KVH Industries (News - Alert), a provider of in-motion satellite TV and communications systems, has announced that Applied Weather Technology, Inc., (AWT) has become the WEATHERlink launch partner for KVH's IP-MobileCast content delivery service.
The company will use IP-MobileCast, a breakthrough service utilizing multicasting technology, to deliver AWT (News - Alert)'s high-resolution weather and ocean data to ships at sea for a low fixed monthly fee.
AWT is a provider of shore-based ship route advisory services, onboard voyage management systems, and fleet management systems. The company provides forecasts about wind, wave, visibility, and currents with tidal stream data. This data will be updated up to four times per day to help ships optimize voyage planning and safety.
Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH chief executive officer said, "Voyage planning and optimization are of paramount importance for mariners' safety, as well as for meeting new MARPOL regulations that limit greenhouse gas emissions from ships. 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 start beta testing this month and to be commercially available by September. The KVH TracPhone(R) V-IP series satellite communications systems will support this new content after a free over-the-air software upgrade.
The IP-MobileCast service delivers 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.
Richard Brown, AWT vice president for products and services, said in a statement,“Not only will we use IP-MobileCast to deliver wind, sea state, and currents with tidal stream data, we'll also use it for future BVS software versions."
Edited by Allison Sansone