New cruise VSAT deals and a new service platform highlight the trend in using higher volumes of data bandwidth than ever before
Cruise ship operators have turned to Norway-based satellite service providers to deliver high volumes of data bandwidth for passenger and crew use.
MSC Cruises contracted Marlink to provide what it called an unprecedented amount of bandwidth for the maiden voyage of its new cruise flagship MSC Meraviglia.
Marlink said that it had provided record-breaking bandwidth of more than 300 Mbps over its Sealink VSAT to meet peak demand for the first voyage of this new ship, as MSC expected guests to share the experience on social media.
The 300 Mbps was a temporary service for MSC Cruises’ new flagship, as bandwidth demand is likely to be lower on future voyages. The data connectivity was dedicated to the ship as it sailed its media-packed maiden voyage along the Atlantic coast and into the Mediterranean. The ongoing Sealink service will provide for more than 4,500 passengers.
To achieve the temporary dedicated bandwidth, Marlink worked with Intelsat to provide data connectivity using an EpicNG high throughput satellite. It also worked with VT iDirect to use the latest iDirect 9350 modems on board MSC Meraviglia. These ensured that the satellite capacity was available and the onboard equipment could cope with the predicted high uplink and downlink data rates during the voyage.
Marlink president for maritime, Tore Morten Olsen, said collaboration was essential for meeting the specific bandwidth needs of the cruise industry. He said MSC Meraviglia’s maiden voyage was an ideal platform to demonstrate the capabilities of the Sealink network and new high throughput services, such as Intelsat EpicNG, as well as the onboard equipment.
“MSC Cruises used a stacked series of iDirect 9350 modems, which is a big step up in technology,” Mr Olsen said. “But modem builders are still running behind the satellite operators in technology,” he added. He implied that more bandwidth could be delivered regularly to the cruise sector when modem technology has been improved.
Marlink has delivered VSAT to MSC Cruises since 2004. Last year, MSC Cruises and Marlink enhanced guest connectivity across the fleet by adding high intensity Ku-band coverage from Intelsat EpicNG satellites. This is required to meet growing demand from passengers using social media.
In another deal, Silversea Cruises has chosen Telenor Maritime to deliver global VSAT and mobile broadband backhaul for its entire fleet. Telenor will be working with satellite operator SES to deliver bandwidth for passengers and crew, plus 3G mobile phone networks, WiFi and digital services on the ships.
Telenor said each ship could have dedicated bandwidth of up to 150 Mbps during peak demand periods. To enable greater levels of online access for passengers, a new internet solution has been deployed across the cruise ship fleet, said Silversea Cruises chief information officer Fabio Agostini.
“Our guests are now able to use our services to stream video, be in touch with their family and friends using audio and conferencing applications, and surf seamlessly using their social network accounts,” he explained. The internet solutions were deployed on eight ships, some located in remote destinations, in one month.
“The internet on board is fast and consistent throughout the fleet,” said Mr Agostini. “We are replacing all antennas with brand new ones, entirely redundant, and this is just the beginning of a new generation of services that we will implement in the short to medium term.”
Telenor Maritime chief executive Frode Støldal said that SES will provide access to its global constellation of satellites to meet Silversea’s requirements. The VSAT improves services for passengers. “Cruise guests can truly use their mobile devices like at home, with no constraints on applications such as Facebook, YouTube or even Netflix. These capabilities are real game changers,” Mr Støldal said.
Elsewhere, Speedcast International unveiled its Sigma Gateway network and communications service platform at a seminar co-hosted by Riviera Maritime Media in Norway at the end of May.
There is greater need on ships to have a gateway that can manage a vessel’s voice and data communications through the increasingly complex paths that are available over satellite and mobile networks. Ship operators can opt to use broadband through different VSAT bands or lower capacity L-band, or by using 3G or 4G mobile phone networks near coasts.
These were some of the reasons why Speedcast introduced its Sigma Gateway. This is a network and communications management device that links ship networks to satellites and other connectivity links for operational and crew requirements. The device is capable of managing Speedcast’s global VSAT, L-band, Fleet Xpress, 3G, 4G and WiFi services.
Speedcast commercial maritime director Dan Rooney explained that Sigma Gateway integrates VSAT with L-band satellite communications and mobile networks for more redundancy and reliability of connections. It is an integrated service platform that has built-in network switches, 16 ports, a Fleet Xpress network service device and Sigma's software, including Sigma Net.
Sigma Gateway has an Intel Xeon central processing unit and 64GB of random access memory. It has eight integrated managed network switch ports and is Inmarsat-approved as a soft network service device for Fleet Xpress.
Mr Rooney said the gateway device can save up to five units on a below-deck rack, compared with having a separate network service device and router, server and network switch appliances. “Sigma Gateway provides a secured virtualised environment where third party virtual machines can be hosted,” he added.
Virtual machines are managed via the Sigma Net Portal, enabling remote configuration and dedicated resource allocation. This ensures that these virtual machines always operate with maximum efficiency and in a secure environment independent of each other.
Wilhelmsen and Color Line club together for first-of-its-kind boiler solution
Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) has launched a first-of-its-kind automated boiler water maintenance system that is currently in final testing on a Color Line ferry (Color Magic) and on WWL vessels. (There are six more vessels that will come into the test fleet over the summer.) It constantly measures boiler water conditions and automatically doses chemicals when required. This process tends to be manual usually, with crew testing the waters and adjusting the chemicals themselves.
Highlighting the benefits, WSS water solutions business manager Rune Nygaard said: “Our system is more accurate than a manual test, and will extend the lifetime of the boiler, because if chemicals are used correctly, it will not corrode.”
At the heart of the system are four sensors per boiler, which allow the solution to autocorrect by reducing the amount of chemicals dosed to the system.
The solution sends the results to the cloud as well as displaying the results offline on the vessel – and is the first boiler system to send results to the cloud. The tailor-made desktop dashboard streams live critical boiler water information, which is accessible by ship operators 24/7.
Wilhelmsen aims to eventually set up a data base covering all the ferry fleets using their boiler water treatment solution so that ship operators can benchmark their vessels results against the anonymous data using age, size of ferry etc so that can see how efficient their boiler is compared to the market average. This solution will also be available for other vessel types in addition to the ferry fleet.
The boiler automation is “the beginning”, Mr Nygaard said, explaining that there are more than 10 other processes onboard, related to water treatment alone in addition to solutions for oil, cleaning, refrigeration, gas and the use of ropes, that Wilhelmsen is keen to automate and add to the cloud, including cooling water, seawater intake and evaporated water treatment.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.