Electronic charts not a gloomy picture, says C-MAP

Electronic chart specialist C-MAP reports that shipping comapnies are actually moving to fit electronic charts, and the picture is not so gloomy as many others in the industry say it is.

The company currently has systems on 15,000 professional vessels (fishing, navy, rescue, pilot, research vessels) and around 1 million recreational vessels, although only 15 per cent of the SOLAS fleet. This is an area where the company intends to expand. 

The charts are also used in vessel traffic systems, simulators, as AIS displays, for fleet management and for navy command systems.

It is producing official electronic charts for hydographic offices in Italy, Norway, South Africa, Greece, Colombia, Malaysia, and the fisheries and bathymetric database of the Nordic Hydrographic Offices.

There are only two companies producing software to display electronic charts: C-MAP and Transas. C-MAP licenses its chart display software to most of the bridge manufacturers (not to Transas).

C-MAP's goal is firmly to be the leader in distribution and support of digital navigation for the high seas fleet, and be an entrepreneur in the development of products for safe navigation.

It has produced its own series of vector electronic charts for the whole world which shipping companies can use as an alternative where the official electronic charts from hydrographic offices are not available (although they are only allowed to be dependent on them for navigation).

The C-MAP vector charts are much cheaper than the official electronic vector charts; shipping companies can buy a CD-ROM of the whole world, which works out at around 33 cents for each individual chart, compared to around $14 for an official vector chart. 

Updating all the C-MAP charts in the world requires about 800 kilobytes a month, at 64 kpbs and $3 a minute (Inmarsat Fleet 77 ISDN charges) this would be just $5 satcom bill. And the charts get updated automatically. 


SUBHEAD
CM-93

C-MAP's position in the chart distribution system is well sewn up. Because of the difficulties in getting official ENC charts running directly onboard ships, the ENCs are converted into a C-MAP proprietary format, called CM-93.

The CM-93 files, the company says, are easier to run on ships and also have much smaller file sizes (just 7 per cent of the size of the standard file). 

However the format is owned by C-MAP; so once ships are used to receiving CM-93 files C-MAP will have a degree of control over the distribution chain.