KVH Industries, Inc., is introducing NEWSlink Live, a new digital content service for crew, at the CrewConnect Global conference, in Manila, November 15-16. This next-generation service enables seafarers to receive richer, more dynamic news, sports, finance, and entertainment content on their personal devices, and builds on KVH’s industry-leading NEWSlink service, in use on more than 9,000 vessels worldwide. NEWSlink Live offers crew a powerful digital wireless experience that supports all computers and mobile devices for easy access, while optimising satellite communications bandwidth and costs.
NEWSlink Live delivers the existing daily NEWSlink print editions in an enhanced digital format, and also provides free access to a 24/7 world news feed, a unique ‘play-by-play’ live sports feed, and additional supplementary feeds and media services. This enhanced service is enabled by a customised mini-media player, supplied free of charge with every subscription.
“NEWSlink Live creates an improved experience for seafarers and provides a logical ‘next-step’ service to enhance NEWSlink’s existing daily and weekly newspaper service,” says Mark Woodhead, KVH senior vice president for training and content. “NEWSlink Live extends KVH’s commitment to provide the best content services at sea. We can now deliver news in whatever format best suits the vessel and its capabilities – NEWSlink print editions, the richer content of NEWSlink Live, or KVH’s unique IP-MobileCast content delivery service, which provides even more with NEWSlink TV.”
As a thought leader in the maritime industry, KVH is the platinum sponsor of the 2016 CrewConnect Global conference, together with maritime training provider Videotel, a KVH company. In addition to the NEWSlink Live presentation, there will be a Videotel demo during the conference to showcase a next-generation virtual experience using the latest and most powerful technology of the HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) system. The VR demo will enable users to explore a virtual 360˚ engine room space, and be able to perform a maintenance task with the use of wireless motion tracking controllers.
“This virtual reality demonstration is a great example of how Videotel is constantly looking to the future and staying ahead of the industry to provide better services and a better understanding of how crews’ competency and well-being can have a dramatic impact on vessel performance,” says Mr. Woodhead.