Sperry Marine Wins VDR Order For Italy

Northrop Grumman Corporation's Sperry Marine unit has received an order to supply 39 VoyageMaster Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) systems for one of Italy's largest ferry fleets. The VoyageMaster systems will permit the ships to meet the new IMO and EU carriage requirements mandating installation of an approved VDR system after July 1, 2002. The order was placed by Tirrenia Group, of Naples, with Sperry Marine's Italian sales and service representative, Compagnia Generale Telemar S.p.A., which will supervise the installation and commissioning of the equipment. Tirrenia Group, which includes Tirrenia di Navigazione, Adriatica, Caremar, Siremar and Toremar, operates a fleet of passenger/vehicle ferries in the Mediterranean Sea, with services major Italian ports, including Sicily, Sardinia and Tunisia. The VDR, similar to an aircraft "black box," records vital information concerning the ship's position, movement, physical status and command and control for the period leading up to and following an incident. The data, including voice recordings from bridge microphones and VHF radio, is stored in a hardened memory capsule for recovery and analysis by safety investigators following an incident at sea. Beyond its "black box" function, the VoyageMaster VDR can serve as an important management tool, supplying the ship's master and shoreside offices with critical voyage data for automated reports/logs, voyage performance, trend analysis and crew training. The Sperry Marine VDR system is fully type approved by DNV, BSH, QiniteQ and other authorities. Sperry Marine offers a complete turnkey package for VDR compliance, including system integration, interfacing, installation, commissioning, service and recertification.