The one thing about IT is, most IT people who have worked once in their life, on a user technical support, can say it too... I remember a few years back working in Gateway 2000 technical support in Dublin, ant it was somehow a little bit hostile too sometime. IT in hostile environment though has very little to do with people and more to do with mother nature. The 45kts of wind we are experiencing in Cork harbour these days are quite a weather for our gears, antennas, cameras, sensors of all kind. I remember with some nostalgy the days
2012 proved to be a successful year at Sea-Tech with a number of significant developments
ranging from new clients to winning significant
contracts with the Irish Naval Service and also being invited as the first commercial business to re-locate to the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy as part of the IMERC program.
As some know our business started in 2005 diversified into the maritime sector in 2007 but we've continued to work with our land based partners supporting their IT needs and development. Projects such as migrating the majority of Statistical Solutions e-mail and back-ups to the cloud not only
SEA-Tech specialise in Marine Data Communication which can be used for a variety of tasks, one of them is monitoring traffic. VTS can be completed with IP Cameras, as a visual-tracking system, in other words camera using a public or a closed network to share information on a private harbour network. IP Cameras are far more relaiable and affordable than dedicated analogue systems.
Over the past few years we have set quite a few cameras in places as remote as Rochespoint lighthouse in Cork harbour or in the National Maritime College of Ireland. Using motion sensors our cameras can
Posted on Cork Harbour Blog
The National Maritime College of Ireland will lead a discussion on maritime training and educational methods at the final conference of the Maritime Learning Network 'MarLeaNet', an EU project linking a network of maritime training centres in Portugal, Spain, France and Ireland – in Brest, France on 9th and 10th October.
The MarLeaNet final conference brings together maritime training and education centres along the Atlantic area to discuss topics related to the development of maritime training, not least planning to incorporate e-Learning into the training offering. Led by the European Centre for Maritime Training
Our AIS Station on the eastern coast of Ireland is reporting tall ships converging toward Dublin. Pelican have a transponder turned on, and has just passed our station in Wicklow, far on the eastern side of the channel, following the coasts of Wales. Stavros has passed Roslare an hour ago, Tecla and STV Leader could be on Creidne's radar. STV Alba Explorer was Lat/Lon: 50.110741 / -6.8823218 on a Speed/Course: 6.3 kn / 342° at 0932. Creidne only have a AIS reciever onboard, a 48 feet ship
is not by law obliged to carry a transponder. Nevertheless, Skipper emailed us at 0231
"It is not because the Irish Navy can't fight big that it can't fight smart" - Commodore M. Mellett (DSM)
Each time I am faced with a challenge, and it makes me feel like I am the pot of clay fighting the pot of iron. I simply remember that with a bit of creativity, nothing is impossible. We have spent our first week in our
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new office without a fight, that was expected, but also without an internet connection, and that, wasn't exactly expected. The working atmosphere is really nice in our new office. So, it's a bit
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Today will remain a day of exception for SEA-Tech, out with the Irish Naval Service on LE Creidne skipped by our friend Commander William Roberts, we have managed to transmit large amounts of data over the waters of Cork harbour, including some emails as proof of concept to Commodore Mark Mellett and Dr Valery Cummins (IMERC), it was achieved without the use of expensive satelite equipments and while the ship was moving at a spead of 5 to 6 knots.
Over the past couple of years SEA-Tech has delivered extensive work on long distance communication for yachts, developing concepts such as
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Morning Watch:ALADY is reaching the Fastnet at the time I am writing this, no news yet from Skipper but they have moved well over night. No sign of the Oyster 56 Hull Number 23 (yes she is unique) on the AIS, as we don't have many stations in the West, something to work at in the not so distant future...
Skipper is busy doing his readings this time of day so we should get news in the next hours.
The chart on the left, shows the distance left to cover today, in a weather typical enough
Today the email system aboard ALADY is giving problems somehow after all those months at sea, in good weather, bad weather, steaming hot temperatures, even the monitor once got swamped with sea water... But today, it is the connection that seems to be the cause, Stephen has to keep trying to connect the internet three times to send each email... I hope it will keep working for the next 24 hours, to had to it, the grib files are not reliable for the past 48 to 72 hours, the wind keeps vanishing and coming back again. For the men and
Long night on ALADY last night I'd say, as the wind droped a bit, "only" 97NM covered in the past 25 hours (Sat 09 - 20:27 to Sun 10 - 09:31) I think it is still safe to think she will be in Cork Tuesday, despite what we see today in Cork there is wind in Atlantic a bit over 20 kts at the moment (W) a mild temp of 14 drgrees, and some 7ft waves from WSW...
Latest email from ALADY (11:41 hrs):
We motored most of yesterday at 7 .5 knots right up to 01.30 hrs this morning
We just had words from Stephen Hyde currently at 44:27.24N 21:32.31W, just above Kings Trough in the Atlantic ocean. It is located on the east side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, northwest of the Açores-Biscay rise and roughly 400 km NNE of the Azores. It is a trench about 400 km long, running in a NW-SE direction. The center depth is 4500 m and I hope Stephen won't drop his wedding ring like he did a few weeks back when swimming in West end Tortolla, in 20 m of water with a mud bottom. Surrounding the trough are high ridges
Today nothing is working the way it should, it's just like the gods of technology want to give us hell... Take a break, get on deck, knock, knock!! Who's there... Me says the little guy on the port side... I surely would never have seen this in my previous job...
OK let's give it another try... Maybe it will work this time!
Forenoon watch: 11:00 - Oak Tree Press online bookstore went live... It is the results of almost sixty hours ofwork over the past ten days, mostly delivered after hours to minimise the business disruption, and also to bring Oak Tree Press online shop designed in 2009 by us, to the latest state of the art Hikashop for Business solution. Customers accounts, books, categories and a lot more information have been succesfully migrated, Brian O'Kane and his team are very happy...
Middle watch 0000-0400 - First bell... Today as I was unsure about the exact explanation of why we were receiving so many radiowaves in provenence of the Celtic Sea, on Saturday, I've decided to prove Cicero right one more time (Si vis doceri, doce - One day in Cork Harbour Operations) and I when meeting one of my student (Ian B.) who teaches Radio Communications in NMCI.
As it happens with easterly wind and lots of sun heating France and the UK during the day like a giant radiator a lot of hot air pushed by the wind
For the past couple of day we are blessed with a very mild temparature, in the south of Ireland, but more importantly, it is at long last and for once, very dry. The "Cousteau" Marine Data Communication Study group in NMCI has recently set an AIS station in Roches Point light house with the help of Nova Networks. It is using a custom made Linux setup and a receiver coupled with a good VHF antenna. And guess what? Well today it is doing exceptionnaly well...
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Radio waves, like any light waves, infrared waves,
This week was a bit different, as the "mutation" from Fix-I.T. to SEA-Tech ended I worked on something really unique in Ireland, I have setup with my colleague Willy Larsonier from France a Livecam in Rochespoint lighthouse.
It is part of our academic research study in NMCI. I don't think there are any other project like this in Ireland. Our cam will be passing precious information to the NMCI Research and Development chaps. For now it is only a proof of concept Prassad, John, Cormac, and I have been working on this for a few month now...
It's almost the end, another two weeks and the Marine Data Communication course in NMCI will end for this semester, returning in Septembre. It's been a great success with student coming from different background, marine service engineers, enthusiasts, yachties, and sometime driving long distance each week (Sligo).
We've had great champions such as Commodore Mark Mellett or Harbour Master Capt. Pat Farnan. To be totally honest this would never have happened without IMERC CEO Dr Valerie Cummins and Prof. Noel Barry who first foreseen the importance Marine Data Communication would carry in the future of maritime.
From May 1st, Fix I.T. will operate under our new name Sea-Tech. Our new address will be Sea-Tech - Office 2.67 Research and Development, National Maritime College of Ireland, Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork, Ireland. It's a small step for humanity an a giant step for us in Fix-I.T. / Sea-Tech. All contact details will remain the same and all mail, email, phone will be forwarded without exception. Having done this for our clients many time I know this will go fine.
These changes reflect our extension to the marine sector and our entry into formal co-operation with the National Maritime
There is IT everywhere, whether we like it or not, computers are serving us no matter where, in your car, your kitchen, in school, at work, at sea. Cork harbour runs a state of the art Vessel Traffic System (VTS), a network of computers spreading across the harbour with sensors such as radar, AIS, CCTV keeps monitoring 365/7/24 the traffic. The sole fact a cargo enters Cork harbour limits trigger a pile of actions ranging from crane, docks, pilot and launch, taxi drivers, invoicing, and much much more.
Cork harbour is a well oiled mechanic I always wanted to observe