German shipowner adding Globecomm VSAT to new ships

Porthos is one of the first four sisterships (together with D’Artagnan, Aramis and Treville) built for Briese at Zhejiang Zengshou Shipyard which will feature the Globecomm Ku-band VSAT service

JULY 10, 2018— As part of its fleet renewal plans, German shipowner and manager Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG has contracted with maritime communications provider Globecomm, Happauge, NY, for global Ku-band VSAT services.

A long-time client of Globecomm, Briese Schiffahrts is building a series of eight “Open Top Eco 5000” multi-purpose vessels, designed to consume 30% less fuel, but with increased crane and cargo capacity.

The first of four ships was christened in this past April at Chinese shipyard Zhejiang ­Zengzhou Shipbuilding Co., with three more of the 90-meter long, 3,415 gt, Dutch-flag, ice-class 1A ships slated for delivery later this year.

Another newbuilding, the project cargo carrier BBC Russia — a sistership to the 12,500-dwt Jan – was delivered from China’s Jiangsu Hongqiang Marine Heavy Industry in April.

With all of its vessels outfitted with a combination of a Sailor 900 VSAT terminal, one or more Iridium OpenPort L-Band as a back-up and the Globecomm Nimbus network management ‘smartbox,’ Briese will enjoy unlimited data for enterprise users and crew members.

“Globecomm and Briese have a relationship that goes back 16 years, and we are pleased to have been able to support them as their communications needs have grown and changed,” says Globecomm Maritime President Malcolm McMaster. “As those requirements continue to evolve, Globecomm VSAT can flex to meet demand for increased bandwidth, more complex applications and HTS services as these begin to become available in maritime.”

Briese is engaged in a global roll-out of the Globecomm VSAT system across its owned and managed fleet, upgrading L-Band systems on a continuous basis to around 60% of vessels to date. The German shipowner assumed management of six 12,780 dwt craned project cargo vessels in 2015 and 2016 and a further four vessels of this type were taken over in March and April 2018, which will also be equipped with Globecomm VSAT.

Using the Nimbus smartbox with its Cirrus shoreside portal enables Briese to segregate network traffic and employ performance monitoring and enhanced safety services in a cyber-secure environment. Working with Briese, the Globecomm development team in Munich developed a system for automatically updating ECDIS navigation chart data with specially-defined firewall permissions. 
 
“Having Globecomm VSAT onboard makes managing demand for crew and business communications simpler and more cost efficient, and using Nimbus means we can pre-configure any new PC before it gets to the ship,” says Holger Börchers, IT-Manager at Briese Schiffahrts. “Briese is a company with a large fleet and a small IT department so we can use the Cirrus portal to monitor ships as close to real time as possible and respond as soon as any issues arise.”

Globecomm VSAT is a high capacity end-to-end VSAT service integrating premium shipboard hardware and monitoring tools to provide maximum service performance across the broadest coverage footprint. Built, managed and supported by Globecomm, the service supports a broad range of applications over a robust, scalable, managed network designed specifically to deliver shared services and private networks to customers in maritime and energy markets.

Built on the IP-based iDirect Evolution platform to support automatic beam switching and access to High Throughput Satellite services, it offers a full Bring Your Own Device experience via selected Wi-Fi Access Points. Added value services include firewall and content filtering, advanced email management, a prepaid crew management portal, with proactive network monitoring and support and 24/7 global support.