Acta Marine’s Coastal Chariot. Photo: Alphatron Marine

[Via Satellite 10-01-2015] Alphatron Marine will integrate a VSAT system with wireless access into Acta Marine’s IT infrastructure for its fleet of multicats, tugs and shoalbusters, the company announced Sept. 29. The 13 vessels will have unlimited dataflow for both operations and crew welfare.

Acta Marine’s vessels will use Alphatron Marine’s new global iDirect platform — the first installation was completed one week after signing the contract on board Acta Marine’s Coastal Chariot ahead of a one-year project in Chile.

“We have been investigating VSAT for a long time. The amount of data we need to send to and receive from the vessels has grown rapidly over the past years. Now we can integrate the vessels into our office and planned maintenance systems, giving our [Information, Communications and Technology] ICT department the tools to run the vessels more efficiently. On top of that, we want to offer our crew the possibility to stay in contact with their friends and family whilst at sea,” said Mark Koenes, ICT manager of Acta Marine.