INVSAT


Poss image to use - pictures of Antarctic ships, picture of coverage map from leaflet "Teleport service"


MAIN HEAD
Developments at INVSAT 

Maritime VSAT company INVSAT has completed a big project providing VSAT communications to the British Antarctic Survey, with systems fitted on two icebreaking survey vessels which are continuously going to and from the Antarctic. 

INVSAT believes that that the fact that its terminals work on icebreakers in these conditions indicates that they are robust enough for standard merchant vessel use.

"The environment they're working in is fairly harsh," says ___ from INVSAT. "On ice breaking ships, the vibration is incredible."

The communications are picked up at INVSAT's new gateway centre in Aberdeen, Scotland, and then sent by leased line to Cambridge, where the British Antarctic Survey headquarters are. 

INVSAT is focussing its company offering around the service, installing and maintaining VSAT communications systems on ships.

It can install the shipboard IT infrastructure, for example including telephone exchanges, personal address systems, fire control systems, VHF radio, internet stations, interactive TV systems and security cameras.

It also puts in the terrestrial communications infrastructure, such as leased lines from its gateway station to the company offices.  It can also provide consultancy services, helping companies work out what they actually require.

At its headquarters in Aberdeen, UK, it also operates its own training facility in Aberdeen with accommodation and runs a 24-hour service management centre. 

The shipboard VSAT systems are monitored 24 hours a day, which means that if there is a glitch in the signal, for example due to a change in power allocation of the satellite, INVSAT knows about it before the customer knows, and can resolve the problem. 

It recommends that the ship has an independent communications system (eg Inmarsat) - if the main dish fails for any reason, INVSAT engineers can use the Inmarsat line to interrogate the VSAT software and try to figure out what is wrong.

It is able to make a number of changes to the shipboard configuration remotely and make remote software upgrades.

It can help companies set up billing systems for seafarers and passengers, so that they can pay for phone calls by the minute at an agreed rate, or for data transmission by the kilobyte. These revenues can recoup some of the costs of the VSAT. 

Mr ___ says that INVSAT has a "working relationship" with its parent company, Inmarsat, but is careful of getting too close because many of the companies it works with, including other satellite companies, see Inmarsat as a rival. 

The main benefit to VSAT connectivity, he says, is the ability to connect shore to ship in real time, rather than just communicating a few times a day.