Carnival Cruise Line has previewed its new Fleet Operations Center (FOC) in Miami, the largest and most advanced in the cruise industry. The 35,000-square-foot facility is custom-designed for hands-on, around-the-clock monitoring and support of the line's 26 cruise ships.
The Carnival Cruise Line FOC is the first facility of its kind in South Florida and features a state-of-the-art tracking and data-analysis platform that enables real-time information sharing between Carnival ships and specialized shoreside teams designed to support fleet operations.
It was unveiled during a ribbon cutting ceremony and interactive demonstration of its most innovative new high-tech features, which is anchored by a 74-foot-long video wall composed of 57 LED screens.
The high-definition wall displays the status of all ships, including weather, itinerary updates, safety, engine and environmental updates. Additionally the status of ports, ships logistics, guest operations and a host of other functions are also monitored.
"In designing the FOC, we combined best practices from the military, government and industry to achieve a generational leap in facility design, sophisticated technology and utilization, creating the largest and most advanced fleet operations center in the industry," said Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy. "Nothing is more important than the safety of our guests and crew, and this new facility enhances our already comprehensive approach to safety and operational excellence."
Carnival built custom tools for use and integration into the FOC, such as the proprietary software applications "Neptune" and "Argos." Developed in-house, Argos is an always-awake knowledge management tool which harnesses information from thousands of data points and overlays rules-based decision making, predictive alerting and queuing into one visual dashboard.
The result is at-a-glance situational awareness across the fleet which significantly improves communication from ship to shore, enhances safe passage of ships, improves operational efficiencies and supports overall environmental initiatives.