Singapore, 20 March 2013 – Singtel will be unveiling three innovative ICT solutions at Sea Asia 2013 specially developed for the maritimesector to drive crew welfare, operational efficiency and remote monitoring and control.
ConnectPortal
With the proliferation of internet access on ships, owners and managers are increasingly feeling the need to control their crew’s internet usage to prevent fatigue and accidents. With Singtel’s ConnectPortal, shoreside professionals can have total control over their crew’s internet usage by implementing a flexi-time allowance.
The solution enables shoreside managers to limit surfing time of the individual crew members by daily hours, customisable for each crew member. The service supports both free Internet access given to crew as well as self-paid prepaid card models or hybrids, and is integrated to work with FleetBroadband, Iridium OpenPort and Singtel’s maritime VSAT services.
​VoiceLink in CrewXchange@Singtel
CrewXchange@Singtel is the first portal in the industry that is specially designed for seafarers. It is a one stop lightweight, widget-based portal for seafarers to access news (global, local, sports), social media (Facebook, Twitter), online community, instant messaging, web mail and e-learning supported by bandwidth optimisation to ensure lower data usage and cost savings.
The ability to communicate with family and friends is a vital component of crew welfare. However, connecting to family and friends through voice calls is one of the highest costs borne by crew onboard. Costs can range from USD0.03/min to USD5/min, depending on the location dialed.
With VoiceLink in CrewXchange@Singtel, crew can perform text and voice chat with friends and family. Featuring the industry’s lowest proprietary CODEC of 2.15kbps bandwidth and delivered in widget format, very little bandwidth is required. Compared to Skype, VoiceLink in CrewXchange@Singtel uses 3x less bandwidth. There are three call qualities to toggle between, allowing crew members paying for own Internet access charges to control their call expenses. It is a win for crew welfare as ship owners can implement this onboard ships to offload their crew’s call expenses.
CrewXchange@Singtel is a free service and crew members can invite their friends and family to become members of this portal speciallydesigned for seafarers. While using VoiceLink, seafarers can also surf Facebook, send e-greetings and read news on CrewXchange@Singtel’s site. CrewXchange@Singtel is an award-winning innovation with more than 66,000 visitors since it was launched in November 2011.
Mobile Video Surveillance
With the recent regulation by India’s Ministry of Shipping to equip CCTV cameras as part of the anti-piracy measures for all Indian Flagged Ships, ship owners have been searching for the most bandwidth efficient solution.
Currently, most CCTVs in the market have a data ransmission rate of between 100kbps to 2Mbps. For terrestrial usage, there is abundant and affordable capacity available, as the average bandwidth customers have is about 3Mbps. However, at sea, bandwidth over satellite is an expensive commodity, and the most common bandwidth subscribed to is only 64kbps. Until now, there has been a lack of CCTV solutions designed and optimised primarily for use over satellite connectivity.
​Singtel’s Mobile Video Surveillance provides clear video images requiring data transmission as low as 5kbps supporting unlimited multicast for concurrent viewing and live video viewing on mobile devices on IOS and Android. It also uses the highest level of AES256 encryption. Tested over FleetBroadband and Maritime VSAT to ensure seamless interoperability, the service ensures ease in monitoring cargo, preventing the pilferage of oil and goods with high resolution enhancement for a clear view of any chosen area of footage.
Visitors to Sea Asia 2013 can visit the Singtel Satellite booth at C02 to experience these innovative new services.
