SAFETY4SEEA Team met John Harrison, Vice President, Intellian at Posidonia 2016, June 6-10, Metropolitan Expo, Athens for an interview regarding Big Data in relation to connectivity onboard. You may view video interview on YouTube
Q1 In a world driven by information technology and the Big Data, how can vessel valuation help the shipping industry be more transparent and reliable? How reliable is vessel valuation for that matter?
Historically, VSAT technology was always driven by aspects like crew welfare or broadband use. However, because ship-owners and users have realized that a connected ship is not only a more efficient machine but also a safer machine, the use of Big Data being able to extract all of the sensor information, the fuel economy or the safety status onboard, have allowed the owners shore side to make better evaluation of efficiency as they have more computer power and bigger teams. For example, they now reap the benefits from remote support; the shipboard team plots a course from A to B but the use of a connected vessel back to the headquarters allows a more efficient cost reporting. The results are that the vessel arrives on time with low fuel consumption and the cargo is monitored more accurately. These are huge reasons why a connected vessel is becoming safer and more efficient. The term Big Data is now a reality and I imagine that you would see more and more ship-owners adopting always on the connectivity and the applications surrounded for better trade. I think we are living in interesting times for information technology.
Q2 New technological solutions are being introduced onboard on daily basis. Is the industry ready for the transition to a smart era? How big data can help?
I think there are some late adopters. European owners have realized that adopting VSAT technology, always online connectivity, is the right solution. Of course the energy market who uses connectivity for high throughput solutions has adopted this technology many years ago but equally there is still a level of comfort conservatism in the market. I believe that fleet broadband is still very dominant, in the Greek market for example, but driven by similar solutions which are now simpler, easy to install and faster. The Greek ship-owners are now realizing that actually it is time to be initiated to the new technology and fleet broadband. In general, the pace of the installations in the market is increasing, therefore, I expect to see about 40-45 thousands new terminals on line in the next four years.
Q3 What is the impact of Internet of Things (IoT) to the industry so far ashore & onboard?
We hear the buzzword Internet everywhere. Now, we call at the Internet for everything. Well, it is more prominent, on a land based solution, that my fridge is connected these days, everything I use is connected. However, this is not dominated yet in the maritime environment. I could say that it’s more ‘machine to machine’ that benefits from online connectivity. Engines, management, control, lighting, safety, CCTV cameras are a portion of the Internet of Things. Internet gets everything connected! Take for example my home; if I’m late I can control my lighting and heating from away, my fridge will order milk etc. There are no related options available onboard the maritime environment yet; however, machine to machine which is the maritime kind of flavor of Internet of Things, this reality is becoming more and more of a necessity. To conclude, I think it plays its part but I don’t think that the maritime world is connected like the Internet of Things. The industry is not part of the Internet of Things as general.
Q4 What is you key message to your existing and prospective clients?
I would say that Intellian is making life simpler by enabling our customers to do better business and not to worry about if it is complex, expensive or a ‘headache’ when installing a VSAT terminal. Online connectivity has been around since 1972. The difference is that Intellian makes it simpler and more reliable. So, I think we have many things to do, we are very inspired by what we can do in the next five years but the core objective is to make the engines’ experience better, hence one of our tagline which is ‘connected to inspire’. We want to inspire, and see more people have a better quality of life at sea in terms of safety and connectivity while at the same time staying in touch with their families. We are actually very motivated by that purpose. My message would be that we are partners, very keen to be part of the ecosystem and we will do our best to make life as simple as possible.
Above text is an edited article of John Harrison, Vice President, Intellian video interview at Posidonia 2016, June 6-10, Metropolitan Expo, Athens
You may view his video interview by clicking here
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The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
