Small maritime terminal brings fast data speeds

Seawork 11th - 13th June 2024	Speed@Seawork 10th June 2024	Commercial Marine Network Conferences

The 25th edition of Europe’s largest commercial marine and workboat exhibition, provides businesses the opportunity to showcase their services, equipment, vessels and supplies to an international audience.	Speed@Seawork on Monday 10 June in Cowes offers a sector specific event that showcases fast vessels operating at high speed for security interventions and Search & Rescue.	The Commercial Marine Network, in partnership with Seawork and Maritime Journal, introduce Series 3 of ‘Get set for Workboat 2050’. An online conference series of expert panels navigating the waters of decarbonisation compliance and looking at practical applications across the workboat industry.
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As a provider of safety and support at sea, ESVAGT needs a reliable system of communication between ship and shore to ensure fast response in case of emergencies such as oil spill recovery and firefighting.

Working under pressure and in sometimes harsh sea conditions, ESVAGT’s mission to secure people, assets and the environment can only succeed with access to real time data and ship-to-shore communication. Increasingly, ESVAGT’s rescue capabilities not only depend on their experienced offshore crew but also on a robust always-on connectivity.

ESVAGT recently tested on their ESVAGT Innovator vessel a 45cm antenna powered by Intelsat’s FlexMaritime to deliver a consistent and dependable broadband connectivity performance.

With its ubiquitous service footprint, satellite communication is the best way to deliver broadband connectivity to ESVAGT’s vessels, regardless of their location. The ESVAGT fleet was already connected to a high bandwidth VNO (Virtual Network Operator) Hybrid Pool on a regional VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) service. However, the vessels’ rescue mission relies on consistent, dependable connectivity and a service interruption is not an option in situations where every minute counts to save lives. ESVAGT was, as a result, looking for a service that would be used for backup/failover to the existing VSAT solution.

Due to the critical nature of its activity, ESVAGT was looking for a robust solution that could deliver high speed connectivity even in harsh conditions and regardless of the location. The company operates in the Arctics amongst others and they needed the assurance of a 24/7 service in all conditions. The cost of the solution was another important element in their decision.

Small enough to hand carry aboard the vessel and easy to install, the lightweight 45cm antenna was easily connected to the Intelsat FlexMaritime network, which delivers unparalleled, multi-layered global coverage – ensuring connectivity wherever the vessel goes. Results were immediate and consistent throughout the test: the fast speeds of up to 6 x 2 megabits per second (Mbps) enabled the vessel to meet its needs such as ship-to-shore communications. The crew could also access their bank accounts despite rough sea conditions.

The high-performance Intelsat FlexMaritime network is claimed to deliver connectivity at a lower price than any other service providers, while the hardware and installation’s costs corresponded to ESVAGT’s budget. The flexibility of the solution was another element for selecting Intelsat as ESVAGT can use FlexMaritime’s 45cm service as stand-alone VSAT or BackUp/FailOver depending on their real time needs.

Lars Knudsen, IT Manager ESVAGT said: “An always-on connectivity is critical to our rescue mission and FlexMaritime’s 45cm service has consistently delivered high connectivity performance, helping us respond to our crew’s and operational needs. The ubiquity of Intelsat’s network, combined with the flexibility of the solution, its affordable cost and its ease of installation and use have made it an obvious choice for us, enabling short-term return on investment compared with other solutions on the market.”