The E/V Nautilus. Photo: OET.

KVH Industries has formed a partnership with Ocean Exploration Trust (OET), the international scientific research organization founded by oceanographer Bob Ballard, who discovered the RMS Titanic, to provide services and products to enhance the onboard experience for OET’s research team. In exchange, the team will provide firsthand feedback on various products that KVH develops.

For the first phase of KVH’s support, coinciding with OET’s 2017 expedition in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the company has installed its TracPhone V7-IP satellite communications antenna system on the 64-meter OET Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus, and is providing high-speed broadband connectivity from KVH’s mini-Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) broadband network for crew use, as well as multicasting daily news content to the 48 researchers and crew via KVH’s IP-MobileCast content delivery service.

Having personal access to broadband data and daily news updates while on a research expedition enhances the onboard experience for the Nautilus team, which typically restricts use of its broadband data to conveying research information and video to land.

The TracPhone V7-IP system installed on the Nautilus is a 60-cm diameter Ku-band antenna system designed to provide data at speeds up to 3 Mbps shore-to-ship, and 512 Kbps ship-to-shore. Other services and products that KVH is planning to provide to OET include access to KVH’s Videotel maritime training programs and access to new Internet of Things (IOT) maritime applications that KVH is developing.

The 2017 Nautilus expedition represents the third year of exploration in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and is one of the most extensive seasons to date. The Nautilus is documenting and surveying unexplored regions from British Columbia, Canada, along the West Coast of the United States, to Baja California, Mexico.