to multiple ships using multicast processes.
For vessels without VSAT, KVH developed a content hub KVH LinkHub to store encrypted content on board.
“All vessels in a fleet need news and entertainment content even when several different satellite connectivity vendors are involved,” said Mr Woodhead. “With KVH Link and LinkHub, we can deliver content to every vessel in the fleet.”
Earlier this month KVH Industries chief operating officer Brent Bruun explained to Riviera Maritime Media why media content was important for crew welfare and how it could be delivered effectively. During that interview, Mr Bruun said, “There will be a massive amount of bandwidth in the market. We can take advantage of this technology to provide more robust services for crew welfare and operational requirements.”
KVH can also transfer operational information over IP-MobileCast for smart navigation, training and messaging.
Its ChartLink service supplies secure and ECDIS-compliant chartsets direct to ships, while its ForecastLink provides high-resolution, global-scale weather forecasts four times per day. Shipowners and operators can use YourLink to deliver customer-generated content to promote crew safety and corporate values.
KVH Link enables access to NewsLink daily news stories and programmes in popular languages among seafarers and SportsLink news and video sports highlights. It also delivers MovieLink with early release films and classics from Hollywood to Bollywood, TVLink with popular television programmes and MusicLink with more than 15 genres of music radio, podcasts and karaoke.
KVH Link content is licensed from copyright holders for crew viewing.
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