KVH Introduces YOURlink

KVH Industries, Inc. has announced that it is introducing KVH YOURlink, a content delivery service that fleet managers and owners can use to distribute company-produced videos to all vessels in their fleet. The company will be presenting the new service at Nor-Shipping in Lillestrom, Norway, this week.

A new addition to KVH’s IP-MobileCast content delivery service, YOURlink takes a process that once required weeks or months of shipping time and the cost of distributing DVDs or flash drives, and makes it nearly instantaneous. For crew onboard, YOURlink provides immediacy and impact, with videos easily viewed on the ship’s common-area TV and from the seafarers’ own tablets, smartphones, and PCs.

For example, when major containership manager Seaspan recently produced a video to emphasize the company’s dedication to safety, it sent the four-minute media file to dozens of vessels via YOURlink. “To get this video out to the ships would have taken at least a month if we had tried to use conventional means,” says David Kramer, director of procurement for Seaspan. “With YOURlink, the delivery was almost immediate.”

The video, Seaspan Safety in Action, had a great impact on Seaspan personnel, uniting crew at sea with those in support roles onshore. In it, a wife expressed her deepest concern. “I worry about his safety,” she said. “I count the days for him to come back. Even now I put crosses on the calendar.” Scenes depicting family life at home alternate with others showing operations on the ship where safety protocols are strictly observed.

Other types of custom media files that can be sent via YOURlink include training and procedural videos, corporate updates, or even a personal holiday greeting from a top executive. YOURlink supports all popular media file formats and durations, DVD-level quality, and multilingual subtitles. Reporting features built into IP-MobileCast enable KVH to inform the ship operator as to vessel delivery status and how many times the video has been played onboard.

“As we rolled out our core IP-MobileCast entertainment service over the last three years, we learned that our larger fleet customers were producing their own videos, covering all sorts of practical issues,” says Robert Hopkins, Jr., KVH’s director of IP-MobileCast services.

“But they were stumped by the same two problems that IP-MobileCast already solved: delivering the content and showing it onboard. YOURlink distributes videos to vessels at sea rapidly, and presents them in our entertainment space, where crew already browse during their off-watch hours.”

To utilize YOURlink, vessels must be equipped with a KVH TracPhone V7-IP or V11-IP satellite communications antenna system, and have an active mini-VSAT Broadbandsm airtime plan; some playback options require an IP-MobileCast Media Server.

There is a pay-per-video cost to send the media file, but there is no impact on the vessel’s monthly data allowance, connection speed, or airtime bill. YOURlink fees are quoted based on each customer’s requirements.

YOURlink is planned for release during the second half of 2017.