Beam Communications announces a new Iridium-based on-board piracy solution for secure maritime communication

Beam’s new PotsDOCK Extreme Covert Piracy Solution utilizes the Iridium Extreme satellite handset and the Beam Covert Antenna system to provide a dedicated system for a safe room or citadel on board a vessel. The system ensures that essential communications on board the vessel, such as the ability to alert authorities in the event of a piracy attack, can be maintained even if all power or communication equipment has been cut off or destroyed by pirates.

The system couples the Iridium Extreme handset and the Beam Extreme PotsDOCK to provide the captain and crew with access to voice communications, tracking and alert functionality from the system. In the event of an attack, an alert can be raised and the vessel can be tracked immediately.

“As a catalyst for the new and innovative products that our partners bring to the maritime market – especially when it comes to addressing crew safety – we admire the Beam PotsDOCK Extreme Covert Piracy solution,” said Greg Ewert, executive vice president, global distribution channels, Iridium. “It not only works everywhere off the global, reliable Iridium communications network, but it is specially designed to enable connectivity for vessels in dangerous situations.”

The new PotsDOCK Extreme Covert Piracy Solution will be launched at the maritime event in Posidonia Athens, Greece 4-8 June, where key Beam Partners (AST, Marlink, Otesat Maritel) will be promoting the solution, and at CommunicAsia 2012 in Singapore 19-22 June (Beam’s stand no 1T2-03).

Beam is a strategic manufacturer of both Inmarsat and Iridium satellite products for multiple satellite phone providers. “Iridium” and “Iridium Extreme” are registered trademarks of Iridium Satellite LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Iridium Communications Inc.