KVH to Transmit AWT's High-Resolution Weather Data via the IP-MobileCast Content Delivery Service
The IP-MobileCast service will support AWT's recent new release, BonVoyage System 7 (BVS 7), a powerful onboard voyage optimization system. With more than 5,000 ships already under contract, AWT is the voyage optimization software market leader. KVH's content delivery service will also provide AWT's frequent, detailed port vicinity forecasts as well as pirate attack information and rogue wave forecasts.
"Voyage planning and optimization are of paramount importance for mariners' safety and also to meet new MARPOL regulations that limit greenhouse gas emissions from ships," says Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH chief executive officer. "Due to these new regulations, shipping companies are facing new challenges, both with requirements to travel at slower speeds to reduce emissions, and with requirements for use of high-cost bunker in many coastal regions. AWT's weather data and voyage planning services affordably delivered with IP-MobileCast will be of great value to help ship officers optimize their voyage plans."
The WEATHERlink content delivery is scheduled to begin beta testing this month and to be commercially available by September. All installed KVH TracPhone® V-IP series satellite communications systems will support this new content after a free over-the-air software upgrade. The IP-MobileCast service has been live since May, delivering a wide range of news and entertainment content, such as daily digital newspapers, television news, sports updates, music, new-release blockbuster movies, and TV shows and series, via KVH's mini-VSAT Broadband network.
"IP-MobileCast's WEATHERlink gives our customers the autonomy to make informed decisions at sea, to optimize passage planning, and to take the ship's current operating factors into consideration," says
The IP-MobileCast service utilizes multicasting technology to deliver large amounts of content to many ships at once, overcoming the prohibitively high satellite communications costs typically charged to deliver files for individual use. The new service (patent pending) is notable for technological advancements that enable the content to be delivered over the top of KVH's mini-VSAT Broadband network, while also ensuring that the multicasting transmission does not affect the vessel's mini-VSAT Broadband onboard data speed.
KVH's strategy for adding more operations content for IP-MobileCast delivery is to establish partnerships with leading applications providers in the maritime industry. Other types of operations content that are planned for IP-MobileCast delivery include weekly electronic chart database updates from Jeppesen, KVH's CHARTlinkTM launch collaborator.
"AWT is staffed by former ship officers, meteorologists working 24/7, and software developers codifying their knowledge into optimizers that handle real-world complications such as emission control areas and traffic separation schemes," says
Note to Editors: Additional details about WEATHERlink will be available at the KVH stand (1,218, Metropolitan Expo) at Posidonia 2014,
About
AWT is a leading provider of shore-based ship route advisory services, onboard voyage management systems, and fleet management systems. Its award-winning products and services are designed to help ship owners, charterers, operators, fleet managers, and captains identify the safest, most time-efficient or fuel-efficient routes for their fleets. Its products include onboard voyage management systems BVS, Seaware EnRoute, and EnRoute Live, and shore-based Fleet Decision Support System (FleetDSS). AWT is headquartered in
About
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, for example, statements regarding the timing and occurrence of new service rollout plans; the anticipated strategic relationship between Jeppesen and KVH; the functionality, characteristics, quality, and performance of KVH's products, services, and technology; as well as customer demand, preferences, requirements, and expectations. The actual results could differ materially from the statements made in this press release. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to, potential unanticipated technical or legal impediments that could delay or impede service rollout plans or expected strategic relationships; the need for, or delays in, qualification of products to customer or regulatory standards; unanticipated declines or changes in customer demand, due to competitive, economic, seasonal, and other factors, particularly with respect to the TracPhone V-IP series products; unanticipated increases in media costs or loss of distribution rights; access to sufficient and uninterrupted satellite capacity to provide the service; risks associated with the delivery or performance of critical hardware; and changes in the costs and capabilities of competing offerings. These and other risk factors are discussed in KVH's most recent Form 10-Q filed with the
KVH, IP-MobileCast, WEATHERlink, TracPhone, and CHARTlink are trademarks of
CONTACT:Jill Connors Media & Communications ManagerKVH Industries, Inc. 401-851-3824 jconnors@kvh.com