Vessel Monitoring System

VMS provides a high level of safety and security for seafarers whilst out at sea. The VMS terminal has an alarm, which once triggered immediately transmits a generic distress message to the designated monitoring bureau/authority. The system will report location, estimated speed, status and direction of the vessel based on the data received from each transmitted update. An optional message terminal is available, which will provide the possibility of sending more detailed distress messages depending on the distress circumstance.

Transceivers for the Inmarsat-C are installed on board vessels. These devices send data to the LOQUS Data Centre via the Inmarsat Satellite System. INMARSAT currently operates 5 satellites located in geo-stationary orbit, and each of these covers about one third of the Earth's surface. The satellites are positioned over the four ocean regions and ensure communications all over the world, except for the extreme Polar Regions. INMARSAT also provides the interaction with the INMARSAT Land Earth Stations. When calls are made through a satellite connection the signals are received by the Land Earth Stations (LES), which route the signals into the ordinary telephone network. The Inmarsat-C based system supports two-way data communications (TWD), which implies that apart from receiving data from the vessels, the Monitoring Centre can also transmit data to the transceivers on board the vessels.

LOQUS VMS is a web-based system; authorised remote users can access the system via an internet connection, and thus can gain access to the data at any place, anytime. Users also have the facility to send poll requests or ‘Position on Request’ to the vessels.

Watch Boxes
The Watch Box feature enables optimum security as the software automatically prompts the display as vessels enter or leave the “watch box” zone. A watch box allows the user to place a shaped perimeter around a location and set a number of parameters for a group of vessels. An alert is produced when a vessel within the group violates these parameters.

Replay Mode
The Replay Mode, another feature provided by the VMS front end, can be useful to display a particular vessel’s trip, indicating the timing and trail of that vessel. This function is very easy to use, quite like viewing playback on a VCR.

All data is automatically stored and archived so that even annual comparisons are made without interruption to day-to-day operations.