They’re the stuff of dreams, legend, maritime lore: the Northwest Passage, the Drake Passage, Greenland, South Georgia Island, Cape Horn. Cruising these fabled waters requires a capable and prepared yacht, a seasoned and adventurous crew, the right communications and safety tools, and a pinch of luck. In this sense, the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca was right: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Satellite connectivity isn’t new. The first very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) satcom systems rolled out in the late 1970s, giving mariners the ability to send and receive information at sea. Contemporary VSAT systems typically operate on the Ka-frequency or Ku-frequency bands to offer high-speed performance and bandwidth.

The problem, however, is that VSAT networks typically concentrate their coverage beams on populated areas and commonly cruised waters. Moreover, these systems utilize high frequencies that often suffer from rain and snow fade when the weather sours.

Iridium’s Certus network doesn’t deliver the kinds of data-transfer speeds that enable video or social media streaming, but it does provide global connectivity that isn’t affected by weather. The largest Certus terminals are built with multi-element patched antennas that can simultaneously listen to—and evaluate the signal strength of—multiple satellites for trustworthy connectivity. Certus terminals also can be paired with a VSAT terminal, and long-range cellular and Wi-Fi antennas, to provide out-of-band management and lowest-cost routing. For adventurous cruisers, Certus’ connectivity improves the farther north (or south) from the equator one cruises.

Iridium began work on its Certus network in 2015. Today, the system is composed of 66 cross-linked low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites that circle the globe in near-polar orbits that are each roughly perpendicular to the equator. (Imagine the segments of a peeled orange coming together at either end.) At any given time, there are more LEO satellites concentrated at the north and south poles than at the equator. And Iridium’s LEO satellites operate on the L band (1 to 2 GHz), which is a much lower frequency than the Ka and Ku bands, and which isn’t frazzled by rain or snow.

As with all forms of satcom, orbiting Certus-enabled LEO satellites communicate with an onboard terminal. That terminal, in turn, is networked to a wireless router that makes the satcom signal available for all connected devices. While Iridium builds and maintains its LEO constellation, it partners with third-party hardware manufacturers—including Cobham, Intellian, Lars-Thrane and Thales—that build consumer-ready terminals.

While Iridium allows five terminals of different sizes to operate on its Certus network, 700-level terminals—with data-transfer uplink speeds of up to 352 kilobits per second and downlink speeds of up to 704 Kbps—offer Certus’ highest throughput speeds.

For example, Intellian’s C700 terminal is a solid-state device that uses a 12-element patch antenna. “It is then able to track multiple satellites and always select the strongest signal,” says Paul Comyns, Intellian’s senior director channel sales Americas. This setup, he adds, “avoids any issue of blockage, whether that be from onboard obstructions like a sail or mast, or if you happen to be cruising in a fjord where there are big mountains and trees.” Given that the C700 has a 12-element patch antenna, some are still likely seeing satellites even if others are blocked.

The 700-level terminals are monogamous, which means they only transmit and receive data to and from a single satellite at once. However, they’re opportunistic in that they’re often simultaneously auditioning two to four other satellites.

“Because each patch antenna is pointing in a different direction, it has the opportunity to pick up a signal from a different satellite,” Comyns says. “It’s always listening to different satellites and then picking which is the strongest signal and utilizing that one.”

During a 10-minute voice call, a 700-series terminal might change satellites several times. These transitions are nearly seamless to the end user, and the multiple data pathways mean that 700-level terminals on Iridium’s Certus network offer some of the highest reliability levels of any satcom solution.

Certus terminals also can be paired with VSAT systems to deliver an out-of-band management solution for the yacht’s primary satcom system. Additionally, third-party long-range cellular and Wi-Fi antennas can be added for lowest-cost data routing.

This ability to play nicely with others, coupled with Certus’ reliability and global coverage, makes these terminals ideal companions for high-latitude cruisers or for those transiting the South Pacific, where it might otherwise be impossible to download email, GRIB weather files and chart updates, or to transmit and receive emergency communications.

“If you want a reliable connection that’s going to get through whatever the weather, then Certus is a perfect solution,” Comyns says.

As with all technology, Certus service has its pros and cons. As mentioned, speeds aren’t fast enough to stream video or upload it to social media, and Certus is not the least-expensive form of satellite communications (see Iridium’s website for airtime costs). That said, the system is global, there are no moving internal components, and the equipment is relatively small and easy to fit aboard. Factor in Certus’ ability to provide out-of-band management and lowest-cost data routing, and the network presents itself as an intriguing communications solution for anyone who is interested in plying the dark spots on most VSAT coverage maps.

One doesn’t need to be an ancient philosopher to see how adding a Certus system might generate its own kind of luck.

The post Iridium Keeps Boaters Connected Anywhere appeared first on Yachting.

Call it a first-world problem, but rain can cause performance issues for some satellite-communication frequencies. This isn’t because onboard satcom equipment is faulty or inadequate—it’s not. Rather, certain bands of radio-frequency energy physically attenuate as they travel through precipitation-streaked time and space.

Fortunately, not all satcom frequencies suffer from rain-fade issues, and hardware—including Intellian’s recently unveiled FB500 terminal—already exists to help leverage this bandwidth.

Supporting Intellian’s hardware is Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband (FBB) service, which delivers a near-global (99.9 percent availability) rain-fade-free service by harnessing the lower-frequency L-band (1 to 2 GHz) range. The trade-off, however, is speed: FBB delivers speeds—up and down—that are measured in kilobits per second (Kbps), a comparatively pedestrian pace that’s fine for most applications but still a long row home from VSAT’s metrics.

While Inmarsat debuted FBB service in 2007, and while Intellian has manufactured FBB terminals since 2010, the fourth-generation FB500 antenna ($15,800) has the company’s latest hardware innovations and refinements. This includes Inmarsat’s latest L-band modem, plus the ability to connect to shore-based 4G/5G/LTE cellular networks to deliver lowest-cost routing for coastal cruising.

With regard to equipment, an FB500 consists of a radome-enclosed antenna (called an abovedeck unit, or ADU) that’s stabilized across three axes and that delivers unlimited azimuth rotation, a belowdecks unit (a black box that is typically rack-mounted), coaxial cabling and a power cable (either DC or, if AC is required, via Intellian’s AC/DC power supply adapter) that powers the BDU.

A network operator’s SIM card slots into the back of the BDU, which broadcasts its connectivity to networked devices via a built-in Wi-Fi antenna. The system has an embedded and software-based Private Automatic Branch Exchange, which supports multiple telephone lines, as well as a firewall. Owners (or the yacht’s network operator) can configure their system using Intellian’s Aptus LX terminal-management software. This management tool delivers the ability, for example, to whitelist and blacklist individual wireless devices from leveraging L-band connectivity; furthermore, once a device has been greenlighted, owners (or admins) can assign data and quality caps and permissions (such as the ability to place phone or video calls) to each individual device.

“This all helps ensure that owners have control over their airtime,” says Paul Comyns, Intellian’s director of sales and business development.

Yachts, after all, are never democracies.

An FB500 connects to Inmarsat’s constellation of I-4 satellites, and the terminals play nicely with Inmarsat’s next-generation I-6 satellites, as well as Inmarsat’s upgraded L-band service, ELERA, as they come online.

FB500s can be employed in several ways. Each FB500 can be leveraged as a stand-alone L-band terminal for lower-bandwidth communications at speeds of up to 432 Kbps. “For yachts that have room for one antenna and less demand for such bandwidth-intensive applications, L-band is ideal,” says Comyns, adding that the FB500 “enables users to have high-quality voice and video calls, internet access and file transfers.”

Caveat emptor: 432 Kbps may be fast enough for downloading email or weather GRIB files, but it’s not quick enough for streaming Netflix (read at least 5 Mbps of downlink speed). When faster speeds are required, and when there’s more abovedecks and belowdecks space to work with, an FB500 can be paired with an Intellian-built GXNX-series VSAT system and a belowdecks Intellian GX Mediator, the latter of which determines which network and antenna to leverage and when,  to create a dual-antenna Fleet Xpress installation. Depending on the size of the antennas and the airtime provider involved, Fleet Xpress can deliver downlink and uplink speeds of up to 16 Mbps and 4 Mbps. However, 2 Mbps and 512 Kbps are more realistic metrics when airtime costs are considered.

In this situation, the VSAT terminal delivers high-speed service for high-bandwidth applications, while the FB500 adds reliability and helps populate the connectivity map. “When it comes to larger yachts and superyachts, L-band is more commonly installed as a VSAT backup,” Comyns says. “Configured in this way, the GX [antenna] can reliably fail over to the L-band terminal when environmental conditions severely impact the GX [terminal’s] Ka-band data connection.”

Installation depending, Comyns says, the FB500 can sometimes also serve as a back door for off-site  technicians to investigate, and possibly fix, onboard VSAT issues.

The FB500’s third operational mode is that of a safety tool. Thanks to the proven reliability of L-band frequencies, an FB500 can also act as an emergency safety tether that connects a well-equipped yacht with one of Inmarsat’s global Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres and—thanks to Inmarsat’s distress-priority chat feature—to multiple nearby vessels.

While the FB500 builds on previous generations of hardware and software refinements, it also introduces cellular connectivity to the picture. “Intellian’s L-band BDUs have a [wireless area network] port that can be configured to connect via a different network connection than the default satellite link,” Comyns says. “For example, a [third-party] LTE/5G modem that can provide a more cost-effective connection when in range.”

As for its target audience, the FB500 is aimed at any yacht that can accommodate its size (28.85 by 31.38 inches), heft (65 pounds for the ADU) and belowdecks equipment, and any yacht owner who wants to access email, data and voice calls, globally and irrespective of the weather. Factor in the FB500’s ability to provide L-band connectivity for a Fleet Xpress installation, and its capabilities for emergency communications, and the FB500 is ready for off-piste waters.

So if you’re a yachtsman seeking a global, durable communications setup and don’t mind L-band’s pedestrian-like pace, or if you want Fleet Xpress’ speed, bandwidth and L-band coverage, Intellian’s FB500 could be worth close attention. First-world problems like rain fade, after all, don’t really matter with a weather-proof satcom system.

Little Brother (is listening)

If the FB500’s radome exceeds the aesthetic or physical sensibilities of a yacht’s skyline, a smaller-ride option is Intellian’s FB250 terminal for L-band connectivity. The FB250’s ADU measures 11.5 by 11.6 inches, and it weighs a mere 11.6 pounds. The trade-off? Pace: The FB250 moves data at speeds of up to 284 Kbps.

The post Intellian’s Global Communicator: The FB500 appeared first on Yachting.

It’s not every day that you see a ship hovering above the sea. Of course, it’s also not every day that you find yourself sailing from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Seattle under warm and sunny solstice skies—but there I was. And there was the gravity-defying ship.

Just as I began to question my watch-standing skills, Erden, my friend and shipmate, explained that fata morgana is an atmospherically triggered optical illusion that can make distant objects appear to hover. We checked the AIS, and our mirage was an actual ship plying actual brine.

Given that we had hundreds of miles to go, there was time aplenty to ponder whether AIS could also experience situational-awareness hiccups. The answer is yes, and the solution is already being developed. The VHF Data Exchange System (VDES), once operational, should make boating a better, safer and even more information-rich experience than it is today.

To understand why, we need to start with AIS. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez found the bricks in Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound, triggering one of history’s worst environmental disasters. A year later, as part of the Oil Pollution Act, lawmakers tasked the U.S Coast Guard with creating a vessel-tracking system (VTS) for tankers operating in the U.S Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service in Alaska. The resulting system was based on VHF radio communications, as well as shore-based monitoring and polling systems.

This system evolved into what became global AIS. By 2000, the International Maritime Organization began mandating that most sea-bound ships carry Class A AIS transmitters for collision-avoidance purposes and as a VTS tool. These transmitters broadcast information—including the vessel’s name, position, course, speed, navigational status and unique MMSI number—on dedicated VHF channels 87B and 88B every two to 10 seconds, depending on vessel speed, while also listening for incoming AIS transmissions.

In 2006, the AIS standards committee released specifications for a Class B-CS AIS system, which is a “polite” system that’s interoperable with Class A AIS on a non-interference basis, for voluntary users. The Class B-CS employs the same two VHF channels, but it broadcasts every 30 seconds.

In 2013, Class B-SO transmitters arrived. These operate on the same self-organizing bandwidth scheme as Class A systems; however, they transmit every five to 30 seconds.

Overall, while there are many differences between Class A and Class B AIS transmitters, all AIS transmissions operate on just the two VHF channels: 87B and 88B. Given the amount of critical data that flows across these channels on crowded waters, bandwidth emerges as AIS’ limiting factor.

Enter VDES. The VHF Data Exchange System bundles existing technologies into one communications hub.

VDES is composed of four key components: AIS, VDE Satellite, VDE Terrestrial and ASM channels. Much like modern smartphones that seamlessly tackle roaming and multiple frequencies, an onboard VDES box (once the system is operational, circa 2025 to 2035) should be able to listen to 12 different frequencies. These include two frequencies for satellite-based long-range AIS, two frequencies for sending and receiving AIS-based messages, six channels for receiving terrestrial or satellite-based data, and six channels for transmitting satellite data.

“The goal with VDES is to move non-ship-to-ship traffic off AIS so that AIS is primarily for collision avoidance, and for other marine-safety information to migrate to the other VDES channels,” says Jorge Arroyo, a U.S Coast Guard program-and-management analyst. While all AIS devices will continue to work, unchanged, the overall system will be more efficient, robust and broader. “What I’m talking about today will hopefully be seamless in the future,” he adds.

While the ability to send updated navigational chart corrections or certain marine safety notifications via VDES offers a glimpse at the future, Arroyo envisions bigger dividends. “Real-time weather could be the killer app,” he says, adding that he hopes ships will share real-time weather information with other VDES users on the high seas via mesh networks that also share the information with satellites.

Dave Dunn, Garmin’s senior director of marine sales, says, “VDES is in the stratosphere, but it will trickle down.” And there’s less freeboard to this drop than one might think. In 2019, Vesper Marine, a New Zealand-based AIS company, unveiled its Cortex communications hub, which bundles AIS, cellular, digital-selective calling (DSC), VHF and Wi-Fi communications into a single hub. In early 2022, Garmin acquired Vesper Marine.

“As it stands, with no changes, we can receive and decode eight channels in parallel; we are currently using five, so there are three in reserve,” says Carl Omundsen, Garmin’s engineering manager of marine communications. “In 10 years, no one will know or care about AIS. It will just be cool functionality, along with VHF, DSC and VDES. It will just work.”

And VDES is a two-way communications system that should allow vessels, satellites and terrestrial-based shore stations to send and receive far more data than current AIS receivers and transmitters can deliver. “This will open up the killer apps,” Omundsen says. “It’s not just weather, search-and-rescue and for ships coming into ports; it’s also about data that’s on the ship.”

If this sounds like the kind of big data that’s currently transmitted via a sat-comms system, or if you’re pondering future autonomous vessels, you’re on the right tack.

Given that VDES will be employed on domestic and international waters, numerous international agencies are regulating the system. All parties seem to want the technology to thrive.

“The market will always drive the technology faster than we can on the regulatory side,” Arroyo says, adding that regulations provide the framework, while individual companies create the innovations.

All expectations are that, for instance, ships and commercial operators will have access to updated navigation and ice charts, while yachts plying the Northwest Passage or some other high-latitude waters will also get up-to-date cartography and ice alerts. Moreover, while traditional AIS is limited to line-of-sight communications (ballpark 5 to 20 nautical miles), VDES’s satellite antennas will extend this range a hundredfold. Factor in the coming ability to cloud-load systems data, and Arroyo’s vision for sharing real-time weather information, and it’s obvious that VDES will do much more than prevent collisions.

For yachtsmen thinking about upgrades: Garmin’s Cortex will eventually be able to support VDES, with an expected software update; and Saab and Kongsberg have pre-VDES upgradable systems available for commercial marine use.

Greener Pastures

Supporting two-way communications is among the strongest attributes of VDES and will be especially important as autonomous navigation systems and autonomous vessels come online. VDES information is expected to help human operators optimize marine traffic patterns, which should help lower ships’ emissions and fuel-consumption rates.

The post All-In-One Comms: the VHF Data Exchange System appeared first on Yachting.

The saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention. Robert Balog, KVH’s chief technology officer, experienced this firsthand a few years ago while cruising with his wife aboard their Viking Sport Cruiser 43. The couple was berthed in Nantucket, Massachusetts. While there were 20-plus Wi-Fi hotspots ashore, none offered serviceable bandwidth. The boat’s KVH-built LTE-1 provided cellular connectivity until the ferry arrived with data-starved tourists (think concerts). The couple could use their KVH-built satcom system, of course, but this was a more expensive option than shore-based cellular or Wi-Fi.

That’s when necessity met innovation as Balog pondered how a single radome could deliver next-generation connectivity.

After almost four years of hardware and network development, his idea is here. While these technologies aren’t new, KVH’s TracNet H-series terminals, which operate exclusively on KVH’s ONE hybrid network, are the first to bundle cellular, satcom and Wi-Fi antennas into one system.

In 2021, KVH unveiled its V30 satcom system, which operates on KVH’s HTS network and has ground-up architecture. This architecture is centered around an Ethernet-power-over-coaxial (EPOC) cable that shuttles data between the antenna and the system’s rack-mounted belowdecks unit (BDU) at a rate of 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps). To put this cable into perspective, V30 units transmit and receive data at up to 2 and 6 Mbps, respectively. That leaves a lot of untapped bandwidth.

Fast-forward a year, and KVH recently released its H30 ($20,000), H60 ($28,000) and H90 ($45,000) systems. The “H” stands for hybrid, referring to the ability to communicate via cellular, satcom or Wi-Fi. All three radomes have single-cable installation, allowing the stabilized satcom antenna to articulate freely inside the radome via a commercial-grade rotary joint that eliminates cable-wrap worries. All three send data to their BDU via a super-fast EPOC pipeline.

The single-channel H30 uses a 37-centimeter aluminum dish that’s stabilized across two axes. It can send and receive satcom data at up to 2 and 6 Mbps, respectively. The dual-channel H60 employs a 60 cm aluminum dish that’s stabilized across three axes. It sends and receives data via its high-speed connection at up to 3 and 10 Mbps, while its unlimited-use channel (read: crew and guests) delivers data at up to 3 and 8 Mbps. The H90 uses a 1-meter carbon-fiber dish that’s stabilized across three axes; it transmits and receives satcom data on its high-speed channel at up to 3 and 20 Mbps, while its unlimited-use channel delivers speeds up to 3 and 8 Mbps.

H60 and H90 customers seeking faster download speeds can select KVH’s Elite network, which yields speeds up to 25 Mbps (H60) and 40 Mbps (H90).

Additionally, all three systems bundle high-gain 5G/LTE and Wi-Fi antennas and radios in their radomes. This “modem in the dome” architecture is critical because cellular and Wi-Fi work on a line-of-sight basis, so having the antennas mounted up high enables better performance than systems with rail-mounted or belowdecks antennas. The radome-mounted cellular-communications equipment contains a built-in SIM card, and the BDU has an additional two SIM slots, one of which can be used by customers who want to purchase third-party cellular connectivity (say, for cruising the Bahamas). And Balog says the EPOC cable doesn’t suffer typical radio-frequency signal loss between the radome and the BDU.

All H-series systems run their cellular, satcom and Wi-Fi connections as discrete virtual local area networks (VLANs). “The [BDU] box has access to all three [VLANs], and the box decides which to use,” Balog says, adding that the BDUs employ a form of artificial intelligence to ensure lowest-cost data routing. “There’s a rules-based AI that’s looking at things like trends,” he says. The system attempts Wi-Fi connectivity first, then cellular, then satcom. “It ranks connectivity and calculates a score for each connection,” he says. “If it sees [this score] sliding, it will change connections.”

Each BDU includes a display with an intuitive graphical user interface that gives at-a-glance information about the system’s connectivity status.

H-series antennas operate exclusively on KVH’s ONE hybrid network. Satellite communications are handled by KVH’s proprietary network, while KVH partners with a global carrier for SIM cards and 5G/LTE airtime. Wi-Fi connectivity is provided locally and, like with smartphones, is typically free. Users pay a single monthly bill to KVH for their cellular and satellite communications.

Balog says it took KVH’s engineers three and a half years to create the H-series systems and ONE network. “Both were equally challenging,” he says. “We have equal-size teams working on both. It’s a mixture of hardware and software. There was nothing commercially available that could get it done, so we built all [the hardware] in-house.”

While KVH can’t optimize traffic over cellular and Wi-Fi networks the way it can with its own satcom network, Balog says the company still monitors third-party metrics, including packet loss, latency and jitter, to ensure a good user experience.

Cybersecurity is a growing concern, and KVH took big strides with the V30. This same thinking about building in protections went into the H-series antennas. “We incorporated state-of-the-art cybersecurity, from the lowest level of the bios all the way through the network security,” Balog says. “It’s so protected that even if a hacker had the box in hand, took it apart, and flashed code to change the antenna to get into the [KVH] network, it won’t run.” H-series cybersecurity includes encrypted system-level internal communications; interested owners can optionally build even taller cyber walls.

Balog says customers should see strong Wi-Fi performance with this setup, even on notoriously bad marina Wi-Fi networks. He cited a recent visit to Newport, Rhode Island, where he realized speeds of 60 to 70 Mbps using his H60 over a marina Wi-Fi network; the speed (or really, lack thereof) plummeted to less than 10 Mbps when he bypassed the H60 and just used his iPhone.

So, if you’re interested in bolstering your onboard communications and like the idea of an end-to-end satellite-communications network that’s piggybacked with cellular and Wi-Fi communications, KVH’s latest offerings are worth considering. The gains can be huge (pun intended), even if a ferry full of data-hungry tourists arrives just as you’re settling in for some après web surfing.

Rack-Mounted Cybersecurity

While KVH’s TracNet systems provide robust cybersecurity, yacht owners seeking enterprise-grade network security could consider adding a FortiNet firewall. This rack-mounted white box and attached subscription service ($250 per month) works with KVH’s hardware and network, and can, among other capabilities, determine whether an infected device is attempting to join a network.

The post Staying Connected with KVH’s TracNet and ONE Hybrid Network appeared first on Yachting.

The hackers didn’t break into the 2018 European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition. They were invited inside.

By whom? Satcom Direct, a Florida-based firm that specializes in hardware, software and end-to-end connectivity for the aviation and marine sectors.

The company welcomed what’s known as ethical, or “white hat,” hackers to its EBACE booth to create a trial by digital fire. The white hats publicly demonstrated the kinds of real-world cyber threats—including phishing, password deciphering and system compromise—that black-hat hackers pose. At the same time, Satcom Direct showcased its cybersecurity and threat-monitoring offerings.

Some attendees found themselves pondering just how secure their systems are. Jets, sport-fishing vessels and superyachts differ in design and capabilities, but people who own them want to transition from one to the next with reliable, secure connectivity. Virtual private networks can provide device-level protection for smartphones and personal computers ashore, but VPNs can cause speed bumps when used with satcom systems like the ones aboard yachts. The idea behind Satcom Direct’s recently expanded marine division is to simplify moving from one’s Gulfstream G800 to the Viking 80C while staying connected.

Satcom Direct was founded in Melbourne, Florida, in 1997, with the goal of creating a 10-digit, US-based phone number (called the Global One Number) that could reach a satellite phone in-flight, irrespective of latitude or longitude. Next, the company began innovating secure end-to-end communications solutions for the aviation, government, land-mobile and marine sectors.

A big piece came together in 2016, when Satcom Direct acquired COMSAT, the US government-formed corporation that helped create the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium in 1964 and put the first geostationary commercial communications satellite into orbit in 1966. This acquisition included two satellite ground stations—one in Southbury, Connecticut, and the other in Santa Paula, California—that Satcom Direct uses to facilitate its end-to-end connectivity solutions.

Secure and reliable satellite communications depend on these ground-based networks and infrastructure. That’s why Satcom Direct also owns a 25,000-square-foot Tier 3 (it’s online almost constantly) data center in Melbourne, Florida, and internet points of presence, which serve as on-ramps for local traffic to join the internet. Satcom Direct connects clients to its land-based infrastructure via redundant, third-party land- and satellite-based links that the company uses to create a proprietary data and voice communications network (see sidebar). Satcom Direct monitors and maintains this network from its facilities in California, Connecticut and Florida.

“Satcom Direct is a data-management company,” says Michael Skou Christensen, the company’s chief commercial officer for private aviation and marine. He says there are four main pillars to the business: providing a communications link from a customer’s antenna to a satellite; providing hardware that enables this connectivity; providing software as a service; and providing the supporting infrastructure that allows Satcom Direct to control and securely route data from when it leaves a client’s vessel to its destination.

Satcom Direct offers three scalable levels of cyber protection. Level 1 has threat monitoring and mitigation, and includes an enterprise-level firewall, embedded antivirus software, and intrusion detection and prevention systems. Level 2 adds advanced-level encryption capabilities. Level 3 adds the company’s Private Network, which routes encrypted data back ashore without trafficking it over the public internet.

In March, Satcom Direct announced it was bolstering its marine division by creating new services for owners of private jets, sport-fishing vessels, and mega- and superyachts. The Marine Router and Marine Rack support its new service. The router creates a local area network (LAN) using cellular, Wi-Fi or satcom connectivity that onboard wireless devices join. The rack houses the router, provides uninterrupted power and switching, and lets owners scale their service.

Christensen says owners can achieve Level 1 and 2 using the Marine Router; Level 3 requires additional hardware and a data center. “We can send the data to a client’s own IT department,” he says, or clients can “let us handle the data.”

Either way, he adds, “The real power isn’t in the individual elements.” The system shines when aircraft and vessel networks “become one.”

What sets the router apart is “the transparency on the LAN and how it overlaps with the satellite link,” Christensen says. “It’s a powerful support tool for us, and for the captain and the crew. Instead of defending on a device level, we defend the yacht on an antenna level.”

This umbrella defense can be scaled to fit each owner’s needs.

“The difference between a sport-fishing vessel and a superyacht is a level of scalability,” Christensen says. “Sport-fishing vessels have [fewer] straight [data] requirements, as there are [fewer] people on board. With superyachts, the complexity keeps going up, with more users.”

Christensen says clients are increasingly adopting Level 3 protection. But, as with many things yacht-related, the solutions are not one-size-fits-all kits. “We’ll help you design the right system,” Christensen says.

So, if you cruise from your office to your Nordhavn or Viking in your private jet, check out Satcom Direct. Odds are good this company can help keep your ones and zeros flowing while keeping hackers of all hat colors isolated and ashore.

Satellite Agnosticism

While Satcom Direct owns terrestrial infrastructure and facilities, it works with satellite providers—including Intelsat, Inmarsat, Viasat and Iridium—as an airtime reseller. This long-standing setup allows the company to focus on creating hardware and software solutions on the router and rack level while giving customers maximum network and hardware flexibility

The post Satcom Direct’s Security in the Air, at Sea appeared first on Yachting.

Inmarsat, which makes mobile satellite communications systems for yachts, has launched Fleet Secure Unified Threat Management.

UTM is a standard option on Inmarsat’s Fleet Xpress service to protect superyacht networks against cyberattacks. It adds to other cybersecurity options the company offers, including Fleet Secure Endpoint and Fleet Secure Cyber Awareness Training.

Inmarsat developed UTM in partnership with maritime cybersecurity specialist Port-IT. It combines multiple network security tools in a single application.

New solutions are needed, the company says, because data use on board has tripled since the onset of the pandemic. All that extra data use creates what Inmarsat calls a “growing superyacht network surface area” for cyberattacks that can affect onboard control systems.

Fleet Secure UTM capabilities can include gateway antivirus software, intrusion detection and prevention, web-content filtering and application control. All users of Fleet Secure UTM get asset management, alerting and reporting capability that fully aligns with International Maritime Organization 2021 compliance on cybersecurity risk management.

Bronze, silver and gold versions of Fleet UTM are available. Gold users can access advanced scanning based on artificial intelligence for malicious codes beyond known signatures to block zero-day attacks.

Does Fleet Secure UTM have its own security portal? Yes. It lets users monitor traffic in all connected networks to protect operational technology, Internet of Things and crew communications, among others.

Take the next step: Click over to inmarsat.com

The post Inmarsat Launches Fleet Secure Unified Threat Management appeared first on Yachting.

ACR Electronics has dropped the price on its Bivy Stick two-way satellite communication device. The Bivy Stick’s pricing is now $199.

“Bivy Stick is the lightest and most efficient way to send a message, share a location, get a weather report, or initiate an SOS while adventuring off-grid,” the company stated in a press release.

Bivy and ACR Electronics also revised pricing on their data plans. New users of the Bivy Stick can access the device’s features with a four-month required period of Plus or Unlimited plans starting at $29.99 per month. After four months, users can keep their current plan, change to a Basic plan or suspend the service.

Where does the Bivy Stick work? Anywhere that users can see the sky, because of 100 percent global satellite coverage, according to ACR Electronics.

Take the next step: go to acrartex.com

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I’ll admit to feeling a pang of jealousy when I see a yacht cruise past my neighborhood park in Bellingham, Washington. The bow is pointed toward the nearby majestic San Juan Islands, and its satellite-communications antennas punctuate the skyline. These yacht owners remain comfortably connected while being able to enjoy forays to explore Pacific Northwest beaches and parks, or hikes up Orcas Island’s Mount Constitution, rather than remaining tethered to their at-home internet connections.

The trouble is, open-contract VSAT antennas historically haven’t come in small packages. Now, for smaller-yacht owners who have wanted that option, things have changed.

Marine-based VSAT (very small aperture terminal) antennas evolved in the 1980s, giving mariners dependable satellite-communication connections that improved as airtime providers developed better satellite constellations with greater throughput speeds.

But there was a catch: size. Until now, open-contract (think unlocked cellphones) VSAT systems for the recreational marine market typically employed antennas that were 60 centimeters or larger. Once inside its protective radome, even a “small” 60-centimeter antenna usually requires 60 feet of waterline to avoid overwhelming the yacht’s aesthetics.

Unlike its bigger brothers, Intellian’s v45C ($18,000; the C stands for “compact”) has a 45-centimeter antenna that’s opening new cruising and work-aboard possibilities for owners of more modest-size rides who want their choice of airtime providers. Intellian’s smallest VSAT antenna operates on Ku-band frequencies (10.7 to 14.5 gigahertz) and delivers speeds that were once the province of larger antennas.

“It used to be that small antennas were limited on their throughput, which meant 60-centimeter antennas [were needed],” says Paul Comyns, Intellian’s vice president of global marketing. Now, “performance enhancements in radio-frequency technology and satellite performance means higher throughput speeds on smaller antennas.”

To make these antennas, Comyns says, Intellian scaled down its radio-frequency componentry from the larger NX-series antennas and reduced the v45C’s component count.

A v45C system consists of a deck-mounted antenna fitted inside a radome that measures 24-by-24.6 inches and weighs 50.7 pounds; a rack-mounted antenna control unit; and a single RF coaxial cable connecting the hardware. Additionally, the system requires a modem (also typically rack-mounted) that is provided by a customer’s airtime provider and connects to the antenna control unit, as well as a wireless router.

As with land-based internet, data flows from a networked wireless device or PC to the yacht’s wireless router, to the modem, to the v45C’s antenna control unit and antenna, and then up to the airtime provider’s satellite. All received data follows the inverse route.

“The antenna control unit [governs] the antenna,” Comyns says. “The v45C isn’t concerned with [transmitted-data] traffic. It’s only concerned with pointing at the satellite and maintaining its connection.”

The v45C maintains that connection via three-axis stabilization, to keep its antenna trained at the correct satellite as a yacht pitches, rolls and heaves. “It uses stepper motors and Kevlar-reinforced belts to drive its elevation, azimuth and cross-level [trim],” Comyns says.

North America-based v45C users have a choice of airtime providers, each with their own coverage footprints and throughput speeds.

“[Speed] really depends on the airtime provider’s high-throughput beams,” Comyns says, adding that a v45C tethered to an IntelsatOne Flex plan, for example, should be able to deliver download speeds of 6 megabits per second and uplink speeds of 2 Mbps. “All [popular] cruising areas have good throughput, so the yachting world is generally covered. But if you’re outside of this [coverage], you’ll be on a slower beam.”

In addition to popular cruising haunts such as the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and New England, cruisers will likely find good coverage on regularly plied shipping and commercial-airliner routes. But, as with any airtime contract, it’s important to compare your cruising itinerary with each service provider’s coverage map, data plan and airtime rates.

Given its tidy size and weight, Intellian’s v45C can be installed aboard a range of yachts. “It’s really for the boats that are going farther afield, and for owners who are staying aboard longer and who are living and working from the boat,” Comyns says, adding that enterprise software works on VSAT. “Based on its style, a v45C would work aboard trawlers that are 40 feet and up and aboard faster yachts that are 45 feet and up. It can work on a 26-footer, but it would look out of place.”

Complementary aesthetics are a consideration for any yacht owner, and Intellian’s matching i5 TVRO antenna lets yachtsmen mount a v45C on one side of the radar arch, with the i5 on the other side. The setup allows fast satellite communications and high-definition-TV service in a favorite anchorage.

As mentioned, the v45C uses only a single RF coaxial cable, which should make for easy installation. Commissioning is done using a laptop and Intellian’s Aptus NX antenna-management and -diagnostics software wizard.

In addition to serving as the primary satellite-communications system aboard 40- and 50-footers, the v45C’s size makes it a candidate as a backup system aboard a larger yacht that carries one or more bigger antennas.

As with any antenna, smaller VSAT systems don’t deliver the same gain or throughput speeds as contemporary systems with larger-diameter reflectors, so cruisers headed to off-piste locales may need a bigger antenna or one that operates on different frequencies to stay connected. Bandwidth is also a consideration.

“More users place more demand on the [information] pipe, just like in a hotel,” says Comyns, who advises that a v45C can comfortably support two or three people and their networked devices. Likewise, v45C customers can expect more issues with rain or snow fade than owners of larger antennas. “If you’re stuck in a snowstorm on the Bering Sea, a v45C will be slow while a 60-centimeter antenna will stay connected longer.”

While the Bering Sea in winter may pose some connectivity issues for a v45C—not to mention for small yachts—cruisers with the system in more hospitable places aren’t likely to experience these challenges.

For yachtsmen seeking a capable, open-contract satellite-communications system to facilitate longer-term cruising aboard a 40- or 50-footer, Intellian’s v45C could be an option. I’m already bracing myself for additional envy at my local park as more San Juan Islands-bound yachts can now function as their owners’ private information islands.

The post Intellian Offers Compact v45C VSAT Radome appeared first on Yachting.

Many aspects of life changed in 2020, and one trend that accelerated rapidly is working remotely. For yacht owners and charterers, remote work can mean working from on board while casting off the dock lines. This alluring option provides prized social distancing and family time, but it also hinges on fast, seamless connectivity at sea.

While personal computers, printers and smart devices are all part of the floating-office ecosystem, the more important prerequisites for creating a robust onboard office are satcom systems. These systems rely on two ingredients: equipment that is mounted (such as an antenna) and housed belowdecks and the network of satellites this equipment uses to send and receive data. Owners can invest in an open system, buying equipment from one vendor and airtime service from a third-party provider, or can install an end-to-end system, with equipment and airtime from the same company.

Both options have merits. Open systems let yachtsmen hand-pick airtime providers when cruising to areas where one might deliver better coverage than another, while end-to-end systems offer seamlessness and a single contact if issues arise. There are numerous hardware players afield, especially in the open-system market. Intellian is a leading manufacturer of network-agnostic equipment, while KVH is a leading end-to-end manufacturer with a proprietary satcom network.

“It’s all about data throughput,” says Paul Comyns, Intellian’s vice president of global marketing, pointing to the company’s V65 and V100NX as options for floating-office antennas. “Uplink and downlink speeds are determined by the airtime provider and how much the customer wants to pay. If you just want to send email or make voice calls, slower-speed connectivity works. But if you want to take Zoom meetings, make video calls, or attend or host webinars, this requires greater bandwidth.”

Generally speaking, an airtime plan that delivers minimum speeds of 2 megabits per second for both uplink and downlink data is enough to support email, enterprise-level software such as Salesforce, and videoconferencing. As a reference, Apple’s FaceTime and Skype both require speeds of 1 to 4 Mbps.

Andrew Bush, KVH’s superyacht group sales director for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, says another way to think about speeds is that if a boater is just sending and receiving email, he can use the same internet connections from five or six years ago. Sending and receiving large attachments or videos, and participating in videoconferencing, requires faster connections.

Bush points to KVH’s TracPhone V7-HTS, which delivers speeds up to 10/3 Mbps (downlink and uplink), or the TracPhone V11-HTS, which delivers speeds up to 20/3 Mbps, on KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband network. With video calls and videoconferencing, Bush says, “You can get away with a slow connection, but it’s not quality. It gets compressed. It’s the difference between standard TV and high-definition.”

Comyns says two kinds of open-system airtime contracts are available. With unmetered plans, owners pay for a committed information rate and can stream unlimited amounts of data; the only limiting factor is the size of the CIR data pipeline. With metered plans, owners buy monthly (or weekly, for charterers) data allotments and then purchase additional megabytes of data once the allotted pool is depleted, similar to early cellphone plans.

Overall, if an owner or charterer needs high-quality videoconferencing and the ability to access enterprise software, Comyns says, they “want a CIR. There are no data overages, and they get unlimited access, just like at home.”

Alternatively, KVH’s V7-HTS and V11-HTS systems provide dual channels: a high-speed metered connection and a slower but unlimited-use channel. Here, Bush says, owners or charterers can reserve the fast-connection channel for their business needs, while reserving the unlimited channel for family and crew use. This latter point is especially important when wireless devices are involved. Smartphones, Bush says, use a lot of background data.

KVH’s mini-VSAT Manager can also help to manage data use. “Owners and captains can see what data is being used, and they can restrict certain types of data so the crew isn’t using all the bandwidth,” says Steve Gorman, KVH’s superyacht group field engineer. Additionally, KVH’s in-house team monitors data use and can recommend different plans if they notice significant data-use spikes.

Cost is an obvious consideration for any satcom customer, but Comyns says there are occasional disconnects between the equipment’s purchase price and its long-term airtime costs.

“A 1-meter antenna is the optimum size,” Comyns says, because “the cost of bandwidth is less for the same speed compared with a 60- or 70-centimeter antenna.” It’s more expensive for airtime providers to send signals to smaller antennas; Comyns and Gorman say owners are wise to select the largest antenna their yacht can accommodate.

Geography is the last major consideration. Years ago, as vessels traveled globally, crewmembers had to swap out each antenna’s radio-frequency component module so the system could employ regional signals. Those days, fortunately, are astern.

“One antenna will work around the world without any change,” Comyns says, adding that satcom systems are GPS-enabled and know which satellites to track. Gorman agrees: “You can cruise around the world, and it’s all done for you.”

Latitude, however, remains a hurdle. Because satellite communications are line of sight, and because geostationary satellites are situated above the equator, yachts cruising to high-latitude zones need to point their antennas toward the far southern horizon. Fortunately, Comyns says, most airtime providers give multiple satellite options. He cites the example of a yacht berthed in Juneau, Alaska: “If a cruise ship arrives, it could block your signal.” The solution is to switch satellites or, as a last resort, reposition the yacht.

Blockage can also occur much closer to the equator. For example, sky-scratching hotels, cruise ships or even a yacht’s own superstructure can block signals. Because of this problem, many yachts have dual satellite-communications antennas. If one gets blocked, the other remains online.

Overall, to equip a yacht as a floating office, consider buying the biggest antenna that fits, and tether it to an airtime plan with ample data. Or while chartering, insist on a properly equipped yacht. The turnkey costs aren’t trivial, but the ability to work from the boat is priceless.

The post The Onboard Office appeared first on Yachting.

Click, click. Tick, tick. Click-tick. Click-tickity-tick. Clickity-tickity-click.

My ears struggle to decipher the unsyncopated cacophony ringing from a sequestered testing room at KVH’s Middletown, Rhode Island, headquarters. “Hang out in here too long and you’ll go nuts,” says Alan Sylvestre, KVH Industries’ director of manufacturing.

He’s only partly joking. The staccato sounds emanate from motors that keep KVH-built very-small-aperture terminals (VSAT) and TV receive-only (TVRO) antennas locked onto their correct satellites. Sylvestre points to the digital counters below each motor. Some read “just” 13 million cycles (and counting), while others have surpassed 40 million tests.

Studying the motor-testing area, which sounds like a highly caffeinated, typewriter-driven newsroom, I realize that KVH’s stringent quality-control protocols support the company’s goal of scaling up service-provider operations without swelling employee head counts or customer costs. The approach has served the company well since it was founded during the run-up to the 1980 America’s Cup, and it has given yachtsmen access to onboard technology that was a pipe dream just a few decades ago.

KVH was born when the French America’s Cup syndicate sailing the 12-Meter France 3 wanted a tactical sailing computer. A team member made a chance acquaintance with a young Martin Kits van Heyningen, who was working at a Newport, Rhode Island, boatyard in between semesters at Yale University. When he heard what the sailors wanted, he said that his father, Arent Kits van Heyningen, then an engineer at Raytheon and an accomplished sailor himself, “could make anything.”

The elder Kits van Heyningen built the world’s first sailing-specific computer, as promised, but soon realized that analog fluxgate compasses weren’t compatible with digital computers. So, he returned to his basement laboratory and built the world’s first self-calibrating digital fluxgate compass.

He and his sons, Martin and Robert, worked under the SailComp banner from 1982 to 1985 before changing the family-owned business’s name to KVH. The company’s military-facing arm, TACNAV, was founded in 1991, and in 1997, KVH acquired the assets of the Andrews Corp.’s Sensor Products group, a Chicago-based fiber-optics developer. This purchase allowed KVH to become involved in the inertial navigation and fiber-optic gyroscope trade, and the company soon had clients ranging from the US government to commercial and recreational boaters.

KVH introduced its first TVRO system in 1994 and went public in 1996. In 1998, KVH started reselling Inmarsat’s L-band (1 to 2 GHz) satellite-communications antennas and airtime service before deciding to enter the satellite-communications trade itself. In 2007, KVH created its regional Ku-band mini-VSAT Broadband satellite-communications network by leasing satellite transponder space on geosynchronous satellites, and began manufacturing a 60-centimeter stabilized VSAT antenna—dubbed the TracPhone V7—that exclusively operated on this end-to-end network. In 2011, KVH added the 37-centimeter TracPhone V3 to its VSAT lineup, followed by the 1.1-meter TracPhone V11 in 2012.

These antennas and terminals drew upon the company’s core compass technologies. Today, KVH specializes in building fiber-optic gyro equipment, and satellite-communications and entertainment solutions.

And the company continues to innovate. In 2017, KVH launched the next-generation mini-VSAT Broadband 2.0 network, delivering faster service at attractive prices and supporting high-throughput-satellite (HTS) airtime service and antennas. The antennas include the TracPhone V7-HTS (2017), TracPhone V3-HTS (2018) and TracPhone V11-HTS (2019). Additionally, KVH launched the TracPhone LTE-1 antenna, delivering the lowest-cost routing across cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

“You can manage a business by cutting costs or by delighting the customer,” says Elizabeth Jackson, KVH’s chief marketing officer. “We’re focused on delighting the customer and setting them up for success.”

The company’s HTS antennas come with dual channels. There’s a high-speed line that’s typically reserved for owners, their guests, and critical communications such as stock trading, and a second, slower (but free with unlimited data) line that’s meant for crew use and uploading data to the cloud.

“KVH’s Watch technology lets us [monitor] the performance of each antenna,” Jackson says, explaining that this internet-of-things portal is a key advantage to KVH’s end-to-end network. “We’ve grown so fast, it’s now a matter of having the systems to support the scaling. We used to be a hardware company. Now we’re a service company.”

Hardware is typically a one-time sale, while service represents an ongoing relationship and a business that can be scaled up without swelling head count.

“As we add more customers, we don’t need to add one-to-one employees to support the systems,” Jackson says. “There’s always some element of human [involvement], but infrastructure and systems can be scaled more efficiently.”

Additionally, KVH’s embedded data-use controls allow users to set their airtime allocations, which plays into customer demands for fast, dependable service and predictable bills.

“We collect position and performance data every three seconds,” says Robert Balog, KVH’s chief technology officer. The company uses this information to help customers avoid signal blockages.

And KVH can use vessel-generated data such as speed, heading, roll, pitch and yaw—as well as vibration levels—to see any effects on the yacht’s VSAT performance. Inside KVH’s network operations center, screens and maps show every KVH-equipped vessel, its operational status and its performance metrics.

“Our system monitors every region,” says Jeff St. Pierre, KVH’s senior manager of global technical support. “We want to notice any issues before the customers.”

KVH’s back-end analytics constantly check for latency issues, packet loss, thrashing (the time an antenna spends hunting for a satellite), speed and connectivity. Should any network issues arise, St. Pierre’s team is on hand 24/7/365.

Other specialist team members can be found on KVH’s cavernous production floor, where the company does final assembly of two-axis stabilized TVRO antennas and two- or three-axis stabilized VSAT terminals.

“Each line is its own product,” Sylvestre says, adding that factory workers are trained to build and pack specific products. “All tools are calibrated, and every screw has a torque requirement.”

KVH practices the process of lean manufacturing with a single-piece flow, inspired by Toyota. KVH designs components in-house but builds them elsewhere.

“When I started here 25 years ago, lead time was 16 weeks,” Sylvestre says with a smile. “Now it’s two days, or one if it’s the last day of the quarter.”

While skinny lead times are good for getting products to customers, Rick Driscoll, KVH’s vice president of service development and implementation, says that what yachtsmen really want is the ability to stream data. KVH offers speed-based plans, where customers buy gigabytes of data at the fastest speeds available, and fixed-price plans that deliver predictable bills at slower speeds. There’s also a high-end, high-speed, unlimited-data streaming service for V7-HTS and V11-HTS customers.

“The holy grail is full streaming on a yacht at a reasonable price,” says Jim George, KVH’s senior director of global leisure sales. “People want the same [streaming] experience on their boat that they have at home without worrying about overages.”

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