Inmarsat has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SRH Marine Electronics which will see the companies collaborate on the provision of remote ECDIS updates via FleetBroadband, independent of a vessel’s existing communications package.
Under the agreement, vessels fitted with a FleetBroadband terminal will have the option to connect to SRH’s Automated Digital Services Platform, which includes official charts, Notices to Mariners and publications, as well as additional voyage planning and route optimisation tools, through a dedicated FleetBroadband application Access Point Network (APN).
“Using our new FleetBroadband Application APN, ship owners and managers will be able to update ECDIS charts seamlessly via the SRH Platform and on demand without interrupting their primary bandwidth service,” said Ronald Spithout, President of Inmarsat Maritime.
“This signifies a huge milestone in the development of applications for our L-band services and many more will follow in the next few months as we continue to roll-out enhancements to FleetBroadband.”
Laboratory tests on the system have already been completed at Inmarsat’s R&D centre in Alesund, Norway, and further sea-trials are being conducted by SRH Marine ahead of the commercial roll-out of the service.
“The flagship FleetBroadband services globally offered by Inmarsat will help optimise ECDIS performance, with a constantly updated source of data,” said John Laderos, CEO of SRH Marine Electronics.
“A sensor agnostic platform, compatible with all ECDIS types, will serve the transmission of data through high-speed connectivity services provided by Inmarsat. The global fleet is expected to tremendously benefit from this expert combination.”
