{"id":62169,"date":"2019-06-26T01:21:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T17:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/an-ocean-of-things-iots-role-in-maritime-connectivity\/"},"modified":"2019-06-26T01:21:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T17:21:53","slug":"an-ocean-of-things-iots-role-in-maritime-connectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/an-ocean-of-things-iots-role-in-maritime-connectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ocean of Things: IoT\u2019s Role in Maritime Connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

With the increasing digitization of the maritime industry, executives from cruise lines are slowly and carefully incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) applications in order to generate returns on investment. Meanwhile, satellite operators are trying to  provide that connectivity at affordable rates that will help generate returns for cruise operators. Specifically, Carnival Cruises <\/strong>and Silversea <\/strong>are seeing the incorporation of IoT technology in customer experience-enhancing applications.<\/p>\n

Carnival Vice President of Global Connectivity Reza Rasoulian has assembled differing levels of IoT technology and digitization offerings across his company\u2019s fleet. He said that while improving the customer experience seems like a no-brainer decision, generating revenue from these services is a bit more complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Return on Investment ROI for experience has been a bit fussy,\u201d he said. \u201cConnectivity is frankly, relatively easy to qualify and monetize. We have multiple Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) we can manage and show the benefits of investing in the space. With IoT on ships specifically, it\u2019s a bit of a softer sell \u2026 in general, it still is a significant investment. The ROI and business case has to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Silversea Director of IT Infrastructure Erick Hernandez is using connectivity to tailor personalized guest experiences onboard, especially when it comes to culinary decisions. \u201cWe\u2019re able to give our passengers a new experience every time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that satellite bandwidth continues to be an expensive piece in the maritime IoT puzzle. But with the quality of the passenger experience on the line, it\u2019s something that should be addressed. Rasoulian sees it as a matter of working with the industry to see what\u2019s best. \u201cWe\u2019re cautiously optimistic,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re eager to see what transpires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others see issue in the speed in which the maritime industry reacts to digitization. \u201cThe connectivity is there,\u201d Iridium<\/strong> Maritime Vice President and Manager Wouter Deknopper told Rasoulian and others at the SATELLITE 2019 show, but \u201cthe pain point that we see is that there\u2019s a slow reaction to the digitization. Older systems have interfaces, but they\u2019re not standardized \u2014 all that makes it very challenging to come to a standardized solution. Standardization is something that we, as an industry, need to push forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

SES Networks<\/strong> Maritime Segment Vice President Greg Martin believes that things will \u201creally kick off in the IoT world\u201d within two to three years in the maritime space. \u201cWe have 5G efforts of standardization that are adding to that \u2014 edge computing is adding to that as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With all the talk of the speed and manner of connectivity, Iridium\u2019s Deknopper discussed the company\u2019s anti-ocean pollution initiatives. He first delved into the story of Iridium NEXT, which has been nearly a decade\u2019s effort for the Virginia-based operator. \u201cWe have now over 1 million subscribers \u2013 we have over 600,000 IoT subscribers over land, maritime, and the government space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deknkopper then highlighted another application to provide return on investment: protecting the maritime environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlastic pollution is a terrible reality,\u201d he said. \u201cIt floats over the oceans and can float for thousands of miles. Our partnership with The Ocean Cleanup<\/strong> is the first attempt to rid the ocean of plastic.\u201d Considering plastic floats with the currents, he stressed how important it is to track these rogue pieces, as \u201cit\u2019s important to have connectivity where it goes.\u201d The company has even created partnerships, so it can use buoys to measure the density of these plastics.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext year there will be a redesign and scale up to 60 systems,\u201d Deknopper added. \u201cA lot of these systems will be deployed to the big plastic patches.\u201d The whole system \u201cuses a lot of data but has proven really well to be working in these harsh conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the differing speeds of adoption, IoT is central to both the new offerings from service providers and satellite operators, as well as the business models of cruise line operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the increasing digitization of the maritime industry, executives from cruise lines are slowly and carefully incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) applications in order to generate returns on investment. Meanwhile, satellite operators are trying to  provide that connectivity at affordable rates that will help generate returns for cruise operators. Specifically, Carnival Cruises and Silversea are seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}