The vessel, owned and operated by Kongsberg, is using KVH Watch™ IoT Connectivity as a Service and the Kognifai Vessel Insight platform as part of an innovative maritime IoT bundled solution

KVH Industries, Inc., and Kongsberg Digital announce the successful installation of their first joint maritime IoT system on an active working vessel. The team installed a KVH Watch VSAT antenna for IoT connectivity and the Kognifai Vessel Insight platform on Simrad Echo, a Norwegian research vessel owned and operated by Kongsberg, which will continue normal operations during the pilot maritime IoT project. Together, KVH Watch and Kognifai Vessel Insight provide an integrated infrastructure for IoT connectivity and vessel-to-shore data.

Maritime IoT is a focus of great interest among ship owners, ship managers, and maritime equipment manufacturers who are seeking ways to improve vessel operations through real-time monitoring and data analysis. This bundled connectivity solution by two leaders in the commercial maritime market, KVH and Kongsberg Digital, is one of the first cases of an active working vessel using an integrated maritime IoT solution.

Simrad Echo will rely on Kognifai Vessel Insight to monitor main and auxiliary systems on the vessel and help ensure 100% availability. For example, the Kongsberg Mapping Cloud application will move high-resolution echo sounding data from vessel to shore in real time so that shore-based experts can provide analysis to optimize vessel operations.

“While Vessel Insight works as an infrastructure for accessing contextualized quality data from a vessel or fleet, KVH is providing an alternative for IoT connectivity that enables the transfer of data from ship to cloud,” says Vigleik Takle, Kongsberg Digital’s senior vice president of maritime digital solutions. “We are very happy to be able to offer this as a connectivity option to our users.”

The data flow from Simrad Echo will be facilitated by KVH Watch IoT Connectivity as a Service, a VSAT solution that leverages KVH’s end-to-end maritime connectivity services and high throughput satellite (HTS) network. KVH Watch features two modes: Watch Flow, for 24/7, machine-to-machine data delivery compatible with major IoT ecosystems such as Kognifai; and Watch Intervention, for on-demand high-speed sessions for face-to-face support, remote equipment access, and very large data transfers. The two companies plan to utilize Simrad Echo as a platform to develop tighter integrations for remote support and smart bandwidth utilization that will benefit both new and existing customers.

“Vessels are complex systems of systems that must work together for the vessel to perform reliably and efficiently,” says Robert Hopkins, Jr., KVH’s senior director of maritime services. “During the Simrad Echo pilot, Watch Flow will deliver a complete view of those systems to shore on a Kognifai Vessel Insight dashboard. One system, Kongsberg Mapping Cloud for very high-resolution bathymetry, is particularly data intensive, making it a great use case for our high-throughput Watch antenna.”

KVH and Kongsberg Digital will use the Simrad Echo pilot program to continue to enhance their maritime IoT solution, which is designed to enable remote equipment monitoring and performance optimization for vessels ranging from small research vessels to tankers, bulk carriers, and containerships.