Five Minutes With: Tore Morten Olsen, Astrium Services
Astrium Services took a survey of seafarer’s usage of crew communication solutions in the commercial shipping sector to establish a picture of mariner communications requirements. According to Tore Morten Olsen, Head of Maritime Services, Astrium Services, the survey was illuminating in more ways than one, helping to shed light on modern comms usage for onboard business and personal reasons. MLC 2006 is here. What is your sense that ship operators and owners will incorporate an increased availability of communications solutions for seafarers? The MLC asks for “reasonable access to ship-to-shore telephone communications, and email and Internet facilities, where available.” The wording is quite soft. Plus it is located in the non-mandatory guidelines. So there’s some room for interpretation.
Maritime Industry Responds to Typhoon in the Philippines
Shipowner groups, unions and welfare organizations are pulling together in response to the devastating effects of Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines. One of the main concerns is for Filipino seafarers, who represent more than 20% of the world's seafarers, to be able to contact their families and loved ones back home. Already, the Mission to Seafarers and Sailors Society are providing free phone cards, sims and wifi to Filipino seafarers who visit their centers all over the world. The Seafarers' Emergency Fund, administered by ISWAN, is providing funds for seafarer centers around the world to facilitate free phone calls and wifi for Filipino seafarers to call back home.
NAVSEA Dahlgren Develops Helpful Device
NAVSEA Dalgren?s Coastal Systems Station (CCS) has developed a hands free communications device. This device could produce life saving results for the individual firefighter who would have an improved ability to communicate in high noise situations. The head contact microphone, usually mounted into the headband of a hat or helmet, transmits spoken words from the wearer through physical contact of a transducer with the human cranium. The device has the ability to reject external noise in excess of 100 decibels. The technology is simple and should be affordable when mass-produced. By rejecting such noise, the microphone assembly could be very useful in a number of high noise environments including fire and police systems…
