{"id":78723,"date":"2014-01-22T01:05:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T17:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/mtn-pioneers-new-idirect-x7-modem-with-norwegian-cruise-line\/"},"modified":"2014-01-22T01:05:41","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T17:05:41","slug":"mtn-pioneers-new-idirect-x7-modem-with-norwegian-cruise-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/mtn-pioneers-new-idirect-x7-modem-with-norwegian-cruise-line\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN Pioneers New iDirect X7 Modem with Norwegian Cruise Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

[Via Satellite 01-21-2014] Norwegian Cruise Line\u2019s<\/b> on board Internet connectivity for passengers and crew is about to get a fleet-wide makeover. MTN Communications<\/b>, a long-time partner of Norwegian, has selected the cruise line\u2019s Breakaway<\/i> to pioneer their newest modem: the iDirect X7.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Norwegian and MTN have worked together to bring the latest technology to cruise line passengers including newspaper direct services, Internet cafes and at-sea cellular service. Now, they are joining together again to bring improved Internet service to the entire fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefit of the X7 \u2014 I can\u2019t even begin to tell you how excited we are \u2014 is the bandwidth,\u201d said Jeff McVay, vice president of information technology with Norwegian. \u201cThe prior model modem we were using, the demand we were putting on it was maxing it out \u2026 we had to actually put two modems on each ship to handle all the bandwidth requirements and we were having to split the traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was particularly concerning for Norwegian because there was high demand for bandwidth from both passengers and crews and this couldn\u2019t exceed 5 to 8 megabits-per-second (Mbps).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it got up to that high level, we started to experience lost packets and slower latency, and latency is very, very important in the satellite world,\u201d McVay added. \u201cI was told from the MTN engineers that we\u2019d be able to achieve up to 100 mbps \u2026 That\u2019s the biggest plus that we get from this new modem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The X7 also features an 8-port embedded switch to manage multiple user groups, allowing Norwegian to dedicate pieces of the modem to its three primary services: passengers, crew, and their operational team.<\/p>\n

MTN worked closely with iDirect to fix any bugs or issues that came up while testing the new X7 modem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two complete replicas of a ship environment and that consists of a satellite antenna and a full satellite link and all the full modems and hardware that we typically have on the ship, as well as traffic generators so we can simulate the thousands of passengers and crew and the load that puts on the network,\u201d said Kevin McCarthy, COO of MTN.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"iDirect
iDirect X7 modem. Photo: iDirect<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

After several months of testing and usage simulations at MTN\u2019s ship lab in Miramar, Fla., they reached out to Norwegian to participate in a beta test for the modem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this X7 modem for about a year and a half now, so we were very excited to get it operational. Anything we could do to assist MTN in getting it to the operational stage we were all for,\u201d McVay said.<\/p>\n

With the successful completion of the beta test, Norwegian now plans to complete installation of the X7 modems on their entire fleet by this summer, with Getaway<\/i>\u2019s upgrade scheduled for Jan. 26. But the installation of this new technology is just the beginning of their plans for 2014.<\/p>\n

This year, Norwegian will begin to shift unused satellite bandwidth from one ship to another, ensuring quality Internet connection for all ships in the fleet. Currently, the company\u2019s ships connect to terrestrial antennas while in port to provide better Internet connectivity for the ship\u2019s crew, leaving an unused space satellite segment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith MTN\u2019s help, we\u2019re going to shift that space segment to another ship that can use it at sea, thus giving them more bandwidth for guest and crew use,\u201d said McVay.<\/p>\n

Norwegian and other users of the X7 modem will also benefit from MTN\u2019s new high-throughput, multi-spotbeam satellites (HTMS) set to be released next year. These advanced satellites will work with the X7 modem to open up even more space for connectivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe modem supports much higher throughput and performance, so this is a prerequisite for HTMS,\u201d said McCarthy. \u201cWithout the high throughput satellites, the modems improve our performance, but they\u2019re going to shine once the high throughput satellites are available and we will be able to take full advantage of the advanced capabilities with these modems.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s goal is to roll out the iDirect X7 to all major cruise lines. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of the next generation,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be rolling out the X7 this year pretty aggressively so we\u2019re in position for 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Via Satellite 01-21-2014] Norwegian Cruise Line\u2019s on board Internet connectivity for passengers and crew is about to get a fleet-wide makeover. MTN Communications, a long-time partner of Norwegian, has selected the cruise line\u2019s Breakaway to pioneer their newest modem: the iDirect X7. Over the years, Norwegian and MTN have worked together to bring the latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78726,"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-78723","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\/78723"}],"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=78723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}